Matt D

Ok, let's do this. I'll bold the talents I consider developmental. Here are the wrestlers in matches for the last month or so of Elevation. If it's just them listed, assume they're up against enhancement talent. 12/26: Rose/Shafir Julia Hart Bunny Takeshita vs Kazarian Soho/Willow Athena vs Hogan Dralistico vs Blake Christian 12/19: Shafir Emi/Bunny Hardy/Page/Kassidy/Takeshita/Top Flight vs Kiss/Slim J/VSK/Avalon/Bononi/Nemeth (I don't consider Kassidy or Top Flight guys getting their reps in at this point. Bononi, I do.) Kingston/Ortiz Athena Claudio/Yuta vs Drake/Henry (I don't consider Yuta that way) 12/12: Emi Menard/Parker Willow Taylor/Barreta vs Zack Clayton/Some Other Guy Ari Davari/Nese/Woods vs Cutler/Luther/Serpentico 12/5 Comoroto vs Shinno Rose/Shafir Hogan Top Flight Emi Lee Moriarty (do not consider him) Cage/Kaun/Toa Liona Sapian vs Reynolds Takeshita vs Solo 11/28: Bunny Cutler Rose/Shafir Takeshita vs Davari Moriarty Lethal/Satnam Best Friends/Rocky Romero Athena Hardy/Private Party vs Chaos Project/Some Guy Kingston/Ortiz vs Solo/Comoroto I could go on but you get the idea. It's a way to warm the crowd up, to give them some of the other stars in matches where they don't have to worry about win/loss records. To give some local wrestlers work and potential tryouts. To build winning streaks for TV. To hype some upcoming programs and heat up people for a match the following week on TV if need be, to keep wrestlers wrestling and warmed up so they don't get hurt due to inaction. And yes, to give maybe 15-20% of the show to talent who need reps. It's Superstars/Wrestling Challenge, not Developmental. It's really WCW Worldwide. I don't think Dark is wildly dissimilar.

All I'll say is that it's really obvious that you don't actually watch the shows.

Dark and Elevation are the most enjoyable parts of AEW anyway.

“Sonjay, book the shows. Don’t put the TNT title on Jeff.”

This one was 2/3 falls and man was it ever good. The first fall was full of so much of what I love about Bockwinkel and then the second fall was such an amazing showing for Jumbo. In that first fall, they went a different way with it, with Bockwinkel trying to take liberties to get an advantage early but getting jammed by Jumbo. This time, Bock didn't get his arm control first and it went straight to Jumbo's and they worked it and worked it with Bockwinkel cheating to get out or making it seem like he just might, but getting jammed right back down. He's always struggling, always fighting, always reacting and Jumbo's so smooth working from top. Eventually, Bock has enough and drops the pretense and just starts kicking and stomping him down, but Jumbo fires back, including a huge chop off the ropes that causes Bock to do his full body sell. They're about twenty in now, as there were a couple of minutes clipped here and his total exhaustion sell is the best ever. And it's still early really! Anyway, after blocking Jumbo's butterfly, Bock tries the King of the Mountain which is what he does when there's a babyface too fiery for him but Jumbo immediately fights out, rushes in and just unloads on Bock, super intense. He misses a knee in the corner and Bock, in short order, gets the figure four. Just great fighting out of it by Jumbo turning it a couple of times, but he succumbs. So that's the first fall and I love how one beat so smoothly led to the next and you could just tell what kayfabe Bock was thinking and trying to do at every point. Second fall has Jumbo fighting with the bad leg and he does it so valiantly that the crowd really starts to get behind him. I've seen American crowds get behind Japanese guys before (especially in California) but maybe never quite like this and it's both Bock AND Jumbo here. He keeps falling a bit behind due to his leg but powering back, including hitting an atomic drop but being unable to hang on to the cobra twist. This ultimately leads to Bock containing him with a King of the Mountain (This time) but pressing it too far and allowing for Jumbo to fire back in, opening Bock up with chops and ultimately hitting the butterfly and the cobra twist causing him to pass out. The last fall teases the time limit (9 minutes left) just from the start, and they have some near falls (a butterfly that Bock blocks but Jumbo turns into a piledriver, brutal stomps on the leg turned into a Jumbo half crab). You get maybe a sense that Jumbo doesn't know how to put him away but he goes for broke with his hurt leg with another atomic drop and gets another cobra twist only for Bock to toss the ref and draw the DQ. Really masterful match here. And just a lovely 1980 crowd to get behind a foreigner so thoroughly. I couldn't imagine a nicer crowd, the sort that you'd want for big wrestling match like this, that bought into it fully and that put aside their own biases to give their all for the challenger.

Anyway, Nese is exactly the sort of cardio freak Danielson wants to go against.

Which is why the All Atlantic title is the prefect compromise.

He basically needs the run Joe is having right now with a secondary belt he can make his own. He’s probably the guy to beat Cassidy and then face people from all over the world.

Their own fault for letting Joe be too entertaining.

I'd like to reiterate that Page may be the worst top-of-the-card guy in major TV pro wrestling history at structuring matches (though he has many other positive attributes) and if there's anyone in the world who really needs to listen to advice, it's him. It's a shame that Punk wasn't somehow less abrasive and more able to empathize and compel the guy to listen. I doubt he would have listened to Ricky Steamboat or some other wise and sage (and not an asshole) figure, however, since it was that selfsame dopey structuring that helped to bring him to the dance in the first place as a mid-carder. Part of the perfect storm that led them to this point is just how uniquely bad Page happens to be. (I'm probably the only guy on the board that would say that his least favorite AEW match of the year was Page vs Takeshita though).

