Matt D

AEW Dark 11/9/21, all 15 matches. Excuse typos. Gunn Club vs Dark Order: Pretty fun comedy match. The Gunn Club looked good feeding. Billy was super giving. Just one comedy spot after the other and nothing felt too out of position or over-cooperative to me, really. I'm not saying that if they did it around a loop fifty times that it wouldn't be better, because it would, but for a one off, it came together nicely. Colton should lean into his size, as he matched up well against Uno. Austin should lean into his more annoying qualities. There was one leap over neck whip which was dumb physics wise but that was the only thing in the match that felt incredibly off. Colt vs Gunn was just two pros doing their thing. Then it broke open with the laughs with the crowd into everything. Just feel good CHIKARA shit here with Billy and family stooging up and down. Finish could have looked better though. That I'll say. Riho vs Howitzer: Uh, this wasn't pretty. Maybe it wasn't supposed to be pretty. Howtizer has 50 matches on Cagematch and maybe Riho just wasn't the right opponent for her? She needed someone goofier? Ryo? Let's just move on. Solo/Comoroto vs 2 Fast 2 Fuego: The Dark Order match had good comedy spots. This one had me laughing out loud at times. The best part was when he put the strap back on and Excalibur and Taz lost it. I lost it too. Fuego 2 doing the clapping gimmick and the belt gimmick over and over. Oh man. Almost all of this worked for me for what it was. This was way different than the studio match where Fuego 2 just took some offense and got out. He did all kinds of stuff here, the arm drag, the step up rana, the missile dropkick~!, that leap over arm drag. But it was smart at times too, like when he tried it on Comoroto and he just got shrugged off. Comoroto was a beast in there, like always. That spot with the single arm press was amazing. And Solo looked the best I've ever seen him. This is his role, comedy spoiler jerk. He showed way more here than in the Danielson match. They both based really well for the Fuegos. It's probably too soon to get cutesy with the reverse DDT and Fuego 1 doing the Cross Rhodes, but in general, this was compelling stuff. Sammy/Hager vs Koko Lane/Luke Langley: Not a lot to say here. Maybe would have liked to see more shine out of Sammy. He did one nice little kip up thing. The pick by Hager was good. I haven't seen him wrestle much in years. Lane/Langley didn't get to show too much. I don't think anyone really maximized their time out there but Sammy and Hager seemed like a unit at least. Post-match was fine and put some heat on there. Honestly, if given the time, I would have had Sammy and Hager against some more MMA type guys instead maybe? Best Friends vs Vega/Jackson/Bengston: A lot of motion here. The bookends with Cassidy were pretty funny. I thought Yuta looked much better here than on Elevation on Monday, hitting a lot of the stuff smoothly that looked bumpy then. Some good presence and charisma too. Jackson's squatting suplex thing was good but it sort of involved Yuta just hanging out too long. Vega was a good jerk. Taylor's awful waffle piledriver thing is nuts. It's weird they didn't mention Cassidy being in Rocky's corner upcoming. Oh, I liked the Foot thing into the German too. Good enhancement match with a little bit of drama but mostly the faces getting their stuff (both moves and quirks) in and looking good. Dante Martin vs Frankie Kazarian: Fun stuff that got the job done though it could have used maybe just another minute or two. I liked the armdrag war and it made sense but Kazarian had two fake outs, one where he wasn't there for an arm drag and another where he wasn't for a sunset flip and both were a little iffy for me if only because you don't see them often, if ever, and it makes you wonder why no one else avoids the holds like that. Nitpick maybe. Finish worked for the story they were telling. These are the wins Dante needs under his belt. Rosa/Statlander/Ryo vs Hayter/Rebel/Emi: They run these basically every show now and they're always fun. Lulu got to mug on the corner splash (the endless set up corner splash) but without the usual energy since she's been whacked by her boss a couple of shows now. Rebel did a bunch of stuff and about half was viable and half was goofy but good effort. The spot where Statlander stacked all the heels worked. I wouldn't say this had much structure but it was fun and fairly effective and furthered Soho vs Statlander upcoming. Probably not as fun as the Ryo/Soho tag though. Moriarty/Sydal vs 2.0: This was about establishing the team but more so than that, it was about giving Sydal a hometown win. While I think they need to keep doing more to establish Lee, that's not what this was about. Here he was a really good FIP with 2.0 cutting off the ring. I thought Parker was great in the way he kicked Moriarty into the corner and then did the lunging cut off. They had one really beautiful just missed tag attempt before he finally got it. Then Sydal got to