Category: Wrestling PPV Musings

AEW Double Or Nothing 2024

For anyone wondering why it’s taken me this long to post musings on this show, it’s because it’s taken me this long to WATCH said show.

Double Or Nothing 2024 is a near-five hour sloth. I’ve heard good things, but the one takeaway was “it’s too damn long.” And when I heard the runtime for this thing, I said, “No thanks. Not for me.” And even when my buddy loaned me his DVD recording of the show to watch some time afterwards, I simply didn’t have the stomach to sit through that entire show. Even on a card built on great wrestling, there comes a point where you can only watch so much before it becomes an afterthought. And that’s probably the big takeaway with this show. See it in one shot and by the end of the show, you’re mostly clockwatching. Watch it in bits and pieces and you can start to appreciate the individual pieces.

That was my approach with this show; watch a match or two a day and get back to the rest another time. That way, I have a greater appreciation for the quality of the matches and such, whereas even splitting it in a couple days worth of viewing, something would’ve been off. So bare in mind when reading this that I’m watching this show in bits and pieces because that’s the only way I could digest this thing. Trying to do this in one shot… eh, I don’t have that in me anymore, regardless of the actual quality.

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WWE Blood Money II – Crown Jewel 2018

In case you missed the State Of The Blog, I’ll be breaking the moratorium on the WWE Blood Money shows from Saudi Arabia next year. For those wondering why I refer to those shows as such… well, look up the details regarding .

Up until this point, the only Saudi show that I saw was the first one and I thought it was a largely house show-ish affair. Mind you, I had no real intention of watching the show (mostly due to lack of interest and less due to any moralistic reasoning), but I had bed-ridden and it was on, so I ended up watching it and never bothered with the rest. The murder was what prompted the Blood Money label (and for all intents and purposes, that moniker is sticking whether anyone likes it or not), but lack of interest (as well as word of mouth regarding the subpar quality of these shows) was what kept me from watching these shows… and given the years these early shows took place and how horrid a lot of the proper shows were, skipping these early showings didn’t require much effort on my part.

However, with recent Saudi shows actually being treated like proper PPVs or PLES and not glorified house shows, it goes without saying that sooner or later, I may give these Saudi shows the time of day. Not fully embracing the shows, but mostly case by case, like any of the shows. With that in mind, it’s only fitting that I open that particular Pandora’s Box a little early by diving into WWE’s second Saudi show, the inaugural Crown Jewel 2018 event.

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WCW Mayhem 2000

Before anyone asks, the black void in the banner isn’t a mistake. It’s intentional and sort of expresses my feelings on this show… but regardless… yeah, this is it… the last WCW 2000 PPV that I’ve yet to watch… and then it’s over.

No, I’m not watching any Nitros. I’m not watching any Thunders. Fuck off with that noise. This is the last word on WCW 2000.

For context, this would’ve been shortly after Vince Russo was turfed from creative and we’re left with a booking crew that’s mostly cruising along until the eventual demise of WCW.

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TNA Against All Odds 2006

Before he feuded with people whose fathers were DEAD, Christian Cage was a guy that people liked, but WWE treated as a midcarder. So one day, he decides to leave WWE and ply his trade in TNA, where he’d eventually get a title match against reigning NWA World Champion Jeff Jarrett.

Took me a while, but I finally got to watch this show and… eh…

Let’s dive in…

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TNA Turning Point 2006

Turning Point 2006 was the final TNA PPV of the year and featured the (not) long-awaited (enough) rematch between Kurt Angle and Samoa Joe, which was pretty much the hottest thing they had going at the time. Kurt Angle, of course, gave Samoa Joe his first real defeat (that wasn’t a 3-way loss where someone else took the fall) and kicked off a career renaissance of sorts. Conventional wisdom would suggest holding off the rematch for later down the road, but sometimes, wrestling promotions rarely follow conventional wisdom. And I don’t say that as a knock on Vince Russo, who was hired back by TNA earlier that year. WWE has been guilty of the same thing as well over the years.

