Yes, we’re posting some quick Impact thoughts the night after… because I’ve got nothing else at the moment. Also, yes, this was quickly written at five in the morning because reasons…
Continue reading “TNA Impact (Sept. 26th, 2024) – Kaz Is Good, But Not As Good As Joe Hendry”
With TNA’s Victory Road event in the back-burner, we begin the road to Bound For Glory, which should be an interesting show if nothing else. All I know is that you better believe that I will be watching… though I respect that you don’t believe my genuine anticipation for an upcoming TNA PPV from 2024.
Anyway, on with the show.
Continue reading “TNA Impact (September 19th, 2024) – I Swear, They’re Doing This As A Gag”
So, truth be told, I didn’t watch the entirety of RAW – mostly bits and pieces here and there – but there were a couple notes from the show that I wanted to touch upon quickly.
Perhaps the most significant of all is the news that starting in October, which will begin the final stretch of RAW episodes on USA Network before the move to Netflix, will see RAW’s run time be reduced from the daunting three-hour marathons to the usual two hour format similar to Smackdown and NXT. Some people see this as a bad thing – one less hour equals less ads, although considering this is a last minute short-term deal, I don’t think anyone really minded that point – while others see this as a good thing in that more people will be more likely to watch the show and stick with it throughout.
Count me in the latter category. I have seen far more episodes of 2-hour RAWs that I have 3 hour RAWs and even during the 3-hour sessions, I’m skipping through most of it. With two hours, it makes for a more quick paced show and there’s less padding overall. While I’m sure some people are upset by this news, trust me. This is going to be a good move going forward and might be a sampler of things to come when the Netflix era rolls around.
(Scratch that. Word has it RAW will return to three hours when it hits Netflix. So much for that.)
As far as actual happenings on the show? Bret Hart and Gunther’s interaction was fun for a bit, though I’d imagine not as fun as Bret and HHH hugging it out, where I’d imagine Bret told HHH that he’s still a 4/10 wrestler. Jey Uso looks to challenge Bron Breakker for the IC title and fuck knows if they ever pull some kind of trigger on the guy, who was a genuinely hot act last year and now has sort of become just another guy… letting hot guys become just another guy is the other place’s schtick, Hunter. Also, Nattie being a surprise partner in a multi-woman match at a show taking place in Calgary………………………………… Alberta, Canada is no surprise at all. And of course, there was the Wyatt Sicks/American Made street fight that opened up the show, which was a fun little match.
Regarding the Wyatt Sicks, I am largely ambivalent… which means I don’t particularly care for it, but don’t entirely hate it either. Believe it or not, that’s actually a good thing and it tells me that they haven’t completely screwed any pooch with this one. There’s still time, though.
Regarding new announcer Joe Tessitore? I’ll need a few more listens to gauge a proper opinion on the dude, but so far, I’m liking what I hear. Guy’s got a good voice, seems well into the action, and doesn’t come across as a total goof who hasn’t a clue what he’s talking about. WWE has tried other real sportscasters for the RAW role and they never quite worked out, but they got something with this Tessitore guy. He just needs a couple weeks to find a footing (and maybe a witty catchphrase or two), but he’s off to a good start.
That’s about it.
Later.
It took a burning house to produce some intrigue, but at long last, Hangman Page cut perhaps one of the best promos of his entire career to build to this cage match with Swerve at All Out. I mean, the whole thing with Swerve buying his “childhood home” and airing it on TV, only for Hangman to find out about it and burn it down was a bit hokey, but I’ll be damned. I’m almost convinced to buy this All Out PPV just to watch this match… almost.
That one angle alone was enough to produce one of the better Dynamite shows in a while. And you can tell that I enjoyed this Dynamite show moreso than the usual output because I’m using the generic Dynamite musings banner rather than anything with a bemused Shaq, anti-AEW bots, or Tony Khan in a neckbrace. Unfortunately, we’re still trying to get Jack Perry over as a top heel and I’m still not buying it, but Mariah May vs. Nyla Rose was a fun match with a slow start, Okada finally put his working boots on for a free TV match with Kyle Fletcher that was pretty great, and the trios match between the BCC and the Ospreay/O’Reilly/Orange express (for lack of a better term) was a fun party match. Even the Mercedes segment was somewhat tolerable, even if it was every boring Mercedes promo I’ve seen her cut in WWE for years. You’d think having an Emmy Award-winning writer to personally write all your verbiage would be more creative than that, but alas…
So… yeah. Not much to say about this one. This was a genuinely good episode of Dynamite. Probably the first one I’ve seen in a while. I’m almost tempted to buy this show now… almost.
So it’s BLOOD AND GUTS III… featuring the All-New, All-Different ELITE (Bucks, OKADA, Hangman Page, and Jack Perry) up against the AEW team of reigning World Champion Swerve Strickland, reigning ROH Champion Mark Briscoe, resident Crazy Man DARBY ALLIN… and the Acclaimed. All due respect to the Acclaimed – they are/were an entertaining act – but two of these things are not like the other. And if you want to toss Jack Perry into the mix, then make it three.
It’s been no secret that the build up to Blued and Goots has been underwhelming. The EVP Elite storyline that’s been going on is kinda lame, Jack Perry comes across as more of a geek than the next big star in the company whose push is seemingly designed as a proverbial FU to Phil, who is apparently much happier in WWE these days when he isn’t getting injured. And other than the World Champion and maybe Darby Allin, the team opposing your big heel faction seems to be pulled out of a hat. Are we that low on big stars that we need to fit the Acclaimed in there? Again, no disrespect intended, but they didn’t exactly get me hyped for this match.