look great in the stretch as 2.0 fed and fed. I saw Danielson do that little kick in mid air to get out of a suplex and it's good stuff here too. Nice, sound tag match. Rose vs Lynn: Another match where Tootie hits a few shots early but then gets eaten up so we can't say too much about her, though she sold well for Nyla here. The corner charge was a very believable way to just shut her down. I like that Nyla, being a monster, has three viable finishers. She seems like she's having more fun lately, maybe? Andrade vs Warhorse: Really gave Warhorse nothing here, but some of that was the cute opening gambit which did as much to get Andrade over in this match as ten of his big moves would have. Maybe a little bit of a shame given that he was obviously over with the crowd, but it was a way of Andrade spoiling things for them, I suppose. Dark Order vs Team Taz: I liked a lot of this, I did. Hobbs controlling the center of the ring, knowing more or less what to give, keeping things at his methodological pace; they're all what I want to see out of him. Angels is a perfectly fine face in peril. 10 is a good hot tag given his size and fire, and Starks is always up to something and worth watching. It did break down in the end. Some of that's on the wrestlers and some is on the style where tags don't matter for the last third and people just do crap and some is on the ref who lost sight of who the legal man was. There was plenty of good in this one though and it was more of the sort of win Hobbs needed. Conti vs Gordy: I've never seen Gordy but this was about heating up Conti so not much to see here. Frustrating that they have two matches in a row with those running kicks into the corner (10 did them too). Also the DDTAY looks too much like Andrade's finish and that was just two matches before. Maybe that's a problem with a 15 match Dark. Maybe it's a problem with the style. Maybe they need the producers talking just a little more. Maybe it only bugs me? Wardlow vs Mantell: Another nothing match, which is a shame as Wardlow getting imaginative about how he kills guys is usually fun. The imagination here was Spears hitting a DVD post-match with an apple in his mouth which wasn't very fun. Darby vs Marshall: I have to pay attention to this because I don't know that Phil and Eric will go back to it for Monday. Marshall is someone that I think would have more value if he worked like 83 JJ Dillon, Bobby Heenan, Paul Jones, a guy who can bump, who can get some mean shots in, who can even lean on people when he has an advantage, but not someone throwing suplexes or jumping off the top rope. There's value in having a heel manager that can work and bump and stooge and that has stuff that looks good, but it's not necessarily in having him go all out and try to have great matches. There are a bunch of managers and seconds on the roster, but they're all older and shouldn't be bumping or more non-wrestling looking guys like Andrade's assistant. I get why QT wants to go out and be more of a player/coach than just a coach of the Factory though. I just don't think he has as much value as he might leaning hard, at 36, into being what Paul Jones and JJ Dillon were five years later in 83. Ok, the match: Early on, I liked how all the motion was about getting over Darby; Marshall would use his strength to redirect Allin or force him up, but it was all about Darby smoothly recovering and keeping the motion going. Darby countering the suplex in midair with a kick is the third time in a week I saw that sort of spot. Have I just not been paying attention or is it a new zeitgeist spot thing? Marshall said he was out there because Sting hurt him and to help MJF who is his friend, but he was only ever going to put a chink or two in Darby's armor. It's not that the belly to belly and top rope headbutt didn't look good, but Marshall probably would have stood out more with a chinlock with his feet on the ropes and a Memphis headlock hiding a punch. I liked the comeback and the suddenness of the coffin drop, where instead of just sitting around, you could buy that Marshall had no idea where he was or what was about to happen. Marshall is an office guy and from what people say, valued and essential. In ring, he'd probably be more of a boon to the promotion and his own stable if he owned how he could best make impact. HFO vs Christian/Jungle Boy/Luchasaurus: There's a mini feud from earlier this year with Christian vs the HFO that I do need to go back for. I haven't seen a ton of Christian as of yet and he's one of my favorites ever. Here he was a solid face-in-peril, getting the crowd behind him and hyping things up for the Luchasaurus tag. The one spin kick by Luchasaurus was protected by the camera switch but seemed fine and everything else he did was working big, so no problem there. After watching 15 matches, my patience for "everything has broken down" complex tag sequences is at a low point. I did like how the HFO were made up of disparate talents and Kassidy showing a decent amount of attitude.

