The Wrestling Thread

[marurun]

I would argue these spaces have always been toxic, we’re just more attuned to it, now.

[Limewater]

I'd also say the same for the Queen's Quest vs Uedo Tai Cage Match from Stardom last weekend.

I probably don't have time anyway, but I really don't understand how to even start watching Stardom.

Do you speak and read Japanese?

As a noob, how would I even start accessing this? You've kind of mentioned this stuff before, but the barrier still seemed pretty high.

Or are you dependent upon fan-subbers who upload their output through unofficial means? If you, you don't have to go into any detail.

[Raging Justice]

I'd also say the same for the Queen's Quest vs Uedo Tai Cage Match from Stardom last weekend.

I probably don't have time anyway, but I really don't understand how to even start watching Stardom.

Do you speak and read Japanese?

As a noob, how would I even start accessing this? You've kind of mentioned this stuff before, but the barrier still seemed pretty high.

Or are you dependent upon fan-subbers who upload their output through unofficial means? If you, you don't have to go into any detail.

Definitely don't know Japanese, though with interests in video games, anime, and Japanese wrestling you'd think I'd have learned it by now

Probably wouldn't hurt if I could learn Chinese too with all the martial arts movies I watch. Anyway...

Well, officially you can pay a small monthly subscription fee to the Stardom World website to watch most of their shows, kind of like how the WWE network works. They usually have shows with English subtitles on there for post match promos (it's rather common for someone to grab a mic after a match in Stardom), though it may take a few days after a big event airs before they upload the translated version.

For example, the show I was recently talking about was a PPV that happened on Sunday and I don't think they have uploaded the subtitled version yet. When it comes to non-PPV shows sometimes the website can really take a long time to put them up. I know some people have been complaining about that recently. A PPV should only take a few days after it airs though.

Now of course, there are other ways to watch Stardom, but I probably shouldn't mention them

As for getting familiar with the promotion, it took me some time and honestly I still am not familiar with everyone on the roster or all of the ongoing story lines yet. It's sort of like learning a new language, you just throw yourself in and you pick up little by little as time goes on. I will say though that there are helpful Twitter pages, websites, and youtube channels that help with learning about the promotion.

There's one person on Twitter that often puts up the backstory for an upcoming match. I think they go by Joshi Jamz. Unfortunately, Twitter has made a recent change that doesn't allow people to look at Twitter pages without an account. I don't now if this change is just a temporary one or permanent. I also like a youtube channel called HD Subs, which puts up subtitled videos for various things involving Japanese wrestlers, that includes people from WWE and AEW. If you ever saw an Iyo Sky or Asuka promo in WWE and wondered what they were saying, you might find out if you go to that youtube channel. There are also some good primer videos you can find on youtube for people new to Stardom like these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQDubCa3rnM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddwimlGQpks

I'm gonna post one more video, though I'll warn you that this one is meant to be comedic in nature and I personally find this youtuber a bit annoying, but the video is informative if you can tolerate him

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssuurAl6n2E

Language barriers are always an issue with Japanese wrestling, but companies are making more and more of an effort over time to reach out to fans overseas. New Japan Pro Wrestling in particular seems to be trying to grow their brand in the US and that's probably also good for Stardom since the two companies have recently established a sort of partnership.

I think Stardom is worthwhile for people who maybe aren't satisfied with women's wrestling in WWE or AEW. Stardom is generally considered to be the place that has the best female wrestlers in the world. I also just like their different approach to wrestling. Like the fact that most of their roster don't always do what you'd expect a heel or face to do because they are unique characters with unique personalities. Also, Stardom matches rarely have any shenanigans. So if you're used to constant outside interference, overbooking, and people cheating in WWE or AEW, you'll find little of that in Stardom (though it does happen sometimes). You also see a lot more respect between wrestlers. Sometimes someone will lost a match and will just acknowledge their opponent being the better fighter on that night, instead of throwing a tantrum. The fact that everyone on the roster is part of a faction also creates a unique dynamic within that company. A lot of Stardom wrestlers are not just fighting for themselves, but are also fighting for the team...kind of like real sports in a way. I imagine anyone who starts following the company will likely gravitate to a certain group or another. For me, I'd say that the Cosmic Angels got me interested in Stardom. I mean, aside from the awesome name, how can you not love this:

[Raging Justice]

