Matt D

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.

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.