Matt_Black

I think it is a big mistake to immediately put Jade Cargill back in the TBS title picture.

You know, it's impressive that Roderick Strong has enjoyed a two decade plus career in pro wrestling despite being dull as dishwater.

One women's match that didn't go past the commercial break, no women's match announced for Rampage, no women's match announced for Collision. It's like they're actively trolling us at this point. To point out the disparity further.... On the Twitter/ X bio for the TNT network account, they list whoever the TNT champion is. On the bio for TBS, they have the catchphrase from a sitcom that ended nearly two decades ago.

See, apparently Dark Order has been both heeling it up as of late and winning, the problem is that AEW, like WWE, sometimes dramatically overestimates how many people watch (or even care about) the C-brand show. Absolutely agree about Bullet Club Gold. The whole group gives me Shawn Michaels nWo vibes. Starks not having build for his match is nobody's fault but Punk's, as plans had to be changed on the fly. Hobbs and Miro DID have some build, dating back to about a month or so ago when the QTV goons tried to beat up the latter, though the whole thing was done inconsistently.

Ending your PPV with four straight heel victories is certainly a choice.

Probably why they added Shida, Nightingale, and Skye Blue vs. Team B-Show for Zero Hour. Let the hometown girl get a win over Diamante to mollify Chicago.

Two PPVs in a week, and only one women's match for each. *sigh*

I'd heard his grandmother died.

Technically, she's fine. As far as in-ring persona, nothing about her wows me. She was underwhelming in WWE, she's been underwhelming in AEW. She's functionally little different than Toni Storm. By the way, am I the only one not impressed by Toni's new character? Everyone is saying, "Oh, wow, she's so much more interesting than what she was doing before!", and while technically that's true, watching paint dry was more interesting than what she was doing before, so not a high bar to clear.

O'Reilly is hurt still and Fish is in Impact. As far as a mouthpiece, Maria is RIGHT THERE! When the Kingdom came out, I thought, "... Where's Maria?" If Mox wins, big deal. He wins most of his singles matches, and he doesn't need it. But Orange winning? THAT is a big deal. Aside from Jericho and Cole, he's never really been allowed to go over any of the big names in AEW. He's lost matches to Omega, Cody, MJF, etc. I also find it curious that that Orange and Penta have to wrestle to determine who fights Mox. Since Cassidy is the champ, shouldn't Mox and Penta have to wrestle each other to determine who fights him?

Apparently, he then immediately got into it with Miro, who, if reports are true, just asked what was going on?

For weeks, Kris Statlander has been in a storyline with Mercedes Martinez, Diamante, & Willow Nightingale. This will pay off at All Out where she faces... Ruby Soho. Wait, what?!?

Absolutely agree. The women's division has always been one of TNA's strongest areas. It's funny, but when WWE was touting the "Women's Revolution", a lot of what they were doing is stuff that TNA had already been doing years prior. And regarding other things, it's nearly 20 years old at this point, but the Triple Threat match between AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, and Samoa Joe is STILL regarded by pretty much everyone as the best match in company history.

Absolutely gutted. Only 36. Damn.

And remember, Swerve eliminated Big Bill from the one battle royal, to Cage's disapproval.

I mean, could you just imagine if one half of a major tag team got arrested right before a big summertime event, and then won? Ridiculous! No company would EVER do something like that.

There was drama with Punk in TNA. There was drama with Punk in WWE. There was probably drama with Punk in ROH (I don't know, I never followed it and you can't make me). MAYBE completely different groups of people each decide to collaborate and torment this poor misunderstood wrestling genius, or more likely, Punk is just a jerk.

You know, people said something similar after Cesaro faced Roman at Backlash. What happened? He got bounced down the card, even losing a handicap match where he was on the side with the numbers advantage.

Nick Comoroto was literally on Collision last night.

If you're wondering if the criticism of the booking of AEW women's division is having a positive impact, look at how the winner of the men's Owen Tournament is being booked and presented compared to the winner of the women's Owen Tournament.

Does Aussie Open have actual characters besides being bland Australian heels?

It's nice to know that as we head into hurricane season, Karrion Kross had the presence of mind to bring the sandbags.

Things are slightly better on the Collision side of things. When in doubt, just send Mercedes Martinez out there. It still needs a LOT of work, but things are slowly progressing. What they NEED to do (aside from, you know, only having one women's singles match per show) is capitalize on the fact that Julia Hart and Harley Cameron are getting a lot of exposure from their associated factions. Either one would be a perfectly fine challenger for Statlander at All-In. The former in particular opens up some possibilities... "Buddy is distracting the ref and... NO! Julia Hart just spit the black mist at Statlander! The House Of Black is going to steal this one and.... Wait, the lights went out! This can't be part of the House Of Black's plan, can it? The light are going back on, it's..." "IT'S DANHAUSEN! Danhausen just took out Buddy with a shot down below! Julia Hart is beside herself! SHE'S JUST BEEN CURSED! And she walks right into Saturday Night Fever from Statlander!"

I really hope they didn't give the belt to Shida just so Saraya or Toni Storm could win it at Wembley. And the MJF/ Adam Cole segments continue to steal the show. I feel bad for laughing as hard as I did when Max was just clobbering children with the dodgeball.

Absolutely agree. AEW has delivered many good moments in the division only to blow it by not following up on the momentum. Kris Statlander made a shocking return and ended Jade Cargill's unprecedented winning streak... and then she hasn't done much of note, defending her title against people no one expected to win. Willow Nightingale won the Owen, and then... jobbed out on the C-show PPV and has had only one brief TV appearance since, whereas the winner of the men's side of the tournament has been on TV every week in a program with one of the company's biggest stars. Those are just the two most recent examples. Hopefully, they have something meaningful planned for Shida, unlike her last reign, where it often felt like her matches were an afterthought, having a lower priority than whatever Britt Baker was doing.