Stiva

Thanks for bringing this to my attention. I had no idea it was out there. I’m about 50-60 pages in and can recommend it already.

FTR coming in brings yet another dimension to a tag division that should be set for the next 18 months easily, it’s a crazily stacked division. Lee Johnson should have a job for as long as he wants it; he bumps like a machine and made Cage look like a monster. What a great squash to establish him. Britt is one of the best personalities on the roster, maybe the best. The wheelchair is a great heel touch and it’s so disappointing that there isn’t a crowd to respond to it. The battle royal was fun but if he didn’t before, he feels like even more of a wasted spot now that the roster has filled out nicely. The one thing I do love about AEWs battle royales is that almost every elimination follows a story or builds to something. It’s so simple but it’s another example of them giving a damn. Giving Jungle Boy the shot next week is a nice way to build on his match at DON. I popped for just about everything in the Pep Rally. For five guys that felt thrown together, they’ve really grown into an amazing stable. Ortiz is incredible: eating a wrap with ear protectors on is a hilarious image. Mike Tyson vs Chris Jericho is the summer program I didn’t know I wanted and the pull apart was really good. Fuck it, add Belforte and Cejudo to the tag division and have them put Havoc and Sabian out of my misery Also, if Vickie is there regularly, they need to put her with a heel. Even if it's just to be their personal ring annouincer.

They would have a better shot if they dressed Matt Riddle as Edge, Cesaro as Orton and let them go at it.

Natural Nightmares vs Reynolds and Silver has some strong WCW Worldwide energy. A jobber team busting out whatever new offence they learned that day, a good hot tag from Dustin with the tiniest sliver of an angle running through it. NN would be a great Saturday Night super team

The July show was set to be their London debut and would feature the debut of Anthony Ogogo apparently. I was planning to travel for whatever show they’d put on over here so that’s unfortunate but obviously not unexpected at the moment.

Some stray thoughts: The ladder match was not at all great and was far too bloated with 9 wrestlers. Scorpio, Darby, Cassidy, Fenix/Janela, Luchasaurus and Cage would have been a much less convoluted line-up. MJF/Jungle Boy is a great match-up; one fantastic face and one fantastic heel is really all you need. Archer/Cody was overlong but Tyson popping for everything was great and I’m glad Cody finally won a big match. I think there’s still legs in the feud so it’ll be interesting to see if it’s dropped after this show like Cody’s other feuds. They are really trying with Spears and I still can’t see it. He’s a solid hand but they need to get back to giving him a tag partner and start building some tag feuds outside of the title programs. Nyla Rose has really improved dramatically since Dynamite’s debut. She carries herself so well now and was able to sell and bump really well for Shida when she had to. It makes some sense to get the title on a face since I assume the plan was for Shida/Britt over the title this time but that’s obviously scuppered. Shida’s Tifa cosplay stirred something inside me also. Moxley/Brodie was really good and felt like the match Moxley/Hager was supposed to be. Especially with Mox going wild on the cut and Brodie coming back every time until the choke. They’re really doing an awesome job at making Moxley a badass, tough as nails baby face champion. The Moxley/MJF program is going to be money and I’d be tempted to hold off on it until we have a live audience again. Hangman Page riding a horse into a football stadium is a top 5 entrance, no matter what way you swing it. Sammy really is the unsung AEW MVP. I can’t recall the last time he was involved in something that wasn’t fantastic. Santana and Ortiz were similarly great; they were having the time of their life. I’m hot and cold on Omega but I really enjoyed concession stand brawler Omega since he used just about everything he had available to him in nasty ways. The Hardy stuff was fantastic, I don’t care. Everyone fully leaning into it is what’s making it work. The whole thing felt like a bizarre continuation and evolution of the concession stand brawl, completely helped by the commentary, even JR, cracking up and loving it. I honestly think you could have The Inner Circle and Elite + friends orbit each other for another year in various permutations and it wouldn’t grow stale. I honestly think that may be one of the most genuinely enjoyable things I’ve ever seen in wrestling. Really solid show that surpassed all expectations after a so-so build. Now that they have the whole crew back, the roster is looking pretty deep, aside from the women, and the top of the card could throw up a lot of interesting possibilities.

Chuck Taylor has been out of this match for about 5 minutes for a reason that I can’t even remember

FWIW, I can't remember seeing much resentment toward Charlotte until she got wedged into the Becky/Ronda program. That was a HHH-esque move if there ever was one.

