Jackpot

I don't know Andrade but the crowd seemed made up for him and his arrival seems to of been highly anticipated on here by some. So I'm looking forward to his run. But the Vickie Guerrero pairing needs binning off as does Vickie in general. She's doing the same shit that lost it's appeal 20 years ago. But because of her appalling cock up in announcing Andrade, it seems to be overlooked that she's also going to be involved with their hottest act at the minute in the form of Britt Baker. 

While Britt and Nyla Rose might be a corker of a match, the thought of Vickie being on screen isn't one I want to see. And it also strikes me as desperation on AEW's part that it's "pride" month so Britt's first opponent is the transgender wrestler they have on their books, when Nyla hasn't been seen on Dynamite in yonks. They're really hammering home how much they've got going on with "pride:" that I wouldn't be surprised to see them put the belt back on Nyla and have her make some emotional speech. 

Boss show - with one obvious glaring error on their part. And it's a shame that their errors always seem to overshadow the good. If it's not an exploding ring failing to explode it's Jericho falling onto concrete that became a painted bouncy castle and now it's Cody being Cody. Other than that though it really was a boss show.

Deeb and Rhio was a belter. And Deeb turning the cheers she was receiving into boos by just lamping Rhio across the face was great. She's as good a heel as she is face. If they could sign her to a full time contract it'd be such a good signing for them. Rhio moving to the States hopefully means she's back full time as well.

Hangman and Cage was a good opener for the main show. Taz on commentary is always enjoyable, he just adds that bit more to the match. The inevitable split of Team Taz is going to be hugely beneficial for Cage who looks like he should be a big bastard babyface. I don't know if they can get a match out of Taz but if not it's gonna have to be Hobbs because otherwise it could be a real drag until Starks is fit and ready for a match. Page will continue to rebuild towards his eventual World Title victory and the live crowds are only going to help him. 

Bucks against Kingston & Mox was every bit as good as it deserved to be. The Bucks have always looked and acted as heels, now that they are actually treated as heels they're shining. Mox & Kingston are so good together. And while I hope they continue to team together, I would like AEW to start focusing on tag teams rather than just throwing two people together and having them as a team. The Mox and Kingston partnership does have some logic though. Callis is always good on commentary as well.

Third match and third extra announcer with Paul Wight coming out to do the Battle Royal. It didn't have the memorable moments that some of their battle royals have had previously and the "joker" slot was some lad I've never heard of. It also didn't get much reaction from the crowd or the commentary team. But the winner being Jungle Boy was fantastic and his post-match celebrations with the rest of Jurassic Express were enjoyable. He's not going to beat Omega anytime soon but the fact he's being given the opportunity to face him shows the faith they have in him. 

Then the error. Cody! Given the patriotism of America in general, the hype video beforehand, the American Dream nickname, the stars and stripes clobber, the day before Memorial Day, it all added up to an Ogogo victory that he could get genuine heel heat off for months. But instead he gets beat. And while AEW has a great track record of recovering from their major errors, this is one that should have been avoided at all costs.

Miro and Archer never really clicked the way I was hoping it would but their feud in general hasn't. And that's largely down to Jake Roberts, who is now hindering Archer more than anything. Miro still looks and acts like a fucking monster though and should have a good run as TNT champion. But I don't want him doing the title defence every week thing that Cody and Darby were doing. Make his matches feel more special by being a rarity. Archer just feels like he has no place in the company at the minute. He's just a body they trot out but don't have any real plans for. 

Britt winning the Women's Title was always going to be the road they took and sometimes doing what we all expect is the best outcome. Shida has been a great champion and deserves her recognition (not sure the new title was needed if she was losing it the following night though). She also had another great match last night against Baker, who should be a great champion in her own right. They'll have to build up a really good babyface to take the championship off her.

Sting - wow. I wasn't expecting that level of match out of him or Sky & Page to be fair. It wasn't match of the year but it delivered much more than I was expecting.

World Title match was the outcome we were all expecting but it did genuinely look in doubt at more than one point. PAC and Cassidy can be more than proud of their showings. And Omega was as good as ever. An enjoyable match with Jungle Boy to look forward to, and no doubt a Good Brothers or Bucks six man against Jurassic Express will be on the cards somewhere down the line. I don't know if they could get a Four Team Trios match between Elite v Jurassic Express v Death Triangle v Best Friends. 

And Stadium Stampede wasn't as good as last year's but if you hadn't seen last year's then it stacks up as a really good match in it's own right. I guess we're now going to get the third and final match between the two factions. Maybe a Survivor Series type match with whoever loses having to disband and I don't think I'd be sorry to see either disband. Both are full of people who would be better off on their own, rather than being tied up in this whole affair.

5 hours ago, The King Of Swing said:

Khan needs to splash out on the rights to Simply the Best. 

