Stiva

I loved the main event and was sort of hoping that they'd give Cassidy the win but he couldn't have really looked any better in defeat. Nyla and Vickie sounds fantastic but it's a shame we can't get Vickie Guerrero: Heat Machine in front of live crowds. But yikes, that opener was rough. Private Party have their match and everyone has to wrestle it. It works when the Luchas Bros do it but PP are certainly not the Lucha Bros yet. I'd be tempted to throw Hardy in and use them as a solely 6-man team to see if he can calm them down a bit. I wonder if they go with another mystery debut for Cody next week as it seems like Matt Cordona's no-compete will be up and he seems AEW-bound.

Brian Pillman Jr is debuting on Dark this Tuesday.

Fun two hours, even if I didn’t really think any match was particularly great. As said though, everyone on the show felt like a big deal and each champion was going up against a well-built, credible challenger which is all you can really ask for and nothing stood out as bad booking or a wasted segment. As for Taz, I actually like him in the role; he has good delivery and Cage needed a mouthpiece anyway. It seems like next week is a show where they have to get the booking decisions right. Do they give Cassidy the big win without the crowd? Do they pull the trigger on Cabana joining the Dark Order? Do they deliver on Nyla’s surprise? A few more variables that could pay off big if they get it right.

I had no idea that they did a Britt Baker photo shoot and it’s hilarious.

Luchasaurus needs to drop the contrived and awkward strike combos and work like a big man. Doing the moonsaults and shooting stars is fine but hitting weak spin kicks and bad, slow-mo punch combos subtracts from his matches and gimmick so much.

Re-testing people with positive COVID results because they “don’t like” that result is beyond insane to me. I think that’s the biggest sign, amongst so many others, that this company has managed to cut itself off from reality in a legitimately damaging way. This is a good example of, despite craving that mainstream attention, them being so much better off on the fringe sectors of popularity because if this was anything else, they’d be getting slaughtered.

Just want to throw out some love for Janela/Kiss as a team. Sonny Kiss has had a great year on Dark so I’m glad he’s getting to shine on Dynamite. The pair have good chemistry and Janela is way more palatable as a fired-up, hot tag babyface. SCU and Butcher and Blade are the two best opponents for FTR to lead in with and I’d be up for them getting a long match with QT and Dustin when QT recovers. That’d be so great. Fyter Fest looks like a pair of good shows but I do wonder if they have anything planned for Cage after this shot. Both Brodie and Archer felt and still feel directionless following their title shots so I wonder if they reignite the Darby Allin/Taz stuff.

How much do we think the Hollywood trend of going with remakes and reboots ties into WWEs use of nostalgia acts through the mid/late-2010s?

Will Shawn Spears' 7th gimmick finally get him over?!

Absolutely. And, I think there's something to be said for the progress that has been made where these women feel that they're safe to come forward and tell these harrowing stories in public. Obviously, we're far from where we need to be but maybe, in all this harrowing and awful news, that can be something where, from this generation onward, we can see a wrestling industry devoid of all of this? Maybe that's overly optimistic and I would love to read and listen to a women's perspective before saying that. But this minor exorcism feels like a positive step, regardless.

It'd be really funny if they had to shut down for a month, they showed a ton of old PPVs and they attracted much better ratings than the current embarrassment.

I feel like I don't want to say too much about this because, even in this closed space, I feel like my voice as a straight, white man is distracting from the voices that actually need to be heard but Scurll's "apology" is skin-crawling. Using the UK age of consent as a crutch when you were a 26 year old man involved with a 16 year old woman. Yeah, it's the age of consent but why was she at a party? Why was she drunk at 16? The idea that he feels those two caveats are an excuse of sorts is legitimately stomach churning. For some reason, and I don't mean to prescribe severity to each individual accusation, but this one feels especially seedy and evil. But, the idea of not watching wrestling as a result of this is a large crater to navigate. This current wave and scene is clearly awful but just how bad was it in the 90s and 80s? How many women from then have stories similar, or worse, than what we're hearing now? I feel like we had to answer this question post-Benoit; how do we navigate our fandom and appreciation of one wrestler in light of horrifying circumstances? How do we now, navigate and justify our support and fandom of an entire industry in light of these accusations? And how do we do the same with the wrestling that has gone before? This week has shown that wrestling has systemic problems, ingrained for years. How do we approach 80s and 90s wrestling with that thought in mind? All of this clearly had to happen and every single victim has my support, no matter how insignificant that might be, but I really hope that, going forward, these are questions that we ask ourselves as we evaluate and re-evaluate pro wrestling, as best as we can.

For early SMW that isn’t mentioned too much, that incredible Heavenly Bodies/Fantastics backstage brawl that ends with Cornette’s car window being smashed. Cornette follows it up with an all-timer promo the following week.

Dug this week's show and I echo the love for the twist with Abadon. I'm still halfway interested in Brodie and The Dark Order since it feels like someone gathering the troops for another assault after losing a battle. Uno and Grayson winning the belts and FTR/The Bucks having to go through the other two DO teams first could be a fun 3 week program. Omega kneeing Dustin in the face with that overly-dramatic leapfrog was pretty frightening but Dustin turning it into part of the match is why he's the best. Britt Baker sending a message that just said "This woman needs Jesus" had me rolling, along with Swole's Undertaker impression. AEW really understands that comedy has it's place in pro wrestling and it never overshadows the real angles; Orange Cassidy dropping all his shit and going after Jericho was a perfect example. We had some MJF comedy and Britt comedy so he just got a measure of revenge and had a good show closing angle. Ricky Starks doesn't do too much for me in-ring but the guy has fantastic presence and is such a natural promo. He's going to be a great addition to the MJF/Jungle Boy/Darby/Sammy Young Guns group. And my final prediction is that we get Heel Cody with his own "Horsemen" of him, FTR and one other with Arn as the modern day JJ. With a heel turn caused by Darby Allin finally getting one over on him and taking his title. Cody offers the usual handshake routine and then kicks the shit out of him. Book it, Tony.