Brian Pillman Jr. and Griff Garrison got a win! Could it be that they’re actually going to pit some of the regular enhancement talent against each another so that some of them can actually get wins, making it mean more when they lose to the signed talent?
I guess they already did that with Ben Carter to set him up for the Scorpio Sky match. I hope they keep doing it.
Other stuff happened, but that was the only thing that they really got me to care about.
PUNCTUATION NOTE: Okay, I think putting parentheses around the seconds of competitors makes things look less confusing. Let’s do that from now on.
Taz did not accompany Starks because he was on commentary, taking Tony Schiavone’s place (we found out why later). This was a good opener, I thought, but I was surprised that it was the opener once I saw the finish. Darby winning clean seems like an end to the feud, so one would think it would be higher on the card. However, surely there’s more to come, especially since Brian Cage and Will Hobbs got into it in the middle of the match. Hobbs hasn’t gotten to actually have a match as part of the feud, so there’s got to be more to come.
I thought this would go the full time limit so as to put over the gimmick where FTR gets a win through a draw, but I guess that will happen later. The match was very good, but that should be no surprise. FTR are very clever villains. They found a way to get Daniels ejected from ringside, which made Tully’s interference at the end easier. They always seem to pull something crafty like that out.
Adam Page was on commentary to further his angle with Kenny Omega, and he was fairly sloshed, which was effective. Very slow burn to wherever they’re going with him.
Oh, and it looks like Shawn Spears is doing something with Scorpio Sky. This was made clear on Dark, but I think this was the first time it was shown on Dynamite. I’m glad that Spears isn’t totally an afterthought now that Tully is with FTR. I kind of thought he’d get dropped. Interesting that the they’ve hardly interacted with him, though. I guess they’re not really a stable, just two sets of Tully’s clients.
This was good. I didn’t really pay close attention, honestly, but what I saw was good. I think the bigger story was Luther and Jericho getting into it at ringside. Luther is one of Jericho’s friends from when he was just starting to wrestle, so it makes sense they would be working together with Jericho’s 30 year anniversary in wrestling coming up. Then a bunch of other people at ringside got involved, which I guess was an excuse for Nyla Rose to do something.
I thought it was kind of silly for the Inner Circle to run away from an injured Matt Hardy just because he had a chair. He was obviously limping.
Of course it was good. And there wasn’t much of Cassidy’s schtick to be had, either. But nothing really noteworthy happened, so this could just as well have been a Dark match.
Welcome back, Britt. The women’s division needed you. I was surprised this was just a match (with a submission hold applied afterwards for emphasis). There was no angle to set Baker up in a program with someone else. I half expected Big Swole to do something to build to a real match between the two. She hasn’t been seen since the last pay-per-view, though, so she might’ve gotten the virus or something. Anyway, I wouldn’t stick Baker with Shida immediately, but that could be something to look forward to.
Butcher was a bit of a letdown as far as mystery challengers go. I don’t think he’d even had a singles match in AEW before this. He is a big, tough-looking guy, but he doesn’t really have the resume to justify any thought of him upsetting Moxley. I don’t know if they were trying to “make” him here, but I didn’t get the sense that his stock raised all that much. He did well enough, but I didn’t feel like he had a breakout performance or anything. Still, seeing him come up from behind Moxley was a better visual than if it had been the Blade just due to his size alone.
I don’t know what the endgame is for the Eddie Kingston feud. Obviously, if Lance Archer hadn’t gotten the virus, these last couple of weeks would have focused on building him up to challenge Moxley on the 14th. The stuff with Kingston has been all right in the interim, but I hope it doesn’t damper a potentially bigger feud between the two in the future. I do wonder if Kingston will get involved in the Archer/Moxley match.
Aside from the matches, Cody accepted Brodie Lee’s challenge for a Dog Collar Match, but he took his time and tried to swerve everyone before getting to it. I thought the brawl between Cody and Lee was effective, but I thought that the way Cody built to it was a little Triple H-like. He had a drawn out entrance (using that same intro he used last week before his theme song), and he talked a lot before getting to the meat of the segment. He didn’t talk as much as Triple H usually does, thankfully, but I felt like it was trending in the wrong direction.
FTR were interviewed by Tony Schiavone, leading to Matt Jackson finally superkicking Tony. This has gotten way out of hand. Surely AEW has a system in place where punishments are ramped up for repeat offenses? The Young Buck have superkicked three non-wrestler staff members in the last four weeks, as well as maliciously breaking Tony’s phone. Imposing a fine is acceptable for one offense, but they should have been suspended after the second one, and they should’ve been fired by now, EVPs or not. Tony Khan needs to get his house in order.
