#who is arguably aew's Top Guy

[traitorestraven]

actually! kinda fascinating how all of the older men that become obsessed with mjf do so in a way that's proprietary. they all want to have or have had a hand in making him, even Punk, who's the only of MJF's line of enemies/mentors to be antagonistic to him from the start. Cody's sentimentality towards MJF is all wrapped up in the idea that he found this diamond in the rough kid and saw something in him no one else could, and this gave him special insight into who MJF was as a person that even the audience--which sees everything--didn't have. Jericho wanted a second Sammy Guevara, a rising star he could control in order to keep himself at the top. Punk literally tied them together with a chain. setting aside any fan interpretations (gay shit), it's an interesting theme to have surrounding a character whose express purpose is to be as repulsive as possible!

[im-just-a-mississippi-girl]

You’re Still the One

Pairing: Christian Cage x female!reader

Category: Fluff

Word count: 4,251

Summary: Christian takes a trip down memory lane.

Warnings: Swearing, Age gap — reader is late 20s/early 30s

Requested by: anon

You can find the original request here!

A/N: I decided to try a little bit of a different format for this one. This can be read by itself if you so desire! Also, You’re Still the One by Shania Twain is the inspiration ❤️

Part 1

Masterlist

Taglist

Gif is not mine. Credit to owner.

It had been a year since your car accident and things were going great. You had made a full recovery and were arguably better than ever. On top of that, you and Christian had gotten engaged and now it was four months until the wedding.

Christian was happier than he had ever been, he was going to marry the woman of his dreams. He saw how excited and happy you were about it too, the way your eyes lit up at the thought, the way you smiled so big that he just knew your cheeks hurt.

He honestly never thought this would be his life. When he finally made his comeback to wrestling and debuting in AEW, he had no idea that you were already there — his future wife.

Christian smiled to himself as you rolled over, throwing an arm across his chest and snuggling up to him in the bed. He placed a feather light kiss to the top of your head. You being this close to him, this content, this peaceful made his mind wander to all the milestones in your relationship from the day you two met up until present day, smiling as the memories flooded his thoughts.

The First Time You Met

He remembered the first time you met very vividly, like it was yesterday and not two years ago. You were chatting away with Britt, discussing your upcoming match together when Christian had walked by. He had just made his debut in AEW and of course everyone was talking about it, including you. You had always been a fan of his so when you saw him walk through the tunnel your jaw dropped — you were going to be working with the Christian Cage. Britt had noticed you were distracted and snapped her fingers, grabbing your attention. “Sorry, he’s just so…..” You struggled to find words to express your feelings but you couldn’t find the right one.

“Go talk to him! I saw him glance at you when he passed by.” Britt had a mischievous look on her face, one you came to know very well.

“Oh no, Britt I couldn’t. I’d just make a fool of myself.” You shook your head, dismissing her idea.

If only you had went over there yourself.

Later in the night, you and Britt had your match. Britt had come up to you before her music was supposed to play and told you, “If you win, I let you crush on Christian and won’t say a word, but if I win, I’ll set you two up and you can’t do anything to stop me.” She grinned, a wicked grin causing you to groan. You’ve know Britt for last six years. You met her through Adam who’s been like a brother to you for close to a decade now. You were thankful Adam got together with Britt, you liked her more than the previous girls. Over the years you and Britt became very close so you knew she’d do everything she could to win if it meant getting to play matchmaker. She’s set you up with guys before and they’ve been decent but nothing special.

The match came and went and low and behold, Britt won, granted she had help from Rebel but you couldn’t change that.

A little later on, you went into catering and saw Britt and Adam at a table talking with Christian. You were about to bolt but you got caught as Britt and Adam called your name and waved you over.

Begrudgingly, you joined the trio at the table.

Christian watched as you sat down in the only seat available at the table — the one beside him. He offered you a friendly smile and attempted to make conversation. “Hi. You were amazing in your match tonight.”

You tried your hardest to hide the blush creeping up on your cheeks. “Th-Thanks.”

Once conversation began to flow between the four of you, Britt and Adam ‘suddenly’ remembered some vaguely important thing they had to go do, purposefully leaving you alone with your longtime crush. You glared at them, knowing exactly what they were doing.

Thankfully, things didn’t turn awkward after the couple left. The conversation continued to flow smoothly despite the age difference until you both had to leave.

That Friday Christian asked you for your number and three weeks later he asked you out on a date.

The First Date

He remembered that first date you two went on. He went old school and brought you a bouquet of assorted flowers followed by a nice dinner. Afterwards he took you to little spot over looking the city, it was gorgeous all lit up as the sky became dark, the stars shining bright overhead. He went old school again when he dropped you off at your house, walking you to the door and giving you a sweet kiss on the cheek goodnight but you weren’t having it. You caught his arm before he could walk away, he turned around looking at you confused and a little worried. You wordlessly stood on your tiptoes and pulled him down by his lapels of his blazer, your lips captured his in a more passionate kiss than the one before. “Goodnight Christian.” You winked, a playful smile on your face as you entered your home and shutting the door. You peaked out the window by the door and watched him get in his car and drive away.

Your First Time Together

The first time you two took that step and decided to sleep together was full of love and affection. He was so gentle and sweet with you, never pushing you to do anything you didn’t want to or felt uncomfortable doing. Christian remembered how nervous and shy you were, covering your body with your arms, blushing beet red. He remembered you couldn’t look him in the eyes until he gently took your chin between his fingers and turned your face to look at him. “You don’t have anything to be worried or shy about.” Christian told you with sincerity.

You nodded knowing deep down he was right, but it had been a while since you were so vulnerable in front of someone. Your ex wasn’t this affectionate or gentle, hence why you were nervous. “It’s been a while since I’ve been with someone so sweet,” You admitted.

Christian nodded, a silent understanding of what you were saying.

He took his time with you, asking you if what he was doing was okay, giving you compliments and encouragement.

That night ended up being the best night you ever had with a man.

Nasty Comments

It wasn’t long after you started dating Christian that you began receiving nasty comments and messages from people online.

Christian saw how much the negativity was hurting you so he decided to take matters into his own hands. He couldn’t stand to see you upset and crying so he grabbed his phone and went to a different room. He wanted everyone to understand how badly their words hurt you and how much they pissed him off which led to his decision of recording a video in hopes that it would be the most effective way of getting the message across.

The video ended up being a little longer than he had planned but he didn’t care, he needed to get it all off his chest and out in the open.

Not even ten minutes after he posted the video, he saw retweets and likes and sweet comments from the fans that truly cared. An hour later, there were two hashtags trending, supporting you and Christian and the other showing you love.

When you finally caved and looked at Twitter, you were shocked to see the love, support, and apologies. You scrolled through reading them, a smile gradually growing on your face until you finally saw Christian’s video. You watched it and immediately began to cry. No one had ever stood up for you like that before, it meant the world to you.

Once finished, you searched the whole house for your sweetheart. You found him on the back porch a steaming cup of coffee in hand. You didn’t say a word as you walked up to him and kissed his cheek. “Thank you. I love you more than words can express.” You sniffled, becoming overwhelmed with love and appreciation.

Christian set his coffee cup down on the little table next to him and gently pulled you into his lap. He kissed the top of your head once you were settled, your head resting on his chest just under his chin. His armed wrapped around you in a protective and loving embrace. “I love you beyond comprehension, love.” He gave you a little squeeze and another kiss to the top of your head.

The two of you stayed like that until you had to get up and ready for an upcoming flight.

Memorable Anniversary Gift

The most memorable anniversary was when you surprised Christian with a two week long visit to Canada. You saw how down he had been lately, getting injured and having to be out of action for months at a time.

You had everything planned out regarding the trip, all that was left was to decide how to surprise him.

You ultimately decided that you would put the plane tickets in a gift bag along with a bunch of Canadian themed items and a little note that read — ‘Pack your bags! We’re going to Canada!’ You even drew the Canadian flag on the note to add extra emphasis.

“Hey babe! I got you a little something.” You beamed as Christian entered the house after his physical therapy appointment. Typically you went with him but this time you semi-lied and said you had things to do and errands to run.

Christian chuckled and shook his head as he crossed the room to sit next to you on the couch. “Buying me a gift was your idea of ‘things to do and errands to run’ I see.” He teased as you handed him the gift bag.

“Just hush and open it! You’re gonna love it!” You rolled your eyes and suppressed a smile.

Christian did as he was told. Tossing the tissue paper to the floor, you watched eagerly for his reaction when the realization set in. He pulled out Canadian themed item after Canadian themed item until he saw the envelope you put the tickets and note in. You could barely contain your excitement as he opened the envelope and pulled out the tickets first. “What’s this?” He asked, looking at you quizzically.

“Read the note!” You gestured to envelope where the note still resided.

Still confused, Christian pulled out the note and began reading. You watched as his eyes grew wide and jaw drop. “What? Sweetheart, are you serious?” He finally looked up at you to see your wide smile.

“Hell yeah! I know you’ve been feeling down lately and I’ve noticed you seem to be a little homesick so I thought why not? And before you say anything about our anniversary in a few weeks, think of this as an early anniversary present. You deserve this baby. You’ve earned it.” You leaned up and kissed his cheek.

“I don’t know what I did to deserve you but I’m glad I did it. This is the best gift anyone has ever given me. Thank you baby. love you.” He took your chin between his fingers and tilted your head up to give you the most loving kiss.

“I love you too. Now let’s get packing! We leave in three days if you didn’t read the tickets.” You jump up and take off down the hall to your shared bedroom.

“I swear you’re more excited than I am.” He called after you, laughing at your eagerness.

Holidays

The holidays can be a stressful time for many people and you were no different.

That first holiday came and you were beyond stressed with cooking and decorating and ensuring both your families had a great time. Christian was quick to notice your panicked state — fingers toying with your hair and the hem of your shirt, feeble attempts calm yourself down with deep breaths, eyes beginning to water at all the pressure to make this first holiday go smoothly and perfectly.

Christian wasn’t worried about the get together, but he know how much it meant to you. You had been planning for months on how things would go and you had it all figured out until you ended up burning couple of dishes. It all went downhill from there. You missed counted the number of chairs and plates, you dropped two glasses as you were setting the table and your phone wouldn’t stop ringing.

Christian had heard all the commotion but the glass breaking was what sent him running to the kitchen, worried you had hurt yourself by accident. “Baby, are you okay? I heard—” He froze once he took in the state of you and the kitchen. You were crying at the kitchen counter and the kitchen looked like a tornado hit. “Oh, sweetheart…” Christian trialed off as he rounded the island. “It’s okay. It’s all going to be okay.” He softly told you as he pulled you into his warm embrace.

“It’s all ruined!” You sobbed into your boyfriend’s chest, drenching his shirt with your tears.

“No it’s not, love. We can fix this, we still have plenty of time.” Christian encouraged, rubbing soothing motions on your back. “How about you take a break and I clean up? We can start over, make something else if we have to.” He assured you that this was just a set back. “Go take a bubble bath, let me take it from here.” You could hear the insistence in his voice and nodded.

After your bath, you re-entered the kitchen. It was spotless, like you hadn’t even started cooking yet. You’re eyes landed on your sweet handsome man who was throwing together what looked like your favorite meal. You couldn’t be sure from the doorway but when the smell filled your nose, you knew you guessed right. You’re heart melted at the sweetness before you, eyes watering with emotion. “Need some help?” Your voice was slightly shaky as you tried not to cry once more.

Christian turned to face you and shook his head. “No baby, go rest. I’ll take care of dinner. Besides you need all that energy when the kids arrive. They love you, you know? Can’t say I blame them.” He grinned with a wink.

“Let me at least set the table. I’ll be extra careful this time.” You promised.

“Okay, but I’ve got my eye on you.” Christian joked, passing you the dishes on the top shelf.

Car Accident

He remembered the car accident like it was yesterday, even though it had been a year ago. The anxiety, fear, and worry he felt back then is still vivid to this day when he thinks about it too long. He was beyond grateful and thankful you had the injuries you had because he knew that it could have been worse and the possibility that you would still be here would have been slim. He still didn’t know exactly how the accident occurred but it didn’t matter, you were alive and in one piece and making a full recovery. The accident made him realize just him much he loved you and how much he needed you.

Even though he loved to take care of you, he didn’t want you hurt like that ever again. Seeing you in the hospital hit him hard, his heart broke seeing you laid up in that hospital bed with all those machines hooked up to you. Every time a monitor or machine would beep, Christian’s heart would stop until you moved or spoke. He was so terrified of something going going wrong out of the blue.

That day was the day Christian promised himself he would do everything in his power to protect you from as much harm as possible, and it was also the day that he knew he had to marry you asap, unable to bare another day without you as his wife.

The Proposal

Christian was so nervous to ask you to marry him. He practiced every chance he got, in the bathroom, in the car, in the locker room, and even on his friends — Edge and Frankie Kazarian heard the speech so much they could recite it for him. He just didn’t want anything to go wrong, it had to be perfect because you were perfect.

The evening came a lot quicker than Christian had anticipated but he quadruple checked that everything was ready to go. Ring? Check. Dinner reservations? Check. Clear skies to watch the sunset? Check. Dressed in his best outfit? Check. Told you to dress extra fancy? Check.

He was patiently waiting for you in the living room as you finished getting ready. He fidgeted on the couch and patted his jacket pocket to make sure the ring was still there — it was.

You entered the living room, adjusting your necklace as you did so. Christian looked up hearing your heels clicking on the hardwood floor. He felt like the wind had been sucked out of him, completely taken aback at your beauty. “Wow! You look… so stunning!” He stood making his way over to you to help you with your necklace.

“Thank you.” You blushed, his compliments always made you feel butterflies. You felt his fingers brush against yours and take over with the clasp. You were appreciative of his help. You knew when you chose that necklace the clasp was tricky.

You felt his hands leave the back of your neck. You looked up at him, taking in his attire. “You look unbelievably handsome.” You grinned, standing on your tiptoes to kiss his cheek. Even in heels, he was still taller than you.

Christian glanced at his watch, noticing the time he fished his keys out of the bowl by the front door. “We gotta get going, love. Don’t wanna be late.”

You nodded and grabbed your purse from the hook near the front door. Christian let you lead the way out to the car, locking the front door behind him.

You arrived at your favorite restaurant and were seated at a private little table. You ordered your favorite like always and Christian did the same along with ordering some wine.

While waiting for your food, fun and flirty conversation flowed naturally. Christian reached for your hand across the table and you let him take it, you couldn’t help but blush even if it was a simple act. Everything this man did made you blush and feel like a teenager.