If anybody's interested, this is a reddit page that covers just about every notable joshi promotion (at least the ones currently active), including Stardom. It also covers some small, for lack of a better term, "indie" groups like Prominence (a group which had an "invasion" story line where they started showing up and causing trouble in Stardom)

https://www.reddit.com/r/stardomjoshi/c ... de_to_the/

I'll just comment on a few myself:

Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling is probably the biggest one after Stardom and is the sister promotion of DDT Wrestling. For you AEW fans, Konosuke Takeshita made a name for himself in DDT and Maki Itoh primarily operates out of TJPW and has appeared a few times in DDT as well. TJPW may not be for everyone though. It can be a bit...sillier than Stardom, not that Stardom doesn't have its silly moments too, but TJPW takes it to the next level. Like there are ladies there who pretty much wrestle wearing dresses or skirts. Also, there's a girl there who thinks she's a superhero, a girl who dresses like a kaiju, and Maki Itoh who...I don't even really know how to describe. I guess she's a crazy former idol with an attitude, a bit of a potty mouth, and a really hard head that she makes good use of in a fight. Her signature Kokeshi move is one of the things I love about her. It looks hilarious. Tomoaki Honmu is a cool dude who made this move famous in NJPW, but she does it really well too (if not better quite honestly).



She also frequently likes to stop right in the middle of a match to ask the crowd, "Who is the cutest in the world?!" to which they usually respond "ITOH-CHAN!!!!!"

TJPW is pretty English friendly, as they have an English commentary team for some shows.

Ice Ribbon is a promotion created by Emi Sakura, who should also be familiar to AEW fans. It's where talents like Riho and Shida came from, both former AEW Women's champions.

Emi Sakura was also involved with the creation of Choco Pro, which regularly have free events and matches on youtube. Choco Pro is really neat because they do matches in a room inside a building with no ring. It's a very unique and more intimate environment for a pro wrestling match. There's something funny about seeing a wrestler climb onto a window to do a move or go outside the window during a match. There's some dudes who occasionally get in on the fun too, like Chris Brookes who I'm a fan of because he does comedy so ridiculously well. He usually performs for DDT though.

Choco Pro handled the pandemic pretty well. Like everyone else they had to stop having audiences for their shows at the time, but it's not like they were doing shows in big arenas and their youtube channel gave people at home plenty of content to watch. Choco Pro is also very English friendly for non-Japanese speakers like myself. Choco Pro is fun and accessible and unique. Plus, like DDT and TJPW, things can get pretty wacky and silly in Choco Pro. Good for people who don't take wrestling too seriously.

[Raging Justice]

So anybody want to talk about their favorite current wrestlers? It can just be WWE, or just AEW, or whatever you want. I gonna go with a few different companies. I can guess some of reprise's picks but am curious to see who else is on that list.

Some of my favorites change over time (I used to like CM Punk once upon a time), so this is just a snapshot of who I like right now. Anyway, here goes:

LA Knight

He's such a throwback. It's like they fused together Steve Austin and The Rock and out came LA Knight. He's got the people's elbow and his "YEAH!!!" is not too far off from someone's "Hell Yeah!". Fans are really starting to take notice of him and WWE could potentially have their next big star here. The entire building was rooting for him at Money in the Bank. Plus, check out this digital exclusive from the last Smackdown and see the pop that he got:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPYk-rV6iUE

As far as catchphrases go, his "Lemme talk to ya!!!" sounds a lot cooler than a certain dork's "Whadda ya wanna talk about?"

Brock Lesnar

I don't like this feud with Cody...or anything involving Cody, but Brock still has a presence like no one else in WWE. There is a reason the company calls him the alpha male of our species. When his music hits, you expect somebody to get hurt...badly. I love how quickly he can switch from smiling, red neck, country boy, to that scary murder face that will give you nightmares.

Alpha Academy

I was a fan of Chad Gable from back in the NXT days. He's the modern day Kurt Angle even if WWE doesn't present him that way. Otis is very funny and I mainly enjoy him for that. That guy just looks hilarious in pretty much everything he does. I love how in kayfabe, the guy somehow always gets hot blonds to fall for him too

Speaking of which, Maxine is easy on the eyes and adding her to the group seems to have been a good idea. The three of them have chemistry. She seems to be getting over with fans who didn't really care about her before she joined the group.

Dominick Mysterio/Rhea Ripley

Aside from Roman, he has more heel heat than anyone in the company. His closest AEW counterpart is Don Callis who is also getting massive heat. On average, I think Dominick gets even more heel heat than Roman. It's really only on PPVs (or as WWE calls them now PLEs) that Roman gets massive heat. The Tribal Chief may be the top heel in WWE in terms of booking, but it's Dominic in terms of actual heat from the crowds. Rhea is a good fit with Dom and is really the best thing going in their women's division on the main roster, though she really needs a good feud. It feels like she's not really doing anything.

