The Queen on Hey EW. What a treat. 

Also the rather painful looking spot RJ brings up: 

Great bit of trivia that she won her first title in 1997 from Luna Vachon. Some dude on Reddit wrote up a quick history of that title: 

Emi Sakura, Luna Vachon, and a very obscure title

So it wasn't a glorified house show, it wasn't a glorified TV show, it was a B- Show, it felt like a filler show, it was a filler show but then so are house shows, but it didn't matter what was on the show because the product is hot, AEW could do filler shows as well and their fans would enjoy them, and it didn't need to be a great show because it was just a test to see if French people like wrestling. The crowd were rabid and loved it so the show didn't need to be any better, but the crowd was also the worst thing ever and ruined the show. 

3 stars. 

14 minutes ago, The Gaffer said:

 sore thumb cynicism 

Solo Sikoa’s fighting style. 

See the trick is to sign guys who were BAD IN JAPAN, then they can only over deliver. 
 

In all seriousness I’m sure he’ll do just fine and makes good sense for this angle, but man I find the clip so bloody funny. It’s like an Orange Cassidy or Ebessan spot except he’s serious, which makes it all the better. 

Particularly good one here from the man himself. 

1 hour ago, air_raid said:

I haven’t seen it, but are you guys quite sure it wasn’t “seulement deux” which would mean “only two”? Makes a hell of a lot more sense in context.

 

No, it’s simplement deux. Simply/merely two. 
 

The chant is clearly SAM-PLUH-MON-DURR. Trust me I heard it like 1000 times throughout the show. 

…

50 minutes ago, Daaaaaad! said:

 

The women's tag match though, what the fuck went on there? I was watching with a couple mates and we saw all sorts of stuff start to go on. I wondered aloud if this was only falling apart because we had an idea of what to look for and whether it would be noticeable to a less nitpicky audience. What is very clear, though, is that there really is a good reason Jade is in a tag team with Bianca instead of going straight to singles. I wonder if in hindsight they wish they hadn't had her first title match be with a still relatively green Belair against two women for whom English is not a first language. There was one point where I'd swear she simply laid down to allow a pin.

Asuka tagged herself in and they did that sequence where both of them hit Jade with a bunch of  strikes. Kairi then clearly forgot she wasn't legal. She took Jade down and tried to pin her. Ref told her she wasn't legal. Kairi then inexplicably went to put on a cross arm breaker, then sort of gave up on that and the referee gave up on telling her she wasn't legal. Then they bundled their way over to the Kabuki Warriors corner, where Asuka tagged herself in AGAIN. Then she bundled Jade over to the ropes a second time, where Kairi blind tagged herself in to get back to the order they wanted. I think. 

Jade chokeslamed Kairi, which she had already just done in the previous sequence. Graves even said "deja vu" on commentary. I think maybe at this point they realised they'd already done the chokeslam near fall and were meant to be doing the cross arm breaker spot Kairi had fucked up earlier by not being legal. So she sort of fumbled at Jade's ankle immediately after being chokeslammed and Jade hit the deck. Then they did the double arm breaker spot. 

There were other moments in the match where Jade really blatantly stopped dead and wasn't sure what to do next, but that was the major breakdown and I think it's probably more on Kairi than Jade. I'm also surprised Asuka just stood there like a lemon while Kairi lost the plot. Jade is clearly not ready to freestyle when everything goes tits up, but Asuka  is an experienced WWE pro at this point and I'd have thought she'd be able to steer things back on track. 

But yeah, as you say, putting two relatively green talents (easy to forget that with Belair because she's so good for her experience level) against two non-English speakers and having them do a 17 minute match was a bold choice. 

Frankie Soggy

Frankly Not Crisp

Those Franks are not Crisp

Sir Frank's Shit Bacon

Something like that. One of those. I'm showing my working but I didn't quite land on the answer. 

Haha yeah, bragging about the attendance always comes across as thanking everyone for turning up, I can see why a live crowd might feel like they're part of a communal effort to break an attendance record. This bragging about the highest gross, particularly when delivering a B-show like this one, really does feel like you're rubbing it in their faces. YOU LOT GOT RIIIIIIINSED, GIVE YOURSELVES A BIG HAND. 

The two count/Simplement Deux chant wore on me as the show went on, but they made many of the entrances feel huge and they stayed hot for the full three hours despite being served the most blatant of filler PPVs, so I can't be mad at them. 

