IT'S BEEN A WHILE HUH?!

This world is shit so maybe I just need to get back into the one thing I can control – writing little blog posts about professional wrestling that may or may not be seen by any human eyes other than my own. My eyes, by the way, which were shot by lasers more than a decade ago returning them to their pristine 20/20 condition. Science!

AEW has been a bit all over the place for me since I last wrote about it in April. There have been bits I've loved and bits I've groaned about, and maybe worse there have been things about which I've felt ambivalent. The company had quite a run where it felt like nothing would be announced for Dynamite or Collision until the afternoon-of on social media.

Thankfully, that's been changing the past few weeks which has been incredibly helpful in allowing me to actually look forward to and feel excited about the upcoming shows. Promoting the shows with actual matches and segments announced weeks in advance?? Who knew it could work!

We're coming up on Full Gear and the build has been fairly well done thus far. The television shows have been doing this fun thing where one segment will bleed into the next in a way that makes it hard to want to look away lest you miss something. Flowing directly from a match to a backstage segment as a wrestler heads backstage or transitioning from one match to another by way of stablemates crossing paths or a post-match save leading into the next scheduled match has felt refreshing.

There's been a connectivity to the shows which I've found incredibly fun. While I wasn't sold on Jon Moxley's New World Order to start with, I can't truthfully say that I haven't enjoyed the story beats up to this point. Obviously, nobody thinks Orange Cassidy will win the World Title at Full Gear but hopefully it sets him up for a reign sometime in 2025.

I do wish there was a bit more happening with guys like Dark Order, though. They're cannon fodder who continually cut the "You got us this week, but next week we're going to show you what Dark Order is all about!" at which point they lose again. I don't have faith that Dark Order will ever actually be retooled in AEW, but it would be lovely to see them tweak their whole deal a bit and end up as the guys to dethrone Death Riders for the Trios Titles.

But, nevermind that shit – let's get into some bits from Dynamite!

Adam Cole Bay Bay BOOOO BOOOO

Alternatively, It's All About The Boooooom.

Adam Cole stinks. And why is he yellower and yellower every week?

His return was fun. I enjoyed it. The moment was great and exciting and a good wrestling thing.

His actual wrestling, though, is so tiresome. It hasn't helped that he already beat Buddy Matthews and Malakai Black to a crowd that was split more in favor of his opponents than it was for him. Plus, those guys are much cooler and entertaining.

I don't know what it is. Is he stuck in some kind of NXT stasis from however many years ago he was there? Has the rest of the roster always just been this much better than him?

His offense is unbelievable at best and annoying at worst. The Panama Sunrise sucks so bad and watching him awkwardly climb the ropes backwards to set it up aggravates me to an irrational degree.

This is all heightened even more when in the ring with someone like Konosuke Takeshita, who is finally a singles champion in AEW. Unfortunately, Takeshita's feud with Ricochet feels like it's been somewhat muted but at least it's something – and long overdue.

Takeshita is one of the most incredible guys on the roster and should be World Champion sooner than later. He's huge, he looks cool, he wrestles like a madman, and he's over all of the time. All things Adam Cole is not!

I was fully prepared to be left infuriated after Cole/Takeshita, assuming Cole would pick up the win to get his match with MJF. Whether it was through cheating or a Callis Family miscommunication or other chicanery, it just felt inevitable.

Imagine my shock and glee when Takeshita picked up the win (using the Dynamite Diamond Ring) and we didn't get some goofball Dusty Finish with a reversal of the decision post-match! I wish it could always feel this good.

God, I'm so glad Lio Rush is back in AEW

I don't know how many times Lio Rush has retired so far in his career, but I'm glad that he's un-retired now and back in AEW. There are barely enough words to describe how sensational Lio Rush is and how insane it is to watch him wrestle. He moves like nobody else and his, at times, chaotic style puts him in that Darby Allin category of small guys who can throw themselves around hard enough to look like a threat to larger opponents.

