Mootinie

That women’s four way on Dynamite was pretty awful. Can we stop complaining about the booking and admit that the actual wrestling in this division is just really bad? Weak strikes, mistimed sequences, zero energy, Shida bumping about two seconds before Baker has even done the curb stomp on her. And now Britt is getting a TBS title shot three days after being pinned because wins and losses matter?

I think a change of scenery would do Jade good. I'm not a big fan of her as a wrestler and I don't think she has progressed at the rate that either her or AEW would have liked but perhaps her moving on is the best thing for both parties. I remember that the story the first time around was her unwillingness to truly commit to wrestling. WWE wanted her to relocate whilst AEW was something she could do on her own terms. She has perhaps had a taste in AEW and has liked it enough that she now wants to make it her life.

At this point I've faced the music, this is just how Tony Khan books wrestling. For better or worse, he clearly doesn't want Takeshita, Hangman or Jay White fighting for the belt and he doesn't want to pin them either. I'm not entirely sure Joe needs to win a tournament for a title shot either. Roddy Strong, sure. But Joe is basically bulletproof at this point.

Paying a guy not to work the length of his pre-agreed deal would have been even worse than bringing him back. Tony took the stance of Punk has a contract and come hell or high water, he's going to work the darn contract. For better or worse, and for all the arguments of his leadership, paying a dude to go away because he's causing trouble backstage may have been the weakest move of them all.

I think the bloom came off the rose in about July 2022 for CM Punk. The buy rate for All Out 2022 and the lack of a sharp ratings increase for their Rocky 3 story should have set alarm bells ringing. There was this clear lack of audience interest in having the guy on top. It was weird, it was like people tuned out once he won the belt, like they were just waiting for AEW to hit that button or something. Then Collision was a flop. It has been beaten in the demo ratings by NXT for the last four weeks and it will probably be five weeks when the ratings for the most recent Saturday come out. That makes it six of the last seven weeks. The outlier in this is the show they put MJF and Adam Cole on. I feel like Punk's star has waned considerably, that whole show has not been good for his brand at all. It has failed before its actual competition has started, they banked on Punk and it has not worked for them. Overall, I think Punk fought a political battle with The Elite and he lost when Tony re-upped their deals. He probably felt like his deal wasn't going to be renewed. He tried to get a contract buyout after Brawl Out. He probably wanted out but he didn't want to resign and leave all that money on the table. Now he will likely sue over termination "with cause" and try to get AEW to pay him to go away. They spent a week getting their ducks in a row, it's hard for me to imagine that Punk has much of a case. WBD fought for him the first time around, they probably didn't lift a finger with the second go-around. As for what he'll do now, I don't imagine anybody worth their salt would have him. WWE won't. NJPW probably don't want to sour their relationship with AEW by bringing him in. NWA is a dead league and I cannot imagine that Punk and Billy would see eye to eye on anything and certainly not on politics. IMPACT probably don't want to touch him, their business has been on a steady incline for a while now but maybe they're more desperate than I think they are. God knows. Punk is 100% the type to think it's either WWE, NJPW, AEW or it's nowhere because nobody else is big enough for CM Punk. And AEW will be fine. They were fine when he was gone for a year. They were fine before he joined. No dramas.

I think Jack Perry suspects that the reason the glass story has been reported is because CM Punk leaked it. I reckon he has a right to be annoyed that one of his co-workers has done this to him.

Who do you think leaked the story about the glass to journalists? Additionally, who leaked the story that nobody was at Heathrow Airport to pick up CM Punk when he landed in London?

I loved that even though she was losing the title, Hikaru Shida didn't have a boo-boo face, she wasn't pouting, she didn't look moody. She rocked the belt like the absolute champ through her entrance and then did what pro's do. Big fan of that. Rumour has it the original creative for All In was Shida winning the belt from Jamie, it's still super cool she got her moment coming in with the title.

Chuck Taylor was so happy about winning a match with his best pals in front of 80,000 fans.

What happens when it's Seth Rollins challenging Roman Reigns at WrestleMania for the WWE World Universal Undisputed Global Championship whilst Cody tries to convince us all that fighting Damien Priest for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship is the real main event?

