Let's talk wrasslin'

[The Grayfox]

There's a guy on Reddit who claims that the plan for WM is that it will be Cody/Seth vs. Roman/Rock on Night 1 and if Cody/Seth lose, Cody forfeits his title match on Night 2 to The Rock. That seems odd though. Does that mean 3 of the 4 guys are wrestling twice? Because they've already started building the EC match for Seth's title. If it IS true, is Cody pinning The Rock and Roman in the span of 2 days? Or is this their way of keeping the audience in check until WM so they don't boo every event until then? Lots of ways that could go...

Also, what's the point of Rock even wanting to face Roman? They're both heels and appear to be aligned currently.

 

[The Grayfox]

Damn, Seth delivered one hell of a promo tonight on Raw. It's somewhat amusing that people concentrate on things like Roman burying Seth in a 30 second promo with lines fed to him by Paul Heyman -- seriously, have you seen Heyman give him lines in the ring? -- yet Seth can go out there and cut an 8 minute promo and show why he's better than Roman Reigns in practically every way. Wrestling skills, character development, promos... I can't think of much that Roman is better at.

Anyway, they're definitely building something between Cody/Seth and Roman/Rock.

 

[DE4life]

Yeah, Seth was great. On a technical level he's better than Roman in every respect. Roman has the edge on presence which is why he is where he is. Seth is a top-tier wrestler, Roman is a 'superstar'. I guess you need both.

His promo with Cody confirmed that they are completely ignoring that Cody said on Smackdown that he was giving up his spot. Seems like they're going to retcon that part and pretend it never happened. If they were smart they would have done the segment without Cody making his decision, and let the reaction afterwards determine where they go. Instead they rushed into giving Rock the spot, had to backtrack and evidently can't think of a good reason for Cody giving up his spot, so are just pretending he never said that. Wouldn't surprise me if they edit it out of the Network version of Smackdown. To be fair you could edit the line out where Cody says he won't be facing Roman at WM, and the segment still makes sense.

 

[DE4life]

Elimination Chamber - solid show but far too predictable. The winner was obvious in literally every match, and they went with the obvious choice in every match. I'm no fan of doing a swerve for the sake of a swerve, but some unpredictability is good. There was absolutely none at this event. We didn't even get an appearance from Rock or Reigns, just a filler segment with Rhodes/Rollins/Waller/Theory which was alright but a bit baffling with Rhodes asking for a one on one match with Rock. When, exactly? WM is the next PPV and presumably it won't be on Raw or Smackdown. Odd declaration to make at this point, when all focus should be on Cody Vs Reigns.

One thing I hate about feuds with part-timers like Reigns and Rock is that storylines seem lop-sided with the full-timers doing the bulk of the work whilst the part-timers pop up every so often for an interaction. Say what you will about the Attitude/RA eras, but at least on those shows the big stars were there on every show.

 

[The Grayfox]

It was pretty enjoyable, yeah. Also, very predictable. I half expected Dunne/Bate to win just to mix it up a bit. Plus, I'm tired of Balor/Priest carrying around those lame ass red and blue belts -- seriously, those things need to go away. I thought the matches were entertaining enough. The men's EC match probably being my favorite, although the women's EC was very good too. Rhea/Nia was good but I think everybody was pretty distracted because of... well, you know.

I assume with everything that happened, the WM card is looking like:

Cody vs. Roman
Seth vs. Drew
Bayley vs. Iyo
Rhea vs. Becky
Logan vs. Orton
Knight vs. Styles
Jimmy vs. Jey

That's only one night's worth of matches there though. I assume Gunther vs. Sami and a few tag matches at least. Definitely a few more women's matches. There's no way Bianca, Liv, Nia Jax, etc. are being left off the card. Plus, I assume Jade Cargill will do something. I hope they don't do some lame women's battle royal though.

 

[DE4life]

Lol, yeah, Rhea's attire was... a choice. I'm sure nobody was complaining, but damn.