Anyway, it’s Joe vs. Angle II. Something they could’ve held off a couple months until their next big tentpole event, but I guess TNA felt threatened by that ECW PPV taking place the same month with a week’s worth of build. I wonder how that show turned out.

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WWE Bad Blood 2024

So… this was going to be the musings for the Bound For Glory show that took place a couple weeks ago… but TNA doesn’t believe in Joe Hendry and thus I changed my mind.

Instead, we’re looking at WWE’s October PPV offering, Bad Blood 2024, which is the first time that we’ve had a Bad Blood PPV event since 2004, which was headlined by a horrible HBK/McSon-In-Law cell match. This show is bookended by an opening Cell match between CM Punk and Drew McIntyre and the main event tag-team match that saw Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns teaming up against that Solo guy and other Fatu guy… and the Rock shows up after to steal everyone’s thunder and remind us that he exists.

I don’t typically watch the WWE PLEs that aren’t the major shows. The last one I saw was Backlash and that’s about as far as I went. The shows were great, but nothing really grabbed me. I wouldn’t necessarily call this a strictly WWE problem, as even other wrestling shows have trouble producing content that interests me… or in one case, fail to provide a satisfying pay off to months of viewership and re-investment in a promotion that has let me down on so many occasions… but I digress. Let’s get into this Bad Blood show and see if it’s worth it.

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AEW Dynamite Grand Slam (Sept. 25th, 2024): Featuring Desmond Wolfe Vs. Lloyd Boner

Well… after a long time coming, we’re finally getting the long-teased Desmond Wolfe vs. Lloyd Boner match.

Yes, Grand Slam from a much emptier Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York featured Bryan Danielson defending his World title against Nigel McGuiness, who made a surprise appearance at the All In Gauntlet match and is now a World Title contender despite not having wrestled in over a decade or so. Also, Darby Allin puts his World title shot on the line in a match against Jon Moxley for… some reason, and finally, Tony Khan gets a new neckbrace.

That last one is a lie, but we’re using the old meme banner for Dynamite, even though I actually thought that this was a great Dynamite show.

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TNA Bound For Glory 2010

Quick note before we begin today’s scheduled musings… so, for the month of October, we are foregoing the weekly PPV Musings and when we return in November, it’ll be covering this year’s Bound For Glory PPV. Bound For Glory is TNA’s flagship PPV event, similar to a Wrestlemania or Starrcade… okay, that might be stretching it nowadays, but you get the general idea. Anyway, this’ll be the first Bound For Glory show that I’ve watched live since… ages. And given how good the TNA product has been this year, I’m sure they’ll be delivering a fine enough show for the ages… which is more than what I can say for today’s subject matter.

As a matter of fact, I had gone ahead and watched the TNA Victory Road show from a couple weeks ago and that was a great show, probably one of the better TNA outputs I’ve seen in this new era. The smart side of my brain suggests that I talk about this show before taking the break from musings to focus on the October marathon of reviews… but sadly, I’m not listening to the smart side of the brain today because soon afterwards, I jumped into the TNA archives to watch the Bound For Glory show from October 10, 2010.

Yes, the 10-10-10 edition of Bound For Glory. Otherwise known as Vincent “Big Vinny V” Verhei’s birthday… yeah, not quite a happy birthday for him, I’m sure.

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WCPW Refuse To Lose 2016

Haven’t had enough Kurt Angle, have ya?

Well, here’s more anyway… actually a bit of a bonus musings as we kill two birds with one show – the now-defunct  UK-based WhatCulture Pro Wrestling promotion, which later became DEFIANT Wrestling, which later became defunct, held a show in 2016 called Refuse To Lose, which featured some silliness, yes, but its main event – which you can watch online for free – is the legendary match between Olympic Gold Medal Hero KURT ANGLE and Local Hero JOE HENDRY.

Yes, that match exists… and you can watch it for free here.

But what about the rest of the show?

Well… that’s another story entirely…

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