Matt D

They just released a new combo Uno/10 shirt. They’ll probably get a win tonight in Rochester even if only on Elevation.

If the AEW crowd feels like they're experiencing something rare and special (and something that other people are not), like they're part of a moment or a movement, then that works in and of itself, regardless of whether he's putting on 4 or 5 star matches or whatever. It's just a matter of protecting him and keeping that special. We're in agreement that "Wardlow's World" is not the way to do it. Licensing War Pigs would have helped too.

I really thought the Jake vs Bart Sawyer match from the Hidden Gems footage was the Jake match we were always promised and never got.

I thought the 20-on-one match was visually great. They can cut it up into a 30 second video package and use it for years. He should definitely go over tonight though. I get why they kept the belt on Sky during the West Coast loop and it was easy to get lost in the shuffle during the NJPW stuff and Blood & Guts, but if he goes over definitively tonight, it'll all be fine. Knowing the way Khan books, it's not impossible they try to hold things off for August 3 in Columbus though. Wardlow's an Ohio guy. It'd be much better to have him win tonight and then set up a big defense against a hoss then though.

It's too early to establish a credible challenger. They need the ratings help right now. They went with an interim champ instead of not having one. Isn't it better to have Mox mowing through midcarders than having talking bits or tag matches or contract signings or whatever setting up a match a month from now? If you're going to have an interim champion, have him be a fighting champ. The drama here isn't whether or not Mox is going to win but HOW he's going to win considering the size differential and the potential outside interference. The journey can be interesting too. We can have a credible challenger who might actually win in a show they build to over the next month. This match can be part of that in one way or another but you don't need to be there already.

It's the first defense of the interim belt coming off Blood & Guts and the PPV. It's on a show where more focus will probably be on Wardlow vs Sky. It's Mox vs a Monster. House of Black might get involved. We're in a period where some stories just ended and we're waiting for the new ones to begin. Ideally, King will get some rub for being in there with the top guy and dominating for a good chunk of the match, Mox will look good in overcoming the threat, and maybe they set something up for the weeks to come out of this. It's fine. It's ok episodic weekly pro wrestling. Mox vs a big guy in a trios stable is way better than giving a way a match that means more int his slot in the TV rotation. Just like doing Page/Dante had a ton of upside when they ran it.

Kind of negative vibes over here lately but I wrote up the two big matches of the last week over at SC: http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2022/07/aew-five-fingers-of-death-week-of-627-73.html

Edge coming back with the Fiend gimmick is the future we all deserve.

Crossposting: The kids are all about the polished video breakdowns of things now, right? We need someone to go over Eddie's five stages of grief during the finish of the match. Denial: What do you mean you got the submission on Parker? I had Jericho. I had him right here? Why did the bell ring? On top of a cage, in Kawada's move. Jericho. He's a coward! I had him. Anger: You screwed me again Claudio! Just like before! You stole my moment! You knew how much this meant to me! You Swiss asshole! Bargaining: I mean, we both did it at the same time, right? I had Jericho. I beat him this way already. Maybe this is just our win together. Maybe I can accept that. We all knew he was going to quit. Depression: Oh no, no, it's not. Who am I kidding? You did it. You came up here. You saved me from the Walls. You did it. You swung him around. My back hurts. Just, no, I don't want to get up. My back hurts and you did it and this was my moment, my chance, and now it's gone forever. Acceptance: Fine. Fine. I'll fistbump you. Fine. I hate you. You did it. I'll fistbump you. But I'm Eddie Kingston so I'm still in depression and I'm never going to really accept this bullshit.

I'm pretty certain there's always going to be some version of the Dark Order for -1's sake, even just at the studio Dark tapings, and that Vance probably has a safe job for a good long while even if he might never get a huge push.

More chinlocks.

The Joe match.

