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We’ve gotta stop meeting like this. “It’s been a minute” gets old, and it’s entirely my fault. But here we are, post All In, post All Out, just knee deep in the season of change for AEW and NXT. I just finished pulling down all the Halloween decorations but wanted to post SOMETHING because it’s been too long and those of you who read this blog, and thanks for that, deserve some fresh, delicious content.
I think we’re gonna go with something a little less structured today, and we’ll just put together some thoughts from everything we’ve watched in the last few weeks, and what we’re looking forward to with AEW Grand Slam, NXT’s big new network debut, and WWE’s Bad Blood all on the horizon.
Raw and SmackDown seem to have settled down after the USA debut of the blue brand, but with NXT’s move to the CW in a couple of weeks we’re seeing some big names on our beloved little black-and-gold developmental. CM Punk came by Tuesday to hype the Giulia vs Roxanne Perez tag team match, and then to volunteer himself as special guest referee for Ethan Page and Trick Williams. Those matches will both take place in Punk’s backyard of Chicago for the CW debut show, and Randy Orton will be facing lovable scamp Ja’Von Evans in St. Louis a week later, too!
NXT has plenty to crow about, special guest stars notwithstanding. Giulia is revered as a goddess by the folks who have seen way more of her work than me, which means I have some catching up to do. The rivalry between North American champ Oba Femi and mafia family head Tony D’Angelo has escalated into full-on CINEMA, with the challenger admitting that he’s afraid to face the hulking champion after his loss. I think this is cool, even though I know it’s been said that it’s just the Rocky III plot. For a man, on a pro wrestling program, to admit fear? It’s refreshing, and not something to be waved away as derivative. Maybe Tony D will finally get that win, and scream out, “Yo Adriana, we did it!”
Unrelated -- do you pay for a music service like Spotify or Pandora? I’ve never been that passionate a music lover, but my wife is. However, we’re both notoriously cheap about streaming services, and she does most of her music listening via YouTube these days. I still have a radio in my garage (KBCO being just about the only Colorado station worth a damn) but I also listen to the livestream from the radio station in Wisconsin that my old friend Edgar DJs at. My point is, the terrestrial stations still have far fewer ad breaks than streaming, although I guess that’s the price you pay for not, well, paying the price for streaming.
It seems like the “did AEW go too far with All Out” discourse has died down, and thank God for that. As a fan of horror movies, I know this conversation all too well. Everybody has a line, and sometimes they don’t even realize it exists until they’re brought right up to it. With horror, the early aughts brought us the wave of “torture porn” that included movies like Saw, Hostel, and the like. Just mean films that dared you to look away, while also showing off some impressive practical effects. Smarter people than me have said that it was a response to 9/11, with the country feeling vulnerable and helpless, and how watching extreme cinema could help lessen the blow of the real horrors we saw during news coverage of that event.
All of that is to say, I think the line that AEW toed with All Out’s main event, and really several of the matches in it, was okay. It was all earned violence, with blood feuds that had been built over weeks of programming. Things escalated to a head, and they did so in a way that felt natural and even made it through All In’s pageantry. If All In is AEW’s WrestleMania, then it seems natural that All Out, just two weeks later, would be its Backlash.
We’re not going to see AEW turn into ECW anytime soon. It’s meant to be an alternative to the Fed, and that means doing the things that the biggest wrestling company in the world simply can’t. Longer matches, faster pacing, and, yes, some blood and guts are all encompassed in that ethos, I think. For fans of deathmatches, there are plenty of great promotions like GCW. As number two, AEW is fine just featuring the occasional bit of brutality every few months. Also, it’s worth saying that a lot of that “what about the children” discourse is brought about by… well, let’s just call them “bad faith” fans, or folks who just watch to complain or point out what AEW does wrong in their eyes. I’m definitely not one of those, if only because I’m old enough to realize that I can simply not watch something that doesn’t appeal to me.
Speaking of AEW, this week’s Dynamite had a couple incredible matches in both its main event and Ricochet vs THE BEAST MORTOS. Any time you get a talented hoss facing down a high flyer, you’re bound to have some fun, and these two put on a show that’s worth hunting down if you have the chance.
The main event, pitting the trio of the Young Bucks and Kazuchika Okada against Will Ospreay, Kyle Fletcher, and my sweet Cinnabon son Konosuke Takeshita, was a helluva display of the talents of these four, some of the best in the world. Ospreay remains a study in how to simply ignore gravity and physics, and Takeshita and Okada continue to build their rivalry into (hopefully) a title match soon.
Really, the whole show was a lot of fun and deserving of your time, but I wanted to highlight these two slobberknockers.
And to highlight a great match from the other guys, that hoss match between Braun Strowman and Bronson Reed on Raw was the epitome of BIG MEATY MEN SLAPPIN’ MEAT. It also literally involved a man used as a projectile, so that was fun. Here’s hoping both guys survive long enough to meet again at Bad Blood.
Speaking of…Bad Blood is gonna be a lot of fun too! Obviously we’re not getting a bloodbath like All Out, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t been built to be a good revenge based show. Rhea vs Liv, Punker vs McIntyre in Hell in a Cell, Damien Priest vs Finn Balor, and the MegaPowers-adjacent team of Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns vs the Nu Bloodline should all lend themselves to some hard-hitting resolutions, and there’s a lot of potential for more with a couple weeks left. Probably not too many more, as WWE is content with 5 match cards for these non-Big Four PLEs -- and an early start time to account for the UFC PPV starting later means it’ll end right on time for the MMA fights. I will, of course, do a preview with some predictions next week.
What else can we talk about while we’re here? I’m hoping to find the time to revive our Remember A Guy segment, in which I talk about a wrestler you might not remember. With spooky season in full gear in the Pequeno household, I’m thinking about Kevin Thorn. Remember that guy? Spooky vampire wrestler? No, not Gangrel and the Brood, although that entrance RIPS.
So yeah, we’ll revive that! I’ve also got my annual birthday trip to Telluride for the Horror Show coming up in a few weeks. It’s a film festival in one of the most beautiful towns in Colorado, and a great little break to watch a ton of new movies before they get a wider release. It also happens to fall on my actual birthday this year, so that will be spent across three theaters in a small town, where I’ll be getting my fill of violence for the season. It’ll also provide a healthy distraction from contemplating 45(!) years on this lovely little planet.
And that’s it! If you have questions, concerns, or comments, drop 'em in the comments section below! And follow me on Twitter (X), Facebook, BlueSky and/or Instagram using the links on the right. Have fun this long Labor Day weekend, whatever you end up doing!
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