Supremo

The run of success AEW is having with the ship jumpers this year is getting ridiculous. Ciampa, Andrade and the New Level all doing some of their best ever work, slotting in perfectly, and now this. How has the weird cringe goblin from Smackdown suddenly turned into an absolute hunk? Did he brush past Steven Borden or something backstage, catching a lethal dose of handsome?! I apologise Draganov, I wasn't familiar with your game.

The streak continues! This week, it was Kevin Owens having a row with CM Punk backstage, storming out of shot, but then throwing his crumpled up wrist tape back into shot, as Punk mutters, “children…” Due to the daft 2D way in which they shoot backstage segments, with everyone presumably slipping into another dimension as soon as they leave the the camera’s field of view, it felt genuinely shocking for someone to reveal that they still exist after leaving the scene. In a company where people are committing arson and attempted vehicular homicide, they somehow managed to make someone chucking a bit of rubbish feel more dangerous and transgressive. Bonus shout out to Sami Zayn quietly developing a similar relationship with Johnny Gargano that Roman used to have with Sami. Gaslighting and exploiting Johnny, it’s a nice little touch watching Sami continue the cycle of success corrupting. What you've lost sight of is what you are. And what you are, is what you hate. You are the WWE champion. You're the man. Ladies and gentlemen, the champ is here. You, like the Red Sox, like Boston, are no longer the underdog. You're a dynasty! You are what you hate! You have become…Big Rome! I think these Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn lads might be ones to watch, you know. They’ve got the stuff. Cody Rhodes also went to the dark place and I couldn’t give a flying fuck. Pull out Arn Anderson’s shooter and pop a cap in Baron Corbin or don’t even bother, Cody.

Late to finish the second half of this show, I’m shocked more hasn’t been said about that incredible Tag Title match. A genuine Match of the Year candidate, it was almost too good, all but killing the rest of the show when nothing else could live up to it. It was followed by matches specifically designed and gimmicked to be fast-paced and/or crazy (Trios two-out-of-three-falls, Moxley’s bloodbath, Clockwork Carnage) and yet none of them came anywhere close to Nick Jackson going fucking mental, seemingly on 30x speed. Liquid pro-wrestling. I lost my mind the longer that madness went on. Do you think anyone alive still genuinely considers the fucking Usos as the greatest Tag Team of all time? Because The Young Bucks are so many leagues ahead of them at this point that it’s not even funny. They’ve hit that Bryan Danielson tier, where they’re not only demonstrably the best ever, but they’re somehow hitting their stride and delivering their best ever work at a point when most careers are winding down. It’ll be a sad day when they pack it in. They’re the absolute best. Cannot fucking wait for that New Level vs. Young Bucks match. They should headline Full Gear.

Seeing all the compilations online left me wondering, did Samoa Joe ever do the, “NOPE,” spot in NXT or WWE? All the (brilliant!) clips seem to be exclusively from ROH, TNA and AEW. He must have done at least one in a Fed ring, surely? Trying to figure out what might be next for Will Ospreay also got me thinking; how many singles ladder matches have Ospreay or MJF had? Assuming they’ll want to eventually do a big pay per view match together to unify the belts, a Wrestlemania-10 style ladder match feels the natural direction. It would fit with Max’s pattern of having arguably the greatest examples of specific stipulation matches. The best Dog Collar match of all time, against CM Punk. The best Iron Man Match of all time, against Bryan Danielson. The best what-the-fuck-is-that-on-his-neck match of all time, against Cody Rhodes. Ospreay vs. MJF in a ladder match certainly has that potential. Max has probably already got the HBK-inspired tights ordered.

How it’s going to feel when the Toni Storm Tapes confirm Willow Nightingale as the culprit, revealing she was a heel this whole time. Still hoping it’s Ronda Rousey. Their confrontation was electric.

Looks like they kickstarted a Toni Storm whodunnit storyline at Wrestledream, handing out cassette tapes to content creators. Cool stuff. If there’s anyone I’d trust to deliver on something like this, it’d be Toni Storm. She’s a creative genius. With the way AEW often understate their storylines, it'll be interesting to see how - if at all - this bleeds over to television. That’s half the problem with AEW sometimes. They trust that their audience know and follow everything and don’t feel the need to spoon feed or endlessly hit fans over the head with stuff. There‘s a fine line, I think. And as with most things, it often feels like WWE and AEW are at the opposite ends of the spectrum, neither finding the sweet spot. Never forget WWE’s QR code campaigns. Always makes me laugh remembering their attempt at subtle, alternative reality game storytelling. See if you can spot the tiny, hidden details onscreen!

