Matt D

What I watched: Darby vs Comoroto: Two losses in two days for Comoroto, even against well-pushed guys like Cassidy and Darby is a bit of a shame. He feels like the sort of wrestler that Hogan would beat on a SNME. They should protect him a little more maybe? Match itself was fine, though it's rough to lose the heat of so many of these matches in the PIP. Best part of this whole thing was probably JR explaining Sting's no-sell of the Diamond Cutter by saying QT had terrible technique. Deeb vs Shida: Liked this a lot. I thought Deeb's control segment (really a heat, I'd say, even though she didn't go full heel until the end) was very good. She kept things moving, kept them focused, kept them interesting, interacted with the crowd, felt very organic in what she was doing. The opening exchanges were good but had a little weird feel to them chemistry-wise. I'm not sure if that has something to do with Shida's almost lackadaisical way of moving at times or just the way the camera was catching things. It made the counters feel less smooth but also somehow less than spots. I'm not sure it fully made it over the line of being more effective for it though. The big moment at the end where Deeb started targeting the leg while Shida was stuck in the ropes on the apron was interesting because it was very novel and I'm not sure Shida exactly knew how to sell her leg until she made it back into the ring. After that, the finishing stretch was good, especially so because the match had stakes. Shida was protected well enough and there was a sense that Deeb had to go to some dark places to defeat her. I'm curious where they go with this. Shida almost has to get her 50th over Deeb now so they're going to be married for a bit.

If you came on with Punk and Danielson, he’s a brand new debut.

Keep watching Fuerza. You're doing important work there. I'm not sure of the necessary variation inherent in Tully matches. It's worth seeing oddities certainly.

Does anyone else? No. Do you? Yes. You know the drill: timing, selling, hope spots and cut offs, strikes and other offense, build to payoff in comedy spots, use of repetition. Start with the Rougeaus and Beverly Brothers matches.

When’s the last time you’ve really given the Bushwhackers a serious look?

Dark 10/5/21 Pinnacle 8 man: This was very much by the books. Spears, again, maybe looked a bit like a goof letting himself get clowned as he was giving the finger to the other side and losing the offense for his team, but since he took the pin, I guess it's ok. They did that multiple tag that 2.0/Garcia do at the end, which I appreciated. The Wardlow bit was good as he teased going up and giving up maybe too much but then floated out of it and hit the slam. That was well done. Abadon vs Rossi: Abadon currently feels like a foil for whoever her opponent is, which isn't so great in enhancement matches. The best part of this was when she adjusted her own head, but she still comes off as far more "Bizarre" than scary. Acclaimed vs Martinez/Morales: I liked the pacing of this more than the Cheech/Delaney match. The rap was better too. I'm working off of just a few data points still but Bowens seems more confident and reactive with more genuine reactions in there, his selling, his forearm and superkick, his taunt, etc. Sonny Kiss vs Kal Herro: Best I've seen Kiss look, though it was by toning down parts of the act. Just came out there like a killer though which fits the current storyline. All of the kicks looked good and the presence was pretty badass actually. Just demolished Herro after the first minute. Good squash. Statlander vs Zhang: Statlander knows what she is and she leans hard into it, and it's maybe not multifaceted but has a couple of facets at least (alien + strength + best friend) so it gives her a lot to work with in a match. Here, the boop was early, and she got to show off some of the strength stuff as well. Zhang followed up the idea she'd be putting Stalander to sleep with two snap suplexes, which was a choice. Comeback transition was timed perfectly as it was right when the fans were coming up with their clapping. The finish felt sufficiently nasty. Blue vs Wrenkowski: My first look at Wrenkowski I think and I liked her. I liked the whacks during the dragon sleeper. I loved the little stutter step change of pace when she started jaw jacking with a fan which gave Blue a hope spot. It was probably planned but she made it seem completely organic and like a deviation. I'm not sure about her staggered selling but it's probably better than just waiting around for a flying body press? Blue had a little repositioning snafu to sent up the axe kick, which is the stuff you notice. I'm not sure how I feel about the way she works in her little snaps. I think when she was firing back from underneath she could have let that sit in a bit more and milked it instead of rushing through it. If she's going to use the fisherman's suplex as a finish (which I don't love as I feel like a lot of people on the roster use it just as a middle move) she definitely needs to lock the arms together. Kingston vs Henry: Think this is my first look at Henry/Hale. Obviously this was really good. The spots where Henry took over (with the figure four dragon screw in the corner and then that huge spin kick on the outside) were really good and then it became an Eddie selling seminar. I liked Eddie pushing away the camera on the floor and the ref in the ring. That's just a presence thing that a lot of other people might not do. Henry's leg-related cutoffs worked for me. I liked how he'd switch gears, starting with one sort of move and then realizing and dropping back down to the leg. Henry had to deal with the fact that he could only keep Eddie down if he stayed with the leg but he's not the guy to get him to quit so he had to switch to other things. That meant he made one major mistake (after almost making a couple) and it was all over. Full worldwide point. Gunn Club vs Knott/Grillo/Stewart: Austin is still full on Brian Christopher. It generally works. I'm glad he got some comeuppance after mocking the tag. Billy's great as guy whose fist people run into. That punch after the fakeout on the crotch cross was great. All I remember from Colton is the manic stomps in the corner and I wonder if he should be more of a contrast of Austin, since he can't outdo him. I liked the blocked finish into a roll up ending by Austin and had to watch it back a few times. Diamante vs Garrett: Yeah, I kind of like all of the little flourishes Diamante do, like the gun shots during the entrance or leaning on the ref at the end. Shame Santana didn't get an entrance and Taz's Wonder Woman singing was pretty silly. It would have been a good moment to go into her background/story instead. Everything looked pretty good here. I liked Diamante's shift when she had the nerve hold, though the crowd wanted to clap Garrett up (and needed some instruction with leg stomping or something as half were clapping and half were chanting). I liked how the handspring didn't work and loved that a dropdown trip DID work. Seeing that stuff now and again makes normal occurrences mean more. The finish did not feel cooperative and that made it look especially painful. Blonds vs Wingmen: As we learned from the last match, the crowd needed some leading in their cheers. Thankfully, they got it. Liked the transition to heat because it had an extra wrinkle where Griff survived Drake's distraction but then got tripped a moment later. Nemeth chaining three amateur moves together and then taunting was solid stuff but then what the heck was Pillman doing using that moment to come in the ring as if he was going to break it a pin? Don't have faith that griff can survive a fireman's carry and a go behind take down and the flossing, Brian? I did really like the discus twist on the corner clothesline. No way that should have looked good given the sheer physics involved, but it did. Taz and Excalibur making fun of him for not getting out of the ring well to set up the finish (which was otherwise very good) wasn't nice though. Garcia vs Lockhart: Yeah, Garcia is a lot of fun to watch in this setting. He's just right in your face all the time and everything snaps. He reminds me of 1980 Dynamite Kid. Yeah, I said it. Not Benoit because the intensity was different and Benoit never quite had that same chip on the shoulder; he was always just glad to be there deep down. But watch some Dynamite in 1980 New Japan when he was heeling it up there. I want to see Garcia against almost everyone on the roster. Serpentico vs Marko: Yeesh, this wasn't great. What Worked: The stage dive spot by Serpentico. Missing the Flying Snake. Serpentico losing the offense due to his own (or Luther's) mistakes. The fact that whenever Serpentico did catch Marko, it had real impact. The celebratory feel of Serpentico winning. What Didn't Work: Flyweight Bully Marko Stunt taking so much of the first part of this. Quick shots are good. Tossing his own body at Serpentico is good. Tossing Serpentico into the guardrail far less so. My guess is that Marko took so much of this since he was losing. I would have been ok with Marko getting 1/3rd of the offense and having a big comeback after one of the missed moves before getting cut off. Blech. OC vs Comoroto: I was entertained by this one. Comoroto cracked the Cassidy code just by being so big and so strong. He powered his way through it literally, and then he got to do the poses back. That put him over as much as any power move he managed in the match. Again, OC can show that largess since he was winning. I wish they had played up Statlander's knee brace in her match if it was going to come into play here but that's probably asking too much for the YouTube show.