So, it should come as no surprise that Lio vs Swerve Strickland was absolutely bonkers. Swerve has been a favorite of mine since... well... long before he was ever in AEW or NXT/WWE. Singing along to Chaka Khan at WrestleCircus shows that had far too many matches on the card and zero air conditioning endeared me to Swerve right away. Then, I got to see him wrestle.

I was probably still watching Lucha Underground when Killshot was around, but that was a lifetime ago and I can only remember so much of the fever dream that was Lucha Underground. I needed some of that space to remember the words to "Espresso" by Sabrina Carpenter.

Swerve picked up the predictable win against Lio here, but will this be the last we see of Swerve and Lio? Rush is still holding onto that MVP business card, and with Swerve knee-deep in Hurt Syndicate business could we see a turn down the road to break Lio away from Top Flight?

Mark me down as a person who wasn't necessarily thrilled about The Hurt Syndicate coming in. Not that I dislike MVP or Shelton (I'm still iffy on Bobby, but also haven't watched him wrestle since his initial WWE run), but it just felt like one of those "WWE cast-off" things coupled with these being older guys when time could be spent pushing younger wrestlers.

But, I have egg on my face. Shelton Benjamin is a killer and can still absolutely go in the ring, and while I still need to see Lashley wrestle to see if my opinion of his in-ring work changes at all I have absolutely enjoyed what the group has done in AEW thus far. And, most importantly, I'm excited to see where they go next.

JULIA GHOULIA IS BACK

I know there was a vignette on Collision, too, but I didn't write about that shit!

And this time, the vignette interrupted a Jamie Hayter segment which is great news because it points to Julia Hart vs Jamie down the road.

Julia came into her own as TBS Champion and it sucks that she was taken out by injury. I can't wait to have her back on TV and hitting that insane moonsault again. It'll also be fun to see whatever is left of her soul completely leave her body via a Jamie Hayter lariat.

Tag Team Wrestling is back, baby

While The Young Bucks held the titles, it felt like the tag division was put on hold. For a long time.

Whether it was the contractually-obligated-dates thing or just not giving a shit about the division, it was unbelievably glaring.

Ever since Private Party won the belts, though, things have been looking up in the division. There have been big tag team matches every week, including fun multi-team matches just to remind us all that there are, in fact, awesome teams in AEW!

The mini tournament leading into Full Gear is another way to highlight the wealth of tag teams in AEW right now – including teams who have established themselves for years in AEW and new kids on the block (and the youngest men alive) like The Outrunners.

I don't know that it's The Outrunners time to win the belts at Full Gear. If The Bucks were still the champions, sure – it'd have been incredible for them to have dethroned The Bucks. But, with Private Party as the fresh, young tag team who unseated the veterans it feels like it's their time to shine for at least a few more months before they drop the belts.

Tonight we got FTR vs House of Black, which was unsurprisingly sick. Malakai Black seems like he's been in another gear the past six months or so, whether it's been singles, tags, or trios matches. There has been a lot of talk about the quality of his matches over the years in AEW amidst the constant rumor mill that he's unhappy, injured, or retiring (or all three) but that's all gone out the window for me lately.

House of Black have been reestablished as murderers and a win over FTR just cemented that.

Looking at the final qualifier match, it seems like The Acclaimed will pick up the win and eat the loss at the PPV leading to the break-up that's been teased between Bowens and Caster. Anything to freshen those guys up, please.

Wrapping Up

There were some stinkers on this show, let's not lie about it. Adam Cole is not fun to watch. Britt Baker and Penelope Ford had a pretty bad match, despite Penelope looking good since she came back (and looking much improved before she disappeared due to injury so long ago).

But, all in all, the build to Full Gear continued in full swing and every segment on the show felt like it meant something. Plus, some of the new hallmarks I wrote about in the intro were on display – a post-promo brawl lead directly into Lance Archer/Roderick Strong, and a post-match beatdown moved us seamlessly into Konosuke Takeshita/Adam Cole.

Something about how the show moves like that really gives things a different feel, like the show is alive and kinetic. A segment doesn't "end" and slow down the pace of the show, it just turns into something else. It's lovely.