Matt D

Let me tread carefully as I'm only casually following all of this, but one of the greatest strengths of AEW is the use of enhancement talent on their youtube shows to help build their midcarders and the sheer variety of talent they have either at their fingertips or under contract in order to keep match-ups fresh. If they can afford it, they're much better off cycling wrestlers off in an "off-season" sort of format or using them in non-wrestling/promotional roles (like how Kingston announces). There are probably some other things they could do, like create six-man belts, but in general, they're far, far better off using a large roster to protect talent and keep talent fresh.

This show deserves the commission shutting them down at midnight on the dot.

For the sake of his health, Goldberg should probably only wrestle guys like Rollins, Styles, or Zayn who will be able to really go up for him on everything.

I’d rather watch Edge vs Rollins than listen to a Kane political speech.

I’d rather watch Kane vs literally anyone than Edge vs Rollins

Cutting time from Edge/Rollins as they’re going over is the best thing that could happen for the match.

It’s not about Becky or Bianca fans. It’s about fans who are going to turn on the company for pulling this again. They’re going to turn on whatever WWE will try to feed them.

There are arguments about how this could be the start of a longer story like all of the bullshit we’ve gotten before (and Christian going heel was bullshit) but if they try to turn Bianca heel off of this, they’re going to just turn crowds against Becky and dilute her star power.

There was a moment there where I thought WWE had actually followed up from yesterday. It was the moment where Becky saw someone with a “Man” shirt on the way down and went nuts for it and it was real and awesome and endearing and electric. And then they ruined it like they always do.

They could have gotten away with a beatdown on Carmella and a promo and Bianca reacting and been 100% fine.

Those absolute morons.

This is worth writing hundreds and hundreds of words about.

For every Funk/Race there are ten matches where he gave the whole match. Way more than a 1:1 ratio.

FCW only ever worked because Dusty was on commentary.

Byrne’s stuff is ok but it feels like a poor draft for the Stern run that follows.

I don't really know how you do it. As a rule, I hate the 3 minute Florida clips with a passion as a sign of what we don't have. I think it'd be more fair to all of us to have nothing than to have these.

I'm just half watching this now. Just tuned in. I doubt this will hold up as a greater hole but I like some of the little moments here and there: eyepokes or feints or Owens just seeing Ricochet near him and whacking his head into the rail. Though for every little thing I like, you get a moment like Rollins and Morrison standing and holding the ladder, waiting for Owens to get them (even if they tried to justify it with the kick; it didn't work in execution).

Who's seen the most of Buddy's 87-89 PNW? Has anyone seen the Windy City tapings from 89? What about his 91-92 PNW? How about his 1992 WCCW work from Canada. Did any of that make tape? And do we have any of his 85 Florida?

Cesaro is docked five spots on every list for doing the Davey Richards superplex spot.

I like Super Astro as a Saint comparison if we’re going lucha. Though I wonder how people feel about Hechicero as a more modern choice. He’s obviously more of a rudo version. Rene Ben Chemoul is the guy in the French footage who reminds me the most of him.

The Benoit matches were the killer, because he’d spend the entire head working a limb and RVD would drop it the second he started a comeback. It was just a huge waste of time. It’s one thing to switch off of some incidental or transitory or control limb work but when it’s the meat of the match, it’s problematic. That said, I’ve come to almost hold it against Benoit more than RVD. On a national stage, if your opponent isn’t interested in paying off that story or simply isn’t able to do so, it’s up to you as the heel calling the match to do something that will pay off in a worthwhile manner.

As a kid in 91-92, he was like a Sting you could watch every day.

He’s cheating on a meta-textual level.

Nothing screws up a wrestling company quite like this.

I guess the good news is that I have 4+ years to get this out of my system, because I'm not even sure how to engage with you guys at this point. I'd like to disqualify post 2010 Lesnar from consideration because he uses German Suplexes as punches, which is hugely unfair, breaks the very concept of wrestling narrative for a cheap thrill, and makes him uniquely incomparable in the history of wrestling. It's like putting a Harlem Globetrotter into the NBA hall of fame. You can do it, and maybe even you should, but... At the least, maybe you can rank him in your top 25 as Brock Lesnar*.