I'd be quite surprised if Rock wasn't involved in some kind of match at WM, especially as he's reportedly been training to get back in ring shape for the now-aborted match against Roman. I felt like the Seth/Cody promo at EC potentially laid the groundwork for a tag match on Night 1. Cody's challenge was for a 1-on-1 match with Rock, but Seth's reminder that no match with the Bloodline works that way and that he'd be supporting him left the door open for a tag match instead. I just don't know why they'd even mention Cody/Rock colliding before Mania unless something was planned for the event itself. If it was a seed planted for post-WM then okay, I guess, but there's no need to take attention away from WM at this point by looking ahead past that point.

 

[The Grayfox]

I guess they could have Cody/Seth vs. Roman/Rock headline Night 1 and then do the singles matches for the titles the next night but that seems extremely risky. I mean, imagine if Seth blows his knee out in the tag match. Then what do they do? I think you're right and The Rock will wrestle, it's just a question of how. They could have Cody vs. The Rock headline Night 1 with Cody putting his title match against The Rock on the line. From a storyline perspective, The Rock wrestling Roman Reigns doesn't make sense right now. They're aligned and both heels. So Rock coming out and telling the crowd "you guys had the biggest main event in your hands and you lost it" is just weird to me. I don't think they should be focusing on that match potentially happening. As soon as The Rock turned heel and aligned with Roman at the press conference, it shouldn't have been mentioned again. They're out there shaking hands and hugging and doing the Predator-esque bicep shot and then clapping back at the fans because they didn't get to beat the shit out of each other. That maybe works for babyface vs. babyface but it really doesn't work for heel vs heel.

 

[DE4life]

I think it was Ok for Rock to say that once, to firmly set himself as an arrogant heel who thinks he is above Cody's story, but yeah, forget about it now. It's all about the build up to the actual Cody/Roman match, and what part Rock will play in it. I'm not really sure how they get him onto the show in a wrestling capacity without it being Cody or Seth, to be honest. Nobody else would make sense. The obvious route at this point would be to not have him wrestle at all and just be an enforcer or special referee for Cody/Roman. You could still have Rock foil Bloodline interference in the main event and turn on Roman - and then build to something like Roman/Rock at Summerslam.

It feels like Rock will be on the card, but if he faces Cody or Seth (or both in a tag match) it does seem like it'd be risky. I also think having anyone in the main event of Night 2 also wrestling on Night 1 diminishes the impact of Night 2 somewhat. It'll be interesting to see where they ultimately go with this. Many options, most of them intriguing if pulled off well.

 

[DE4life]

Awesome to see Sting come down from the rafters one last time, with Tony Schiavone on commentary. I think the last time he did that was way back at Slammiversary in 2007.

 

[DE4life]

The tag match for Night 1 is basically official now. You have to assume Rock & Roman will win to further stack the deck against Cody going into the big one on Night 2. Part of me wonders if Seth will somehow be taken out of the match - through some kind of Bloodline shenanigans, or McIntyre - just before it starts, leaving Cody to valiantly fight by himself but ultimately lose. It would be a way of protecting Seth from potentially injuring himself doing two matches in two nights, and could further the storyline in various ways.

 

[The Grayfox]

I think it's a mistake to have your two champions wrestle on both nights of WM. I'm surprised they really think this is a good idea. Besides the fact that it's kind of lame that Cody and Roman will headline BOTH nights of WM, taking that potential spot away from Drew, Bayley, Iyo, Rhea, Becky... it's kind of a letdown. Oh well, if they had to pivot to not do Roman/Rock, better this. Still, it's ultimately leading up to The Rock vs. Roman Reigns. They're still going to be the ones in the main events, in the press, all that shit. Cody will win the belt and still be second fiddle to Roman for most of, if not his entire reign as champion. They're not even trying to hide the fact that The Rock is going to turn on Roman. Maybe not at Mania, but it's going to happen.

 

[DE4life]

I watched AEW Revolution and, honestly, I thought it was pretty good. The stage setup was nice, audio setup was better than I'm used to with AEW, the crowd was generally into everything and the overall presentation of the show made it feel big league. It's the one thing that has separated and continues to separate AEW from the likes of TNA - their production and budget, whilst not WWE tier, still marks them as a top level promotion. One thing I did find strange was the lack of hype packages before most of the matches, but maybe it was a time constraint thing. I'm sure AEW used to have those.

