Possibly, although to be honest "best ever" is a silly label anyway as all entertainment including wrestling is entirely subjective. If you're like Cornette and only like Mid-South 1980s stuff then you probably won't have even thought the match was good let alone great. If you prefer modern style NJPW wrestling then it probably is up there with the very best. It's all just opinions at the end of the day! Personally I loved watching it, I felt like it rewarded me as a viewer for being invested in a storyline and that's all I ask for out of wrestling. The worst thing is being invested in a storyline then watching it get flushed down the toilet by idiotic booking decisions (©WWE).

I dunno, other than there being too many nearfalls at the end I feel like they got Omega/Hangman Vs The Bucks spot on. It was the perfect blend of everybody getting their stuff in but also telling an amazing in-ring story building on months of angles. I'm really not sure what else they could have done to make it better.

Thunder Rosa would be a great addition to the AEW women's division too. I could easily see her as a member of the Inner Circle and coming out with Santana & Ortiz as an LAX-style group.

Not by the mods. In fact you're one of very few posters who hasn't had any posts hidden in the last two pages or so.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-51682017 - nice AEW story on the BBC

Colt Cabana joining AEW was a nice touch. There are quite a few from Powerrr who I think could do a solid job for AEW. Drake is an obvious one, but also guys like Ricky Starks and Aron Rex (aka Damien Sandow) could really shine on a bigger stage with more creative freedom. The storyline I'm looking forward to the most is the impending civil war between the Elite. It's a matter of time before it explodes between Hangman and the Bucks, at which point Omega and Cody will also have to take sides - with people like Dustin, Arn Anderson, QT Marshall, etc having to choose where their allegiances lie. I think they are priming for a Cody heel turn at some point - although he's so over as a babyface at the moment that it seems too early to turn him already.

We had that under Bowyer (in fact we had x2 of the 20+ a season strikers) and still failed!

AEW 906k 0.35 demo (5th overall), NXT 718k 0.23 demo (20th overall). Nice post-PPV bump for AEW.

Raw being 3 hours is definitely an issue. With that said though, Smackdown is 2 hours and they still manage to make that drag.

I don't think any major change will happen unless TNT demands higher viewership or demos begin slipping. They're in a good place at the moment, but should be wary of complacency. In fairness I've seen no sign of the company being complacent, but it's an easy trap to fall into once you feel like you've snared your core audience. I still watch Raw, NXT and the WWE PPV's, but it's mostly out of habit these days. Raw is just on in the background Tuesday evenings whilst I do other things, and it's pretty much the same for the PPV's. I don't pay them the same amount of attention as when I'm watching Dynamite, Powerrr or an AEW/NWA PPV. WWE has become incredibly bland and stale to me, with the odd exception. Randy Orton for example is doing some awesome work at the moment. Obviously the biggest positive from the current AEW product is they listen to their fans. The Nightmare Collective was being roundly panned, so rather than 'do a WWE' and continue on regardless, they just canned it and moved on. People were getting annoyed with the Dark Order having such a prominent place on the show - now they've been massively scaled back and amended. People were becoming frustrated with the Elite not being properly involved in the show - now they're all an integral part of some fantastic storylines. After having to endure WWE for so long it's really great to have a company that genuinely listens to its fans, rather than just pretending they do. Also the lack of rampant commercialism that infests WWE is a welcome change. No stupid buzzwords, no characters randomly losing first/last names, no idiotic swerves, no part-timers going over full-time wrestlers, no Michael Cole, no robot commentators shilling hashtags and fake laughing at things that aren't funny, no fan favourites getting squashed for no obvious reason, no odious shows in disgusting locations... I could go on, but there's a lot of reasons I appreciate AEW existing right now.

Agreed, to progress we need a new manager who won't lead us into long periods of poor form and who can win games at home against weak opposition. Get that sorted and playoffs would be achievable with smart recruitment and keeping hold of our best players, for sure.

A significant portion of the booking is being done by Tony Khan and I doubt that is going to change! One thing that's for sure is that AEW are really connecting with their audience, producing excellent TV numbers, solid PPV buyrates (at $50 a pop!) and getting incredible crowd reactions wherever they go. I don't think they need to change too much at the moment. Once they've built a solid foundation with their core fanbase (which they are will on their way to doing already) then maybe they can look at things that need to change for further expansion. As it stands they seem to be delivering exactly what their fans want, which is a very welcome change from WWE's stance of "you'll take what we give you and like it".