Finally the food arrived and the two of you dug in. The meal was fantastic as always and so was the wine.

After the dinner was paid for, you made your way to your next stop — a little meadow that has the perfect view of the sky. You two had stumbled upon the meadow a few years back and always returned on clear nights. The first time back at the meadow after your discovery, the two of you brought two chairs and a small little table to sit at and have a sort of picnic. You didn’t worry about someone taking the chairs and table since they were extras just sitting your garage.

You both took a seat at the table and talked more as the sun began to set.

“I need to ask you a very important question.” Christian told you. You knew by the way he had trouble looking into your eyes it was serious. You were immediately thinking the worst but timidly nodded, not trusting your voice. “I’ve always wanted to have a wife and maybe a couple kids running around, and the more I think about that, the more I picture you being by my side.” He paused, taking a breath and looking at you to see if he could gauge the outcome.

His words were on loop. ‘The more I think about that, the more I picture you being by my side.’ You couldn’t stop your eyes from watering. This time it was your turn to reach across the table and take his hand.

“I’ve always loved you but after your car accident, I realized just how much I do love you and how important you are to me. I was terrified I could lose you and I never want to feel like that again. You make me feel whole, complete. I didn’t realize just how lost I was until I met you. You make everything better, everything makes sense when I’m with you. Basically, what I’m trying to say is I love you more than anyone can express or comprehend. Will you marry me? I don’t want to go a second longer without you as my wife.” Christian kept his eyes on you the whole time, watching as you smiled and happy tears rolled down your cheeks, your head nodding repeatedly.

“Yes! Of course I will!” You both stood from the table as Christian pulled out the ring from his jacket pocket. He couldn’t help but shake his head, laughing. “What’s so funny?” His laugh was contagious and before you knew it you were laughing with him.

“I had this completely other speech planned and I stressed over making sure it was perfect. But I think I like that speech better.” He chuckled, slipping the ring on your finger.

“I loved it because it came from here.” You placed your hand over his heart.

Christian knew you were right. He knew you loved the heartfelt gestures and messages he gave you more than anything else.

“Mrs. Christian Cage. I like the sound of that.” You grinned up at him.

“So do I but I love the sound of wife even more.” Christian leaned down and kissed you with so much love and passion that you felt dizzy. You wrapped your arms around his neck to help steady yourself. He broke the kiss just long enough to ask you another question. “What do you say we go home and celebrate?” He winked, giving your ass a squeeze causing you to jump at the sudden action.

You bit your lip and nodded eagerly. “Great idea, husband.”

The Wedding Planning

You and Christian spent a lot of time planning the wedding. You kept insisting that he make the decisions with you, it was his wedding too after all.

You had some disagreements on colors and decorations but they were easily resolved. Most everything else you agreed on.

The two things you struggled with were choosing the dress and your bridesmaids. You had seen so many gorgeous dresses online and in ads that you just couldn’t decide what style you liked the best. For the bridesmaids situation, you wanted all your girl friends to be your bridesmaids, but you knew you couldn’t have that many because you and Christian decided on a small wedding, just close friends and family. You were stressing and Christian saw.

“Come on, let’s talk about it.” He patted the seat next to him on the couch.

You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding and plopped down on the couch. “I can’t choose!” You exclaimed. “I don’t know what dress I want and I don’t know which ones of my friends I want to be bridesmaids. I don’t know what to do.” You vented, eyes begging to water.

“Baby, we still have plenty of time before anything has to be final. How about I take you to our meadow and we can have lunch out there? It’s supposed to be sunny today and I know how much you love it there.” Christian suggested. He knew you just needed a break from it all and you’d be okay. He wanted the wedding to be perfect too, but you were putting a lot of pressure on yourself and he hated it.

You thought it over for a moment. “That sounds like a great idea. I just need a break.” You agreed to his suggestion, getting up and heading to the kitchen. Christian followed behind you and helped you gather up both of your favorites.

Once you made it to the meadow, you instantly felt at ease, all the pressure had evaporated and tranquility had washed over you. This was the right call and you were thankful that your soon-to-be husband knew exactly what you needed.

The two of you spent what felt like hours there, talking about anything other than the wedding.

Back home, you felt refreshed and had a clear idea on what you wanted. Not only was the lunch at the meadow a nice break, it gave you inspiration, the same inspiration that your now chosen bridesmaids — Britt Baker, Willow Nightingale, Ruby Soho, and Beth Phoenix — gave you.

You knew these four ladies would be the perfect ones to have by your side on yours and Christian’s big day, and they would be a great help with picking out your dress. Despite them having different tastes and styles, you knew they would work well together and make things so much easier and Christian agreed once you told him who you finally picked.

You just couldn’t wait to tell your friends the good news almost as much as you couldn’t wait to marry the love of your life.

These next four months couldn’t come fast enough.

General taglist: @legit9thlunaticwarrior @plentyoffandoms @1dluver13xx @sunshinevirus @wwenhlimagines @crowleysqueenofhell @jackson-nickthedate13 @omg-im-such-a-masochist

Christian Cage taglist: @legit9thlunaticwarrior @abbyjacksonnn @kcloveswrestling

[a-lucha-brother]

AEW needs a HARD reset after All In 2024

I'd like to think the mass consensus from fans will feel the same about this and, for me, it's been a long time coming, maybe as far as all the way back when Collision first started this was needed.

But let's explore this.

Now, correct me if I'm wrong (good chance I am), but when TK announced Collision, what, only last June!? (wow feels like it's been about 3 years) he spoke of this being an entirely new show, with its own roster (to deal with how bloated the roster was and still is) AND its own championships (plenty of new ones have been created since Collision started, but I always assumed this meant the titles would just be spread out better) - and so far we've had NONE of those things happen.

Granted, I think a lot of events off-screen have led ultimately to the state we're in now - when Collision first started, it was billed as the show that would let the likes of Miro, Will Hobbs, House of Black, Ricky Starks etc reign supreme and vibe the night away as "top guys" since there was no room for that on Dynamite; at the time Dynamite was still heavily utilising, ironically, a lot of their "original" young talent that between then and now are either: Indefinitely suspended (Sammy Guevara) Indefinitely injured (Darby Allan) Exiled from the company (Jack Perry, albeit he's FINALLY came back, so there's hope here) Taking an indefinite break/might not even come back (MJF) Basically, the 4 pillars (should be 5 with Britt Baker imo but I digress as Taz would say). To my case and point right there, Miro isn't with the company anymore (idk if it's not official as of yet or anything, but he's leaving), Hobbs is injured (again), House of Black are AT LEAST doing cool shit and are still super over with this Cope Open shtick (should be the flagship storyline on Collision JUST SAYING hence this minor diatribe) and Ricky Starks is also injured (again) and potentially not coming back either. And NOW, we've just started this incredible Elite storyline, and brought in arguably 2 of the best wrestlers to have ever existed in Will Osprey and Kazuchika Okada (hell, we've even put a belt on Kaz in this time). And those are the types of talent that should be front and centre on Dynamite, cool, fine, but we're still squeezing Collision talent onto Dynamite and squeezing Dynamite stories into Collision. Both shows ave become so disjointed and wholly chaotic these days (like depending on who's coming out on Dynamite they literally don't care about The Elite hijacking the show or attacking their boss because "they're not in the storyline" give me a break!), and don't even get me started on Rampage, which seriously is just a waste of time these days. So, I'm left asking, what the fuck.

But it's okay! Uncle Kaz has got it covered (remember I'm not a booker). So okay, I've talked about nothing but problems (and probably leaving some stuff out) so let's quickly shift to solutions:

Clearly, we're building up to giving William Birdman a title (or THE title?) at All In, which is unofficially becoming AEW's answer to Wrestlemania (even though they'd probably prefer it to be Wrestldream) which is fine and totally makes sense (notwithstanding the whole ENGLISH thing). Now I'm going down the road that it's going to be the TNT Title, which even though I earlier mentioned Will as being "Dynamite talent", is a GOOD thing. Because if we're going down the road of hitting reset on AEW as a product by that point, then this would make for a good way to elevate "new" Collision (don't worry, I'll get to Rampage soon cause I have plans for that too). On a slight tangent, it's seems too painfully obvious that Mercedes Mone is winning the TBS Title at Double or Nothing, cool no problems. She would also be a great fit in a new Collision, if they decide to let her retain at All In (you best believe she's either walking in or certainly walking out Wembley as some sort of champion). So hypothetically speaking, if you were to have the likes of Will and Mercedes to ring in a new era of Collision after All In, I'd be....ugh, "all in" (god I hate myself) with that idea, cause they would just be placeholders before moving up to Dynamite to challenge for the "bigger" belts. That's not to say you couldn't do the same with Willow and Adam Copeland, far from it, but I'm just thinking as grand as I can. Another step to take would be to unify the Continental and International championship into the WORLDWIDE championship, and put that on Collision also. So let's take a look at what I'm proposing as far as championships are concerned: Dynamite: World Men's World Women's Men's Tag Collision: TNT TBS Unified Continental/International (WORLDWIDE) Women's Tag (NEW) Men's Trios

(No mention of FTW cause quite frankly, fuck that title wasting tv time every week and every ppv)

In my grand schemes, I'd love to make Collision a more Women heavy show, cause they hardly get any time on Dynamite, and if they do it's either to do with Toni Storm (via Mariah) or a backstage section with Willow (the ENTIRE women's division everyone, great!) and even then they feel like they're being crammed in, whereas utilising Collision for more women time would be so much better, BECAUSE the top of the women's division is so strong it's scary, but the midcard is woeful at best, so they REALLY need building up - I also created women's tag titles up there, because, come on, it's time, get with 2024 TK. I know Collision is looking title heavy, but Collision was ALWAYS meant to be about the wrestling, the literal theme of Collision is that "Saturday's are good nights for fighting" or whatever the fuck they say. Case in point, the Cope Open would serve so much better (as would HOB) on Collision where their pure wrestling storytelling would shine through far better than Dynamite with its heavy-handed focus on promos and spoken storylines. And for the love of everlasting fuck, can we PLEASE implement a factor in that the TBS and TNT titles can be sold for world title shots, it's been something TNA has had for the longest time that I've been flabbergasted as to why nobody else has done it. THIS would then give credence/allowance for Collision stars to start appearing on Dynamite (nod nod wink wink to Will Ospraey) and would dramatically eliminate the (correct) criticism of having randoms get title shots for no reason other than existing. And for god sake, I'm not saying implement a draft, but PLEASE just have two distinctly separate rosters, if I'm watching Danny Garcia on Dynamite AND Collision back to back instead of other wrestlers I'm gonna get a bit annoyed (I use Garcia here because I think he could do wonders on Collision as one of its top stars). I think doing this you can filter away people who might be lost in favour with the main Dynamite crowd (Jericho) without hurting his storyline or the AEW brand as a whole (Dynamite after all is the show they need to be successful here). As for Rampage, just make it into proto-NXT, assimilate ROH into it, make it 2 hours long, and will somebody PLEASE create a TV Title, my god! We're not doing anything with ROH, it's slowly dying, and stars on there, like Athena DESERVE to be on proper television (I can say that as a Brit who only gets Dynamite, Collision and Rampage on television here, not ROH). And just start developing raw talent on there. Say what you want about Dark and Dark Elevation (I miss them personally) but they did a damn good job of building talent up for AEW (you'd be surprised how many of your current favourites built up love with the fans by specifically being on Dark) and I think we can make Rampage into AEW's answer to NXT. In my mind I'm thinking, "better than WCW Thunder, not as good as NXT".

And with that, I'm spent, so to bid you adieu, as the best bout machine NOW, I'm gonna hit you all with the Rainmaker, with love...

[the-blue-brand-wrestling-blog]

The Blue Brand Wrestling Blog #3 

Some random thoughts (11th September RAW Preview, MJF & Samoa Joe)

Hey there guys & girls,

I’m Andy Mac, AKA The Blue Brand owner and creator (@The_Blue_Brand) on X / Twitter. I thought I would delve into the world of blog writing and what better thing to write about than my favourite pastime Professional Wrestling.

Today I thought I’d discuss AEW Dynamite’s segment between MJF & Samoa Joe and do a brief preview for WWE RAW tonight (11th September 2023) Let’s get started –

WWE RAW – 11th September 2023 – Brief Preview

Women’s World Championship (Dominik Mysterio banned from ringside): Rhea Ripley defends against Raquel Rodriguez – I’m assuming this will be the final match in this feud. I’m also assuming even with Dom banned from ringside that Rhea will get the win and retain her Women’s World Championship. Either she retains clean, or a present or new member of the Judgment Day might get the assist. Regardless, I’m happy for the reign of Rhea to continue. She’s a megastar for this company.

Cody Rhodes returns – Quite a few members of the wrestling online community are assuming that Cody Rhodes will be the member of the WWE RAW roster to be traded to SmackDown in return for Jey Uso’s switch to the red brand last week. Maybe we’ll find out more tonight? If he is moving to SmackDown maybe we’ll get a final match tonight or maybe a series of matches across the next few week before he makes the jump? I could be way off, and he might just start a new feud tonight with no mention of a move, we’ll have to wait and see!

Gunther’s Record-Breaking Intercontinental Championship Celebration – Congratulations to Gunther on becoming the longest reigning and record-breaking Intercontinental Champion in WWE history. The celebration tonight should be interesting, I always feel like these segments work best for a comedic and whiny / scared heel champion – All of which does not describe Gunther at all. So, I will be interested to see how WWE approaches this. I’m sure I’m not the only one who wants to see Gable get involved with another rematch for the title then being booked for WWE Fastlane? I never get sick of these two working together, I really enjoyed their match last week!

AEW Dynamite, 6th September 2023 – AEW World Champion MJF & Samoa Joe –

So, I like many of you checked out AEW Dynamite last week. Nothing in particular was standing out to me during the show. Orange Cassidy made a brief appearance, gave a tiny promo, and left before Jon Moxley defended his newly won AEW International Championship in a decent opening bout. Kris Statlander then defended her AEW TBS Championship in what was another decent match, nothing special here. Le Sex Gods defeated Aussie Open in another average bout – Not sure about everyone else, but I don’t care about Sammy Guevara falling out with Chris Jericho.

So, as the show went on, I was beginning to wonder “What is going to make me keep watching this?” I was close to turning it off when the graphic came up announcing we would be hearing from the ROH Tag Team & AEW World Champion, Maxwell Jacob Friedman next!  I thought, I’ll watch this, if it isn’t interesting then I’ll call it a night.

