Stiva

Titus channelling Krusty after seeing Worker and Parasite was an easy highlight of a lacklustre second night. I’ll never complain about Charlotte’s in-ring, running dialogue anymore after seeing the complete embarrassment that was Edge and Orton’s terrible attempt at melodrama. Everything was just kind of there, I guess. Firefly Funhouse was commendable for them going fully out there with the insanity and the gag with Cena doing lightning fast curls was genuinely hilarious. I’d honestly never have Bray wrestle in a live setting ever again.

Maybe it’s just an irrational pet peeve of mine but it always feels so forced and actively detracts from matches no matter who is doing it. There’s a line between trash talking heels and jawing with the crowd to monologuing as you’re exchanging right hands

As said, the actual work was great there but there was FAR too much overwrought screaming, terrible attempts at vocal storytelling and dialogue exchanges. Charlotte randomly saying “I don’t give up!” was like something out of a 70s comic book fight scene. Putting Charlotte over should come as no real surprise but come on. She’s going to end her kayfabe career as the most dominant wrestler ever.

Man, I can see the thinking behind talking more in an empty arena but man, this is actively taking away from the work, as it always does.

I don’t mean for this to sound my misogynist or shallow but has Charlotte had even more work done?

Man, they’re really proud of that awful intro video, huh?

This thread had some good suggestions at the time. I actually tried to start going through 2010's major matches and things I thought looked interesting but it's a pretty rough year. A lot of underwhelming main events and a lot of the better workers given very little to work with underneath. It seems 2011 is where things pick up.

The New Day/Usos Hell in a Cell match is fantastic.

Also, I really dug Bryan/Zayn. Bryan's seamless adapting to this environment is another feather in his cap but the way he was laying the shots in really elevated it almost immediately. On one hand, I'm glad Zayn got the win since I'm assuming Bryan wants to stay with his pregnant wife during the pandemic but man, if Bryan got the belt, we could have got my dream booking of the Bryan/Gulak Best of Seven series that could fill Smackdown TV for months.

That was a really fun first night but man, the Boneyard match was preposterous pro wrestling bullshit at it's absolute finest. Those two playing it all straight and serious while ever escalating nonsense occurred around them actually sold it to perfection. Gallows getting casually tossed off the roof to his death had me howling with laughter and then the double punch of AJ's hand poking through the dirt and Taker exploding the farmhouse and riding off into the night topped it all off. 6 stars and segment of the decade.

Really good match that would have probably got the crowd going had they been there. I'll subtract some points because the Kabuki Warriors screaming every 3 seconds has given me a migraine.

This empty arena is going to be used as an excuse to have cringeworthy back-and-forth dialogue between the wrestlers, isn't it? Shawn Michaels' wet dream.

I want nothing more than that host podium to suddenly explode

I see these pre-shows are still unbearable. Heenan and Monsoon these two are not.

What we got of Gulak/Cesaro was great.

They should put an angle together where Roman is Poochie. Braun and Goldberg standing in the centre of the ring watching him float off back to his home planet. Instead, it'll be some shitty injury angle that nobody buys because they know the truth.

After seeing that NXT match having the spot where everyone lies down to get the crowd to chant "This is Awesome!" I can't WAIT for guys to absolutely bust their asses with crazy spots because it's Mania to get zero response. What a ridiculous idea this is.

I was pleasantly surprised with Trent/Omega until Trent managed to shrug off the powerbomb to the post and the brainbuster on the knee like it was nothing because it was his turn to go onto offense. Their insistence on quietly pushing him as a singles guy is baffling. I enjoyed everything else though; these empty arena shows are pretty fun considering they have enough running gags and are still allowing the roster to show their personality by sitting around ringside. I'm missing some of the great angles they've run in front of a crowd but, under the circumstances, this feels about the best you can pull one of these shows off.

Darby finally getting his win over Cody and a title to boot in the final would be a good story but I can see Cody getting it so he can work competitive TV matches like the one with Jimmy Havoc every week.

The trailer for the Big Show Netflix comedy is out and it looks truly terrible

That was a great use of two hours, a good distraction from the world falling apart. Jericho is a total pro, he was amazing cutting the promo on Vanguard and then somehow not laughing at Hardy pointing out Martin Luther King in the empty crowd. Tony was fantastic on commentary too; Excalibur is very good but it was awesome hearing Tony be the main guy for two hours

Apparently this is still going on with essential personnel only which still seems ill-advised to me but that’s how it is Omega vs Guevara and the Hardy/Jericho confrontation seem like they could be good but Cody has the greatest test of his AEW career as he tries to drag something decent out of Jimmy Havoc.

His 2007 has crazy highs with McGuinness and Morishima but his 2005 may have been more consistent?

It's worth mentioning that this week, to my knowledge, had the biggest rating gap so far since Dynamite fully kicked NXT across the shop. Now is probably the time that AEW wished they had another show next week but I'm assuming it's not to be.

These shows are a nice little change, especially when modern wrestling production can be ridiculously overwhelming at times but yeah, the big reveals tonight would have been amazing moments with a live crowd. I'm not sure these shows can continue in perpetuity since they'll lose more and more novelty over time. Also, props to, I believe Spears, for shouting "I got $200 on you, Tarzan. Do something!" during the Jungle Boy match. That popped me. In fact, that whole match was good fun. Butcher and Blade are a quietly solid tag team.