Isn’t Chris Jericho the living embodiment of “illusion of change?”

Glorious violence? It’s not tenable but it’s fun in the moment. My gut says that part of the problem is too much sports/MMA and not enough comic books in Khan’s heart.

I feel pretty strongly that if Starks beat Parker > Menard > Garcia > Hager> Sammy week after week building to beating Jericho clean at Revolution and then moving on, it'd really help make him, but there's no way that would happen.

Nick Bockwinkel defends the AWA World Heavyweight Title This is basically in three acts. Bockwinkel controls the arm for one third, Jumbo controls the arm for one third, and then there's a finishing stretch as they work towards the draw. I can't even begin to express how hard they were working the holds. There are shots mid-match and you can just see the sweat pouring off of Jumbo just off of armbars and hammerlocks and in and out exchanges. In the middle of December. He created a ton of motion with Bockwinkel when he was working from underneath. Of course, the greatest strength of Bock is his reactions, the way he's always constantly in the moment and his pure elation of hurting someone. When Jumbo took over, it was all about Bockwinkel trying to escape and getting reversed back into it. With Bock on top, it was about Jumbo's different attempts at escaping. With Jumbo on top, it was about Jumbo using varied techniques to stretch Bockwinklel, switching things up after each escape attempt. There was a clear moment where he shifted to hammering Bockwinkel and going for the win. He knew time was against him and Bockwinkel had the champion's advantage. Some people might find this transition stilted or awkward or ignoring what came before, but it was really all about Jumbo trying to pick the exact moment where he'd worn down Bock just enough that he'd be able to hit his stuff and try to beat him. If he went too soon, Bockwinkel would reverse it. If he went too late, he wouldn't have enough time to put him away. And maybe there wasn't a perfect moment because the champ was just that good. Judging by the fact this went to a draw after they threw everything they had at one another, that was probably the case. The wrestling that took up the first two thirds of it was just so good.

What do they even show on Discovery? I feel like they’d fit into that reality tv environment.

One could argue that they were goaded into it by the Gunns, who have been taunting them with the baldcap and interfering in their matches. But I don't think 95% of the audience base was looking for any kayfabe argument at all. They just wanted the match.

He’s going to make jumping ramps for the scooter.

“I am going to go to the highest bidder, could be anybody, as long as it’s not New Japan. F***ing hate New Japan. It’s literally, I don’t understand how people still pretend it’s a company that’s like, important. " That's a quote. He does stuff like that all the time to rile the fans. If AEW is anti-establishment, he's pro-establishment.

MJF is anti the fans and if the fans are pro-Japan or pro-Indies or pro-something he comes out as anti-it. What's the chicken there and what's the egg is up to you. One more bullet. Re: Moxley. I really hope this is all building to him "snapping" and just becoming an unstoppable tweener monster that kills everyone and can't be held back and can't be stopped. Stop the Moxley is what i want for 2023 and where it seemed like things might have been heading a few months ago. Just a bloody creature of chaos.

Miz/MJF: It's really the whole bit about Japan/indies/smart fans not mattering and that he's bigger than the notion of "pro wrestling." I think that's a pretty clear parallel. There are obviously other issues of class with MJF and the chip on his shoulder on an ethnic level that's different, the Long Island element, and also that MJF sees himself as a wrestler that can go in a way that's not built into the Miz's character. But there are definitely some superficial elements that are similar in the sort of "anti-smark" kind of way. MIz/Piper: This I don't see as much. The idea with Piper in his prime is that he could say/do anything and that there was always the energy of the unpredictable in a pretty static world of mid-80s wrestling. Whereas when MJF says something it's something shootier he's not supposed to say, like calling Starks the Pebble or whatever. Piper was more likely to reference Noriega and slam a bottle into his own head or something. He was more up on the news and worked in real cultural things. In that regard, I'd like him more to Max Caster than Max Friedman. Sasha: I think she wants closure vs Saraya given everything that's happened, and there's a match with Jade that's obvious, but my guess is that she wants to work Riho/Shida/Maki/Emi and Deeb/Athena(heel)/Bunny/Ford/Hayter/Storm/Ruby/Nyla, and even people at the Skye Blue/Anna/Tay/Ford/Abadon/Velvet/Shafir level. She pays attention to what's going on. This isn't like Rayne or Saraya coming in and not knowing the roster at all. She'll see the opportunities for interesting match ups.

The problem isn’t Regal so much as faulty conventional wisdom.

Koon very much took your position on the matter so I give you full credit for insightful listening here.

He’ll fail to win the title but will get the ring by beating the world champ. Not a bad consolation push.

If you made him choose, that's what he'd choose, sure. And he does have to choose right now. And he did choose. But to say that Regal, in 2022, doesn't still have a passion for being on screen and doing entertaining things is incorrect. That's all. He could have said hi to Excalibur week after week and he would have been tickled by the idea of that.

I wouldn't say that at all. He waxes poetic about being on screen and his body of work all the time. He's as prideful about his segments with Tajiri as he is with his matches, really. I think he was also enjoying the idea of being a "proper villain" and being booed again. He's just passionate about making wrestling better for younger people as well. Also, I think he did plenty of coaching in AEW. Guys like Moriarty and Yuta apparently spent a lot of time before shows working with him. At the end of the day, he seems to want to work with Hunter again and especially help see his kid through the early stages of his career, but I don't think for a second he wasn't absolutely loving the stuff he was doing on screen this year. Very much the opposite.