MJF made his way to the ring and in his usual style captivated the crowd immediately and had them in the palm of his hand straight away. He’s arguably the best thing about AEW, he’s got the look, oozes charisma, character and personality and can be a heel you detest or a babyface you pull for. On top of that, he’s 27 years old. AEW should be looking to give him whatever he wants financially and building their company around this guy.

MJF stated how unhappy he was with Samoa Joe pushing him on the ramp at AEW All Out the previous weekend. If you’re aware of Joe’s run in WWE NXT, you’ll remember the infamous spot when he’s being accompanied to the ring by security backstage. One of the guards is a young MJF. Samoa Joe, carrying the NXT World Title at the time pushes the ‘kid’ into the wall. So of course, all these years later Joe doing this to MJF again is going to hit a nerve.

Samoa Joe comes out and proceeds to call MJF ‘Kid’ numerous times which clearly gets under the champ’s skin. Further insults are traded (Jokes at the expense of Joe, shots at William Regal etc…) before Samoa Joe states that he will win the AEW Grand Slam tournament and go on to defeat MJF and claim the AEW World Championship. Joe called MJF a bitch which in return for he received a slap, Joe said he wasn’t going to take the champ’s bait and allowed MJF to leave. Once MJF tried to leave Joe attacked, MJF rallied and attempted a comeback, but with an underlying ‘neck’ injury Joe got the upper hand and took control. Adam Cole then made the save and Joe retreated.

The reason this segment caught my interest in an otherwise bland show up until this point was due to a multitude of reasons – The crowd were hot for this segment, MJF and Samoa Joe deserve credit for this due to telling a story that went back years. They showed no respect for one another and despite it obviously being a storyline you could genuinely believe and understand both MJF and Joe’s viewpoints. MJF is the young champ, the future star who feels like a veteran he looked up to disrespected him whilst trying to make a name for himself in the business. Joe is the veteran, a killer in the ring who doesn’t respect anyone, especially a cocky and brash ‘kid’ like MJF.

I think we all know that Joe will be winning the AEW Grand Slam Tournament now, wouldn’t make sense for him not to. Hopefully between Joe and MJF fighting for the title we get to see the challenger Samoa Joe become even more ruthless – Let him get under the champ’s skin even more by savagely attacking Adam Cole. Anyway, that’s me starting to fantasy book how we get from A to B… That’s not a bad thing though, AEW and this feud have clearly caught my attention and pulled me in.

Final word on this segment is regarding some of the backlash I seen online regarding the WWE references. I think one person noted eight mentions of WWE terms, talents etc… Usually I wouldn’t be a fan of them using WWE as part of their feud, it would feel cheap (TNA used to do this and I didn’t like it then) but doing it to further a deep feud makes sense. Just don’t keep rehashing it over and over again AEW!

Anyway, I’ll stop rambling on now. Thanks for checking this third blog out. I’m a self-confessed WWE fanboy, always have been since I started watching WWE as a child. However, as you can hopefully and probably tell I’m trying to broaden by Professional Wrestling palate and horizons. If there is anything else you can recommend, I’m open to suggestions. I’m taking a break from my 9-5 office job at the moment and trying to fill my time!

Please leave feedback, if it’s constructive then I’ll always appreciate it. I’m always happy to learn and to become better. Please keep it respectful though, everyone is entitled to an opinion.

Take it easy guys,

Andy

[buttdawg]

G1 Climax Blues

The pattern I see with these G1 tournaments is that I enjoy the round robin blocks and then feel let down by the finals. I'll try to explain what I mean.

This year had a pretty good setup, with 32 wrestlers in four blocks. They managed to keep me guessing for most of the month, and even though SANADA and Okada dominated their respective blocks, there was still a spirited competition for runner-up. So I was looking forward to the playoff portion, since it could have some fresh faces threaten to upset the whole thing. Even if the Cinderella stories didn't pan out, they could keep it interesting.

But in the end, the only Cinderella story was Hikuleo, who lost in the quarterfinals. Arguably, Zack Sabre making it was kind of a milestone, but he's been an established NJPW guy for years, and he's the leader of his own stable now. Doesn't matter, because he still lost in the quarterfinals.

So the semifinals were Okada vs. EVIL and Naito vs. Will Ospreay. Then the finals turned out to be Okada vs. Naito, and Naito won. I can't exactly fault New Japan for booking their top babyfaces in the finals of their premier tournament. It just makes sense, but the problem is that it makes a little too much sense, because they've done it a lot.

I mean, look at the storylines both finalists were involved in. Okada wanted to win the G1 because he... already won it four times... but if he won this time he would have been the first person to ever win three in a row, and his fifth win would tie the record held by Masahiro Chono. On the other side, Naito really needed to win the G1 so he could secure his dream of winning the world title in the main event of WrestleKingdom... again, because he already did that in 2020. But that time didn't count because KENTA ambushed him in the middle of his post-show address to the Tokyo Dome. So he has to do it all over again and get it right! Tetsuya Naito cannot be happy until he does the LIJ roll call in the Tokyo Dome. Who can't relate to that?

NJPW has written itself into a corner where Okada or Naito is always involved in the biggest, most important tippy-top storylines, to the point where the biggest possible match you can do is Okada vs. Naito, except they've already done it several times. And it seems to work, I guess. The fans are invested, and they seem to make money this way, and both guys are healthy enough for it. But creatively, the whole thing stinks. This is why you have storylines like "Okada might as well threepeat, because who can stop him?" and "Naito must return to the Tokyo Dome because the last several times he went there the vibe was off."

This was the same nonsense I saw when Kota Ibushi was in the mix, and he won back-to-back G1's, and might have three-peated himself if it weren't for that shoulder injury in the finals. The thing is, what does it achieve to have Ibushi or Okada or Naito win multiple G1 tournaments? The first time, Ibushi sweet-talked the match-makers into letting him challenge for the IC title too. The second time he was on this weird crusade to "become God". Then he got the shoulder injury and left the company. Fans wanted him to jump to AEW for three years, but instead he spent all that time doing victory laps in New Japan. And now that he's gone, Okada and Naito are doing the victory laps Ibushi would have run, on top of the victory laps they were already doing.

What frustrates me about the promotion is that they have this murderer's row of great talent, but they keep pushing the same guys every year, long after they stopped needing it. Okada's won how many world titles? At some point you would think he would just stop participating in G1 tournaments, since he's won so many that there's really nothing left to prove. Or have an up-and-comer sneak past him to come after his spot. They've been teasing Will Ospreay for that role since 2021, but he's still cutting promos about how he's the future of the company. Dude, you were supposed to be the future four years ago. It's the present, and you're still trying to prove you can hang with Okada.

It's just as well, because I'm sick of Ospreay's act anyway, but New Japan is going to keep shoving him down my throat no matter what. He's the greatest wrestler of all time, even though he's never won a G1 tournament, and he can barely beat Okada, and so on. He's New Japan's Lex Luger.

What frustrates me is how little things have changed since I got into New Japan in 2019. I expected a lot of twists and turns and big shakeups, but by 2021 it became clear that the company's booking philosophy is "malaise forever". They'll be talking about "The New Three Musketeers" well into 2026. One of them will upset Okada to win the world title, and then have an uninspiring reign while Okada sweeps another G1 to win back his belt at the Tokyo Dome. Rinse and repeat.

So I guess I'll cancel my subscription again, since things change so slowly over there that I won't miss much. I might check in on them for G1 34 next year, assuming the lineup catches my interest. But I kind of want something big to happen, and it doesn't feel like it will.

[bog-o-bones]

Who the hell is CM Punk and why is he “All Elite”?

If you’re reading this post, you’re most likely somebody who’s heard the latest buzz around the wrestling world: CM Punk is back! But who exactly is CM Punk? You’ve probably heard the name before, either in the context of pro wrestling or as part of his time in UFC, and have always wondered what the big deal is about the guy. You’ve also probably seen or heard about All Elite Wrestling, up-and-coming wrestling promotion airing live Wednesday and Friday nights on TNT. But what exactly is AEW as well? That’s where this post comes in. In this long-ass post on Tumblr, you’ll be given a crash course on the history of one of pro wrestling’s most iconic superstars as well as the abridged history of AEW, the premier wrestling promotion in North America, allowing you to (hopefully) understand the significance of Punk’s return to the squared circle as well as give yourself significant knowledge of AEW enough that you can begin to enjoy the weekly shows they put out!

Okay, so who the heck is this CM Punk guy anyway?

To put it simply, CM Punk is one of the most significant pro wrestlers of the 21st century as well as the history of the industry itself. While he’s not on the level of mainstream recognition as Hulk Hogan or Stone Cold Steve Austin, Punk’s contributions to pro wrestling are arguably as important to the industry. To understand Punk’s significance, you need to have a little history lesson about the industry in the early-to-mid 2000′s.

When you think of professional wrestling, you probably think of one name above all: WWE, World Wrestling Entertainment. WWE was, and still is, the most mainstream wrestling promotion ever. People associate all wrestling with WWE, no matter what. But what about what’s below WWE in terms of recognition? The Minor League Baseball to its MLB? To that, we have to look at the independent scene.

The independent scene is, simply put, the underground punk rock of pro wrestling. It’s where the stars make the names for themselves to rise to the success. Indie wrestling is important because it’s where Punk began. CM (the initials jokingly standing for whatever is on his mind at the moment, ranging from “Cookie Monster” to “Charles Montgomery” or “Chicago Made”) Punk began his career in the independent scene around the turn of the millennium. He rose to significant prominence in the promotion Ring of Honor, one of the most premiere indie leagues in the United States. This prominence was brought on by Punk’s oozing charisma and wrestling talent, making him one of the best known “underground wrestlers” at the time. Then, in 2005, Punk signed a contract with the major league: he was WWE bound.

To regale you with Punk’s career in WWE would require an entirely separate post, so I’ll spare you the specifics and get to the good stuff: Punk was over in WWE. “Over” of course meaning the fans loved him. And why shouldn’t they? Big time wrestling fans knew Punk from his days in ROH and to see him rise to be on national television broadcasts and pay-per-view was rewarding. To those who were introduced to him, he was a fantastic talent and provided immense entertainment because of his talent in the ring and outside it.

Later on in his career at WWE, Punk provided one of the most scathing promos of all time, criticizing the company for its horrific decision-making and idiotic management. The promo was a “worked shoot”, wrestling lingo for a promo that seems like it’s breaking character but is all planned out (Punk was allowed to say anything he wanted, no matter if it was in character or not) but it was still extremely satisfying for the fans who agreed wholeheartedly with Punk about the state of WWE at the time. This promo (now known as the “pipebomb promo”) is just one of the many reasons why CM Punk has remained an immense fan favorite. The idea of a wrestler taking the mic, airing their grievances, and showcasing how a major corporation treated their employees with disdain and damnation is utterly unlike anything seen since Stone Cold Steve Austin back in the late 90′s. Punk, to many people, was one of the first of many “indie stars” that WWE had “poached” from the independent scene, turning them into corporate icons, stripping away their unique qualities as a person and transforming them into recognizable brands to sell merchandise with. To see Punk spit back at the WWE made a lot of people realize that enough was enough for them. Punk was the voice of the voiceless, a wrestler echoing throughout the halls that he wasn’t just a brand to slap onto a cheap mass-produced product, that he was a wrestler (in the mid-2000s at WWE, the term “wrestler” was seen as an irrelevant term, the terms “sports entertainer” and “superstar” preferred by management) in this business to prove himself as the Best in the World. And like clockwork, on July 15th, 2014, Punk was removed from WWE’s active roster after he had effectively walked out of the company weeks prior.

One of the most significant events post-WWE with Punk was his appearance on close friend Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling podcast. Colt’s podcast was known for featuring “shoot interviews”, basically interviews with wrestlers out of character detailing backstage information and telling stories. Punk’s episode of the podcast is significant as it eventually led to a total legal dispute with one of WWE’s doctors whose misdiagnosis of a staph infection was one of the reasons for Punk’s departure from WWE. Along with that, Punk’s general dissatisfaction with the “WWE Machine” as it’s been coined was another reason, with him even mentioning at times post-retirement that WWE was responsible for him never wanting to wrestle again. And so it seemed, as Punk later on signed with UFC in an attempt to get a MMA career off the ground, that the legacy of CM Punk ended with his tenure at WWE.

Until, that is, the wrestling world got a little...elite...

Okay, so I get who CM Punk is now, but what’s this All Elite Wrestling business?

AEW, All Elite Wrestling and the sole reason you’re reading this post right now, is the second biggest wrestling promotion in North America and quite possibly the world. Its inception begins with a group of wrestlers signed to the aforementioned Ring of Honor and a little bet made with wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer on Twitter.

Meltzer had proclaimed on Twitter that ROH did not have the capability to sell 10,000 tickets to an arena-run wrestling event. ROH-signed wrestlers Cody Rhodes (son of Dusty Rhodes and brother of Dustin Rhodes f.k.a. “Goldust”) and tag team brothers Matt and Nick Jackson (known as “The Young Bucks”) took Meltzer up on the bet and immediately scouted an arena for such an event. Partnering with Ring of Honor along with other wrestling promotions around the world such as Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide, Impact Wrestling, and New Japan Pro Wrestling, the trio promoted the event as All In and managed to sell out the arena in less than 30 minutes, even exceeding the goal by an extra thousand or so, becoming the largest attended wrestling event not held by industry leader WWE since 1993.

Naturally, the success of such an event caught the attention of many leaders in many industries. The idea that an independent wrestling event could create such a huge success in a time where WWE was kingpin of the industry was unprecedented. It was clear that the wrestling world was ready for a change and the numbers didn’t lie.

On the 1st of January 2019, All Elite Wrestling was announced with the running of All In’s sequel event Double or Nothing which would also be the inaugural pay-per-view event for AEW itself. Backing the company financially was Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan along with his son and co-owner of the Jaguars Tony Khan, who would lead the company as president, CEO and head of creative. The announcement of the company was peppered with signings of some of independent wrestling’s hottest stars such as “Hangman” Adam Page, Joey Janela, Britt Baker, and Kenny Omega, often cited as the greatest wrestler in the world with multiple 5 star+ matches under his belt. Also announced were some of the most interesting inclusions: former WWE stars Chris Jericho and PAC (f.k.a. Neville) had joined as well. At the premiere event of Double Or Nothing, the most shocking addition to the roster made his debut as well: Jon Moxley, formerly known in WWE as Dean Ambrose, one of the highest-profile stars in recent history had jumped ship from top of the card in WWE to the newest promotion. Ripples in the wrestling world had turned into immense shock waves.