I'm just scratching my head as to why they weren't initially advertised as a bundle or some sort of package deal. Why could you buy All Out for about two weeks before you could buy All In when the latter is happening a week before the former? Weird business here that we will 100% hear nothing about even though the consumer does deserve an explanation as to why they're being skewered.

Yeah, there's no real excuse when you consider the talent the division has and what they are doing with them. Willow wins The Owen, has she been on TV since? By the time they decide to do something with her, we will have forgotten she even won that trophy. Statlander isn't doing anything but wrestling random matches. No stories, no promos, no real direction. They never follow up on everything, they never develop any sort of character building consistency with anybody. Why not have Statlander lose the belt to Sakura and then do a chase angle where Kris has to fight back to win it? Emi is overdue something and she's got the grizzled veteran energy to take advantage of Statlander's knees. Okay, you have to cut off Statlander a little but it's a story, it's something that fans might actually invest in over this turgid open challenge business. Willow should be the #1 babyface of the division right now, she should be gunning for the belt and we should have an Outcasts promo on every show about Willow. Follow up and do it now. But they won't. She's lost to Athena and she's probably gonna take three months off now or whatever the heck. We'll probably have to sit through another awful Britt vs. Toni match like nobody in AEW has noticed that Britt can't work a match if she doesn't blade or fall in thumbtacks, let alone that she has no chemistry with Toni and these two just cannot have a good match together. Skye Blue was given a hot minute earlier in the year but they haven't followed up on her losing to Toni and what that means to Skye as a character. She wrestled, she lost and that's it. Nobody is on TV consistently, nobody is given segments to help build them up or define who they are. Has Anna Jay been seen since she lost to Julia? What's going on with Julia? What was the point of the matches they ran between them and what do they mean? They tell you that nothing matters. Taya did nothing to earn a shot at Statlander, she did nothing to earn a shot at Toni. Fans sit on their hands during these matches because none of it means anything. When wrestlers lose three in a row and get a random title shot because "open challenge", you're telling us that the three matches you ran before were pointless. Lady Frost fought for the TBS title recently and I don't think I have ever seen her win a match. I didn't even watch it, I knew she was losing because she's clearly marked as a talent they won't invest in. Marina Shafir is the same, she's on the canvas more than Rembrandt. Vert Vixen lost a TBS title eliminator to Jade Cargill and then AEW brought her back a few months later and gave her a TBS title shot. I've read TEW diaries that are better booked than this by people whose saves are just a little hobby outside of their jobs and their families. Who barely have any time at all to book a wrestling promotion but still wind up putting together something that is tight, entertaining and enthralling. How is it that the people whose full time job is writing a wrestling show manage to make it so bad all of the time? They have no excuses, this is their entire livelihood. It should be multitudes better than it is.

Have they really given Orange Cassidy the most defences of a title in the history of AEW just to have him put over Jon Moxley?

Who knows what's going on with that show. I just checked and it's not showing up on FITE but there's been no announcement of it airing on any other PPV carrier. ITV in the UK have not yet announced they are carrying it either. Dynamite airs on ITV4, I don't think All In will be on that channel. That would be like WrestleMania airing on FS1, it's a bit hidden away for such a major event. But if it's going to be on ITV1, I would have expected an announcement by now. Surely they would want their brand all over the promotional material if they were airing it. If it was being bundled with All Out on PPV, one would assume that package would be available to buy now. But it's not. You can buy All Out! So, I can only conclude that All In just won't be on PPV and will likely air live on TBS or TNT in the US. Or will it? I feel like we should know, it's odd considering we are only a month out. Edit: Not to mention there's been no main event announcement. Blood & Guts was the perfect time to announce this as that's when you will have the most eyeballs on your product.

Where is the logic in having Willow win the Owen Hart Foundation tournament just to be jobbed out to Athena on the B-show a week later? They will probably have her fight Toni Storm now and we will all be expected to care like she hasn't already been made to look a goof on the developmental promotion. I just don't understand AEW now, nothing they do booking-wise seems to make any sense. Imagine if WWE ran King of the Ring, gave the win to LA Knight and then their next move was having him lose to Carmelo Hayes on NXT? Why? Where is the sense in doing this?

