Hahaha I didn’t see it but that’s an all timer botch.

McInfart v Styles is a great title match though. The other two would also be very cool but unlikely.

Alongside Roman v Bryan we are already back on the right track after NoStakes Series.

It's too bad a wonderful tribute to Paul Bearer and a nice albeit quick promo from the Dead Man was preceded by unnecessary entrances for a bunch of guys that have little involvement in Undertaker's career. I know they said a few of them are good friends of Undertaker, but for a guy who spent 30 years looking after the best interest of the business and WWE/F, he OK'd having The Godfather and the Godwinns coming to the ring? Phineas I. Godwinn came out as the wrong character for starters.

That aside, The Undertaker is and like always will be my favorite wrestler of all time. It took him so little time to become a main event guy and his matches always felt special. He didn't rest as one iteration of the gimmick, it always changed and grew. Should he have retired after losing to Brock? Are the last five years of his career a bit of a detriment to his overall career? Should he have waited until an audience could have been there for his last appearance as The Dead Man?

All speculative topics. But he was a part of my childhood right up to Wrestlemania this year (where he gave a pretty badass sendoff to his career in what most assumed would be a colossal failure when it was announced). I even got to see him live in my little part of Canada back in the 90s, which I'm happy to have experienced. And I hope we see more of him out of character on WWE TV now. I'm not looking for a Taker/Michelle McCool reality show, but some more of Undertaker the person wouldn't be terrible.

The COVID era has been a difficult one. WWE and AEW have made great strides towards a product without capacity crowds. But one star that has been made in this era is Roman Reigns. Seriously, they've turned him into something special. He's intimidating. For the first time in a while, he's someone who I don't see losing any time soon, and he shouldn't. He's dominant but he's also a heel, so he uses dirty tactics to win too.

It's people like Reigns and The Fiend/Alexa Bliss where I wish we did have audiences and their reactions to see.

What happened here?

I don't know if Lana pulled the rope down too early. Maybe Nia messed up her timing and just went for it anyway... Was Asuka meant to kick Nia, setting her off balance for Lana to use the ropes?

Not being particularly critical here. Everyone messes up and fans in general are too hard on them I feel, especially the women. But this was a really bad spot.

Considering their history, I’d bet that Nia was at fault here too. Asuka and Shayna are the only professionals of that bunch.

Tuned in live for the Moxley and Omega match and even before the match I’m glad I did. Very cool and unexpected debut from a Legend even if they don’t end up doing much (or any) work in the ring.

Tuned in live for the Moxley and Omega match and even before the match I’m glad I did. Very cool and unexpected debut from a Legend even if they don’t end up doing much (or any) work in the ring.

I'd say both maybe, more so on Nia. Lana is not a natural ring performer, so she just moves spot to spot and it's not really organic. So obviously that was the next spot, but I feel like Nia didn't remember or something similar.

RIP Pat Patterson.

Rough day yesterday for Vince McMahon. First losing one of his closest friends in Patterson, then Sting shows up on AEW and then a partnership between AEW and IMPACT confirmed.

Sting is going to wrestle, right? No way he came to AEW especially like that and not going to wrestle.

I bet he features in Blood N Guts (AEW War Games) for Team Cody against Team Taz. The two old guys can hang back, maybe do a couple big spots that have low risk. Then he will become Darby’s mentor or something.

I know Tony Khan loves crossover episodes but I’m still not watching TNA. Though I wouldn’t mind seeing Emma and Deonna beef up the AEW women’s division, which is basically what they have used the partnership with NWA for.

Takeover Wargames was solid, definitely better than the last two NXT shows. The US Title triple threat was a lot of fun and the Womens match had some crazy unique spots (Io the Grouch being the highlight.)

Hopefully this is the of The Undisputed Era in NXT. One of the big problems of the show is how all the NxT vets are just middling around, neither ascending or descending on the card. No reason that UE wouldn’t do well on the currently factionless Smackdown. All four should be in the rumble.

I read rumours that AEW are trying to sign Brock Lesnar. This has to be BS. Why would you want Brock there except for the initial bump in ratings? Unless he's going to work a different schedule from WWE and not run off with the world championship for months. They need to keep building their own stars and making stars of the guys who got a shit hand dealt to them in WWE (if only WWE could have gotten Rusev over the way AEW got Miro to look as dangerous as he was on Wednesday, silly getup and all).

Brock v Tyson maybe?

This is going to be a crucial time coming up for WWE and AEW. RAW is at record low numbers. AEW is steady, if not growing. WWE has the advantage soon with the road to Wrestlemania. AEW needs to be careful not to overplay their WWE rejects and give them all meaningful matches and storylines.

I’m still not sure what AEW is getting out of this Impact crossover. I like the idea of Kenny Omega becoming Thanos and trying to collect all the titles, but so far it just seems like a straight up talent swap for Don Callis. Has to be the most lopsided deal in history as Impact now has a real star while Callis is playing Lio Rush on Dynamite.

I assume they think he's more Paul Heyman to Kenny Omega, but he's no Heyman.

I'm assuming this is going to lead to more crossover at some point. Is Omega just the start? Will they do a Survivor Series-style battle between the two companies at some point? If not, it's pretty much a waste of time.

Also, I've missed both of Omega's Impact appearances and... I'm Ok with it. Unless something bigger happens, I'm not watching Impact.

They just had Randy Orton burn the Fiend alive?

What the actual fuck

I loved the part where he caught fire and ran into the ring after Orton like he was Jason fucking Voorhees.

This was one of those times where I love and hate being a wrestling fan. Love because as fucking silly as it was, it was a holy shit moment. Hate because of reading comments afterwards where fans bluntly point out how fake it looked and that it wasn't Wyatt. No fucking shit. Maybe stop rewinding and examining where and when the video switched so that it was a swapped out dummy they lit on fire.

I stack wrestling fans against the worst of the worst in online fandom.

OMG

RIP to Brodie Lee AKA Luke Harper. Really shocking and devastatingly depressing. I thought it was odd he had been out for so long but never knew it was something serious.

Beyond devastating. I’ve seen many a wrestler pass in my lifetime, most often prematurely, but this ranks up there with my initial feelings when hearing about Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit. Made all the more tragic by how much of a family man he was.

I really, really hope there is a proper tribute to him on WWE. Stuff like this goes beyond competition.

It's Saturday. You know what that means. RIP Brodie Lee.

RIP Brodie.

It's Sunday. You know what that means.

It's Monday. You know what that means.