Alright, I kinda know the history now but why is AEW so important?

AEW’s significance today cannot be understated. Before its inception, the world of professional wrestling consisted of two pillars: WWE and the independent scene, and the two could not be less equal. WWE was seen by many as the top of the line, the area where a wrestler could be seen by the most eyes and where they could be paid top dollar moreso than any indie promotion. But it was also seen, as detailed earlier by CM Punk, as a place of dull, corporatized profiteering. WWE does not treat its wrestlers as characters in engaging, eventful stories. To the WWE, the wrestlers are no more than brands, recognizable faces and repetitive phrases that they can slap onto t-shirts and other merchandise to sell for a quick buck. WWE as a company does not care about the world of professional wrestling, even recently going so far as to call themselves not a “wrestling company” but an “entertainment” company. Wrestlers in WWE are not given the opportunity to come up with material they think will best suit the story of the match and appease the fans, they are given pre-written scripts of dialogue to act out as if they were in a movie and storylines meant to tell the story the writers want to tell rather than what the fans want to see.

For many wrestlers, the art of wrestling is a finely tuned craft. WWE’s corporate micromanagement of the whole process is utterly disrespectful and soul-crushing. At AEW, the story is different.

AEW’s creative team allows its wrestlers to do whatever they think the fans will like. While not necessarily allowing the wrestlers full creative control (Tony Khan, after all, has the final say on things), AEW at least allows the wrestlers flexibility to try new things without being railroaded by storylines. This results in characters like Orange Cassidy (see above) a wrestler whose entire gimmick is that he just doesn’t care. In his matches, he’ll lazily loaf about the ring, putting in the bare minimum effort at attacking his opponents except when the opponents REALLY strike back at which Cassidy explodes into an array of athletic fury while simultaneously never losing his cool. And it works! The gimmick worked insanely well on the independent scene, away from the strict guidelines of a major corporation who probably would not understand it, and fans adored Cassidy’s laidback, lazy attitude. And in AEW, Cassidy’s gimmick transfers flawlessly due to the company’s trust in Cassidy to make it work. And so, AEW remains a place where wrestlers can succeed not at the whims of an out-of-touch old man playing with his action figures in a way that satisfies only himself, but at the whims of creative people who believe in the equally creative minds out in the squared circle who themselves believe in the hearts of the audience, understanding full well what it is they want to see when they come to or tune into a wrestling program.

There are a multitude of other reasons AEW is probably the best wrestling promotion on the planet (ease of access, LGBT diversity among the roster) but the creative freedom it allows its wrestlers remains one of the greatest.

Okay, now I kinda get the appeal. So where does CM Punk tie into this?

As with any new promotion heavily allowing for greater creative opportunity for its wrestlers, fans are gonna want to see their big favorites join the roster. Names like Daniel Bryan, Aleister Black, Adam Cole etc. known from their time on both the independent scene and at WWE have been tossed around a lot during discussions in the past as far as who should jump ship to the promotion that will best suit them. But one person has always been the biggest “what-if” when it comes to joining AEW: CM Punk. As laid out earlier, CM Punk’s dissatisfaction with WWE was wholly responsible for his greater retirement from the pro wrestling scene. And when there’s only one really significant promotion on the market, why bother? Punk has been vocal in the past on Twitter, in interviews and many other places that his love for the business of pro wrestling was soured and that something truly significant would be required for him to return. It seemed natural to fans that, should AEW prove to be a significant competitor to WWE that, somehow, some way, it could lead to the in-ring return of one of the best to ever step foot in it. And when AEW announced it would be running the second episode of its brand-new show Rampage at the United Center in Chicago, Punk’s hometown, the rumors began to fly.

Punk himself is known for joking about and debunking rumors, hearsay and other lies about his potential signing with any wrestling-related outlets. So when the rumors began to fly that Punk was signing with AEW...the man himself stayed uncharacteristically quiet. And the wrestling world began to gasp...was it true, then? Teasers were thrown about here and there on AEW programming, small things that could go either way but to hardcore fans seemed to understand were plain as day. Punk himself even got in on the action, posting cryptic videos on his Instagram that fans eventually linked to the United Center and a return for the Best in the World. It’s been known as wrestling’s “worst-kept secret” and today, it was revealed in all its glory.

CM Punk, one of the original independent wrestling superstars, one of the few men responsible for changing the culture of professional wrestling in the 21st century, had finally returned home.

Okay, that was pretty explanatory. So now, where the heck can I watch all this?

Excellent question! AEW currently has three methods of airing content:

- Through their network TV shows aired on TNT

- Through their YouTube channel

- Through pay-per-view events

AEW Dynamite is the company’s flagship show airing Wednesdays at 8:00 EST/7:00 CST on TNT. All the company’s major storylines are told on Dynamite and the show usually runs for ~2 hours. There are over 90+ episodes of Dynamite and its not really required that you see every single one though there are many episodes that have aired in the past that feature matches, promos, and other segments worth checking out.

AEW Rampage is the company’s second show and currently only has two episodes aired. It also airs on TNT, Fridays at 10:00 EST/9:00 CST. Rampage has been given the description of being a little more “action-packed” than Dynamite, with shows only lasting for a single hour and featuring little promo time instead focusing primarily on matches themselves.

The company’s biggest stories tend to culminate in one of its four annual pay-per-view events. AEW pay-per-views are available via WarnerMedia's B/R Live service in the United States and Canada, and on FITE TV internationally. Additionally, AEW PPVs are also available via traditional PPV outlets in the United States and Canada and are carried by all major satellite providers. AEW PPVs generally cost around $50-60 and run for about four hours or so.

In addition to the two TNT shows and pay-per-views, AEW also runs two weekly shows on its YouTube channel, AEW: Dark and AEW: Dark Elevation. Both shows are generally referred to as AEW’s “developmental” shows, created mostly for unsigned or up-and-coming talent to showcase themselves in a taped format that forgoes the traditional network TV deals for easier access online. Dark and Dark Elevation’s differences are negligible but both tend not to crossover too much with the main shows, although some stories definitely do. Both shows run for ~an hour and a half on Monday nights at 7:00 EST/6:00 CST (Dark Elevation) and Tuesdays at 7 EST/6 CST (Dark).

AEW talent also provide a few extra sources of entertainment through their own YouTube outlets as well. The Elite, a popular stable in AEW consisting of current champion Kenny Omega and current tag team champions the Young Bucks, feature themselves in their own weekly travel vlog/comedy sketch series Being the Elite while other individual wrestlers like Sammy Guevara, Allie “The Bunny”, and Ethan Page provide more individualized backstage looks at the company through their own vlogs. These aren’t necessary to enjoy regular AEW programming but they definitely add to the atmosphere and you can tell through each how much the locker room loves and respects each other.

Wow, this was really in-depth and definitely not a small task at all. Thanks for the help!

No problem! If you have any questions, feel free to send me a message, though its doubtful I’ll receive it since I barely check Tumblr anymore! If you know me on any other platforms, the message still applies! Thanks so much for reading! I really do hope this helped you understand the situation a little better. Enjoy wrestling!

[wrestlingisfake]

Best of the Super Jr. final preview

Hiromu Takahashi vs. El Desperado - This is the final of the Best of the Super Jr. tournament, pitting the winner of A Block (Hiromu) against the winner of B Block (Despy). There is no time limit, and there must be a winner. The winner will receive a trophy and will presumably challenge to the IWGP junior heavyweight champion, Taiji Ishimori, at the Dominion show on June 12. Despy has never won BOSJ; Hiromu is seeking his third consecutive trophy and fourth overall.

Both Hiromu and Despy finished with 12 points (6 wins, 3 losses) in their blocks. Heading into the May 31 show, each of them was two points behind first place, and then they each beat the guy in first place to create a tie and win the tiebreaker all at once. (This is a pretty common trope in these round-robin tournaments.) Notably, Takahashi beat Ishimori, which should put him in title contention whether he wins this match or not.

Since Takahashi returned from excursion in 2016, these two have fought six times, and Despy currently leads the series 3-2-1. Arguably their most important clash was the 30-minute war in the 2020 BOSJ final, which Hiromu won. When they met again in the 2021 tournament, the fought to a draw. In Janaury 2022 they faced off in the Tokyo Dome, in what I expected to be a cake walk for Hiromu, but Despy came out on top. So despite being the ace of the junior division and a three-time BOSJ winner, Hiromu needs to prove he can still beat this guy.

My gut feeling is that it's Hiromu's time to shine and regain the junior title. But I thought that would happen in January and it just didn't. Maybe they were saving it for now, or maybe they just want to push Desperado on top all year. If the goal is to establish Despy as a top junior, then they've done a great job. I didn't give him any chance of winning the 2020 BOSJ final, and then I didn't expect his epic performance in that match to lead to anything. But now I genuinely think this rematch could go either way

Kazuchika Okada & Tama Tonga & Toru Yano & Jado vs. Jay White & Doc Gallows & Taiji Ishimori & Gedo - Okada vs. White is the main event for the June 12 show. Also set for June 12 is Tonga vs. Karl Anderson, who was booked for this show (and probably this match) but had to withdraw due to COVID-19. Ishimori is waiting to find out who wins in tonight's main event. Jado and Gedo used to be thick as thieves before Jado got kicked out of Bullet Club, so it'll never be over between them.

It's worth keeping an eye on Gallows. If Anderson is unable to make the June 12 show, his tag partner is the obvious choice to replace him. And if you want to set that up, having Gallows pin Tama here would be a simple way to do it. Otherwise, I don't think anybody else in this match needs to score a pin. So I'm going with the Bullet Club team to win.

Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi & BUSHI vs. Taichi & DOUKI & TAKA Michinoku - Most of these guys aren't doing anything, but Takagi and Taichi will meet on June 12 for Takagi's KOPW 2022 trophy. The lack of direction for Naito is particularly curious, but I suppose they could run an angle here to give him a match on Dominion. Taichi, Naito, and Shingo shouldn't get pinned here, but everybody else can, which means either side could easily win. Flip a coin on this one.

Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens & El Phantasmo vs. Jeff Cobb & Great-O-Khan & Aaron Henare - This is a preview of Fale & Owens vs. Cobb & Khan on June 12. Cobb and Khan did a run-in on an AEW show last week, so it looks like they're already slotted for a program at Forbidden Door. Kinda thinking they should win all their matches until then, but you never know.

EVIL & SHO vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Yoshinobu Kanemaru - During the BOSJ tournament, Kanemaru scored an upset on Sho that mathematically eliminated Sho from winning the block. So I guess the House of Torture wants revenge. I doubt this will set up a sustained Suzuki-gun/House of Torture feud, but I guess I wouldn't mind if they did. I'm thinking Sabre submits Sho for the win.

Juice Robinson vs. Tomoaki Honma - Robinson's IWGP United States title is not at stake. Honma's a fun dude but he's not exactly a top contender. It's a little unusual for New Japan to book a champion in a non-title match with no build against a tomato can. I assume there's a reason this is happening, but I can't imagine what it is. Maybe Robinson's just going to abuse Honma to establish his new heel persona in Bullet Club, so that someone can make the save and demand a title shot for June 12. Or...I guess Honma could just score an upset and issue that challenge himself. But if you're betting on Honma to win, you're gonna have a bad time.

Ryusuke Taguchi & Master Wato vs. TJP & Francesco Akira - Taguchi and Wato are the IWGP junior heavyweight tag team champions, but the title is not on the line in this match. In this case I assume they didn't make this a title match because all four guys just got done with a long tournament, although to me that's still a level playing field. During BOSJ, Taguchi won his match against Akira, but Wato lost his match to TJP. There's really nothing else happening in the junior tag division, so I'm in favor of TJP and Akira winning to set up an inevitable rematch for the belts.

YOH & Robbie Eagles & Clark Connors & Titan vs. Wheeler YUTA & Ace Austin & Alex Zayne & El Lindaman - Yoh, Eagles, and Connors are all New Japan guys; Titan is from CMLL, which has a close alliance with NJPW. The other side is all outsiders, so it's sort of an us vs. them kind of match. Yuta, Austin, and Lindaman all hold championships, so if any of them lose the fall I'd like to think it's to set up an interpromotional title bout, but I shouldn't count on things like that. Best guess is Zayne or Titan will lose.

[evas-apartment]

Some Wrestling Thoughts

Considering I've had a blog for the past (fuck) 7 years, I might as well talk about my interests and shit. I could have always done this, but I figured it was effort to type something up that nobody would read lol But something happened recently that I thought was cool.

Now, I can explain why WWE is, for lack of a better term, shit. I can go into GREAT detail, and cite TONS of historical sources, from both a historical/representative aspect and a creative/entertainment aspect, but that being said, I still follow it, as well as AEW, another wrestling promotion that I just recently really got into.

And recently, Black wrestling has been trending recently on twitter, with the hashtag Black Wrestling Draws being the number one on monday night. That's because fan favorite Big E cashed in his Money in the Bank contract to pin Bobby Lashley for the WWE championship. Long story short, there's a match between like 6-10 people, one for men's one for women's where they have a ladder match, where the goal is to set up and climb a ladder to retrieve a briefcase suspended above the ring which holds a contract, the contract being a shot at any of the top championships in the company. Big E, to universal acclaim won an excellent match in July and has been biding his time until this monday night, cashing on the the reigning WWE Champion after a match with Randy Orton.

All that context to say that (after Wrestlemania 37, the biggest WWE show of the year's first night was main evented by two Black women for the first time ever, in Bianca Belair winning the Smackdown Women's Championship from Sasha Banks in an excellent match) a Black man (a good guy) pinned another Black man (a bad guy) to win the WWE Championship, arguably the richest prize in all of wrestling on Monday and I think that's cool. Like objectively. Divorced from all the shit WWE gets wrong, and justifiably gets shit for, this was a fantastic moment. And something that people actually hold WWE up for, over it's competitors. WWE's representation gets it right sometimes. Which is something.