Dark Elevation 11/8/21 Hobbs vs Dan Adams: Hobbs needed a big win after his high profile losses and he did get to crush Dan the Dad here, but it was not what he needed. Past the avalanche in the corner where the glasses went flying and the fact he picked him up when he could have pinned him, I just didn't think this was what was the thing. There are a ton of really low heels of the Serpentico/Solo/RSP variety (and I get that's a range in and of itself) in AEW, but less low level babyfaces. Am I right about that? Anyway, a comedy wimpy wasn't the snapback win Hobbs needed. That's the entirety of my point. Plus I kind of think they should bill him at more than 270. 290 sounds better. Ok, enough nitpicks. Best Friends vs Butcher/Blade: I liked this in theory, with Butcher and Blade using underhanded tricks and solid tag team wrestling and capitalizing on Yuta's inexperience with a fairly hot finishing stretch. In practice, I'm not sure. Blade and Yuta had a fairly sloppy exchange with Yuta going through legs and what not and it did feel kind of competitive and uncooperative but it's the one thing in the match you really did want to look smooth and slick instead because that would have gotten Yuta over as a whiz kid instead of someone scrappy enough to hang on and make things work. It's weird but I almost wish there were two different tag divisions, one with Lucha Bros and Young Bucks and Private Party and Santana/Ortiz and one with FTR and Butcher/Blade and the Varsity Blonds and 2.0. It's like they're doing entirely different things and whenever they mix, it's sort of terrible. Riho vs Tootie Lynn: Maybe not the best showcase match for Tootie, who was over with this crowd. If she was going to be over anyway, maybe give her someone other than the most likable person on the roster to face? Her shots were good in theory but the actual contact never seemed to click with Riho. The Northern Lights towards the end was beautiful and probably should have been the finish. I get that she worked towards the double stomp and missed it but then she hit the smaller one to set up the Northern Lights, so it would have been fine. Matt Hardy vs Dean Alexander: Yeah, see, it would have been better to switch Alexander and Dan the Dad in the card. The crowd was into Hardy's name value and star power so it was good he tried to switch things around with the mic thing to start, but then the match didn't work right to capitalize on it. The fans just started their Let's Go Dean chants when he was on offense and then didn't go up for him at all when he was working from underneath. I'd put more of that on Dean than Hardy, though maybe it was a case that Hardy should have let him get one more move in and then bask in the chants? I'd like a world where the superplex could end a match like this instead of just setting up the Leech but in this world that we actually live in, it's fine as the superplex was still pretty respected here. Ryo Mizunami/Ruby Soho vs Emi Sakura/Nyla Rose: Fun match. Nyla looked good in general and she seemed to be having fun in there with Emi. She took that missed swanton pretty hard. No roll through there. Ryo doing the air guitar uncomfortably long was great. I liked the attempts at the double underhook backbreaker and how they didn't work only for it to be used post match (and it was leading to the swanton which didn't work before Statlander came in). Shame that they debut Emi with her just randomly being there. That's kind of sloppy, right? The post corner body press was wonderful as always but I didn't think Ruby had taken enough damage to just stand there forever as Emi did the We Will Rock You stomp/clap to set it up. Statlander needed to at least try a boop after Soho pulled her back. Mind games, folks. Here's what this match showed me 100%. Tony Khan is leaving money on the table if he doesn't do a Rock'n'Wrestling cartoon with the women's roster. There was just so much color and character in the ring. Just in this match alone you had Emi and the Killer Queens, Nyla and Vickie, Soho, Ryo, and Statlander. Add in Rosa, Taya, Anna and her weird cult thing, Britt and company, Leyla as the bully slayer, Penelope Ford, Diamante, and Jade and I swear there's a cartoon series right there. I don't know how you'd work Shida, Red Velvet, Deeb, Swole, and maybe you don't want to use Abadon or the Bunny, but... it's a great roster but a brilliant Saturday Morning TV Show. Someone commission some art for that and pitch Khan or something. Acclaimed/2.0 vs Dark Order: Very disappointed that the rap didn't work in 2.0 somehow. It's fun to watch Uno even when he's not wrestling because he carries himself differently than most people you've ever seen. Different stance, different body language, etc. Also, him messing up the Acclaimed hang signals was pretty funny. It was good for Bowens to get to work him and Danielson in the same week. Very Nitro feel to this as they were talking about Omega vs Page throughout it. Crowd wanted Silver throughout this and they gave Grayson the hot tag. He did a great job (and every one fed for him well; I really liked Caster's sell of the DDT after the big catch), but since Grayson was just about to get dumped anyway, I would have liked it more if he tagged to Silver after quickly losing the advantage again so that there was a bit more of a hot tag feel to it. I don't a ton to say about the finishing stretch other than 2.0 fed really well for Uno. Feels like a band situation right now where they have to figure out how to balance how over Silver's getting in that niche attraction role with everyone else.