Christian Vs Garcia was fine as an opener, although I didn't realise Garcia was a full-on face now. Seems to be doing well in that role and the crowd are behind him. Christian is an incredible heel.

I really appreciated Eddie Vs Danielson. The kind of match and bout I enjoyed from AEW back when they weren't so bloated and difficult to watch. I really like Eddie as a performer, he just feels real in a way few other wrestlers do. Danielson is always great. A good match and a simple story of Eddie wanting Danielson's respect. Good stuff.

The eight man championship scramble was a chaotic mess. It lost my interest pretty quickly.

Cassidy and Strong had an okay match, but I can't say I've ever cared much about Roderick Strong and I still don't.

I assume Moxey and Claudio went over FTR because of the legal issues surrounding Cash. A good tag match anyway, as you'd expect from the people involved.

Storm Vs Purrazzo didn't quite click. The crowd weren't hugely into it and something about the match was just a bit off. It wasn't bad, but nor was it memorable.

Ospreay and Takeshita was great as a pure wrestling match. I don't know much about any backstory so that probably limited my enjoyment somewhat, but it was fun to watch regardless. Nice to see ospreay being highlighted on a major American show, as a fellow Brit,

Joe/Swerve/Hangman was a very good triple threat. I thought it was laid out logically and everyone had their chance to look good. Even though I don't follow AEW in any detail, the story between Swerve/Hangman was easy to follow and Joe is just Joe - always awesome. Swerve is a star waiting to be strapped with the rocket.

Dynasty is a weird name for a PPV. Reminds me of the old 80s drama.

AEW did a great job hyping up Sting's final match and delivered a really memorable main event. Really cool to see Sting come out to Seek & Destroy one last time. His sons coming out with him dressed as the Surfer/Wolfpac Sting variations was a nice touch too. Darby's bump was absolutely insane. Looked absolutely brutal and his skin was totally shredded afterwards. Can't say I was comfortable with it, honestly, but Darby seems intent on killing himself so what can you do. With that said, there was glass flying into the front row after the spot. Tempered or not, shit like this is a lawsuit waiting to happen and one of these days Darby is going to seriously hurt himself or worse. TK needs to learn to say no, but as far as I can tell he never does. Anyway, there was a lot of weaponry involved to limit the amount of physical work, but Sting still took some ridiculous bumps - through at least two tables and through the glass pane as well. I didn't have a problem with Sting and Darby picking up the win here. The crowd erupted when the match ended, and it was a feel good moment to end Sting's career on. The Bucks didn't need any kind of torch passed to them, so no issues from me in regards to the match ending.

Probably the best overall final run for any legend I can remember. Sting went out on his terms and leaves with his legacy firmly in tact. I'm critical of AEW in recent times, but I'm glad Sting finished his career somewhere that very obviously appreciated him, with both Schiavone and JR calling his final match. The Bucks wouldn't have been many people's choices for Sting's last opponents, but if it was what the man wanted then I'm good with it, and they played their part perfectly.

 

[The Grayfox]

I'm done with AEW. I don't watch it anymore and probably never will. I've accepted that I just think their product is shit and doesn't appeal to me at all. While they have some good workers, it also seems to be where all of my least favorite wrestlers congregate. And if I'm being honest, their fanbase totally kills it for me. We get it, you're the outlaws, you think you're smarter than you are and think that watching AEW somehow makes you a better wrestling "fan." I don't even remember ECW fans being as shitty as AEW fans. WWE has them too, but the AEW marks are just fucking ridiculous. That being said, I read that Sting got a pretty good send off, which is nice for him. He definitely deserves it. Nobody has really gotten a better send off than Flair imo and I'm surprised guys like Sting haven't gotten something like that. That was really fun to watch.

Few notes in the dirt sheets the last few days that caught my attention.

It seems The Rock has a lot of power within TKO. Some have even reported that he is handpicking the Hall of Fame inductees this year. He really just swooped in there the minute Vince was gone. Not sure how I feel about it honestly. His Hollywood career has taken a turn, so now he's just back to use his sway in WWE? Kind of weird.

