MoS

Lol the wrestling fan in me sometimes still have to rub my eyes at the sight of Christian, famously average size for WWF, towering over everyone here. I have a feeling that those of you who don't like the Elite too much will be pleasantly surprised with Hangman. Even at the beginning, when Hangman was failing to get over as part of the faction, it was striking how differently he carried himself compared to the rest, although I wish he would give up his shitty moonsault that never looks good and is certainly fucking up his knees. He is also certainly not someone who can be accused of being too nudge nudge wink wink, taking the piss out of wrestling performer. The entire reason he got over is because there is probably a lot of truth to his character.

I love Steveson (as a wrestler) but he has shown no indication that he has a bigger personality than Angle. His interviews and on-camera appearances point to the opposite. I don't think that's a bad thing though. As mentioned, Angle's blessing and curse was that he had so much personality and charisma and was so good at WWF Sports Entertainment.

Last match was good. Hope Starks is okay, he seemed genuinely knocked out. He should be the guy who dethrones Sammy Guevara as champ, he is ready.

Lucha Bros v. Acclaimed really overdelivered as a fun spotfest. Fenix is absolutely incredible.

Thought Punk v. Garcia was the best match Punk has had since his return. Garcia is the real deal. Count me in as not feeling Rush's new gimmick either. That entire segment reminded me so much of bad scripted WWE segments, not good.

Catching up on this now. The crowd seems much hotter than the NYC crowd was, which helps a lot. I know they really want Rampage to be an A show, but the tired crowd makes it tough.

I honestly hope it's a sign of Henry being extremely non-confrontational and just going along with what Bully was saying. Henry never expresses an opinion of his own ever. He was also someone I thought had stood up to backstage people, although that was for racism and not run-of-the-mill bullying. As for his eye for talent, Braun Strowman was over lol like mega bucks before they made him tag team champions with an actual child. He has also scouted Bianca Belair and a lot of excellent African-American talents for WWE, something I am sure Tony Khan wants him to do for AEW. If he believes this shit he says, then not a good look at all, yeah. AEW's biggest strength is its locker room. Every wrestler who comes from WWE to AEW say they are blown away by how nice and friendly everyone is backstage, how there is a real sense of fraternity. There's absolutely no way that should be ever compromised. We don't need dumbass hazers who are insecure about their own talents and positions and who bully and mock others to feel better about themselves. We don't need dumb old-timers enabling that shit either. I think Joey Styles sucks as a commentator and a person, but he will forever have my respect for knocking out Bradshaw cold with one punch.

It's a bit difficult to call Jorge Masvidal an MMA nobody when he is the only one involved in wrestling right now who has consistently drawn 700,000 PPV buys. The real question is whether this angle is actually getting AEW new fans from that fanbase. I haven't seen any chatter on MMA news sites about this angle so far. JDS certainly never drew a million PPV buys, was never a particularly good draw, although better than Cain, and his prime was more than a decade ago, so him making his wrestling debut is not going to draw any kind of buzz. Paige drew big ratings for Fox a couple of times but that was a long time ago, and I haven't seen her BKFC numbers but they were certainly not cracking any ratings charts. Andre Arlowski, as much as I love him, is a complete non-entity as a draw. I am guessing they are hoping UFC let Masvidal wrestle at the PPV or something, cuz that done right could be a major draw. But it only really works if Masvidal agrees to do a job, and even if he is cool with it, why on Earth would Dana White let that happen?

Currently imagining Kane coming out in a Tennessee sports jersey doing the D..D..S sign

It's not about Hangman not being over, it's about him looking like a paper champ in secondary feuds when the other angle's hook literally is "Here are two GOAT contenders and best in the world fighting to see who is better."

I caught up with the rest of the show. The botch in the opener 8-man was fine cuz it was the heels who fucked up the power spot, but the match itself was meh I thought. There were a few rough spots and the Elite when allowed to team up and run unrestrained can get too spotty. But they made Jungle Boy look like a million bucks. They are very very high on him. Arn is awesome but I cannot wait until this Cody thing reaches its culmination. This entire story is so boring to me until he turns.

It doesn't need the belt but it can be argued the belt needs the feud. Wouldn't Hangman and his title programs be overshadowed if Danielson-Omega is happening? I actually am not sure cuz one thing is clear: Hangman is over like a God in front of AEW crowds. He is a level beyond everyone else, and I include Punk in that category. It's more in the sense that booking-wise, he and his programs might come off secondary to two GOATs fighting for the GOAT title.