Will get to rec's at some point (Monday morning is a good time for me on some of these since I usually have the Catch watched over the weekend, NFF isn't worked out for another day or two, and I don't have Elevation/Dark yet). Thanks. Elevation 10/4/21 Emi vs Skye: Tony immediately regretting asking Eddie to talk is great. Eddie was great as within ten seconds he declares that he only likes Lulu, who is dope, and that Skye has to get over in another territory. Then Tony got the great line that no matter who wins or loses, he gets paid. Again, these aren't what you want for your A show but it's like Dusty being hilarious on WCW Prime. Match itself worked. It wasn't pretty but it worked. There's a line on smoothnness where if you straddle it right, the lack of such can feel like competitiveness. What helped was that the match played into it. Skye took Emi down and started wailing on her and she paid for it in a big way. I loved Lulu's stomps on the floor because they were so overwrought 80s pro wrestling. Big and ridiculous. If she was punching, she'd be doing the big Bret Hart stomping as she did. Emi going twice for the body press in the corner was a nice arrogant bit of transition. Skye's high cross body was as high as you get and worked as a near-fall even though it shouldn't have. The tilt-a-whirl was a perfect cut off moment and the Queen's Gambit looked great (that has to be a tough move to take and make look good). I'm not entirely sure what to think of this one. Skye looked good in the loss from a kayfabe level but I think, as a wrestler, she'd maybe get more out of doing a house show loop with Emi, than she did from this one match alone? 2.0 + Garcia vs Corino, Stetson, Thrillride: I love that we're in a world where Daniel Garcia gets an enhancement match. The intensity he showed at the start rushing Stetson probably wouldn't get to happen against most other opponents and it's a great looking at him. The triple tag thing they do where they make sure to tag both guys each time so they can triple team is really novel (to me at least). Corino had a nice idea of rolling out of the ring to eat the Matt Lee clothesline on the floor, but he was moving in slow motion getting down to do it. Garcia is quite good at milking the moment on his lean back on the Sharpshooter. Onemanthrillride really wasted his moment in the sun here. You have people's attention with the name and the look. Do something! Spears/Wardlow vs Stunt/Fuego: Hey, Fuego went for the French Catch up and over. He did it as part of an exchange instead of a counter to a top wristlock and because the motion of it was different and the basing of it was different, he didn't quite get it. Good thought though. Spears coming out with the Brodie shirt was his right and if he's going to do it, Elevation's a great place for it, but I think it disrupted his heel reaction a bit. When he did his "10!" thing it wasn't heelish enough and that hurt Fuego doing it in response. He's basically Borne Again but as a bunch of WWE lower-card acts instead. It works but boy does it have a ceiling. People really complain about Marko Stunt? He was used perfectly here, as a foil for guys like Wardlow to have bounce off them. Even when Marko started to get some momentum on him, it was only enough to get a quick hot tag and then work with Fuego. His big offensive move on Spears was just rolling away from him repeatedly. Maybe it was worse a year ago, but everyone in that ring understood who he was and what he was and how he should fit into the match. I was especially impressed with Wardlow's reactions to him. The double death valley driver was set up well (as in it didn't feel contrived) and Wardlow's finish looked a million times better than when he does it out of the corner. Archer vs Bruno: Glad to see Jake up and about but he has the presence of my 70 year old uncle out there. Archer definitely wasn't running (or power-walking) to the ring for this one. It's ok because Bruno was so big they could play it differently. Archer's a big guy who can do a lot of stuff and that, from what I've seen, generally holds it back to instead do a bunch of things he should be doing but at very high intensity. Here, he got to do some of the stuff because of Bruno's size and it worked and it didn't wear out its welcome. I think the value in Jake would be in taped package promos getting Archer or one of this feuds over more so than being at ringside. Abaddon vs Davienne: First look at Abaddon. Davienne sold the intimidation/fear at the start, but the scariest part of the match was Eddie almost dropping the F word. She comes off as more alien/outlandish than terrifying in the ring. A bunch of weird offense (that looks pretty good) and expressions. She definitely needs a handler of some sort. I'm not sure I loved Davienne taking so much of the start of this without more blatant no-selling? I don't know what to make of it with one data point, I guess. Santana/Ortiz vs Two Guys in Facepaint: I don't know about Santana and Ortiz. I think they're just not for me. Look at how creative and interesting the use of tags was in the 2.0 trios and then look at the four minutes of dull noise of doubleteams this was. They were fine, creative even, but I just wasn't feeling it. Henry was fine on commentary though. Good for him to get his laps in. Statlander vs Becca: Completely a Statlander match, with Becca's main contribution actively avoiding the boop, up until she didn't. I'd be curious to see what more of a Becca match looks like since she's obviously put a lot of care into her gear/personality. Lots of strength spots out of Statlander. I'm a sucker for interesting entry points into a goardbuster so long as they're not overly contrived and hers was good. I like how the boop's inevitability led to the inevitability of the finish. Statlander is someone who, moving forward, you can put against almost anyone on the roster and it'll be interesting, because she's so committed to her act and very consistent in what she does. Acclaimed vs Delaney/Cheech: I'd say more a case of missed opportunities than anything else. You want to see Delaney up against a guy like Archer right? that would have been true ten years ago at least. He had a good flurry but a guy on his level shouldn't be doing jumping springboard cutters. Cheech is another guy you'd probably like to see get mauled (I mean 15 years ago, right?). Caster could have done more with the rap considering who was in there. Kingston had some matches with Cheech in 05-06 and you kind of wish he'd been on commentary for this. It was obvious Tony had no idea who they were but that's ok. I like the Acclaimed in theory but you still get the sense they're putting it together. Both of them have around 200 matches on Cagematch despite being wrestling since 2015-6 and they'd just really benefit from House Shows. FTR vs Nystrom/Dean: First time hearing the new theme and it's pretty perfect. I kind of wish someone could convince Dax Harwood to watch some Blousons Noirs match because he reminds me so much of Marcel Manneveau in all the best ways. I get the sense that Wheeler might be more of the footage guy/historian. Wheeler's tackle off the apron was really good. If you're only going to get to do a few things, making them all like that really helps. Kiss vs KM: Fans were definitely behind Kiss. KM looked good out there for the most part. The immediate face drop out of the lock up and then later out of the wheelbarrow, the back targeting. Why the heck was he going up top so much though? Kiss' strikes looked good, including the handspring into a kick where I didn't think the distance would work out. The fans really wanted the fireman's carry to work out so I'm glad they got what they wanted. I'd see more KM. Gunn Club promo: This worked. They were frustrated about inconsequential stuff and Billy was patient until he wasn't. Gunn's head in the opening always freaks me out with the texturing. Scarier than Abadon.

