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Good Morning!
Howdy and welcome back! June and July were a hell of a couple of months, what with the missing dog and all. June 7th was the last time I really wrote about wrestling, the supposed premise of this whole blog. Oddly, I apparently wrote a whole preview for NXT Heatwave and WWE Money in the Bank that I just … didn’t publish?
I’ve actually started to work on a blog post three other times since then and it just hasn’t clicked. Maybe I was worried the new readers would be scared off by wrestling talk when they just came to read the saga of my missing dog.
Regardless, it’s a cool August Monday here in Colorado, Zelda is back and healthy, and we need to catch up. My lovely wife and I just celebrated our 13th anniversary in Mexico, and we returned from the trip with a few extra days scheduled off to get back into the swing of things. Colorado has been blessedly cool and rainy, letting our skin get a reprieve from the humid 100-degrees-plus days of beach sitting and pool … walking. Your pal Russ does a lot of things, but swimming is not one of them -- turns out I literally cannot relax enough to float, and just sink like a stone most of the time.
While the wife is off doing real work at her real job, I continue to write. It’s not lucrative, and it’s maybe stagnated, but that’s on me for not getting behind the process. I’ve discovered that simply deciding when I should be creative doesn’t really work out, and I’m generally more focused and productive at the times I’d much rather be getting other things done, or spending time with my family. So I’ll be trying to make a point to sit down at the keyboard when inspiration strikes, and leave the “scheduled output” for my work on SlashGear and other paid outlets. Also, I’m going to spend some time looking for more of those outlets. But I think the most important thing is to write something, every day.
Which brings us back here, to the thing that started this whole endeavor, Let’s Watch Some Wrestling. I know these intros are getting less and less wrestling-centric, but that’s the price that comes with time, I guess. Also, I kinda like just talking to you, dear reader, as we settle into our old ways. Much like Zelda, we, too, must get less used to eating grasshoppers and more used to our usual fare of canned and dry dog food.
I feel like that metaphor may have gone off the rails a bit, but I digress.
I’ve been realizing that Twitter is neither the audience draw nor the reliable announcements board it once was, and my ability to engage with anyone on there -- even the horror and wrestling accounts that once made up most of my readership -- has dwindled to nothing. And since I don’t want to pay Elon Musk for, well, anything, I’ll just update stuff on BlueSky and Facebook, since those algorithms tend to play nice for now.
Let’s talk about what I’ve missed, since I’m caught up on everything but Collision, which I just decided I’ll put on while I work on this piece. There’s been a lot! So we’ll just list off what I found most interesting or discussion worthy, and if you want my thoughts on whatever else I miss in here, sound off in the comments section. Please! Use it! I don’t think I’ve ever actually received a comment down there, and it would be nice to know if it works.
All In is once again shaping up to be an incredible card, and even though I don’t see the company drawing quite as many fans as it did last year, it’s still a great exhibition of pro wrestling in an amazing stadium, and those UK fans are sure to bring the energy to the show. It does kinda feel like Dynamite, Collision, and Rampage are in a bit of a rut of their own making right now, as we’ve got most of the matches either announced or reasonably assumed. As such, the next couple weeks will be a lot of doubling down on promos, and squash matches designed to keep the competitors looking strong while also keeping them away from their All In opponents. But, given the quality of the competitors we’re getting, I can’t imagine that this can be considered missable programming.
Brian Danielson and Swerve Strickland have upped the stakes of their championship match, with Danielson’s AEW career being put on the line against Strickland’s world championship. The interviews with Jim Ross showed that the company is really focused on making this feel like a legit, serious match between two of the best pro wrestlers working today, and this fight is gonna deliver. I have zero doubts.
Toni Storm and Mariah May continue to be the best storyline in wrestling, and that is going to be an incredible match as well. With Toni’s “Timeless” character looking more and more disheveled in the weeks following Mariah May’s brutal attack, All In should be the perfect time for Mariah to stake her claim as the new Timeless One, fully completing the mentor/mentee storyline. It’s been a hell of a ride, and I can’t wait to see where these two go next.
