LaGoosh

So Darby Allin's week has consisted of a brutal TNT defence, flying straight to Mexico where he got his ass kicked by Hechicero and was thrown down a flight of stairs, from there flying straight to New York where he ran the New York marathon and he's got Blood and Guts on Wednesday. What a life this absolute nutter lives.

Possibly the greatest 6 match card show in history. Perfection. Gonna suck when 5 more matches get added to it.

Looked into these a Shiloh Hill's real name is Thunder Justice Keck. I mean that's surely a name made for wrestling.

I'll give it a miss. How are my boys Xander Clax and Harlem Bishop getting on?

The fact that they are seemingly getting a 30 minute overrun every week now suggests the network is happy for them to do what they want. Yeah there's a risk around cost cutting but also wrestling is comparatively cheap live content that is guaranteed decent ratings so they'll be fine. Also there's unsubstantiated reports that WBD actually own a percentage of AEW so that'd change things.

Bubba Hotep

Does it really make any difference? Why would someone already planning to watch Blood & Guts change their minds to watch Cody and Cena doing something no doubt boring and shit?

The last big TV rights deal they got was essentially the stamp of success I think. And according to Meltzer the company is running at a profit now. I think fans judge modern day success to what we're used to historically. But as you say the landscape has changed. Their PPVs are commercially successful and they are maintaining their live TV ratings at a time most other shows are dropping live viewers. More fans in the building would obviously be great but it's the TV rights paying all the bills these days. Personally I don't give a shit if AEW loses millions per year as long as I enjoy watching it. Tony can afford to keep it going forever. God bless that weird lunatic.

That was my thinking. Orange, Kyle and Roderick added to make it 7 on 7.

He'd jump at the chance to hang around full time with all the young female wrestlers. Spend half his salary on Starbucks gift cards. I remember HBK on the Edge & Christian podcast and they asked him who he thought was going to be the next big stars out of NXT and all he talked about was all the cool moves people were doing. No characters, promos, ring work, just cool moves. I think of that every time I see a clip from NXT and it's almost always some utterly generic and forgettable super athlete doing an incredibly convoluted dumb high spot.

Why's it better? Is HBK doing a good job booking NXT? Looks like just replacing one twat with another to me.

Excellent episode, that. Action packed, loads of great stuff. The highlight being Claudio launching a bin at Austin Gunns then catching it perfectly after it bounced off his head. Three things though: 1) could have done without Fletcher vs Perry. I like Jack to an extent but he wrestles every match like he's main eventing a PPV and he's Kenny Omega. I wish he would tone it all done and work as a sympathetic, underdog. His matches would be a lot better. You could have left this match off the show and just kept the Fletcher promo for the same result and either made the show shorter or used that time for promos, angles etc. 2) I love the Swerve story. Two soft ex-WWE guys who came for fun have got themselves in big trouble by aligning with a fucking psychopath with no limits while Hangman tries to calm everything down but Brody King is out for blood. Great angle. However I hate the way the Swerve video was shot. It should have felt chaotic and real and shot on a phone(like the Jokers video threat in The Dark Knight) but instead they went for "aura" and "cinematic" which took the wind out of it, in my opinion. 3) they've always been pretty bad at this but just following and building angles through the show. After the New Level angle what happened? Did Brody King find Bandido? Is Bandido dead? Are New Level trying to get in touch with Swerve? What's Hangman doing? Just a couple of 45-60 second segments post angle spread over the show really helps sell an angle and make the shows feel more coherent. Everyone disappearing after a big angle always feels so weird.

I know that booking two Blood and Guts matches, an Anarchy in the Arena match and a Texas Death match to all take place in basically the same week is fucking bonkers and pretty dumb but 11 year old LaGoosh would think it was the greatest thing ever. So I'm going to listen to my inner 11 year old. Can't bloody wait!

Agreed re Kyle Fletcher. They booked Swerve the same way. He essentially jobbed his way up the card as a heel act until finally getting big wins over Hangman. Once he got that big singles win he's rarely lost a match since. I imagine they'll do the same with Fletcher.

Ah ok. Well yeah that's fucked up.

To be fair Saudi Arabia is fucking massive and there's loads of areas nowhere near the Yemeni border which are highly unlikely to get hit.

I'd love more than anything to have Samoa Joe in a C2 but no idea if he's physically up to it. And obviously Omega is the ultimate dream but I'm guessing he's definitely not physically up to it.

I doubt it. Rampage looked like Tony Khan booked it in about 20 seconds most weeks.

Oof.

I wish they would bring Rampage back. The roster is so stacked now that there's loads of people who are fucking brilliant who will never get consistent and substantial TV time. They have the roster now where Rampage would be ace.

Yeah I wonder if I hadn't seen it as a kid I'll reckon I probably wouldn't like it.

Se7en? I've literally never heard anyone say that film is terrible! It's a brilliant film. Ghostbusters 2 is a bit cack but definitely has it's charms. I think it's mostly let down by Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver clearly not being arsed about the whole thing. I love some of the monsters in it, especially the court house scene.

Fun Collision. They've made a massive error having Team Ospreay vs DCF for Blood and Guts. A Deathriders/Conglomeration vs The Final Outfit/Cut/Whatever feels way more fitting and exciting. Would definitely be a better match! Particularly enjoyed Claudio Castagnoli in the Superman babyface role this week. He looked fantastic!

FTR, man. I love watching them wrestle. They are so smooth and perfectly in sync with one another while also being totally believable. Their work is so tight and convincing. Just a joy to watch them in the ring.

Jay White would be a good promo if he would condense it a bit. He's always taken five sentences to say something he could say in one. I'm unsure about this new group. Juice Robinson looks fairly lost out there and The Gunns are a brilliant babyface duo. Just feels like the wrong time to turn them heel when the Bang Bang Gang never really hit the heights they could have as a babyface group.