Paid Members Supremo Posted July 28 Paid Members Share Posted July 28 Wasn’t aware this was Tony’s first attempt at a gimmick from scratch. Makes sense. I reckon we’re only a few weeks from someone data-mining and discovering Hologram has been Tony Khan’s go-to Create-a-wrestler since the old Smackdown vs. Raw games. Cannot believe they’ve brought back the ROH Six Man Titles. Like anyone was crying out when they unified them. I’ll only allow it if The Patriachy immediately unify them again, leaving Christian now carrying six belts all by himself. Maximum Male Models did not disappoint. More daft gimmicks! No flips. Just skits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Hannibal Scorch Posted July 28 Author Paid Members Share Posted July 28 27 minutes ago, Supremo said: Wasn’t aware this was Tony’s first attempt at a gimmick from scratch. I don’t agree. The Acclaimed was also created by him. Caster already did rap videos on the indies, but he and Bowers had never worked together before Tony suggested them becoming a Tag Team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members gmoney Posted July 29 Paid Members Share Posted July 29 11 hours ago, Hannibal Scorch said: I don’t agree. The Acclaimed was also created by him. Caster already did rap videos on the indies, but he and Bowers had never worked together before Tony suggested them becoming a Tag Team. So not from scratch then? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Hannibal Scorch Posted July 29 Author Paid Members Share Posted July 29 1 hour ago, gmoney said: So not from scratch then? Well, the Acclaimed didn’t debut with Max rapping that evolved, but sure if you want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JLM Posted August 3 Paid Members Share Posted August 3 Collision 27/07/24 No commentary for the first few minutes was weird. Johnny TV vs OC was fine. Highlight was Schiavone saying FTR will be taking on the M&M collection later and not realising Nigel was taking the piss out of him with "that will certainly be SWEET". Also the OC/Willow team up is just lovely isn't it. Quality little promo from Juice and The Gunns. They really are just as good as babyfaces. BCC/Top Flight/Moriarty and Cage was also fine. Perfectly well done three way tag match but, as @Lorne Malvo says, with the sheer volume of wrestling to get through this week, these first two house show type matches definitely tested my attention span. Willow/Conglomeration promo was one of the highlights of the episode. The most wholesome babyface alliance in wrestling and Mark Briscoe knocking these promos out of the park every single week, plus BABY JAY BRISCOE? Amazing. Still waiting on that Conglomeration t-shirt. I will buy one at Wembley. Give it to me. Mortos vs Hologram, this is about what I am talking. Hologram could not have asked for two better opponents to start this run. Loved hearing  the Mortos chants early on here. A big upside of this residency is the entire roster getting a chance to get over with the repeat customers. Mortos on a Collision out of the blue in a random town will not get the same reaction as he does in front of people who have seen him in back to back belters against Darby and Komander. I know he's meant to be the heel but how can you not love what he does. To his credit, he did a great job reminding them he's a heel and getting them all behind Hologram too. Huge chants for Hologram as it went on; introducing him during this residency has given him the ideal start. Spectacular spotfest and a much better showcase for Hologram than his debut. I still hate the mask and gear though. Lance Archer killing jobbers and cutting a promo at the same time was tremendous. The jobber coming out first for the squash match running for his life was also a nice touch. Conglomeration/Premier Athletes was good fun, helped massively my Mark Briscoe's unbridled charisma. I enjoyed Josh Woods throwing everyone about towards the end. MXM/FTR was the best match on the show. MXM were pure babyfaces the night before at ROH but just as effective as heels here. They get the comedy/serious balance spot on from what I've seen so far. Mansoor in particular is very good at both. Glad they aired the Acclaimed promo from after Dynamite, best thing Max Caster has done in months. Pac vs Lio Rush was very good. Again, unfortunately suffered a bit due to backlog catch up burnout. I'd normally be salivating at the prospect of this one as I'm a fan of both but I was suffering from match-fatigue. Some good stuff on this episode, MXM/FTR and the main event were very strong and I enjoyed Mortos/Hologram. Was admittedly quite tough to get through not long after watching the ROH PPV though.  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JLM Posted August 3 Paid Members Share Posted August 3 Battle of the Belts 27/07/24 Just a phenomenal performance from Toni Storm to open this show. The new look, the unhinged desperation on her face, a solid match with Taya Valkyrie and then an utterly glorious post-match promo. The wild chest beating after "YOU SHOULD HAVE CUT MY BLOODY HEAD OFF!" was amazing.  