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cowboymenace · 5 months

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The So Called Rub of Jericho

I wasn’t always a full time AEW viewer, in fact I began watching regularly in the summer of 2022. What attracted me was Eddie Kingston.

Eddie had the physique of a plumber, the gear of an indie guy who forgot his main attire at home so he scrapped together what he could find, and the speech of an angry New Yorker who spent the days yelling at kids on his stoop. That is what makes him so appealing. At the time, Kingston was feuding with Chris Jericho and his faction The Jericho Appreciation society. This faction had some of the guys from the previous Jericho stable, The Inner Circle, with some new additions in 2.0 and Daniel Garcia. The gimmick: Sports Entertainers who hated wrestling. If it sounds like an obnoxious WWE parody, then you’re right it was. You got the joke immediately and did not have room for expansion, they were guys who dressed in goofy matching outfits and “entertained” that’s really it. Kingston would get back up from the Blackpool Combat Club and LAX (Santana and Ortiz). They would do Anarchy in the Arena and Blood n Guts. The feud had strong moments with Kingston walking down the ramp during AitA, blood on his face, a cold dead stare, and a canister of gasoline and Kingston and Co. winning the BnG match.

However it would have the stankest, wettest fart of an ending where Jericho and Kingston would have an abysmal barb wire match that saw Jericho winning with botches a plenty. Kingston would go on to get in a backstage altercation with Sammy Guevara who provoked him. He was in the wrong to get physical with someone who is an aggravating little turd, and he would tell you that himself. A suspension would follow and Kingston gave a half sincere apology on the short lived AEW reality tv show to which I do not care enough to look up the name.

This is what feuding with Jericho does to an M. F.

Kingston is not the only victim I saw fall to Jericho, Daniel Garcia is another name that comes to mind. Garcia was the young blood of the JAS. Originally under the tutelage of 2.0 and then absorbed into the JAS. He’s a gifted technical wrestler, but was a SANADA type, who did not really have any personality but was good at the graps. The goal, at least what we the viewers assumed was the goal, was to make Garcia a new bright star. He became the center of the JAS vs BCC feud, with Danielson wanting him to join their stable as he saw the potential in him. Garcia would get a clean win over Dragon and even went after the ROH Pure Title. The Dynamite where he challenged for the belt saw him get a special entrance coming out to DR BIRDS by Westside Gunn (the Jack Nicholson of Wrestling [thanks Olly!]).

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This was in his hometown, and he got the victory, this should’ve been his star making moment. Until the swerve happened. What we thought was going to be him breaking away from Jericho he would continue to be his underling, he lost the belt back to Wheeler Yuta, his momentum came to a screeching halt, but hey at least he dances funny now! Garcia has been mostly another guy with a dumb gimmick that makes him meme worthy. This misusage can be pointed at Jericho, but Tony Khan is equally as guilty.

Jericho would also go on to win the ROH World Title. Weirdly, he would have straightforward clean wins over previous ROH champions/regulars and one Tomohiro Ishii. Among these matches Jericho would have another worst match of the year contender with Colt Cabana. One that is meant for the boys.

A rib directed to a extremely disgruntled CM Punk. To be fair, Cabana was wearing the wrong socks which messed up his flow (be patient he’s only been wrestling for a few measly decades) but for Jericho what was his excuse? Jericho would get a “win” over Danielson, Castagnoli, and Guevara at Full Gear (140,000 buys) but then unceremoniously lose it at ROH Final Battle (25,400 buys hm wonder why he would drop it on such a low buyrate) to the guy he beat for it rather than put over someone new. Going by Cagematch Jericho would only lose 4 singles matches. Sure you want to keep someone like Jericho strong, especially since he's a former world champion. However, that number is insanely protective of a 53 year old guy who’s at the tail end of his career.

Jericho would try to make up for this, spending 2023 losing more than winning. It was not great.

Right after losing the ROH belt, Jericho would put over an unknown Action Andretti in a shocking upset.

Action Andretti in 2023 is 10-16 and most of his matches are in ROH. Ricky Starks would have an amazing showing in his world title match, and to follow that up he would have to do his time with Jericho. He would beat Jericho on his first encounter and then go on to beat him once again at Revolution. It felt like a waste of time, the matches were not spectacular, Ricky was going downhill and thankfully Collision would save his heat, but there’s strong rumors regarding his departure for the WWE.

His next victim was Adam Cole, and Keith Lee who already struggles to get on booked on TV had to lay down for Jericho to sell this program. Jericho would team up with (read: try to get in on Saraya’s heel turn heat) The Outcasts to beat up Britt Baker to give Cole some character motivation.

The segment where The Outcasts and JAS hate-crimed Baker and Cole was strange to me, because the JAS have two female wrestlers in their ranks. It is as if Jericho simply forgot about them. To give Cole and Jericho’s matchup more juice, TK brought in Sabu and the match was made an unsanctioned match (but was aired on PPV?). The match was bad, and the feud forgotten. Luckily for Cole, he is so over that he moved onto to have one of the best programs with MJF.

Following this Jericho would face off against Sting for a mini feud, but the Jericho Rub could not harm Sting because he is Sting. Simple As.

Enter Don Callis. He betrayed Kenny Omega during the BCC vs Elite Feud and replaced him with Takeshita as the wrestler he would be the personal manager to. He became the most hated heel in the company and having personally sat in the crowd where he had his first town hall as a heel, I can confirm the boos were deafening. Callis would then reach out to Jericho to join the Don Callis Family faction and Jericho was going to join. Jericho would team up with Takeshita and cheat to beat Guevara and Garcia. This would lead to the break up of the JAS, where all members sans Jericho and Guevara would continue to team with each other almost like they just became the *AS.

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Then Callis saw his cronies give a beat down on Jericho, which I must applaud Jericho’s ability to find himself working with the most over acts in the company, he always finds a way to involve himself. Hell he even pitched a program with a returning CM Punk which I no do not doubt would have been the worst wrestling match ever put on American broadcasting! Jericho is a shark and if there’s blood in the water he will find it. Jericho joined the Elite vs Callis feud, and even faced a Will Ospreay at All In. The build to this match was baffling. Ospreay is practically a heelish face in NJPW. He was the face in the match against Kenny at Wrestle Kingdom, and mostly works face. However he’s heel in AEW. Sure he worked heel vs Kenny at Forbidden Door since Canada, but the build to All In saw him be a heel. Then at All In he’s a face since London! What is going on! Jericho just turned face! Now he’s doing heel tactics and even said at the aftermath Dynamite he should have cheated??? Who wrote this?? At least Ospreay went back to NJPW and is finishing up his run there.

Jericho and Sammy would have tension teasing some kind of split. Now before I go any further, I must preface: I do not like Sammy Guevara. He is an overused, overexposed, mishandled and misbooked worker who represents zero IQ wrestling psychology. He’s a terrible promo and has terrible character work. He has attempted to turn face only to go back to heel because when he tries cutting a face promo and you can hear the simultaneous clicks of remote buttons to change it to Family Feud.

Having said that, even I thought it was egregious for Jericho to beat Sammy. How does one man spend all year losing draw the line at his understudy? Guevara suffered a concussion during this Jericho and Kenny vs Don Callis, and is out on paternity leave. Who knows when Jericho will do him right, perhaps never.

Jericho and Kenny have been teaming, they beat the Young Bucks for their Title Contendership and are now facing Ricky Starks and Big Bill for the Tag Team Championship. Starks and Bill have been giving beatdowns to Kenny and Jericho to build for the match. They even had the worst, and I mean this with all my heart, the worst in ring promo battle I have ever seen. Awful jokes, no selling insults, and doubling down on lines that did not land with the crowd. The look on Kenny’s face screams that he is checked out.

However, as of writing this, Kenny is now out on injury for an indefinite amount of time. Jericho is now lost in the wind and I imagine both Starks and Bill are relieved.

