Migs

They're way beyond a four hour pace. It's 11pm and they have three matches after this one (which hasn't finished yet).

There's no way this show finishes before midnight, right?

I heard this and found it confusing. Is anyone really flipping to the show after the game just for the main event?

That was the closest they've gotten to doing a proper PWG six-man on PPV, which is crazy when this is the same company that employs the Bucks.

I agree. I think they'd peaked that feud for All Out, and it was just a bit past it when they finally got to Full Gear. Moreover, I think it really would have helped Page to already be the guy when Danielson and Cole showed up. Those guys produced so much forward momentum that it's left Page still catching up a bit (especially after the Danielson matches). It also hasn't helped him that the builds for these last two big feuds have been kinda mushy. It feels like if he lost the belt it would give him more space for an actual character arc again.

I actually think they need more short reigns. It's actively hurting the titles in a sense, because the early defenses are so obviously not leading to title changes. They've broken the pattern a little bit with the TNT, but there's really not a problem with breaking up long title reigns with some transitional ones.

Could also be that they go with Statlander and give her the push out of winning the Owen and finally beating Britt.

That match has happened on the indies and did indeed slap. Would probably be better now with both guys having a few more years experience. King works nicely in such a role too, because he's a good solo worker who's really excellent as the power guy in six man tags. So he can be built up, do a job, then rebuild himself being the cool badass in trios matches.

I'm not really sure Meji was the answer either. His inflexibility on working with AEW was likely putting NJ in an even worse position. Ultimately, I think the way they've dealt with COVID stuff has crushed them; they have been so dependent on outsiders coming in to bolster the big shows, and without it, their strategy has seemingly just been volume and repetition.

Miz is a classic example of the swinging pendulum of opinion. Miz was terrible to start, and as a result was a bit underrated when he improved (both character work and in-ring). But of course, that got spun into "actually, Miz is great!" when he was merely better than conventional wisdom. The truth is in the middle - he's a serviceable worker with a character that has value, particularly in the modern-day WWE. I'm not sure MJF is a ton better than him as a worker on the whole, but MJF certainly has a higher upside and has continued to improve. MJF has a ceiling unless he can demonstrate consistently that he can deliver a main event match, but he also has time to get there (I think he may have a similar trajectory to Jay White in that regard, where it takes him some time to really pull the heel work into the big match without it hindering the overall quality).

Conrad using the name JCP for one-offs is really all he needs. He can pop a number for conventions without ever trying to do more than that.

Weirdly, Lawler on commentary bothered me the most. I take the Memphis stuff like the Hawaii stuff in that it's all very roughly accurate for the Rock's story but timelines and details are being manipulated to condense the story down to a sitcom, but seeing Lawler not even get to be a wrestler in 80s Memphis felt like a real missed opportunity.

Yeah, having not watched anything since the Raw after Mania, I was surprised at how over Cody was and how he just totally fit in. Now, we can probably spend a full thread analyzing why he got to where he did in AEW, but it's hard to argue this wasn't the right call for him given his options.

Yes, someone please book her vs. Aries.

With NJPW opening back up, honestly probably a fine time for Archer to go back there. He can always pop up in AEW once or twice a year as a monster, which at times has felt like his role on the AEW roster as is.

They have clearly decided it's time to pay this thing off after six months. Not sure why it took so long. https://www.f4wonline.com/news/aew/varsity-blonds-to-call-out-house-of-black-on-aew-dynamite

They've actually made a big deal in the past of him watching it for his podcast with Conrad, so he has seen it. Maybe just a blunder.

There's also the weird thing where Dave said they were recognizing a lot of the expenses for the game when paid, as opposed to when the game was released, which is not standard accounting practice. Which means the game will significantly boost profits in the year of release, but only because it decreased profits last year.

Meltz's reporting does not suggest that it's a WWE show. He said the format is likely to be similar to Table for 3, with people from the territory swapping stories. Interesting to me that the show is still for Vice, so they clearly were interested in more pro wrestling content.

I don't listen to any wrestling podcasts regularly at this point (the last one was Colt's Wrestling Anonymous, and it is at least still in my podcast feed), but Oliver/Nash would get my attention.

Okada-Omega?

Really liked Gresham-Castle, hope that earned Dalton an AEW role.

I actually thought this was a clever little bit of planning - the goal was to get the title on Joe (since he seems like he's winding down and ROH might be a better spot for him), but him beating Titus would have been worth nothing. So they got the pop of the Suzuki win, set up a dream match with at least slightly extra stakes, delivered it and got to their destination.