Migs

Hope for him it's got a can't cut clause. If you're going to sell out for cash, they better at least pay you the cash.

Oh and hey, FTR! Pretty in for them against the Briscoes.

Skimming through the show now. Titus getting the TV title seems like the ultimate "let's put the belt on a guy that might be around in three months" move. At least a little curious about seeing what they do with the Purazzo angle. The stuff I liked most was sort of tribute-y - King and Taylor doing a fight without honor mimicing Steen-Generico or a bunch of other stuff in the past, or the series of call-backs in the Violence Unlimited match. Braun getting the pop he did is very Sid in ECW.

It does feel like there's space for one more good TV product. MLW runs a bit too on the cheap to build a lot of momentum, and ROH seems dead or close to it. It can't only be that below AEW in the US your option for a real contract is Impact.

I ended up watching Hiromu-Phantasmo tonight and liked it quite a bit, although again, not sure it's necessary unless you're a huge fan of one (I'm pretty high on Phantasmo).

But if you need to protect your back for the spot - why not wear a t-shirt? It's a street fight! Perfect excuse to dress like your Dad and wear knee pads over jeans! Has anyone swung from being where Cody was in 201-2019 to losing the plot so completely less than 2 years later?

Has anyone been watching BOSJ and World Tag League? Any recommendations? I've been cherry picking a few things and haven't found much to strongly recommend. I guess the Nagata/Tiger Mask-Suzuki/Taka main event was fun if you're into Suzuki and Nagata hitting each other hard, but even that didn't feel essential at all.

Because he's a great chain wrestler who trained in the UK and is a perfect opponent for Bryan and someone he has history with?

Someone was trying to talk me into going to this show, and finding out that with 6 matches they somehow managed to push this past 11 is making me real glad I skipped it.

Yeah, that seems like a pretty fun idea. Caught up a little on last week's shows - does anyone know the deal with Taka and Taichi? I understand Taka getting kicked out of NJPW because of infidelity, and the idea that by doing so he (in kayfabe) abandoned Suzuki-gun. But this seemed to go beyond that - like, was the infidelity with Taichi's girlfriend or something?

It's going to be very interesting to see the free agency of guys like White and Juice Robinson. If NXT isn't an option, they are going to be pretty significantly limited, other than maybe trying to negotiate a dual contract of some sort. I guess there's a chance they could go straight to the WWE main roster mid-card to freshen that up, but is that really an appealing offer for guys in their prime?

I like Janela a lot, but I think Janela played much better in the early phases of AEW when it was still essentially a super indy in arenas. He never quite translated once they got to TV, and he's very much been supplanted as the underdog darling by guys like Kingston. He seems like he'd ultimately be happier being the big fish indy guy (maybe with an Impact contract to supplement). I always make the Eddie Gilbert comparison with him, and that was also a guy who just fit much better on the fringes of wrestling than in the mainstream.

I think it's the last vestiges of this being essentially a super indy at the start. Everyone gets to do their thing, even if there's some overlap. At the start, there was the weird issue where it felt like they were running three of the same angle on the same show; that seems to be resolved, but I agree with you that the movesets could get the same focus.

So, wait, is this new Ric Flair podcast not a Conrad thing? How is that possible?

Look, I don't like to have unrealistic expectations... I merely demand Okada-Omega in New York to make up for 2019.

Given the general length of title reigns nowadays, I'd say Heyman's number is more impressive. WWE has been trending back upwards, but it's still not close to the stasis that was the AWA in the 70s.

Hey, TAKA's back!

Agreed that ReDragon as a team is the best use of both guys, and basically all the matchups would be fresh at this point. And even without reforming Undisputed Era, there's a ton of ways to play off and use the history there. (Plus the Forbidden Door opportunities - all in for ReDragon against Dangerous Tekkerz.)

Yeah, thought Tama did really well for himself and did a nice job keeping up with Okada. Strong performance. I'm struggling to figure out who their 12 teams are for World Tag League unless they have some people coming in (or they're going with 8 or 10 teams and not everyone has a tournament match every night). Not good teams - I literally can't find the available guys based on their roster. GOD Tekkerz Evil/Yujiro O'Khan/Henare Goto/Yoshi Hashi Makabe/Honma Kojima/Tenzan Yano/??? (Nagata? Tanahashi?) - Ishii is in the US Sanada doesn't have a partner with Naito out. There's no other heavyweights in Suzuki-Gun for Suzuki. Cobb is in the US and I'd assume Kenta is going back (and again, pretty sure Chase already went back, so he doesn't have a partner unless they bring in Fale). Hoping this means we're getting some fresh teams, like Aussie Open perhaps?

I mean, it's pretty much exactly what they did for a stretch with Cody last year, and that worked out spectacularly (they got Starks and Eddie out of it and got the weirdness of Warhorse onto the show without signing a guy who's too green). I sort of assumed that was what they were doing with Fish, too, until they actually signed him.

Survivor Series is in New York and I'm not aware of any indie companies running shows to draft off of it. That's pretty sad.

YES. That's just the kind of bizarro world weirdness that should headline WOW shows at 3am on Sinclair stations.

The other big one would be Highspots Wrestling Network, which has AAW, PCW Ultra (although they have a lot on Youtube too) and Defy. They also have a ton of PWG, old ECW fancams, and shoot interviews. There's some GCW on IWTV, but the new shows are all on FITE.

Also absolutely makes sense to me from experience that having a newborn can really make you rethink your relationship with alcohol. Something that was fine before becomes very not fine when you have to care for an infant. I definitely spent some time reconsidering my timing and amount of drinking when my daughter was born. Good for Mox for picking up on it and getting the help he needs if treatment is needed.

Very excited for this book.