Stiva

So, Progress is running WALTER vs Eddie Kingston. Good news, right? Even better news is that it's happening over here in my city on Saturday and I have never bought tickets so quickly for anything in my life.

Regal getting that big talent scout role was a blessing and a curse considering it meant we lost his great NXT commentary.

Also, Cody is clearly the best worker in that superkick, backflip nonsense group because everyone has come out of the last two AEW shows raving about his matches.

Haven't read most of the thread but typing as I go. Whoever thought the bulk of that pre-show was a good idea needs sitting down and told otherwise. They do know the point of the pre-show is to drive some last minute buys, right? Yeah, it was free in the US but it wasn't in Europe and I'm not sure 40 minutes of badly written, badly timed, badly performed and badly executed comedy is the way to do it. The Librarian and Dark Order business died a death, the CEO match was putrid and that documentary segment was like a bunch of teenagers filming an Office skit on their phones. It all felt like a really bad idea that someone should have stopped in its tracks during the planning stage. Daniels/CIMA was a good opener and it's immediately obvious how better the balance is on commentary this time around. They're not stepping on each other, Excalibur is doing a great job at bringing up their history and putting across the story of two veterans who have seen it all. Right guy won going into Fight for the Fallen and it's a disgrace that it's taken until 2019 for CIMA to get a featured run in a big US promotion. Women's three way was really great. Loved the opening spots where Nyla was just destroying both of them and all of the one-on-one portions were really solid. I agree that Nyla looked great, bumped around really well, had a real expressive heel charisma and because the other two were so small, all of her stuff looked like it was snapping them in two. For a match built around monster spots, the spots were all good. Nyla/Kong will be great once Kong gets back into wrestling fitness. MJF seems like he was custom-made to cut that scorched earth promo on video games and he's basically guaranteed to be a star since he's so good on the stick. I have a good feeling about Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus, purely based on Jungle Boy being perched on Luchasaurus' shoulders like father and son. I'm digging Jungle Boy as 2019 Chris Champion, in general. Really solid showcase for all 4, even if Page and Havoc do very little for me. You can't deny Page's presence though, he's going to be around the top of the card for a reason. Cody/Allin was pretty fantastic and just about the best way to put Allin over I can think of. I still don't think Cody has enough interesting meat to fill the early parts of his control segments but this thing just kicked into overdrive once he started selling the hand and arm. There was nothing fancy about Darby's work on it but it all looked nastier because of it; straight up punching the hand was my highlight. Allin's bumping is nothing sort of insane; the bump on the ring-apron legit left me open-mouthed and letting yourself be kicked whilst locked in a bodybag is a fucking crazy thing to do. I had a feeling that a draw was coming in one of the matches once they started announcing time limits but this was absolutely the right place to do it. The Spears/Cody angle was real uncomfortable, considering how long it's been since we saw an unprotected chairshot. Was the cut hardway or did he blade the back of his head when the focus was away from him? Either way, a hell of an angle and I liked how they sold the impact of one chair to the head. I thought Dillinger/Spears was pretty underutilised through all of his WWE run so I hope he gets a good run here but I hope the post-match doesn't take away from the shine on Allin. I dug the fighting game references at the start of the 6-man and if anyone is going to pull them correctly, it would be Omega. As a whole though, the match was what you'd expect; some ridiculous flying from Fenix, crazy-double teams and everything else that comes with the territory. I can understand wanting to run these kinds of matches a lot because they do them really well but going forward, I hope they mix it up slightly. I LOVED them making the distinction for the main event. Just a little touch that doesn't take much but makes all the difference in putting it over. Moxley is so determined to distance himself from his WWE persona that, because he's so intent on selling himself as a lunatic, Joey Janela actually comes off as more of a crazy motherfucker by leaping off a ladder. Moxley hitting the atomic drop into the tacks was pretty phenomenal and like I said, Moxley's entire run seems to be fully focused on Vince "That's you"! You're weird" conversation and spending the next 24 monhs proving him wrong. As a whole, the show was solid as hell and, with the Cody angle, there's some real proof that this lot can do some week-to-week TV.

As always, I’m way excited for this. The top 3 matches should be, at the very least, good with a real hot crowd but I’m intrigued for Daniels/CIMA too. Those two should have a blast working each other.

Cage match was fun, even if it was your fairly generic WWE feud ending TV cage match. Shayna is pretty undeniably brilliant though, you've got to think her and Becky should be able to print money on the main roster.

Ryan Ward's NXT run was widely praised and still holds up but even he seems to be completely lost in the shuffle writing and booking the main shows. I always figured Jericho would end up as a major figure on the booking team but obviously, he's AEW now and has shown no intention of retiring. My only hope is that Bischoff and Heyman are there to oversee each department (booking, agents, talent etc) and remove some of the ridiculous clutter they have at a creative level. It seems strange that they'd hire more middle-men between Vince and everyone else but maybe they need outside eyes to start cutting the crust off the shit sandwich. Either way, Heyman running Raw is probably bad news for anyone sick of Lesnar.

So, this is something.

Really intense brawl for the short period it was worked. The initial brawl before the commercial break is fantastic, both guys bouncing around the ring, off doors, walls and into the front row and they continue where they left off when the bell rings. Smothers' mis-step with the table isn't the end of the world because the ending suplex is nasty as hell with his hip and knees crashing right through it. It's not perfect; the brawl into the back could have lasted longer and while the camera issues led to a sense of chaos, it doesn't really help you to actually see what's happening. Still, wild little brawl and Tracy Smothers' Memphis heel run has been great thus far.