Pretty sure you have to be able to do both to make my top 10. The competition is just too hard and they can do it blindfolded. I want to see that a wrestler can master multiple situations so I can best understand how good they are. You can probably (probably) make my top 20 by being the very best at one or the other, but without evidence positive or negative in the other role, that’s your possible peak.

Sounds good. I'm happy to do these. It's been decades since we've really had a sort of Superstars/Wrestling Challenge/WCW Syndicated Show (Or mid-late 90s WCW Saturday Night) with this formula of enhancement matches with some mid-card clashes. The closest was probably early NXT but even that was more of a core show and there's a lot we can learn about pretty much everyone involved by watching these and commenting even loosely. While I like doing it, it's even better if someone's interacting with what I'm saying.

Presuming we're talking about the 2-27-86 MSG match and I'm looking at the right one, I thought it was excellent. The crowd was hot. Monsoon said Stu was in attendance so Bret and Neidhart both had plenty of reason to be at their best. It's got the sort of structure I love, with a couple of minutes of very specific heel posturing to start (this being Neidhart's strength and reactions which no one else could do quite the same way), leading to a few minutes of babyface speed/technical advantage of a shine, where they use tags to control, right into extended heat. I didn't love the transition to the heat, with Bret intervening with a cheapshot legdrop as Blair went for a figure four, but it worked ok. It was just a little too blatant, even if that meant it was ok when the Bees just ran in to break up a pin after the backbreaker elbow drop combo later (and good! Protect those big moves). There was a hot tag a couple of minutes into the heat on Bret missing a second rope elbow drop (almost comedically really) but here the heat was really extended as they immediately cut off Brunzell with a knee from the outside. After that was much longer second heat (really a continuation of the first with that hot tag being a hope spot) which built a ton of sympathy for Brunzell with a few small bits of hope that were cut off hard, until he hit the dropkick out of nowhere for a great hope spot, but not actually a transition. It took another two minutes or so before the Harts overreached and went for their second assisted charge into the corner for the hot tag. They hit the dropkick again to tease a pin right at the time limit draw. I loved the little set ups and payoffs. Bret missed the elbow drop but hit the backbreaker/elbow drop combo later. Bret hit his own dropkick right before Brunzell hit his big hope spot one. They successfully hit the charge only to fail when they went back to the well. I ran the timecodes on this one: 2:20 Bell; start of Anvil's feature strength bit. 4:20 Drop down trip to start the (legwork) Shine 6:40 Transition (Hitman legdrop) to Heat. 9:20 Missed Elbow Drop by Bret; hot tag to Brunzel. 10:00 Cut off knee from outside by Bret, start/extension of second heat. 16:35 Brunzell dropkick hope spot 18:30 missed charge to hot tag. 21:04 Dropkick and bell. I would have been ok with a couple more minutes of shine and paring off a minute or two of that (second) heat on Brunzell or even separating things to allow some more comeback by Brunzell after the first hot tag before the start of the second heat segment (though the match did benefit from both the first hot tag and the first dropkick serving as hope spots and not transitions). At 30 seconds or so before the hope spot dropkick, I was thinking to myself that I was just about ready for the hot tag, but in general, it was a very effective formula. Not every tag match can be run by a stopwatch, but this got a ton of real heat and plenty of elation when the faces fired back, or even when Blair went after the Harts on the floor during the heat on Brunzell. Everyone played their part well, with Brunzell getting a ton of sympathy, Blair playing fiery and pissed off and working the apron well, Jimmy being great out there trying to tamp down the clapping and what not, Anvil mugging and reacting and being a force, and Bret directing traffic.

I need to watch some non-Bulldogs Hart Foundation matches. Bulldogs are the worst offenders of heel in peril and those probably poisoned me towards other HF matches. Though I love Summerslam 88 vs Demos.

Piper has been as helped by footage over the last five years as almost any of his contemporaries. For NFF alone we covered: Greg Valentine vs. Roddy Piper NWA 7/9/83 Roddy Piper/Cowboy Bob Orton vs. King Tonga/Superfly Afi WWF early 1986 Kuwait Roddy Piper vs. Randy Savage WWF 12/13/86 The 77 NJPW footage Roddy Piper vs. Rick Rude WWF 11/1/89 Roddy Piper/Tim Brooks vs. Adrian Adonis/Ron Starr PNW 3/31/79 And what we had of the 92 Fundraiser Mountie match.

