Swerve and Ricky Rozay are a hit the other two are misses. TK could've found two other competent people to pair in this group.

Something weird happened to the audio when Swerve got on the mic. It sounded all echoey for some reason. Also the crowd were shouting something the whole time so I dont know if they were able to hear.

Also isn't the cinder block smashing an old carny trick or something? I feel like I have seen something like that before but using a sledgehammer or something instead of coming down off the top rope.

Think overdoing this gimmick permanently fucked up Stompers neck, or maybe his brain. Or both

Seems pretty fucking ill advised to not heavily, heavily work something like that.

As a martial artist, I’ll say breaking a cinder block is easier than it seems.

 

also I’d be remiss not to mention a recent Corny podcast where a viewer email mentioned that Mongolian Stomper ordered raw steaks at some local diner he frequented to keep kayfabe.

I suppose nothing says "pro wrestling is a legit endeavour" like getting a foodborne illness.

Excellent main event. Jamie Hayter is a bona fide star. Shida has been the MVP of AEW's women's division for years now

Ken Patera did the cinder block gimmick in GCW, which led to the hilarious moment of Gordon Solie having to shut Terry Gordy down when he tried to tell the people watching they should try it themselves.

 

Joe has been cutting excellent promos as TNT and ROH TV Champ. I know the plan was clearly to crown Wardlow again by beating Joe in a singles match, and I was not a big fan of Joe winning the title, but he has completely won me over with his promos and that incredible Darby Allin match, to the point that I now think it would be a mistake to take the title off him. He has been a better TNT champ than Wardlow in 1/3rd the time, although a lot of it is due to how Wardlow was booked after winning the title. Let Joe carry the title until Starks defeats him for it, I say. 

Watching a Dynamite replay, the Indian feed is supervised by a very trigger-happy person: they have bleeped words like "suck" and "jobber"(?!)

5 hours ago, MoS said:

Watching a Dynamite replay, the Indian feed is supervised by a very trigger-happy person: they have bleeped words like "suck" and "jobber"(?!)

Listen, we can’t have impressionable children hearing Pro Wrestling carny terms like “jobber.”  My best friend is from Kerala, and if I ever get a chance to go there, do you think I want to be greeted by a bunch of kids calling me a jabroni or threatening to gig me? 

The obvious conclusion to be drawn is that the directive from WBD to cut back on the swearing was so the company could gain a foothold in the lucrative Indian market.

"Hit the lights, do the creepy crap, let's go!" Wunderbar.

Man, Aleister Black is just AEW's Bray Wyatt, huh. That shit STINKS.

Well at least Aleister can wrestle but the spooky shit is pretty mid.

12 hours ago, KawadaSmile said:

Man, Aleister Black is just AEW's Bray Wyatt, huh. That shit STINKS.

TK really needs to learn how to say "No, actually, you can't do that on my show, it's stupid and terrible" to his wrestlers.

The Lore of the House of Black is pretty cringe, but at least the matches it leads to are solid. It's also mitigated by the fact that they don't actually possess supernatural powers. The mist is the closest they've come to that, but that's just classic pro wrestling goofiness.

The mist literally causes people to turn evil, so who knows. Maybe TK is telling them no and we are just getting the mildest of that spooky shit?

Either way, a Satanist Named Buddy is always going to get a chuckle out of me.

Giving Black buddies (and having one be named Buddy) was a terrible idea. A creepy guy with a cool entrance who does incomprehensible videos every few weeks is fine, but making it a group instantly turns it stupid. The only person who could sell “fake cult member” and not look like an idiot was Jon Huber. (I’m not counting Straight Edge Society, which was a different kind of cult and more grounded.)

My issue with spooky is shit is that it's just corny now. Guys doing their spooky skullz and antlers and blooooood stuff has been a punch line in the culture for like 20+ years now. It isn't Kevin Sullivan in the 80s with Satanic Panic going around. House of Black would be spookier in the current zeitgeist as demon Democrats trying to get various members of the roster to commit voter fraud (and molest/sacrifice children, obv, but keep it in the background). Although I'd rather have HOB spooky fucks than whatever the C grade horror movie garbage Bray Wyatt has been doing the past 5 years.

2 hours ago, strobogo said:

House of Black would be spookier in the current zeitgeist as demon Democrats trying to get various members of the roster to commit voter fraud (and molest/sacrifice children, obv, but keep it in the background).

What in the ever loving fuck are you talking about - and smoking? 

He's talking about how the charicature of an evil lib is way more terrifying to an average joe in the current landscape than the stereotypical satanist like Kevin Sullivan.

Think about Joe Gacy. He is talking about peace, love, safe spaces and whatnot, but is a total creep. His stable is more effective now than HOB or the Wyatt Family, in terms of being creepy, and they all dress tidy.

2 hours ago, KawadaSmile said:

He's talking about how the charicature of an evil lib is way more terrifying to an average joe in the current landscape than the stereotypical satanist like Kevin Sullivan.

Think about Joe Gacy. He is talking about peace, love, safe spaces and whatnot, but is a total creep. His stable is more effective now than HOB or the Wyatt Family, in terms of being creepy, and they all dress tidy.

That sounds good in theory, but nothing about Gacy's act is remotely scary or creepy. Better than Bray Wyatt and House of Black? Sure. But that's an incredibly low bar to climb. Ava Raine is obviously going to be the breakout star of the group. Wouldn't surprise me in five years if Gacy is where Akira Tozawa is now.

The general public doesn't buy into wackadoodle conspiracy theories about voter fraud and groomers and the like, though. If the midterms demonstrated anything, it's that normies are far more terrified of the terminally online right. If the House of Black wants to tap into the zeitgeist, they should become a stable of QAnon shamans.

Evil is simple. A low bastard is a low bastard. HoB and Bray are overthinking things.