aew 2021: don callis’s sunglass game is on point

Ah yeah Suzuki/Danielson was such gourmet quality pro wrestling, loved how the finish just had to be a knockout blow out of nowhere, no escalating series of 2.9 counts off head drops or whatever. Bryan is just visibly loving every second of this run

I saw people complaining that AEW didn't do enough to show American fans why they should care about Suzuki when he first came in, but honestly you can get his gimmick after watching him ominously walk down the ramp for like three seconds, he's absolutely masterful at playing to big crowds

I think the last live pro wrestling I was the 2019 New Japan show at the Copper Box headlined by Okada vs Suzuki, the crowd totally babyfaced Suzuki from minute one and he just fully leant into it like 80s Hogan playing to the cheap seats, incredible vibe

suzuki/danielson was astonishing, and then there was a really good episode of rampage after!

punk vs. sydal was punk’s best aew match yet, great ring chemistry those two have

Looool Dan Lambert is sooooo good

What was the last heel act that had this much heat wherever they went?

CM Punk refusing to sell the mystery masked men gimmick is funny and gets a big thumbs up

God there’s just so much they do well

That’s a promo from wrestling’s next top babyface champion Hangman Page. Wasn’t sure he had it in him

that show was fire from top to bottom

I’ve not watched yet (not caught last weeks rampage yet either) but has Punk v Team Taz been dropped?

I want me some Hook god dammit

my guess is they had to sideline it bc brian cage finally came back from injury and it was time to figure out “what do we do with brian cage” again

idk, hope it resumes, punk vs. ricky please

dynamite was so good wow

dark order vs. superkliq was like BTE: the match

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMVda-OB3Cs

posting the perfect promo in here for posterity

pac vs. andrade 2 was perfect beyond belief

Miro is an unreal promo, he consistently comes up with such unique verbiage and commits to the bit so hard

body of granite and a neck of sand! this is the shakespearean stuff!

no more homophobia in promos (re: american top team/inner circle)

I'm excited to see if there is any fallout from the Jericho cruise that will start to show up in programming. Notably Danhausen and Ospreay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1qRvq9sXeM

there's a lot to like about tonight's episode of dark. bunch of dynamite-forward promos, a few dark-universe promos, and a genuinely wild card (2 fast 2 fuego, danielson vs. solow)

best dynamite main event ever

shida vs. deeb was also the fucking BEST

the stay-puff reveal is going to be one of those gifs

I only woke up 4 minutes ago and obviously haven’t watched it and yet I love it already. I can’t even hate on the internet being spoilerville

Serena Deeb is the best wrestler in the world. except for Danielson (maybe)

everything she does both on offence and when selling looks fantastic

finally caught up with Dynamite in full after watching Deeb / Shida and the main event on my lunch break earlier. i'm like a broken record over here but it is really astonishing how consistent they are. yet another show where even the worst stuff was at least "good".

I think they're onto something with sleep-deprived new dad Moxley. it's a great pivot away from where he was now he doesn't need to be the top babyface anchoring the show. idk how this world title tournament is gonna go but I think they could do a lot worse then have Moxley give Danielson his first AEW loss in the final. Danielson can take it and it would serve to reestablish Moxley as one of the main guys now that Danielson, Punk, Cole, Black etc. are all there. would be an awesome first feud for Hangman too.

so many places they can go at this stage!

with all that said, not mad on Bobby Fish getting 15 minutes every week given how stacked the rest of the roster is. TK seems to like him a lot. he'd be good working with the young guys and the unsigned indy talent on Dark

lol forgive the fantasy booking stuff. it's been a while since a wrestling company has got me daydreaming about this stuff. if i had more time I'd buy the latest TEW and get it out of my system

I know it's pretty carny, but I popped for the Ghostbusters bit. Classic Elite.

Holy fuck Dragon v Eddie was 5 star. Absolutely perfect.

I love wrestling.

finally watched rampage this morning, think that was the best episode they've ever done. three matches, all bangers

Jon Moxley has allowed me to share with you that he is entering an inpatient alcohol treatment program.  Jon is a beloved member of the AEW family. We all stand with him and Renee, and all of his family and friends, as he shifts his focus to recovery.

— Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) November 3, 2021

mox <3

Good on him, can’t imagine being a new parent with that on yr shoulders is a recipe for success.

Yeah, after decades of wrestling encouraging binge and bad behaviour, it’s nice to see tv appearances not mean as much as a mans health. Hope he gets the help he needs.

