Matt D

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."

I've enjoyed Punk's quiet matches more than Danielson's loud ones. That's probably a me thing though. I look forward to Danielson wrestling all the guys Punk did.

Dark 10/19/21 Hayter vs Nieves: This wasn't quite there. I liked how Hayter was moving Nieves around the ring wherever she wanted her. That was effective but nothing looked super impactful. I wonder if she can do a hanging vertical? The clothesline was too abrupt. She should have found some way to telegraph it more and get the crowd primed for it maybe? Gunn Club vs Sheik/Alexander/Chamberlain: Is Colton's finisher the same as Dustin's new finisher? I'm not going to look for it but it seems iffy. It looked good here at least. Best bit of this was probably Austin pulling the legs from the outside early. It's very clear what Austin is but I don't really get what heel Colton is supposed to be, especially with Billy standing right there sort of being a better version of whatever it might be. Billy's punch on Sheik was great but I wanted to see that guy do more. Diamante/Nyla/Sakura vs Statlander/Rosa/Velvet: Things to like here but they were more specific moments than the overall match. I get a sense that people trained more recently are taught to look at dropdowns as a way to trip an opponent as opposed to just something you do as part of a routine. I see that in watching Velvet at least. There was almost a sense of hierarchy here as she lost the offense quickly against Emi but who knows since the match was so much noise by that point. My favorite thing about Statlander is how she works the boop in and she worked it in by trying it to Nyla and getting crushed with a suplex. Nyla sure isn't protected anymore, that's for sure. She tagged herself in and got clowned pretty quickly. Diamante fed well for everyone. That's her lot. I did like her little taste of tandem stuff with Nyla. Rosa understands what she has with the crowd and is able to milk it at times, so good on her. If these sentences are all random, disconnected thoughts, that's ok; so was the match. Also, unlike the match on Elevation, they didn't use this to hype the TBS tournament nearly as well. Jade promo: The "Very Funny" thing probably didn't work, but it was a good effort. The promo itself worked fine. I like managers. Jade obviously needs one. There's even benefit in her having her own since it makes her stand out more. The company just has a lot. Jade is not the person to put the TBS belt on this year. Archer vs Fernandez: Jake just seemed glad to be there. I would have liked to see his reaction to Archer dragging the guy out. Yeah, Archer is really fun to watch in squashes. He has that Sid/Steiners/Road Warriors vibe. This pretty quickly became the Taz/Kingston show, which was pretty distracting, let me tell you. Kingston's mini promo about how he could hurt Archer was good. Fernandez got to show some fire and he ate that forearm well off the top. This was a blur, but that's ok. I do like how Dark is constantly pushing towards the main shows. Solo vs Kazarian: I got kind of restless midway through this one and got looking up Solo and realized he was in a team with Starks right before Taz told us that. IT was funny because when he was out on the floor, I kind of had Starks vibes out of him, so I can see that. I think there's honestly room for just about everyone on the roster, but I can't tell you what Solo's doing there. He's competent, and you want guys like Kazarian and Sydal to put over talent on the bigger shows, but I don't think Kazarian is any stronger for beating Solo than he would have been beating some talented indy guy. So this was fine, sound, but there wasn't a lot of reason to care. 2.0/Garcia/Serpentico vs Dark Order: The entrance was pretty funny, especially because they set up the moment on the ramp and then paid it off in the ring with the streamers. How can you not enjoy watching Serpentico? The bit where he kept trying to give Parker a thumbs up was so good. The long beatdown on Angels didn't work. I don't know if the crowd was just exhausted and this was late in the taping cycle or he didn't get a hope spot or the Dark Order (including Colt) just weren't working the apron or what. The only one that was really getting reactions was Garcia with his off the charts intensity. 10 is one of the best hot tags in the company with his size and spots. Does Grayson always do that flip over senton to the guy leaning on the apron? That seems like a challenging spot to work into multiple matches but it worked here. The finishing stretch started awkward and then used that awkwardness for humor so good on them. Still, overall this could have worked better.

The biggest issue right now is that there's a competition on a big stage that cares about wrestlers, wrestling, and wrestling fans. It makes it blatantly obvious what sort of shitty content bread line we've all been forced into for the last twenty years.

So if I'm not mistaken we don't get the Samoans vs Soul Patrol match from March (though there's a "bonus" Garea vs Sharpe match) and we don't get Snuka vs Valentine or Maeda vs Goulet from May. We do get the Bobo Brazil match from the May show.

I thought that Emi should have thrown Lulu to Ruby last week instead of taking the loss herself. It's bound to happen sooner than later though. Dark is deceptively good at using squash matches to heat people who haven't been highlighted for a while when they have a bigger focused match on Dynamite or Rampage upcoming. There's more thought put into it than just random matches. Even the six-women tags yesterday and today seem to be to highlight the roster for the TBS tournament. Though sometimes you get random matches. I'm excited to see 2.0 and Garcia interact with Serpentico tonight in an 8 man vs the Dark Order.

Elevation 10/18/21 Dustin vs Gustavo: Got to heat up Dustin before he wrestles Danielson. There wasn't a ton to see here unfortunately. They had a nice little rope running bit at the start where Dustin shifted around him and kept him moving. Gustavo looked fine in taking Dustin's stuff. Henry name dropping Duke Droese was a thing that happened. Dustin randomly creating a new finisher and naming it after Bob Backlund the day we get our first new Bob Backlund match in forever is another. This was good but it's always a shame when you get a Dustin match where he doesn't get to work from underneath. Wardlow vs Austin: Million billion stars for Wardlow refusing to give the crowd even a second power bomb after they went nuts for the idea they were going to get one. That's the kind of thing you can do with a molten crowd. Great instincts. They still popped for his finish. The clothesline bump should have maybe looked a little better? I don't know? But yeah, great instincts by Wardlow. Santana/Ortiz vs Jaka/Maluta: Hey! I kind of liked this actually. It was a real match with tag rules and everything. Jaka and Maluta came in looking like they knew what they were doing and had some of the spots scouted and Santana/Ortiz actually had to work at it, which made them look better in toughing it out for victory. They were still dominant. They were never really at risk. It still felt like a match. No issues with this one. Mizunami/Velvet/King vs Sakura/Nyla/Diamante: Tons to like here. This was my first look at Ryo and she just had really great reactions to everything and solid shots. You could sense the crowd was kind of for Diamante though so maybe that wasn't the best early match up. King and Velvet worked very well together. I wouldn't mind seeing more of that. I liked Velvet eating everyone's offense for the FIP and how both of her bits of hope were based on her opponents knocking her partners off the apron. That Spanish Fly looked like she almost broke herself in half though. Lulu's reactions after Emi hits the cross body in the corner are always worth looking out for, as was Nyla all but pulling her in to celebrate after the match was over. Ryo looked like a world beater vs Nyla to the point where they had to save her from a pinfall after a suplex. Very best moment of the match was Emi mugging to the camera as she was holding Velvet's leg on the outside on the finish. That was amazing. This could have used another minute or two but obviously that extra Buy-In hour wasn't part of the original plan.

Is there a sense of what wasn't out there before from the May card?

So I’m sorry about this, but I want Cody to be the guy to lose it on Punk. I’ve sat on that for a few days but it works on a bunch of levels.

Yeah, but from a kayfabe perspective. It’s not the US title as the champ isn’t the #1 contender. He doesn’t rank at all.

I mean, look, what even is the TNT title?

Punk is there to have a good time and test the waters. He wanted to main event Wrestlemania so badly that he almost died. Right now he’s having fun. Eventually something has to give but not for a few more months. Zero problems with it. It completely fits who he is and where he is.