Jericho has proven this past year to not be any benefit to anyone he works with. He finds out who is the most over and tries to get in on their overness despite it making sense. All of his programs seem slapped together, as if Tony allows him to plan out his angles without any pushing back. I imagine he pitches these to guys who may want to have the opportunity to work with someone with decades of experience, but they do not see through him as a clout vampire. The goal of Jericho is how can I keep myself on TV, he has DEMO GOD plastered on himself for crying out loud!

His character is supposed to be an aging rockstar who desperately clinging on for dear life, but it does not help when that is just who he is in real life. With Kenny out, what is next for Jericho? Hopefully retirement.

Ah crap how did this get here how do I delete pictures.

#chris jericho #aew #daniel garcia #the jas #jas #jericho appreciation society #kenny omega #ricky starks #adam cole #pro wrestling #all elite wrestling #wrasslin #Youtube

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blueonwrestling · 7 months

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Fun fact for the people who complain about Chris Jericho all the time.

Jericho has lost his last 6 matches on PPV, being the following;

ROH Final Battle 2022: lost to Claudio Castagnoli.

Revolution 2023: lost to Ricky Starks.

Double or Nothing 2023: lost to Adam Cole.

Forbidden Door II: lost in a trios match to Sting, Darby Allin and Tetsuya Naito.

All In London: lost to Will Ospreay.

WrestleDream: lost in a trios match to Sammy Guevara, Will Ospreay and Konosuke Takeshita.

As if Jericho isn't putting over stars.

#aew #roh #chris jericho

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galaxy-brain-rasslin · 4 months

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Thoughts on AEW World's End

Finally got around to watching this. It was pretty fun.

Zero Hour

Willow Nightingale vs Kris Statlander

It was fun. Willow is one of my favorites in the women's roster of AEW. There weren't any real stakes, which was fine. Having Stokely Hathaway on commentary was definitely a plus, since he's hilarious. It was just great to see two good wrestlers having a good wrestling match. I would have been fine with either of them winning, but I'm glad Willow won.

TNT Title Battle Royal Thing

It was your standard battle royal, really. Had some entertaining moments. I'm a fan of Lance Archer, so it was great seeing him. And Danhausen. I would have liked the final two to be Dino-Kane vs Archer, but it is what it is. Nothing special.

Wheeler Yuta vs Hook (c), FTW Title, FTW Rules

Yuta is absolutely perfect as being this snotty little piece of shit that's clearly good at wrestling, but not as good as he thinks he is. Hook has definitely come a long way in his wrestling since he started. I enjoyed it. I love listening to Taz consistently just sound so damn proud of Hook. It adds so much flavor to the match. Decent match overall. Nothing particularly special, but it was fun watching Yuta get the shit kicked out of him.

World's End

Bryan Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli, Daniel Garcia, Mark Brisco vs Brody King, Jay White, Jay Lethal, Rush

Mark Brisco is one of the most endearing, and one of the silliest, people in AEW. I assume that it was at least partially his request, but it's so sweet (and so sad) that the entrance screens still reference his brother everywhere.

Brody King will always terrify me.

Rush is unfairly cool.

Jay White is one of my favorite wrestlers. I love how he flips between being this cocky asshole to a sniveling piece of shit during matches. I also like how always looks like he's about to collapse after seemingly after match. It adds a lot for me.

I liked this one. It had a lot of people who I'm pretty glad to see on my screens. Having Daddy Magic on commentary is always innerdaining. Genuinely happy to see Garcia actually get the pin, since he's someone who I definitely wanted to get further in the CC. I wouldn't mind seeing him get the ROH Pure title off of Yuta in 2024. Miro vs Andrade el Idolo

Miro and Andrade were two of the reasons I watched Collision. I really enjoyed Andrade's character when he debuted, and Miro is just very good at being an incredibly intense dude who I believe would try to kill God. Andrade's AEW theme is also just one of my favorite wrestling themes.

Since I had read before watching this that Andrade's contact was up, I expected him to lose. The match was decent. They're both good wrestlers, but it wasn't anything that blew me away. Miro winning makes sense, though I still don't fully understand where the Miro/CJ arc is going (I assume I've missed something)

Riho vs Toni Storm (c), AEW Women's World Title

Toni Storm doing this unhinged 1950s, Sunset Boulevard thing has been fantastic. She's great in the ring, too. Solid match with nothing particular exciting going on about it. While Toni did win this one, I would like to see her lose the belt sometime soonish, because I do want to see where they would take the character. If Mercedes shows up in AEW, I wouldn't be opposed to Toni losing to her. But that's also just my bias.

Swerve Strickland vs Dustin Rhodes

I love Swerve. He's absolutely one of my favorite active wrestlers. I've wanted a belt on him for ages. He's also so absurdly popular that I'm pretty sure he could actually kill someone in the ring and the audience would be chanting "WHOSE HOUSE? SWERVE'S HOUSE!" during the murder.

Sucks that Keith Lee couldn't be cleared because of whatever injury has been nagging him since 2022.

For a match with, ultimately, no real build, it was pretty good. Dustin is by no means a bad wrestler-- I was a fan of Goldust back in the da, too. And Swerve is just legitimately great in the ring. Always glad to see Swerve win a match.

Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara, Darby Allin, and Sting vs Ricky Starks, Big Bill, Konosuke Takeshita and Powerhouse Hobbs

I'll be honest, outside of listening to Tony Schiavonne do his "IT'S STIIIIIIIIIIIING" I just couldn't care about this match. I just had no investment in it, to the point that can't really remember anything specific about it.

I'm getting kind of tired of the Don Callis family, and honestly just Don Callis in general.

I don't care about Jericho and Callis.

I don't know if it's his choice or not, but I wish that Sammy would actually get away from Jericho and do something independently.

Starks and Bill are fun as a pair. They're cool.

I want to see Takeshita more.

Darby is here for a good time, not a long time.

I will probably be a little sad when Sting retires (although if he un-retires, as wrestlers tend to do, I will also be annoyed).

Abadon vs Julia Hart (c), AEW TBS Title

It was alright. I'm glad to see Abadon finally wrestling more than just on Halloween, and seeing a match that was really just two different types of Spooky fighting each other was kinda fun. The audience was definitely enjoying it. Julia and Abadon have both had better matches. Something seemed off about it. It almost felt kind of sloppy-- one thing that stuck out in particular was Julia messed up her moonsault at the end of the match.

Didn't expect Abadon to win, but it would have been cool if they did.

Adam Copeland vs Christian Cage (c), AEW TNT Title, no DQ

The audience actively detracted from the match for me. One of my least favorite things is when the audience just sits there shouting "WE WANT [X]" for various props in a no DQ/hardcore match. It feels like they don't really care about the match so much as the specific spot that they're wanting.

That said. I liked this. Christian was great, Adam was great. They worked really hard to give you the feeling that they weren't friends anymore. Had a lot of good hardcore wrestling spots. Watching Nick Wayne eat shit because the burning table didn't break was kinda funny. Copeland winning was a nice move.

Christian Cage vs Adam Copeland (c), AEW TNT Title

Dino-Kane, having won the battle royal from Zero Hour, showed up and mauled Copeland. Dino-Kane was about to request his title shot when Christian Cage managed to con the title shot from him. So, Christian signed the contract for the title shot. The match was made official. Bell rings, Christian hits a spear and wins back the TNT title.

lmao.

I appreciate it just for being such a POS move from Christian.

Jon Moxley vs Eddie Kingston (c), Continental Classic finals, NJPW Strong Openweight title, ROH World title, AEW Continental Title

Match of the night, categorically. Mox and Eddie are fantastic. I was absolutely glued to my screen. These dudes know how to put on a good match, and so many matches with Eddie always feel like they have these enormous stakes involved, no matter who insignificant the match actually is. Few people can, or do, get me as invested in their matches as Eddie Kingston does in his.

I loved it. I was so happy to see Eddie actually win it all. And to see Mox and Eddie hug after the match-- not in a shipping way. You do you with that, it's not my cup of scene-- but because I like that Mox and Eddie are seemingly back to being friends.