This is a strong generalization but I see Bret as someone who tried to have matches that made sense, that felt legitimate relative to what that meant for a 1980s-90s audience, that had emotional beats that moved people, whereas Shawn was more focused on trying to have the best match on the show and wow people and to be the showstopper. It's a chicken/egg thing but in a world where the point is no longer to see the babyface triumph over the heel but instead be part of an experience and witness greatness, Shawn's way resonates more. Now that wrestling's risen out of the ashes of whatever kayfabe once was, it's all about sensation as opposed to sense so Shawn's influence is both stronger and is probably more effective for people to embrace. Whether or not that's a good thing for the sake of this exercise, especially in how Shawn's existence might have led to this world existing in the first place is a personal decision for everyone voting.

Crossposting what I saw this week: Orange Cassidy vs Jack Evans: Nice pop for Cassidy considering how tired the crowd probably was. Taz telling Starks never to gamble on pro wrestling was funny. Good stuff early with Evans going for the roll up and Cassidy just being Cassidy, but then he snuck in an early backslide and pull the hair around. Hardy still has a good right hand. He was also funny counting quicker than the ref after the 450 on the floor. Evans was definitely living in the moment, interacting with "Mr. Hardy," reacting to the crowd, trying to get the win at all points given the stakes. Right up until the point he wasn't as match lost a little steam and urgency during the heat until the missed top rope move. In general I like the house style of two tries for every big move and it helps with them switching up just which move can't get hit for each wrestler in each match, but maybe it shouldn't be in EVERY match. The idea with HFO and BF/DO coming out was good but I'm not sure I liked how it was shot. Maybe they should have went around once more in the ring before the punch? Bunny's face as Hardy told them to leave was great since she never shows any expression like that. Post match was probably more important so good they gave it time.

I think I got pissy about kikuchi no selling something on the floor. That was my big takeaway. I’m better now.

I feel like that pop was less about Shane and more about the total surprise. There are almost no surprises in the last fifteen years that weren’t at least rumored to prep fans. Something like Cena returning at the MSG Rumble would count for that since it was thought to be impossible. But I can’t think of too many others.

Crossposting my thoughts of what I saw: Nightmare Family vs Sydal/Martin: Cody rushing in worked for me. There was a neat moment during the early exchanges where Martin and Johnson were going at it and the ref was obviously in the way of the corner so that almost opened things up for a switch. Pretty sure it was planned but it didn't feel it which is what matters with these elaborate spots. Punk balking at the "Lightning Spiral" name was funny. The sequence where Cody hit the Disaster Kick to Sydal on the apron and then hit the Vertebreaker was really good but no one should be kicking out of that move without something extra. That shouldn't just be some random midmatch move for Cody. I got the impression Cody was glad to be in there with Martin and based well for him. Post match promo worked. Arn's shaky these days which is weird because he's really clear on the podcast but it still worked. Greene/Bears vs Darby/Mox/Eddie: Glad Boulder's ok after seeming hurt on Dark. Excalibur called La Casita La Magistral again. Come on, Excalibur. I like how Greene somehow bumped on his face off a shoulder black. He was obviously glad to be there. The Hurricane vs Rock and Austin moment at the end with him was great. Eddie's German on Bronson was pretty awesome too. OC/DO vs HFO: I like how this shifted gears once everyone came down midway. All of the signature stuff was after that. At first it felt a little empty for such a big match but that's because they saved it all for when the switch flipped. In retrospect, pretty perfect. Tay/Anna vs Bunny/Ford: Tay should probably work hulking up into her act because she's got a memorable pissed off face. She also took the knee first corner bump to the floor huge. The backstabber combo onto Anna didn't look pretty. We lost the heat and the hot tag in the PiP. The Dangerous J kick looked great. I had wondered about putting the Dark Order stuff back to back but probably best to highlight it like this in the middle of the show. Miro vs Sammy: I don't think I've ever actually seen Sammy before. I was wondering if they were going to put him over during Hispanic Heritage Month since they did a promo for that and seem a lot better than WWE about this stuff. Miro is a once in a generation talent (which given this generation is saying something) with his balance between offensive presence and engaged selling. He just gets it and is exceptional at making everything he does mean something and resonate. I'm not sure I see quite enough differentiation between Sammy and a lot of the other young guys. If I had to say I'd say that Sammy tosses himself at people forward and Darby does it backwards and more fatalism. The story of the match with Sammy throwing himself at Miro as the only way to hurt him and Miro catching him again and again worked for me. The transition where Miro let the crowd get into his head and feed his own ego was excellent. I only saw half the matches on this show and there was just way too many cutters and stunners. Also too many superkicks. Almost every match had at least one. You have to love the effort and weight behind Sammy actually getting the GTH on Miro (too many drop onto knee moves too though). I was interested to hear Punk's reaction but he stayed in the moment and shouted "Pin him!" instead. They covered a lot of ground in ten minutes. Great moment for a crowd that deserved a great moment in the memory of someone who inspired a great moment. I did see Cole vs Jungle Boy on youtube later on too, just the last few minutes. I don't like someone kicking out of the panama sunrise already (I'd rather it didn't exist, but if it does, protect it) but he didn't hook the leg, as Punk noted. Jungle Boy pulling him back to the center of the ring maybe before he needed to was a nice youthful exuberance/risktaking moment to build to the finish.

He seems to be really enjoying himself right now though.

If the doll was as big a merch seller as she indicates, she’ll be coming back with a Lily now wearing a Santa hat for X-Mas.

Christian, Punk, Danielson.

LA Park can go to malls too.