Mercedes Mone seriously came out and said she will return to WWE one day less than a week before she debuts in AEW? I'm sure Tony Khan was thrilled to read that. She might as well have said "I'm using AEW as a stepping stone because they were stupid enough to pay me what I asked for and once I've either a) squeezed everything out of them or b) gotten pissed because things aren't going my way again, I'll head right back over to WWE." She isn't worth any of the hassle. She's nowhere near as special as she thinks she is.

I'm hoping we get Chad Gable vs. Gunther at Mania. I would love to see Gable get that spotlight. He deserves it. He's a hell of a wrestler and beating Gunther at Mania would be a serious push for him. I don't think Sami needs the title either.

Also, my opinion doesn't mean anything, but once again I have to say this tag match at Mania is horseshit.

 

[DE4life]

I actually think as a whole Sting's retirement run was better than Flair's. Whilst Flair's WM match with HBK was obviously top tier in terms of execution, the build-up was quite weak. Flair in a series of one-on-one bouts where, if he lost any of them, he'd have to retire. It was obvious he wasn't going to get retired on a random TV show with WM coming up, so the outcomes of the matches were obvious and Flair's limitations in the ring made those matches passable at best. With Sting AEW had him exclusively in tag or multi-man matches, which protected him as a performer and allowed other wrestlers to help with the heavy lifting. Not to mention that, unlike Flair in the mid-2000s, Sting could still go and was doing some wild spots up until the very end. He had a lot of memorable moments in his final matches, including one last run as a tag team champion, and he even had one last descent from the rafters. Goes without saying that Flair's WWE retirement was also massively tainted by his TNA run. It remains to be seen, but I imagine that Sting isn't coming back after the send off he got.

Basically, Flair's retirement match probably can't be topped as far as the spectacle and execution is concerned, but everything before and after was mediocre or downright sad - with the exception of the Raw after WM, as that was a great segment too. One of the most interesting Raw moments as it went for 30+ minutes and was as much a celebration of Flair's NWA/WCW legacy as anything else, with the introduction of the Horsemen, Harley Race, Steamboat, etc. Whilst centered around Flair, it's probably the most flowers the NWA/WCW received on any form of WWE programming.

I imagine Rock will be back to having Hollywood commitments in future, so I'm guessing it'll be a case of him being heavily involved during his downtime and less so when he's busy. As with any special attraction, you get the law of diminishing returns where the initial impact begins to weaken the more something happens. If Rock is around all the time it isn't special anymore, whereas if he only shows up every so often it'll feel like a big event when he is around. I just hope he steps back into more of an authority role on-screen as opposed to coming in and disrupting existing storylines every time he shows up. Whilst it's obviously all in kayfabe - what Seth has been saying in his promos has truth to it. The current roster rebuilt WWE from being in the doldrums in the mid 2010s to the position it's in now. They don't need to be overshadowed by returning Attitude Era guys. We've seen too much of that in the past and it was part of the reason WWE was floundering for so many years. As a special attraction every so often, sure, but leave the current generation to drive the show and get themselves over. They've earned the right to do that. For what it's worth I think the Rock probably does get that, despite the initial Cody misstep, and I expect him to only be a temporary presence on the show every so often when he has time. As far as his influence backstage, it remains to be seen, but hopefully he'll deal with the business side of things and let the creative team get on with doing their thing.

Mercedes' comments were pretty strange, considering she's only just coming in to AEW. I could understand her saying that further down the line, but now doesn't seem like the right time to definitively announce she'll be going back to WWE at some point. Granted she's still young and there's no reason to think she won't go back to WWE - so she's just being honest - but it's not great optics for AEW when a new signing says something like that before even debuting. As you say, it just paints AEW as a stepping stone or a temporary stop to make some money before returning to the big leagues. Even if she feels that way privately, it's not something you need to say publicly. All you need to say is "who knows what'll happen in the future, my focus for now is on the current company I'm working for and doing my best to add value to that brand". It's basic PR and Mercedes has been around long enough to know that.

