Timbo Slice

Also, again, the dude’s nickname is “Main Event” and he’s on the opening match of Day 1 of WM. Just…yeah.

The end of his WWE run was concussion plagued and he didn’t want to take chances, but man, he looks like he’s about to go out in a blaze of glory with this run.

Samoa Joe makes everything good, let’s be honest. I’m now convinced the first part of the year was AEW trying to figure out the best way to pivot, and it’s paid off. Alexander as the wild card is great, and I like how they’re building up the Don Callis Family, something I never thought I’d say in 2025.

I went to Japan in 2017 and landed after Sakura Genesis had already started. (Couldn’t make it in time due to me not being able to change my flight). I heard all about the head butt spot, the hospitalization, and then bought the iconic Weekly Pro Wrestling with him absorbing the Rainmaker. A couple days later, I go to Korakuen to see the opening day of the Champions Carnival. And in the final match? A fucking shoot headbutt trade spot with SUWAMA and Big Shuji. Couldn’t fucking believe it, man. And then again, I could.

The assumption they’re working with the Death Riders doesn’t have a lot of legs to me; they didn’t interact at all, the Bucks celebrated and then went to the crowd. If anything, it’s them working with Page to make sure Swerve never won the title again. That doesn’t mean they will be with The Death Riders going forward, especially given the end was about the Bucks, Page, and Swerve. And Page was shaken a bit when Swerve admitted fault on Wednesday, so you wonder if the Bucks acted in their own best interests based on old info from Page. The Death Riders already have five for Anarchy. The assumption was that it would be Rated FTR, but now you get The Opps, more than likely Willow coming back, and a fifth. I’d say Darby has a chance to be there, but I think he’s the mystery person to fight Hangman and win that first round matchup. My money is on Eddie.

That shit is as old as it gets but is still amusing. Just wish he'd go Inside Baseball and do the Jerry Estrada bump or something.

He’s over with the crowd big time and they’re aching for him to turn face?

Nak always had the ability to coast. He knew at some point with WWE that he could essentially just earn a paycheck and surf all the damn time and that’s what he did. Also, like Okada, dude was banged up due to the previous 15 or so years, so it’s not a surprise that he waned AND coasted a bit. Good on him for getting paid, but I think we all should have had lower expectations.

As was mentioned before, the story is glossy due to Kevin’s involvement; he wanted to tell the story but not have it be so bleak that people left scarred. Which meant you didn’t get so deep into things that really scarred the family. Kevin was happy with the final result because it meant things were essentially surface level, which led it astray from a lot, but told just enough people could read into things. The ending alone with the scene on the river seems like it came from Kevin’s mind.

Also, it makes storyline sense that Cena would need an edge to get #17 and that he’d have to make a deal he probably didn’t want to make to get it to happen. Cena as champ with a bunch of Rock cronies protecting his investment until SummerSlam, maybe even Survivor Series, has a lot more legs here. And leads to Cody getting an opportunity to face Rock either for the belt or without it. Cena still has Roman, Punk, a few others to face before year’s end. All gravy, really.

Deciding to try and do hardway when even the slightest blade job to allow the other stuff shots to really get it flowing seeing shortsighted.

It worked, but there were unforced errors all over the place. Cena didn’t need to make that face that will absolutely become a meme at some point. Cole didn’t know how to respond to the moment; he was supposed to express shock, but missed the Rolex cue, didn’t rise up to meet the moment before going into the ring afterwards…for such a big moment, especially with how he called Cody’s title win and this (assumedly) needed to be the inverse of it. And Travis Scott being there just was a non-factor; he’s a big star, yeah, but also, he added nothing outside of an entrance and was comical in the beat down. Also, if you’re gonna do blood in THAT moment, really go for it. Lot to be desired here.

When I was first getting into contemporary Japanese wrestling in the early 2000s, I loved Nishimura. His match with Akiyama in 2003 G-1 is a personal favorite of mine, and the 2002 tag title match where he went bootless and full MUGA is still one of the coolest things I ever saw. If I recall, this was his second battle with cancer. Incredibly sad to see him pass so young. He’ll be missed.

I cringed at how Orange took the Raging Fire. Just dumped right on the shoulder. They are definitely figuring things out and I hope folks show up to TV more because of it. I imagine tickets are moving for Revolution, but feel like they have momentum going for the first time in a while. Sucks I’ll miss Collision in Oakland on Saturday.

Penta is essentially in a holding pattern until they figure out Fenix coming in; Ricky taking the money is good, but also, yeah, he isn’t gonna be a big player on the main roster.

Also, Kenny. Pick a theme already, man. The new one probably ain’t working, it’s okay to shelve it.

Yeah, that’s overbooking to a T. An unforced error if there ever was one. I’m glad they’re going back to Phoenix because that crowd ate it up last night. Not everything hit, but the things they did were big. I think in addition to the overbooking, there’s a tone problem up and down. It’s one thing to be able to eat things up a la carte, but watching it within the flow of a show, there were a few times where things just did not feel impactful because of pacing, production choices, etc. It’s not a new phenomenon, either, so I’m curious as to what they’re looking at when trying to put the show together and figuring how things should be ordered.

Bahahahahaha. Who Dat indeed.

Toni is going over given May beat Toni in London. Harley winning isn’t necessary right now.

Ellering had the master of The Last Battle of Atlanta, which had long been sought after in full and he agreed to terms with WWE to release it. Around the same time it got released to the public was when the AoT was given their initial push with him as manager.

Ellering literally took a single tape from his collection and turned it into years of employment way past his expiration date, which is an amazing play on his part.

Yeah, seeing him celebrate with his kids was awesome. Crowd absolutely lost it for him. Felt like the old days a bit. Great start to the year for them. Hope they can keep it up.

This channel is gonna be the default home for old shows going forward. I don’t think they’ll ever just dump the library but they’ll continue trickling things out.

It’s wild people don’t understand Okada is working this way because he’s beat up to hell and is trying to essentially preserve himself for the big matches. It’s not a secret or anything. He gets to work like this and save some wear and tear and collect the biggest paycheck of his career (allegedly). Dude is damn near 40 and worked a hellacious style on top for over a decade. They’ll get to All In and he’ll get 30 with Kenny and they’ll turn back the clock for a night, but dude saying “bitch” and getting as big a pop as anything he does in the ring tells you everything.

When you have a good heel stable? You’re only as good as the folks you put across from them to be compelling. OC had cache, but he kinda got stomped out a bit. They’re saving Darby to be the guy at All In more than likely, but in the meantime, the folks thrown at Mox aren’t gonna make you think they have a shot. They put BRYAN DANIELSON out to pasture with a bad neck in a truly sick fashion, and with him being younger than Copeland, too. You’re running a poor facsimile of that now. Building up old fools who are desperate to not retire yet. JJ being in the shadows, too And while there’s a clamoring for Kenny/Will/Hangman to have the belt, there’s diminishing returns there across the board. Hangman at least is fleshing out, but Kenny probably can’t run a champions schedule and while I know Will is loved around here, he has one style and one style only and that can get old quick. MJF fell into his old traps and didn’t evolve when he needed to, and now he’s middling at best and no longer compelling. Will’s work is one thing, but the house style has led to this downturn where you can’t just keep running that out forever. Then nothing has a chance to stand out. There’s a middle ground but I’m not sure where that is given there’s such a stratification of talent now.