Also for context, Big E is the 4th EVER Black World Champion in WWE history, behind the Rock in 1998, Kofi Kingston in 2019 (notice the gap, and this is one of my favorite matches of all time, Kofi also holds the distinction of being the first African-born WWE Champion, being from Ghana) and Bobby Lashley in 2021. The last time a Black man pinned another Black man for a top belt in WWE was in 2001, when the Rock pinned Booker T for the WCW World Championship. (I can explain everything, if anyone wants to know). And to round out this history lesson lol, the first widely-considered Black world champion in professional wrestling was Bearcat Wright, who won the now-defunct WWA WHC in 1963, pinning wrestling legend "Classy" Freddy Blassie, although most people also remember Ron Simmons, who held the WCW WHC in 1991, winning it from Big Van Vader.

If anyone has read this far, thank you. I appreciate you, and I could talk for days about this stuff.

[vantaeskookies]

Yes, I'm standing up for my homeboy Teh and giving my opinion on IPYTM EP.2 things

Look, I know absolutely nothing about what makes a piece of media good but this episode KILLED me. The previous episode was fine, okay, a great start to the series, but it didn't stand out to me.

IPYTM ep2 just about hit me and dragged me through the mud, to put it in a way. I don't know if that's what makes a TV show great, but it definitely made it amazing for me.

I am terrible at words most of the time, so I'll try to put it as best as I can,

Teh is, for one, a Really Stupid Person. But get this. He's Just Like Me. Okay, maybe this is another case of me loving something because I can deeply relate to it, but COME ON. From my point of view, it just makes so much sense. I understand every single thing he's feeling, I swear. I know why he did what he did, why he said what he said. And yes, he treated people terribly and came out all self-centered and mean and it was, I'm not denying it. No matter how much he explains to Oh-Aew his insecurities, he still behaved like an asshole been there, done that. But it makes so much sense. It's another facet of the Teh we met in ITSAY, that arguably immature and at times selfish (I don't know if that's the word I'm looking for, really) teenager that held a grudge against his once best friend because he felt like he stole his thing, which was acting. That same guy who got increasingly stressed over his best friend/crush not loving him enough. Let's not forget that Teh did lose Oh-Aew once -even though it was his fault from the beginning- and his father even died. No wonder he's afraid of being left alone in his fight. Add to that the fact that his entire life has been about proving himself to others, after growing up as his brother's shadow and with his then rival's image in the back of his mind.

From what I can tell from this episode, it seems that he knows his fight is difficult and that his chances of failing are bigger than the other option, and he had Oh-Aew by his side, but now he doesn't anymore. So now his whole world is crumbling down. Will Oh-Aew leave him again? If Oh-Aew didn't fight as hard to follow his dream, will he fight for their relationship in the future? Will Teh be left alone once again, hating Oh-Aew the way he did back then? It's unfair! Now Khim seems to give up too! Everything's going badly!

Teh doesn't seem like the kind of person to doubt himself, but he definitely seems to panic whenever things don't go the way he planned them. He had it all already pictured, and now it's gone. If the one thing he thought would never change -his and Oh-Aew's acting careers, which was the beginning of EVERYTHING, looking back on it-, already changed, what are the odds that Oh-Aew won't stop loving him suddenly? What are the odds of him never living up to his own expectations, both in his career and life in general?

It's so fucked up... so human.

Don't get me wrong, I think that sooner or later Teh has to change his behavior otherwise he might really end up alone personal experience things. If he keeps making the same damn mistakes, I will punch a hole through my computer screen, as I was about to throughout the whole damn episode.

But now that my Teh Best Character rant is over (I AM aware of the fact that I'm just praising myself if I say we're the same, but shhh), let's just a tiny bit about the episode!

As I said, I have no idea what makes a good piece of media, but this episode was the biggest roller coaster of emotions I've felt in a while (see: ITSAY ep.3 and 4), and that, to me, makes it great. The acting was top-notch, seriously. The scenes of them arguing are not anything I was thriving to see -because conflict stresses me- but I was shocked by how heart-wrenching they were. And each time I cried a little, not gonna lie.

Now, CAN WE TALK about PP for a minute? And Oh-Aew? First of all, never in my life did I expect for them to touch on this subject of Oh-Aew being more 'feminine' as they said. I saw another post talking about it really well so I'm not about to elaborate on a subject that would only get me tangled in my own words, but I just wanna say that I felt so hard for Oh-Aew at that moment. I think it was mainly to show how he doesn't fit in the acting industry, but it's still a statement on how that same industry and, let's be honest, the rest of the world looks down on not traditionally masculine guys. And PP did a superb job in these scenes. 10/10 definitely cried my eyes out.

I already talked my shit on Teh so I just wanna say, there's a reason why Billkin was named best actor! He kills it every. single. time. Where's his oscar??? I didn't think he could get even better than in ITSAY but here we are.

Now on the actual episode, I loved it. The last scene is the most direct foreshadowing I've ever witnessed so I am scared but putting that aside, I think this might've become my second favorite episode of the whole series (ITSAY ep.3 is another level of keyboard smash).

I really don't know what's to come. I'm afraid. I don't know if I should trust Jai and Q or if I should quietly drag Teh and Oh the fuck away from them. Q is a sweetheart for all I know but I don't trust pretty boys with painted nails! And Jai has been sus since the beginning, not once did he say or do anything to make me like him, to be honest.

I just hope that whatever shit Teh and Oh-Aew go through in the next episode, it won't be Teh's fault because it would mean he lost that single braincell of his side comment I know that jealousy is toxic and we don't want that but I'd love to see jealous Oh and Teh again asdfgbxvbdfgzxcv. I mean I know Oh-Aew's perfect and all but he CAN make a mistake once in a while too, you know?

That's all. Head's now empty. I don't ever want to think about this episode and show for another week. I need my sanity.

[topropeblogsplash]

Why CM Punk Just May Have Been The Best In The World

Well, hello there! Thanks for checking out post number one of my brand new, weekly pro wrestling blog :) 

Now, allow me to start off by explaining what I mean when I say 'best'. I don't necessarily mean CM Punk was the absolute, definitive, best pure wrestler of all time as there have arguably been a few slightly better than him over the years, although it's a close one! What I am defining as 'best', for Punk, is I believe he may very well have been the best all-rounder of all time, by which I mean taking into account every aspect of wrestling. For example, if you were to mark him out of 100 on every area of wrestling - such as; the wrestling itself, being face, being heel, promos, wrestling psychology, selling, the list goes on... - and make a graph out of the marks given on each area, whilst some areas would naturally be higher than others, I believe for the most part the various sections of that graph would be fairly level and consistent, showing quite a flat line rather than a bumpy, 'up and down' one, which would understandably be the case for most of his competitors. 

So, that all being said, let's start off with an area I personally would score him 10/10 on, something he has become known for and unarguably helped make him the star he became. Of course, I am talking about talking - his promos! 

Promos

There have always been some good talkers in the wrestling world, from The Rock or Stone Cold Steve Austin right back to Dusty Rhodes, however, very few ever reach that 'perfect' level, that level where everything they say just seems to come out like gold. From the words themselves to the way it's delivered. CM Punk is a guy who has this. Whether you're watching his promos map out his career in ROH, or the infamous 'pipebomb' promo which excelled him to the next level in WWE in June 2011, I personally can not think of a single promo of Punk's where it just didn't seem to fit or seemed somewhat 'off'. His promos of the latter half of 2011 where he was 'The Voice of the Voiceless' really seemed to come from the heart and were so full of truth and expressed what a lot of us fans had felt for a long time. 

So Punk, yes, you do have everybody's attention now. 

The Wrestling Itself

Next up, of course, is his pure wrestling ability. I would say that whilst there are some who are technically 'better' wrestlers than him, such as Bret 'Hitman' Hart, that list, I personally feel, would be a reasonably short one. Everything he does seems to have meaning, a purpose to it, he wasn't really one to do flashy moves just for the sake of it. When he did do something such as a springboard clothesline or a dive through the ropes, it had a place in the match, it wasn't just there for the sake of it - the match had built to a point where it looked natural and fitted in perfectly. 

He had a great mix of being able to have quick, fast-paced spells when the match called for it, whilst being able to then transition into slowing down the pace at relevant points and go into attempting to wear his opponent down with some mat-based submissions and sleeper holds. 

He also possessed probably the most difficult quality of a wrestler - being able to get the crowd going again if they quietened down at any point. He knew how to have people invested in the match, how to make them care. If he was a face he knew when and how to lift them up and make them cheer for him. If he was a heel, he knew how to push people's buttons and get under their skin, ensuring they can't help but boo him, which brings me on to the next point..

His ability to be both an incredible heel or a fantastic face 

More often than not, a wrestler will be better at one than the other, and in some cases, some can only really do one and not the other. 

For Punk, although I feel he had the edge and really came into his own as a heel, we cannot deny how great he was as a face too! Just think back to the previously mentioned 'Voice of the Voiceless' work he was doing in 2011, where he seemed to hold the entire company in his palm and have many fans hanging off of his every word and move, some even tuning in mainly to see him! His feuds with John Cena and Triple H spring to mind with him being the top face in the company at the time. 

With regards to him being a heel, well, what more needs to be said?! The Straight Edge Society had people up in arms with him! Or his feud with The Undertaker at Wrestlemania 29 - the build-up to that match alone had a lot of edgey ingredients, some of which even I feel may have gone a little too far, such as the mentioning of Paul Bearer who at the time had not long passed. But when you feel that maybe a heel has gone too far, are they just doing their job? Perhaps it's a debate for another time. 

Perhaps my favourite heel promo of Punk's is one that a lot of people might not remember as it seems to have fallen under the radar for whatever reason, being overshadowed by his infamous 'pipebomb' promo. We all remember when he sat down at the top of the stage in Las Vegas three weeks before Money In The Bank 2011 and spoke his mind, but how many of us remember his incredible heel promo building to face The Rock at Royal Rumble 2013? 

The video below is what I believe is a heel playing that role to perfection! For the full effect of this great promo, check out the January 27th 2013 edition of Raw on the WWE Network, unfortunately a lot of this promo has been cut down on YouTube. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr8mfBRsD2s

During the promo, Punk gave a great mix of building the match itself whilst portraying a genuinely unlikable character. He even expressed feelings which may have touched a nerve in real life to some who have come before him, chuckling and claiming that "wrestling one night a month at Madison Square Garden is EASY!!" And that Hulk Hogan "had it easy". This not only seems very disrespectful to those guys, but also seems a big 'no no' in the world of how wrestling politics are behind the scenes. Punk really seemed to say it like he meant it, and in all fairness, look at how his schedule was - definitely not one match a month.. 

Of course, though, I'm not just talking about his awesome promo work - we've covered that already. He knew how to actually wrestle as an amazing face and have the entire crowd cheering him on. Or alternatively, he could have the entire place booing him whilst he uses dirty move after dirty move. It's the little things he does which make either of these - those cocky looks if he's a heel, or those adrenaline-filled claps & stomps to the mat of a face as he tries to get the crowd to will him on. 

Finally, I'm going to finish this blog post off with a somewhat surprising point, but one I feel is worth making nonetheless as it seems only a handful of wrestlers can do this well for an entire show, on back to back weeks. 

Commentary

...yes, that’s right!

Punk's ability to be a very good commentator! Okay, I won't blame anyone at all if you don't remember his short time on the commentary team whilst the soon-to-be leader of the New Nexus recovered from a hip injury.

This may be a weird point to bring up, but remember, we're discussing why CM Punk just may have been the best in the world, meaning having the ability to cover all areas on a more consistent basis than anyone else, and being able to commentate on an entire show - rather than only one match which is relevant to a Superstar’s next PPV rivalry - seems such a difficult skill to master, and Punk fitted into that role seamlessly! There have been very few in recent years who can step so comfortably into this role, most recently Chris Jericho has been doing some amazing commentary work in AEW, and it's no coincidence him and Punk fitted into this role so well whilst also being two of the very best promos around. Of course, Jerry 'The King' Lawler and Tazz were once wrestlers who took to the commentary table - much like Nigel McGuiness currently is - but remember, Punk was still an active wrestler at this point, only sidelined briefly for an injury, he didn't take masses of time off to be trained how to commentate, he just kind of did it and he did it well. He was not only entertaining and gave moments of speaking his mind, but his commentary on the matches themselves really had value and flowed as if he had been doing it for years. I urge you to go back and watch shows from late 2010/early 2011 and listen to his work. He was not only a good commentator for someone who had little experience in that area, but was very good regardless, even stepping up to the level of some full time commentators. 

So there we have it, my personal views on why CM Punk just may have been the best in the world. If you have any points you think I may have missed out or anything you would like to include about this, please feel free to mention it in the comments below :) 

If you would like to see me performing some stuff in my work as a magician, please check out my socials! :) 

Instagram/Facebook/Twitter: @Kemptonmagician

[beingallelite]

After the first four shows in All Elite Wrestling's short history, a handful of its talent made a grand first impression to many fans initially unfamiliar with much of the roster. Wrestlers who come to mind include Adam Page, Britt Baker, Darby Allin, Jungle Boy, Luchasaurus and Nyla Rose.

None, however, have broken out quite like a 23-year-old from Long Island, New York, named Maxwell Jacob Friedman.

"I've had fans try and jump the guard rail," MJF told Bleacher Report. "I've had fans key my car. I've had fans try to stab me. I've had piss thrown at me. I'm the one getting booed here and yet these animals, these circus freaks, think it's OK to attack me for telling the truth. It's absolutely abysmal."

As one can imagine, many fans don't take too kindly to things MJF, who travels around the world to compete, says to them.

Just months into AEW's run, The Salt of the Earth has already established himself as arguably the best talker on the roster. Highlights include interrupting Bret Hart at the debut show in May, insulting the Fyter Fest crowd in epic fashion and being executive vice president Cody Rhodes' right-hand man as he gets ready for his AEW world championship title shot against Chris Jericho on Nov. 9 at Full Gear.

With his standout mic skills, it's easy to forget how good he's also been in high-profile matches that included Page, Allin and Jungle Boy just to name a few.

To say it's been a stratospheric rise for MJF would be an understatement. In just four years, the rising star went from beginning his wrestling career to being promoted as one of the faces of a major organization. For perspective, certain wrestlers with decades of experience may never reach that point.

Before deciding on his eventual line of work, Friedman was a football player at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York. He grew up a wrestling fan, though, and eventually dropped out of college to join Create a Pro Wrestling Academy. Trained by Pat Buck and WWE star Curt Hawkins, MJF wrestled for numerous promotions across the Northeast indie circuit before signing with AEW in January.