It would be great for Gable to finally get some proper recognition, he's an incredible athlete who has proven himself to not only be a versatile performer but a solid entertainer as well. He's taken a lot of chicken shit in WWE and turned it into chicken salad. Under Vince he was never going to get anywhere due to his size - the "Shorty G" stuff was absolute garbage - but I think current creative sees more value in him and will hopefully follow through by giving him a big moment. Dethroning Gunther would be a huge moment for Gable and re-solidify him as a legitimate force after spending years positioned as a comedy talent. I guess we'll see.

 

[The Grayfox]

Yeah, I was referring to the Raw after WM with Flair's sendoff. I do think his WWE retirement match was quite good, as the emotion was definitely there. Michaels saying "I'm sorry, I love you" before blasting Flair in the face with a kick was a pretty nice touch. The lead up wasn't the best. But when I think of that segment on Raw, I don't think anybody has been given a better sendoff than that.

I'm happy they pivoted with WM, but I feel like they're now being way too obvious that The Rock is gonna make sure Roman loses. It's just too deliberate. Rock saying things like "when we win the tag match on night 1, it's 'Bloodline Rules' the next night, which means anything goes" and "this is your last shot. If you lose, you'll never wrestle for this title again." So they're either doing it on purpose and they're going to hit us with a Seth heel turn (likely on night 2 since I don't think he'll go into his match with Drew after a big turn like that) or they're just rolling with it, knowing that everyone sees a Rock turn coming. There's a report out there that WWE is hopeful to have Rock/Roman in Saudi this year, so if that's the case, they need to do something. But with Rock hesitating to acknowledge Roman and all of that... come on, you can see this coming a mile away. The outcome of the tag match should be a very clear indicator of what's going to happen the next night.

I don't know if you've seen the posts on Reddit that people are making about Austin now joining this feud, but talk about overshadowing. "Imagine if Roman and Rock are screwing Cody over and then all of a sudden the glass shatters!" Please, no. That's the last thing they need. Taking all of the attention off of Roman and Cody and putting it on Austin and Rock for no apparent reason? People just love hanging on to the "glory days" and can't let go.

The Mercedes thing is just a bad look. It's not a glowing endorsement for the company you just signed with. I think everybody already knows she'll be back there. She's not ending her career without doing a big angle with Bayley and Bayley is a WWE lifer. In fact, I think she just re-signed recently. The question now is, did Mercedes sign only a short term deal with AEW? I know Tony Khan at one point was locking people in to 3-5 year deals. It's been reported that Okada signed a 3 year deal worth almost 15 million dollars, which is asinine to me. Okada is good, but Tony Khan is just flexing now. AEW is not generating enough money to pay for all these big contracts, so he's just dipping into personal funds to make sure these guys don't go elsewhere. It's a business tactic for sure, but a smart one? It's not like he just signed John Cena. He's signing the smark darlings to these huge deals and I just don't think that's wise. Okada, Ospreay, Mercedes... talented to be sure, but taking AEW to the next level? I seriously doubt it. I mean, 95% of AEW's fan base is already very aware of who they are and have been watching them wrestle elsewhere for years. They're not bringing new eyes to their product. I still think Okada would've done really, really well in WWE with Triple H at the helm. He went the safe route. And hey, he's making almost 5 million a year to do it, so good for him. Just feels like a bit of a waste. I read he's aligned with the Bucks? Yawn.

With Gable, man, he's a great athlete. I think back to when he promised he was going to take the title from Gunther, and now I'm wondering if this is just a long term story being played out or if they're gonna give it to Sami. I think we may end up getting a multi-man match at Mania, in which case I assume Gunther retains. Not much time left to start confirming matches for two nights of Mania.

 

[The Grayfox]

Well, they're going with Sami apparently. Unless it ends up being a triple threat, which I could see happening. I think Sami is the wrong choice though. I like him but I have zero interest in seeing him vs. Gunther. Gable and Gunther would've been a potential show stealer. And Gable really could've been given a great rub for being the one to end the reign. Oh well.