I agree with you guys re: Yatsu in this match, though my big takeaway was maybe that he was trying to wrestle Doc when Doc and Gordy were much more interested in thrashing him, but there's a much stronger performance vs Williams in a singles match towards the end of the month that didn't make the set where he comes out headbutts flying and they really go at it and toss each other around, so I wouldn't write off 90 Yatsu so quickly based on this match and I don't want that to be the historical record of him here.

I watched a Rockers vs Yatsu/Haku match from 91 the other day. This happened: Decades of destruction really.

Hey! we covered that over here: http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2021/11/aews-five-fingers-of-death-week-of-1025.html Here's what I wrote:

Did you ask Hart about his tape collection? Everyone on the board has a moral responsibility to do so if given the opportunity.

Crossposting, but I feel pretty strongly about it, re: the WWE cuts/ROH cuts/MLW cuts: In a situation where Khan simply can't hire everyone on the market, his best move is to lean hard into the TNT/TBS titles with interesting workers (Sammy's fine. Rosa's ideal) and have open challenges every week and just use the forbidden door to bring people in. I think the surprise factor will draw. Bring in Dango one week. Bring in Taya one week. Bring in Lince one week. Etc. Maybe some people who really get over get signed. Eventually, one of them gets a surprise win as it's a great way to bring in a new talent you actually did sign if they can carry that ball. People get a payday and some exposure/buzz. It fills up 15 minutes of TV time without much thought taking some pressure off the booking. It gives you that Nitro "Who will show up next?" sort of feel without drowning in talent and contracts which draws attention (it draws mine at least). It's win-win, right?

Wasn’t on last night’s show.

Dax is maybe not the best lucha base in history?

Primarily you have to be Nikki Bella and not Brie Bella.

I don't think you look at art or literary or movie criticism that people only look at art or movies or books from the 1950s with the 1950s audiences in mind. It's something to factor in as context is important, but I wouldn't say even the primary factor.