He studies some of the greatest talkers in wrestling history, including Roddy Piper, Buddy Landel, Ernie Ladd, Ric Flair and even Tully Blanchard, whom MJF described as a "decrepit piece of s--t loser" after he intentionally interrupted the interview while walking past MJF at Starrcast wrestling convention in Chicago. To say Blanchard got under MJF's skin is an understatement.

"Get out of here, you old sack of s--t," the Burberry scarf-wearing MJF yelled at the wrestling legend. "Can you believe that guy? He wants to interrupt my interview?"

Moments after Blanchard left the room, a disgruntled MJF asked for a few moments to calm down before proceeding with the interview. Not many in the industry would talk to the Horseman like that, but MJF is not like many people. It's that talking that drew the former Major League Wrestling champion to the business.

"There were people that grabbed you just by talking, and that's what I loved about professional wrestling when I started out," MJF said. "That's why I'm already so good. That's why people literally hang on the edge of their seats when I have a mic because they want to know what I'm going to say.

"And by the way, I'm also really good in the ring too. Some would say that's unfair, and I'd probably be inclined to agree."

During his time at AEW, he's proved there aren't many lines he won't cross. At Double or Nothing, MJF mocked Hart for genuinely being attacked by a fan at the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony last April. He followed that up by flicking off the Fyter Fest crowd before poking fun at the event's video game-oriented fanbase.

Just don't call what MJF has to say "harsh."

"I'm honestly offended whenever someone says I'm being harsh," he said. "For some reason we love using these poppy words in 2019 because everybody loves to choose to be offended. Nothing I say is harsh. What I do say is the truth. If people have a problem with that, they need to realize that's on them. That's not on me."

A person like MJF who isn't afraid to say whatever's on their mind is naturally going to make some enemies. Also take into consideration that Friedman, a wrestling purist, has admittedly been thrown off by the signings of unorthodox talent AEW has brought on in recent months.

Even the merest mention of hardcore standouts such as Allin, Joey Janela and Jimmy Havoc, the "fun-sized" Marko Stunt who stands 5'2" and the infamous Orange Cassidy known for his intentionally lackadaisical wrestling style almost made MJF vomit mid-interview.

"Do you have a napkin? I think some puke came out of my mouth."

MJF thinks a handful of the AEW signings make a mockery of the sport he loves and are applauded for doing so.

"I'll put it this way: In this country, much like our roster, there's a bit of a divide," he explained. "You have the top 1 percent, guys like me and Cody Rhodes. Then you have Jimmy Havoc, Darby Allin, Marko Stunt, etc.

"I'll be honest with you, the first time Marko stepped in the locker room, I got scared because I thought someone lost their kid. I tried to help the poor bastard out. He gave me his ID and turns out he's my age. Truly frightening stuff who AEW brass allow in the locker room.

"If a guy like Orange Cassidy can find a way to stop being a jabroni and fit inside my world, more power to him. If I had to lean toward one way or the other, though, I'd tell you it probably won't come out all sunshine and rainbows at the end of Orange Cassidy's career here at AEW. I could be totally wrong, but I'm not."

Due to these signings, he admits he has lost some trust with certain members of the front office aside from Cody. MJF's faith in AEW is kept afloat in part by the friendship and business acumen of The American Nightmare, whom he deems the smartest man in the industry.

"The guy thinks on a different level," MJF continued. "What's the old saying...one man's trash is another's treasure? In this case, maybe Cody sees one man's s--t, dirtbag, backyard wrestler in a way that I can't. Cody has a much smarter wrestling brain than I have. I'm only four years into the business. If he sees money in there, then there's money in there."

MJF made quite the impression on Rhodes and AEW president Tony Khan, who re-signed the self-proclaimed fastest rising star in professional wrestling to a reported five-year contract last July. According to Friedman, he's now the longest-contracted roster member in the company not including front-office personnel (Cody and Brandi Rhodes, Kenny Omega, Young Bucks).

Expectations are at an all-time high for MJF.

"They now pay me even more money than I was making before, and the money I was making before was already stupid."

"I'd like to think I'll be a multiple-time AEW world champion within my first five years at the company, or maybe I'll hold it once and just never lose it."

As AEW's television debut date of All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite on Wednesday on TNT approaches, MJF has some words of advice for the "stupid, fat fans" who continue to critique him.

"If you're sitting down and reading this crap, you have no life already," he said. "Granted, it's me talking so I'll give you a bye. But there's more to life than sitting in your basement and masturbating. Get out of your house, find someone that's probably not attractive and just stay away from me because your life and existence is sad and it makes me sad."

Well, there it is. Frankly there wasn't a more fitting way to end this interview.

[wrestlingwiththoughts]

Wrestling in 2019

Male WWE Superstar of the Year WINNER: Adam Cole

Once again, an NXT wrestler dominates the Male WWE Superstar of the Year category. After not even getting on the ballot last year, Adam Cole wins the category by having showcase main event matches in this year's TakeOvers: vs. Johnny Gargano, TakeOver: New York vs. Johnny Gargano, TakeOver: XXV vs. Johnny Gargano, TakeOver: Toronto Men's WarGames match, TakeOver: WarGames 2019 Add to that, you also have his TV matches against Finn Balor, Pete Dunne, Daniel Bryan, Matt Riddle, Akira Tozawa, AR Fox, and Ricochet this year, and you can see that he got the spotlight and held on to it throughout the year. I saw how the crowd loved him at TakeOver: New York because he's become the cool tweener champion in NXT, and he is, if nothing else, a very giffable presence. Kingston had the storyline leading to hsi championship win over Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania this year. I'll be honest; it's hard to write about any of these other guys because I haven't watched more than 10 hours of WWE programming in 2019; I want to know who the nine voters for Bray Wyatt were and why they voted for him. At least Keith Lee is cool.

Female WWE Superstar of the Year

WINNER: Io Shirai

After a landslide victory for Becky Lynch in 2018, Lynch loses to Io Shirai by 2 votes for the 2019 Carny for Best Female WWE Superstar. Io Shirai's heel turn gave her a spark; even as the nominal face of NXT and Stardom, there was always something heelish about her, and the NXT heel turn really unleashed it. Unfortunately, her heel turn came during Shayna Baszler's reign of terror, so she hasn't been able to harness the energy from this heel turn into a championship run yet. Becky Lynch capped her rise with a victory in the main event at WrestleMania 35 and immediately used that momentum to go into a feud with...Lacey Evans. Asuka, meanwhile, is splitting time between being a tag team champion and running her YouTube channel. Rhea Ripley got over her "heated gaming moment" to end Shayna Baszler's reign of terror. Bianca Belair started the year with a championship match against Baszler at TakeOver: Phoenix, but her momentum really seemed to stall for the rest of the year.

Best Male Non-WWE Wrestler of the Year WINNER: Will Ospreay

Will Ospreay did the impossible this year: he won a Twitter feud. He also won the Best of the Super Juniors in 2019, had a decent showing in the G1 as a junior (even if he didn't get many victories during his debut G1 run), and he found the time to work in RevPro, World of Sport, Fight Club Pro, PROGRESS, White Wolf Wrestling, APC, ATTACK!, and MCW this year. All in all, he worked 124 matches in 2019 around the world, and the quality of his matches was consistently high, particularly if you enjoy his brand of flippy wrestling. But let 2019 be remembered as the year that WIll Ospreay won a Twitter feud over Seth Rollins. Let's hope that he continues to stay on the good side of social media in 2020. Kazuchika Okada, meanwhile, had his normally good year. His IWGP title reign had some good matches, and he had a good set of matches in the G1. The argument for Okada is that he's underrated because e's consistently good, so it's only notable when he's not good or when he's exceptionally good. Jon Moxley resurrected his drawing appeal this year with his escape from WWE and reminded everyone why people were excited about him. We're still waiting for his post-WWE matches against Nick Gage, SHLAK, and John Zandig, but we did get a deathmatch in the main event of a major American company's PPV in 2019 thanks to Moxley, the purveyor of violence. The inaugural AEW Champion, Chris Jericho worked hard to overcome his physical limitations to carry the company's main event through his promos and charisma. Cody, meanwhile, is the company's nominal top babyface, gets by on his charisma and the fact that he's the face of the company over his consistently good but never great in-ring work. David Starr was the top independent wrestler of the year, working every promotion that would be willing to book him to a total of 139 matches in 2019. Konosuke Takeshita continues to toil in relative obscurity in DDT, which is a damned shame because he is one of the best wrestlers in the world.

Best Non-WWE Female Wrestler of the Year WINNER: Tessa Blanchard

Until we were reminded what a dubious person she is, Tessa Blanchard was getting by on her family name and her hard work in obscurity in Impact Wrestling, where she started the year feuding with Taya Valkyrie for the Knockouts Championship. From there, she feuded with Gail Kim and faced Glenn GIlbertti, finishing the year in a feud with Sami Callihan and the rest of OVE. She was also a face of WOW Women of Wrestling this year. Kris Statlander overcame her awful alien gimmick to rocket up to prominence in the North American independent women's wrestling scene, ending the year by signing with AEW. Riho became the anchor of the AEW women's division after working in Gatoh Move and Stardom, and her energy and entrance theme are absolutely delightful. Jungle Kyona is probably benefiting more from Hana Kimura's appearances on Terrace House than even Hana is. Sareee is arguably the workate workhorse of the year, and now she'll get her talents squandered if she really does sign with WWE. Jamie Hayter is great.

[wrestlingisfake]

Fight for the Fallen preview

Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson vs. Cody Rhodes & Dustin Rhodes - The Jacksons are the Young Bucks, with a litany of tag team championships in over a dozen promotions.  Cody and Dustin are the sons of Dustin Rhodes, who were only teamed together for a few years in WWE, albeit long enough to win tag team gold twice.  After finally getting to do their epic brother vs. brother match in May, Dustin looked ready to retire but Cody delivered an emotional request for Dustin to partner with him here.  It was a classic moment, but the Bucks have been mocking it on their “Being the Elite” show for weeks.

Cody and the Bucks are all nominally babyfaces (especially in AEW, where they’re all management guys and top attractions) but they all have a smarminess to them that makes them sound like assholes, even when they’re being sincere.  That may make the heel/face dynamic in this one hard to chart, especially since I’m not sure any of them really believe heel/babyface dynamics matter in 2019.  So they may flip-flop eight or nine times during the match.  For Dustin’s part, he’s got the sympathy of an aging second-generation legend, but the psychology here will likely have him slowing down the pace and doing big power moves, which will likely get him booed.  This could get interesting on a conceptual level, akin to some of the Elite vs. Elite matches last year in New Japan and ROH.

AEW has tried to push an image of having logical booking, so I tend to think the tag team specialists need to go over here.  That’ll be Cody’s first defeat in the company, but he can take it.  The priority here should be to protect the Bucks ahead of the upcoming tag team championship tournament.

Kenny Omega vs. CIMA - I gather that these two have a past together in Japan, although AEW hasn’t been very specific about it so I don’t know much about it.  The main idea here is that Cima is on a roll after scoring his first AEW win over Christopher Daniels, and now he’s most likely being fed to Omega before the big Omega-Moxley match on August 31.  This should be entertaining but there’s little doubt this will be a showcase for Omega, who will pick up the victory.

Hangman Page vs. Kip Sabian - At Double or Nothing, Sabian and Page both won prelim matches.  Page’s win put him in line for a world title match in August, but before that he was in a four-way in June where the winner would advance to face Sabian here.  I really don’t understand the booking here.  In any event both guys are undefeated in AEW, so I suppose it sort of makes sense to pit them against one another.  If Page wins, he’ll be headed into his title match at 3-0, a record that very few others will have.  I expect that’s the plan, so Kip’s being fed to Page before Page is fed to Chris Jericho at All Out.

Brandi Rhodes vs. Allie - This is Brandi’s debut as a wrestler in AEW, although she’s been all over the women’s division as the on-screen/off-screen matchmaker who seems to passive-aggressively undermine all the other women.  They’ve been building this like Brandi has a grudge against Allie without really getting into why, and I’m still not sure if they mean for her to be a heel.  Allie scored a win over Leva Bates at Fyter Fest but it was a prelim match and I don’t get the sense that she’s in line for a big push.  This feels like it’s Brandi’s time to shine, but I could also see her swerving us by not putting herself over

Pentagon, Jr. & Rey Fenix vs. Franke Kazarian & Scorpio Sky - Penta and Fenix are the Lucha Brothers; Kazarian and Sky are representing SCU.  Even though the Lucha Brothers are two of the biggest names AEW has, they’re actually 0-2 in the promotion.  Then again, I don’t believe they’re officially under contract with AEW, so it’s smart business to feed them to your locked-in guys.  But it’s probably time for them to get a win, and SCU can afford to give them one.

Angelico & Jack Evans vs. Evil Uno & Stu Grayson vs. Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus - This is a three-way match, so the first man to score a fall on any opponent wins the match for his team.  The winners advance to some sort of match at All Out on August 31, which will determine who gets a first-round bye in the upcoming tag team championship tournament.

Angelico and Evans appeared at Double or Nothing, but they’re still looking for their first AEW victory.  Uno and Grayson (who have yet to compete in AEW) were the Super Smash Brothers, but I never understood what their gimmick has to do with the video game, so it’s just as well that they’re now the Dark Order.  Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus have mainly been paired in comedy bits on “Being the Elite,” so as far as I know this is their first outing as a tag team.  I think the Dark Order should be the favorites, but I could easily see anyone winning this.

MJF & Shawn Spears & Sammy Guevara vs. Joey Janella & Jimmy Havoc & Darby Allin - The biggest angle in this match is that Spears turned heel on Cody Rhodes by attacking right after the Cody vs. Darby time limit draw on June 29.  MJF is a super deluxe douchey heel, but he’s trying to convince everyone he’s Cody’s best friend, and yet he’s been teamed with Spears for some reason.  Guevara is just a non-aligned dick.  Jimmy Havoc arguably has unfinished business with MJF, but in general this is a random six-man tag team match to get the midcard guys on the show.  I’d have the MJF/Spears/Guevara team win, but I am starting to notice that Janella, Havoc, and Allin can’t seem to catch a break.

Sonny Kiss vs. Peter Avalon - This is scheduled for the pre-show.  Kiss appeared at Double or Nothing in the battle royale, but this is his first one-on-one match.  This is Avalon’s in-ring debut for AEW, but he’s made quite an impression as one of two people billed as The Librarian.  Unfortunately that impression hasn’t been very good, and now the angle on “Being the Elite” is that the Young Bucks want to push the Librarians harder to parody out-of-touch management.  I don’t know if the audience for this show is going to get the joke, let alone like it.  My guess is that Kiss will get the win when Avalon and Leva Bates get in one another’s way to perpetuate their storyline.