 

[The Grayfox]

Pretty big few days for wrestling I'd say. I thought Mania overall was a success. I wasn't convinced after Night 1. After the first night, I was like "man, I don't know. That didn't feel like WrestleMania at all." By the end of the second night, that feeling disappeared. The spectacle was there. Clearly Triple H is going for a restart here. WWE is on fire and I think he made many right calls. The biggest wrong call I think was taking the title off of Gunther. I feel like that was a huge misstep. It was nice to see Cody get his moment. It felt special. The weirdest part was Taker though. I popped for it but it was very obviously supposed to be Austin and that would've fit a lot better, imo. Something about Taker in street clothes in a ring doesn't work for me. Especially with the gong -- if you're gonna do that, put on the fucking coat and hat.

AEW is just burying themselves repeatedly. I have to wonder what new signees like Okada, Ospreay and Mone think when they see the bullshit Tony Khan did tonight. Is the money more important that they're willing to look past it? I guess it is. The All In footage was a terrible idea from the start and everyone knew it. Not only did it play out pretty much exactly like Punk said, but the live audience started chanting for him. Like... what the fuck, guys? I don't know that this situation could've gone any worse for Tony Khan. He is excellent at making his promotion look like the kiddie pool. With WWE on absolute fire right now, this was not the answer. This was the exact opposite of what he should be doing. Man, he is burying his own company.

 

[DE4life]

Our dog unexpectedly passed away on 31st March and since then I haven't really felt like interacting with anyone or anything, but I did watch both Mania nights out of both habit and just as something to try and distract myself. Difficult to judge how I felt about it as I watched it in such a depressed emotional state, but overall I thought they did a decent job. I've always been against the two night format, and I still am. This year's event doesn't change my mind on that at all. I think many matches could have been cut to make a spectacular singular event, as opposed to two nights where some of the matches felt like they could easily have been on Raw or Smackdown or a lesser PLE. I'd agree that Night 2 felt more like an actual Mania show than Night 1, although Night 1 had its moments too. I'll give a general rundown of my thoughts of both nights a bit later, but in general I'd say it was a good event and one of the better Mania's in recent memory.

As far as AEW showing the All In footage, just idiotic and pointless. Khan is far too thin-skinned to run a wrestling company. Although at the same time I think back and remember how thin-skinned both Bischoff and Vince were during the Monday Night Wars (Billionaire Ted skits, Bischoff challenging McMahon to a fight on PPV, etc) and have to conclude that it's probably just one of the things that comes with money and ego. Regardless it's obvious Punk's comments provoked Khan, but airing the footage just reinforced that it was much ado about nothing. A scuffle that was broken up within moments. Barely worth mentioning let alone hyping up in any way. I'm embarrassed for AEW and glad I don't watch it anymore. Feels like as soon as Cody left they lost all sense of perspective. Yeah the Codyverse stuff was dumb and didn't really help the show, but it was worth enduring that if Cody was the glue holding things together backstage. You get the sense things have just been falling apart behind the scene since he departed - all because Khan didn't think he was worth as much as Punk or Danielson. In retrospect it appears that not giving Cody what he felt he was worth will turn out to be one of the biggest mistakes Khan could possibly have made.

 

[DE4life]

Okay, so, night one...

Rhea Vs Becky was a solid opener. Considering Becky had been ill in the week leading up to the match I thought she put in a hell of a performance. I thought Rhea going over was the right call as her star is very much on the rise and there's a lot of potential still for her to tap into. I'm not sure exactly where Becky goes from here - doesn't help that there isn't much else to aim for in the women's division. I guess the women's tag titles are still a thing, so maybe that's what she moves onto next, assuming her program with Rhea is done for now.

The six pack ladder match was a fun, chaotic cluster of a match. Cool to see Truth get his WM moment.

I can't say the Dom/Escobar Vs Rey/Andrade match did much for me. It was OK but if you were going to rebook as a one night event, this one could be taken off and not missed at all.

Jimmy Vs Jey had a great hype package, and obviously the idea is cool. Sadly the match fell completely flat. It just didn't have that spark. It's a shame with the dynamic at play, but the twins didn't mesh well in this match.

Belair/Cargill/Naomi Vs Asuka/Kairi/Kai - Whilst it was cool to see Jade's WM debut, this is another one that you could remove and nobody would really care. Match was OK.

