Matt_Black

I eagerly await tonight's Smackdown. I do hope no rapscallion speaks in an untoward fashion regarding the local professional athletic organizations. Such behavior would be most uncouth, and I would be driven to harumph in a chiding manner!

Was Battlebowl the one where they did actual random drawings instead of kayfabe random drawings, or am I thinking of something else?

Remember way back when, when they first announced the Owen tournament, they said it was going to be a showcase young and upcoming talent? And this year features... CM Punk, Samoa Joe, Roderick Strong, and Dustin Rhodes. Man, I hope those crazy kids can make it in this business.

Honestly, I think Graves best moment came a few weeks ago when he named dropped Mystery Science Theater 3000.

On the other hand, it's for a New Japan belt, Ospreay works for NJPW, Kenny doesn't.

To be fair, that was low-tier for Miz. He's done better. Like, one time they were in Cleveland, he's standing in the ring. He's getting hero's reception, with thunderous chants of "WELCOME HOME!" He's standing there, basking it in, until he finally raises the mic to speak... "I live in L.A."

Insulting the home town has been a long-standing heel tradition. Heels in WWE do it, heels in AEW do it, heels in WCW did it, and this dates all the way back to the territory days. Andy Kaufman did it to Memphis when he was feuding with Lawler. "This town stinks!" "Booo!" "You people stink!" "Booo!" "I hate this town so much, I am NEVER coming back!" "Yaaaay!" "... Just for that, I AM coming back!" "BOOOO!" I think the biggest headscratcher last night was who decided putting Trish Stratus in a ladder match in 2023 was a good idea.

I liked it. Though the finish made very little logical sense. Why would the heels attempt to use the spray paint in full view of the referee?

It was a good show, but it was also a VERY safe show, if that makes sense. Totally agree about the Acclaimed segment being pointless. It was entertaining, but it was also the same thing we've seen multiple times before. That was time that could have been better used for another match. THREE shows now, and they STILL can only manage one women's match per show?

I mean, it looks great to me in the bigger size, too.

Of all the surprise returns and appearances last night, the greatest was the "Funny Chyron During An Adam Page Entrance".

Yeah, I have the sinking feeling that they're going to hotshot the belt off of Asuka so they can do Charlotte vs. Bianca at Summerslam.

And her first pinfall victory over Nyla Rose, to boot, if I'm not mistaken. She's one against Nyla before, but that was in a tag match, and I'm not sure either was involved in the pinfall (Nyla certainly wasn't, I remember that much). Skye has eaten a lot of pins from Rose, so it's nice to see her even things up, even just a bit.

At the very least, I feel it's a sin they never even got one run with the tag titles. Last night's Rampage was the best episode we've had in a long, long time. All the matches were good, there were no squash matches or filler, everything breezed right along. And it's so nice to see Willow Nightingale get such a good reaction from the crowd during her entrance.

Kris Statlander versus Taya is a BAD idea. It's too soon for Kris to drop the belt, but Taya really can't lose her next big match, especially since she just lost two title matches in a relatively short span of time. I mean, even Ruby Soho had a few months between jobbing to Britt and then jobbing to Jade..

Oh, I wish we never saw Marina Shafir again. As it stands, she's been on AEW television more often the past year and a half than Riho. I really hope that Tony Khan doesn't try to be cute again and have Roderick Strong win the male side of the Owen and Shafir win the women's side, like how he had Cole and Britt win last year and I threw up in my mouth a little. This is a wrestling tournament, not prom night!

I wouldn't say Jade can't work. She's still not GREAT, but she's come a long way. Her matches the past few months have been watchable, albeit predictable. I think the thing that really hampered her is they kept putting her in the ring with talent who were about the same as her experience wise. They should have had her in programs with Shida, Emi, Deeb, or Martinez, to name a few. Overall, good show with a lackluster main event. I'd like Adam Cole a lot better if he played up the pirate gimmick more.

The feel good moment that Kris Statlander should have had last year at Double Or Nothing, but AEW decided it would be better for Jade to beat Anna Jay AGAIN while Kris was going into a tournament to job out to Ruby who jobbed out to Britt Baker who didn't really need the win anyway.

She shouldn't be wrestling on TV yet. I have absolutely ZERO problem with just watching Jade Cargill stand around. I feel bad, because in all the AEW promotional stuff, she seems very nice and warm and charismatic. Jade Cargill the person is someone I could get behind. Jade Cargill the CHARACTER is absolutely dull. Like, someone saw 2002-era Triple H, doing all the cool heel stuff but never suffering any comeuppance, and said, "Let's make Jade like that, but even more so."

Jade doesn't even make people look good in promos. When told she has to wrestle a baby face who's built up momentum, she just looks bored. Whereas MJF or Heel Britt would have a meltdown.

A few people on twitter took exception to my claim that Jade doesn't make her opponents look good. Not that they could refute that claim, directly, with one person saying it's not her job to make people look good. I thought her job was to put butts in the seats, and you can't do that if you think one of the two people in a match has absolutely zero chance and you're not at all invested in the odd event they might win.

Which is the EXACT same question I had last year. As it stands, however, this marks the least unsatisfying ending to an undefeated streak in professional wrestling.. Damning with faint praise, admittedly.

Well, get used to him. It's been said that the network executives LOVE Cassidy, so it's highly unlikely he's going anywhere anytime soon.

I'd like to be watching it, but I can't, because my cable provider SUCKS. RCN might have customer service that's almost as frustrating to deal with as Comcast. ALMOST.

That would be a lot more believable if the WWE didn't have a long and storied tradition of making people job out on their birthday, in their hometown, or in other instances where any sane person would look at the situation and say "Maybe we should let them win this time?". Nattie's Uncle Bret had to eat a pin the same weekend that his brother Dean died.