And when all was said and done… well, the match was already, but as others have noted, the ending was underwhelming.
Continue reading “AEW Dynamite (July 24th, 2024): Bored And Gortz”
I guess Tony Khan doesn’t believe in Joe Hendry.
He probably should; guy’s been doing great numbers for NXT lately. Wouldn’t surprise me if TNA pulled the trigger on him – not that I would expect them to.
Alas, we’re not talking about Impact – even though we probably should – but rather it’s this past Wednesday’s Dynamite show, which is the last show before next week’s big Blood & Guts match, which is a regular annual thing we do rather than something that’s needed to raise the stakes in a hot feud. I’ll be honest with you, folks; I am not feeling this Elite Vs. Team AEW thing that’s going on. The whole thing comes across as totally lame and also confuses me; so the Elite take out Tony Khan so that they can take over AEW, but now that he’s back, they… still have power and we have a limp dick commissioner in Christopher Daniels. Meanwhile, we’re trying to make the former Jungle Boy into a big time heel act and we even gave him the TNT title, but he comes across as such a wannabe tough-guy sounding geek that I can’t help but laugh. Then there’s Okada, one of the New Japan greats, who’s more than content to phone it in while racking in the dough. He must have learned a thing or two from Shinsuke Nakamura.
Just about the only guy who feels like a major heel is Hangman, who’s only in this match so that he can continue his feud with Swerve, who also happens to be the only major face on the AEW side of the match. Making up that group is Mark Briscoe – a guy that people actually like, but hasn’t done much of anything on AEW television… the fact that he happens to be the reigning ROH World Champion seems to be more of an afterthought than anything. And then we have the Acclaimed – good tag team, but not quite a major force for this type of match – and the returning Darby Allin, who seems to be perpetually punished for his wanting to climb Everest by suffering enough injuries to put off said climb and on top of that, going from one crazy match to another where he will undoubtedly try and kill himself to get more time on the injured list.
Right now, this Wargames, er, I mean, Blood & Guts match has no reason for existing beyond “it’s a thing we do every year.” It’s become the new “Hell In A Cell” where every year we do a Hell In A Cell match whether the matches warrant it or not. Hell, WWE stopped doing that with their Hell In A Cell match, but then turned around and turned Wargames into a Survivor Series thing. I mean, can we not just have these matches happen when we need them to happen to further the story? Must we have a match for the sake of a match? Do we have to pick up every discarded and hated WWE trope just so we could be the alternative to the other company that’s doing all the stuff we used to do? You know, the stuff that made us worth watching?
As far as the rest of the show goes… eh…
Continue reading “AEW Dynamite (July 17th, 2024) – I Said His Name And He Didn’t Appear…”
Emanating from the great wrestling city of Calgary, …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Alberta, Canada… it’s AEW Dynamite and the finals of the Owen Hart tournaments, which will feature Bryan Danielson and ??? going at it in the mens tournament, while Willow Nightingale and ??? will battle it out in the bussoms tournament… what’s that? It’s not the…? Oh… well, okay, then… never mind…
On with the show, I guess…
Continue reading “AEW Dynamite (July 10th, 2024) – Am I Really Supposed To Be Excited About This?”
Around these parts, we still believe in Joe Hendry… even if NXT management doesn’t… so his mug stays on the banner.
After all, what scream AMERICA better than Joe Hendry?
Kurt Angle?
Okay… maybe… but he’s not as good as Joe Hendry.
It says so in the song…
Okay, I’ll stop now.
Continue reading “IMPACT (July 4th, 2024) – Happy Independence Day”
It’s the Forbidden Door post-show edition of Dynamite and it also happens to be the first episode of Dynamite (or any semblance of AEW – TV or PPV) I’ve watched since May. And yes, we’re sticking with the TK Neckbrace banner for now… because it amuses me.
But did this show amuse me?
Continue reading “AEW Dynamite (July 3rd, 2024) – I Guess Chicago Is Not Swerve’s House”
So, as the header of this post implies, this is going to be my last weekly Impact musings… and no, the show hasn’t sucked that bad to scare me off.
On the contrary, the past 19 weeks worth of Impact viewing has been a fun ride that more than made up for the latter half of 2023 when I was revisiting old NWA-TNA PPVs and ultimately regretting it. And while there have been some less than thrilling episodes of Impact that left me with little to say, for the most part, the show has remained a consistent, easy-to-watch two hours of wrestling action. Probably the nicest surprise I got this year was being able to sit through nearly 3-4 months of TNA Impact and actually enjoying it. Imagine that scenario.
That said, I’ve reached the point where… while I’m more than content to continue watching the show on a weekly basis, there is no real need for me to continue to write about the show on a weekly basis, especially when there are episodes that has me saying very little and I’m just posting something up out of obligation. And I don’t want to do that because it feels like I’m not giving my all. Also, with the blog officially being opened up, there’s going to be a need to work on stuff for that in the future and part of that involves lessening the wrestling output. Yes, this is one of those things that gets quite a bit of coverage on this blog, but it’s not the only thing and I want to highlight some other stuff of interest going forward.
So this is the episode I’m ending this weekly run on. After this, if there’s an episode that I want to touch on, I’ll do so… but we’re not doing the weekly thing anymore. Too much, too soon, all that jazz.
Let’s get into it.
dtm666 