I don't like to sit and analyze stuff involving Eddie too much, because I feel like it's disrespectful to try to do inside baseball shit to a guy like him and the work he puts into his character.

Samoa Joe vs MJF (c), AEW World Title

MJF is another dude who I don't like to sit and analyze too much, because of his character work and things like that. The commitment MJF and Eddie have to keeping kayfabe is genuinely great, and I have nothing but respect and appreciation for that.

That being said, we gotta do some of that with this.

MJF is, according to myraid reports, like Super Injured and in tons of pain. He's been dealing with stuff for a while.

I think this managed to help the story of the match a long, but it hurt the actual quality of it.

MJF's babyface run lately has felt a lot like an homage to that 1980s-early 1990s babyface archetype. Get beat down, overcome adversity, etc.-- the same kind of thing that Cody Rhodes has done. MJF is also a great babyface because he's very open about a lot of his personal issues, which makes him relatable to be people (part of why people like Hangman Page is the whole "anxious millennial cowboy" thing is very relatable to many). Being injured makes MJF the underdog. Makes you want to rally behind him even more and see him win. Especially against someone like Samoa Joe. Especially on his home turf.

But I can't help but wonder if this match would have been better if MJF had been at 100%. Something about it felt off. I don't know if I was just reading into it too much, or what. Maybe MJF was always going to be injured for the purposes of the match. I have no idea. While I can wonder, it doesn't really do any good.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the match. I'm a fan of Samoa Joe's, and I'm glad to see AEW treating him as this monster of a dude who just wrecks people's shit.

At this point, I just really hope that MJF is able to do whatever he needs to do so that he can recover from all his shit falling apart. Especially with what happens after the match.

Aftermath

After the match, The Devil's henchmen come to the ring and threaten to beat up Adam and MJF-- specifically, threatening to hit them with a chair. MJF trying to convince them to attack him, and not Adam. Adam trying to divert the attack onto him and not MJF. Then the lights go out.

When they come back, Adam is now sitting in the chair that the henchman had been brandishing. The four henchman unmask themselves. It's Wardlow, Matt Taven, Mike Bennett, and Roderick Strong.

So, in a move that was legitimately not surprising, but also the only logical move in the narrative-- Adam Cole is The Devil that had been attacking MJF and others. I am absolutely okay with this.

I had been waiting for a while to see how they were going to split up the MJF/Adam Cole team. Adam Cole is one of the most morally reprehensible pieces of shit out there. It's one of his most significant character traits.

I'm legitimately looking forward to seeing where MJF goes from here. His best friend, his only friend, betrayed him and took from him one of the only things he cared about. He trust Adam, and Adam abused that trust. Now he's left with nothing.

When MJF comes back, he will absolutely have the crowd behind him, so I'm hoping they don't decide he should come back and turn heel (like when they kept Rollins as a heel after he returned from his knee exploding several years ago).

There's a lot of places this story could still go, and a lot of them have the potential to be pretty entertaining.

#pro wrestling #aew #aew worlds end #aew spoilers #swerve strickland #samoa joe #adam cole #eddie kingston #jon moxley #mjf #maxwell jacob friedman

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wrestlingisfake · 5 months

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Final Battle preview

Athena vs. Billie Starkz - Athena has held the ROH women's world championship for a little over a year, and this will be her 19th (!) title defense. She's 1-0 against the challenger, having defeated Starkz in a non-title match on June 25.

Shortly afterward, Athena took Billie under her wing--it's been so long that I've completely forgotten when, or why. For weeks ROH aired skits about Starkz being a "minion in training," but always disappointing Athena compared to Lexy Nair (who was also undergoing training for some reason). After Athena proclaimed that Lexy had "graduated" but Billie didn't make the cut, Billie snapped. On the December 14 show (taped last week) Starkz did a run-in on Athena, demonstrating all the viciousness she learned from her former mentor, and Athena suffered a legit broken nose.

Presumably this match will follow the old trope of "I taught you everything you know, but I didn't teach you everything I know." Either Billie has learned from Athena how to beat Athena, or she hasn't. Or maybe she can beat Athena by rejecting Athena's teachings, I don't know. It's safe to say she'll put up more of a fight than she did in June, but I'm not convinced it'll be enough. At the last ROH pay-per-view, they had be thinking Willow Nightingale could unseat the champion, but it didn't happen. And with all due respect to Starkz, she's not at Willow Nightingale's level--not yet anyway.

I'm in favor of seeing a title change. Athena's done all she can do in ROH except kickstart a women's tag team division (and if she was gonna do that, Billie would still be her sidekick). A sympathetic babyface champion would be a nice change of pace--someone who can play the underdog against the likes of Leyla Hirsch, Marina Shafir, or Mercedes Martinez. I would have preferred doing it six months ago with Willow, but much like Athena Willow should be on AEW television at this point. So I'll take Billie as ROH champion, but I'm not at all confident that ROH is going to give it to me.

Jon Moxley & Bryan Danielson & Claudio Castagnoli vs. Mark Briscoe & Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler - This is billed as a "fight without honor," which just means the match can't end by disqualification or count-out. The idea is to pay tribute to Mark's brother Jay Briscoe, who was killed in a car accident on January 17, 2023. Jay and Mark began an epic rivalry with FTR (Dax and Cash) at Final Battle 2021, which concluded with Jay's last match at Final Battle 2022.

From what I can tell, the Blackpool Combat Club are heading into this match looking to honor Jay rather than play the heels. But the BCC are particularly good at acting like sadistic assholes even when they're supposed to be good guys. This is Claudio's first ROH match since September. Danielson, an ROH hall-of-famer, hasn't wrestled for the brand since 2009. It's been just as long for Moxley, except his ROH experience was just dark matches--this will be his on-screen debut with the promotion.

Moxley, Danielson, Castagnoli, and Briscoe are all booked in AEW's Continental Classic; in fact, Bryan and Claudio have tournament matches slated for tomorrow, and they'll face each other next week. Moxley has probably clinched a spot in the semfinals, and Briscoe is already mathematically eliminated. I doubt this match will affect the complexion of the tournament, but you can count on the announcers to bring it up a time or two.

I would imagine the goal here is to recreate the bloody chaos from the Briscoe-FTR matches last year. The BCC shouldn't have any difficulty holding up their end of that. I'd normally pick the BCC to win, but given the tribute angle it'd be promotional malpractice to book any finish except a Mark Briscoe victory.

Dalton Castle vs. Komander vs. Kyle Fletcher vs. Lee Johnson vs. Lee Moriarty vs. ??? - This is the final in a "survival of the fittest" tournament; the winner will be awarded the ROH television title, which Samoa Joe vacated on November 8. Each of the participants won a qualifying match to get here, except the mystery sixth entrant. The final is contested under elimination rules, so whenever someone loses a fall they leave and the match continues until only one man remains, who is declared the winner. Note that Komander's AAA cruiserweight title is not at stake in this contest.

I have no idea who the sixth participant could be, but it seems like he has to be a heavy favorite to win the whole thing. I'd be happy to see Bandido, Mark Davis, or PAC return, but I'm not sure any of them really work as a shocking comeback that will upset the balance of this match. A new guy coming in could work. Shelton Benjamin and Dolph Ziggler are free, right? Oh well, just in case the sixth guy isn't cool enough to win, I'll fall back on Castle as my go-to guy.

Keith Lee vs. Shane Taylor - Lee and Taylor were a tag team in ROH years ago, but they split up with Keith jumped to NXT. A year ago Taylor made it known that he resented Lee over this, so they clashed in a two-on-two match, which Lee's team won. Then nothing really happened for a long time, until Taylor suddenly brought it up again and they decided to do run it back one-on-one. I suppose it'd be interesting if Taylor upset Lee, but I don't expect it to happen here.