 

Is that for when Chris Eubank debuts and we get boxer versus boxer in a wrestling match.

Cody and Ogogo has to be made into a flag match doesn't it? That's the easiest way around any issues because Cody can retrieve his flag first, the yanks in attendance can all chant USA USA USA, then Ogogo can belt Cody one on the jaw, break it in storyline and give Cody his reason to be off screen for a few months while he becomes a father. Though they probably don't need an excuse for that since they've already told us he and Brandi are expecting.

I still want Sting to turn on Darby and those two have a feud because I think it'd be the best way to get a match or two out of Sting at this point. We believe Sting can't take too many bumps at this stage of his career so let him be the dominant one in a match and throw his opponent around for a bit and that's exactly where Darby excels, as the babyface who is getting battered from pillar to post. Culminating in a match that Sting's career hinges on and of course Darby wins so he can say he's the man who retired Sting. I just don't think I want us to get there via Scorpio Sky and Ethan Page, who has one of the worst nicknames I've heard - All Ego But No Talent.

Inner Circle v Pinnacle is a slog already. I can see it going to the third match with the stipulation of whoever loses has to disband and it being a Survivor Series type match. And the inner Circle probably getting the win because the Pinnacle really don't feel needed. MJF was at his best as a knock-off Million Dollar Man. FTR are good in the ring but grim as fuck out of it and Spears needs chucking. The split between Wardlow and MJF is the only thing that is highly anticipated within The Pinnacle for me.

Tag Team and Women's divisions continue to improve on almost a weekly basis. If, as expected, Baker wins the title at Double or Nothing then surely Kingston and Moxley win the Tag Title because they can't have every championship held by a heel at the same time. Although it feels far too early to be taking the titles off the Bucks.

Miro and Archer will be a nice change of pace from the sort of TNT Title matches Darby has given us over the last few month. Two big bastards kicking the shit out of each other. From where he was just a few months ago to now, Miro hasn't half turned it around. Has Sabian gone for a kip or is he out injured?

Kenny has to be keeping the title. Cassidy is starting to wear a little thin on me now but PAC is still fucking boss. After Double or Nothing, Cassidy can back floating around with the Best Friends but PAC will need something a bit more meaningful. A Battle Of Britain with Ogogo possibly? And Kenny will continue in the same vein that he has thus far. His reign as champion doesn't feel that exciting.

Hangman against The Machine feels like it's there to keep both men out of the Casino Royale. While it's got some backstory, it doesn't feel like any real attention has been paid towards it. Why has Taz agreed to a rematch for his client when it's his man who's already beaten Page? It'll probably be a good match and a good aftermath, especially if Cage wins again and Hangman's doubts come back stronger than ever. But it still feels as an excuse to keep them out of the Casino Royale. Speaking of which, none of the names in it feel appropriate to be facing Omega for the World Title at this point.  

Could they build up other challengers while Kenny defends the TNA/AAA titles? They've proven with NWA and NJPW that they're happy to have other promotions titles defended on their shows. They could also then have matches not involving Kenny main event their pay-per-views if it's not the AEW Title on the line. And all the while building up a genuine challenger to Kenny and the AEW Title, probably Hangman. 

There might be a bit more doubt around those championships than the AEW Title at this point as well. Have Kenny refuse Darby a shot at the AEW Title so then Sting rings his old mates at TNA to get Darby a shot at their title, that could then possibly transition into a Sting/Darby feud if they ever think of that route. Fuck it, even have Sting challenge for the Impact Title - his AEW debut and the Impact announcement happened on the same show, tie that in some way. I'm sure Fenix/Penta could have a pop at the AAA Title as well as a few others around the world, maybe even Brian Cage who defeated Hangman and has ties with AAA & Impact. 

My biggest concern with the Stadium Stampede match is that Inner Circle will almost certainly win to set up a third "rubber" match (just so the commentators can tell us it's a rubber match because they know what a rubber match is.)

Whether the third match is Pinnacle v Inner Circle or just Jericho v MJF remains to be seen. 

We all seem convinced that it should of ended at Blood & Guts, so to get to the third match feels like it's gonna be a bit of a slog. 

Dunno if anybody likes doing jigsaws online but here's one a mate sent me

https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=2351e0ae3425

Before the event MJF kicks Tully out of the Pinnacle.

Then as the match is about to begin Tony Khan announces a third team of people with history in this sort of match...

"First, the son of the creator, Cody Rhodes...

"Second, the Icon, Sting...

"Thirdly, the man you kicked out of the Pinnacle earlier today, Tully Blanchard...

"Fourth, the Enforcer, Arn Anderson...

"And finally, woooooo, making his All Elite Wrestling debut, the Nature Boy, Ric Flair!!!!"