FTR vs BCG ruled. Ian Riccaboni was exceptional on commentary too. With all due respect to Kevin Kelly, we need Ian on the call going forward. They could do a Wrestle Kingdom deal where CM Punk defends his AEW World title at All In with the winner of that match facing MJF at All Out.

Taya is getting a shot at the Women’s title after she lost to Jade, lost to Statlander and lost to Shida. I appreciate that you all have opinions but let’s face it, this company doesn’t even try with its Women’s division. They simply don’t care.

I wasn't as high on the Bloodline Civil War as others have been but fair play to them for advancing Main Event Jey Uso. I'm sure he'll be headlining SummerSlam now. Women's MITB was probably my favourite match of the night overall, I thought it was really well put together.

I could have done without the headbutts.

They clearly lined up three months of creative for Jamie Hayter that they have had to throw out because of her injury. With Toni, Ruby and Saraya all heel, the roster is unbalanced now Jamie has gone down and Shida is part-time. Aside from Britt, they are threadbare in terms of faces that can bounce off the Outcasts and that's hurting the group a lot. They're a bit cringe, I don't enjoy the catiness of it. Mean Girls is something that wrestling should have stopped after Laycool but it doesn't help that the best Tony can put in front of them is Skye Blue and Willow Nightingale. In general, they seem to have lost some sort of hiring power. They've signed Ashley D'Amboise who I would really like to see on TV but she has only done a couple of ROH dates and already been beaten by Athena (or was it Mercedes Martinez?). It seems a bit odd that TNA have gotten their paws on Kilynn King, Trinity, Masha Slamovich, Jody Threat, Gisele Shaw and Killer Kelly with AEW having never even been rumoured to be in for any of them. I wonder if it's a reputational thing, that IMPACT uses them and helps them push their brand whilst women in AEW seem to die on the vine. Perhaps they'll follow up when contracts expire and benefit from their exposure over there. Outside of Taya Valkyrie, it's been a while since they've signed anybody recently and I think the roster needs turning over more. I don't know what the deal is with some of AEW's contracted talent, it just seems that some of them are not good enough, some of them cannot stay healthy and some of them have lost their credibility and can't be used in a meaningful capacity. I cannot even remember the last time some of them were used consistently and I wonder if women like Kilynn think if I sign there, I'll either be in catering or on Dark and that's not where I want to be? We are now at a point now where Statlander holds a belt and has no challengers whilst Storm holds a belt and has no challengers. The underside is looking okay, I quite like Promise Braxton, I think Vert Vixen has upside, I think they should look at Queen Aminata some more, I think they should continue with Trish Adora. Laynie Luck is coming along and should probably be brought in. Megan Bayne is back from her ACL injury and is working the indies again. But the top end is worringly light and sticking three ladies together in a heel group has certainly not helped matters.

Okay, second half done! - Toni vs. Willow - seemed to end just as it was starting to shift gears and become pretty good. I'm not a big fan of them running what is essentially an AEW match on this PPV. I get why they did this but was Iwatani busy? Was Kairi? It was a TV match. I keep getting told Willow is really good but I just don't see it, she seems like a lovely woman and she has a charisma and charm that nobody else in the division has. But I'm still waiting for the truly great showing that makes me understand the calls for her to be rocket strapped. **1/2 - Omega vs. Ospreay - what was the deal with Callis getting ejected from ringside and then just coming back with no consequence? What's the point in ejecting him then? You know, I know fans are gonna wax lyrical about this match. It was dramatic, it was fun, but matches where one dude needs the howitzer to beat the other just aren't good pro wrestling to me. I didn't dig this one on the level that I know a lot of fans are going to and that is okay. I thought it was indulgent and I'm not sure it was the good kind. ***1/2 - Darby, Sting, Naito vs. Jericho, Guevara & Suzuki - this match was terribly put together. Darby should have been in the ring for most of it, tag in Naito to do his spots, tag in Sting to play the hits and then go home. What we got was a mess that seemed to fall apart as soon as Jericho and Sting started teeing off on one another. Nobody knew where they were supposed to be, did it get cut for time? Did Naito even want to be there? I have lots of questions. *3/4 - Danielson vs. Okada - it was every Okada match I have ever seen. As methodical as ever, there were glimpses of a great match in here but I don't think this one ever got to the level it wanted to. Injury probably denied us a hot stretch and I'm sure they will run it back at Wrestle Kingdom. But this was far from a classic and with the benefit of hindsight, it probably shouldn't have gone on last. ***1/2