I thought Zayn getting pumped up by his family, Gable and Owens before coming out was really well done. It's not a perspective you get too often and it was a good setup for what was to come. I think with the buildup they had to give Sami the win, and Gunther's reign was in danger of becoming stale if yet another opponent fell victim to him. The brainbuster onto the turnbuckle was a sick move, not sure I've seen that one before, although I know Zayn did it on the indies before signing with WWE. Anyway, I enjoyed this one.

The main event tag match started off slow, and I figured Rock was going to be taking it easy along with everyone else, but they really stepped it up as the match progressed. I was really surprised by how long the match went (second longest in WM history, I think?) and the amount of work everyone, including Rock, put in. It was an entertaining match and it made sense for the heels to go over to stack the deck against Cody on night two. Rock's entrance was also pretty damn cool.

Night two kicked off with Drew Vs Seth, with the match playing into Seth's injuries and the affects of the match from the night before. Starting off with the Claymore out of nowhere set the tone for what was a really good match, with Punk on commentary adding nicely to the mix. I didn't anticipate Priest coming out to cash in, and that was another very cool moment. Overall this was a fantastic way to start off the second night.

The Philadelphia Street Fight is another one that, imo, could have been left out if trimming to a one night event - but it was still a decent brawl and Snoop on commentary was absolutely hilarious. He was the highlight of the match. It reminded me a bit of Booker on commentary, just saying whatever came into his head. Funny stuff and helped make the match stand out.

AJ Styles Vs LA Knight was decent, but just felt a bit thrown together. I know the feud had been building for a while, but I didn't feel like there were significant stakes for either guy. Nonetheless I'm glad Knight was on the card and got an impressive win.

Logan Paul/Orton/Owens was a fine triple threat match and perfectly enjoyable.

It was good to see Bayley get a WM moment by taking the title from Iyo, but it's a shame Iyo's reign has been pretty disappointing. Good match though.

The main event lived up to expectations, and it was great to see Cody finally get the victory over Roman and win the strap. I did feel that the interference was on the verge of going a bit overboard, with so many people coming out whilst the main two competitors were just laid out. I was okay with it for the most part, and it made sense to have various babyfaces come out to help Cody finally see off the Bloodline, but it did come close to being overbooked. Nonetheless a fantastic main event. The ending celebration seemed to go on for ages though. Lots of mentions of 'pro wrestling' and the 'new era/triple h era' so they were making it very clear that Vince is gone and a lot of his bullshit will be going along with him.

So yeah, difficult for me to definitively say how I feel about the event considering the context with which I was watching it, but overall I think they did a good job and we'll see where things go from here. WWE is so far ahead of AEW at this point that it's not really comparable. WWE is very much a proper, mainstream pro-wrestling product at this point, whereas AEW is more like a super-indie with a big budget but limited creative ability.

 

[The Grayfox]

Sorry about your dog, man. I lost mine last year. It's a truly awful fucking experience. In my case, I knew it was coming. He had laryngeal paralysis, which basically means that there was a loss of function of his larynx. He lived with it with a few years. I knew what it would eventually mean. That being said, it didn't make it any easier. I got him when he was 7 weeks old. I got him a few months after my dad passed. He was almost a coping animal -- he just helped me through a very difficult time. Because of that, I felt like I was losing the last little bit of my dad when I took him in. It was peaceful enough but again, it doesn't make it easier. He laid his head in my hands as he took his last breaths. Now and forever I'll probably be haunted by that. It absolutely wrecked me.

Somebody once told me that being a pet owner brings with it a lot of responsibility. One of the biggest responsibilities is doing the right thing when it's time. Dogs can't make that decision. They rely on us for so much and unfortunately some of that stuff really, really sucks. For me, I knew my dog was uncomfortable. He wasn't in pain but he certainly wasn't in the best shape. He was also 13 and a half years old which is a pretty nice run for an 80 pound golden retriever. Regardless, it hurt like hell and still does. It's easier now, but it still hurts.

You have my condolences. It's a rough thing and I'm sorry you have to go through it.