Supremo

Big Tone with a great update about Handsome Steve. Nice to have some good news this week. “I talked to Steven just yesterday on the phone, and he was fine. He had no headaches. He had no dizziness,” Schiavone said. “As far as a diagnosis is concerned, that has to come from our doctor because I’m not — I can’t make that. But I can tell you by talking to him, he said, ‘I’m fine.’ He did tell me, he said, ‘Of all the years that I played football for the University of Kentucky,’ he said, ‘I never had a concussion, I never experienced anything like that.’ And he was more upset that he thought that he ruined the pay-per-view by what happened. And I said, ‘No, you didn’t.’ I said, because we announced it and then we announced it again to the crowd. So everybody was very happy that you were okay, so that really lifted everybody’s spirits.” (What Happened When w/ Tony Schiavone) Obviously a terrible accident, and I’m glad he’s okay, but with a pro-wrestling brain you have to assume this is going to make him an even bigger babyface going forward. Good for him.

All the Gang Wars stuff is abject crap, likely building to another boring, plodding War Games match at Survivor Series. Naomi will probably return and make this year’s an Inter-gender match. I don’t care. It’s still a load of GTA-role playing shite. But when Jacob was hit by the car? For a split second, they almost had me. Imagine if Solo was revealed as the driver, dressed like this! “I did it…for The Royce!”

Reports that WWE are going ahead with counter-programming Dynamite with Worlds Collide, despite it being a Pac Tribute Show. Stay classy, Fed. Even accepting that it’s only on YouTube, will immediately be available On Demand, and likely won’t make a single difference to AEW’s ratings. You just wouldn’t, would you? How much is TKO worth? Do they not have a PR department? It’s as if their default strategy regarding optics is to always look like the biggest ghouls imaginable.

Daniel Garcia is someone I worry about. Seeing how emotional he was after losing The Butcher, and then losing a stable mate weeks later? Horrific. I’m tempted to go back and watch that Best of Seven series they did between The Elite and Death Triangle. I wonder if it holds up. Always felt like it would have been remembered far more fondly if it hadn’t happened so soon after Brawl Out, which left a huge dark cloud over everything.

Forever fascinating that whenever one company has the momentum, it’s always the panicked approach of the other company’s creative team.

I re-watched Pac vs. Orange Cassidy. It still rules. Something I’d forgotten about is how even Jim Ross is laughing his arse off at certain points. This was at the start of AEW, when Jim was at his sulkiest over the things he didn’t think were befitting of mainstream TV, and even he couldn’t stop himself from enjoying the bollocks. A masterpiece.

As I understand it, Bully Ray and his gang of whoppers selling out to Radio WWE has meant they no longer cover AEW, so I don’t have to see clips of him dropping his ice cold takes on my timeline after every AEW show. I consider this a huge positive.

Assuming Wednesday’s Dynamite will be some type of tribute show for Pac, surely WWE will reschedule their World’s Collide show? No longer feels like the time to be counter-programming.

Second half of this show was really good. Three-way ladder match was tonnes of fun. God bless Nick Jackson and Cash Wheeler. What a fantastic pair of nutcases. However, despite all the punishment all six guys took, it was Stokely Hathaway who stole the show. I can’t really articulate it properly, but there’s a specific style of bump that non-wrestlers can do where they look like they absolutely ate shit and Stoke’s bump through the tables on this show is one of the best I’ve ever seen. Simultaneously the most violent yet funniest thing I’ve ever seen. Delighted Thekla won. It’s a huge credit to her that she’s somehow gotten even more over since losing the belt. I’d consider putting it back on her. There’s a big babyface run hiding in plain sight here, you dumb bitches. Trios Match was delicious. Still blows my mind what a slam-dunk this New Level run has been. Almost makes me forgive what these pricks did to Big E late last year! Highlight of the match was the crowd erupting every time Hangman and Swerve interacted. Shades of the Trios Match at All Out 2022, when the same thing happened every time Hangman and Omega squared off. Unbelievable considering how many times they’ve gone back to it that the magic is still there with Hangman and Swerve. I’ll have to double check, but they’ve never done Hangman vs. Swerve for the AEW Title, have they? I wouldn’t be against that being next year’s All In main event. I know most Fantasy Booking is wank, and I know we can never feel the way we used to feel about Hangman, but I saw a suggestion for how to get Hangman back into the Title picture the other day that I thought was really clever. Will Ospreay goes on a huge run trying to defend the Title against all former champions still employed by AEW, to prove he’s the best of all time. He wins PPV matches against Mox, MJF, Swerve, Joe, Darby and even Jericho. Then, when the only one left is Hangman, Ospreay and the fans beg him to drop the stipulation about never fighting for the belt, and give Will the match. It takes weeks of convincing, but Hangman eventually agrees, provided we all promise we won’t hold it against him. And then in the match itself Hangman turns heel, cheats to win, and steals the belt.