AEW Dark 11/2/21 Santana/Ortiz vs Abraham/Coleman: I liked how vocal Coleman was in coaching his partner. I like that Santana and Ortiz have a lot of potential finishers, I guess? Let's move on. Rose vs Van: Solid squash here. My favorite bit was Van kicking her in the skull, Rose taking it, and it just not registering. I want to see the swanton again but she shouldn't be doing it every day, so it's good she didn't. Got the job done. I wouldn't mind seeing Van in a more competitive match against someone else to see what she could do. Johnson/Anderson vs Knight/Bosede: Not a lot of meat to this. It's good that Anderson's getting frequent ring time but it'd be better if he could eat some more offense too maybe. The Knight vs Johnson segment was smooth and flashy. Spinebuster looked a little wonky to me maybe? Still neat to see Arn raise his kid's hand. Garcia vs RSP: Finish was sixth dimensional chess. Second try for the goozle slam. Repeated counter. Repeated counter to the counter. Countered into the rear naked. That's Daniel Garcia for you. I really hope we get a few matches with him and Christian. I can only imagine what the two of them could do. Otherwise, it was good. I would have liked just a little more leg selling out of RSP as he was coming back. Garcia's offense was eclectic, though I loved the Million Dollar Fistdrop. But really this was all about the nth reversal finish. Silver/Reynolds vs Carr/Cross: All of the Dark Order guys should use claws and each one should have a different version of the claw (10 would have the claw slam). I'm giving these ideas away for free here. This broke down a little too completely too early for me but everything was hit well and I thought Carr fed particularly well and Cross bumped particularly well so the Dark Order looked like world beaters. There's more rhyme and reason to their sequenced offense so maybe that's why I put up with it a little more than Santana and Ortiz? I don't know. Acclaimed vs Vaughn/Smiley: Good showing by Acclaimed here. Good for them. It's not that they don't have talent. Again I think they should be protected. It's just that they're uneven. The Bowens vs Smiley strike exchange thing was pretty good. The reaction when Vaughn recovered only for him to get back body dropped into his partner was good. Yeah, this one was fine. More of this from them. Bunny vs Garrett: Not sure if it's the second belt or her ratings success, but Bunny does feel like she's being presented as more of a threat/entity than a few months ago. Here she took the first half soundly with just mauling and tearing offense, very vocal. When Garrett came back, I don't think she had the anger/fury that the beating had warranted, but she did get to do a front handspring and full cartwheeling elbow into the corner and sweet chin music stomp, so good for her? Felt like a disconnect. 2.0 vs Bison XL/Toa Liona: It's easy to give FTR credit for big splashy moments and clever finishes, but everything 2.0 does has a lot of thought into it. I like how they took over on Bison and then kept control. Protected him. Protected them by making them look clever and crafty and dangerous. Good use of Garcia without being overbearing. XL's leaping hot tag was maybe a little much. They should probably go out and sign Liona if they haven't already, huh? Speaking of protecting, I like how 2.0 was smart enough to get out of the way but how Liona didn't sell the corner charge and just kept going. Finish was cleverly set up too. 2.0 and FTR could probably have an amazing Midnights vs Horsemen type feud but that seems like too much to ask for even in 2021. Red Velvet vs Royal: This was totally solid. Royal has a unique gimmick with the opera thing, and who can say they have a unique gimmick at this point in wrestling. I'm not sure what kind of ceiling it has, but good for her. Good forearm too and she based pretty well for Velvet's offense. Which all looked pretty good. She remains literally the only person in history to make the Play of the Day (or whatever) look good as a finisher. I'd like to see more Royal just to see how she works her gimmick in a situation with more offense. Fish vs Ryzin: I kind of hate Fish's shirt but it's ok because he's a heel. Impressive that he just went through a long career using his real name when that was his real name, though. Talk about low ceilings. He's fun to watch right now, just dismantling people with strikes and holds and throws. Good month for the guy. Maybe, if I was him, I'd not do the exploder into the ropes/corner/etc. in every match but hit a normal one and escalate to the more dangerous seeming version for bigger moments? I don't know. Guy knows what he's doing in there. Fuego vs Nese: I am not very familiar with Nese. From reading Segunda Caida posts by Eric, I get the sense that he was a guy who did a lot of stupid athletic combos who developed well in his time in 205 Live and sort of figured out how to make it all work. From this match, I can sort of see that. It's funny he's billed at 205 pounds, by the way. That seems like an in-joke. This was fun. The athletic stuff like the matrix or the kick/sweep combo could potentially get annoying but wasn't here against this opponent. I like how both of them hit that sort of double jump moonsault, but Fuego's was bigger and more of a receipt since it was to the outside. You don't see a lot of bodyscissors usage these days so that was nice. Nese generally took Fuego's stuff well. The roll through power bomb into the corner looked good, but I'm not sure about the knee follow up to end the match. Maybe more as an insult to injury bit of punctuation? PAC vs Ruas: What's up with that tree at the start of PAC's tron? Someone explain that to me. This was a fun style battle for the first half, with PAC sort of using roughneck pro wrestling toughness with the shots on the floor to overcome Ruas' professional fighting credentials. I thought it did a pretty good job of putting over Ruas who could be dangerous at any point and who could get back into a match with one good shot but I would have liked to see him just a little more protected on the finish. I get that there's a big difference in hierarchy but Ruas is unique enough that there should have maybe been a bit more of a clever/key counter by PAC or a banana peel in him going down. Instead you got the sense that PAC basically beat him at his own game winning the kicking and suplex competition before locking in a hold.