The pre-match video before Storm/May at All In is going to be spectacular. There's enough solid gold material for it to be three hours long. Seriously, if you skipped BOTB at least check out the post-match promo here: Taya was also very good here as the bully catching the champion in a weak and vulnerable state. I've enjoyed her character work for quite a while now but this was one of her better matches. Purazzo/Willow was mostly pretty good as well. One of Deonna's better matches on this AEW run. Simple stuff, Purazzo working the arm as usual, Willow fighting from underneath. Good heat for the duration. Unfortunately a couple of scary looking botches brought it down a bit; Willow dumping Deonna on her head at one point, and Willow landing on *her* head when Deonna tried to put her in the tree of woe. They both looked to be near misses thankfully, but both rather scary in real time. Dustin Rhodes/Von Erichs vs Undisputed Kingdom was... pretty good! Ross Von Erich still doesn't know what he was doing, but he was used pretty sparingly. Marshall looked decent. He has a bit of physical charisma about him, he looks the part and has a nice dropkick. Kingdom and Roddy also did a lot of the heavy lifting as you'd imagine. However, more important than all of that was the insane heat. Texas wanted to see the Von Erichs/Rhodes super team up win these titles. Taking Dustin out for him to make the big return at the end was a great move. His extreeemeley late 2.999999 kick out after the cow bell shot was excellent, and the pop for the 3 count was thunderous. An enjoyable and easy to watch 50 minute show there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddymagic Posted August 6 Share Posted August 6 189,000 viewers this week - moved to the earlier time of 5pm to avoid SummerSlam.  The lowest rated main wrestling show ever? Can't be many lower Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SuperBacon Posted August 6 Members Share Posted August 6 14 minutes ago, Daddymagic said: 189,000 viewers this week - moved to the earlier time of 5pm to avoid SummerSlam.  The lowest rated main wrestling show ever? Can't be many lower There is a whole thread for this sort of bollocks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The King of Old School Posted August 7 Share Posted August 7 As if battle of the belts is still going, bloody hell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JLM Posted August 7 Paid Members Share Posted August 7 (edited) Collision 03/08/24 Opening segment was fine, didn't think it was Christian's best promo but it did the job. It was immediately obvious he'd be snubbing Killswitch when handing out the belts but it still made me laugh. Not sure what this Sammy/Dustin/Von Erichs thing is about. Is he going to turn on them and steal the ROH six man titles for himself? Can't see what the play is here. Most notable thing about this was discovering that the Von Erich "kids" have been wrestling for TWELVE YEARS. Ross Von Erich is 36 years old and a twelve year veteran of the sport, trained by Harley Race, Kevin Von Erich and Noamichi Marufuji. I'd have believed you if you told me it'd been 12 months. Nice to see how over Hologram is with this Texas crowd already. Some iffy moments with Nese and Daivari not  being the expert bases that Mortos and Gringo Loco are, but overall another successful outing for Hologram. Nigel trying to justify Mark Sterling's bullshit on commentary was fun. Mariah/Toni stuff was better than Dynamite. Nigel losing his shit at Mariah coming to the desk, Mariah/Nigel calling out Uncle Tony for his "speak, bitch" comment and the big stage dive from Storm were all great. As with every week up until All In, this still comes with the caveat that Toni should have been kept off TV and built up for a massive return on the go home show, but that's not the build we're getting so here we are. Kyle Fletcher and Brian Cage had surprisingly good chemistry. Fun match. Callis and Nigel buttering each other up on commentary was also fun. Danielson/Yuta training montage was very cool. Top promo from Double J. Danielson/Jarrett anything goes on Dynamite. Madness. Claudio/Ishii/Moriarty was an entertaining scrap and it was nice that they had something to fight for. Okada/Claudio should be a good'un. Top Flight and Leila Grey make various air travel puns how. That's the schtick. Is that better than no schtick at all? It's debatable. Was relieved to see MXM interrupting this interview and making something amusing out of it. Rosa/Valkyrie was solid and had good heat. Rosa's look was tremendous again. So many excellent gear/paint combos. Rosa and Purazzo working through every gimmick match is funny. I don't know how Rosa thinks Texas Bullrope will prevent any shenanigans though. Purazzo's line about Rosa's winning streak being comparable to her own 3-0 streak *against* Rosa was good. Thoroughly entertaining main event and another strong showing from Mortos. Post match stuff was good as well. Bowens in particular sounded really good and, once again, I'm happy there are tag teams feuding over who is the best tag team again. Edited August 9 by JLM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Statto Posted August 8 Paid Members Share Posted August 8 Best thing about this show was MxM calling out Leila Grey for wearing garish colours, whilst wearing exactly the same colours as her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted August 12 Paid Members Share Posted August 12 Christian Cage's turtle neck ref shirt. Checkmate, Seth Rollins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members LaGoosh Posted August 12 Paid Members Share Posted August 12 (edited) A brilliant episode of wrestling telly, that. Covered every style - brawling, hardcore, high flying, competitive squashes, traditional tag etc. and everything was really good. Tidy angle to end on with it jumping from the hilarious