Stiva

The obvious thing to do with Cassidy seems to be him doing his shtick and jobbing for a while until he, somehow, finds himself in a big TV main event and then shows that he can go. Similar to the match he had with David Starr a while back. Where you go from there, I don’t know but I actually have some faith that these guys are thinking long-term, to a degree.

I guess the highly touted September NXT class is going to have someone in it that'll unseat Shayna? Or maybe they are just stretching this as long as possible to lead into a feud with Ronda. And I thought I hated post-Jesus Shawn Michaels matches but I think i despise Shawn Michaels agenting even more.

I read a Youtube comment, of all things, that had the awesome idea of Bray coming out in his Mr Rodgers gear, the week after attacking Finn, to save him and doing a split personality gimmick. Now that hasn't happened, I'm way less excited about the whole thing. Also, imagine if you were in a coma for a year and you woke up to Summerslam having a random Goldberg vs. Dolph Ziggler match for very little reason.

I kind of dig the idea of Bryan siding with a newly invigorated Bray with Rowan as the go-between, to take over the shows. I mean, in my head, they'd find a way to rationalise it and play back into past history with Wyatt, Roman and Bryan but I'll even settle for them not doing that just to see something halfway fresh.

They should have just revealed it to be Joe trying to kill him tonight rather than having it be a limp reveal next week. Has there even been a rumour of what Bryan’s announcement will be? Do they run the Henry fake retirement angle but with Bryan going back after Kofi?

I have the trust in Joe to heat up that feud by himself if they let him talk. And I really hope the Summerslam match is a heavyweight sprint; those two could work a great one of those.

The Firestick App has always been solid for me and they’re a pretty useful device for other services for their price.

Holy shit, they killed him. He's done.

Some stray thoughts as I progress through the show. Hopefully Willie Mack is a guy who is going to get a push throughout the rest of the year since the dude is so enjoyable and was a clear step above the other 3 guys in the opener as far as charisma was concerned. The tag match was OK but was strange to see them follow the opener with a match following a similar formula. Injury angle worked fine and I really liked Ethan Page as the quasi-big man, kicking and throwing guys around and breaking up pins in increasingly nasty ways. The Rascalz are portrayed as weed smokers but they work like Jack Evans on speed which is something I appreciate, they move at 100mph and The North should be good bases for them going forward. They need to find a couple of new teams from somewhere though. Kross has won me around in recent months; he’s got great presence and carries himself fantastically well which makes up for some of his poorer in-ring work. As much as people may hate to hear it, he seems like a guy who Heyman would push for to get on Raw. Match with Edwards was fine and Edwards as would-be Foley, getting over by taking ridiculous punishment is the most I’ve ever enjoyed him. Will probably finish the rest tomorrow before this crazy weekend but Impact really do know how to build to these shows and deliver when they get there, even on these smaller undercard matches. Everything is super satisfying.

I'm still waiting for WWEUniverse.com to finally catch on and usurp Facebook.

So there’s a Women’s show featuring Steph being made for something called Quibi (?). Where the hell do they find these bizarre, unheard of, Silicon Valley start-ups to partner with?

If the rumours are true, I'm intrigued to see

This was fucking awesome btw. So, imagine my huge disappointment when the internet came out of the show talking up Devlin/Dragunov which was good fun but nothing I haven't seen a million times already on the indies. Both guys in the main had that untouchable charisma which really elevates pro wrestling. I'm beyond lucky that I got to see Eddie Kingston in North East England on his retirement run.

He'll be a solid hand up and down the card for a few years, at least. Can work heel or face and is a good tag worker so I understand why they've taken him on. Especially when you consider that he's tight with Cody. I'm not too sure about him jumping immediately into a big program with Cody either but it was one hell of a way to debut the guy so I'm willing to go with it. It's also a case where AEWs promo vids might actually come in handy where they can have him cut an edited promo ala Dustin's to explain the motivation and history in a compelling way.

In another era, when they didn't have to go out of the cell, I think these two could have pulled off an all-timer of a brawl because everything before they leave the cage is fantastic. HHH is at his athletic bumping peak and he just takes everything with such snap and force. When you couple it with Foley bumping like a lunatic, it makes everything look so violent and dangerous. The strikes are excellent, the spots with the steps are great and HHH in 2000 really was a pretty incredible bleeder. Sadly, they have to go into the stunt show spots and the matches loses something, even if it is the thing that gets the crowd involved. If they had kept it inside, had the BBQ bat under the ring and worked the same spots and worked to a finish in the cell, it would have been remembered like the Taker/Brock matches. As it is, it loses a little something with time but these two had an undeniable chemistry when it came to working these kind of brawls and it can stand up pretty strongly to the Rumble, even if I do think the Rumble is the superior match.

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.