Matt D

MJF just feuded for months with Punk. They weren’t ending up together again. The MJF thing is a marathon, not a sprint. Punk was going to have a run. He’s their biggest draw. They’d use him on top as ace for a while.

I just wrote a thousand words about how great the Punk win was and I was absolutely ready for a reign. That said, the only answer is Danielson.

I'm maybe 2/3rds through and there's a lot of overlap from other interviews he's done in the last few months but I think that was sort of necessary. If he ends up revisiting that stuff over and over again over the next few weeks/months in a JR-ian manner, it'll be a problem, but here it was ok. It's a little weird that Conrad isn't on this one because the new bits were everything he wanted from the initial Arn podcast. A lot of backstage talk on how things were done in NXT. Whereas with Arn, it became quickly apparent just what road agents did and how thankless and ultimately meaningless to Vince and corporate it was.

In case you're curious about the Segunda Caida thoughts: Phil covered a few things over at the Ringer and I covered 3 matches over at SC, including 1000 words on the main.

Is Matt Koon any good?

Matt is more than capable in having good matches in 2022, but they need to worked around his physical limitations and a dream match with the Bucks would never be that.

Totally agree. The complete reverse of the Cody/Miz bow and arrow.

I really, really don’t like watching Adam Page matches. He doesn’t have a first or second gear. No mid-level offense. No nuance. It’s all bombs. While he was away, Danielson and Punk came in and the house style grew up and he didn’t grow along with it. His does some things well enough and his matches are exciting and there’s definitely a place for him on the card but it’s not as champion of the promotion AEW’s become.

There are still relatively few historical title reigns in general for AEW. I think it helps a guy like Hobbs more than hurts him in the medium term to say he was tag champ at one point even if it's a short reign.

I have a vague memory of early days ROH where the excitement would be in the card that they put together. That was especially true if the show was coming to your neck of the woods if you didn't get them all the tie (I was in MA at the time so I wasn't exactly getting the Philly nexus shows). The excitement for AEW in 2022 feels a lot like that: matches for Rampage being announced on Dynamite, that last Dynamite match that gets announced on Wednesday, etc. Three weeks ago, I didn't know I wanted Danielson vs Sydal with Regal on commentary and Danielson testing his leg out and Sydal fighting for the notions of Peace, Love, and Pro Wrestling, but I absolutely do. I probably wasn't super interested in them running back Soho vs Statlander but Soho really needs to make her mark and Statlander has to get over the new character tweak and has been leaning even harder into her strength and it should be interesting. I didn't know I wanted to see a more aggressive Lee Moriarty against Alex Reynolds and Alan Angels, but hey, apparently I did, and they were good matches. Yeah, there's booking, and there are stories, but it's a promotion with a huge roster that doesn't often run rematches, so almost all the matches end up feeling fresh. I'm probably as excited for that moment of them announcing the next card or of getting a glimpse at the Dark tapings as I am for actually watching any of the actual matches in-ring. But ask me again if I feel that way in six months and we'll see.

I basically do the exact opposite of you. I watch Rampage Saturday mornings without being spoiled usually. I watch Dark/Elevation over the span of a day or two after they air. I catch the parts of Dynamite I want to see on Thursday or Monday if I am writing something up for SC but it’s easily the part of AEW I catch the least of. But I’ve been overall enjoying the promotion since Punk showed up. I definitely have the most fun with Dark/Elevation but seeing Rampage over breakfast on Saturday scratches a WCW Power Hour nostalgia itch.

Is Miro big enough?

Part of being a good wrestler is being able to effectively work to your physical limitations and being cognizant of your opponent’s. Eyes should not be bigger than your stomach.

I’d assume they hurt one of Wardlow’s limbs after the cage match.

Reading back through the thread, I’m baffled he made it to 130. We’ve gotten a couple of Georgia matches since which really do help his case though. The Bart Sawyer match feels like the promise of Jake fulfilled.

Page is terrible and they can't get the title off of him quickly enough. His ring style is absolutely detrimental and is actively counterbalancing all of the good Punk's doing in trying to make things matter again.

Sure but there are still differences. If I had to insure one opposed to the other based on what they're going to do in the ring, I'd pick Lawler. I wouldn't insure either of them out of the ring.

Ancient Lawler matches have him sell in the corner and throw punches and pull on heartstrings but not actually bump. Flair will insist on getting tossed off the top.

I feel completely the opposite and don’t really ever want to watch another Adam Page match (though I don’t fault people who do) but love all of Punk’s comeback run so far. Also, I assume Lethal and co. screw over Joe in the tournament.

The WWE camera changes/presentation really doesn’t do Cody any favors. I saw way more strings/little positioning flubs than I remember from his last six months in AEW.

Theoretically they only have to be over with one person, right?

I finally updated the last year and a half of the New Footage Friday/Found Footage Friday Master List so now all 200+ entries are there. This isn't a comprehensive list of all new potential footage for non-active GWE candidates since the last poll but it does give you a pretty good sense of what's shown up, a SC review, and quite often a youtube link if it's still up. It doesn't have the French reviews which is a different list I'd have to update. http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2019/09/new-footage-friday-master-list.html

Let me put it this way. I'd almost certainly rather watch a complete 2022 CM Punk match, even though I'd almost certainly rather watch an isolated 2022 Bryan Danielson sequence.

~350 words. I assume Phil will have more on the Ringer.