I'm not going to lie. Tonight's match may have a better build than Blood & Guts:

I know I was harsh but when you get those bits of wisdom which are either validating or reaffirming or eye-opening, they're great. Yes! I want him to talk about pins for fifteen minutes. I want him to talk about how the set up and context to a move is more important to a move! That's the kind of stuff that I breathe when it comes to watching wrestling. I don't mind him going around for a landing for a while. I think where it's mostly frustrating is when he downplays himself again and again still, because that's just not compelling listening. Hopefully, 5-6 episodes in, he can go, "As you know, I was always there to everyone who asked but many people found their own way. In the case of X wrestler for Y character that doesn't exist anymore, I did show her a thing or two, specifically old british comedian Z..." or whatever.

He’s just going to talk about whatever anyway!

Watching it back this morning, everything from, let's say the focus on Kingston's arm to the start of the women's match has been spot-spot-spot-spot-spot-spot with the multi-man format allowing for one guy to feed in after the next after the next after the next. There was a hate filled six man and a triple tag match and a fatal four way and a comedy six man but it was all spot-spot-spot-spot-spot-spot and past a brief respite where Clark Connors was getting beaten on and maybe the extended back rake spots on Darby, it was pretty exhausting. Like you said, it's what the crowd wanted and it's not like the spots weren't good, but I'm really glad that 2021-2022 AEW generally isn't JUST that in general. EDIT: Made it through Cassidy vs Ospreay and they should have had that earlier in the night. That would have fixed a bunch of things. Crazy they had Rose/Storm, that, and then the ZSJ singles all in a row after the endless multiman barrage.

Yeah, I forgot about Mox, Brody, Matthews just to name a few. Realistically it's more like 50 guys on the roster I'd like to see him against. That's nuts.

I caught the entrance on Twitter. I saw some people talk about how he shouldn't leave the easy WWE life but to get an entrance pop like that even once in your life... him posing with the masked Cameraman was the best too. I haven't seen much of him in the last year or two but there are probably an easy 36 matches I want to see with him against people on the AEW roster. That doesn't feel like hyperbole either. In no order: And it's not like I wouldn't want to see him against Griff or 2.0 or Sydal or Matt Hardy or Butcher/Blade or Moriarty or whoever. What a great pickup.

JR not on the first half of the show also makes me way more likely to watch it. I've come to recognize that the very worst way to experience AEW is by watching Dynamite as it happens on Wednesday nights.

I just have no attachment to 2010s and on NJPW. I caught the buy-in because I had time and like the Elevation guys/feel. I was going to hit the Darby match and the Kingston match due to SC contractual obligations and maybe the ZSJ mystery match depending on who it was, but I'll probably hit most of this over the next couple of days now.

I am going to have to watch way more of this thing than I was initially planning to apparently.

It feels like they've been feuding for months, even if maybe they haven't. I'm ready for both teams to move on to other things.

The really great stuff is really great. I was shooting some messages to Loss earlier: “The move’s one thing. It’s the detail of building up to the move that makes the move special.” - About why people go up for Sami’s Blue Thunder Bomb when he never wins with it. “It’s little tiny things that make it all mean something so you actually care.” He also talks about how selling is basic and reacting is more advanced. Then he said Taker was the best ever at it and went on to how no one will write wrestling reviews about the close up, in between stuff. And of course he spent 10 minutes talking about how you need to have good pins. So there's a lot of really great stuff in there but you have to wade through a lot of repetition to get to it and then the stuff that is really rough, mainly him downplaying himself. He had this neverending spiel about how he likely never positively impacted anyone's career by giving them advice on character work, except for a few cases that he did, and those people know who they are, and that's not his story to tell, but mostly he didn't, except for those times that he did, and he'd help anyone, of course, but he never actually helped anyone on this count, except for when he did, which wasn't all that often, and they know who they are, and really, it was just little things, when it was anything at all, but sometimes it was quite a bit really, but often times it wasn't, but he would always talk to people about it, but most people figured it out, but some people he helped, and some people never figured it out, but he helped some of those who did, but he really didn't do all that much, not really, except for when he did.

Christian Cage, Interim Jungle Boy.

It's their fourth match together, though. Plus they've had one or two promos.