I'm only halfway through the show and will finish it tonight, here's what I think thus far: - MJF vs. Tanahashi - simply not a World Title calibre match, Tana wrestled in slow motion and though MJF tried, he had to wrestle at half his capacity just so Tana could keep up. Believe it or not, Tanahashi was one of the best wrestlers in the world a decade ago. You wouldn't have known it watching this match. **1/4 - Punk vs. Kojima - this was great! Kojima looked really good here. You wouldn't watch this match and think it was Kojima who passed the torch to Tanahashi in 2009 (?) and that it was Tanahashi wrestling classics in the mid-2010's whilst Kojima defended the NWA title against goobers and tagged with Tenzan, Nakanishi & Nagata as part of the New Japan Dads. Maybe the opener would have been better if the dudes just played their hits like Punk and Kojima did here. Can we just take a second to appreciate how good Kojima looks for a 52-year-old? Insane. A great showing for the legend and a deserved bow at the end. **** - International Four Way - the best thing here was the recognising of the roles that each dude would play. Cassidy was the underdog defender, Garcia was the entertainer interloper, Shibata was Shibata and Sabre Jr. was always holier than thou. They played it off brilliantly and this was a really fun sprint with plenty left in the tank for individual matches between these four. ****1/4 - SANADA vs. Jack Perry - a technically astute match and all but this was too short, lacked any sort of drama and was hardly a match befitting of NJPW's grandest prize. Either they needed to have a dramatic back and forth or they needed to make this an extended SANADA exhibition. They did neither. The heel turn is an indictment of AEW's booking problems. They have stop-started a few times with Jack Perry and here we are. You can't keep hitting the brakes and expecting the fans to keep following. How many turns for the sake of turns do we need to see? **3/4 - Elite & Friends vs. BCC & Affiliates - it was great to see Ishii getting the pin and I thought Takeshita looked awesome here. I don't have much else to say, this was exactly what everybody expected it would be. ****1/2

Yes I think you're thinking of Lethal Lottery. The Battlebowl was the battle royal they held after the tag matches to decide the overall winner. I could be wrong but I think the first Lethal Lottery at Starrcade '91 was random drawings. That would at least account for how awful the show was. I think they rigged it for Starrcade '92 and Battlebowl '93.

AEW announced All In for Wembley before RevPro announced their Anniversary Show for the Copper Box Arena. PROGRESS and DEFY have announced shows in London for the same weekend now too. It's basically a WrestleMania Weekend deal where they're hoping fans going All In will attend other shows in the city on the Saturday. Labor Day weekend will probably be when AEW holds All Out. I'm presuming that show is still happening, somebody in AEW legal said it was but who knows. The kids go back to school the first week of September so maybe Tony didn't think it was a good idea to ask parents to come to London for a wrestling show when most will probably be sorting their kids to go back to school on Tuesday. Plus teachers will be working the Monday. In terms of maximising attendance, holding it the weekend before is probably a smart move. And the weekend before that is probably off limits because The Weeknd has a gig at the stadium on 18th August. The weekend before is the rugby. The weekend before that is the community shield. I think the weekend he has booked for All In is the only one he could book in August.

They probably will have some exposure on the show, I'm sure they are open to that. They essentially took over ROH and then started their own US operation off the back of their success with the supercards. But I think anybody considered a drawing card for the RevPro show will probably be withheld. RevPro helped make Jay White into Switchblade, they took in Yota Tsuji and he came back to headline Dominion. I think it will cross their minds that RevPro is a valuable partner to them and there's little rhyme or reason in undermining the gate they could draw for their Anniversary show. If Andy Quildan is booking Sabre Jr., he will surely be annoyed if the dude is booked the following day on All In. He wants people coming into London to see these guys and he will want them on one show - his. Whether TK makes an offer is a different kettle of fish. I do wonder how open he is to having NJPW on the show. It has surely crossed his mind that this should be an advert for the company more than anything else and nothing should be given the opportunity to overshadow that. We'll see, but really, what's the point in doing Omega vs. Ospreay III when you've already sold like 55,000 tickets? They may as well save that for when they came back to the UK and need a drawing card.