Matt D

I’ve got dibs on that and the Muraco match for Friday.

So, I can nominate Terrible Ted the Wrestling Bear for this? We even have a little footage.

Hey, if you guys want to have a parallel just for funsies "Wrestlers that I kind of have a Hunch might have been Great" list, go for it.

I'm a pretty bog stickler against doing stuff for the sake of doing it or to kill time, etc. I just caught the international version and I can't think of any moments in the match where I particularly had that feeling. I'll have to watch it again, but this was way above most 60 minute matches along those lines. Danielson, in general but specifically here, makes it pretty easy to work out his motivations. I do think there were points in the match designed to "work towards the commercials," and fully admit that was an issue with the TNT version of the match. The crowd and Danielson's presence made it less of an issue on the international version. When they came back after the abdominal stretch and were at the point of Page trying to reverse the surfboard and the fans were just absolutely buzzing, it meant that it wasn't negatively affecting things as much as it could have. That said, whenever you have artificial constructs within a match like that, it's going to have an impact. And, frankly, it wasn't true for every commercial break as the DDT on the floor was during one of them, for instance.

That was one of those moments that felt worse as it was happening than after it was done. Two things to note there. First, Danielson was getting pretty earnest heat in there, especially with the middle finger which really changed the tenor of the crowd noise, but doing the jumping jacks in the rhythm of the chants too. It didn't feel like 2021 "Let's play along" heat. People seemed legitimately angry in the moment. Also something he garnered when he was striking down upon a defenseless/helpless Page at certain points of the match. The other is that during that bit, which was almost all commercial break in the US, btw, tension seemed to build, to the point it was sort of horrific that Danielson was so quick to hit the baseball slide/dropkick just as Page was starting to finally get up. There was a real build and payoff there even if the build was probably a bit too much.

Means the third time they do it and shock everyone at the last minute, there’ll be a hell of a payoff?

A couple of breaks ago, with the break that started with the abdominal stretch and ended with the surfboard, I was thinking it was a shame and that the match probably lost some buzz since they had to work for the commercial but then when we came back, the crowd was absolutely buzzing for the hold and that's when Page hit that belly to back and it was like nothing at all was lost.

The app died on me a bunch so while I'm back, I don't have a great sense of this one as a whole anymore and I'll have to double back later.

I love how they built up to that first chop to the point that it drew a chant once he got it.

I feel like if they were changing the title, they wouldn’t be spending so much time selling other things on commentary. It’s making the match feel less important.

The issue with Stevens is that the evidence we have not just "doesn't support" the thesis but actively works against it. And again, that's relative to the post-prime footage of a direct contemporary like Patterson which is usually tremendous.

Dark 12/15/21

Elevation 12/13

Taz talks about that, how he was too over on the way in that first night and knew he’d be buried for not being a WWE project and then Angle went up too big on a suplex and he had to readjust and was labeled as dangerous. He said when he got back to gorilla after his debut, no one was there and that was that.

What he did, for the most part, was good and interesting and different. Some of his reactions and just feeling the crowd definitely worked. He had presence, some of which was due to the mystique of his build. He entry point into moves with Fuego with a good collaborative effort. What he represents, being the overall package, has a lot of promise. Going from one move to another did feel like a rookie. Some of the "wrestling on TV stuff" needs work. But remember, Angle, on his "first match," had been in Memphis and working dark matches forever. Hook may have been very well trained and drilling and working simulation matches, but Angle had a page and a half on cagematch before Survivor Series. I think the big takeaway is that Hook has a ton of promise and they should protect him well and give him matches carefully so that he can improve. If you really want to compare, here's Angle's second match. I haven't seen it, but feel free to take a look:

HFO Ace. Comedy skits galore. Make it happen.

Dark 12/7/21

I still am holding out for the merging of Gargano’s comedy act and the HFO and him being Matt Hardy’s singles ace, just for the skit hilarity but it’s a pipe dream.

I'm morbidly curious if Liv can pop a rating. I peeked at twitter to see if she won just to see if they'd put a buzzing babyface over, at least temporarily, so that's the most interest I've had in a while.

Elevation 12/6/21:

There’s no harm in Hansen skepticism within reason, especially as it pertains to his potential top 10 GWE standing.

Dark 11/30/21 (including annoying Adam Cole comments; sorry)

I can't say I've seen a lot of Nia over the last few years, but Marty feels pretty strongly about this and I'd begrudgingly look at non-Rousey match or two if he wanted me to.

Elevation 11/29

Good thing they don't have to worry about you then.