What they’ve done with Buddy Murphy and Cedric Alexander is amongst their worst moves all year. How they can’t find a spot for those two after their 2018s is just another example of the glaring lack of creativity. At least find someone for Buddy Murphy to team with or something where he can be a great heel. Just checked the Smackdown roster; put him with Killian Dain. Buddy as the snivelling heel, hiding behind his big monster buddy. There we go, run some hoss battles with Killian and Big E, comedy spots where Buddy Murphy getting disgusted at Otis, I’ll take a WWE writers cheque, please.

Rollins really did learn from HHH, huh

I feel that Rollins' last run on top was producing similarly awful results but at least in 2015, Lesnar showing up was interesting and he was always motivated to have a wild match, we don't even have that now.

As mentioned, an absolutely ridiculous display of bomb throwing and no-selling. While entertaining enough in a vacuum, it's not something I'd actively seek out. Though, the suplex down the stairs was a nutcase spot and could easily be a hot angle if it ended a beatdown on Raw.

Yeah, I think they need to find some venues with more unique looks, even if it means less people through the doors on a weekly basis. The last thing they need is something that apes the WWE set-up. With regards to the TV, I understand why they'd go live but I was kind of hoping they'd lean into their video package and promo stuff so you're not inundated with matches every week. The weekly grind of constant WWE TV matches is getting tiresome, even if most of them are objectively pretty good.

205 Live will be fantastic compilation material in about 5 years, so there's that. But yeah, there's a huge amount of wasted potential on that show, as shown with Buddy Murphy getting nothing on the main shows after having an incredible 2018. What it needs is someone with knowledge and creativity booking it out of Vince's orbit, kind of like Dusty did with WWECW at its best but do they even have anyone there that can do that these days? And with all the time they have on Raw and Smackdown, there's absolutely no reason that they shouldn't be integrated more intelligently on those shows. Gallagher alone has the charisma to pull off the 24/7 Comedy stuff while still retaining the aura that he could headbutt a man to death at a moment's notice. Then again, the booking and hierarchies are all fucked anyway so maybe it's best to have your own little awesome wrestling show live in it's bubble.

G1 is going to be pretty stacked, this year if you consider Moxley, Ospreay, Shingo and KENTA are would-be replacements for Elgin, Omega and co. As much as KENTA is probably done, you've got to think he'll be working his ass off throughout it all.

Man, I can't imagine why nobody wants to pay silly money to watch this main event scene. Say what you will about Corbin, he's correctly cast as smarmy heel asshole and cuts promos that suit that. They've got the World Title (sorry, UNIVERSAL Title) on a babyface who doesn't know how to cut a babyface promo, who, when going into a match with an injury, barely chooses to sell it, instead opting to dive around the ring like an asshole because that's how all his matches work and has a voice like nails down a chalkboard. Owens and Zayn were two guys who always got responses and were two guys that people wanted to believe would get a good push but that's been blown to hell too. At some point, I want them to go full Hall of Pain with Lars Sullivan and see if that gets us anywhere. At the moment, this show is like someone has hamstrung themselves while playing EWR and decided to injure all their actual stars so they have to make do, except it's just raw incompetence in reality.

Wait, Shane beat Roman? Even with the caveat of interference, what the fuck are these people doing?

The World Heavyweight scene is some wild booking right now. From Tyson Fury’s babyface turn leading to a heat-filled time limit draw to the complacent champion getting pinned by the local favourite, we’re running forward with 4 top challengers who have all been kept strong. The Fury/Joshua Team is something we thought we’d never see.

Yeah, NXT really hit such a high watermark of delivering on big shows that is almost impossible to keep up. Takeovers have been pretty much universally excellent since their inception so it’s only natural they’d drop at some point. Looking at the card for the coming Takeover, I’m almost sure it’ll be excellent but people are losing interest in NXT, precisely because they know that once the wrestlers get called up, everything they loved about them in NXT, is going to get stripped away and ruined.

I’d argue that Vince isn’t stuck in an Attitude Era mindset these days like people claim but he’s further back in the 90s. Everything they do now is the similarly, hokey shit, either played for laughs or given the bare bones of a story to absent-mindedly get from show to show. Even then, Jeff Jarrett showed more character motivation in one in-screen promo than Elias has in the past year.

I’m interested in the UK numbers considering it was at a much more affordable price over here. Albeit on a box office provider that I didn’t know still existed.

On my phone so won’t go too in-depth or repeat what too many others have said but this really did feel like a huge deal and the matches that needed to deliver, did so. JR bringing his A-game back in the booth was arguably more impressive than Dustin’s performance since we know Dustin can still go but I was convinced JR was done a decade ago. My one minor gripe is that I’d say the tag division needs some variation, these lightning-fast, athletic dudes need a Demolition to work off and to break the pacing up. Moxley felt like the superstar that he always should have been in WWE and really, compare the vibrancy, energy and crowd-reactions to this show with the dead-ass, limp WWE shows of this year and it’s night and day. I’m fully behind AEW from here on in.

Now, I really want to see USAs list of ideas. As for the 24/7 title, I can only hope that it leads to the return of on-location vignettes. I'm not saying I want a carbon copy of Crash vs. The Headbangers in a soft play castle but that's what they should be aiming for.

Have Adam Page issue an open challenge to any top-tier cruiserweight as a replacement, Jack Evans answers, he bends his ass back over to put Page over in a squash. Page takes the mic, bullshits somewhat, issues another challenge that is answered by John Moxley. The "match" is a total washout as Page takes a powder while Moxley stands tall in the ring but it means you retain the Hangman Page match as a major moment on the card, you retain Page going over and, with Moxley debuting in his orbit, you ensure Hangman Page is a serious contender going forward and you have another hook for the first TV show with a former WWE star showing up where the big boys play.