Wheeler Yuta vs. Tom Lawlor - Yuta is defending the ROH pure title, so this match is under pure rules: You can only use the ropes to break a hold up to three times, and you can only get away with one strike to the face, and so on. Lawlor has been a regular in MLW and NJPW STRONG, but he hasn't gotten many opportunities to appear with AEW/ROH. Yuta likes to bully opponents with his grappling expertise, but Tom has MMA power so that probably won't work here. Yuta will retain, I'm sure, but he'll need every trick in his book.

Ethan Page vs. Tony Nese - This is an "I quit" match, so the only way to win is to compel your opponent to verbally submit by literally saying the words "I quit." Over the past few months, these two have gone 1-1 against each other, and I guess Nese cheated to win the first match and refused to shake Page's hand in the second. I don't know, I don't really care why they're fighting.

An "I quit" match can go one of two ways--either both guys absolutely torture each other for a long time, or one guy chickens out and quits over the threat of something that doesn't seem so bad. I'm not sure which we'll get here. I really hope we don't get some bullshit where the heels trick the referee into thinking Ethan quit. I mean, Rock vs. Mankind was 25 years ago, and I don't think anyone's pulled that shit since then, but I'm still hot over it. Ideally, Nese should quit because of something really dangerous-looking.

El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Black Taurus - Vikingo is defending the AAA mega championship. Taurus is a AAA regular but I mainly associate him with appearing in Impact, so it's a little surprising to see him here. Of course, I never seem to see him win at anything, so this should be an easy win for Vikingo.

Brian Cage & Toa Liona & Bishop Kaun vs. Shane Haste & Kosei Fujita & Bad Dude Tito - Cage's team is putting the ROH trios title on the line. The Gates of Agony (Kaun and Liona) just returned from New Japan's World Tag League tournament, where they went 2-5. One of those five losses came at the hands of Shane Haste and his regular partner Mikey Nicholls. I'm not sure why Nicholls isn't here, but their associates in TMDK are here. The important thing is Haste is the one with the cool hat and the cool music, and Tito is literally named BAD DUDE. Fujita is their young boy, though, and that poor little guy is going to get squashed real real bad. Champs retain.

Ross Von Erich & Marshall Von Erich vs. Truth Magnum & Turbo Floyd - This is set for the pre-show. Ross and Marshall are the sons of Kevin Von Erich, who has a movie coming soon about his career wrestling in Dallas. This show is being held just outside Dallas. You do the math. I dig the Outrunners (Magnum and Floyd) but this just ain't their lucky day.

#roh #ring of honor #final battle #athena #athena palmer #billie starkz

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bayleymania · 1 year

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New ask game: Reblog and write your top ten matches of the year. No matter the company or the wrestlers. I’ll start:

1- MJF vs CM Punk - Dog Collar Match at Revolution

2- Wheeler Yuta vs Jon Moxley at Rampage, March 08.

3- MJF vs. CM Punk at Dynamite, February 02.

4- Hangman Page vs Bryan Danielson at Dynamite, January 05.

5- Anarchy in the Arena - Double or Nothing

6- Bianca Belair vs Becky Lynch at Wrestlemania 38

7- FTR vs Briscoes - Supercard of Honor

8- Okada vs Ospreay G1 finals 01/05/2022

9- FTR vs Young Bucks at Dynamite, April 6.

10- Roman Reigns vs Seth Rollins at Royal Rumble

5 Honorable mentions: Hikaru Shida vs. Jamie Hayter (Dynamite, December 21), Blood and Guts match, FTR vs Briscoes (ROH - Final Battle), Claudio Castagnoli vs Konosuke Takeshita (Battle of the Belts). Alex Shelley vs Jay White (Impact - Sacrifice).

#aew #wwe #wrestling #tag games #ask games #Lexie’s games #Jon Moxley #MJF #hangman page #Becky Lynch #Bianca Belair

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racerchix21 · 2 years

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Masterlist

I’m RacerChix21 on AO3

Wheeler Yuta x Daniel Garcia x Ricky Starks (now):

[Fluff and stuff]

The Pure Brat Chronicles: An Introduction

Punishing the Pure Brat (pt 1)

Happy birthday baby P.S. You have a nice butt (side story)

Random HC from a pic I sent @sunnyfleur23

Drabble based on Danny flipping Wheeler off @ ROH Final Battle 2022

Love and Other Emotions (fluffy) (pt 2)

Tag Teaming (Good lord get your mind out of the gutter) (pt 3)

You’re Safe In Our Arms, Prince Charming (side story)

Daniel Garcia:

Wrestling with Forever (1/?)

Jon Moxley/Dean Ambrose:

Stealing Cinderella [fluff]

You touched my ass {OFC! Shawnee Lucas}

Eddie Kingston:

Every Other Weekend (WIP)

Seth Rollins:

Maybe Second Chances (11/18/22) [kinda fluff/kinda angst]

Definite Second Chances (12/24/22) [Fluff]

What am I gonna do? [OFC! Reese Matthews]

Seth Rollins x Dean Ambrose x Roman Reigns:

Christmases With You (2022) [Fluff]

Doing Something Stupid (the drabble)

Doing Something Stupid (the fic)

Jon Moxley x Wheeler Yuta:

Why Wasn’t I Good Enough? [hurt/comfort]

Roman Reigns:

Tequila Tears and Conversations [Angst]

The First Time [Fluff]

Hang On and Don’t Let Her Go [Fluffy Angst]

Nick Jackson:

I got you babe [Fluff]

Seth Rollins x Jon Moxley/Dean Ambrose

When was the last time you slept (fluff)

Coffee Kisses

Dean Ambrose x Roman Reigns

Back Up He’s Mine

Sami Zayn x Kevin Owens

Breakfast in bed and maybe a little more (like forever)

Hangman Adam Page x Kenny Omega

Chubby Bunny

Bryan Danielson x Wheeler Yuta

Two Black Cadillacs Driving In A Slow Parade

Bryan Danielson x Daniel Garcia

Two Black Cadillacs Driving In A Slow Parade

#Shayn’s World of Wrestling Fanfic

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yu-tap · 4 months

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CLAUDIO & YUTA ROH Final Battle 2022

#claudio castagnoli #wheeler yuta #blackpool combat club #bcc #roh #rohedit #my gifs #plum tag

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violetsouls96 · 1 year

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The Briscoes were one of the tag teams I first saw in ROH, part of that group of talent that pulled me in and re-ignited my love for pro wrestling. I'm devastated. Jay on his own was an amazing wrestler, with Mark, they were one of the best tag teams in wrestling. Seeing their last match against FTR at Final Battle, my eyes were glued to the screen, one of the best matches of 2022, of all time I'd say.

I was excited to see more of what they'd bring to Ring of Honor under Tony Khan and now, I'm still processing the fact that Jay is gone.

At 39, too young. Way too young. And leaving behind a family, I can only imagine how they're handling this. It breaks my heart. The fact it was apparently a car accident only shatters it further. Something preventable like that.

I've been in car accidents and have been lucky to walk away from them, this just fucking sucks.

Jay Briscoe was one of the greats. His career speaks for itself. We will miss you. I wish I could've seem dem boys live.

Thank you. May you rest in peace.

#Jay Briscoe #Mark Briscoe #The Briscoes #Ring of Honor #Rest in Peace #Thank you

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khalidplsstfu · 2 years

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Bryan Danielson Vs Daniel Garcia: To Kill Your Heros

The foundation of the future is being built right before our eyes. In some ways intangible, but in some ways, we can see and feel it in our everyday lives. In 2002 Bryan Danielson started his career in ROH, where he'd spend 7 years. In 2009 he joined the WWE where he'd spend the next 12. 19 long years of writing the undersized technical wrestler's handbook for greatness reached, what I would say, is one of its highest peaks when he fought his spiritual successor in a 2/3 falls match.

But who is that successor?

Daniel Garcia. Certified Dawg. 23-year-old technical prodigy. Current PWG world champion. Worked his way up from Elevation, to Dark, to now what I would consider one of the best 3 match sets in AEW history. A lesson in swag school, a reminder of everything that makes pro wrestling great.