Backlash 2024

Opening tag was great. Crowd singing Orton's theme was very cool. Perfect start to the show. Big fiery brawl, getting amongst the people right at the start when they're this rabid was definitely the right move. Was hoping for Jacob Fatu but can't have everything, and I suppose Tanga Loa was a legit surprise if not an exciting one. Paul Heyman is brilliant watching the chaos unfold around him. From the man who has the spoilers to having no agency whatsoever, he's my favourite thing about the Bloodline Black and Silver story so far. I look forward to the day he proudly strolls out to herald the return of Roman Reigns, will be a triumphant moment. Picturing it like Paul Bearer here: 

https://youtu.be/UQyWQDayBpg?si=aV4abkqqssa4SBPU

The crowd was amazing for Naomi's entrance. Her return has been a bit underwhelming for me, thought this was the most important she's felt since she came back. White hot for Bayley too of course, though the "Simplement Deux" chants dominated this one. Bit sloppy and clunky at the start but had a fun closing stretch, loved the spontaneous 3D on Stratton out of nowhere in particular. Ended up being OK, felt like it ended just as it was getting going though 

Priest vs Uso for the "World Heavyweight Championship" in the middle of the show feels a little bit like when WCW called the Kiss Demon's matches "Special main events". It'll feel more important when Punk and Drew are fighting over it but I still hate having a secondary title called the World Heavyweight Championship so much. Jey Uso singles matches without the weight of the Bloodline Saga and Roman behind them just don't work for me. I loved him in that angle but I think it clouded my judgment about his limitations for a while there. People love doing the Yeet but he is not that guy. The crowd elevated this a little bit as they did with most things on this show, but it was a very ordinary TV match that played out exactly as expected. Looking forward to Priest getting rid of Judgment Day. Always thought his look and character was cooler before he had to start adding purple bits and rocking the Viscera bin bag for his entrance.

Womens tag title match had some very very rough moments, can't sugar coat that. Jade still has moments where she looks clumsy and lost, the bit leading into the double cross arm breaker spot in particular looked shocking and the commentators struggled to cover it.  The match falling apart in the middle was mostly Kairi's fault (not sure what's happened to her on this comeback but she has not been good at all!), but Jade clearly struggles if anything goes slightly off script right now. However, on balance, I didn't care. The Jade/Bianca team is just a glorious thing and I love it. They look he business together in the matching gear, they're both insane athletes and it feels like a superhero team up. It leads in perfectly to the point where they face each other on a big stage in a clash of titans, and in the meantime Jade can get reps in whilst hidden a bit in tag matches. For all of the rough bits from Jade in this match, the springboard cross body and the sequence of flinging Kairi all over the place to get her into Jaded looked spectacular. She started doing that towards the end of her AEW run and it looks awesome every time. Not a great match but it did the job and was nice that this crowd got a title change on a show with so few notable happenings. 

Cody's entrance was sensational. Judas eat your heart out. Very good match, comfortably the best on the card. Obviously a bit diminished by the result being 100% guaranteed ahead of time, but still a good'un. AJ Styles is going to have this in his head for a while:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnkS1Ji4BgQ

House show-esque show elevated by the crowd as expected, I did tire of Simplement Deux a little by the end, but they were electric for the whole event and it wouldn't have been worth watching without them. Good main event, fun opener. It didn't hit the heights of Bad Bunny at Backlash Puerto Rico. I hope France gets something more substantial/eventful than this in future, their audience deserves it. 

Savio Vegan also played the masked character Kworn. 

AEW Dynasty 21/04/24

Pre-show

Trent doing the hands in pose on his own, what a monster! Very standard match with Sydal, though I am enjoying evil Trent so far. 

OC/Sihbata vs Shane Taylor Promotions was a perfect pre show match. Comedy, shenanigans, nice energetic pace and a feel good win for the babyface super team. Love Shibata and Shane Taylor as a pairing. OC and Lee Moriarty also have excellent chemistry. Continuing to enjoy Ogogo as part of this group, he did a fine job on commentary again here. 

Six man tag was fine. The Gunns/Acclaimed match on Collision the night before was better than it. Obviously the correct outcome, hope to see some bangers for the trios titles over the coming months now that they've done the admin bit and got them on a team that can do it. 