Dark 9/28 Thunder Rosa vs Nikita Knight: Is Knight actually a rookie? As in first match rookie. Because if so, this was a hell of a debut for her. This is what google's telling me. I thought she moved really well in there with none of that hesitation or awkwardness I've seen in some of the other Rosa enhancement matches. Maybe one reversal off a whip in the center of the ring into a knee that could have been a little bit better but a lot of it really came off as struggle instead of awkwardness. Sometimes, it looks real because it is real because of inexperience or uncooperativeness, but this seemed pretty good all around. I loved the eyerake on the top ropes. I liked how aggressive she was in the ropes. Maybe they kept it a little more simple because she was knew, more strike based for instance, but I thought the initial matwork worked well too exactly because it wasn't so smooth. The dropkick to the chest from Rosa works a lot better in the corner than in the ropes. The necktie seemed just a little off but Knight should be proud of herself for this one and it's a feather in the cap of Rosa too. Private Party vs Carlie Bravo and JDX: I'm high on Private Party in these Dark matches. Great engagement. They let the characters drive the action, both in how they got clowned early and how pissed off Kassidy was when they got the offense back. They got it back after a very good transition with Quen coming in out of nowhere. Like I said, they came off as pissed and that gave all of the cutesy tandem offense a real edge to it, which isn't an easy task. Bravo and JDX had some fun combos and plenty of charisma but the crowd wasn't exactly feeling the USA chant. I haven't actually seen Party in a real match yet but I enjoy their enhancement work certainly. Hogan vs Grey: My first look at Hogan. I know she had a tag run in TNA that people liked and I can see her as a pretty good face-in-peril from the little I saw here. That's the case with these matches. You only get glimpses of a total wrestler, but I liked her selling, especially on the strike exchange. The kick out of nowhere is a good finisher but only if it's sold that way and treated that way and I don't think the announcers put it over enough. Camera work missed the abrupt dropkicks. Nothing to really say about Grey here (I didn't love how she hit the ropes with her hand leading but I'm not going to harp on that every time I see it). 10 vs Gore: Is Gore just big or is Vance not as big as I thought he was? I guess Gore is big. Good for him. He still got a little too much here. You want Vance dominating a little more cleanly. I didn't mind Gore's first bit of offense because it let Vance come back with the charge into the corner but they went around a little too much after that, including the bit of playing possum that just didn't add much to the match. They should have probably sold Gore's size a little more on commentary and made the pop up power bomb not just dominating but a physical feat of strength. Bononi/Jaoude vs Ryzin/St. Patrick: "Legit combat sports athlete" is not a good way to introduce someone in a pro wrestling match. I get that it's 2021, but come on. That makes wrestling subconsciously look inferior. "Legitimate, not like this hokey bullshit," you mean? Of course then they cut to Ryzin with his red rooster mohawk and... ah, nevermind. Then, the first thing Jaoude does with his combat sports background? A legdrop. Awesome. He does move around in there a little different and that's interesting to watch. I wouldn't mind seeing him against a guy like Black (or Danielson, of course, but that's everyone). Ryzin killing himself on that bossman slam type move by Bononi was funny because the physics are all off. Bononi has an unfortunate Test element to him where he's a big guy who does big things but they don't necessarily look and feel big. St. Patrick really went flying on the pumphandle throw though. I don't know? Are these guys signed because there's a Brazil TV deal or something? Archer vs Singh: Archer's pretty ideal for a studio wrestlers with the creative starts to the matches and talking to the camera and just beating a guy around the ring. The bell ringing so late was funny. I thought Archer almost rolled his ankle walking over Singh after the match which would be a uniquely stupid way to injure yourself. Starks vs Lockhart: I've never actually seen Starks before. I'd like to see Starks' entrance in front of a crowd. The music is definitely different. I'm immediately intrigued by Lockhart's Tenryu tribute with the tights. He's a ton of fun on the mat right from that get go. That back bridge on the pretzel hammerlock thing is not something I've seen before, I think. Starks is extremely present in his reactions and very giving early on. I liked his selling of the fist after the punch and his pissy stomps later on. He comes off a little like a 2005 Rock clone but that's not necessarily a bad thing in 2021. He uses a lot of pre-2005 offense which is also sort of appreciated in that role. Lots of nonchalant biting which was sort of funny. Lockhart had a good back elbow and hit hard on his charging shots into the corner late in the match but he did not feel very Tenryu-y to me. You don't invoke his name if you're not going to walk up and kick some bastard in the face. I still liked him though. This was good. You guys know this was good. Uno/Grayson vs Alanis/Gray: Alanis did little things I liked, working the apron and interacting with Gray. He didn't wow me in ring. Gray was all sorts of flopsy in how he took offense. I don't have a good sense of Grayson relatively. The PK/Pile Driver combo is a fun finisher though. Best part of this was Gray doing the Dark Order hand thing before the match. That was funny. Julia vs Tahaka: I actually think Pillman lost on Dynamite because Julia didn't underscore her name on the entrance. She does here. I don't know. I thought it was funny that she missed the double knee moonsault, then sold broadly but not the knees and then remembered that she's a cheerleader and was supposed to smile all the time and just toughed through it. I have no idea if that's a character choice or what, but if it is they should establish it better. Takaha is best controlling the center of the ring with headbutts. Maybe Julia shouldn't be doing Alexa Bliss' Sparkle Splash (Twisted Bliss). Maybe? Her finishing flurry is good with the front handspring corner clothesline looking good, but they need to get the other angle on the split bulldog. Bear Country vs Brick Aldridge and some other guy: Brick Aldridge is a pretty good NXT 2.0 name. This was good, of course. Bear Country is a very solid gatekeeper sort of tag team that a promotion should be glad to have. Against them, hope spots should be about misses and not hits. I don't think we needed Aldridge giving Boulder a belly to belly. Not sure if that's where he got hurt or not (hell, it might have been the missed moonsault that I just lauded structurally). Hopefully he's ok. Sydal/Martin vs QT/Solo: Good to get some shine on Sydal/Martin before their highlight Dynamite match. I like the mishmash team approach. Very Tommy Rich and Ricky Morton. I haven't seen Sydal in years. I wonder if Martin was an Evan Bourne fan. This was fun, with Sydal looking like he's never missed a bet from ten years ago. He did a little bit of everything. I liked Solo's expressions as he got clowned in the opening chain wrestling and he was overall competent for the rest of the match. Good timing on the heel chicanery stuff. QT looked good basing for Sydal. I still hate that he uses the sitout powerbomb in his role. This had double heat with two good hot tags and Martin's flipping stunner is great but it's not a move he should do every match. That's really important. The opportunity has to exist and it shouldn't always exist. Finishing stretch was bombastic and fun. Nice WCW syndi show main event.

