Stiva

I’m all the way into this but I suspect Moxley has a bit to go yet. Tuned in to potentially get The Briscoes and I got Kyle O’Reilly, looking like a pop-punk bassist, making silly angry faces. Can’t say I’m too thrilled at the combination of overly-long Undisputed Era matches and Nick Jackson overacting but I’ll let it play out.

I haven't seen much of WWE this year but, had he signed, would people want to Sami come to AEW and do a similar gimmick or would people want him to go back to El Generico? It seems like the latter would have been a bit of a regression considering how much he's come along as a performer.

My longstanding view on Orton is that he’s been in a lot of great matches but I don’t think he’s ever been the best man in those matches. I can’t see that viewpoint changing even with re-evaluation. Maybe he was the best man in those matches with RVD, they always had a weird chemistry.

Does Owens have enough name value and cache to maybe get on that "PPV Program Once Every Quarter" sort of deal? The Edge contract, if you will.

Page/Bryan was absolutely incredible and I can see the logic in having them go again at BOTB. I had a feeling that post-WWE would see Danielson attempt to go long again but to see that he’s actually better at it than he ever has been is pretty wild. Page wasn’t quite on that level but it’s fair to say that nobody currently working is even close anyway. Would have popped for the Briscoes at the end but Sting having the big moment in Greensboro will be awesome. I guess FTR keep asking to sell for and put Sting over. Black having his own creepy stable is far more preferable than ever seeing Wyatt turn up with his. Hyped for the next wave of AEW debuts now that they could potentially have the pick of ROH. I also love how Darby will also loop back round to teaming with the guys he’s fought tooth and nail in the past and he always remembers to be cagy at first. Great little attention to detail for people who have been with it since the start.

Yeah, Hangman beating Danielson is absolutely the way to get him down as the undisputed top guy. Part of the reason that Danielson has had to turn heel to make it all click, I would imagine. I like the idea of the Dynamite Diamond being the thing that they bestow on someone who they clearly see a lot of potential in and is slowly bubbling over but who they don't want to give a title to yet so Dante being the one to beat MJF makes sense, especially if they pull the trigger on the Wardlow turn.

We've had Prince Nana, now AEW just need to get MLW to lease out Julius Smokes to really cash in on the wave of ROH bittersweet nostalgia.

Janela would be a good fit in a heel stable, I think. Like one of the nWo guys who would stand around clapping while the actual main eventers beat down Lex Luger

Wardlow almost throwing that jobber out of the ring with the F10 was total highlight package stuff. He needs to do that to someone on Dynamite or Rampage

I absolutely love brawls where there’s always a sneaky feeling that at least a few fans went home with grievous injuries because of it and this is right up there. Onita just lashing Dragon Master in the face with his belt is one of the wildest strap/belt spots I’ve seen. Just lashes out with reckless abandon, incredible

I think I’ve personally enjoyed Darby Allin more than any other wrestler but I really haven’t watched enough other 2021 wrestling to speak authoritatively on it, I’m afraid. Just want to say Darby owns

Darby Allin vs Billy Gunn is the result of Tony Khan randomly thinking about 1998 WCW when falling asleep and deciding to just pick TV matches out of a hat.

I can’t see them going right to Danielson/Hangman, I think it’ll be an extended TV feud with someone first. Black shouldn’t be losing so soon again, MJF and Darby has legs and Miro is better than the Lance Archer role of gatekeeping monster to slay. I’d go Andrade as a guy who has credibility to get a shot but can convincingly give Page a good first defence. Or have him give John Silver a title shot for being a supportive chap during the last year. And yeah, I forgot to mention JR but that dude was fucking out to lunch for most of the night. One match had him go on a diversion about European uppercuts that not even Tony knew how to make relevant to the match at hand.

I think Omega is fairly banged up, wouldn’t surprise me to see him take a good chunk of time off after this. I echo what others have said in that this show was the first AEW PPV in a while that felt like a bit of a slog to get through. The Falls Count Anywhere match and the tag title match went far too long and I think the whole show peaked with Darby and MJF. There’s not many arguments you can make about the booking though Jay Lethal wouldn’t be my first pick from the ROH crew. I can see why they’d pick him up and he got a decent reaction so maybe it’ll work out in the long run. Glad Hangman finally got his moment and Punk/Kingston was blow away great. I do wonder where they’re going with Eddie. He’s so good on the mic and has so much credit in the bank with the fans that I don’t think losing to Punk hurts him but there’s a definite sense that everyone is desperate for him to win a big one

I would say he might but I can’t see a place where he fits. Unless they need one more person in the Cody/Black/Pac/Andrade hodge-podge. I think this show is going to be great though and I’m annoyed that I’m probably not going to see any of it until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest. Avoiding spoilers is going to be a nightmare

I noticed that last night but I put it down to potential time constraints. I thought the signing was a good little angle; everyone knows the story now, it didn’t need to be massively rehashed and it establishes Callis back in the mix as another obstacle for Page to overcome. Omega has slowly won me round with regards to his overall character and promo work in the last few months so of course, it’s right when he’s about to lose the title. Well, I assume. The time is definitely right for a change

It may be a tiny detail but Don Callis is no longer on the Full Gear poster. He used to be listed as being in Omega’s corner.

Khan has just announced that FTR are defending the AAA titles against Samuray Del Sol and Aerostar tonight

Yeah, it was fucking great and pretty much everything you'd hope for. Danielson's AEW run has been just about everything you could possibly want at this point. He's working Omega for the Reddit crowd, Kingston and Dustin for the PWO crowd and Aaron Solo just to prove he can work WCW Worldwide style. I can't wait to see what he does with Dante Martin down the line

The end game of this has to be him reneging on his promise, challenging for the World Title and cheating to win it, right? Not that I can see a path to it for him with Page, MJF, Danielson and Moxley all in the running ahead of him

This Too Fast, Too Fuego deal is great studio wrestling fare. I hope they play it totally straight.

Isn’t the night after Full Gear in Page’s hometown? I can see absolutely no situation where that show isn’t built around the hometown boy’s World Title celebration. I’d even have him pin Omega again in a tag or something, just to solidify it

Apropos of nothing, I had a dream last night that Steveson debuted soon and was moving like Khali and was completely lost in some random tag match. I have no idea what my brain was subconsciously trying to do but anything better than that when he does arrive, he'll have improved on my dreamscapes.

I mean, yeah, I wouldn’t be booking Punk in a tournament that he’s not going to win. I wouldn’t book Danielson in a tournament that he’s not going to win tbh.

Punk feels like someone who is always better when he’s embroiled in blood feuds that don’t necessarily need the title. It’s just waiting for the right guy to come along for that; I could see Punk and a heel Moxley pulling off a great feud, at least in terms of angles and promos.