Main Show

Pac vs Okada was a cracking opener. Very much worked at an Okada New Japan main event pace at the start and built to a nice hot closing stretch. Absolutely loved how much Okada played into the crowd's adoration for him for the first half, only to instantly turn every single one of them with the middle finger and go full scumbag for the rest of it. "Fuck Okada!" chants from 6,000 workrate perverts, I love it. I think they have to be that on the nose with it to make AEW fans boo Okada and it was perfectly done here. Pac's bumps are a thing of beauty, made all of the big spots look utterly devastating, particularly the DDT off the guard rail and the Rainmaker at the end. Would love to see these two go again. Been gushing about Pac since he's come back, but yeah, once again, his return has felt as big as any of the new signings to me, the man is brilliant. 

Six man tag was loads of fun. Loved the teases of Malakai vs Copeland, Kingston going into a mad frenzy and flailing about like Terry Funk, and Mark Briscoe being a hero for the duration. After the disappointingly cold crowd at Supercard of Honor it was nice to see him get the love he deserves from this audience, who I I must say were fantastic throughout the show.  Some great spots in this one, the babyface team spearing everyone everywhere all at once, Brody caving in the guard rail with a death valley driver, Briscoe's chair assisted flip over the post. Perfect finish too. Card length and running order aren't always perfect on these stacked AEW PPVs, but this was the ideal match to follow Pac/Okada. 

Willow banning Skye Blue *and* Kris Statlander from ringside as her house rules stipulation was spot on for her character. Not trying to gain any kind of advantage over Julia, just ensuring a fair fight. Fairly standard TV match but it didn't really matter, we finally get the belt on Willow. Mone needs to go full, unambiguous heel by the time Double or Nothing comes around. Willow is so far ahead of her as a babyface it's not even a contest. Personality, promos, drawing sympathy and firing up in-ring, she is one of the best pure babyfaces in pro wrestling and Mone could be a perfect foil for her. Stokeley to turn on Willow and help Mone win at the PPV please.  Julia's reign was solid, she was a champion worth beating and has come out of this reign hotter than she went in. She's not going to have blowaway matches but she has such a great handle on her gimmick now, and her in-ring work is effective heel stuff even if it's not spectacular. Everything else has fallen into place over the past six months or so. The look, the entrance, confidence and swagger, her promo delivery, how she's used as part of HOB, helping Skye Blue find her persona by association... a real AEW orignal success story and she's still only 22. 

Strong vs O'Reilly was excellent. Really good match. Felt like an extremely hard fought struggle for the duration. They did a couple of fancy sequences of counters, but it always looked like they were desperately trying to beat each other and were incredibly closely matched. The crowd got totally behind O'Reilly by the end of it. He's at his best fighting from underneath, he does a good job selling the toll a match is taking on him, and it's hard not to sympathise with Roddy's opponents when he gets to work destroying their back. I haven't been inspired by Kyle's return and the Undisputed Kingdom are rubbish, but this match was superb. If the Undisputed Kingdom turn on Wardlow before he ditches them, the idiot deserves it. 

Skimmed through Hook and Jericho. Jericho took some mad bumps. He won the belt so Hook remains in the vortex. Ugh. 

Toni Storm vs Thunder Rosa was great! I don't think anyone bought Rosa winning this one beforehand, so I thought it'd be another amusing but fairly routine defense for Toni. Nothing wrong with those I should add, but this ended up being a very hot match and comfortably the best defense of Toni's reign. Loved Rosa going without facepaint, made sense with the build for this one. The big flurry of strikes quickly followed buy the massive tornillo to the floor set the tone and pace brilliantly, and the heat didn't let up from there. One of Rosa's best performances I can remember too, so fired up, one of the few babyface challengers to Storm so far where I felt the crowd on the night would have been happy with her winning. That's been hard to achieve with Toni being so amazing in this role, so I give her a ton of credit for that. 

Osprey vs Danielson was quite good wasn't it? The crowd sounded great all night but it sounded like twice as many people throughout this match. I didn't love the finish mostly because the crowd was white hot and it took a little bit of shine off the ending. I don't think you needed to muddy the finish of the match to sell a rematch between these two. That minor gripe aside it was every bit as good as I'd hoped it would be. The clash of styles, the perfectly built heat and intensity, some truly breathtaking counters and near falls. Felt like the climactic battle at the end of an anime, such was the melodrama of it all. Glorious, beautiful pro wrestling. 