Dark Elevation 11/1/21 Statlander/Mizunami vs Nyla Rose/Emi Sakura: Early chops from Mizunami and Sakura looked very impactful. Mizunami makes for a fun partner for Statlander, but then she does for everyone. She definitely felt the boop. They did a good job selling the strength vs strength match up between Nyla and Statlander but we didn't really see it play out much in the match itself. Emi depriving the viewing audience and gif makers of Lulu mugging after the corner body press was an act of pure evil. Also probably a few weeks too early. I know it's a typical AEW thing but Emi and Lulu having their own social media storylines that never get reference is fairly amusing. As impressive as Rose's swanton was (and I think she should absolutely keep doing it in a Vader-Does-A-Moonsault) sort of way, the set up where she made the babyfaces basically DDT themselves was absurd and terrible and I hated it as much as I've hated anything I've seen in AEW this year. Maybe, maybe it would work for an enhancement match or a handicap enhancement match but it was terrible here. Wrong place, wrong wrestlers, wrong physics, wrong everything. Otherwise, solid match. Kazarian vs Benjamin: You got the sense Kazarian was glad to be there since he trained down the road years and years ago. Benjamin had an offensive flurry of a European uppercut, a deadlift German, and these stilted knees in the corner and Kazarian made them all look great, to the point where I'd want to see the guy again, even though I know a lot of it was Kazarian, so good on both guys I guess. Finish was a corner dodge, a clothesline, and the chicken wing. I would have liked one more move between the clothesline and the chicken wing. Just a me thing. Riho vs Sparks: Not as impressive as the Thunder Rosa vs Sparks match which was one of Sparks' first matches in over a decade, but this was still an ok short match. The Northern Lights was earned. I usually don't love the rocker dropper position flip back counter, but Riho's shortness makes it look extra good. Riho stands out in general because of her presence and how she can keep the smile going even as she's hitting stuff. FTR vs Waves and Curls: Speaking of presence, Wheeler seems to get better month by month, which is saying a lot. He's just always on in interesting, compelling ways. He was covering the belt up with the coat or playing with the front rows. Just always making what's going on more entertaining in that sort of once-in-a-generation Buddy Rose/Negro Casas sort of way. I'd give him that much praise on an engagement level in a setting like this. I'm not sure it always works as well in a bigger, more even match, but in a squash it's exceptional. Dax is the more natural stooge with the more natural look and maybe he stands out more when taking offense, but in general, Wheeler's become more of a standout. Obviously the fake-out was beautiful here. They're experimenting with the format and setting every week. Conti vs LMK: Got to heat up Conti so this was a pretty straight squash. Everyone knows this and everyone thinks it, but it's so obvious how thoroughly WWE would screw up Conti and the dissonance between her personality and how she can just kill people, right? It's almost painful to think about. This was probably exactly what it should have been. I always want one more big move in a more straight up squash but the three kicks (instead of two) probably worked well enough. Best Friends vs Acclaimed/Serpentico: The comedy mostly hit for me, especially the Serpentico stuff which has not worn out its welcome as of yet but I'm only a couple of months into the promotion. I like how everyone worked with him instead of just being annoyed by him like in the last tag he was in. Acclaimed badly needs house show loops. I get why AEW wants to protect them (though the Rampage match did them no favors) and where Khan sees the money in them and I know that neither guy is a first year rookie or anything, but it'd do them good to get them more matches somehow, either on indies or on an Impact/AAA/Japan/Anything.