When we were at university (twenty three years ago, for fuck's sake), my mate announced to the group that he'd invented the sport, "Folf," which was golf, but with footballs and giant holes. Everyone laughed at him. To this day, the Whatsapp group is regularly updated with a photo whenever anyone sees a FootGolf course in the wild. He's still convinced he lost out on millions because no-one took him seriously.

What is the charge? Having a wank? A succulent step-motherly wank?

Looks like Sheamus’ chin to me. One day soon, Ilja Dragunov is going to wrestle Darby Allin and it’s going to be the scariest match of all time. It’s a great looking B show. Exactly what you want coming off All In. Hoping Moxley loses to Mark Davis, leading to a big Death Riders vs. Don Callis Family Blood and Guts match. Whilst I’m certain the original plan was for Jericho to get the win back, this Nick Wayne thing has became such a meme these past few days I think they have to book Nick to win again. I can’t think of a funnier way for Dynamite to open next week than for him to go bigger and better. “Nick Wayne beat Chris Jericho…again.”

The Iron Man Match with Bret weighs the first run down that much. On a potential to disappointment ratio, it might be the worst match of all time. On Copeland, I wonder if a heel run would work? Slimey dickhead heel was always his best work, but it’s probably too late to even try and in 2026 I suspect a heel turn would just bring out his worst instincts even more. An MJF feud sounds fun, and I like the idea of MJF retiring him, but considering the strop he threw when he couldn’t keep up Ricky Starks (“aw, dude!”), I wouldn’t hold out much hope for Copeland doing promo battles with MJF. The Sheamus retirement match in WWE was fun. Maybe just being Sheamus in to do that again. Realistically though, he probably should have called it career after the wild over-delivery that was the,”I Quit,” match with FTR. It ain’t getting better than that.

I feel bad for Copeland because despite delivering some solid work in AEW (fun run with the TNT Title, good feud with Christian, great I Quit match with Christian against FTR), there’s still an overall feeling that he shouldn’t have bothered coming back from retirement and this second half of his career has done more to harm his legacy than add to it. It doesn’t come anywhere close to guys like Shawn Michaels and Bryan Danielson coming back from career-ending injury and somehow being even better. I do hope he can go out on some type of high. I was a huge Edge guy back in the day, but everything since he came back has felt like the business has moved on and left him behind. Maybe they can chuck him into the Continental Classic to do some of those fun TV matches where the graphic alone melts your brain. Do the Okada and Omega matches that way. Both would make excellent TV main events. Cope’s spoken about wanting to work the Tokyo Dome before retiring, but who the fuck is even left in New Japan, if he wants to work next year’s January 4th?

This Nick Wayne thing is by far the best thing Jericho has done in years. The bit where he kept shooting fireworks off every time he said he beat Chris Jericho was brilliant. Funny you mention Wayne potentially being a good Sammy Guevara because coming off this segment I wouldn’t be against Jericho and Wayne eventually forming a Tag Team. There’s similar chemistry there to Le Sex Gods. You assume Jericho himself has clocked how well this is going, how good their chemistry is, and how much potential Wayne has. I think they’d make for a great team. Has Chris Jericho ever worked with Alex Shelley? In his early years Shelley always reminded me of Jericho. I’m sure I read somewhere that Shelley took tonnes of inspiration from Jericho. It’d be cool for them to do something together, and Motor City Machine Guns fighting Chris Jericho and Nick Wayne could be the way in. Fantasy booking Chris Jericho in 2026. What the fuck is going on?! Tony Khan remains the funniest booker of all time, putting all the best stuff for this show in the final hour, when most people had likely switched off. Saving the fantastic Moxley promo, the Ilja Dragunov vignette and Nick Wayne’s bonfire night extravaganza, all for Collision? You’re a nutcase, Tone!

There are definitely Copeland matches I’d like to look at before he retires, like against Will Ospreay, Kenny Omega, Darby or Okada, but anyone suggesting Copeland should be World Champion has lost their fucking mind. Has enough time already passed for us to forget how truly dreadful Cope vs. Mox was? How awful Cope is when doing the TOUGHEST, HARDEST MAN ALIVE act? The very reason this Tag Team run with Christian worked so well was because it sidelined all that bollocks. Copeland’s final year needs to see him return to his TNT Title form, where he’s having fun matches with people you’d never expect him to wrestle. At most he should be in the co-main events. Never headlining. The higher up the card you push him, the GRITTIER he’ll become, and no-one needs that. Provided Christian can come back from what sounds like absolutely horrific injuries, I’d quite like Cope and Christian to wrestle each other in a double retirement match.