Bucks vs FTR... Two PPVs in a row now where FTR have worked their balls off and Dax has bled a gusher, only for their match to be lost in the shuffle. At Revolution it was the 7th match on a stacked card. Here it was the penultimate match and had to follow Danielson/Osprey. They sensibly went straight into a sprint, and this was a truly batshit spotfest that could have torn the house down in other circumstances. They managed to get the crowd on board, but I think the "please be careful!" chant summed it up. Don't kill yourselves when you're in this spot and the crowd is still reeling from one of the best matches they've ever seen lads. Big reaction for Jack Perry. The security guards pinning him in the corner and taking his mask off was very funny. Must be big Scooby Doo fans. 

Good main event from Swerve and Joe. Tough spot main eventing after Danielson/Osprey but they still put on a good show. Swerve's Black Panther gear was cool. Nice simple Joe formula stuff, methodically destroying Swerve, allowing him little flurries before violently cutting him off. I really liked that Swerve tried to hit Joe with the belt with the ref's back turned. He has organically become a babyface but his ruthlessness and psychotic obsession with winning the title is his whole deal, of course he would be willing to cheat if the opportunity arose and he's never claimed otherwise. Loved seeing the passion and emotion pouring out of him after the win. Similar to Willow and Julia, Swerve's crowning was more important than the match and it felt like a huge moment. 

What a great show that was. The big matches delivered, some of the undercard matches over-delivered, Willow and Swerve both got their titles and I only checked out during the Jericho match. Fantastic stuff. 
 

I cannot comment on which subscription services I may or may not subscribe to, but I sure do Watch a lot of Wrestling. 

Was always going to be hard to top Backlash Puerto Rico, which was one of my favourite shows of last year. The card does look decidedly “OK”. I hope they have some good France-tailored ideas for the show to set it apart a bit. 

Collision round up. Spoilered to try and keep this post even slightly manageable in length. I do appreciate reviewing the older shows might be screaming into the void a little, but I'm in the habit of putting some thoughts down after I watch the shows now. Also helps to break them up when I have a backlog and let them sit a little bit, so they don't all blur together. My hope is also that I can refer back to my own posts at the end of the year to remember what was good and actually nominate some stuff for the awards this time, rather than going "ohhh yeah that was good wasn't it?" reading everyone else's picks. 

Collision steadily got better as April went on. As @LaGoosh says it is in such a good place as the B Show right now. Good mix of snappy promos, reminders and smaller developments for the main ongoing stories and a consistently strong set of matches. 

Collision 06/04/24 

Collision 14/04/24

Battle of the Belts 14/04/24 

Collision 20/04/24

Copeland/Briscoe/Kingston vs Top Flight and Andretti was a cracking opener. Great choice to do the whole thing at 100mph, crowd red hot throughout, and it was immensely satisfying watching Action Andretti get smashed by everyone's finishing moves at the end. 

Delightful squash from Hobbs against an especially sorry looking jobber. POWERHOUSE HOBBS TO WIN THE IWGP TITLE ON DYNAMITE??? Probably not like. 

I have to be honest, I thought Jericho's promo about the FTW title match was good. I hate the direction, I would rather Hook be doing many other things as I've stated repeatedly, but Jericho's disingenous tone here (and how many fucking times he said 'The Learning Tree') were spot on.

Acclaimed vs Gunns was great as well! Frantic pace, wall to wall shenanigans. Mind-boggling how they were able to time everything so well with the interferences and misdirections when the whole thing was done as a sprint. Best thing The Acclaimed have done in weeks, and it would be a throwback match against the Ass Boys wouldn't it? BCG will make fantastic unified trios champs, I hope those titles become relevant and we get belting Collision main events for them. 

Toni Storm promo was excellent. A lot more serious than the usual Timeless Toni promo, really cool to see she can do that whilst still playing this whacky character. 

Bunkhouse brawl was yet another belter on this show. Nigel was hilarious during this. His Clamdigger disclaimer, claiming Hobbs was not 100% in his fight with Moxley because he had a "match" earlier, he was relentless with it. Credit to this match and the very satisfying BCC post-match revenge that they were able to power through the ever-annoying "we want tables" chant. That chant is "What?"-esque to me at this point. They're putting on a barn burner here guys, shut up about bloody tables. That said, the crowd overall was brilliant throughout this episode, so I'll let them off this one time. Excellent go home promo from Danielson afterwards.

Hirsch/Skye Blue was an OK little TV match with an unfortunate slip from Hirsch at the end. The big flipping German suplex type thing off the top from Hirsch looked devastating. 