As much as that won't happen, I can see them playing up Tully's experience in this match as a reason for the Pinnacle's victory.

Where does Penelope fit into this Miro/Sabian story? Surely she can't be happy seeing her husband take a twatting every week.

Does she end up siding with Miro, try reasoning with him herself and getting a right hander for her trouble or sweet talking someone else into standing up to Miro? 

23 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

AEW should definitely do some big bastard fights. Cage, Miro, Hobbs, Wardlow, Luchasaurus, Butcher, Hager, Archer and even Eddie Kingston. Plenty of big lads who can smash eachother to bits. I'd like to see more of it.

Aye I agree with that, though I think they're trying to protect Wardlow and Hager as much as they can. Wardlow because he has the potential to be one of the men they build their company around in a couple of years and Hager because of his legit MMA pedigree (albeit just 4 official matches). Touching on the wrestling is fake thread, if Hager loses a "fake" wrestling match then bigging up his "real" fighting record holds very little weight. 

But the others could certainly have some belters. Miro & Kip v Cage & Starks could play out into a number of scenarios. 

I think I always knew because I was always told by me arl fella that it was "fake" when I first started watching it in the early to mid 90s. But I think the fact that the shows was portrayed as serious and "real", it allowed me to believe in the wrestlers and not my family. Whereas now I feel the characters show a lot less authenticity due to the over-scripted and micro-managing and it comes across on screen.

I know it's not an official AEW championship but given Miro's claims about anybody in AEW holding a title being put on notice, could we get a big bastard fight between him and Brian Cage for the FTW Title?

I still think he'll be the man to eventually dethrone Darby and then have a run where he just goes through people but Darby's run feels like it still has a lot of time left in it, so Miro taking the TNT Title shouldn't happen for a while yet. 

I would never say I've loved wrestling but I respect the fuck out of how passionate some people talk about the sport on here because some talk about wrestling the way I talk about Liverpool. And I know some people get invested in wrestling matches the way I get engrossed in a good close cricket or snooker match. And yet despite all that, I can still get emotionally involved from time to time. And I think that's what keeps me watching is that somewhere along the line, I'll get another Lesnar beats the Streak moment or The Outsiders turn up on Nitro. 

And Sting turning up on Dynamite was very much one of those moments, which is why I watch AEW and not WWE nowadays. I don't feel as if WWE could "wow" me at this current stage whereas AEW has the potential to. 

The fact it's more accessable now really helps as well. We can watch it now whenever we want to. Growing up as a kid in the 90s, if I didn't watch RAW at 9pm on a Friday night then I'd missed that week's show. Even in the early-to-mid 2000s, I didn't realise I could find re-runs of the shows on the internet and, as I said, I was never into wrestling enough to concern myself with buying/swapping tapes with other people. 

But now, there's no pressure on watching the show when it airs. I don't follow any wrestling material on social media (except Trish because a lad has to keep in touch with his number one childhood crush) so I don't get any spoilers either. I can find any show I want on the internet, I've got the WWE network so I can watch anything I want there though I'm only using it to watch old RAW/SmackDowns at the minute - currently on the SmackDown before WrestleMania X8. But again because it's on the network, there's no pressure on when I choose to watch it. 

Jericho forgetting which stable he was meant to be slagging off, coupled with the previous weeks of getting the dig about Wardlow's brain and body the wrong way round doesn't make for good work from one of their most experienced performers.

"I was watching that little Inner Circle sit down with JR...that little Pinnacle sit down with JR"

The Legend Killer gimmick would of worked in almost any era. Every era had it's share of big names who a new young upstart could want to punt them out of the business.

The QT Marshall/Cody angle was the most interesting QT has been but I didn't know any of the ones who've joined him. (until they mentioned Ogogo, I had no idea he was in AEW let alone the Nightmare Factory). If that's the basic narrative that they decide to go down, these are the members of the Family/Factory who feel as if they're under-utilised then it'll make sense. 

Given the mention, and showing, of him the other week is it too early for Arn's kid to come to the rescue?

The main event is what everybody's talking about and that was the general idea going in. Unfortunately it's for all the wrong reasons. There's been enough said about it though so I won't go over it. Or try and work out how they overcome the obvious fuck up. 

The rest of the show was rather enjoyable - minus the signing of Christian. When it was rumoured on here that it was him, it was underwhelming and then when it turned out to be him it was even more of a let down. Solely based on the hype. I don't know who could of lived up to the hype but Christian certainly wasn't that man.

Bucks v Jericho/MJF was solid. The Inner Circle implosion originally felt rushed but it's now felt like it's dragged on far too long. The Bucks still remain the best babyface wrestlers but the most unlikeable people. I think that match should of come after the tag team battle royal though.