But before we talk about the peaks, our story must start. The day is February 23rd, 2022. Garcia and Danielson's first encounter will be the main event of tonight's dynamite. In a backstage interview, Danielson expresses how much Garcia impresses him...but the company he keeps does not. He says Garcia would be at a different level if he had company more like William Regal and Jon Moxley, and less like 2.0. This seed, of the wings you find yourself under being the ones that will eventually help you fly, was first sewn in this promo. And it'd be 6 months before we saw what it would grow into.

But on this night Daniel Garcia will stand toe to toe with his hero. He approaches the ring without delay and with very little pagentry. An intense look in his eyes that either signals focus or fear. Or maybe a bit of both. Danielson on the other hand, looks excited, maybe even happy to be battling a student from his own hypothetical school of wrestling philosophy. This won't be a clash of styles, this will be like two watercolor paints battling over canvas space. More fluid. And in many ways, more colorful.

This first meeting starts with the two men entangled. They lock horns and exchange blows, but one thing becomes obvious very quickly: Danielson is the master of this style, and Garcia is the student. Whereas Garcia could out dawg most of those he faced on the independents, he quickly learns that he's in the ring with a different beast entirely. Danielson strikes brutally at will, inviting Garcia to fight back. They lock horns again, but this time it's Garcia who strikes first. After taking what was, truth be told, a pretty heavy shot from Garcia; Danielson bends down... resting his hands on his knees... smiles, licks his lips, and nods. Like a sensei, proud his pupil is finally understanding how to perform a new technique; he invites him to try again. Opening his chest for another heavy chop from Garcia.

But much like a sensei, when he notices his pupil getting too full of himself and slacking during a sparring session, he strikes. With a quick takedown and some type of technical wizardry, I will not attempt to explain, Garcia is trapped. At the mercy of the American dragon with his back to the mat. Danielson, and I shit you not, punches him full force in the stomach 4 times before forearming him in his head 3 more times for good measure. Garcia is somehow still holding on to consciousness but finds his arms locked, firmly snagged into a position that leads into a beautiful butterfly suplex into armbar transition from Danielson.

But Garcia is the spiritual successor to the GOAT, and immediately locks his hands together, preventing Danielson from being able to lock in the dangerous arm-bar submission. A counter that would no doubt stump the average wrestler. But Danielson is far from the average wrestler, and like butter on toast smoothly rolls Garcia into a more dangerous position; one eerily close to the dreaded LeBell lock.

Garcia didn't leave his fighting spirit at home though, and dare I say, just as smooth as Danielson, attempts to roll into the ropes. Nothing is that easy when you're wrestling the American dragon though, and he makes him work for the eventual rope break. Danielson continues to bully Garcia, they exchange blows once again and Danielson starts to hit that groove that's oh so familiar. Garcia throws Danielson to the corner, he backflips over his head (for real they have it on video and he does it all the time), Garcia goes for a clothesline, just like they all do, and Danielson ducks it, like he always does and this match looks like it's about to end like many others have. Busaiku knee from Danielson and a 1-2-3.

But Garcia isn't like the many others Danielson has beaten with this move. Danielson is Garcia's hero after all. He's watched him end countless matches this way. Thought of how he would counter this death blow when the time came for him to take the throne. And now is his moment. Before Danielson could spring off his feet to perform his finishing move, Garcia stops him early, chop blocking the resting leg with his full body weight. Now it's Garcia's turn to show his hero everything he learned from him.

With a limb to target Garcia throws his full effort at destroying the leg. Danielson attempts to lock in a cross-arm bar as quick as a lightning strike but Garcia is prepared to reverse it and get back to the leg. For the first time, Garcia is in an advantageous position on Bryan Danielson.

But just as quick as he had it, he lost it, and before long Danielson is rubbing his wrist bone into the bridge of Garcia's nose. Garcia is a dawg, but Danielson has been one for 20 years at this point. Garcia makes the fatal error of attempting to regroup in the corner. And gets a hard kick to the upper body as punishment. Garcia screams in pain and Danielson's face frowns with a mix of disappointment and rage. He throws another heavy kick, buckling Garcia's knees, and sending them on the mat. But the price has not been paid. Another hard kick knocks Garcia to the mat. Danielson takes a bit too long to re-engage and Garcia gets right back after the knee with a heavy boot. Knocking Danielson off his feet with two heavy European uppercuts. Next was a play right out of the Danielson textbook: using the ring corner to your advantage. Garcia throws Danielson's already damaged leg around the ring post. And for the first time, i actually thought Garcia could win this thing.

Danielson recovers though and they end up exchanging blows once again, but this time Garcia is gaining on Danielson. Danielson attempts another kick to a resting Garcia but Garcia catches the leg and whips Danielson's body over the leg with 2 brutal dragon screws. If Garcia can lock on his patented sharpshooter this may be the end of the story for Danielson. Garcia faces his hero and beats him first try.

But nothing is that easy when you're facing the American dragon. He takes a few more blows before feigning injury on the apron. Garcia, like a bear to a honey trap, takes the opportunity to try to set up a suplex to the inside of the ring. Once he's right where Danielson wants him, he whips him to the outside with a suplex of his own. Further punishing him with a flying knee to the face off the ring apron.

(Okay here's a little side note I wanted to add. There's a moment around here where Danielson comes off the top with a big dropkick that flips Garcia literally head over heels. Danielson then looks up, and says to the crowd " YOU WANT TO SEE VIOLENCE?" and you can vocally hear the crowd say "YEAHHH" they had everyone's attention not because of the athleticism of a flying dropkick but because of the story attached to it. That's that shit right there my boy. Danielson is the fucking GOAT)

At this point, Danielson is doing what he does best. Bullying his opponent with strikes and technical ingenuity. Try as he might Garcia cannot overpower or out-skill his hero....yet. As a result, Danielson locks Garcia's arms once again and whips him over his head with a stunning tiger suplex. Garcia's ring savvy saves him from being pinned, as he slides off his shoulders, onto his stomach. Danielson without delay locks his hands and flips his body over into his signature submission, cattle mutilation. Garcia knew his hero would do that though, after all, why wouldn't he, it's a move that defeated men with more stripes than Garcia. But those men's styles weren't informed by the very groundwork Danielson was laying. Using that information, Garcia quickly has this reversed into an ankle lock on the very ankle he's been attacking all match. A bit more wrestling tennis and I mean a bit because before you know it Danielson is choking poor Garcia out in a triangle. The match ends in roughly 10 minutes. Danielson is still the master. 4 stars on the highspeed scale.

After this match, there is a scuffle between 2.0 and Moxley after they jump Danielson, who was about to give Garcia heavy props and maybe induct him into the Blackpool Combat Club. It turns into more of a Moxley, Danielson, will they, won't they, type of thing. And we're not here to talk about the friendship dynamics of the BCC.

The next time Danielson and Garcia met was in the "Anarchy in the Arena" match. A lot had changed at this point. Daniel Garica had found himself a member of the goofy ass "Jericho Appreciation Society". They're basically a group of people who call themselves "sports entertainers" because cheap heat is still heat! This match was not my cup of tea and I will not dignify it with any more than a few sentences in this essay. Eddie Kingston is the man, and everybody is about violence until it's time to light a man on fire. And if Danielson would've gotten out of the way and let King handle his business he wouldn't have gotten choked out *shrugs*

The next time Garcia and Danielson met was on the "fight for the fallen" TV special. This was Danielson's comeback match after getting injured during the "Anarchy in the arena" match he shouldn't have been in anyway, but I digress. Garcia enters the ring just as fast as the last time these two faced in a singles match, but that look of fear from the last match is not in his eyes anymore. He knows what it takes to beat Danielson, he just has to execute.

But this match does not start in his favor. quite the opposite in fact. He starts the match taking the very same kicks that brought him to his knees in their last match. Plus an extra running boot in the corner for good measure. And a dive to the outside. Garcia desperately tries to use the ropes to his advantage as Danielson reenters the ring. But that did not work. Danielson invited Garcia to take his best shot while in a front mount position, which resulted in Garcia slapping Danielson's chest(?). An interesting strategy, which once again, did not work. Danielson responds by ripping into Garcia with unyielding forearm strikes to the head. At this point, we were basically witnessing a full-blown assault.