There’s going to be a tournament to decide the #1 contender for the World Title, and Jungle Boy, Rey Fenix, and Kenny Omega will be in it. I like tournaments, so I’m ready.
It seems that Miro’s pairing with Kip Sabian is polarizing fans, and I can kind of see both sides. I would prefer Miro be more serious, but I’m guessing this is what he wants to do. (In retrospect, I think his match last week was actually bad after all, but there was an injury involved.) Anyway, I’m still waiting to see where it all goes. Having Billy Mitchell do a cameo is quite a niche bit. I only recognized him because I’d seen The King of Kong several years ago.
MJF gave the Inner Circle T-shirts to suck up to Jericho, but he won’t admit that he wants to join. Interesting continuing storyline with MJF and Jericho. I could see them becoming a team and ultimately breaking up like Jericho and Kevin Owens did. Jericho would probably have to be the babyface then. I’m not going to put money on any of that happening, but I wouldn’t be against it.
FTR vs. Best Friends should be very good whenever it comes.
Next week, we get Chris Jericho and Jake Hager vs. Luther and Serpentico as part of Jericho’s 30 year anniversary in wrestling, Brian Cage vs. Will Hobbs for the FTW Championship, and Brodie Lee vs. Cody in a Dog Collar Match for the TNT Championship.
Exciting opener, as expected, with only a couple things I don’t like. One is a slip by Jungle Boy running off of Luchasaurus. The other (more serious) is Jungle Boy kicking out of the Lucha Bros double stomp/package piledriver move. That move is so sick-looking, I hate seeing it kicked out of in a regular TV match with few, if any stakes.
Eddie Kingston yells at the Bros when they scuffle, which seems mundane by this point. Also, Eddie said he was never actually eliminated from the battle royal at All Out, so that will probably go somewhere.
OC with very little comedy. I like that. I think he needs to keep a little of the slacker vibe, but his matches can’t revolve around him feigning laziness and then surprising his opponents with moves anymore if he’s moving up the card.
Santana and Ortiz attack, leading Best Friends to make the save and challenge them to a parking lot fight next week. Fiery Best Friends are also quite appealing to watch. I’m joining the crowd who wants Trent to get a singles run, but I feel bad for Chuck Taylor if he does.
I like how this match came about. Janela was trounced as Jericho’s warm-up for Orange Cassidy last week, leading Kiss to run in and pop him one. Then Kiss eliminated Hager in the battle royal at All Out, and Hager punished him for it later.
Kiss is the star here, I think. I’m not into his “gimmick” (I know it’s supposedly the real him), but he’s hard not to like based on his athleticism and babyface fire. He gave as much as he took here, finally falling victim to a fire extinguisher blast. Outside of this, Kiss has been winning while Janella has been losing, so I think a heel turn may be coming for the Bad Boy, probably at Kiss’ expense.
Hager hits the Uranagi and holds onto the head and arm choke, but the ref counts three (even though it looks like Kiss’ right shoulder is being held up). Then Jericho says that they’re going to be a regular tag team, which could be good for Hager to have something to do.
Why did Tay Conti get signed and then jobbed in her first match on Dynamite? Do not like. As for the match, as I said before, I don’t support intergender wrestling, so I skipped it.
On one hand, This is a good match. On the other hand, I kind of feel like Dustin should have been destroyed more handily. I know part of the story around Lee squashing Cody for the title was that Cody was worn down from defending the belt on a weekly basis, and I do think Dustin should’ve gotten more offense than he did. But I think he got too close in this against a guy who’s finally starting to look like a killer.
Aside from the matches, there were promos from Jake Roberts, Lance Archer, and Jon Moxley which were all good. Glad Jake is back to form. MJF fired all his campaign staff and revealed that Wardlow is loyal to him because he pays his salary, but the seeds of dissension are undeniable now. MJF and Jericho also had friendly words but then called each other losers behind their backs. They will likely feud sometime; I wonder who will be the babyface?
FTR celebrated their tag title win, cast shade on a couple other teams, and got ice dumped on them by Jurassic Express. That was fine. The Young Bucks superkicked an interviewer and got fined $5000 each. I approve of promotions emphasizing wrestlers being punished for harming non-wrestling staff members. Matt Hardy addressed the crowd about his condition after his scary concussion (though he didn’t call it that) at All Out. Thankfully, this didn’t turn into an angle; it was just a thank you to the fans and a confirmation that he would come back. He also said he would come for the title, which…I dunno.
I really liked the interview segments with Adam Page and Kenny Omega. Page blamed himself for messing up his friendships and losing the tag titles, and he said he and Kenny would regroup and work their way back up the tag ranks. But later, Kenny said he’s done with Page and the tag scene, and he’s going the singles route. People say that there aren’t really any good guys in this storyline, but I feel like Page is the most sympathetic. He allowed himself to be manipulated by FTR and made plenty of mistakes as a result, but he’s owned up to them and wants to atone. Seems like Omega and the Bucks aren’t going to give him the chance, though.
