Luna_Bourke

Mercedes' peaks are higher, and while Mayu does reach high levels a bit more often then Mercedes, its not quite enough, and I feel as significant and amazing as Mayu is, Mercedes' accomplishments given the state of mainstream women's wrestling in America, and she is a major part of elevating it, its still unequal, but she certainly helps put it closer, and while this usually won't be too much a factor for other wrestlers, her willingness to put people over, and not always main event has really helped the division, which does actually help her, as her opponents feel more interesting, but its good for its own sake as it helps create other women stars, in AEW and the indies (don't know if that was much of a factor in WWE, but still) Mayu is captivating, and she is such a delight, one of my faves. She just feels different and moves different, being able to perform moves better then most. But it goes to Mercedes

Personally, I prefer Collision, I prefer the wrestling focus, its pace makes it easier to get to, and while it does have the issue of having matches were the results are even more obvious, but it does showcase a lot of the talent I prefer, and less older politicing guys who I skip through like Jericho or C&C.

Tenryu, I feel like he brings the best out of everyone, including Hansen, who I find's best work was tagging with Tenryu, its when Hansen feels as wild and vicious as he should be really, I never find him unpredictable, he generally is good, especially in tags, but rarely what he gestures at being. Tenryu for me is one of the best wrestlers in the world and Hansen was a very good to great one.

How did you convince yourself?

Did you watch the best of Dandy vol 1 as well? I would second that on Atlantis, though I did think he did look great whenever he was given something, I would say El Dandy was the man of the match, but it was structured around him, and I was watching in large part to watch his stuff, so am a bit biased. Still I really enjoyed it, I don't watch as much old wrestling as I could (5 Star is coming to an end and it is uni break so I have more time to), so the different style to most current lucha (which is also something I watch less of because it is expensive for CMLL, and AAA was garbage and then became WWE's), so there is more of a novelty factor for me that might make it more enjoyable then someone who was there at the time, or someone more immersed in this era of lucha, but I thought it was a great little match and added the time onto cagematch (assuming they put it on, didn't when I put the time in for a SWAT match Xeluha's much less talented father), but if it goes up hopefully it can get some ratings, I will be putting one up at least. and more will be aware of the match.

Toni Storm, she had the two best matches of the year, with Mariah May, and Mercedes Mone (find another MM for her to work lol), her character work was the best all year, she felt like the most important wrestler in the world most the time. Mercedes Mone also deserves a shout, she is hurt by being a terrible talker, but her storyline of getting lots of championships of varying importance to make her feel less inadaquete over failing to win the AEW World Title was a great one, again she was someone who made herself important and was one to watch, uplifting the places she went.

For me it is certainly Tenryu Genichiro Tenryu & Stan Hansen vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Kenta Kobashi ***** - Uplifts Hansen into being as much as an evil bully as him, and manages to be so cool, while being cruel enough to push me to support the faces, who had an exceptional babyface performance, as Jumbo props up Kobashi Genichiro Tenryu vs. Jumbo Tsuruta - 11/10: ****1/2 Genichiro Tenryu & Toshiaki Kawada vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu - 23/2: ****1/2 Genichiro Tenryu vs. Jumbo Tsuruta 5/6: ****1/2 Genichiro Tenryu & Stan Hansen vs. Giant Baba & Rusher Kimura - 29/11: ****1/2 Genichiro Tenryu vs. Yoshiaki Yatsu - 18/7: **** Genichiro Tenryu vs. Terry Gordy - 2/9 ****1/4 Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Stan Hansen - 6/12: **** Danny Kroffat, Danny Spivey & Doug Furnas vs. Genichiro Tenryu, Samson Fuyuki & Toshiaki Kawada - 24/5: ***3/4 Atsushi Onita is up there, love his different style fight, and his aura is just incredible, and he had my fave powerbomb (thunder fire bomb is amazing)

Yeah, really fun episode of Collision. I do think There should be a Death Riders tag team at this point, whether it is Yuta/Garcia, one of them two with Pac, or Claudio, or Claudio and PAC would be a great addition to the Tag division.

While I do agree, and she probs did improve a bit, personally I think she is someone not worth resigning, they did give her a mini push after 5Star GP, but she didn't have a great run in that tournament. But yeah tours in companies that would have them, would always be a benefit, maybe house shows again. But yeah, make it clear to the roster, esp younger inexperienced roster members they should find reps where possible and those that do (and improve ideally), will be looked upon favourably.

So many H.o.T members have had basically no good matches since they joined, and it is such a shame.