Garcia eventually fights back though, once again proving his fighting spirit. Garcia is targeting a different limb this time, a much more dangerous limb than your leg. The name of the game has changed for the once pupil of Bryan Danielson. Garcia doesn't have to make Danielson tap, and he definitely doesn't have to pin him. He can just use his lengthy history of traumatic brain injury against him tonight and make him pass out.

Garcia gets the opportunity to throw Danielson into a few barricades before he starts getting beat like an insubordinate child in an abusive household again. Taking another dropkick from the top rope.

But...Danielson knocked himself out when he landed(?) and is lying on the mat looking pretty wounded.

And like the dawg he is, Daniel Garcia takes this opportunity, to pound his hero's skull in. I'm not even being hyperbolic. The moment he realized Danielson might be hurt he started banging on his skill something vicious. Kinda like the monkey from that one scene in "Nope". Danielson tries to fire up, gets thrown into the corner, hits the ol' matrix flip over his opponent, but drops to his knees after ducking the clothesline to off the rope rebound. Uh Oh. And Garcia has this look on his face, and the only way I can describe it... is to say he looks concerned. He seems genuinely worried as he watches his hero grab at his head. For the first time in their rivalry, I think Garcia understood that to kill your heroes... you gotta kill your heroes. Not in a metaphorical sense, not even in a physical sense. In order to finish Danielson, Garcia would have to throw away the emotions he has connected to Danielson. The path he's walked with him as a fan all these years. He has to be willing to end Danielson's whole story here and now.

Garcia thinks for a second as he watches Danielson roll out of the ring in search of consciousness. But despite the air of real tangible danger, this fight isn't over, and Garica realizes this, throwing Danielson into the steel steps head first. But to kill your heroes, you gotta kill your heroes. And I think Garcia was trying to do just that with his next move when he DDT'd Danielson onto exposed concrete on the outside of the ring.

(Another note, big shoutout to Bryce Remsburg for really selling the seriousness of the match in little ways. After the DDT to the concrete, Bryce gets in Garcia's face and screams "WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU? WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?" giving Garcia the opportunity to say, at least I think, "Go check on him, I'll do what I have to do" God I love when wrestling is this good)

After Bryce gives Garcia more hell for attempting murder on his watch, we get another glimpse of it, Garcia looks...regretful. Once again realizing the gravity of the situation. This is Danielson's brain we're talking about after all. Skulls can only protect from so much.

The crowd boos and boos, and Garcia feels their boos and he gestures to them, "BRYAN? BRYAN? BRYAN?" trivializing their concern. The very same concern we just saw him show seconds earlier. But the concern is gone now, and all that's left in its wake is anger.

Danielson is bleeding from the forehead but Garcia has become the bully Danielson taught him to be. He rolls him into the ring and steps on his already damaged head again. He headbutts him. The crowd has been shaken into a cold silence. They cheer when Danielson gets a strike in, but Garcia squashes that hope every time. Danielson can barely hold himself up. But when he can, he punishes Garcia like never before. Not like a student and a teacher. Not like a hero and his successor. Like an equal. And like an equal, Garcia is picking his spots, and catching Danielson with some inventive technique. But this is a block Danielson has been around more than a few times; and before long, he has cattle mutilation locked in. Garcia escapes fast, just like last time, but Danielson expected him to, and immediately transitions into the tiger suplex throwing Garcia over his head and slamming him on his head and neck. They exchange hammer and anvil strikes, once again waging war on each other's brains, but this time, Danielson comes out on top, and with a big shoulder capture suplex no less.

Danielson once again telegraphs the Busaiku Knee but Garcia didn't get any less savvy since their first meeting. He smashes Danielson with a heavy lariat before Danielson can get the jump and follows it up with a brain buster. Danielson regains the upper hand but Garcia is able to reach the ropes before he can get locked in the LeBell lock.

What was a beautiful match lost me in the final stretch where they shoehorned in Jake Hager's interference to be the reason Daniel Garcia won. Because he does win this time. He executes his goal and makes Danielson pass out in his modified sharpshooter. This match was damn near perfect up until the last two minutes. But could Garcia do it on his own? 4.25 stars on the Highspeed scale.

And now we're almost at the peak. Just a small thing to get to first, it wasn't very important up to this point but it will be in the future so... stick with me. It's time to talk about the relationship between the Blackpool Combat Club... and the... Jericho appreciation society. This is gonna be a long one, so feel free to jump to the last 4 sentences of the paragraph after the next for a TL: DR

So, Bryan Danielson came to AEW and made it known he wanted to create a super faction to save pro wrestling's future. First guy on the list to recruit: Jon Moxley. The Death Rider. Hardbody type. Bleeds every match like you would in a real fight. How does a guy like Jon Moxley cement a working relationship with a trusted peer? With a good ol' scrap of course! And where did they have that good ol' scrap? The Revolution pay-per-view! Danielson wins their match but they say fuck the match and continue to fight, because why not? It's pro wrestling! But then their pro wrestling dad William Regal showed up to make them shake hands and work together. Also, Jon Moxley kicked the shit out of Wheeler Yuta (Another technical prodigy, wrestled Daniel Garcia for 60 minutes once) a couple of times and ripped him from his old friend group, so he's in the group now too. Ripping people away from their social circles was actually a really big part of Danielson's initial proposal to Moxley truth be told. Claudio Castagnoli joins later as well, but he got to join because he's such a good friend. So no one in the group has kicked his ass...yet. Are you keeping up dear reader? Sorry for dumping all this lore on you right before the climax.

On the other side is the Jericho Appreciation Society. It's 2point0, who's actually a pretty good tag team made up of "Cool Hand Ang" Angelo Parker and "Daddy Magic" Matt Menard. They've been with Daniel Garica forever at this point and they're funny as hell. Daniel Garcia of course, and Jake Hager, a big strong boy for when you need one of those for a multi-man match. They call themselves "sports entertainers". The crux of their beef stems from that issue, the BCC hates sports entertainers, and the JAS hates professional wrestlers. You are now up to speed. And now we reach our climax.

Daniel Garcia and Bryan Danielson are scheduled for a two out of three falls match. The big one. Garcia, after his win over Danielson, styles himself "The Dragon Slayer". On the Friday before their big match. Danielson is in the ring addressing concerns about his health. He says he doesn't know if he'll ever be 100% again, but he knows he won't quit wrestling. This brings out Daniel Garcia, not the whole JAS, not even 2point0 is with him. He's alone. He says Bryan Danielson is his hero and his hero is in the ring making excuses because he knows he will lose in 2/3 falls. He says all the excuses, the retirements...they hurt him. And when Danielson hurts him, he wants to hurt Danielson too. It's his statement of intent. This battle will be the one where his hero dies at his hands. He makes it clear he intends to end Danielson's career. And that wasn't the part that pissed Danielson off. What pissed him off, was when Garcia said, "After I beat you, you can call me the greatest technical sports entertainer of all time."

Danielson says it's no secret he loves violence. And violence begets violence, so it's only right Garcia wants to end his career. But It's the "sports entertainer bullshit" that pisses him off. He asks the crowd do they know why Daniel Garcia was one of the people he mentioned by name when he started the Blackpool Combat Club. He tells them it's because he watched him wrestle for 60 minutes in front of 250 people showcasing the best technical acumen he'd seen in a young talent in years. He tells Garcia to think about something. Whether he wants to be the best technical wrestler in the world or the best technical sports entertainer. The stage is set.