Elevation 9/27: Thunder Rosa vs Kayla Sparks: I've seen a couple of Rosa enhancement matches so far and I'm coming to wonder if she's someone who I'm going to like a lot more against name talent? She was feeling the crowd and can channel plenty of intensity but there were definite small moments of disconnect in moving Kayla around. Very clearly calling spots to but that felt almost more impressive than not since she could accomplish a lot with a few words. That's on production as much as anything else, I guess, or maybe the fact that she comes into exchanges at a distance instead of close up? Not sure. I don't love the double stomp to the front in the ropes at a glance just because she doesn't do anything special to get a wrestler into a position that they're never in. Very different from Rey and the 619 as he spends a lot of effort getting them there. This was overall okay but there was some understandable ring rust on Sparks (cagematch says this was her fifth match back after 14 years retired!). I'd like to see this back in a couple of months maybe? I'm glad Henry's getting some more time in the booth to work on this, but he announces like he wrestles. Good ideas, but he takes his time to get to them. That works when you're a super heavyweight in the ring. Less so announcing. Dark Order vs Tibbs and, you know, some other poor saps: Feel good stuff. It's sort of crazy to think just how much this crowd got, but this is the sort of match that makes everyone happy and that's going to make people want to come back almost as much as the stuff on top. Just a massive Dark Order showcase. I haven't seen him enough to vote for him in March Madness or anything but so far, I really like what I see in Angels. I like the way that he moves in the ring. I like the way he takes offense. I like the way he sells. Tons of upside. Plus Tony's Four on Five! line was amazing. When the Order ultimately work together they make fairly contrived stuff look natural; it fits the gimmick and their personalities and like I said, it looks and feels right. Obviously Silver got a big moment and good for him. The enhancement talent was there to enhance and enhance they did. I'm glad to hear someone actually mention Hangman Page. You guys know how I feel about that. And more glad to hear Chris Hero name dropped. Kingston namedropped Homicide and Homicide showed up, so.... Anyway, I'd like go back to the early days of the Dark Order and show people this match and the reaction they got. Wight vs VSK, RSP, and CPA: The crowd deserved the show given how hot they were for everything. Great reception for Wight. If you treat your giant like a big deal and like a giant, he becomes an attraction. If you put him on TV every week like some other guy, he becomes another guy. This followed a time-tested formula and was super entertaining and the crowd loved it. Like Tony, I want to see Wight chop Austin Gunn, so good for everyone involved. I looked up VSK and RSP (more on that in a second) but not CPA and he came off as a pretty funny undercard CHIKARA character with his stilted, constipated motions, but you probably don't want to showcase too much of him in a bigger role as that character. Anyway, RSP. So he wrestles as a corrupt judge who feigns polio and uses a cane as a weapon in Olde Wrestling. Do you guys know about this? A little goes a long way in watching it but it led me to check out Segunda Caida favorites, the boys from Jollyville as the Jollyville Jeepers, Clean and Jerk, and it's awesome to see those guys interacting with kids and what not considering their usual setting. Anyway, this was great and I'd love to see a match like this once a month or so. Promos: I have no major opinion on Scorpio Sky but that was a really good promo from him. Acclaimed: I had listened to the back half of the promos (the out of character ones mainly) at 2x speed and Caster sounds pretty damn good at 2x speed. Just saying. That said, showing the crowd Griff and having him not second Pillman (but having Julia there) was a choice. Need another match or two, but that crowd couldn't take much more so I get it. They did a good job filling the 40 mins with other stuff at the end.

