Baby, it's a mixed bag today – I've got a new haircut and a belly full of sushi but woke up with some familiar back pain thanks to (evidently) sleeping like a dickhead last night. I can barely do anything without wincing! I love life!

Hopefully a hot coffee, a 7-pound Sphynx cat resting on my legs, and professional wrestling can make things feel a little better. I mean, I don't think watching wrestling can actually make this shooting pain in my shoulder blade go away but I'm willing to try anything once.

This is the final Dynamite before Full Gear, which I think I may either miss some or all of on Saturday due to a Friendsgiving extravaganza so it is, as yet, unclear whether I'll be writing anything up on Saturday night. It might be a cozy Sunday morning/afternoon snuggle-in eating leftover pecan pie while catching up on the show.

This Adam Cole bullshit has got to end

I love Kyle O'Reilly. I really do. But this high school theater presentation of Adam Cole and KOR pouring their hearts out in the center of the ring was absolute dogshit.

I'm just so over anything that has to do with Adam Cole. He's not interesting or entertaining at all to me anymore, especially as a babyface. He's got some fucked up spray tan that just keeps getting worse every week. His matches are boring and plodding.

There is just no upside to Adam Cole right now, and I hope upon hope that he doesn't get tossed into the C2 because that'll just guarantee one snoozer match every single week.

Bobby Lashley's feud with burgers has come to its natural conclusion

Listen, I've been clear that I haven't watched much of what Bobby Lashley has done in the past decade or so. His initial WWE run was a slog for me, and I didn't see him do anything in TNA/Impact/Whatever that looked good or cool.

But you know what I do remember? That one picture of him looking at a plate of burgers on Smackdown during his feud with Simon Dean. And tonight? Well, tonight everything came full circle when Lashley got into the ring with CHEESEBURGER (and Joe Keys was there also).

The match was nothing interesting or exciting or even good, just your standard squash. I'm happy to give Lashley a chance to shine against Swerve, because if he can't have a good match with Swerve I'll know he's toast.

The important thing here, though, was finally getting Lashley some closure on burgers.

A Pennsylvania main event for a Pennsylvania crowd

This black denim Orange Cassidy really does feel like such a different take on the character. His presentation has a whole different air to it, down to the updated tron video with a black background instead of white which just switches back and forth between his name and his nickname without any of the little goofs and jokes thrown in.

Everything about the serious OC character shift is subtle in visual presentation but the emotional presentation and character beats are what really send it over the top for me. It's a shame that he's the first challenger for Mox's World Title because it's obvious he won't win the belt, but he'd be a great guy to be the one to "save" AEW from Death Riders. He's about as much as an "AEW Original" as anyone else in the company and feels synonymous with AEW.

On the other side of the coin, Wheeler Yuta has shown some real character growth and development in his conflicted heel run. When Claudio crushed Chuck Taylor's neck in a steel chair, Yuta paused for an extra beat before exiting the ring with the rest of Death Riders. A few weeks back, he showed hesitation when being given the order to attack OC with a weapon.

Yuta's role in Death Riders is still not cemented in the same way the roles of Claudio, PAC, and Marina are. There's still a sliver of humanity left in Yuta which has opened him up to bullying and treatment as lesser-than by his stablemates. Whenever the Trios Titles change hands, it seems like the writing may be on the wall in terms of Yuta's longevity in the group.

The post-match beating on OC gave Yuta a little more of that ruthless streak, but he still stands out as a little more hesitant than his meaner friends. OC, with hands forcibly duct taped in his pockets by Death Riders, doing his mocking kicks on Mox was a nice touch. After being freed from the tape by The Conglomeration, OC slid on the sunglasses and willingly put his hands in his own pockets – showing Mox (and, maybe more importantly, Yuta) that there is power in staying true to yourself, to your convictions, and to your friends.

Wrapping Up

Mark Davis' gutwrench piledriver is disgusting and it fucking rules.

Claudio Castagnoli's Feats of Strength against Darby Allin were a sight to behold. The match was a little clunky at times, but overall served as a reminder of how insane both Claudio and Darby are. I'm still firm that Darby will end up being the one to take the World Title off of Mox, but I do hope Tony remembers that Death Riders are also the Trios Champions and begins to build up a trios team to, if not take the titles off of them, to at least give them a credible feud.

Next week begins the second annual Continental Classic which is just the absolute best. Last year's C2 provided some of the most fun and exciting weekly wrestling I can remember watching in a long time. Having a big, sprawling round robin tournament is a perfect means to pump out great wrestling matches each week while also making each match mean more and more as the tournament progresses.

While the participants have yet to be announced, it's not going to be hard to fill each bracket with wrestlers who can provide the same high-quality matches we saw last year. I do hope that if there are any repeat entries this year that they're kept to the bare minimum so a new spate of guys can show out, but I would love to have someone like Brody King have an true monster run this year.

And, while we're in the wishing stage – I hope we get a women's C2 and some kind of Tag League at some point in the near future. There is no shortage of wrestlers on the AEW roster and putting them in high-stakes tournaments like this is a simple way to give them purpose and endear them to the audience. Give me the book, Tony!