He’s maybe a little too full throttle for me. Danielson as Stan Hansen. But Hansen is maybe the board’s favorite wrestler so it tracks…

AEW Dark 10/26/21 Bobby Fish vs Invinctus Khash: In general, I feel like you can get better pacing on Dark than Dynamite, but Fish sure didn't give this guy much. Just brutal strikes up and down, all of them looking great (good on both guys for that for that). Khash got to catch the foot on a kick and did a little switch-a-roo that I actually saw Ishikawa do yesterday but man did Ishikawa do it better. The jumping knee cut off was beautiful. I can't say I'm super familiar with Fish but the guy is wrestling like he has something to prove and that he knows this is his last, best chance. I'm not sure what his ceiling is but I'd buy him as a guy at that Spears level in a faction no question. Riho vs Xtina Kay: I really haven't seen that much Riho. The early tit-for-tat exchanges worked, as much due to Kay's trash talk and immediate comeuppance as Riho's smoothness. There were a couple of poor physics/timing moments here, like the transition to Kay's offense when Riho had to stand still for a moment when she should have been running so her hair could get grabbed. Things snapped more when Riho was on offense with my favorite bit being the knees to the knees in the Romero Special set up position. Very Monsoony with Excalibur and Taz griping about the unnecessary backflips. They cost Kay in the end, sure, but that's part of the house style to a degree and while I hate it, I'm not sure if it's the announcers job to crap all over it or to bs some fake physics reasons why it would work. It's part of modern wrestling. Eddie Kingston vs Jack Evans: Unsurprisingly, this was really good. Good on Jack for being irritating enough to get heat after coming in flippy and entertaining. It went from the studio wrestling comedy with Bryce and Jack's new look to Eddie leaning hard into Jack's kicks very abruptly. Then Evans not just leaned into the chops but ran into them (but in a way that made total sense for his character and the match). Evans bumped himself on the Michinoku Driver which is on brand. Both of these guys made what their opponent did look amazing. Took two tries for the Saito suplex beacuse that's the house style. It makes sense to have Eddie win with the Stretch Plum since he's up against Danielson next. Good to reestablish a submission for him as it might come into play. Really liked this. My MOTN. Dante Martin vs JDX: Martin in enhancement matches is fun. All of this was fun. The chain wrestling to start. JDX's cut offs. Martin is a guy who does all of that extra, needless motion, but he does it so fast and so smooth that he makes it look like it makes sense, which is a hell of an accomplishment. I'm curious what sort of footage Martin watches. I would have liked to see Rush do a little more meaningful things out on the floor. I thought he did a pretty good job coaching in the Black match for instance. Tiger Ruas vs DJ Brown: Giving him a promo after a quick win is a good use of this time in getting people familiar with him. I might not have stacked this so soon after the Evans match as he did similar kicks. Diamante vs Skyler Moore: Got to give Diamante wins now and again to keep her credible. This was short and sweet but worked. Little bit of a slugfest. Moore makes one mistake. Diamante capitalizes. Nice nervehold bodyscissors submission. 10 vs Shane Stetson: I would have liked to see 10 do one other big power move in this one. He ran through Stetson like a freight train which was nice but something with heft would have been good given how small Stetson was relatively. Fuego/Fuego Dos: vs Bandit/Alexander: Ok, first off, I watched a bunch of this with a smile, good on them. Alexander's tombstone should NOT have been in this match, or if it was, it should have been after Fuego had taken out Bandit so that it set the stage for Fuego being out of the match and Fuego 2 picking up the win. Past the powerbomb counter, we didn't actually see Dos do much but get beat on. I was hoping to see a missile dropkick from him because I'm sort of an expert on those from certain wrestlers. I'd be happy seeing more of Bandit or Alexander but that tombstone was a ridiculous thing to do in the studio in a match like this when Fuego was just going to recover twenty seconds later. Come on guys. Danielson vs Solo: One good thing about enhancement or JTTS matches is that it lets people actually hit stuff that will get countered almost every other bigger match. Most of the time Danielson goes for his corner flurry to end with the top rope rana, it's not going to work. Here it did. Solo was so much less interesting than Comoroto or QT as an opponent. The deal with AEW Danielson is he's going to push you to your point of desperation and Solo's point of desperation was pretty mild. Most interesting things here were when QT was getting involved and how Danielson leaned into those opportunities. I'm a little surprised Danielson didn't do anything more experimental here. I suppose that was saved for session 2 and the hood? We'll find out next week, I guess.

It fits the Yuta match too. He came in, crushed the guy, got out. Went home to his family. There was no wanting to prove himself against the new generation like Punk or wanting to push himself and his opponent to their limits like Danielson. He did his job, got his paycheck, and went home. No bullshit, no mercy, just business. So what happens then when this specific version of Mox faces off against Orange Cassidy in round 2?