Next up was the battle royal and again another enjoyable match with plenty going on. Bear Country need a good push because they're so unlike the rest of their division. They're not flashy, high flying, spot monkeys. They're two big bastard bruisers. Gunn Club are so easy to hate. QT Marshall doing a Drew Carey impression was as enjoyable as anything he's done since he signed. Dark Order still can't get a win but it doesn't seem to affect them or their popularity. Jungle Boy is really being positioned as a singles star now, which will be more than enjoyable. And Death Triangle are every bit as good as you'd imagine them to be with Pac and Fenix being their representatives.

Women's match was fine. I don't particularly enjoy women's wrestling but the match was watchable.

Miro/Kip v Cassidy/Taylor was again fine. Miro will probably kill Kip before the next pay-per-view and move onto something more worthy in the summer or they'll keep them teaming up for a while longer against Jurassic Express. Miro v Luchachurus, Kip v Jungle Boy, Penelope v Marko. The appeal of Orange Cassidy has certainly fell off a cliff since his win over Jericho though.

Hangman and Hardy put on a match much better than we expected. And along with the feel good moment at the end with Dark Order, it just seemed to be a really all round good match. A multi-man blow-off match still seems in the cards somewhere but I think we're starting to see the conclusion of this feud. Page will then feud with somebody else, probably still a bit too early for the eventual Omega feud and Hardy will move onto something new, hopefully more as a manager than a singles wrestler.

The ladder match seems to of taken a lot of stick and rightfully so. It was just all over the place. But during the Sting/Darby/Cage/Starks match Taz did make reference to Scorpio Sky being his "man/boy/mate" (can't remember what term he actually used) so maybe we're getting Scorpio Sky joining Team Taz, which will lead to another chapter in the never ending Taz/Darby storyline with Taz or his boys helping Sky defeat Darby. Otherwise he just feels like the worst choice of the six to win that ladder match. Ethan Page I have no idea who he is but if his involvement was such a big deal, surely he should of won the thing. Cody was Cody and until they realise that it's becoming a problem, they'll continue to allow Cody to be Cody. Archer is great but never seems to get the big win. Penta is great but the reference to SmackDown taunts to get your finisher was spot on. And Max Caster is outstanding on the mic. I wonder if it's Harry and Megs who he takes a pop at tonight on Dynamite. 

Darby & Sting v Team Taz was insanely good. Fair play to everybody involved, except for the Hoodlum Warriors or whatever they were called who just disappeared after Cage tossed two or three of them around. The other ten or fifteen of them just vanished. It wouldn't have made much sense storyline wise but when Hobbs and Hook start getting involved, one of those hoodlums could have come in to save the day and revealed themselves to be Christian. It might have made his signing a bit more enjoyable than what they delivered. But the story of Taz and Darby has gone on too long so if this is the end of it then they truly delivered. Fantastic match.

And then the main event. Bell to bell it was outstanding. And I'll just leave it at that, which hopefully AEW do as well. Just pretend nothing else happened after the ref counted three and Kenny retained the title because reliving what did happen will only sour what was an otherwise quality show.

24 minutes ago, Michael_3165 said:

Er ddid you put AJ Lee and Austin in the same sentence or am I reading that wrong?! 

Somebody suggested AJ Lee might be the surprise the signing. It's just a little nod towards that and in an attempt to be funny, hence why her name is in italics. (or at least that's how it came across to me anyway)

The fact they didn't hype up the signings of Sting or Big Show make me think they really do feel whoever this new bloke is, is the bees fucking knees. Or at least they want fans to think that way of him. And, with all the will in the world, Christian isn't that person. So it's got to be a genuinely huge name in the business or one of the Elite's bumchums who they want a big deal made of.

Or they'll give -1 his first professional contract.

The announcement will come just before the tag team battle royal with Big Show uttering the words;

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, AEW proudly presents to you it's brand new signing the Road Dogg Jesse James"

And then he comes out, partnering Billy Gunn to go and win the Battle Royal 

Get Flair in and complete the Four Horsemen quartet. Are they allowed to use the name Four Horsemen or is that WWE owned? Arn's already on board given he gave the symbol of excellence with Tully and JJ on Dynamite,

Failing that, it'll be Brandi to tell us what she and Cody have decided to name the baby and that the baby is signed to a multi-year deal.

Is this AEW proving to be quite savvy business wise?

I mean this signing has taken people by surprise, as did the Sting signing.

Are they really that good at keeping things under wraps?

A return of Jeri-Show versus MJF & Warldow versus Sammy Hager

*NSFW*

A name reveal and Alex Marvez providing live updates from the ozzy while Brandi is actually giving birth are still to come.

And then another feud with Shaq, who claims he's actually the father of the child after having an affair with Brandi for the last six months with Jeremy Kyle doing a special DyNAmite episode to provide us all with the answers.