Ricky Starks mocked Darby Allin and said he would do worse things to him than what happened at All Out. They’re going to have a heck of a fight sometime; probably at the anniversary show.
The big news was Miro (the wrestler formerly known as Rusev) debuting as Kip Sabian’s best man and taking a shot at WWE. I don’t mind the shot, and we’ll see what becomes of the wedding angle (I don’t normally care for wrestling wedding angles), but I’m not a fan of Miro’s current look. We’ll see if he keeps it.
Next week…I’m drawing a blank of what all they announced, but I remember that FTR will have their first title defense against Jurassic Express, and Ivelisse with challenge Thunder Rosa for the NWA Women’s Championship. Also, Lance Archer will get his title shot on the AEW anniversary show on October 14th, so that looks like their next big show between pay-per-views.
“It was fun while it lasted.” That is what Ace Steel said to me after news broke that the National Rasslin League was closing. “It was the most fun I’ve ever had” Steel added. Yes indeed it was. Judging by fan posts on social media, the NWL has a special place in their hearts. Fans […]
Happy Easter! He is risen!
I took time off wrestling again for Lent this year. Forty days from Ash Wednesday until Easter Sunday (minus all the Sundays in the middle). I’ve done it before, but I don’t think I’m going to do it again. All things considered, it’s a pretty weak “fast” to do. If I’m really going to fast from anything that isn’t food, it needs to be something more substantial, like Internet or even my computer all together.
I updated my Panda Power-Plex blog a couple times on Sundays because the Chinese matches I had available were shorter and less numerous than the stuff I usually review here. I think I’m going to get back to reviewing NWL and stuff but in a more streamlined fashion. We’ll see how long I can do it. I’m also trying to write fiction and real-life blogs on top of planning lessons for my classes.
I know Chinese wrestling is the focus of my other blog, but you’ve gotta check out this article from Discovering Wrestling about the Chinese wrestling scene. It’s well-researched and well-written; very in-depth. It’s a long one, but worth the time if you’re interested. I learned about a couple promotions I hadn’t heard of, and I’m looking forward to seeing what they produce and whether or not I can get my hands on it.
Props to Nuclear Convoy for doing the work and getting the story.
People say starting is always the hardest part of writing. Particularly when you have something the scope of this subject to cover. But I’ve found this subject has made it harder for me to stop writing. I first started writing about the nascent Chinese Pro-Wrestling scene in August of 2016, when I took some time […]
I’m very busy at work this week, and next week, the wife and I are flying to the U.S. to visit for almost a month. Therefore, keeping up with all the NWL matches can’t be a priority for now. I don’t know how much I’ll watch or write about during this time, but I’m thinking my best course of action will be to watch at my leisure and only review the matches that I actually like or that are easy to write about.
Thus, I hope to watch everything eventually, but I’m not likely to write about every single match, and I probably won’t write much until late August or September.
Keep supporting the NWL KC & STL, or whatever your local indy is.
In previous posts, I stated that NWL color commentators Scott Bowden and Christopher Fulton were one in the same person. It has since come to my attention that they are two different people (either that, or one guy has two different voices). I apologize for my false assumption. Please know that I was not trying to deliberately deceive or deride anyone. Thanks.
Pretty simple stuff, really. I’ve split the site in two. I like to cover wrestling from both my hometown region (Kansas City) and the region where I currently reside (China), but there’s really zero crossover between the two, so it’s been kind of odd to have them mixed up on the same site. Having two blogs will give each the focus they deserve and make the whole thing easier to navigate.
Panda Power-Plex will feature all of my reviews of matches from China and southeast Asia. I’ve already exported all my previous reviews that meet that criteria over there, so if you’re looking for any of those, head that direction. For everything else, stay here.
Panda Power-Plex is named for the animal that is most commonly associated with China as well as one of my favorite tag team moves (performed by Power & Glory in the WWF days).
My Hook the Leg, Man! Tumblr and Twitter accounts will update when I post to either blog, so no need to go looking for a different Panda Power-Plex account there.
If you’ve noticed a lack of activity, it’s because I’m “fasting” from wrestling for the season of Lent. I’ve been spending too much time watching and reading about wrestling lately, so I’m forcing myself to take a break. I’m still allowed to indulge on Sundays, so I may post things from time to time, but only on those days. Hopefully, I’ll be able to create a healthier balance after Easter comes.
Our Cambodian journey
The first stop for newbies in the comic book universe. Super hero battles, quotes and epic moments.
Jude 3
My attempt at seeing Scripture as it is
Hook the Leg, Man! 