Drew Mcintyre

He comes out with his sword, and I basically see The Highlander

When Drew first left the company...and then come back, he was like a whole new person. He left WWE a boy and came back a man. and he's been pretty awesome ever since. He needs to be booked better. This is the guy who eliminated Brock Lesnar from a Royal Rumble match after Brock tossed out a good chunk of WWE's roster like they were a bunch of nobodies. He basically slayed the dragon. He doesn't feel like quite as much of a big deal now as he was then, but he's still popular and has awesome matches.

Gunther

Gunther is so good. His look, his presence, his hard hitting, painful looking matches. He has made that Intercontinental title feel important just like he did with the NXT UK title. Whenever Gunther gets his hands on a belt, you can probably expect him to hold onto it for some time. He's the most dominant man in WWE not named Roman Reigns with the longest Intercontinental title reign of this century.

Asuka/Io Sky

I'm obviously a fan of joshi wrestlers. Asuka is holding the Smackdown women's title right now and Io Sky has the Money in the Bank briefcase. It feels like we could possibly get a showdown with these two and it could potentially be an amazing match that I think many joshi fans have been waiting for. Io Sky has had amazing matches in NXT. Asuka has done amazing stuff in both NXT and the main roster. I don't know who to root for. I want the best for Io Sky but some people feel like Asuka has never had a good championship run. They seem to always get cut short (usually by Charlotte Flair it seems). I could see this match dividing a crowd.

Io Sky apparently had an amazing and dominant run in Stardom that I need to check out some time. She also had a pretty amazing match against Pentagon Jr. (now known as Pentagon El Ciero Miedo in AEW) in Lucha Underground that itself was part of a three match gauntlet involving other Stardom alum in Mayu Iwatani and Kairi. I think that's when these ladies first got on WWE's radar. They never managed to lure Mayu Iwatani over to their company though.

Orange Cassidy

One of the most creative and fun characters in pro wrestling today. I've seen people with no knowledge of or interest in pro wrestling see a clip or a gif of Cassidy and be entertained by him. The guy is perfect for memes and has a gimmick that transcends wrestling. However, he's proven to be a talented wrestler and story teller too. He's one of the most consistently well booked guys in AEW and he is having possibly the best title run anyone has had in that company. The guy has also been over since AEW started and still is now.

The Elite

They are the heart of AEW and always will be. I especially like Hangman and the Bucks. Hangman once had the best story line in AEW and was once the most over guy in the company. He also has great matches no matter who you put him in the ring with. The Bucks may be the greatest tag team ever. The amount of banger matches they have had in multiple promotions with many of the best tag teams on the planet is insane. You're not a great tag team until you've faced the Young Bucks. Their tag title defense in AEW against Hangman and Omega (two other Elite members) is considered by some to be the best tag match ever. Ironic that some haters used to say that the Young Bucks were "killing the business" when they are part of the reason that AEW exists.

Not much has to be said about Kenny Omega. He's bordering on being a legend at this point with Meltzer breaking his own rating system for some of Omega's matches.

Chris Jericho

He's one of the greatest of all time to me and I'm not alone in that opinion. Multiple successful characters and gimmick changes, he always adapts with the times. One of the best ever on the mic and in his prime he has had some of the greatest matches ever. This guy has seen in all. WCW, WWE, ECW, NJPW, AEW. He is one of the building blocks of AEW and one of the few stars from WWE's Attitude Era still performing. AEW wouldn't be where they are without him and it's pretty much guaranteed he'll be in WWE's Hall of Fame at some point. Jericho is also one of those wrestlers who has caught on in the mainstream. He has plenty of other projects he can fall back on if he quits wrestling, like his band Fozzy. Check this out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtcZRpESFyM

Swerve Strickland

This guy has one of the most unique and exciting in ring styles of anybody out there. He does stuff that is creative, different, cool looking, and smooth as fuck in the ring. He reminds me a bit of Lio Rush, another guy with an exciting in ring style. His gangster/rap mogul character is awesome too. I honestly think this guy could be a top star in AEW. Check out the amazing Hell of War match he had with AR Fox in Lucha Underground when Swerve was known as "Killshot", one of the best characters they had.