Dark 9/21: JTX vs Wardlow: JTX had some pretty good strikes actually, and Wardlow leaned into them. I like how Wardlow's methodological pace stands out in AEW. I'm not entirely sure about his overall presence. He seems a little dopey for a monster maybe? He can work on that to a degree. Power Bombs looked great. His stupid corner knee thing didn't. Ref should have called the match between the fourth and the fifth one. I get that you want to put over finishers in these enhancement matches but maybe he could have hit that after power bomb two and kept powerbombing until the ref called it? Because as it was, he called it once the violence seemed to be over and not when it seemed to be escalating/continuing. Big Swole vs Allie Katch: Definitely not a cat. I have a lot of time for Big Swole's entrance. Real high energy and again something that feels a little different. Katch's offense looked pretty nasty. I also have a lot of time for Dirty Dancing as a finish, as much for the name as anything else, but you do get the sense she can end a match at any point with it, which will serve her well in years to come. I have less time for the rest of her offense, but she's got time. Taz bitching about having to call the stips on the 2/3 falls match was funny. Santana/Ortiz vs Chaos Project: Yeah, look, Santana and Ortiz have a problem where they do six things when they should have done three. I liked the early bits where they were controlling the arm and theoretically using that as a bridge to hit their tandem stuff but it was all just too much (and quickly dropped anyway). I like Serpentico in theory and think he could get a Fuego type run at some point because of his little bits of enthusiasm and connection. I absolutely love how Luther uses him as a weapon and think it's just wildly creative and original and interesting and I think, contradicting what I said about Santana/Ortiz, he should do almost no offense that isn't using Serpentico as a weapon. It's all they have going for them; lean into it to stand out. The use of him to block the dive was lovely. I didn't love the transition where Santana just ducked Serpentico running to whack him with a clothesline, but later on Serpentico did the same thing on Ortiz with a kick instead so I can forgive it because there's some inherent build there (earned spot). The finish was really funny to me since it was Santana hitting a move on his own partner, just like Luther! with the mare on Ortiz to hype up the Cutter. I do like how Ortiz and Santana have enough stuff that they have a couple of finishers but if they grounded their big spots in actual tag team wrestling, the world would be a better place. I could see myself skipping them more and more in the months to come. Janela vs McQueen: Ok, I get McQueen's a student and paying his monetary dues but JTX was more over with the crowd and he didn't get an entrance and a robe and a crown. I'd like to be nice to these kids, so I'll say that McQueen's movement in the ring looked good, but I had absolutely no idea what he was trying to be character-wise. Ozymandias? I kind of hope so as that'd be a fun gimmick. Anyway, I know Janela's been around the block but it kills me that he doesn't make all of his errors enforced errors. The knees up on the senton was a good little bit of hope for young, hopeless McQueen but it would have fit Joey's character and the match up until there so much better if Janela ran into it because he was taking his time posing or celebrating or being the bad boy or calling out to Kayla for emotional support blanket moments to reassure him or something. Not only would it lead to a better, more character-driven narrative, but it actually protects Janela's other stuff and makes him look better because the only way anyone is getting one up on him is because of his personality, not his wrestling. The spot where McQueen went over the top right into Kayla's arms was very good. Conti vs Tucker: Half of Conti's stuff looks really good. The other half is a little too collaborative and really depends upon her chemistry with her opponent which wasn't quite there here. I thought Tucker had some unique gear and that one really great knee in as a spot. I also thought she went over REALLY well for the throws early on. My favorite thing in this match was one of them figuring out that the fans were clapping up for Conti and Tucker did an audible into a chinlock to feed into it and cut it off with a hair pull and then go back into it for the "Let's go Tay" chants for the comeback. It wasn't the smoothest thing in the world but it was appreciated. DDTay is just a horrifically bad name. There was good and not so good here, like the do-si-do and some molasses moments but they're honing their craft. Johnson/Anderson vs Stewart and his partner Luke something: Sorry Luke. Lots of matches here. I liked Stewart's thing with the sunglasses. That's why I remember his name and not the other guy. Johnson looked pretty good in there for his experience level. I would have liked him timing his punches to the fans clapping along when he was fighting from underneath because that sort of gives them a cookie for being part of the show (I very much liked the walk over the back callback of course; this stuff is in basically every AEW match and good for them). Anderson is very new at this but doing what he should be doing. Obviously he was going to be a little ginger between moves and some of the angles would be off but it's ok. Early days. I liked how this match could have been taken from 1994 without any deviation. Good pacing. Good, solid ringtime for these guys. Learn how to do this and then the more complex stuff will come. Hell, in a perfect world, it'd almost barely even have to. FTR vs Greene/Rogers: I loved the first five minutes of this, no question. That sort of stuttering heel control where the faces get shine. The balance is tricky here as you don't want FTR to stooge too much or to have to rely 100% on cheating and really, it was more like them having to rely 50% on cheating, so it was very good. I've been watching so much French wrestling that there were times here I wanted the faces to hang on to an arm during a power slam and keep the hold going but that works in a 30 or 20 minute match and not in a ten minute one. The whole appeal of the Revival was that they took traditional tag structures and overlaid 2010s move and combos onto them and frankly, other than the finishing moves out of Cash, there was much less of that here and they leaned even more into very, very plausible and logical offense, including creative double teams that were not at all cooperative. Cash's back elbow in the corner was great and the miss to set up the extended (see: earned) hot tag really worked. I'm not super familiar with Greene but I knew he worked a sort of uber 80s gimmick on the 80s. I was surprised by the athleticism here. The dive by Rogers at the end was crazy and worked to set up the finish. I thought it was interesting how so much of the finishing stretch (either the pin exchanges or the final bit) were straight one on one. I don't think anyone puts more thought (maybe equal but not more) into what they do than FTR and it's great that they're able to have a canvas like this to experiment with game opponents. I'm much more interested in seeing them work matches like this than against a lot of the top of the tag division. Bunny vs Kay: Maybe my favorite Bunny squash so far. She portrays deranged viciousness well most of the time. There's probably a limit on how far you'd want to push her, but as a second and mid-card heel act, she's good at what she does. Kay was ok. The back handspring for the shoulder in the corner looked fine and not contrived. She took stuff well enough though I don't think I ever fully bought most of her little bursts of offense. While I liked Bunny's knee usage, I think she needs some more interesting/stylized cutoffs maybe? It's not one-size fits all. What might work for FTR wouldn't work for her and etc. Archer vs Kross: Fun beating. Kross got some hope to begin and I wish he didn't. It'd have been more funny if he did some of his usual goofiness and just got crushed for it. The way Archer starts his matches (carrying or chasing his opponent) is part of the appeal right now, so here was a prime opportunity wasted. Kross sure threw himself into all of Archer's offense though. Wingmen vs Dark Order: Avalon's facial expression after Silver's huge beale was the best part of the match. Second best was the fact that you KNEW after he couldn't hit the double suplex that it would turn into the big transition to set up the hot tag. It was 100% the right move. You can't tease it and not deliver and there's no reason to get too fancy with the structure here, on Dark, with the comedy heels and the Dark Order. I liked how Nesmeth's double neckbreaker then completely failed later, as he deserves. I wonder if the overarching dissension angle should have been played up more and they decided not to do that because -1 was there? Nothing to dwell too much on. I'm glad he got to spend some time at Universal. Just a thought. Other highlight was Taz's commentary about Hook and how he'd do whatever and didn't listen to him. Funny stuff. Garcia vs Angels: Garcia is an extremely natural jerk in there. You don't get the sense he's some guy playing pro wrestler. I'm not sure what sort of trajectory these guys will take over the next many years, but as much as Moriarty and Garcia could have years of feuding in front of them, Angels and Garcia could too. I thought they had very good chemistry here. Angels' big dive was great though you really felt the absence of the Dark Order with all the 2.0 interference. They could have played that up more on commentary. I'd like to see Angels in an odd couple tag team with a bigger and higher positioned babyface (like a Kingston or Mox) at some point. I don't know; these guys are all new to me. Factory trios: Better use of QT here as he came in after Comoroto destroyed Carter(?) and snuck in at the end to claim the victory. Comoroto's one arm powerbomb out of the corner was awesome. Match was laid out fine with the enhancement guys getting a shot in each and then getting crushed. Drake vs Cabana: This was good. Again, too many faction distractions to create transitions on this show. Here Uno and -1 were ineffectual out there. Drake is one of my favorite guys in AEW so far (and I badly need to watch that Cobb match that was suggested to me; I'll get there as I only just saw Punk vs Darby today) and he played into Colt's comedy stuff well early and had some big cut offs later. He has a different body type than anyone in the company and is pretty good at leaning into that. He knows his place on the card and the meaning behind his stature and gives pretty appropriately accordingly. I'd like him as FTR's heater personally. Colt's like watching an old friend. This one would have been a good place to have the Dark Order (even -1) play into the finish by halting Wingmen interference and make everything on the show so far pay off, but you can't really do that with the dissension angle, so they were stuck. I think a little more thought could have been given on a show where you were going to have FOUR Dark Order matches. Kingston vs Bear Bronson: I would have probably placed Drake vs Cabana earlier in the show because there was a little bit of overlap in body types and some moves (like the somersault avalanche in the corner). Plenty of differences too though. They really went at it here. Kingston's got that quality of a lot of wise folk heroes in pro wrestling history to always get shots in and fire back when you're eating offense. Here he was shooting chops in while he was getting picked up. He knew what he was in there with and he knew the opportunity inherent in having him as an opponent and how to put him over and make himself look all the better in the process, down to the post-match promo where he talked him up for a second before getting on to business. And nothing about this hurt Bear because he's in a tag and not used to wrestling singles and because he took everything Kingston through at him and dominated a lot of the match, even though Kingston was never even close to being out of it.