I honestly, truly believe that I'd like a potential Punk vs Dustin match more than the Danielson vs Dustin match (which, of course, I did like).

Dark Elevation 10/25/21 Hirsch/Mizunami vs Diamante/Kay: Fun match that sort of fell apart towards the end. Diamante is so good at leaning into her character with everything she does. It's all the more impressive since she's really a JTTS but she's just 100% committed and always on. She should have a job for as long as they're running shows. Hirsh and Mizunami is just a great Al Snow and Steve Blackman sort of pairing, if Al Snow was a powerhouse beast in the ring too. Mizunami just exudes fun. I don't know if I like Hirsch getting off her feet so much. I think I'd rather her dig out from underneath and take out limbs and just wreck people that way. The German was amazing, for instance. But at least the tandem offense was creative. Like I said, after that crazy double team flip, everything kind of fell apart but at least we got a Kevin Sullivan shout out from it. .65 Worldwide point. FTR vs Liona/Reed: This might be the most natural I've seen Tully with them. He just really felt like he was a manager and not just a guy collecting a paycheck for nostalgia's sake coming out. Maybe it's the theme? Anyway, after Wheeler looked just great on the mat, what a great showcase for Liona this turned out to be. If the roster wasn't so stacked up and down, I'd say they had money there. As it is, they might not even need him. Fans were going up for everything he was doing, and in chipping away at him, FTR looked all the better for it. I loved how they kept tagging in. At one point, Dax tagged in, got his positioning and realized that it made sense to tag Cash right back in before he did anything so they could do it (it being the double catapult which was great) together. The finish was pretty funny as Reed shows ass as the worst hot tag in history. Just a clear case of FTR realizing what they had in there with Toa and made themselves by helping to make him. Great stuff. Emi Sakura vs Reka Tehaka: Man, you could hear crickets during Emi's control stuff. The crowd just didn't want to come along for that ride. I'm not sure the hairpulling and strength counter really worked. They didn't care about the forearms either but did like wooing for the chops. The best stuff here was Reka's headbutts. Just big sweeping smashes. I like how Emi just kept shifting her tactics as one thing didn't work but it just didn't garner her any heat. The Lulu mugging after the corner splash is amazing and it's going to catch on. They need to start using still shots of that. For a brief moment, Lulu got a tiny chant. It will happen. Her bump off the robe toss at the start was maybe the fourth best part of the match. I do like that Emi has 3-4 different ways she can end things. QT vs 10: QT's bigger than I thought. At least he's managing big guys. Got to heat up 10 en route to Mox and it was a really gutsy performance from QT after his eye exploded. He's experienced enough to switch things up too. The announcers didn't pick up on it but he went right after 10's eye for revenge. It's so weird 10 does the "Ten Ten Ten" gimmick when Spears is there. Have they ever done anything with that? This basically made me want to see 10 vs Comoroto. Too many people in AEW do that double running shot into the corner, where they hit it from one angle and then the other. Maybe QT got a little too much of this but really, all anyone was looking at was the eye. Paul Wight vs Bravo/Singh/Carter: It's just fun. Him coming from the announcers' booth was a good visual. I like how they swarmed him at the start. The spear/tackle thing was a great visual. Good on Bravo for taking that. One thing about Wight vs 3 guys is that he can hit a big match-ending spot on each of them. Carter's sell for the KO punch was Punch Out-esque.

Biggest issue feels like length. Every new 50s match we get seems like 25 minutes plus. I know with the 60s French footage I’m generally watching two 30+ minute matches a week which involves some planning on my part.

Danielson vs Serpentico is one of the matchups I honestly want the most. It would be the best Saturday Morning Slam Danielson match.

Yuta should get the match to make up for the Mox squash.

I'm not watching this but Bianca beating both Sasha and Becky to take the belt over to Raw wouldn't have been the worst salvaging of her sputtering momentum. You could sort of frame it that while Becky got the drop on her at Summerslam, she actually was able to beat two of the Four Horsewomen, etc. Ah well.

Watch Danielson vs Gulak from Elimination Chamber 2020. Just saying.

"Everyone remembers the first King of the Ring, Don Muraco."