Matt D

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.

One match. One payday. Put Nyla over. Promoted well it could get buzz. AEW needs just a constant flow/stream of buzz and this could fill a slot and get some media if they do it right.

JR: "MJF really got into his head! This is all because MJF is in his head." Excalibur: "..................... also, QT hit him below the belt during the commercial break."

Dark 11/23/21

Congrats on updating your list. Talk to me about how 1-7 is AJW and then the promotion doesn’t show up again until almost 40. That’s immediately something that stands out to me. Is the peak of what the promotion could be just higher than anything else but there are only seven matches in that peak or is it match by match and just worked out that way?

I feel like the difference is WCW would have paid someone else six figures for the rights to tie into this instead of WWE getting paid seven figures to do it.

Dark Elevation 11/22/21

QT had a Dark match with Darby before the PPV where he cut a pre-match promo lauding MJF and saying he offered to soften Darby up for him so this sort of tracks story-wise. Not sure why he wouldn’t throw Comoroto at him instead. It was interesting Punk mentioned Ogogo who hadn’t been mentioned for months and is almost healthy enough to come back.

Danielson vs QT was a match I was honestly wanting out of this run but after being sort of disappointed by Danielson vs Solo, I imagine Punk vs QT might end up more interesting than what Danielson would have done.

Company gave us everything we wanted here in Danielson vs Dark Order AND Cabana in Chicago specifically.

It's a dozen things right now: The Planeride from Hell doc The firings The Keith Lee thing The total mismanagement (EDIT: I'm not even sure what this line was supposed to be. Just go with it) The Mox book Seeing AEW do so many things that are crowd-pleasing and caring The crazy corporate speak The Saudi relationship Some of the worst NXT 2.0 stuff The lack of stakes/build/payoff Some specific things like what happened with Bianca or the way they handled the Queen's Crown tournament The obvious revenue stream making things like immediate ratings or merch or ticket sales not matter at all. And probably more, but I just can't get invested at all with anything they're doing right now. Just the idea of even watching WALTER vs Cesaro from last week doesn't feel worth looking at. I think a lot of it is AEW, to be honest, just the idea that if it was in AEW, they'd give it to us and highlight it and not just bury it on foreign shows and fancams. It would be presented as something of value and worth and not looked at as "Why would you want to see that when you can watch what we want you to watch instead?"

Not an unreasonable request @NintendoLogic.

Dark Elevation 11/15/21: T-Money/Nasty Russ/Sean Cooke vs Gunn Club: Ah, our pals from Jollyville getting a shot on the big stage. Russ was good in taking stuff, firing back, with his timing. I thought he made a good foil for super annoying (in a good way) Austin for a minute there. T-Money had a moment with Colton before taking Billy's finish. Quality enhancement stuff but I would have liked to see them do a little more obviously. Emi/Bunny/Nyla vs Riho/Ryo/Skye: It was nice to see Bunny in the Nyla/Emi trios we've been seeing recently. She seemed happy to pose with all of them, and frankly, I thought she was good wilting this way and that as she ate Ryo's offense. Some of the babyface tagging seemed a little weird, but this was overall fun. Nyla really disappeared for most of the match after the dive before appearing for the finish. I liked her exchange with Skye who came off as gutsy. The fans are, of course, pretty into Ryo. Hardy/Kassidy/Blade vs Uno/Stu/Angels: I needed a good look at 2021 Grasyon as he's the Dark Order member I have the least handle on, so this was welcome in that regard. The announcers do a good job putting Hardy over and he gives them little pieces of the puzzle to put together so good on everyone there. I think he could have themed Dynamite title challenge to Page in the next few weeks given how they've built him up over the last couple of months but people would probably hate the idea of that. Anyway, Grayson took most of this and had good strikes, good selling, a nice explosiveness out of the corner when needed. I could do without the back flip but some of that's on the guys who took it. Kassidy reacted to everything, so that's always good. The stretch was fun and didn't wear out its welcome with the triple dive working almost perfectly, without an overwrought set up too. Twenty years ago, a moment like that would make the opening of a show, but it did get the crowd going. I would have liked Kassidy to maybe cheat a little on that last roll up, just because it felt a little anti-climactic given the rest of the match. Probably would have been better to just end things on the dive/cannonball/frog splash instead. Andrade vs Lord Crewe: Crewe has a good, if a little weird look (big, neat hair/scraggly beard). He had a few ok punches but despite acting like a babyface, the crowd wanted nothing to do with him. Andrade was interesting here, really controlling the center of the ring and refusing to go to Crewe. Headlocks, a boot to cut Crew off, and then the suplex/neckbreaker combo and his DDT finish. Didn't really bump or hit any big offense. Still worked for me though. Soho vs Kruel: Probably the right match for the hometown hero. You need enough meat to it so Kruel got a few things in. She tried to stand out at least, so A for effort even if the execution wasn't always there. Ruby needs to do the tongue thing maybe 30% less? The back drop driver was nasty. The No Future is a good finisher on paper since she can hit it from any angle in any moment to anyone, but relative to the finishers in the promotion, it just doesn't feel impactful enough. It feels like a transition move or a cut off. Repetition will help I guess. Roc worked the crowd well as a babyface manager and I'm sure it was a nice moment for both of them, but and if they need a Teddy Long Managing Jim Powers sort of guy, he seems an ok choice, but not with Ruby longterm. I assume this was just a one time thing. They sorted out the music issues too. QT vs Silver: Pretty good, but in that sort of .5 Worldwide point sort of way. My favorite stuff from QT here was the stalling and taking the house mic, the dodging and getting a roll up. My least favorite things were catching Silver for the swing out backbreaker and then jumping up to get Power Bombed (What was he going to do there? a 'rana? Come on). When they were clapping up for Silver, he should have locked in a chinlock. I won't go broken record on my Marshall thoughts. I would have liked to see a comedy spot or two in here too maybe? More stalling. More letting Silver work from underneath. More comedy in the payoff. Less video game offense by QT. Good effort though.

Made me think that he watched the French Catch footage of Alfred Hayes though! Unless he just remembers it from the 70s and footage we don't have. I don't remember him ever talking about European Uppercuts and Hayes before though.

There was a moment on Dark or Elevation a couple of weeks ago where the crowd started chanting "One More Time" and he teased it and then didn't do it and went right to the finish.