Stiva

Oh dear. What a way to practically undo the goodwill they’ve had with me after a great 2024 up to now. Maybe the ratings will be great but I’m not convinced this is a good idea at all and it feels like a gigantic self-sabotage

If showing this means we can all finally move on from this nonsense, then so be it.

Mark Briscoe winning the title was a great moment and I like the overarching story of Briscoe stepping out as a singles guy, cutting his teeth in the CC and then using that experience to win the big one. Athena really needs to be on AEW TV in a featured role leading up to Wembley. She’s so fucking great

Samoa Joe Vs Eddie Kingston in a series of escalating violent matches would be my pick. Just pick whatever flimsy premise you need to set them off, let them cut promos and you’re off to the races

I see Los Boricuas worked, or are working, a show over Mania weekend so I can only assume that’s why TK needs to free money up

Sometimes you need to do things like the Willow/Riho main event as a way of establishing the women as main event level stars in AEW, even if there are some early pains. Feels like AEW has been staying the course well since the CC when it comes to getting their male roster sorted out and it’s reaping results now (they’re using talent across the three shows really well now IMO) and they have to do similar for the women. Especially if Baker and Hayter are to come back

The most I’ve liked AEW Hardys is when they were having concession brawls with Butcher and the Blade. Everything else has been pretty mediocre but if they transformed into broken down brawlers where Matt throws his right hands and Jeff builds to one big lunatic bump, I’d be fine with that every so often

Thank god he’s gone. Not sure what annoys me most; the awkward silence after he says most things, his terrible attempts at back and forth with McGuinness, him randomly shouting certain moves with some strange voice and accent or randomly interrupting people to shout at whichever heel happens to be walking past the announce table at that point

I have no idea if Sting is going to job on the way out but it wouldn’t surprise me if he does and we get asshole EVP Bucks as champs. Though I don’t really think they’ve done a great job with establishing a challenger unless they go with Claudio/Moxley opposite them. Though, having Joe pin Hangman is an easy transition into Heel Hangman and Heel Bucks moving into a feud with The Acclaimed and winning the trios titles. Its way down the list in importance but I have a feeling that Trent costs Cassidy the International title tonight and they pull the trigger on his solo run

Giving Schiavone a $25 Amazon gift card was an absolutely fantastic little touch though. Pitch perfect lampooning of the kind of thing out of touch, billionaire corporations do to attempt to improve staff morale

They should totally show the whole match on AEW TV. Especially if there’s an angle attached

Cody in early AEW was pulling some all-time babyface stuff off before he got bogged down in his own isolated nonsense. I’m not surprised he’s still showing the chops in WWE but it still remains a surprise that they booked him so well out of the gate. That HIAC match with the sick looking injury was the kind of legendary visual that cements a guy at the top

I do wonder if the Boston show sees Mone and Okada both debut. It would be doubly funny if the branding was referring to Shane McMahon though

I haven’t been commenting on specific shows but I will say that 2024 AEW is the most I’ve enjoyed it for quite a while. I’m enjoying pretty much everything and while I wish they would try and find a balance between some more creative angles and great matches as they did at their peak, it feels like TK has got his ducks in a row in a way that he hasn’t for a long while. I do think they need a couple of big signings to counteract the perception that a lot of workers are wanting to jump back to WWE and I’m not really sure anything they’re going to do will lead to increased ticket sales but eh, I’m enjoying it. I just hope they stick the landing with Swerve down the line

Watched the men’s Rumble and man, they need a way better structure than “Entrant comes in and hits his hot tag for 30 seconds, rinse and repeat” What a boatload of nothing that was. As someone said, for a company that’s crazy hot at the gates, this felt like such an anodyne show in terms of the booking. Talk about playing everything super safe