All-American American Maxwell Jacob Friedman has been having a blast as the jingoistic foil to Will Ospreay’s beloved international champ, and his gaudy new American Championship is the perfect accessory for that character. The flag with Max’s face as the stars is a nice touch, as is the patriotic theme music and overall vibe of superiority-as-patriotism. I believe Will gets that title back in his home country, but MJF will have a great time convincing us that he’ll never lose in the weeks building up to that match.
So I missed the Hologram debut and his matches as they aired, but holy crap is this guy a ton of fun in the ring. Watching him and Darby Allen just heave themselves around for the Premier Athletes is great, and the cozy confines of the E-sports arena that AEW Collision is currently occupying make for a great extended debut -- the crowd in Texas seems to have adopted Hologram as their guy, and that’s great for both the performer and his matches. Darby will have his work cut out for him at All In with Jack Perry, and I think the Scapegoat will come out on top in that match, but you never know, especially at a big show where you want as many good guys winning as possible for the big cheers from the biggest audience of the year.
[I’ve made it to the Thunder Rosa versus Deonna Purrazzo Texas Bullrope Match and I already have high hopes based solely on the amount of white in both ladies’ ring gear.] [UPDATE - yep, that was a lot of blood. And a helluva match to boot, if a bit short.]
The Patriarchy continues to be some of the best work of Christian Cage’s career, and that’s really saying something considering the man’s resume. He’s just so … despicable! It seems we’ve managed to work our way into a trios triple threat match (a trios trios match?) for the AEW Trios Titles at Wembley, and that match, with House of Black and the Bang Bang Gang, ought to be nuts. Just some fast paced constant action, with guys rotating in and out of the “wrestling hole” that always seems to keep the in-ring numbers to a minimum.
Speaking of nuts, the Casino Battle Royale that was recently announced ought to be great, too. With an AEW World Championship match at stake, I’d expect to see every big name that didn’t make the card to be included, along with several returns or cameos from UK and international talent. Maybe beloved YouTube commentator/wrestler Simon Miller? Danhausen? Ricochet? WHO’S TO SAY?
I’m mostly positive on AEW in general, and All In in particular, but I’m really not looking forward to Britt Baker and Mercedes Mone. I just don’t like the build…I don’t like that Mercedes has been doing all of her half of said build on the mic rather than in the ring…and I don’t like that Camille has already had nearly as many AEW matches as Mercedes (I exaggerate to clarify). I know I’m in the minority on my dislike of Mone, and I also know I’ll eat my words if she and Baker deliver in the ring, but right now? I’m just not interested in any of it. Mercedes is way better as a heel than a good guy, but she’s still a long way from compelling, and the fact that AEW has decided that she can carry a feud with her promo work (she can’t) doesn’t do her any favors.
So there we go! All caught up on the AEW side. I think I’ll end this lil’ blog entry here, and do the WWE version of it tomorrow after we’ve all watched Raw. The post-Summer Slam run has been interesting, and I want to go into writing about it with a clear head. So, we’ll see you tomorrow!
And that’s it!
Man, it’s good to be back writing again. It’s been such a stressful month! I’ll do my level best to post again tomorrow with some WWE recappage and, of course, the usual introductory monologue. If we're being completely honest -- and I try to be in here -- I've had doubts about writing, even if nobody is reading. It's just a weird feeling to put yourself out there, and an even weirder feeling promoting it, basically inviting strangers to read your thoughts and judge you based on them. But at the end of the day, I like writing, and I'd probably keep doing it even if I didn't publish my stuff.
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Thank you so much for reading. If you liked what you saw, consider telling your friends, mentioning Let’s Watch Some Wrestling on social media, or even buying me a hot cup of coffee using the Ko-Fi button. Have a good one, and I’ll see you back here next time, dear reader. Until then, Let’s Watch Some Wrestling!