WingedEagle

This. All of this. Its mind boggling to think about how much time and energy are invested in COPE!~!, Jeff Jarrett, Christian, Jericho (at this stage) and other similar imports. Combine with that start and stop focus on acts like Hook (who's yet to prove he deserves any greater role, while also very much a chicken & egg situation of how the lack of consistent work has contributed to his stagnation). I'll even add Danielson & Sting to that crew given how their writeoffs were utilized. Near perfect moments and build, but how did they help the company the day after? Capping Okada as a comedy heel? What are we even doing here? There are undoubtedly complications, wrinkles and backstage conflicts that make this harder than we make it look on paper, but its not *that* hard. Build and push relatively fresh acts. Let them crush it in the ring. Use the old folks to build and supplement the card. Get a babyface or 2 (Hi, Will Ospreay) over as the face of the company.

Was my drink at dinner that strong or was Ripley/Jax really freaking terrific? A great, power sprint that felt like the blueprint for a BJW women's division. Did they watch Sekimoto/Cobb yesterday?

I thought this was an unmemorable, good match when I watched the Texas set. *** 1/2 in my book. Seeing Meltzer call this one of the 5 best matches he'd seen live up to that point in the '84 Observer makes me want to revisit it even if I can't see any way it registers on that level.

Does the Pillman family have evidence that Michaels killed Brian? Is there any other reason Lexis King is employed and used like this?

I guess I'm not the only one on that island as I also thought the match was great. Matches that long can be a major hit or miss but this one definitely hit. They did a great job with Umino getting more frustrated and growing in his aggression and almost embracing working as the heel. I'm not sure where he goes from here and wouldn't necessarily bet on him becoming a bigger deal than Tsuji or Oiwa despite the company seemingly looking to make that happen, but this felt like a very necessary and great step towards whatever his end game is.

He undoubtedly thinks the check cleared. As if Hogan is in the top dozen? 20? reasons to raise an eye at this company.

I was watching on MAX and actually flipped over to cable to doublecheck it because I was sure it had to be some kind of a streaming flub. It was certainly a choice.

I know he's fresh in AEW and has generally overdelivered in the ring, but Copeland *looks* old as hell at this point. I don't see how headlining with him for any length of time does the company much good. Would much rather see him killing himself against younger talent or working some real nostalgia and tagging with Christian. This ain't it.

It seemed like early chatter suggested Tam/Kamitani was underwhelming so I'm glad to see the match and Kamitani get their due praise. She's elevated herself as a performer and character while adjusting her look and already excellent work to perfectly suit the top heel role. Hopefully this isn't a transitional reign and she can get some reps on top before a run on top as a babyface. Between that and SLK's elevation it feels like they're serious about establishing some new and deserving faces at the top of the card. Hopefully AZM joins them soon enough as we're somehow approaching nearly a decade of her as an underrated and excellent worker. Maika/Natsuko was certainly bloody and a fun break from the company's typical style, although I wasn't the biggest fan as it was plagued by the same killing time between spots that such matches usually are. But kudos to Maika for bleeding so much for the cause. I was very surprised to see Tora get the win. I agree to some extent about Marigold's undercards. Early card action is often very skippable but given that a lot of the named filling the midcard were true unkowns to me at the start some of them have shown a lot of promise, particularly the crew that's been working around the tag titles (outside of Mirai).

Probably Okada's best singles match in AEW thus far. That's not a knock on the match or much of a stretch. I expected Ospreay to win but it makes sense with the post-match. Hopefully Okada is similarly motivated for big outings going forward.

I wish it hit that way for me but I thought it was a step down from their first match.

Ospreay vs. Fletcher was an absolutely phenomenal opener that blew away their match at Full Gear. Very much benefitted from the heat and finish from that show but I will take this over that every day. Hell of a start to this or any show.

This show absolutely rocks. Imagine if they regularly ran TV like this without all of the fat in between matches.

I just noticed the refs rocking the old school bowties and am loving it. So many great callbacks. This is how you utilize history.

I absolutely loved how Bruiser sold the sleeper in the second fall. It was a quick fall but he went out of his way to sell and put over Gagne.

Apparently I'm the only one who really enjoyed the women's Wargames. it was a ton of fun with big bumps and never felt remotely slow. Leagues ahead of the men through 4 entrances which I didn't anticipate but these guys are clearly going long and presumably building to a big angle at the end.

Takeshita/Ricochet was good but perhaps the most disappointing match of the night relative to talent and expectations. It was worked like a Raw main event with a clean finish.

Arguably the Omega rematch to some extent? But this match is finally killing it to no surprise. I liked White/Page as well but preferred their outing at WrestleDream.

Is it just me or does this crowd seem awfully tepid? Page/White feels a few steps behind their last match.

With Takeshita vs. Shingo its likely neither, but rather much needed depth. I'm sure the main event will deliver but Shingo and this are the two I'm most looking forward to thus far. Naito/Hiromu won't change that if its the direction they go.

Couldn't they also shoehorn Cody into the match? If the KO defense is at SNME it would leave Cody without a match at Survivor Series and I can't imagine that happening.

Hardly throwing shade. He acknowledged what Dutch said about certain individuals who despite those comments made generous donations to Dutch. He didn't even touch on the things that Dutch has said and viewpoints he's espoused, or the hypocrisy associated with someone who's spoken that way looking for handouts. In fact, its quite likely that Dave and others have been all too light on Dutch Mantell.

Call me a neanderthal. I thought this was very good but didn't rise to the levels discussed above at all. Stiff, intense and with real tension and struggle throughout. Perhaps I'm not well versed enough in or a big enough fan of the style, but I think what held this back to a very good, solid match as opposed to a MOTYC is that it too often felt like both workers and the match were moving at the same speed. Yes, with purpose and intensity. But very often a stalemate and too rarely changed gears with meaningful heat or control. A different kind of 50/50 than the sort that some folks knock today's TV for, but it didn't seem like there were extended runs here that built things in any grand fashion.

Watching live as a 16 year old this was literally like nothing I'd ever seen before. It ain't that now but is still a special match and memory. Gran Hamada remains one of the great, unsung heroes of the mat and this match rocked if falling well short of a MOTYC.