MoS

That dig at WWE might have been a little too on the nose but the crowd absolutely loved it so what do I know.

It is so nice to see top faces booked neither like quiet cowardly chumps nor like plucky but dumb goofs. And it's so nice to see the top heel getting outsmarted and showing ass once in a while. It's just basic wrestling booking but it feels so refreshing.

Hopefully this means Dark Order will quietly go away and then get repackaged.

I really do not like the AEW chants. They are not as corny as say, if fans started chanting WWE at WWE events, but it still doesn't come across well to me.

Is this a regular match or a hardcore match? Although I am guessing that even if it's the latter, due to being televised and on TV, they probably won't go overboard with the weapons.

Really hope they give Moxley and Cody some solid interview time. As good as Jericho has been, both Cody and Mox are great promos and we need some good fiery babyface promos - Mox is a face, right?

I was going to say that I definitely remember it being much better than Rollins's reigns but then that is an absurdly low bar to clear.

If I recall correctly, the relatively brief run Ambrose had with one of the world titles in WWE was quite good and pretty well-received. It's one reason I am intrigued to see if AEW run with babyface Mox as world champ and the guy down the line sometime, and how it would feel.

WWE's flagship shows, which by now have become American TV institutions - as they will remind you literally every chance they get - are doing 2-2.5 million viewers every week. This week, Raw had 2.2 millions, I think, and last SD was about 2.4 despite being on a big network. The fact that AEW has got 1 million plus viewers on TV for three weeks - and today, there are plenty of avenues to get over your characters and sell your matches online as well - is honestly extremely impressive, in my opinion. I was certainly not expecting them to be able to do this. Last time a non-WWE company was regularly getting one million plus viewers was TNA in early 2010s, I think, and that was when WWE was getting, what, 5 million viewers on average for their shows?

I think Alicia Fox would be a great addition to the AEW roster. Riho doesn't have a last name or a stable/tag team helping her character get over, unlike Spike Dudley. And while crowds have been hot in general, there are definitely peaks and troughs and some acts don't get as big a reaction as others. In both singles matches she has had on Dynamite, the crowd has been mild, quietly appreciative early on, but by the end has been completely sucked in, with huge reactions to all the near falls, Riho's bursts of offence, and ultimately victory. I wish Awesome Kong was younger and not semi-retired. It would have been awesome to watch her destroy fools left right and centre as the women's champ.

https://www.cagesideseats.com/wwe/2019/10/17/20918968/aew-nxt-ratings-viewership-oct-16-2019-wednesday-night-war 1.014 million for AEW; 712k for nxt. AEW seems to be approaching a steady state number of 1 million, which has to be greatly exceeding expectations of even one month back. Given how ratings for everything across the spectrum is declining, one million seems a solid number to build a promotion and get wrestlers over as stars and hot acts, thus selling tickets and drawing money and people in the long run. The ratings war is definitely not close. NXT is in a freefall and is getting murdered in the key demographic. I wonder if Vince will start interfering with nXt more and more.

At the risk of opening a can of worms, it's interesting to think, given his late career revival and I guess "post-prime" run, where he ranks amongst those regarded as all time great wrestlers like Shawn Michaels and Undertaker.

I'm also interested to see where Mox fits in the larger main event scene. They have done a much better job of building PAC as a star than I had expected. Page is not working at the main event level though. He can be Hager's first victory in a match.

How many people think Jericho right now is genuinely the best he has ever been? Because I absolutely do. I still think they should pull the trigger on Cody at Full Gear though. The fans are molten for him.

Jim Cornette has opinions on this match as well -

The crowd did not really care for anything Baker did, but they were hot for Riho and it was a fun match. The right person won; I was scared they were making Baker the champ. The commentary of the show is so refreshing and delightfully different than what we see on WWE shows. They are not perfect by any means but they are east and not grating to listen to throughout the show, and I cannot say that about WWE main roster commentary. Thank fuck I don't have to listen to stupid bickering on commentary.

Britt is just not as over as they want her to be. As much as it might enrage Cornette and some others, it's great just how over Riho is becoming to the crowds through her matches.

I've really liked the pacing of the show so far.

They need to give Mox some solid interview time soon, in the ring with Tony. Perhaps at the start of the 2nd hour. I think he'll absolutely ace it. His promos since leaving WWE have been excellent.

This made me laugh. Dave does have a sense of self-awareness and his dry humour can be funny

Of course Jeff's wife is a "paranormal enthusiast".

Nyla Rose is green, but I feel she has a lot of potential and she can be everything WWE wishes Nia Jax was.

I am not watching, but I saw this tweet. Nintendologic recently made a point about WWE wrestlers being more like performance artists who are glad and honoured to be in WWE, and this tweet really illustrates that. WWE actively inculcates and expects that attitude from its wrestlers and even its fans, really. Sasha is one of the top heels in the company and was in the hottest match of the night at their most recent PPV. Forget about the glory days, can you imagine, from, like, 2002-2011 (Post-Attitude/Cena era), top faces and heels like Cena, Triple H, Orton, Taker, etc thanking Vince McMahon, WWE and the network for drafting them to their brand? When did WWE fully enter this gratitude era?

Orange Cassidy in 5 seconds seemed a bigger star than so many extremely talented WWE rookies. Now I want to see an AEW-booked Dream.

Retaining more than 1.1 million viewers is excellent for AEW. And they had a much better show than last week's to boot.