Danielson enters for their 2/3 falls match and he's ready. You can see it in his eyes. Garcia enters. He's now "The Dragon Slayer " Daniel Garcia. A lot has changed in 6 months. Danielson is no longer looking down at or past Daniel Garcia. He sees him now. For exactly what he is. A technical force lacking only experience and not much else. Danielson leads with strong takedowns and strikes and Garcia attempts to respond in kind. He's still outmatched though, the gap is smaller than it was when they first met, but it still exists. Garcia goes heel hook, Danielson goes kneebar. Garcia is playing wrestling chess with a grandmaster. Every move leads both men closer to the eventual checkmate. Danielson gives Garcia a second to breathe and Garcia kicks Danielson in his chest, knocking him off balance. Danielson makes the same mistake again in the corner and Garcia smacks him in the face for it. Like a student, punishing his master during sparring for forgetting to keep his guard up. A lot has changed in 6 months.

But one thing hasn't. Garcia challenges Danielson to put his dukes up, to which Danielson responds with hard kicks to the legs. When Garcia starts watching for the kicks, he catches a smack to the head. When Garcia doesn't back down from his attempts to strike with Danielson, he catches a right hook to the face. Knocking him out cold. Danielson follows that up with a devastating brainbuster. Danielson takes his time beating the shit out of Garcia. But when Danielson throws one of the very same kicks that brought Garcia to his knees in February, he just stands up. A gives him a chop. Our boy has grown into a man. And a man with a knife no less.

Garcia smacks Danielson dead in his shit I'm not making this up I swear it happened and crazy enough Danielson's fucking knees buckle. Garcia throws petty little kicks at his head while he's down, but this just infuriates the Dragon. Who, well, beats him up again. Danielson goes for a top rope Rana, (obviously feeling himself tonight) but Garcia rolls it through to a pin. Danielson kicks out, and they exchange blows. Garcia throws Danielson to the corner, he does a backflip, you know the spot, and so does Garcia, who flips Danielson into an armbar right off his feet. Somehow, once again not even gonna attempt to explain it, Danielson gets Garcia in a shoulder capture suplex and then busts out a submission I've never seen in my life. He then goes for that running knee off the apron, which Garcia avoids. He then takes that golden opportunity and back suplexes Danielson right on his back and head. More technical wrestling tennis occurs when Garcia gets Danielson back in the ring. Garcia gets the best of it though and piledrives Danielson's skull into the canvas. immediately going into the Dragon Sleeper. Which works. Daniel Garcia has put Bryan Danielson to sleep not once, but twice now. The score is 1-0 Garcia.

(Sidenote, although this match is fucking baller I can't suggest you watch it...well... because Chris Jericho is nonstop running his fucking mouth and saying his own name as many times as he fucking can and I wouldn't wish that viewing experience on my worst enemy. The nigga can't even yell like a normal commentator, he has to do this high-pitched yelp with his voice and it's worse than nails on a chalkboard. He also has to make a moment that's very much not about him about him at every turn, even though he GETS AN ANGLE AT THE END THAT IS LITERALLY ALL ABOUT HIM. Treacherous. Nobody will be happier than me when Jericho retires, or gets exposed for being a MAGA freak and gets reduced to guest appearances at GCW shows. Then I'll just feel sorry for the GCW faithful who'll have to deal with him)

The score is 1-0 Garcia. Garcia's foot is resting on Danielson's skull. Garcia's dominance continues after that though. He exposes the concrete, just like he did in their previous match. And DDT's him again. no hesitation this time. As Danielson lays on the outside, Garcia rolls inside the ring, okay with his second fall being from count out. The people in the stands aren't okay with it though and they boo when they catch on to what Garcia is trying to do. And for some reason, it cracks Garcia. He asks if they're booing him and he looks around the crowd. These aren't the indiscriminate boos from their earlier encounters. They're chanting "you suck" at Garcia. It's personal for all involved now.

Danielson barely beats the 10 count, yet he's met with stomps from Garcia. When he tries to fight back, he's met with an arm ring and a reintroduction to the dragon sleeper that put him to sleep earlier in the match. Danielson goes for sliced bread #2 but is reintroduced, once again to the dragon sleeper. Danielson's fading. The blood is on Garcia's hands. He tightens his grip on his neck. Danielson's hands fall limp. Danielson is out. But right when Garcia reaches his most aggressive, Danielson tilts him on his shoulders, holds him there for the 1-2-3, and ties up the match. 1-1. Showtime.

Garcia immediately jumps right back on the attack. But Danielson got all the air he needed and gets right back to.. well beating the shit out of Garcia. He does it so well this time actually, Garcia ends up trapped on the top rope taking an elbow a second to the face. Danielson then grabs the poor kid and spider german suplexes him off the top rope. Danielson then hits a missile dropkick from the top which leads to both him and Garcia having to beat the 10 count. Both men are exhausted and we have now entered wartime. Garcia gets right into Danielson's face and talks that good shit. Danielson responds with 3 words.

"End me motherfucker!"

And we're off. Garcia is striking Danielson, but Danielson don't care. Garcia is chopping Danielson, but Danielson don't care. Garcia says fuck this I gotta go into the sacred text, the forbidden scrolls if you will, and hits Danielson with some Shibata-style PKs. But Danielson. Don't. Care. Garcia throws some more heavy chops Danielson's way, but Danielson. And I cannot stress this enough.Don't. Care Garcia goes for another PK and Danielson takes this as an opportunity to level Garcia a blunt forearm. A punishment for his hubris. Danielson takes this opportunity to return the favor with some kicks of his own.

But Garcia, don't, care

One kick, Garcia don't care

Another... Garcia don't care

The kicks don't work anymore, and Garcia proves this by blocking one and trying to knock Danielson's head off his shoulders with a lariat to the back of the head. A smooth transition into Garica's signature submission (now named the dragon tamer) has Danielson in what appears to be a bad situation. That is until Danielson catches one of Garcia's hands overextended and glides him smoothly into the LeBell lock. Garcia tries to roll through, but it doesn't work, he goes for a pin and gets the separation he was looking for. They trade smacks in the face before Garcia, yes Garcia, pulls out the Busaiku knee outta fucking nowhere. It doesn't lead him much of anywhere except into another strike exchange he is ill-prepared for. Danielson goes for his Danielson stomps, gets a few in, but gets rolled through for some Danielson Stomps...from Garcia. Danielson eats those though and gets right back into position to continue doing what he was doing before he was so rudely interrupted. And then he rolls the poor kid into a triangle choke. At this point, Garcia is fighting for his life. More strikes from Danielson and the LeBell lock gets locked in. There's no more fighting. Garcia passes out. The bell rings. The match is over.

And everyone knows it except Garcia's barely conscious body. He's still clawing for Danielson as the victor's music plays through the arena. And you see Garcia come to the realization, the cold truth. He lost. The next thing he saw was warm though. Bryan Danielson screams to the crowd "HE'S ONE OF US" and reaches out his hand. A public show of respect from his hero. And not respect given. Respect earned. And before Garcia could accept it, before he could reach out and accept the respect of his hero, Chris bitch ass Jericho runs his clown makeup-wearing ass down to the ring and attacks Danielson. But the attack doesn't last long. Because Garcia intervenes. And when Jericho puts his bitch ass fingers in the young dawgs' face, he smacks them shits away. Jericho leaves the ring, and the crowd chants "YOU'RE A WRESTLER" at Garcia.

And he is. A damn good one too.

oh yeah, 5 stars on the highspeed scale also.

#AEW #bryan danielson #daniel garcia #pwg #adam cole #aew dynamite #roh #wrestling stills #all elite wrestling #pwgood

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dalekofchaos · 1 year

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Matches of 2022 in my opinion.