Speedball Mike Bailey

This guy had so many good matches last year with so many different people in so many different promotions it's insane. He also had some bangers in the NJPW Super Juniors Tournament this year. You talk about a guy who just has chemistry with EVERYONE he gets in the ring with, even woman (like Masha Slamovich). He has a really cool, unique, and fun move set. I also love that his character feels like something out of some old kung fu movie or something. Or some cheesy martial arts movie/show from the 80s/90s. I could actually picture him in like some Mortal Kombat game from back then

I am also a fan of his wife Veda Scott who does really fun commentary on a lot of indie and Japanese shows. I remember her from the old school Ring of Honor days. She seems like a cool person.

Maki Itoh

Internationally speaking, she may be the most popular girl in TJPW. She recently had a great Princess of Princess Championship match with their top dog Mizuki, which she sadly lost. It felt like the Japanese crowd was actually behind her too. I've heard some people speculate she may leave Japan and go to the states full time. She's already worked with AEW and GCW as well. I don't know if that will happen, but it just shows that to outsiders she may be the biggest name from TJPW. Maki has one of the most unique in ring styles I've seen. She literally uses her head for offense and defense. She actually blocks punches and kicks and other moves using her head like it's a literal weapon. It's crazy, and the kokeshi is one of the funniest moves in wrestling.

Chris Brookes

I don't watch DDT much, but there's a few talents there I like. I'll occasionally check out a Chris Brookes match because he can be so damn funny. He's a master of comedic timing and nuance. He's really good at doing some of the more absurd stuff in DDT like wrestling inanimate objects (Yoshihiko) or people in mascot outfits (Pokotan). He's also had lots of funny moments involving Maki Itoh





Mao

Another DDT guy who I just find very funny and entertaining. Like Chris Brookes he just gets it. He has a funny bit where he gets his opponent to look away at something and then punches them in the face with his other hand. It's like something out of a Looney Tunes cartoon. Aside from the comedy stuff, I should note that him and Brookes are solid wrestlers too.

Yoshihiko

The Battle Doll. Perhaps the deadliest fighter in the entire company. His music alone is like scary Undertaker shit.

Okay, in all seriousness, Yoshihiko is maybe the funniest and most awesome thing in DDT and perfectly represents the kind of lunacy that you can find in that company.



Tomohiri Ishii

One of my favorite NJPW wrestlers. The guy looks like one of the baddest men walking the planet and has awesome, hard hitting, brutal matches. When you have a match with Ishi, you're gonna feel it the next morning. He's currently holding the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship with Kazuchika Okada and....

Hiroshi Tanahashi

The Ace. The legend that once carried NJPW on his back. He always kind of reminds me of awesome wrestlers from 80s WWF. He has had a legendary rivalry with Okada producing many great matches. I think the torch got passed at some point and Okada sort of replaced him as the face of the company, but Tanahashi is still a big deal and shows no sign of retiring any time soon.

Kairi

Kairi is gorgeous and her pirate gimmick is awesome. Her resume in both WWE, NJPW, and Stardom is like Hall of Fame worthy. She is sort of a part timer these days and like Brock Lesnar in WWE she feels like a special attraction whenever she shows up, but it still feels like there are big things in her future in Stardom. It wasn't long ago she was the New Japan Women's champion (first one to hold the title) and she could challenge Tam Nakano for the red belt at some point.

Tam Nakano

To me, the best female wrestler in the world, though there's a lot of girls in Stardom that can honestly vie for that title. She is a master story teller (something I wish more wrestlers would focus on) and her Twitter account reads like an ongoing story line that she is narrating. Her matches are extra special because of that. The way she can emote and emotionally bring you into a moment is amazing. Her in ring work is great too. I dig the kicks, the cartwheels, the running knee into the ropes, the Bray Wyatt like crab walk, all good stuff. I also just dig every aspect of her presentation. The nods to Shaolin kung fu with that cool looking spear she brings to the ring on PPVs, the former idol background that comes through in the dancing and overall presentation (a bit like Maki Itoh). Her ring gear is awesome too. She leads the coolest faction in Stardom, the Cosmic Angels (though Queen's Quest is pretty awesome too). She is a pillar in that company and one of its biggest stars, alongside people like Mayu Iwatani and Giulia



Natsupoi

The High Speed Fairy. She has awesome matches and can keep up with the fastest girls in Stardom. Natsupoi is absolutely adorable in every way. It feels like the best is yet to come for this girl and I look forward to the day Natsupoi can get either the White belt or possibly even the Red belt. Her and Tam are a perfect duo and complement each other really well in pretty much everything they do together. Tam kind of seems like her mentor right now. You put these two together and the cuteness levels are off the charts

[Reprise]

I am very much a casual fan who dips in and out of the various promotions either when I have time to watch or I feel they're particularly good.