Main event was incredible! Phenomenal six man tag, crowd once again red hot for the duration. Loved Pac being ready for the Bucks sneak attack at the start after Dynamite. I'm a sucker for little nods to previous matches like that. I also like how The Bucks do cowardice on Okada's behalf a lot of the time, like they'll pull him out of the ring by the legs to get him out of trouble etc. rather than him running away. But yeah, all six on fire in this one, amazing match to round off a near perfect episode of Collision. 

Wrestlemania gave me one hell of a backlog. Still not up to Dynasty yet but almost there. Rampage round up:

Rampage 05/04/24

Skipped Malakai Black vs Chris Daniels.

Roddy vs London Lightning was loads of fun because the London, Ontario crowd really got behind their man. Similar to Jake Haeger in Oklahoma, it massively elevated the match and made it a surprise highlight of the show. 

She's been around for ages but, after watching ROH, Leyla Hirsch challenging Julia felt like an NXT call up. 

Serena Deeb vs Trish Adora was solid. I hope Deeb gets something to do soon, I'm a fan. Deeb should definitely keep using the Paradise Lock, it's a perfect fit for her. Appreciated Riccaboni namedropping Milano Collection AT. 

Saraya and Harley are having such a blast doing these Rampage skits. Those two taking the piss out of Alex Marvez while Zak Knight gurned in the background looking like an Aardman Animations character was quite a scene. He also did a promo. 

Main event was good stuff. Doing this elimination style instead of a fatal four way made it much better. I knew Danny Garcia was winning but the order was harder to call. Rare for me to credit Action Andretti with anything, but he and Garcia had great chemistry and the ending with them as the final two was very strong. 

Rampage 12/04/24

Pissed off Orange Cassidy was great, as was John Silver being total dickhead. The Chuck Taylor tease was good. I bought it. Best Friends break up is so sad.

Leyla Hirsch/Julia Hart wasn't much of a match. Was hoping Hirsch would get a little flurry and throw some suplexes at least. Ah well.

Cool Hand vs Zak Knight, the big match at last. This was good but it didn't have heat because nobody watches Rampage. A real shame as Cool Hand put in a great fiery performance and I have loved following this saga. 

Good main event. I was hoping Jay White doing his thing would make a Matt Sydal match more engaging for me and it did. Love me some Jay White. 

It sure was a Rampage alright. 
 

Rampage 20/04/24

Komander vs Isaiah Cassidy vs Lee Johnson vs Rob Van Dam is extremely Rampage-y. 4/20 elimination match on 4/20.  Because RVD smokes weed, you see. I hope these four way elimination matches on Rampage continue, infinitely preferable to a fatal 4 way. This was fun. Crowd very hot for RVD, Isaiah and Quen being annoying dickheads to add more heat, cool to see Komander and RVD have a solo showdown at the end. They didn't quite nail everything but they were close enough and were trying some ambitious stuff. RVD's AEW appearances are a consistent delight. I love it. Lee Johnson was also present. 

Yuka Sakazaki vs Emi Sakura. Was so happy when I saw the graphic for this match, but it was ruined almost immediately by a horrendous looking accidental fall from the top rope to the floor which legit injured Sakazaki's leg. Should have stopped it there, but she seemed determined to walk it off and finish the thing. It did allow Sakura to show us again what a seasoned old pro she is though, throwing cans of Woo Energy about, teasing throwing them into the crowd and denying them, jaw jacking with the ref etc. It was awkward, but if Yuka was determined to continue it was still very quick thinking to buy her recovery time. A real shame and I hope Sakazaki is OK. 

Ruby and Cool Hand pregnancy announcement was just lovely.

Main event was fine. I love Daddy Magic but I don't care about Kyle O'Reilly vs The Undisputed Kingdom AT ALL.
 

My stalkers travel in sync they on timers 

They be movin’ in herds, Gallimimus 

I haven’t hit the worst I can do yet. I feel there is a depth these can still sink to. This is my truth now. Do not silence me. 

Biters be stalkin’

Copying my voice like I’m Christopher Walken 

Please stop stalkin’ 

I don’t need that noise like cinema talkin’ 

You should stop stalkin’

Take your cue from me, that’s a tip, no chalkin’ 

At the pub stalkin’ 

Lookin’ into Stella like Stephen Hawking. 

You’re really starting to sound like someone who doesn’t support are boys. 

They be stalkin’

Challenging my faith like Richard Dawkins 

Fuck these stalkers

Starin’ ‘cause I’m lookin’ like a snack, that’s Walkers

Whole gang stalkin’

That’s a lot’o’mans I ain’t talkin ‘bout the Balkans. 

Bars for you there. Free of charge.