peachchaos

Huge pop for OC and zero reaction for Spears.

My biggest complaint about last week was it just felt like another episode instead of a pilot of a TV series. Tonight feels more exciting, not just a bunch of placeholder match-ups.

Also Liv Morgan's Twitter has gone "dark"...Sister Abigail incoming?

The word credibility immediately comes to mind, which goes beyond even Harley as a worker or a gimmick. Harley Race gave a legendary credibility to professional wrestling, not just as the premier World Champion of a generation but also as an aging midcarder and manager. He made Brisco, Funk, Dusty, and Flair household names by passing the torch and had no problem passing the belt to Baba and Rich. It's easy to say he was too giving as a champion without recognizing how perfectly he did he job. In falling hard on his ass every night and losing the title at every turn he cemented a dynasty. My favorite will always be that barn-burner with Terry Funk from the Houston footage. Or the hour draw with Lawler. Or the Hogan stuff. Or even just him intimidating with a briefcase full of cash and putting the hit out on Flair. Absolute legend.

It was an average show but I seem to have enjoyed it more than most since I had tabled my expectations for this being anything other than the charity event it was presented as by the promotion. We knew going in this wasn't going to have the Big Event feel of All In or Double or Nothing even if there were some dream matches on the card. When it was over, I felt like I had watched a pretty good Nitro and not a Bash at the Beach, which is honestly promising in terms of the future for AEW. Between this and Fyter Fest, they're sort of working out how to do smaller shows in frequency with good in ring action and storyline advancement without blowing their load prematurely. Of course the internet must critique and there were certainly plenty of flaws here, both in terms of production and performance, but in the end this was a solid block of wrestling for the most part. Not every show needs to be filled with MOTYCs in order to be a success. Really looking forward to this promotion going full time.

yeah it probably should say "after he competes in a cross-brand yadayada" instead of "winning" I'd be cool with anyone other than Reigns or Rollins and certainly not Orton. Neither Braun or Lashley have had their shot at Lesnar one-on-one. Zero percent chance Corbin wins this, but I would love to see that trainwreck and watch the world burn. So I'm sitting comfortably in the Cesaro Section for now unless Big E gets the big reaction.

Cross Brand All-Star Top 10 Battle Royal tonight...winner faces Lesnar at SummerSlam. Participants:

I wouldn't mind a 2 minute Baron Corbin reign only for Lesnar to cash in. Maybe if they babyface him and Heyman he'll actually be interesting for a minute?

November to Remember 1994 has only been available as a handheld. This is some good shit.

Here's a pretty good YouTube page full of WWE dark matches including the one from Beyond the Mat if anyone wants more of this for whatever reason.

So far no issues streaming this or Double or Nothing on my AppleTV 4k fwiw

I think we're all curious about this one. Cody's coming off a career-best performance and knowing Darby's insane drive pre and post injury, I'd say this has potential to steal the show even if there's stiff competition in the top two matches.

My gut says if they had full Amarillo TV they would have posted that instead.

It's been forever and I'm probably misremembering this, but I seem to recall this footage showing up on one of those "Film Room With Gordon Solie" bits from FL that aired on 24/7. Would be neat to see those on the Network along with a proper Terry Funk Collection.

Cactus Jack into Mankind into Dude Love into Mick Foley

Great list there. Watching footage from 1985, I'll post some additions. [1985-01-03-Worldwide] Ricky Steamboat, Dusty Rhodes, and Dick Slater vs Tully Blanchard, Ron Bass, and Black Bart - Bunkhouse Match [1985-02-09-MACW-TV] Tully Blanchard vs Manny Fernandez (Network) [1985-02-13-Polynesian Pacific Pro Wrestling] Ric Flair vs Kerry Von Erich [1985-02-16-MACW-TV] Tully Blanchard vs Brian Adidas (Network) [1985-02-23-MACW-TV] Dick Slater vs Black Bart (Network)

There's really no excuse and it seems very old fashioned even for wrestling to use an agent as a scapegoat to spare a troubled talent and then let them continue performing. Although I believe Fox did have to undergo outpatient rehab, but yeah this hardly seems fair to Arn in any case.

Wyatt looks great. We'll see about the gimmick.

Arn was fired for a very valid reason and I'm sure there's no long-term heat there. It's not like WWE wanted to sever ties completely, but in a corporate setting management really had no other option. Remember, Finlay was let go and eventually welcomed back into the fold, albeit for something entirely different that didn't involve the safety of their performers.

Arn Anderson and Dustin Runnels working with Christopher Daniels (talent relations) would be an incredible set of minds putting things together.

Punk's offense always looked like shit. I don't doubt for one second that's him, given his history in the area. Those who expect someone as integrated with wrestling as Punk to stay away forever forget what a huge mark he was before he even trained. I'd be shocked if he's not at Double or Nothing or more likely the first TV with AEW. There's money floating around, zero schedule at the moment, and they'll respect his status as a true superstar. For those wondering, he owns the CM Punk trademark and would most likely have secured the rights to the theme song by now.