Horrendous news. I too was going to post that Orange Cassidy match. It’s still one of my favourite matches ever. Like a Proof of Concept of not only how the Orange Cassidy character could work in a mainstream promotion, but also how perfect AEW could be if you mixed the PWG/NJPW-style work with WWE-style comedy and characters. It’s the quintessential AEW match. There’s no greater joy to be had than watching Pac chase Orange rolling around the ring as they both struggle not to laugh. Six years on, I’m still not sure there’s a better combination of characters than Pac and Orange. It goes without saying that he leaves behind one of the greatest match catalogs imaginable, but his character work also needs to be highlighted. Who else in a post-kayfabe world was so dedicated to the act that not only did you never see or hear him out of character, but the very idea of him wearing normal clothes seemed alien?! Wild that in 2026 he managed to develop a character similar to something you’d see in the 1980s, where you can’t imagine him living in the real world, doing normal things like shopping for food, and even if you try to imagine it he’s always wearing his wrestling gear. The Full Gear pay per view was named after his dedication to only ever wear his trunks, wasn’t it? I hope they turn that into some sort of tribute. Big shout for him seemingly knowing his worth, too. Isn’t he one of those wrestlers who simply decided to fuck WWE off, and just went home until they eventually agreed to release him? Hell yeah. Might as well post this. Easily TV match of the year. So much fun. Sunset Flip into the bunker! Incredible. A huge loss. I can’t imagine what people in that company must be going through. What an unbelievably shit couple of weeks.

Depressingly likely they tried to run the spot past Dustin but he was too distracted looking at photographs of guns on Twitter.

This was the highlight of the pre-show. The confidence with which Daniel Garcia announces he’s homeschooled really made me laugh. The type of comedy you’d only get in AEW.

I switched the show off after the Women’s Tag match. Try as I might, I couldn’t shake how haunting that Steven Borden injury was. Even recognising how good some of the work was (Okada is equally the best and funniest wrestler of all time!), I just wasn’t in the mood after seeing something so scary. The way Borden’s hand cramped up as he went unconscious. The way they refused to shoot anything other than the announcers. The scary seriousness of the announcer’s voices. Absolutely horrific situation. Reminded me of Owen Hart’s death. Huge credit to the company. They did everything right. Immediately stopped the match. Kept giving the audience in the arena and on TV updates. Once again, AEW prove they’re the absolute best pro-wrestling company at dealing with awful, horrible circumstances. By contrast, I saw the grifters were out in force. Dickheads like Jimmy Korderas thinking it was an appropriate time to blame the company for allowing him to do something so risky, arguing AEW, “failed,” him. I went back and checked. His beloved WWE had Logan Paul doing the exact same spot in his fourth ever match, so with arguably even less experience than Borden. Fuck the grifters. It does remind me of a valid point I heard recently: sometimes the best wrestlers shouldn’t be trainers because what worked for them won’t work for anyone else. I saw someone theorise that’s why so many NXT graduates are clumsy and botchy. They’re being trained by the most naturally gifted, wildly athletic wrestler of all time in Shawn Michaels, who can’t grasp that normal people can’t do half of what he had the ability to do. “Do this and just be fucking amazing,” only works if you’re actually Shawn Michaels himself. Same here. Maybe Darby shouldn’t be teaching a rookie, assuming everyone else’s body can handle the risks, bumps and punishment he can. Fingers crossed Handsome Steve is okay and can come back from this. Would hate for this to be a Scott Putski situation. I’ll get back to the rest of the show when I’m in a better mood. Fair play though. This was absolutely class. Okada rules.

Tony Schiavone should chuck out the spoilers during Dynamite. ”We understand that Cody Rhodes, who used to wrestle here as Cody Rhodes, is going to win the random six man main event. That’ll put butts in seats!”

Adam Copeland and CM Punk both booked for ladder matches in 2026 is certainly something to see. Let’s get ready to crumble.