WingedEagle

That was a great Rumble. A bit of a lull in the middle, as expected, but it was never dull and the finishing run with Cody and Gunther was great.

Logal Paul is clearly good enough in the ring that I'm not disappointed by him as a surprise, but I'm not sure what he can do here that's all that interesting.

She has absolutely made him acceptable.

Brock vs. Lashley is a Mania match I can get behind. Two dudes that can go and hit hard but yet I'm not really keen on seeing in anything more prominent. Fingers crossed that Gunther gets the run of runs before being tossed and is properly positioned as an important dude. Will happily accept him vs. Sheamus at Mania but I'd like to see him have the opportunity to work higher on the card.

Are there any realistic winners of the women's Rumble? It doesn't seem like anyone other than Bianca, Charlotte & Becky have gotten any kind of a push of late and I don't see them having Becky win again or pairing off the two champions. Ripley could be given a rocket pack but she's hardly been pushed against the women at all of late. Very odd situation.

Mark/Lethal and the post-match were incredible. A fitting tribute that hopefully gave everyone involved the opportunity to honor a friend and colleague. I was 18 when Owen hart died and 25 for Eddy. A bit older for the Benoit tragedy but still immature. I'm now somewhat of an adult as well as a parent, both of which undoubtedly made this death hit me a lot harder than anything comparable. Just an awful tragedy compounded by the loss's impact on such a large and seemingly wonderful family. Be grateful for everything and everyone you have.

The upside to Kross and Bray is if I start TV late I can always count on fast forwarding through their segments to finish the show on time. No surprise that Gunther gave Braun his best match since the original Roman feud.

AEW isn't gun-shy about presenting big matches on TV, but Elite/Death Triangle Game 7, Mox/Page and Dragon/Takeshita is legitimately a mini PPV and I am beyond pumped to see all of it. We'll see where the women's tag goes and like El-P am not expecting a big debut or surprise, but hopefully some progression towards the next big matches in the division.

Will Ospreay and pretty easily so for my money. Plenty of high level years elsewhere between Danielson, Okada, Shingo, Takeshita and a host of others but no one pumping out nearly as many great matches as Ospreay did throughout the year.

Any early have their 2023 MOTYC sheets up yet?

Forgetting the post-match and title change, I thought Ronda vs. Raquel was pretty damn terrific and one of the company's best TV matches this year.

I'd never want to call into question Mr. Levesque's iconogropy or general artistic/cultural tastes, but Hit Row would seem to check a box.

Forget about the botch and everyone enjoying that online. Top Dolla may be the worst wrestler I've ever seen, or at least in some time. Nonsense like Bray, Howdy Doody, even Kane & Katie Vick are embarrassing to actual civilized adults but at least its some version of pro wrestling nonsense. This guy is so awful at everything he does, from approaching and entering the ring to moving around and pretending to fake fight. I could in theory explain most wrestlecrap as the nonsense we put up with in between the good stuff, but this guy is just so unprofessionally bad. He's where I imagine backyard feds would draw the line and say they only work with serious professionals. Two left feet doesn't even begin to do him justice. Perhaps two left feet on on mismatched legs and a missing chromosome? Good grief.

Perhaps a victim of 24 hours worth of expectations setting a high bar, but my initial reaction is that the Dog Collar outing was my least favorite of this series. Still a great, great match at ****1/2 with great blood, violence and and fun, original spots we hadn't seen from them before, but it didn't have the the ebbs and flows of the 2/3 falls outing or the dream match vibes of the original. We're splitting hairs but I was expecting to be blown away in a fashion that just didn't materialize.

I think you're leaving out their 5* GP matches, but yeah, great stuff from them over the last year and a half.

Pete Dunne in a headlining position on a PPV is pretty cool, even if its a 10 man match.

The last few years have really done a number on me as I'm clearly tuning out the commentary since I have no recollection of anything mentioned ever mentioned here.

Pounding that like button.

Solid but unspectacular opener that kept my attention for the duration. Not sure it'd fare as well watching on delay or rewatch but it was a good match.

It needs blood but is active enough with enough bumping and fun spots on that I'm satisfied.

Thoughts and prayers. That $4.99/month remains my only contribution to the insurrectionists.

So is it War Games or WarGames? All chyrons seem to suggest 2 words, while the Peacock program says 1. What's the final ruling?

Including this weekend KAIRI has worked 7 matches this year. Those are also the only 7 matches she's worked since July 2020. Pretty incredible to come back at that level with little to no rust, with this weekend's matches very much the highlight.

Perhaps we want to pump the brakes on UFC's righteousness. They covid concerns and have openly courted this country's former president like some kind of saint. They just have a different read on what's #bestforbusiness.