I've been reviewing Dark and Elevation over at DVDVR. Let me cross post back the last few I did so you guys don't feel I'm entirely joyless or whatever: This is very much me dipping my toes into the promotion so bear that in mind. I've only been doing it for a couple of weeks but excuse the multiple long posts. Elevation 9/20: Rosa vs Kaia: You guys realize I haven't seen much Rosa right? I'd say 75% of what she did looked really good. Loved the chop to the stomach and the face, loved the dropkick to the back in the ropes. I think she gave Kaia a little too much because while her rib shots were a good idea, the execution was really lackluster. I thought there was a moment where she just took back over and wasn't going to give everything back but then Kaia hit the quizzical jawbreaker (which was worth it for Eddie's Ogawa reference but not much else). Biggest issue I had with Rosa was her goofy back somersault after the cool dropkick to the back in the ropes to set up the next spot. I'm sure that's one of her signature moves/flourishes and the crowd expects it but she was way out of position and instead of it adding to the move and setting her up for more momentum, it just looked really silly. Otherweise, she moved very well in there. My gut says that this one stuck too close to a script that Kaia couldn't quite execute and maybe Rosa should have called an audible and just goozled her for her own good? Happy to see more Rosa but I'm not over the top wowed out of the gate. Gunn Club trios: It's funny how much we all used to resent Billy back in 2001 when he was taking the IC belt from Benoit and whatever. Now he just makes it look easy with a simple matter-of-fact confidence that goes along with his size. I think it would have been commonplace 30 years ago but it's nice to see now. Austin's interesting to watch? Sort of Brian Christopher vibes with how hyper and over the top he is. He fed well for a second or two in the comeback there and wasn't afraid to bump. I'm less sure about his offense. It was always neat when Billy started using that armdrag/suplex/powerslam thing in the early 00s. It finishes a ton of French matches actually, but Austin used it more as a neckbreaker like Colt. I like the legacy element there anyway. I don't think Colton even got in there so who knows. Other side was fine for what they were expected to do. No comments. Dark Order Explodes: I thought everyone was good here with Colt putting on an excellent, excellent performance. It was a little overwrought, went on too long, and needed to be refined into tighter emotional beats for the sake of the crowd. I get the idea that it going long meant that the pressure just kept building for Colt to fire off on Angels, but it wasn't entirely worth the time invested to get to that point; they could have gotten there sooner and with less noise, even if there was some artfulness to the mess. And the proof there is the crowd not really being into this despite caring about everyone there. When Angels pegged Cabana on the apron, there was a disappointed/sad oooh and that worked with the brief please don't fight chant, but otherwise, it just wasn't resonating. The mask ripping was a huge moment but then they went around one too many times with the finish. Would have preferred Angels pegging him, Uno trying but Angels ducking it for a roll up pin instead of what we got. All these guys are committed to the act, but I love the way Uno moves like a video game minion or something. Cassidy vs Verna: This was quick. My head cannon says that Verna going so quickly to kicking Cassidy in the gut meant that he played right into his hands (as opposed to a more featured match where Cassidy's opening shtick would last longer) and led to the quick finish but of course that's ridiculous in a good way. Lookswise, Verna should probably be on NXT 2.0? Private Party vs Santi/Goodz: This might be the first time I've seen Private Party and they looked good in a squash. Quen's little flourishes as he does moves (like the hands on his head during the rana) are fun and because he's on my mind, makes me want to see him against Cassidy who does similar but very different things. Good little tag team maneuvering, nice tandem Kaientai DX style bits. Not sure how they'd do in a real match in putting this stuff together (as i could see them not implementing their offense into the tag structure but just spamming it, which is a problem with almost all 2010s and on wrestling) but this was a fun squash. The quasi leaping hot tag from the other side was annoying because it wasn't at all earned. Shida vs Slamovich: Ok yeah, this gets the full Worldwide point or whatever. Chippy as hell despite them doing some acrobatics and elaborate stuff which is always impressive. Slamovich took the rana right on her head and then, a little while later just ate that headbutt in the corner. Maybe you don't do dragon suplexes in the middle of Elevation matches? I don't know. Hard to say because I still kind of went nuts for it. I love that the move that took extra effort here wasn't the finish but the sit out dominator which was the thing that turned the tide and put Slamovich in a state that she wouldn't recover from, even if it took a couple more moves to put her away. Good stuff. Kiss vs Janela: Great opening minute or two here with the initial hot attack, the dive, the shot back to the ring with the blood, and then the shot to Kayla taking out Sonny. Just a lot to process one after the other and a pretty perfect way to open the match. After that it was a sprint which was brutal and high stakes (that bump on the apron!) but maybe didn't lean into the animosity as much as I would have liked. Kiss taking a few detours from what was laid out to attack the wound between spots would have been nice, for instance. Look, kicking out of a Spanish fly and two pile drivers is not cool but I'm ok with fiery and revenge-minded Kiss doing it before a banana peel finish; it just should have been more on Janela to create some space and logic by taking time and getting heat before the pin. Protect moves. Santana/Ortiz vs Dunn/Good: Well, I guess we can't really say how Dasher did, huh? Yeesh. I haven't seen a lot of Santana/Ortiz but they had a good flowing rhythm here, while maintaining their image/persona/presence. The contradiction sort of makes it work. Again, it works as a squash but I imagine in a real match it'd all be spots back and forth as people disrupted it and they got it back, but I can't know that for sure. I can't see these guys hanging out with Jericho. Dustin vs QT: So Dustin's a pretty amazing pro wrestler in how good his stuff looks, in how he works from underneath, in how he engages the crowd like no one else (but maybe Christian) does in 2021. Maybe that's all we should say this week? As for QT, I wish he wouldn't work quite so strong. I think there are things he does well but he should work 20% more manager-y and chickenshit. That would serve him better for his role on the show. He's a guy who shouldn't be doing a top rope superplex without some outside help, that should use that Enzuigiri as an opportunistic desperation move more and something maybe that he's surprised that he hits. I don't know about the power bomb. He's best served as a more Heenan-like figure in a six man. Still dangerous when he smells blood but will probably lose a fair fight. General thought: Eddie is such a joy to listen to but there's definitely a sense that we're on borrowed time with him in this role. Let's enjoy it while we can.