FTR vs The Briscoes Trilogy. ROH “Supercard of Honor ROH Death Before Dishonor and ROH Final Battle 2022

Bianca Belair vs Becky Lynch Wrestlemania 38

CM Punk Vs. MJF - AEW Revolution

FTR vs Young Bucks 2. AEW “Dynamite,” April 6, 2022

Sheamus Vs. Gunther - WWE Clash At The Castle

Cody Rhodes vs. Seth Rollins, WWE “Hell in a Cell,” June 5, 2022

Tie between Roman Reigns vs Seth Rollins - Royal Rumble 2022 and Roman Reigns vs Brock Lesnar Summerslam 2022

Carmelo Hayes vs Richochet NXT World’s Collide

Jamie Hayter vs Toni Storm AEW Full Gear 2022

Tie between Meiko Satomura vs Roxanne Perez NXT Sept. 6, 2022 and Cora Jade vs Roxanne Perez Halloween Havoc 2022

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collisioncoursewithnoplace · 2 years

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Ring of Honor: One Year Later

One year ago today, I was excited. I had some extra cash, and I was going to get a replica of the Ring of Honor World Championship belt. I never had a replica belt of my own, and I was excited to add one to my collection.

It had been a while since I had seen ROH, but I heard great things about the Pure tournament, and I had seen some highlights here and there. So I thought I'd be able to get back into ROH that way.

And then, I checked the news.

“Throughout the pandemic, our top priority was to keep everyone healthy and safe, and despite not producing any live events over 18 months, we were able to keep everyone fully contracted. We now find ourselves at a time where we need to make changes to our business operations and are planning a pivot for Ring of Honor, with a new mission and strategy.

The year will culminate with a Final Battle in December, and we will be taking the first quarter of 2022 to work internally to reimagine ROH. ROH has the most dedicated fans in the industry, and we appreciate their loyalty and patience as we reconceptualize ROH.

We anticipate returning to live events in April for the Super Card of Honor with a new fan-focused product and provide a unique experience for wrestling fans.”

Oh no.

On that day's episode of Wrestling Observer Live, they were finding this out in real time, and they announced that everyone had been released from their contracts.

Oh no.

A week later, I get the news that my roommate is selling his house, and I'll have to be gone by April.

OH NO.

Coincidence? I think not.

I was still heavily into AEW around that time, but I finally caught my first ROH match in god knows how long, as Taylor Rust defeated Tracy Williams in a Pure Rules match. From there, I watched my first full ROH PPV, Final Battle. Aside from the CYN stuff (which was hilarious in hindsight, given that Kross and Strowman both returned to WWE anyway), the show was tremendous and heartfelt. It definitely resonated with me, as I was getting ready to say goodbye to the place I lived at for four years.

I then caught ROH TV on Christmas night. I stayed up late to watch it, and it wasn't until the end of the episode that I realized that it would be the last original episode for a long time. Maybe ever. The next day, I set out to correct my wrongs of not catching up with ROH, and purchased the Pure Tournament DVD, as well as some other DVDs on clearance. I wish I could have gotten the Sinclair logo shirt as well, because I highly doubt it's going up on Shop Honor anytime soon.

Two months after I had moved into my new place, Tony Khan announced that he had purchased ROH. I made a point to catch Supercard of Honor, which was a tremendous show from top to bottom. In the gym, I began catching up on ROH episodes while on the treadmill, mostly from the pandemic era. I can honestly say that 2020-2021 ROH is some of the best pro wrestling television I've ever seen. Tons of great matches, and an easy to follow format. I haven't seen every episode yet, but it's tremendous. The three-way faction war between The Foundation, La Facción Ingobernable, and VLNCE UNLMTD, the rise of The Righetous, and the Quest for Gold to crown the inaugural ROH Women's World Champion is all just compelling stuff. I know Hunter Johnston catches a lot of flack for his booking philosophies, but he deserves a ton of credit for how this show came together over the course of sixteen months. I know a lot of people were disappointed by the lack of crowds, but I think having no fans was different, and in some ways, enhanced the product. Being able to hear the trash talk (Tony Deppen: "What, do you think I'm stupid?!" Tracy Williams: "...yes.") and seeing wrestlers work while calling spots as quietly as humanly possible is fascinating.

Since then, we've seen Death Before Dishonor, which was yet another tremendous show anchored by the rematch between FTR and The Briscoes for the ROH World Tag Team Championship. That was the same week as the overbooked, disastrous Barbed Wire Everything match between Eddie Kingston and Chris Jericho, and I was in no mood to hear anything about AEW for the rest of the week. Death Before Dishonor, much like Supercard of Honor before it, featured matches with clean finishes and little to no shenanigans outside of Samoa Joe vs. Jay Lethal. This is what I'm hoping for when ROH inevitably (hopefully) returns to TV next year. It needs to have its own separate identity. I get that it's easier to consolidate everything when you have the same crew filming and working your shows, but ROH needs to be its own company. Not just a glorified edition of Dark or Elevation every week.

The Ring of Jericho stuff shows promise, and it's a good way to keep eyes on the company, while simultaneously showcasing guys like Bandido and Dalton Castle, both of whom absolutely deserve a spotlight.

In one of the episodes of pandemic era ROH, there was a match between Dragon Lee and Eli Isom for the ROH World Television Championship. There was a throwaway line about how Dalton Castle (on commentary) wanted ROH TV to get Golden Globes and Emmys, but lead announcer Ian Riccaboni preferred to settle for a Wrestling Observer Award before asking, “Do we even qualify for those anymore?”

I laughed... and then I didn't.

Catching up on these episodes (as well as episodes from when The Elite were running the show) has been a reminder as to why I loved ROH in the first place. I have a pro wrestling creative writing project called Soul Wrestling Incorporated, and it feels like an emulation of ROH. I can picture the camera angles, the stage, the sounds in my head as I write these results and shows, and everything ties into ROH. This company has influenced my writing in many ways, and I can't thank them enough.

It's the company that never said die (even when they were losing money before the Sinclair deal), the company that developed talents long before there was an NXT, and the company that helped define what pro wrestling is today. Without ROH, there's no Yes movement, no Pipebomb, no Architect of the Shield, and Adam Cole Bay Bay. And while AEW could have turned out fine regardless, it was ROH that helped give the Elite the platform needed to break out and make it on their own (although to be fair, that had more to do with Being the Elite being as popular as it was).

ROH going on hiatus and firing everyone right around the time I had to find a new place to live really hit home to me. The house I was living at became a veritable safe space for me. It was the place I lived when I got my license, secured a promotion at work, and needed shelter from the pandemic. I always knew that eventually, I'd have to move on, but I always thought I had more time. But life has a funny way of working out. Now I'm a homeowner despite being told growing up that I never would be (I'm autistic), and ROH is going to host its 21st Final Battle event in less than two months.

Is ROH in a better place than it was a year ago? 90% yes, but 10% no. The future looks promising with a new TV deal, and the fact that ROH has the likes of Jericho, Claudio Castagnoli, Samoa Joe, Daniel Garcia, Wheeler Yuta, Lee Moriarty, Dalton Castle, Willow Nightingale, and more in their corner. In addition, there are arguably more eyes on what ROH will do next since the Elite left. But as a fan, I feel that a lot was sacrificed to get to this point. Jonathan Gresham, arguably one of, if not, the best technical wrestlers in the world, quit after not being used properly. There's no more Foundation or VLNCE UNLMTD (although I won't miss Chris Dickinson). Rok-C and Quinn McKay are both in WWE, where the former has wanted to be since she started, so I can't blame her. Most of the guys that were having great matches during the pandemic are being trotted out on Dark and Elevation to be fed to AEW guys. Eli Isom, for all the work he put in and all the great matches he had, gets steamrolled by Ricky Starks in under a minute.

So, there is cautious optimism. It all depends on who will dethrone Jericho for the ROH World Championship, and what the TV show will look like. All I know is that a year ago today, I never would have guessed that having ROH back in my life would be so damn satisfying as a long-time fan of professional wrestling.

Thank you for everything, ROH. It's been a wild ride. See you on December 10.

“We are ALL Ring of Honor strong.”

– Jonathan Gresham after winning the ROH Pure Championship

#ring of honor #roh #aew #tony khan #pro wrestling #roh supercard of honor #roh death before dishonor #roh final battle #chris jericho #bandido #dalton castle #jay lethal #samoa joe #jonathan gresham #rok-c #quinn mckay #the foundation #vlnce unlmtd #eli isom

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