sek69

JR calling the Cody-Dustin match was legitimately fantastic and was probably his best non WWF moment IMO. I think the biggest issue is too much of what AEW does is so out of his wheelhouse and he struggles to keep up/adapt. It almost seems mean to expect 2020 JR to be able to call a PWG style match with people flying everywhere, but that's the position he's put in. Ironically having Tony around seems to expose him more, having a guy from the same era (more or less) who's clearly overjoyed to be calling what he's seeing and having the time of his life doing it just makes it that more apparent JR is out of place. Right now he's probably the 5th best guy they have after Tony, Excalibur, Taz, and Jericho when it comes to calling matches but right now moving him off commentary would make the company look like big meanies in the eyes of a lot of folks who still have an idealized version of him in their minds.

It's weird, most of us are on the same page about JR: he's lost his fastball, other combinations of announcers would be better, etc. Yet I see a lot of casual and/or lapsed fans loving the fact that JR is back calling wrestling again and apparently having him was a big get for the TNT execs as well. Plus I would imagine it's still a bucket list item for wrestlers to have him call one of their matches. I know top level guys were still trying to lobby for JR late in his WWE career when he was barely allowed near a mic anymore. It's like an Emperor's New Clothes deal where it seems like we're the only ones who see it for what it is and everyone else is still pretending it's 1997.

The contract runs to the end of October, and WWE has the right to extend it if they want afterwards. As stated before the primary tenants are the Magic and they won't be using it anytime soon, and I don't see any other shows running until 2021 at the soonest so I would expect them sticking around for the near future.

It wasn't a great first impression, what happened on Payback doesn't change that. In fact, they should have had him come out on Raw and do this exact same thing against someone else and it would have been a much better debut. But yes, this was a much better second step.

By the time Sasha and Bayley had their famous matches, they would have worked together enough times they already had their match down pat. Most of the time spent in the PC (other than the infamous football camp drills) was them working over the same spots until they were drilled into their brain. The Observer after nearly NXT back then would have notes on how all the top matches were worked out and practiced before hand (women and men both to be fair) which is why all the early Takeovers were so top notch. Part of what they wanted to do was change the expectation of women's matches from the 3 minute quickies they were doing on the main roster at the time. They wanted to make sure all the women at that time could put on high quality matches, and to do that everything was practiced beforehand.

So I don't know if anyone saw it, but they did a piece on Strowman for the Network where he talked about his mental issues and how it got to the point he was feeling suicidal until he talked to Vince. It was supposed to be a heartwarming tale of him getting his mental health under control, but it came off as a company run like a cult where everyone lives and dies on the approval of Daddy Vince. It honestly reminded me of when they show people in North Korea giving praise/praying to images of the Kim family as if they were Gods. People like to do what-ifs in terms of who will run WWE when Vince isn't around, I'm wondering what will happen to the cult when the leader isn't around.

The women's tag match was well worked by all parties. Shanya as the one person wrecking machine to the point even Nia was like "wtf just happened?" was the perfect way to end the match. Shayna came off as the badass to end all by choking out a motherfucker with another motherfucker, and Nia got to show some likability during their celebration. Plus it sowed seeds for the eventual Bayley/Sasha breakup so well done all around.

Why is the ref still in the ring when the guys are fighting on the stage?

They remembered Alexa exists this week.

Will they change up Roman's entrance/look for his heel turn?

Nice to see Dom honoring both his dads with the 619/Frog Splash combo.

I've said it before, but Randy Orton is the wrestling equivalent of the guy in real sports who racks up a lot of stats because he was around for a long time and people use that to argue they're a Hall of Famer.

Keith Lee with the Wakanda gear tonight.

Nia marking out for winning the belts was precious.

I love that it looks like they tried to give Shayna the Ronda Batwings around her eyes but just smeared it until she looked like a raccoon.

Also Riddle's gear really accentuates the idea that pro wrestling is dudes fighting in their underwear.

Corbin is so great at so many aspects of wrestling, yet he has never had a match that I give two shits about. It really is amazing.

Oh no.....WWE acknowledging Mat Riddle has "problems at home"

Yeah, JBL: Champion of Black Wrestlers is a weird and unexpected turn.

BOB DA GAWD wins back the US title!

IIconics match wasn't bad, they are much better in ring than they used to be. Liv out there being the dumbest babyface in the history of dumb babyfaces tho.

Interesting, they played part of the Big E/Miz exchange from Talking Smack on the Kickoff show, albeit with as little of the racial context as possible. Basically just with the suggestion that Miz felt E needs to be more serious to be a main eventer and E said being who he is got him this far and he won't change now. The surprising part is Booker T agreed with Miz and JBL and Rosenberg agreed with E. How can Booker honestly believe Big E would need to change what he does to be a main eventer when (as JBL immediately pointed out) he was doing Spinaroonies while being world champion. Booker made himself look like a boot licking clown there.

Yes, like how they just so happened to put the Evolve 10th Anniversary show up against the charity show AEW was doing. Completely coincidental according to Papa H.

Plus no one is buying WWE shows as PPVs, only as Network subs these days. (Yes I realize there are a small amount of people who actually do buy WWE shows on PPV, but statistically it's too small of a number to matter anymore).

The Thunderdome seems to have buoyed the ratings back up to somewhat respectable levels again now that Raw and Smackdown kinda look like actual WWE shows rather than bunch of matches in a gym somewhere. As far as ratings bumps go, audiences have been trained to watch the Raw after one of the Big 4 shows as WWE usually kicks off new programs then. It was kind of interesting to see that still happen even in the Pandemic Era, but I suppose that just goes to show fans realize WWE is so ingrained in how they do things it would still be worth tuning in for.