So, how do AEW book Omega-Page when the Omega-Danielson program is still pending? It feels like it's too soon to take the title off Omega since he has so many opponents, but getting Hangman beaten again and again will take the edge off his win and drawing power imo, as has always happened in American wrestling. He has lost to Omega once, and then he and Dark Order lost clean a match for the title shot opportunity after they had started the angle of Page being the guy who cannot win the big one and doesn't believe he can win the big one. I mean really, it goes back even further than than, to the time he lost to Jericho 2 years ago at All Out. His entire arc since has been about someone who is insecure about being good enough to win the top belt. There are only so many times you can break hearts with the top guy losing, until the fans lose that connection and the eventual run doesn't mean much. Do you want the Hangman to be Tommy Dreamer, or do you want to him to be Cena/Rock/Austin? Cuz Dreamer might have been the heart and soul of ECW, but he sure as hell never was the ace. Not when ECW was actually doing well at least. At the same time, this Omega-Danielson program is so good and enticing, and I badly want it to continue. I don't want it to get blown off on TV before the PPV either; the rematch imo should be a 60-min title match with zero commercial breaks. There's also the possible Omega-Punk match, which has to be the last big match before Puk turns heel - and he absolutely is turning heels. You have so many hot programs left with Omega. It's funny cuz the first several months of his reign, he was just fucking around in interminably boring segments with Callis, pretending that hitting Jon Moxley with a microphone was amongst the top 10 worst things to happen in wrestling history, cutting lame, insufferable promos about the forbidden door and his cunning and how everyone was a part of a catastrophic plan, designed and directed by his stupid invisible hand, none of which ended up leading to nothing except the fucking Good Brothers (I know the NJPW guys started coming later to Dynamite, but by that time it had absolutely nothing to do with Omega and Callis, it was about Mox, really), taking about weird conspiracies, just being a turnoff. And now, he has a host of great opponents, he has been easily doing the best AEW work of his career for a while now, and Adam Cole keeps making the Good Brothers look like chumps, which has significantly improved the situation. There are multiple dream matches, opponents, angles and feuds for him to work with. He also said recently that he got some stem cell therapy - I think - and thus is feeling the best he has physically in a while. That explains the improvement in the quality of his recent matches too, apart from having better opponents and with better booking now. It now feels way too soon to take the title off him imo. AEW I feel have booked themselves in a weird place by bringing back Page right in the middle of Omega-Danielson. It will be genuinely hilarious though if yet another young babyface's coronation gets affected cuz somehow Danielson finds himself in the way lol

Well I guess this was expected, but I am with @El-P I wouldn't have had Hangman's return be the Joker in a multi-man ladder matches. Future Kings don't return as Jokers. His return should have been his own thing, and I actually wouldn't even have brought him back until Omega beat Danielson. It's also sort of killed the match, cuz now the crowd doesn't care about anyone other than Hangman and nothing in the match that is not Hangman winning is capturing their interest.

Why does Andrade come out in a dorky mask, like the world's worst tribute to Vader

Never been a fan of these special AEW ladder matches, they are a cool idea in theory, but they never seem to work out. Hopefully this bucks the trend.

What happened was even better. Yo, Coach Tony K, since you clearly read PWO, please can you book Darby v. MJF to be a Texas Death Match.

I love Deeb so much. There are very few wrestlers today who make an active effort to be booed when they work heel, and she is one of them.

So Serena can hold it up scornfully when she beats Shida ofc, like a true heel

I mean obviously they will not give away the match tonight out of nowhere? They obviously have to build it somewhat. They have invested heavily in Black and see a lot of potential in Martin, they want the match to be more than a random squash.

I woke up to Nick Comoroto beating up Darby. That was good. Saw the botched Luchasaurus spot. It was funny. Botches don't bother me unless it disrupts the flow of the match, and they used this botch really well. Nice to see Dante Martin getting some mic time. Black v. Martin will bang hard.

It's the 2-year anniversary of Dynamite!! This promotion looks and feels so different from 2 years ago, even with most of the featured wrestlers then still being featured now.

I don't think that article implied otherwise tbh. The headline was clickbait yeah, but it basically said that the EVPs basically lost their booking power last year and now TK runs creative. From all indications, TK took over all booking after that year-end Dark order angle was a giant flop, so probably beginning of last year. I don't know how much the EVPs and Jericho were flat-out booking their own angles then, that has never been fully explained, but yeah it has been Tony Khan's ship for a while. Meltz said the Elite and Jericho/Moxley and now Punk/Danielson tell him what their long-term wishes are for their booking, and he encourages that, but ultimately all decisions are his. That still doesn't explain why he looked shocked like he had seen a ghost in the backstage reaction to Cody's Rah Rah America promo. If he gave Cody the end-point of that promo, which was to set up a US v. UK feud with Ogogo, like what was he expecting.

I would also recommend the MSG cage match against Koloff from 15 December 1975. This is the culmination of basically 5 years of a blood feud, and it's pretty much all Bruno on offence, but I love the fire and the emotion that comes out. Bruno's connection with the WWWF crowds was unreal, it's amazing to see those unmic'd crowds with primitive production making so much noise, especially from a modern perspective with no stage or tron or music.

Coach Tony K is clearly a far better wrestling promoter than he is a futbol or NFL owner, so maybe he should get some actual EVPs to run the legit sports while he obsesses over the exact time Hangman Page should beat Kenny Omega