Britt Baker & Riho vs. Bea Priestly & Shoko Nakajima - Another pre-show match.  It had been feeling like AEW has two women’s divisions--one for the Japanese women and one for the westerners--so I like that they didn’t automatically put Riho and Nakajima on the same team here.  Baker and Riho are undefeated in AEW, and this is the first match for Priestly and Nakajima.  I’m not sure what to expect here, honestly.  I could see a big win for the newcomers, but then again it feels like Baker and Riho are being groomed to headline the division, so anything is possible.

[wrestlingisfake]

G1 Climax B Block finals preview

Tetsuya Naito vs. Jay White - Naito is the IWGP intercontinental champion, but his title is not at stake.  This is for points in the G1 Climax tournament--the winner gets 2, the loser gets 0, or both men get 1 if there’s a 30-minute time limit draw.  Naito and White both have 10 points, putting them in a four-way tie for first place in B Block with Hirooki Goto and Jon Moxley.  There’s no guarantee that the winner of this match will win the block, but the loser certainly won’t, so the stakes are high.  The winner of B Block will go on to face the winner of A Block in the finals on August 12.

There are scenarios where neither White nor Naito will win the block, depending on what happens in Goto and Moxley’s matches.  However, I think by the time this match starts, those scenarios will be wiped out, and this one will be for all the marbles.  Both Naito and White had rough starts this year, clearly to keep us expecting them to be on the brink of elimination right up until the last minute.

These two have largely been kept apart during the past two years, as White has dramatically shot to the top.  White has wins over Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Kenny Omega, leaving Naito as arguably biggest name he has yet to conquer.  (I say “arguably” because I don’t think he’s tangled with Kota Ibushi yet either...funny how that works out.)  Even if White doesn’t win the tournament, a win here sets up a feud over the intercontinental title that could easily be the match for both men at Wrestle Kingdom in January.

The wrestling in this match could get interesting since Naito’s style revolves around trolling opponents into losing their chill, while White’s style is based on counterattacks.  I picture this one starting with both guys trying to bait the other into making the first move, which could lead to a shit-ton of stalling.

The bottom line is which of them is the better opponent for Kota Ibushi in the finals.  We’ve already seen Naito feud with Ibushi back in the spring, so I think it’s White’s turn this time.

Jon Moxley vs. Juice Robinson - Moxley’s IWGP United States championship is not on the line.  This is another tournament match for 2 points.  Moxley has 10 points, and he could still win the block if he and Naito tie at 12, although a three-way tie with Goto would be more complicated.  At 6 ponts, Robinson can’t win the block, but he at least has a chance to avenge his loss in Moxley’s debut, where Mox captured the US belt.  A Robinson win would almost certainly set up a rematch for the title, perhaps as soon as September to avoid scheduling conflicts with AEW.

I’ve seen a lot of talk about who the MVP is in this tournament, but for my money it’s Moxley.  He may not deliver the highest star ratings or the best workrate, but his offbeat style has freshened up a tournament that is known for largely featuring the same guys year after year.  Usually at this stage only a few tournament matches still feel important, but this one is a big ass deal.  Juice hasn’t been the same since his loss to Mox on June 5, and it’s time to find out if that personality shift will pay off, or if he’ll sink further down the card and have to reinvent himself even more.

I think Juice is going to get his win back, if only to eliminate Moxley and simplify the narrative heading into Naito-White.  But I’m sure they’ll have me second-guessing that prediction all through the match.

Hirooki Goto vs. Shingo Takagi - Another tournament match.  Goto has 10 points, and he holds tiebreakers over both Moxley and White, so he’s actually not in a bad position here.  He can’t win a two-way tie with Naito, but in a Goto-Naito-Moxley tie there’s no clear resolution except to compare in-ring time, so he’s at least got a chance.  Unfortunately for Goto he’s up against Shingo, so I don’t think getting to 12 will be an easy feat for him.

Shingo went 9-1 in the Best of the Super Jr. tournament, which made it a no-brainer to give a run with the heavyweights.  His 3-5 record thus far would be disappointing if you didn’t take into account that his summer schedule has been far more grueling.  Unless they’re really gonna go somewhere with Goto (or if they really want to tease some complex tie scenarios during the main event), I think Shingo steamrolls him to finish with 8 points.

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Taichi - Yet another tournament match for 2 points, although neither man can win the block.  Ishii won the the NEVER openweight title from Taichi on June 9, so even though the championship isn’t being defended, this is Taichi’s chance to earn a title shot down the road.

The basic story between Ishii and Taich in 2019 is that Taichi is a rule-breaker’s rule-breaker, bringing a bunch of gimmicks with him and using every cheap shot in the book, but for something about wrestling Ishii makes him want to put all that aside and have a clean fight.  Unfortunately for Taichi, that may have cost him victories against Ishii in the New Japan Cup and for the NEVER title.  So will he be inspired to play fair again, or will he pull every trick to reverse his fortunes?  Personally I don’t think it matters, because Ishii is a human wrecking ball.

Jeff Cobb vs. Toru Yano - Yano has cheated and schemed his way to 8 points in the tournament, but Cobb is the biggest dude he’s had to face yet.  I was expecting Cobb to do a lot better than the 6 points he’s earned so far, so this may be his chance to save some face.  I don’t expect this one to go very long.  I’m picking Cobb to win, but Yano won’t make it easy.

Kazuchika Okada & Hiroshi Tanahashi & Will Ospreay & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Zack Sabre, Jr. & Lance Archer & Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru - Tanahashi and Ospreay just had a big match the day before, but I would imagine the good guy team will all be on the same page.  In contrast, Sabre and Archer were not getting along in the buildup to, and aftermath of, their tournament match last week.  Heel solidarity goes a long way, but Sabre’s a dick and Archer isn’t the forgiving type.  I think that will hand victory to Okada’s team.

Kota Ibushi & Tomoaki Honma & Toa Henare vs. KENTA & Karl Fredericks & Clark Connors - Ibushi won the A Block, so this is his “night off,” so to speak, before he leaves it all on the ring in the finals 24 hours later.  One of his teammates could do a job here, but I would expect his team to win anyway.

EVIL & SANADA & BUSHI vs. Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens - Another LIJ vs. Bullet Club matchup.  I dunno, flip a coin, I guess.

Syota Umino & Ren Narita vs. Yuya Uemura & Yota Tsuji - Everybody in this match is a Young Lion, so it’s basically a battle of the jobbers.  These actually tend to be more fun than seeing any of these guys fighting real stars, since they’re actually allowed to beat one another.  Jon Moxley’s faithful assistant, Umino, is the head of the class and should probably pick up the win.

[wrestlingisfake]

G1 Supercard preview

This is the big New Japan/Ring of Honor show at Madison Square Garden.  MSG has a special place in wrestling lore, and it’s primarily been WWE/WWF/WWWF/Capitol Wrestling turf since 1957.  The venue’s official promoter briefly dropped Capitol in 1959 (in favor of the team of Kola Kwariani, Pedro Martinez, and Jack Pfefer), but management ultimately reconciled with Vince McMahon, Sr. by December 1960.  There hasn’t been a non-WWE wrestling show in the Garden ever since...until now. 

You can watch it on traditional PPV or stream it with Fite or Honor Club, although I personally recommend streaming with NJPW World.

Jay White vs. Kazuchika Okada - This is White’s first defense of the IWGP heavyweight championship, which is essentially the New Japan world title.  Okada won the 2019 New Japan Cup tournament to earn this title shot.

Years ago Okada’s manager Gedo plucked him from obscurity and managed him on a rapid rise to the top, in which Okada quickly captured his first IWGP heavyweight championship.  Okada’s last run with the title lasted 720 days, but that ended nearly a year ago with a loss to Kenny Omega.  Gedo lost confidence in Okada and helped White betray him, starting a bitter rivalry that saw White score a massive upset over Okada in the Tokyo Dome on January 4.  That win affirmed Gedo’s decision to switch horses.  Okada had to claw his way back into title contention by winning the New Japan Cup to prove Gedo wrong.

The wrinkle in this story is that Okada was originally supposed to challenge Kenny Omega, who was supposed to still be champion at this point.  But Omega’s departure in January necessitated a couple of impromptu title changes to move White into his position.  So in a sense, White was never meant to be champion this soon, which has made his meteoric rise to the top even more sensational.  As a result, Okada has a chance to regain his title and get revenge on White and Gedo in one fell swoop.

Okada is easily one of the best wrestlers in the world today, and he knows he has to prove it to a lot of Westerners seeing him for the first time here.  White was really not anyone’s first choice to headline this show, and I think he knows he has to prove he belongs at this level.  I think they can deliver.  I’ve got a good feeling about this one.

The finish could be interesting, because if the original plan was to end a lengthy Kenny Omega title reign, that may not fit well with the goal of pushing White as a sudden success.  If Okada wins, I think that suggests they’re more committed to their original long-term plan than White’s push.  If White retains, that suggests they’ve recently altered the plan, which could lead to other surprises this year.  There’s no way to be sure which will happen, which is great since it eliminates the usual aura of inevitability that Okada brings with him.  I cannot pick a winner here.

Jay Lethal vs. Matt Taven vs. Marty Scurll - Lethal is defending the ROH world championship.  This is a ladder match, so the title belt will be hung above the ring and ladders will be set up at ringside to climb up and get it; the only way to win is to be the first competitor to retrieve the belt.

Lethal has been champion for 280 days.  Taven has been feuding with him for months, claiming to be the “real” world champion based on his belief that he should have won the June 30 four-way match where Lethal captured the title.  Meanwhile, Scurll won the Survival of the Fittest tournament on November 4 to earn the right to challenge for the title; on March 13 he declared his intention to exercise that right at this show, against the winner of Lethal vs. Taven on March 15.  However that match ended in a 60-minute draw, so Lethal is still the champion but now Taven gets to be in the match as well.

Like most big three-way matches, there’s a sense that one participant is crammed in.  Lethal is there because he’s the established champion, Scurll is there because he’s arguably ROH’s hottest star (the only member of the Elite not to leave for AEW), and Taven is there because ROH wants to push him.  They may want Taven to win this match, but they don’t want it enough to take the risk of doing the match without Lethal and Scurll, which tells you they aren’t that serious about him, which undermines his credibility.  (See also: Flair, Charlotte.)  This is not to say Taven doesn’t deserve to be there (he finally impressed me in the time-limit draw), but if ROH really believed in him they wouldn’t be hedging their bets on him.

I expect a title change, but I’m not sure which challenger will end up with the belt.  This is probably going to be very pro-Scurll crowd, and the intrigue of putting the title on a guy everyone expects to go to AEW someday would enhance would should already be a big reaction.  On the other hand, a Taven victory sets up a Taven-Scurll program for a few months, and builds toward the long-term future after Scurll inevitably leaves.  (It’s also possible the crowd will turn out to be more into Taven than anyone might have expected a month ago.)  My gut says ROH should go with Scurll while they still have him, to get him as hot as possible before he puts someone over on his way out.  But I’m not super confident about that.

Tetsuya Naito vs. Kota Ibushi - Ibushi pinned Naito on March 10 during the New Japan Cup tournament, so he’s getting a shot at Naito’s IWGP intercontinental championship.  These guys can really take it up to another gear, and this could easily be the match of the night, if not the whole Wrestlemania weekend.

Naito’s angle these days is that he has a love-hate relationship with the intercontinental title--it keeps coming back to him, even though he thinks it’s worthlesss--but he would like to become the first man to hold it simultaneously with the main heavyweght title, so he has to fight to keep it.  Ibushi, meanwhile, has finally signed a contract (dramatically choosing to stick with New Japan instead of departing for AEW), so his fans are hoping this will eliminate the “free agent” stigma that has kept him out of the booking at the top.  So while neither man necessarily needs this win, a loss would be a significant detour heading into the summer.

I would personally put Ibushi over, because a title run would mean a lot for him, and give Naito something to do (chasing Kota) besides feud with Suzuki-gun.  But I’m not so sure New Japan will go that way.  So it’s another pick-’em at the top of this card, which is pretty nice.

Zack Sabre, Jr. vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi - Sabre is defending the Revolution Pro Wrestling British heavyweight championship.  Rev Pro is a UK promotion that has a working relationship with New Japan, but this appears to be their only involvement with this show.  Tanahashi pinned Sabre to eliminate him in the New Japan Cup, and that would be enough to guarantee a New Japan title match all by itself, but in this case I think the main issue is Sabre’s wounded pride.

If I was Rev Pro, I’d want the prestige of a title change in the US, in the Garden, onto a living legend like Tanahashi.  Even better, It immediately sets up a rematch that would be a perfect main event for New Japan’s London show on August 31.  I’m just not seeing much upside to keeping the belt on Sabre right now, even though it’s at least doable.

Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. PCO & Brody King vs. Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe vs. EVIL & SANADA - The Guerillas of Destiny, Tama and Loa, are defending the IWGP heavyweight tag team championship, and PCO and King are defending the ROH tag team championship.  This is a four-way match, so the first team to score a fall on any opposing team will win the match and both championships.

This match came about after GOD teamed with the Briscoes on February 22, and came to blows after losing the match.  The following night, GOD won the IWGP tag title from Evil/Sanada, and challenged the Briscoes (who then held the ROH tag title) to a title-for-title match.  The Briscoes accepted, but had already committed to defend their title in a match on March 15, against PCO and King, which they lost.  So then the match was billed as GOD vs. PCO/King, and then on March 25 it was officially changed to a four-way for no apparent reason.

This could get crazy.  The Briscoes and PCO/King had a wild and crazy fight last month, and they’ll be looking to top it here.  I think GOD will do their best to keep up with that level of violence.  I don’t know what to expect from Evil and  Sanada if this match breaks down, but they’re certainly not delicate flowers.  In theory you’d expect the New Japan side of things to rein in the chaos, but in practice I think it has to be a Pier 6 brawl to contrast with the more technical contests in the second half of the show.

I have absolutely no idea which of these teams can or should win, or how they’ll deal with either ROH or NJPW losing its tag belts for a few months, or when the double champions will drop one of the titles.  However, since I’m expecting Ospreay to win his double title match for New Japan, it stands to reason an ROH team would win this win this one to even it out a bit.  In that case, the Briscoes feel like the right team to bring home all the gold.