Holtby was surely brought in as the successor/backup to Dack's no10 role. His injury leaves us largely with makeshift replacements, including BB. I don't think Brereton has in any way been seriously considered as a permanent replacement for Dack's position - whether he evolves into that is another question, but I don't think it's ever been the plan. I would say Rothwell is the obvious natural replacement but he's not often played there and honestly has failed to impress even when he has.

I don't think you'll be disappointed. Dynamite is one of the highlights of the week for me. Literally the only gripe I've had with it recently is that they don't play the opening anymore, which is a shame as I thought it was really good. I loved the mash-up Nitro/AEW opening somebody made before Dynamite started.

Speaking of Dynamite, strong rumours that Matt Hardy could debut tonight as the leader of the Dark Order, and also a potential debut for Brodie Lee aka Luke Harper.

The commentary on AEW is indeed awesome. You can tell the guys are having so much fun calling the action and just being a part of the experience. They've added Taz to the rotating announce team too which is pretty cool. Hearing Tony Schiavone after so many years especially is a real treat for an old school WCW mark like me. He's still got it too! Compare the commentary on AEW to WWE and it really is night and day. WWE's announce team all sound like robots reciting lines. Booker T is the only decent commentator they've had in recent years, and that's just because he was batshit crazy and didn't follow the script. I remember almost being in tears of laughter at 03:24 in this vid, Booker's smug laugh, "what do you got to say now Corey?" "ILLEGAL TACTICS" ... Booker was the best. It was a dark day when they replaced him. Agree that Stu Bennett is great, and imo actually better than Cornette. You've gotta start watching Dynamite regularly man. They had an iffy ending to last year but they have been knocking it out of the park every week in 2020. It's easily the best weekly wrestling show around right now.

I don't think the current players have the mental strength to do it tbh. Luke Chambers was apparently in tears after getting some stick after the game from the fans that were left at Portman Road last night, and that's their veteran captain! A lot of kids playing due to injuries/general lack of fitness amongst the senior pros as well. It's funny but the vast majority of Ipswich fans still can't accept that binning Mick was the wrong decision. Still hear the classic "his time was up". Except Mick wanted to stay, the owner wanted him to stay and the players wanted him to stay. Time was up though, apparently!

Yeah tbf there were legit people asking for us to sign MGP, although I saw it more on those ridiculous FB groups than on here. Was quite funny seeing Mowbray shoot it down with a 'come on now lads, he's 38'.

There is a Kairi Sane/Brock Lesnar meme which is pretty hilarous. But yeah, Impact basically trying to be woke but also desperately doing anything they can to get eyeballs on their product. They can't compete with WWE or AEW on production values or talent, so the only other thing they can do is try to be different in some way. I don't think this is the right way to go about it though.

The local paper linked Warnock last week so there's definitely something to it. Too late for this season I feel, but if he's offered enough he might take a crack at it next season. Marcus Evans isn't exactly known for splashing the cash though, so I'd be surprised if it does happen. Usually teams who get relegated struggle initially to adapt to a new league but then get into their stride after a few months - basically exactly what we did. Ipswich have done the opposite which is very strange.

Personally as far as wrestling is concerned I prefer the genders separated. Nothing against either gender but it just doesn't look or feel right to me when a man and a woman are matched against each other, save for a very few occasions when it's believable. I don't mind women main eventing - in fact some of the best matches of recent times in WWE, particularly NXT, have been female matches, but my preference is for each gender to be kept separate. Fortunately there's no sign of WWE or AEW following Impact's lead, anyway.

Hah, yeah... he doesn't quit because his career is essentially over if he does. Funny to think that just a few years ago he was walking away from the Rovers job. He'd be lucky to get a sniff of anything similar now.

I guess they want to be seen as 'woke' or whatever. Personally I agree that it's stupid. Same as NXT renaming the women's title as the NXT title. Just confusing and unnecessary. To be fair I have no issue with women who look like they could compete in the men's division doing some stuff there (Chyna back in the day, and in modern times the likes of Awesome Kong, Nyla Rose or Kamille) but if there's too much of a size/weight difference then it totally ruins the immersion for me.

I don't think I've watched Impact since 2013 or 2014. I pretty much totally checked out when AJ left. I've heard they have done some good stuff since then but I have to say their current product doesn't interest me in the slightest. I've got so much I already struggle to watch during a week (WWE, AEW & NWA mainly) that adding Impact to the list is just not feasible unless they were putting on an incredible show.

Yeah for sure. Impressive athleticism but zero promo skills which is a problem.