>ive been rooting for people, ive been laughing, i stood up
>twice, and not going crazy for two hours made that main event
>fun instead of "more drugs 3 hours after i should have gone
>home"
>
>fucking awesome. july 1997 level awesome.

When the first person who comes out on a rasslin tv show is OVER AS FUCK, AND that person has the nerve to get into a highly enjoyable discussion/situation/match/brawl/whatever, the momentum is real. Punk in Chicago man…they got like 40 real minutes out of it this time. Then the rest of the show didn’t blow it. Sounds like a good raw/nitro from the 90s to me.

Danielson is OBVIOUSLY having a blast, fine ass Hayter/Thunder Rosa tore it down, and even the main had wild energy: the crowd booing the shit out of Cody and being hot for the athletic ridiculousness of everything else in the main…it all worked. To me, here’s why: AEW is doing a good job of establishing who a lot of people on their roster are. It’s often rewarding to watch. Even people who ‘look the same’ generally aren’t. And the roster feels deep because they try to DO SOMETHING with lots of their people. Even damn 2.0 can show up and get over on someone in a segment and the energy of it feels right. Aka Eddie Kingston is gonna wreck Garcia Friday and I want to see it. Aew is doing their job even on those types of matches.

Meanwhile, WWE is like 6 people and everyone else is obviously unimportant and could be future endeavored tomorrow. Everyone looks physically impressive but the stories don't have weight to them beyond Roman. Roman is the best with Paul’s shit being the best icing on any cake around. Paul being shook every time Kayla shows up is my favorite little thing in wrestling right now for instance.

And Punk’s whole shit since he got to AEW? It feels both unpredictable and brilliantly planned somehow at the same time. Everyone involved with him obviously watches the shows and shit fits together. This is where the AEW nerdy wrestling fan approach to storytelling actually works. Everything Punk has done has been magic FOR THE OTHER PERSON. That’s what he talked about ad nauseam when he was on the couch and I was calling him Phil. I thought he was selling wolf tickets and was never coming back. But I was wrong as hell and he’s doing it. Immediately. And repeatedly. And I fucking love it.

MJF was already over but now? 2 interactions with Punk have validated him even more! He’s like top heel behind Cody, who is amazingly selling the bewildered babyface who doesn’t get why folks hate him thing. Dude has been dressed like Homelander for like a year. Dude knows he’s a heel. Just like Roman knows he’s a tweener with heels around him.

It’s good times, good wrestlers, and more good movement coming next year. Wwe is going to keep cutting folks. And if they aren’t going to do right by them, then by all means..drop more people. And Big E is still having good matches all over the place. I’m even pleased with this old Nxt vs nxt 2.0 war games match coming up.