moment of Christian hitting Buddy with a spear and then counting them all out to brilliantly transitioning into The Patriarchy taking everyone out one by one. The Texas Bullrope match was a really fun and nasty plunder match too, I could watch these two beat each other up forever. Special mention to Austin Gunn who has quietly become an excellent pro wrestler. He's fantastic at bumping, every bump he takes looks great. Future is incredibly bright for this lad. Edited August 12 by LaGoosh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JLM Posted August 12 Paid Members Share Posted August 12 (edited) Collision 10/08/24 Darby/Hologram vs Premier Athletes was a fine opener and the live crowd loved it. Some iffy moments with Hologram and Josh Woods but nothing that completely derailed the match. The Hologram outfit looks a bit better in black than grey, still do not like the mask at all though. The Dustin-narrated package for the Texas Bullrope match was awesome. "You don't agree to it unless you're willing to put yourself through hell and drag your opponent there with you". Tremendous. I have been a fan of the Purazzo/Rosa feud but it never feels like the live crowds are as on board with it. It's been a bit stop/start and initially the heel/face divide wasn't too clear, but lately they've done a better job establishing Purazzo as the heel, so was a bit disappointing to hear dueling chants at the start. Not blaming the crowd and telling them how they should react, just a bit of a shame it hasn't quite landed with them. Thankfully the match itself got them on board. Bloody, good intensity by the end and some fun high spots in there too. I do enjoy this pairing. The Outrunners' Wyatt Sicks video was pretty good. Fun match with FTR, the Dax hot tag with all the Germans on Turbo was delightful, and was a nice novelty to have a light, breezy FTR match with some levity to it. God damn Nick Wayne was mean to Kip Sabian. Poor Kip looked like a bit of a chump standing there and taking it. When RUSH first linked up with Don Callis, I'll be honest "but where does this leave Perro Peligroso??" did not once cross my mind. That said, I still appreciate them addressing that and it was a particularly dastardly move by Callis to make RUSH do this. Would have landed more if the RUSH/Vance team had done anything memorable at all, or if Vance had done anything whatsoever lately, but still, good long term attention to detail. More importantly it was a great RUSH beatdown and one of my favourite Preston Vance matches to date. Jack Perry's Wyatt Sicks videos are also neat, though I think we need several pull apart brawls between Darby and Perry to put this feud over the top. In all seriousness, I like the contrast between Darby wrestling and winning matches every week while Perry doesn't show up and instead does videos talking about sacrifice. Great little showcase match for Swerve against Ishii. Love that it feels like a big deal for Swerve to grace the Texas residency with his presence. As well it should. They've really been putting Ishii to work during this extended stay in AEW and it's been great to have him. I couldn't resist double dipping and getting tickets for Dynamite in Cardiff, so was pumped to hear we'll be getting Claudio vs Okada. Sounds wonderful to me. Not the Willow/Stat match of my dreams for All In I must admit. Glad they're on the card in some capacity and it should be fun, but guessing All Out will be getting the plunder match instead? Shame. "Not cosmetically cleared to compete" from Mansoor was an excellent, excellent line. I admit I laughed at both their entrance and exit from the scene too. So silly but their commitment to it makes it work for me. Also hilarious that Lio Rush was drafted in mid-segment to try and plug the charisma drain on Top Flight's side. He did his best. Man I was so happy to see Shida get on the show and be given a promo, then immediately disappointed that she's being fed to Mone. It makes sense for the match they're building, just would love to see Shida get a push again. I love the new look and she had a great performance against Britt the other week, would like to see her get a bit more. Nigel very awkwardly shoehorning in the Noam Dar shout out during the Aleah James match was amusing. Main event was a belter. HOB are at their best in trios matches, but the Gunns are also consistently amazing in these sprint/scramble situations with their incredible timing. The finish was ingenious. Obviously we knew Christian would be looking for a draw or no contest, but what a perfectly shitty way for him to go about it, right at the crescendo of a stellar six man tag. I have to believe he came up with it himself. The people were LIVID, it was bloody brilliant, as was the post-match attack. Of course, heels will never learn that sabotaging a number one contender's match almost always ends up with a triple threat. BBG/HOB having another barn burner at Wembley with Christian and co. trying to steal it sounds like a lot of fun to me. Big step up in quality from the last couple of weeks. More star power, a better blend of matches and significant happenings and a ton of variety. Good stuff.  Edited August 12 by JLM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Infinity Land Posted August 12 Share Posted August 12 Preston Vance reappearance reminded me that the Scorpio Sky retun promos came and went again  Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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