Stiva

Cool recs, thanks. I love Rey but had a realisation when reading the reveal thread that I hadn’t actually sought out any recent matches of his due to my inherent hatred of the WWE production style. I wish he’d jumped to AEW and had one run there but hey ho, don’t blame him for staying with his kid

What are the best Rey matches from the last 5/6 years or so? I have absolutely no idea what is highly rated from modern day WWE

I imagine FTR will re-up for the reasons stated but it’s also probably a good time for them to take a few months off. Especially with MCMG and New Day likely to come in. As for DoN, yeah, that feels like the best show they’ve ever done. It just came roaring out the blocks with the opening tag and just never let up

I didn’t make a list this time around due to really just not having the time to go and delve into my blind spots like I did in the build to 2016 but with any kind of expanded voter base, you’re going to get a really wild cross section of voters and some interesting placements. With things opening up to social media, the list feels like more of a general summation of the different cross-sections of wrestling fandom at the time, rather than a definitive, objective list which is always going to be interesting to look back on down the line. What I will say is, ignoring some of the people that have wild picks at #1, the dude who had HHH at #2 seems the most egregious pick so far. Was that list two names long?

The ROH PPVs always end up being good but I thought this was the weakest for a while. Woods getting clearly knocked loopy in the opener was rough and there’s more than a few title reigns that are becoming meandering. Especially considering STP and Red Velvet should be regulars on AEW TV. I actually thought the Woods/Nigel match was going to see Woods win to be set up to beat Moriarty but obviously not. I’d put the World Title on RUSH and build to RUSH/Kingston but that’s just me

ROH has been fun the last few weeks; I’ve really dug the whole show since the shift to the soundstage tapings. A novelty to actually see more than 3 matches announced for a PPV more than a week out too. And I agree on Shane Taylor. If I could make one criticism, it’s that you could easily put the likes of STP, Red Velvet, Athena and Billie Starks on AEW TV every week and they’d be great.

Yeah, just being so blanket Anti-WWE guys isn’t the way to go. Kofi and Xavier have a ton to give and I find it hard to believe that they wont be debuting at Double or Nothing

Add The New Day to this list

I assume the plan is C+C winning the title then having the matches against the Bucks, MCMG, JetSpeed and whoever else before losing them around All Out time. I really don’t have an issue with that side of it

They’ve even surprised me. “Poor response to Mania creative? Get the computer to book it next time”

We’re about 6 months away from ChatGPT getting the book

Jericho debuting out of a box seems the kind of thing he’d come up with

For my own personal tastes, coming out of this show with edgelord MJF as World Champ would have been my last choice of the 4 guys in that match but whatever, I guess it’s building to MJF/Ospreay at Wembley and there’s fresh babyfaces for him to work with so I’ll see how it goes

So, looks like Andrade’s situation is now sorted out and he’s free to sign up anywhere. The best bit of the story is that RUSH hooked him up with a lawyer who sorted it all out and if that turns out to be Beast Mortos, it’s up there with the best wrestling stories ever

When was that awesome Bunkhouse match against Danielson and Claudio? That’s when I first noticed it so maybe I’ve crunched the timeline together a bit. Anyway, MJF is back with more edgy promos.

Fletcher is such a strange one because as soon as he went solo, he just took off massively. I enjoyed Aussie Open well enough but never thought that either stood out but Fletcher went solo and overnight, he’s a world class heel, a good promo and suddenly has a great look. Fair play to whoever saw it in him because I certainly didn’t

None of these fuckers can act and whoever has convinced them that they can needs trialled and convicted

Hunter is losing his touch. 15 years ago, he wouldn’t be seen dead associated with this Cena run, now he’s taking credit for shit booking. He’s fell off

Anyway, not to intentionally double post but Final Battle was another fantastic ROH PPV. Mercedes dropping her first belt to Red Velvet was really good, Moriarty vs Nigel was a phenomenal bit of work and Deonna Purrazzo as Heel Pure Champion should finally give her something to sink her teeth into. I hope that Kingston vs Woods was the beginning of them shuffling Woods into more serious territory for 2026 as I think he’s someone that has way more value than the third guy in The Premier Athletes. For 2026 in general, I hope ROH gets an influx of new indie talent. I know they have a ridiculously big roster as it is but it’s probably time to cycle some older heads out and get some new guys in

I’m in the complete minority with Harley in that I find her promos and backstage skits unbearably annoying but I think she’s actually improving pretty quickly in ring. I could live without ever seeing her do poorly performed comedy for the rest of my days, even if I do acknowledge that’s why she’s over in the first place. I did like how she did in the angle with the Death Riders and Statlander though so maybe she’s way better at the serious stuff than they’re letting her be

I have no real opinion on Copeland either way but he’s useful to have around. And, for better or worse, Cope and Christian is something they would be pretty negligent not to do as it’s obviously a big deal for people at large. The eventual FTR rematch will probably be really good and they’ll put over a young team when they do drop the belts so I have no problem with it. Plus, he decided to work a random match with Griff Garrison and if that’s not in the spirit of AEW, then what is?

That Eddie promo really hit home how much he was missed in that 18 months or so. An absolutely king-sized promo

Yeah, the whole DR story is that the others can get the job done and Moxley can’t. I have no doubt that this all ends with Darby beating PAC on the way to the semis of the CC

Yeah, that’s just a wild collection of great matches. Darby/Okada will be fucking great if Okada turns up. Roddy Strong is a great pick for this too. He’s probably just going to eat pins but he’ll have a great match with everyone in the Blue League. I sincerely hope Moxley loses every match; they’ve started on this story, they may as well continue with it and I assume it leads to Claudio assuming control of the Death Riders

Joe has been so great since he came back in the summer so I’m all in on him getting another run. Hangman is still the guy, title or not. Plus, HOOK turning means we’re getting Joe vs Kingston at some point and that’s just swell. Right as Eddie doing the “injured guy takes time to build back up on return” story reaches the end and he looks close to 100%. A few surprising results tonight but no bad ones and gives things a bit of a shake-up as we go into the end of the year. I’m looking forward to The angle where the Death Riders put Moxley out to pasture and we get the Moxley/Darby team that they hinted at right back at the start of AEW