Fenix is out of the PPV, replaced by...Joey Janela. What an incredible downgrade.

I thought this was a pretty solid go-home show. Ten showed some good stuff, MJF worked a perfect competitive squash and Rey/Fenix was pretty fantastic. The two have great chemistry even though those dives after the match were terrifying. Did nobody want to even try and catch them?

The final entrant in the ladder match is a “mystery entrant”. Let the speculation begin

The problem with Otis is that nobody on top is a good enough foil with him. He probably needs someone like Planet’s Champion Daniel Bryan to heel up and cut promos on him rather than Strowman/Wyatt but that can’t happen now, obviously.

Not a lot of tonight worked for me, sadly. In-ring anyway. 2020 looks like it needs to be Chris Daniels’ retirement year and the women’s 4 way was a shambles. Did Santana and Ortiz ever get their title shot? I honestly can’t remember. I imagine Page is handing off the title to Matt Hardy so they have to go over but still, I love me Santana and Ortiz. Vanguard getting destroyed was hilarious. Everyone on the roster taking Matt Hardy completely serious is making it so much better.

I really have had my fill of this production style now. The women having to do their entrance poses while standing in the lobby was preposterous; are we even supposed to pretend these are real people now? Bryan rounding the corner shouting "Is everybody ready for a fight?!" was funny though; that dude knows he's bulletproof.

“Scarlett” seems a fine name to me. Shortening that one is way less stupid than taking guys first names from them. Lest we forget MURPHY

The main event was so ridiculous once it got backstage that I loved it. Matt Hardy's demented face while driving the cart with Omega hanging out the window was an amazing visual. The balls on Sammy to just jump into it too; it was like a Jackass stunt.

Wasn’t the MITB match filmed a couple of weeks ago? So, how does that line-up with AJ coming back? Was that the plan all along? Or was the MITB filming story incorrect?

I think he booked that hot Smackdown run right after the 2016 draft where he made do with a pretty ragtag bunch. I have no idea where he went after that but I presume he's working under Heyman?

My dream future of NXT is Keith Lee as the unconquerable babyface with Stokely Hathaway bringing in guy after guy to go after him. In a world without COVID-19, Keith Lee, WALTER, Riddle, Dunne and Fantasma would be an awesome main event crop on the men's side while they can finally send The Undisputed ERA to bore me on Smackdown instead.

Cody/Darby was good but I wasn't feeling the finish. It felt like overly cute when I was hoping the leg work would play into things a bit more. The idea of tweaking the knee on a bridge is a very neat idea and a natural way to begin limbwork. MJF having a string of minor, career-threatening injuries is fantastic; I was hoping we'd get weekly dispatches from him and Britt Baker and they haven't disappointed. Having Havoc, Sabian and Chuck Taylor all in one match seems like some kind of cosmic punishment, especially considering the stand-out stars in both groups are the seconds. Still, if you have to use Havoc and Sabian, getting a month-long feud designed to put the Best Friends over seems like the best case scenario. And that was a great TV main event. I really wish Dustin Rhodes could wrestle forever but if he can coach the young guys to be half as good as him, AEW will be fine. Seriously. That was an incredible segment; I cracked up huge at the reveal of Raven having her name on her tights and Britt still getting it wrong. It's a shame that her character work is miles ahead of her in-ring work at this point.

I'm not even sure you believe that. Go look back at the threads during Bryan's run to Mania and tell me that AEW has half of the laser focus WWE had then. People were dissecting entire Stephanie promos.

Solid show but it definitely peaked with the opener. I don't see a lot in Wardlow other than MJFs muscle, especially when Brodie Lee is also squashing dudes, looking better doing it. The less said about Kenny Omega letting job guys get sustained runs of offense on him when he's supposed to be a main eventer, the better. They're doing the best with what they have but man, it has to suck featuring Jimmy Havoc every week because he lives in the area. Does Jimmy Rave still live in Georgia? They should have brought him in for these tapings.

Some worrying news from MJF, fingers crossed whatever the surgery is heals him.

Not sure if anyone is still watching this week-by-week but I can fully recommend seeking out the Mike Jackson vs. Johnny Swinger match for a 70-year-old guy who is in better shape than most of us, I'm sure.

It genuinely wouldn't surprise me if they had completely forgot Lars Sullivan is on the books. They have such a bloated roster that someone will slip through the cracks, WCW style.