Stiva

Oh dear. What a way to practically undo the goodwill they’ve had with me after a great 2024 up to now. Maybe the ratings will be great but I’m not convinced this is a good idea at all and it feels like a gigantic self-sabotage

If showing this means we can all finally move on from this nonsense, then so be it.

Mark Briscoe winning the title was a great moment and I like the overarching story of Briscoe stepping out as a singles guy, cutting his teeth in the CC and then using that experience to win the big one. Athena really needs to be on AEW TV in a featured role leading up to Wembley. She’s so fucking great

Samoa Joe Vs Eddie Kingston in a series of escalating violent matches would be my pick. Just pick whatever flimsy premise you need to set them off, let them cut promos and you’re off to the races

I see Los Boricuas worked, or are working, a show over Mania weekend so I can only assume that’s why TK needs to free money up

Sometimes you need to do things like the Willow/Riho main event as a way of establishing the women as main event level stars in AEW, even if there are some early pains. Feels like AEW has been staying the course well since the CC when it comes to getting their male roster sorted out and it’s reaping results now (they’re using talent across the three shows really well now IMO) and they have to do similar for the women. Especially if Baker and Hayter are to come back

The most I’ve liked AEW Hardys is when they were having concession brawls with Butcher and the Blade. Everything else has been pretty mediocre but if they transformed into broken down brawlers where Matt throws his right hands and Jeff builds to one big lunatic bump, I’d be fine with that every so often

Thank god he’s gone. Not sure what annoys me most; the awkward silence after he says most things, his terrible attempts at back and forth with McGuinness, him randomly shouting certain moves with some strange voice and accent or randomly interrupting people to shout at whichever heel happens to be walking past the announce table at that point

I have no idea if Sting is going to job on the way out but it wouldn’t surprise me if he does and we get asshole EVP Bucks as champs. Though I don’t really think they’ve done a great job with establishing a challenger unless they go with Claudio/Moxley opposite them. Though, having Joe pin Hangman is an easy transition into Heel Hangman and Heel Bucks moving into a feud with The Acclaimed and winning the trios titles. Its way down the list in importance but I have a feeling that Trent costs Cassidy the International title tonight and they pull the trigger on his solo run

Giving Schiavone a $25 Amazon gift card was an absolutely fantastic little touch though. Pitch perfect lampooning of the kind of thing out of touch, billionaire corporations do to attempt to improve staff morale

They should totally show the whole match on AEW TV. Especially if there’s an angle attached

Cody in early AEW was pulling some all-time babyface stuff off before he got bogged down in his own isolated nonsense. I’m not surprised he’s still showing the chops in WWE but it still remains a surprise that they booked him so well out of the gate. That HIAC match with the sick looking injury was the kind of legendary visual that cements a guy at the top

I do wonder if the Boston show sees Mone and Okada both debut. It would be doubly funny if the branding was referring to Shane McMahon though

I haven’t been commenting on specific shows but I will say that 2024 AEW is the most I’ve enjoyed it for quite a while. I’m enjoying pretty much everything and while I wish they would try and find a balance between some more creative angles and great matches as they did at their peak, it feels like TK has got his ducks in a row in a way that he hasn’t for a long while. I do think they need a couple of big signings to counteract the perception that a lot of workers are wanting to jump back to WWE and I’m not really sure anything they’re going to do will lead to increased ticket sales but eh, I’m enjoying it. I just hope they stick the landing with Swerve down the line

Watched the men’s Rumble and man, they need a way better structure than “Entrant comes in and hits his hot tag for 30 seconds, rinse and repeat” What a boatload of nothing that was. As someone said, for a company that’s crazy hot at the gates, this felt like such an anodyne show in terms of the booking. Talk about playing everything super safe

So, did the AEW/TNA relationship go so badly that WWE of all companies managed to become friendly with them? Does this end with Mike Bailey coming into the Men’s Rumble?

Darby’s matches are attractions because you know you’re getting wild shit in the first minute or so most times out. And he must be doing something right as, in a company where they’ve lost basically everyone to injury at some point, he’s been an ever present.

I don’t have much to add other than agreeing with the choir on how deplorable this whole affair is but you get the sense that if people start digging and you see more women feeling comfortable enough to come forward themselves with their own stories, this could just be the start.

With regards to AEW ticket prices, Khan is also getting a lot of criticism for hiking the prices up for Fulham tickets. To the point where their FA Cup game today is seeing fan boycotts so dude has precedent for over pricing

I assume Joe pins Hangman at Revolution, Swerve goes 3-0 against Hangman in a gimmick main event on Dynamite and then Swerve takes the gold at Double or Nothing. That gives Joe a good 5 months reign and I think that’s about as far as you delay the Swerve coronation without him losing momentum. That’ll probably lead into another “Hangman loses confidence” story which is honestly old ground these days but maybe they move him to Roddy and the International title down the line

It really isn’t a surprise that everything feels better with a guy like Joe on tops who talks about being a bad man and backs it up in simple fashion than it does with MJFs convoluted, work shoot, Attitude Era nonsense. For the first time in a while, TK has actually established some challengers right off the bat which helps

That angle may have had more effect if NJPW and AEW weren’t sending each other talent back and forth all year and co-promoting a PPV together in June. I assume this is building to something there

Khan getting into it with people on Twitter is not really worth speaking about but he can’t really talk about wins leading to title shots when he scrapped his rankings to be replaced by constant open challenges to build title matches

Aside from the main event result and reveal, I thought this was a real slog. The opener was good fun but just about everything after it wasn’t great. I suppose this is the trade off when you go to monthly PPVs. I actually liked Copeland/Christian and thought it was laid out nicely and both guys did well, other than the table not playing along but the ending angle sucked. MITB type shit should be nowhere near AEW. Glad they did the right result with Kingston and Joe in the end. Swerve to get the title at Revolution seems the call but who does Joe run opposite until then? The only babyfaces coming off of wins are Kingston and Sammy Guevara but I guess that school of booking has went out the window with TK nowadays

I’m very glad that we have a change of champ as MJFs Attitude Era babyface shit was wearing thin. This gives everybody new something to sink their teeth into. I do wonder what Cole and the Devil Gang do in the short term while MJF heals though.