MoS

Okay BRILLIANTLY done Mark Henry

HAHAHAHAA I love Eddie Kingston so much

Riho lifts every match she is in. Britt-Haytor has been built well but man that match will be ROUGH

HAHAHAHA perfect use of QT

HOOK might be an ironic meme wrestler, but he is unironically over with the live crowds, and he genuinely has potential. He needs to throw better punches though, his striking looks like Ronda Rousey's in MMA

lol "due to covid medical protocol" just either say he has covid or say he got exposed to someone who has covid lol. Also, they knew this yesterday (my time at least) but waited until the show to announce the replacement match? That's bullshit. It's something we would criticise WWE for, they could've easily announced this with the announcement about the card change.

Fuck man, of all the moves he did in the match, he got injured on a basic springboard into a kick bump. Wrestling really fucks you over on the most elementary of moves.

Guessing Punk v. MJF at the PPV along with Hangman-Cole? Hangman-Cole is a bold choice to main event a PPV given neither of the two were in the national spotlight until essentially a few months ago, but I like that AEW back their young wrestlers. Atlas is actually looking really good, pity he got injured. Really hope it's not serious. Funnily enough, he is actually big for the AEW roster, although that might be because Adam Cole has no definition

I've realized that one of the biggest appeals of watching AEW for me is the feeling that everyone involved is having fun and a good time. I think it's fairly obvious that MJF will be the one to dethrone Hangman, the question is when. They already have a pre-existing rivalry, MJF beat him for the first Dynamite diamond ring

You need a subscription and a VPN if you wish to watch it legally, unfortunately

Speaking of Dave and Shibata, I know this is just Dave being a poor writer and needing editing, and he doesn't actually mean it literally, but good lord that image made me laugh so hard

That's really stupid of him then, I mean he covered Inokiism in real time, as well as all the 80s NJPW scandals

Just from the way it was shot and presented, I very much doubt it was a shoot, at least a complete shoot. Especially given this is New Japan. This promotion was built on this shit. Hell it nearly died due to this shit. I am very surprised Dave seems to have bought the "Shibata went into the business for himself" line without any skepticism. He has been in and around the business for so long, surely his bullshit detector should go off?

Because I am a complete nerd, I went back and rewatched the world title match and it is a stone cold classic. I recommend all Americans (and Canadians?) to watch the international Fite feed of the match. It is entirely uninterrupted, the crowd is hot, the commentators are great. As a bonus for us nerds, during one of the commercials, when Hangman wipes Dragon's blood on his chest, Tony Schiavone references the Lynn-Corino Heatwave match, just going "Haha, Jerry Lynn knows all about that!!" Just the best pro wrestling match to start your new year.

Are "squarehead" and "pinhead" like some TV references or something? Cuz not only was the entire thing extremely unfunny, but it also made zero sense. The chef's kiss of cringe was one of the commentators making the most forced, contrived laughing sound you will ever hear.

The quarter numbers for the TBS title match are hugely impressive, especially in the key demo. People are worried about Jade not being able to have good long matches and being mechanically unsound, but she is clearly a star, and stars deserve some special treatment. Their mechanics and sloppiness can be forgiven or at least ignored. This was absolutely the right booking decision imo.

Now Gabe can yell at Joe too, really completes the box set

It was just a matter of time I would think

Even better than the demo number are the numbers for 18-34 and female viewers, particularly F18-34 AND F12-34. A part of that is of course Dynamite returning to prime time in the pacific and central time zones, and Big Bang Theory reruns presumably giving a stronger lead-in with female viewers than the 500th airing of The Equalizer (I must have the credit scene memorized by now), but it still did the 4th highest P18-34 number in its entire history (including Rampage), the 2nd highest F18-49 viewers in its history, and also the 2nd highest ever in F12-34. That's hugely impressive. It's a great sign that the show is working with younger viewers and bringing more women into the fold. For all of its minor missteps and small weekly booking mistakes, the general trend is undeniably strong and very positive.

He came along when WWE bought EVOLVE but I'm not sure what his actual role behind the scenes was.

Holy fuck FINALLY. Like I was legit stunned how he was surviving all these cuts for so long. Maybe TK can hire him so he can yell at Punk and Bryan and Kingston and Homicide one more time, for old times' sake

Really great news. Now hopefully Jake Atlas's injury also turns out to be mild.

Yup, I realized this when I saw the quarter numbers of matches like Adam Cole v. Orange Cassidy and Jurassic Express v. Elite/Don-t-Call-Them-Undisputed-Era, matches which personally held no appeal to me and which also kind of bored the shit out of me when I watched them. But they did excellent quarter numbers, particularly in the demo, to the point where I would absolutely not be surprised if Adam Cole is the next challenger for the world title. If I were watching yesterday's show at a similar movie theater, it is entirely possible that the place would have been louder for the tag title match than the world title match, simply cuz in the former they attempted a lot crazier stuff, and until Fenix Sid'ing himself, were able to do said crazier stuff. The specific lightbulb moment for me was a spot where I think like all four of them including Luchasaurus, someone who outweighs everyone else in the match possibly combined, were on the top rope holding hands and then basically did a tumbling routine culminating in a crazy bump, and the fans went absolutely nuts for it, while I was just slightly bemused. This question of how to grow your fanbase while still properly servicing your existing fans is really at the heart of promoting. WCW ultimately went out of business because they just could not find a balance.

Yeah he posted with his arm, which while understandably instinctive, is also a rookie mistake. It's really unfortunate.

I believe it was one of those BritWres indies whose number Meltzer corrected from his initial reporting, from around 400 to like about 150, which is a significant revision.