I was big into WWF as a kid, following from around 1997 up until late 2021/early 2022. Royal Rumble 2022 was the last WWF PPV I watched. It seemed clear to me that they had jumped the shark and they just weren't interesting to me anymore. The death of WCW and the botched Invasion angle really killed it for me. That could have been the biggest angle in the history of wrestling and it was complete and utter garbage. I couldn't believe they reduced it into another McMahon family civil war story and turned ECW and WCW into "ThE aLlIaNcE". They made all those guys look like jobbers. I may have been a WWF kid, but I still watched bits and pieces of WCW and I loved guys like Sting, DDP, Booker T, Billy Kidman, Rey Mysterio, Goldberg, Ric Flair etc. I know they couldn't get half the guys people wanted over, but they didn't have to put the guys they did get into nonsensical storylines/feuds and make them look pathetic. I mean, seriously? DDP getting pinned by the Undertaker's wife? Booker T being partnered up with Shane McMahon to face The Rock in a handicap match only to still lose? That era sucked.

I also watched bits and pieces of ECW, mostly tapes, as I had a friend who was really into it. He was a big Mortal Kombat fan and basically loved violence and gore, so ECW was what he gravitated towards. I found it intriguing, as it was so violent and looked so gritty and real. I thought the original ECW invasion where they took over Raw in 1997 I think (?) was awesome, but having fucking Stephanie McMahon come in as the new "owner" and have not a single ECW guy get over other than RVD (who I loved) sucked.

Anyways, I digress... My point is I am casual. I love watching and talking about wrestling, but I am not as hardcore as most other guys. I got back into wrestling around 2008/09ish out of nostalgia and curiosity. I started picking up a lot of the old games (particularly by 2010 when I rebought a Gamecube and picked up a PS2) and that also got me wanting to know who all the guys are and what wrestling was like. I torrented a shit ton of Raws, Smackdowns and PPVs from the early 90s up until the present day and binge watched as much as I could. I also downloaded nearly every Nitro and WCW PPV from around 1995 onwards.

It was also around that time when TNA was being shown in the UK and so I started watching bits and pieces of that, which then also led me to looking into Ring of Honor, since a lot of those TNA guys came from there.

The first WWF PPV I watched, as it happened, since 2002 was Summerslam 2013. That was an awesome show. I then continued watching WWF, mostly grumbling about their storylines and booking (but really enjoying NXT) until I just couldn't really stomach it anymore. That was probably around 2016 or 2017. I started watching Lucha Underground instead around that point I think. I can't really remember. I have watched odd PPVs, occasionally subscribed and unsubscribed to the Network, from then up until now. I did start watching around Clash of the Castle/Summerslam 2022 (I can't remember which one happened first) and watched up until Mania. At the moment I haven't watched WWE since the Raw after Wrestlemania, which I thought was fucking awful like all the other wrestling fans who have since forgotten about it and are bleating on about how amazing the Bloodline storyline is, which is now on chapter 4,863.

I kept on hearing about AEW in 2019, about how all these guys were going to set up an alternative to WWE. I had seen The Elite in NJPW, as I had been watching the Wrestle Kingdoms each year for a while. Omega in particular had blown me away. So I checked out AEW and they were awesome. They have been the main wrestling I have been watching since they started. It helps that their shows are on free TV here, and has catch up streams, so it is easy and accessible to watch here (we also have AEW+ on Fite, which is £5 on month or something).

[Reprise]

Sorry for the double post, apparently it was too long to post...

Soooo where I am going with this rambling is that my list will be incredibly AEW centric and quite straightforward casual choices.

1. Orange Cassidy
I agree, he is one of the most creative and fun wrestlers to watch right now. I absolutely love this guy. He can wrestle, has a great gimmick, tons of charisma and looks amazing in the ring.

2. Jay White
I love what this guy has been doing since joining AEW not long ago. The Bullet Club Gold's feud with FTR has been amazing and their tag match on Saturday was incredible. Probably the first 5 star tag match I have seen since maybe Sami and KO vs the Usos at Mania, if that was even a 5 star match (I need to rewatch it, not that my own internal star ratings really mean anything ). I am really looking forward to his feud with CM Punk getting into the next gear soon.