Jobber matches idgaf. AEW TNT Title Match Kevin Knight (c) vs. MJF Great TNT Title match, it is odd to see MJF go for the TNT Title, but cool, this helped make the title and Knight feel more important, which is needed going into the Men's World Title, MJF tried to ground and injure the knee of Knight, I am sure a certain group of people will be very happy Knight did the lowblow, I thought it was fair enough, not against a face being above any form of cheating, but it is a good choice here, helps make Knight feel more confident about doing what needs to be done, despite being in a pure face team with Speedball. AEW International Title Match Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Ace Austin Fun little match, lets kill this title, but yay Ace Austin. Adam Copeland & Christian Cage vs. RPG VICE Despite not being much of a fan of the Cope/Cage tag team (they are not remotely nostalgic to me, their act generally bores me and I would rather see a younger team in their spot), however this was a fun tv tag match, RPG are good as rotten heels, if there was a midcard Tag Title in AEW, they would be the perfect tag team to have it (hell no, kill Continental, National, and International. The current World Titles and maybe the TV belts if they are defended more is the limit, so maybe RoH Tag Champs - again), C/C performed well here, they gave enough, and took control when needed, the brawl was a fun distraction too. FTR and Ciampa would be a cool trios group more often, I personally like the current FTR stuff with Big Stoke. AEW Women's World Tag Team Title Match Divine Dominion (c) vs. Hikaru Shida & Kris Statlander Great World Tag Title match, nice to see Statlander stay featured and Shida coming back again, they have good chemistry despite them not having chemistry being the team gimmick lol, Divine Dominion is such a cool team, been a big Lena Kross for a while, they both have a great look and aura and can be champions for a long time in my book. I am enjoying the storyline between Ospreay and Death Riders, I did laugh when Mox was playing with PAC's chest, made him look really goofy and funny. AEW World Title Match Darby Allin (c) vs. Brody King Great World Title match, am enjoying the Darby Allin reign so far even if he was not someone I really wanted to see as champion he is having a good reign, and they went out and had a strong match, some cool and unexpected spots like the barrcade breaking loose. I would say this feels more like how I would book the TV Titles though, for me I think about 8-10 defences per year per World Title is about right, you would still get the occational World Title matches on TV, as that would be 32-40 World Title matches overall (Men's and Women's, Singles and Tags) most on ppv. Trios would be the exception, that would be more of a party title, and kinda the Men's Tag tv title equivilant. The World Title matches would be rarer and feel like a major deal to get a challenge, which is kinda the case, but yeah would be good if it was more strict. But great ep overall

When it comes to Kevin Knight, I thought he was an really good when tagging with Kushida, a great tag team. But it just seems like NJPW didn't see much in him, like he was a set Jr Tag guy, never even challenged for the singles Jr Title, and the junior division is certainly a ceiling, he was (possibly is) under a dual contract, but after BOSJ he said he wanted to turn heavyweight NJPW stopped using him, I guess a bit of a TJP situation (except Kevin Knight had a future past NJPW jr tag guy, which is a really fun role to watch, probs less fulfilling to be in). I guess cause he is a high flyer, and still is firmly junior weight so I can see why AEW sees more in him, but NJPW. I think he has improved, especially in his presentation, but I think he hasn't improved greatly since in-ring since was already very good to great. I don't see him leapfroging Kyle Fletcher, who was better than him at 2021 than Kevin Knight is now, and is now best in the world material. For me Kevin Knight is defo making the most of his current oppertunities, his C2 run and JetSpeed stuff has been great, and I think his TNT run should be great and I am excited for the World Title match, but I don't think he should be World Champ for a bit (World Tag and World Trios, but not the Men's World Title), I would put Ospreay, Fletcher and Takeshita above him, and maybe Bandido (plus reigns for a few of the prev champs again as well).

Good thing that hero Chris Ridgeway ripped his mask off on route to his victory over him. But yeah, I really like him, he made the bottom end of my list, I have watched some of his stuff when he was more in his prime, and I think thats great, but also big into his current stuff, which is nuts to say given his age, and part of the appeal is his age, but obviously he still needs to work hard to do that, and only so many people can do that, like Mike Jackson who does it worse but kinda has a similar appeal.

He made my list, had him at 16. He is one of the wrestlers I have been most invested in, his character has been one of the most entertaining, and the way he presents himself has made his matches and storylines feel especially important, and given how much is going on, not just in AEW but all of wrestling, a fair amount of which I consume, so thats really impressive. I think he has good versatitlity, from face to heel, to straight matches to deathmatches - the latter of which he has helped make more visable, to singles, tags and trios matches. I do wish he had more time as a tag and trios wrestler as it goes, since he is exceptional when put in those postions, e.g the Kenny team, and the Dark Order trio which should have been a thing for longer.

It is a good field, but I am just so done with with Death Riders, I am just bored of them now, like even though they are good wrestlers, I am just not that interested in them being in the C2, especially since the Don Callis Family is doing a break-up angle as well, and the face side has smaller star power. I have got the idea of them making the C2 more important by them doing a C2 for men's singles and tags, and women's singles and tags, so each division gets one every four years like the Olympics, since it will always have less prestige than the G1, having each division only have one per year, so winning it would feel bigger, and make the divisions feel equal, and it would have been useful recently, and been the way they established the Women's Tag Titles.