Mox describes what it feels like to smoke crack in the prologue of his book, and has recounted doing cocaine and going to the library on Renee's podcast. He's definitely a guy that has walked that line, so it's nice to see someone who has that kind of persona in wrestling choosing to get treatment before he spins out of control.

Really a testament to how much parenthood can change some people. I'm really glad that it's transformative in a positive way for him.

Anyone else see Eddie and Punk’s confrontation? Eddie was sooooo good.

I know only about 5 of us watch wrestling here but I feel like I’m December I wanna do a poll of like our fav wrestlers of the year; so much good stuff has happened.

the promo-off between those two… electrifying

it inspired my dearest friend to finally go to wrestling school tbh. i wanna go too

A lot said about the in-ring justifiably but AEW has had a hell of a year for promos, with Mox/Britt/Eddie/Miro killing it every week and Punk coming in

And also underrated wrestler of the year Christian

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/eddie-kingston-aew-wrestling

no joke one of the best personal essays i've ever read

Yeah it really got me. Reminds me of a similar one Lukaku did a couple years ago. Really pumped for his match against Punk, really hope he wins

Can't think of anyone who deserves to be spotlighted more than Eddie Kingston. Someone who truly did it all for the love.

While I really agree, that’s also quite true of a lot of AEW wrestlers, and they can’t all have the belt, ya know?

Also true. Either way, I am glad that he's finally contracted somewhere and has a little more security in his life. The pandemic really affected a lot of people as far as their ability to eke out a living through wrestling. Sobering to think about how close he was to hanging up the boots.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXpEDb8BXHw

yo i hope the outstanding, like already-one-of-the-goats-of-promo-exceeding-his-own-capabilities-kinds of promos that eddie kingston delivers at the top of this ends up on tv

Really excited about waking my ass up halfway through the night to see our cowboy kick out the one winged Angel.

wtf @ this ppv

Punk vs Eddie man, fucking intense

that Elite/Jurassic express tag was kind of overindulgent for its placement on a card of this size, but it sure did a lot for Jungle Boy Man

That was my favourite MJF match I think

Miro getting dropped by basically a pro-wres flash knockout after a King's Road style epic kind of shows what AEW had been missing in its first two years of existence IMO (other than Serena Deeb, the actual best worker in America); Punk and Bryan's input over a couple of months has been unreal and I hope the youngins are absorbing everything they can from them while they're around

not sure how hangman vs. omega lived up to the hype. but it did

MJF/Allin was just the best. I don’t care about whatever crap storyline they need to build up, but MJF should be on every PPV.

I also in no way, shape or form got tears at the end of the PPV.

I’m ridiculously tired. I woke up worrying about life, remembered this was on and went for it.

I disliked the start of MJF-Darby with them doing a synchronised dance, at one point you could see them lifting the other guys arm off the mat, as if the dance was so much more than pinning the other guy. They got me after that for a bit. Hated the finish though, it deserved something better than MJF touching his dick 20 times throughout the match.

FTR and Lucha Bros don’t mix at all. Again, horrible finish.

My laptop started playing up during Miro-DBry. Will need to watch again.

Then there seemed to be 3 matches I didn’t really care about, and fast forwarded all through and started to get really sleepy. If it wasn’t motn next, I would have fallen asleep in my Bluetooth headphones. I don’t understand why the Cody tag in particular needed to happen here, and Britt needs more convincing challenges.

Eddie-Punk was fucking great. The Cena tease was a motherfucker.

Jericho needs to go away. Fast forwarded through, only to catch Jericho going up on the ropes, waiting way too long and shouting for JUNIOR! JUNIOR! to come hit him, which was embarrassing.

Jay Lethal is everything I’ve never cared about in TNA/modern indie wrestling. Also has a few allegations that don’t sound too great from #speakingout

That Hangman video! At first I was sad they didn’t go full WM17/My Way and just had a small video. But the second horse vid was great. A great match too. Intrigued to see what happens now. There is a lot of talk about Kenny being injured, about the SuperKliq, Bryan as #1 contender, Punk-Mox-MJF-Miro all as potential other contenders, some big names who could come from the midcard or other promotions too. All the champions up until this point seemed like logical progressions you could see coming a mile off. Now seems like the first time you can’t really predict what’s going to happen. I’m very excited.

All in all, a decent show that I hoped to be a better one. Maybe if I watch it again in a couple days and a better mood, it would be.