3. Juice Robinson
I can't really mention Jay White without mentioning Robinson. This is what I love about AEW now having Collision, you have other guys being showcased and it feels like there's more breathing space for storylines. Robinson looks like a maniac on screen and in the ring.

4. The Elite
Truthfully I am getting bored of their rivaly with the BCC, but these guys are awesome. Omega was one of my favourite wrestlers in the world after I had seen him in NJPW. Hangman was the first guy I saw in AEW and thought "whoa, this guy is a star in the making". Everything up until him winning the title was amazing. I hope he wins it again and has a much betting run this time. And yeah, their tag match at Revolution 2020 was absolutely incredible.

5. CM Punk
Not sorry
His return in 2021 was one of my favourite moments ever in wrestling. He went on to have some great matches (no, not amazing 5 star worthy epics, other than the dog collar match with MJF which was close for me, but entertaining all the same). There's a lot of revisionist history (imo) being told now by people who hate him or are pissed off at him, but besides the dude not having wrestled for 7 years and being nearly 45, I think he has had decent matches. Either way, the guy is one of the most entertaining guys to watch right now, in my opinion.

Over in WWE...

6. Rhea Ripley
One of the best wrestlers around right now. Her match with Charlotte at Mania 39 started a bit slow and I wasn't sold on the build, Charlotte being her opponent or Charlotte playing a babyface, buuuut they ended up absolutely blowing me away. It was probably the best match of the whole weekend. I agree though, she needs a good feud.

7. Sami Zayn
I have followed Sami in WWE since his days in NXT and I always thought he was a huge star in the making. His athleticism, agility and charisma makes him amazing to watch. He has had some incredible matches over the years, but he really came into his own once he became part of the Bloodline story.

8. Kevin Owens
As above really. Plus I loved the fact he came in and destroyed John Cena in their first awesome encounter.

9. Gunther
I didn't know who this guy was until Clash at the Castle. His match with Sheamus was unbelievably good. This guy is going to be the top heel in the WWE soon.

[Raging Justice]

Just wanted to mention, Stardom has uploaded some recent matches for free on their youtube. These are the best two of June according to Cagematch and the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. I can't exactly disagree, as I enjoyed both a lot

The first one is an awesome 4 on 4 from June 4th I believe, featuring some the company's top talent. This is kind of like an all stars match featuring the World champ (a.k.a. the Red belt), four former world champs, a former White belt holder (which to me is right below the world title, but some view both belts as equal), the current NJPW Women's champ, and Giulia who would go on to take the NJPW Strong Women's title off of Willow Nightingale some time after this match (she's also 1/3rd of Stardom's current Trios champions). You're also looking at five faction leaders in this match. Plus, rising stars Suzu Suzuki and Maika are in this. Suzu Suzuki in particular has a lot of people talking about her. I think she's done lots of deathmatch stuff in Prominence, but she can legit wrestle too.

One noteworthy aspect of the match is Giulia and Tam both being on the same team. They generally hate each other and Giulia is the one that Tam defeated to get the Red Belt that she currently holds.

Strap yourself in cause this isn't a short match. Stardom girls can really go the distance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsgHKyFkuJ8

And in case anyone's confused by the end of the match

Spoiler

it was a time limit draw

And here's that awesome Queen's Quest versus Oedo Tai cage match they recently had where you win when your whole team escapes the cage and where whoever loses the match for the other team gets ousted from their faction. I mentioned before that some of the intrigue of this match was issues within Queen's Quest (effectively the baby face team) leading to an expectation of someone in the team going heel or some kind of mutiny happening:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMO3rwd746o

Stardom is very good at putting out awesome matches that have a lot of women involved in them, something I think we rarely get in AEW or WWE. You'll get your Money in the Bank and Royal Rumbles that are usually pretty good but that's about it. We had a match on a recent episode of Monday Night Raw that was a tag team elimination match, and it was pretty lame and impressed hardly anyone.

[Raging Justice]

Just realized while watching one of them that there may be some edits to those matches, I hate when they do that but I guess they have to fit them within a certain time frame for a youtube video.

EDIT: Yeah, that first match is cut down a lot. Kinda sucks. I watched the original version to compare and a good chunk of the early part of the match is cut out in the youtube version

[Reprise]

I watched some of Dynamite live last night, as my one year old daughter decided she was not going to go back to sleep for hours last night (Dynamite airs at 1am in the UK). Then I watched the rest this morning.

MJF and Adam Cole are awesome together. They are producing some of the best segments AEW have to offer right now. It's a great pairing. I wonder if we are going to see a gradual MJF face turn and Cole might turn on him first.