Taiji Ishimori vs. Dragon Lee vs. Bandido - Ishimori is defending the IWGP junior heavyweight championship; the first participant to score a fall on either opponent will be the champion.  There is a decent chance that the champion coming out of this match will hold the title through this year’s Best of the Super Juniors tournament, and defend the championship against the tournament winner at Dominion.

This match came about because Ishimori issued an open challenge to the ROH roster, but CMLL’s Dragon Lee was the first to respond.  Since that technically meant there was still a spot for an ROH guy, Bandido was added to the match.  So it’s basically Ishimori against two luchadors, and we’ll just have to see if it they do a good lucha thing or if Ishimori can force them into his type of match.  I’m expecting Ishimori to retain, although I suppose there’s no pressing reason they can’t do a title change.

Juice Robinson vs. Bully Ray - Bully (better known as Bubba Ray Dudley in ECW and WWE)  issued an open challenge  on March 15 for someone to face him here in a “New York City street fight,” and Juice accepted on March 31.  Juice is the IWGP United States champion, but it’s not yet clear if the title will be on the line--New Japan typically doesn’t book title matches on the fly, but it’s in character for Bully to potentially goad Juice into making it a title match at the last minute.

There was speculation when this open challenge was announced that Bully’s opponent would be Flip Gordon (the man he’s been feuding with for the past year), as a way to bring Flip back after suffering a knee injury on January 13.  Flip was expected to be cleared in time for this show, and he was, but he reinjured the knee on March 24.  Juice appears to be a last-minute replacement, which would be weird since he should have been booked all along.  (What’s the point of having a US champion who doesn’t wrestle at your biggest US show?)

In his preview of this show for the Observer, Dave Meltzer suggested this match could turn into a multi-man tag team match.  If so, I’d expect Bully to seek backup from Shane Taylor and Silas Young, while Robinson would counter with his Lifeblood stablemates Mark Haskins and Tracy Williams.  Those four men will probably get involved no matter what, seeing as there’s no rule to prevent interference.

It would be a pretty big surprise if Bully were to pin Juice and therefore be in line for the US title.  For that reason I think Juice is the clear favorite to win.  That being said, Bully needs something to do until Flip Gordon is back, and Juice is working in both promotions, so I could see this becoming a prolonged feud.

Mayu Iwatani vs. Kelly Klein - Iwatani won ROH’s Women of Honor championship from Klein on February 10, and successfully defended it in a rematch on March 15, but Klein is challenging her a second time for some reason.  I think they’re trying to make it like Klein is a big deal and Iwatani’s wins have been huge upsets, but I barely know these women so none of that is very clear.  I’m assuming Iwatani retains again, hopefully to put an end to the feud.

Rush vs. Dalton Castle - Castle has been doing a “needs to get back on track” storyline, so he was at ringside to watch the Rush-Bandido match on March 15 with the intent of challenging the winner to wrestle him here.  I’m pretty sure the purpose of this is to feed a guy to Rush while also working Castle’s flamboyant entrance onto the show, so look for Rush to go over in little more than a squash.

Will Ospreay vs. Jeff Cobb - Ospreay is the NEVER openweight champion, and Cobb is the ROH television champion; the winner will hold both titles.  This match came about after Ospreay pinned Cobb in a tag team match on February 22.  Both guys are great and I haven’t seen much of them against one another, so I’m looking forward to it.  The one big twist in this thing is that New Japan recently booked Taichi to pin Ospreay in a tag match, obviously to set up a future title match between them, which won’t make as much sense if Ospreay loses his belt before that happens.  So I think that telegraphs an Ospreay win here.  Which is fine with me, since I figured he should win to begin with.

30-man Honor Rumble - This is a pre-show match for everyone who didn’t make it onto the main card.  It’s a gauntlet battle royal, so instead of everybody starting the match at the same time, two men start and everyone else enters one-by-one in timed intervals.  The match cannot end until the last participant enters, but eliminations can occur at any time.  A participant is eliminated upon putting both feet on the floor outside the ring, if and only if they last exited the ring over the top rope.

I’ve never seen one of these in ROH, but I’ve seen New Japan’s version and it’s mainly a comedy match with spots built around guys who rarely interact being unfamiliar with one another’s shticks.  If you’re watching this to see, for example, Minoru Suzuki kicking ass in MSG (and I don’t even know if he’ll be there), you’re probably just going to get his entrance and then he scares Cheeseburger or Colt Cabana and then he’ll get eliminated inside of five minutes.  I don’t think anything is at stake for the winner to receive, and even if there was I’m not sure it would matter who wins.  I’ll just pick Jushin Thunder Liger to win, since I know he’s in it and he’s a cool old dude.

Kagetsu & Hazuki & Jenny Rose vs. Sumie Sakai & Hana Kimura & Stella Grey - This is a late addition to the card, which won’t air live but will be taped to air later.  Kagetsu and Hazuki are from a stable called Oedo Tai in STARDOM, and apparently they recently attacked Sakai and Kimura to set up this match.  The Oedo Tai team picked Rose to team with them here even though she regularly teams (teamed?) with Sakai in ROH.  Grey is apparently Sakai’s new protege so she rounds out the babyface side.  I barely follow any of this, so I think ROH could do a much better job at promoting their own women and their relationship with Stardom.  But I guess this match shows they’re at least trying.  I guess Sakai’s team wins, maybe?

[tkmedia]

'People are gonna think you're a b—': AEW's Dr. Britt Baker talks critics, championships and flossing

How do you spell "best?" D.M.D. Dr. Britt Baker, DMD has ascended to the top of the AEW women's division with her triumph over Hikaru Shida at Double or Nothing, capturing the AEW Women's Championship and becoming the face of the "new era" of All Elite Wrestling. Shida's reign as champion was honorable and memorable: She captured the belt at Double or Nothing in May 2020, holding it for over a year and having to navigate a crowdless environment.Unfortunately for Shida, just as crowds started to return, Dr. Baker was at the height of her popularity, resulting in losing the belt at Double or Nothing 2021. Dr. Baker was undeniably becoming one of the best all-around talents in AEW today, and the title win was viewed as a true coronation for Dr. Baker. On screen, Dr. Baker's ascent to the top of the wrestling world has been a sight to behold for fans: From berating Tony Schiavone on the Jericho Cruise in 2020 to a superstar-making performance vs. Thunder Rosa in an unsanctioned match in March 2021, the wrestling dentist (or dentist wrestler) who alternates wearing scrubs for beating up scrubs on Wednesday nights (and occassionally on the weekends), has undoubtedly earned her spot as the top female talent in the company — and, as she'll tell you, one of the preeminent wrestlers regardless of division in AEW today.Speaking with Sporting News ahead of AEW's "Saturday Night Dynamite" on June 26, Dr. Baker covered everything from the importance of flossing in the morning to the importance of owning your character on Wednesday nights.(Editor's note: Questions and answers are edited for length and clarity.)Sporting News (SN): My first hard hitting question for you: What do adults overlook about dental health? What do you think is the most overlooked thing that you think adults don't know about?Dr. Britt Baker (DB): Flossing is arguably more important than brushing their teeth, because your gum health is so important — gingival health. If your gums go bad, you'll have bone loss, you'll lose your teeth. So everyone thinks they can skip by this by using mouthwash, and their electric toothbrushes and this and that — no. You have to floss. It's so important.SN: To follow up on that: Do you know who the 10th dentist is who doesn't recommend flossing?DB: I do, but I'm sworn to secrecy.SN: We're more than a few months removed from your unsanctioned match with Thunder Rosa, which was one of the best matches of the year, maybe even one of the best women's matches of all time. What do you think that match has done for your career, the division and maybe women's wrestling as a whole?DB: I think for our division specifically it brought legitimacy to it, with a flashing, glaring red light on the map — if the division wasn't there already in some people's minds. So, for me to be a part of that is really special. It's really empowering. More importantly it's empowering to be part of women's wrestling in today's society, because we've come such a long way and we're given these opportunities where we can have these unsanctioned matches on main-event TV. I'm just so thankful that I do get to do what I do for All Elite Wrestling for (AEW owner) Tony Khan.SN: I spoke with Tony before about just your heel turn and how natural it came to you. They say that the best characters are always taken from highlighting or exaggerating parts of your personality. What was that whole transition like for you?DB: I think it's obvious I'm a much more natural heel. Like it or not, that's probably the deep roots of me. I've always — even as a kid — I was always the kid that asked way too many questions, I was Curious George. I would always joke too much to the point where I'd push buttons and make somebody mad, and I was always issuing a ton of apologies — "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."But I really love getting to do the heel work because I get to say what everybody else is thinking, but society deems it politically incorrect or it's not appropriate or it's not polite, but I don't care. I'm gonna say it anyway and that's why I think some people have been getting behind me—  because they can relate to a lot of the stuff that I'm saying.SN: Obviously, characters and gimmicks evolve. To that end, from your promo with Tony Schiavone on the Jericho Cruise to now, how has your character changed?DB: I'm just getting more more comfortable and confident. Owning the fact that you're a bad guy, that you're a villain, that people are gonna think you're a disgrace, that people are gonna think you're a b—. All of that, you have to just own it, and walk out with your head held high, and if they boo you out of the arena, that's the job well done. It's not something that you should be upset about — you did your job.SN: Obviously it's been a difficult year through the coronavirus pandemic. Wrestling, more than any other sport, is just so reliant on crowds. For the AEW women's division, how difficult has it been trying to regain that momentum and rebuild the product in the last year?DB: The thing is, all of wrestling has been going through the same thing, so it's not just AEW and it's not just an AEW women's problem. We have to completely adjust and rewire our brains to thinking, "Hey there's no crowds, there's not going to be a reaction to this move or this promo or this line." You have to be able to work past that, because it's just not there — it's not going to be there, it's absent.Now we kind of have to flip the switch again and realize, "Hey there's crowds here, we have to acknowledge that the arena's full, the stadiums full." I keep saying it's nerve-racking. I'm nervous to be back with the fans again, because it's like you're on a first date all over again. You forget what it's like. So it's really, really exciting, but like I said, it's something that I think we're a little anxious for.SN: Watching the feud from afar, you and Thunder Rosa seemed like perfect foils for one another. What was it like working with her and being a part of a feud that helped put women's wrestling back on the forefront in the company? DB: I think — not only our characters but who we are as people — just naturally complement each other. It's the classic case of the Batman needs the Joker, and they need each other for the story to work. That's exactly what you saw with me and Thunder Rosa, and the story's not done, and it probably won't done for as long as we're both still wrestling.SN:  You've mentioned the "new era" a lot and being the face of it. What exactly is the new era, and how do you plan to implement that? DB: I don't see myself as a female star in AEW or just the face of the women's division — I see myself as one of the faces of the entire company, and I've worked really hard this past year to put myself in that position; To really improve my in-ring skills, to improve my promo work. I think I've made myself such an undeniable talent, not just in AEW, but in all of wrestling.My goal was to make myself a can't-miss segment every single time I'm on TV and that will always be my goal — to infinity and beyond. I think I'm getting there.SN: In just over a month, you're going back to your hometown of Pittsburgh. I think the first time AEW was in Pittsburgh, you came out with the with the Terrible Towel and the place went insane. Does it still give you chills thinking about the pop you got, and do you think about what it's going to be like going back?DB: Oh my gosh, yeah. And that's another thing — I'm so nervous, because you always want to impress the people that you came up with, and Pittsburgh is my city, and they watched me grow from the girl that was wrestling in bingo halls and high school gyms. That's really where I want to impress them, and make the city proud. But of course, it's so exciting you come out and you get this deafening pop.I will say, when we had our pay-per-view Double or Nothing, every match was like that. I think the fans are just so excited to get out of their houses and get back to the arenas and watch live wrestling. I think we're gonna have those kind of those pops in those cheers and those really loud, deafening boos for a long time.SN: You and Kurt Angle walk into a Pittsburgh bar: Who gets more free drinks?DB: Laughs. Who gets more free drinks? Maybe him — age before beauty, right? He's a little bit older than me.SN: There's a very vocal segment of fans who are critical of AEW's women's division: Maybe they don't think there's enough talent, or that it's directionless. What do you say to the people who have, maybe been, overly critical about the way AEW has handled its women's division?DB: It's the quote: "Some people just like to watch the world burn." There's some people that are just never going to be satisfied, it doesn't matter what we do.The match that I had with Thunder Rosa we put everything we had out there. We had the women's eliminator tournament, we have so much to look forward to. We have so many talented females on our roster: myself, Hikaru Shida, Tay Conti, Red Velvet, Jade, Thunder Rosa, Anna Jay. It's not something you can just turn a blind eye to anymore. We've improved so much, we're putting out great content.So, at some point you have to really look at yourself in the mirror and say: Do you not like the women's division, or do you just not want yourself to like the women's division?SN: What do you think is your biggest strength as a wrestler?DB: Confidence. I think that speaks volumes to when you see me as soon as I walk through the tunnel to when I go right back in the tunnel, I have confidence and I, to an extent, believe everything that I say. Wrestling fans in today's society, they're not dumb. You can't insult their intelligence. If you don't believe what you're saying or what you're doing, they're not going to believe it either. So the most successful wrestlers today have that confidence, that undeniable confidence.SN: Something very interesting you mentioned: I spoke with Jon Moxley for an interview, and said essentially the same thing you said: Wrestling fans today, are not stupid. They know what's happening. Why does the average AEW fan stand out to you?DB: We have Tony Khan, who not only is a powerful executive and CEO, but he's a wrestling fan deep down. He can step on the other side and watch wrestling as a fan, and say, "Is this something that I would enjoy?" versus is this something that's going to benefit his company, one way or another.I think what's so special about us — just Tony's passion for professional wrestling.RELATED: Tony Khan talks growth of AEW, moreSN: What do you think your biggest weakness as a wrestler is?DB: Ooooh, my biggest weakness as a wrestler. Brief pause. My untapped potential. The best is yet to come, and I truly believe that.SN: So when you say the best is yet to come, can you give fans a little bit of insight of what they can expect moving forward this year?DB: I think this is going to be one of the most memorable championship title runs in the company's history. I plan on taking this thing all over the place, I hope to travel. I would love to travel internationally and defend the title. I continue doing my promos, my vignettes, everything. I tell Tony, "I want this title to be everywhere" — especially when it's attached to me.SN: On June 25, 2022, a year from now, where do you see yourself?DB: One year from now I hope that people, if they don't already, can hear my name, or see my picture and say, "Oh, Britt Baker — she's the best women's wrestler in the world today." Read the full article