AEW
Colette Arrand Mar 7, 2021. 6 minute read
Teach Sting How to Blend
At this point, I think my love of Sting is pretty well-documented. I know it’s nostalgia, and I know it’s my weird thing for watching old men continue to push their bodies well beyond the point of sanity, but I care for this slab of aged beef and want him…
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WRESTLING
Martin Douglas Mar 4, 2021. 12 minute read
See You at the Crossroads: AEW Dynamite Recap and Revolution Preview
AEW Revolution is four days away and it feels like the first pay-per-view in the company’s history that feels … scattershot? Less than intentional? For me, AEW’s strong suit, what it does better than nearly every other American wrestling promotion is long-term storytelling. (Excepting the women’s division, which we at…
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WRESTLING
Colette Arrand Feb 25, 2021. 8 minute read
Sting Is Alive? AEW Dynamite Recap and Review
After Monday’s Women’s Eliminator Tournament Special left me a little deflated, I found myself dreading the prospect of this week’s dynamite. Once you make a claim like “Dynamite can trim enough fat to fit a second women’s match on the show,” you’re kinda stuck looking for that fat. It’s not…
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WRESTLING
FOLLOW US
Colette Arrand Feb 23, 2021. 7 minute read
This Could Have Worked On Television: AEW Women’s Eliminator Week 2
Last week’s YouTube exclusive portion of AEW’s Women’s Eliminator Tournament covered the whole of the Japanese half’s first round, introducing and reintroducing eight women to AEW audiences in an easily digestible one hour show that was intensely enjoyable. I liked it so much that I gave it the benefit of…
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WRESTLING
Martin Douglas Feb 18, 2021. 10 minute read
Don’t Mess with the Old Buck: AEW Dynamite Recap
Two weeks ago, the so-called “forbidden door” was kicked open by the arrival of NJPW-based journeyman KENTA, making the lightly collaborative talent exchange between AEW and Impact far more interesting. KENTA’s AEW debut was held in the midst of wild dives and literal potatoes; fighting alongside onetime Bullet Club member…
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WRESTLING
Colette Arrand Feb 16, 2021. 6 minute read
Simps Don’t Be Sad: AEW Women’s Eliminator Tournament Night 1
Last week, in reviewing the first match of AEW’s Women’s Championship Eliminator tournament, I said that it might be the AEW women’s divisions long-awaited breakout moment. This week, the tournament produced what might stand for the rest of 2021 as the best single unit of television produced under the banner…
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WRESTLING
Colette Arrand Feb 11, 2021. 10 minute read
A Trip to the Potato Farm: AEW Dynamite Recap and Review
Last week’s Beach Break edition of AEW Dynamite was, among other things, notable for the debut of Kenta, the number one contender to Jon Moxley’s IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship. This was a big deal because Kenta is contracted to New Japan Pro Wrestling, and his arrival in AEW, Mox…
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WRESTLING
Martin Douglas Feb 4, 2021. 10 minute read
Beach Break: AEW Dynamite Recap
Beach Break has come and gone, and if last year’s Bash at the Beach Dynamite special is any indication, AEW loves winter in Florida. Last night’s AEW special was both the culmination of events have have been happening for months and an appetizer for Revolution four weeks from Sunday. Kenny…
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WRESTLING
Martin Douglas Jan 28, 2021. 10 minute read
The Ballad of Billy Big Bollocks: AEW Dynamite Recap
As we approach next week’s Beach Break special, the events taking place in AEW are slowly congealing. Kip Sabian and Penelope Ford are finally getting married, and their best man (nay, THE best man) Miro has acquired the reasonably priced services of celebrity butler Charles Taylor (reasonably priced meaning free);…
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WRESTLING
Colette Arrand Jan 21, 2021. 9 minute read
Improv Night at Daily’s Place – AEW Dynamite Recap and Review
Faced with another Wednesday where professional wrestling paled in significance to the geopolitical comings and goings of the United States of America, All Elite Wrestling played it somewhat safe this week. Storylines were nudged forward a tad. Matches were either multiman scrambles or singles bouts that didn’t invite the viewer…
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WRESTLING
mer Jan 18, 2021. 7 minute read
2021 Tarot Wrestling Readings, Predictions, and Vibes
2020 proved to us that absolutely nothing is known and we are all at the whims of the universe constantly. We are but pawns on a turtle in a garbage truck, or something. In that spirit, and inspired by Colette’s discovery of a 70’s astrologer’s predictions for various wrestlers, I…
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WRESTLING
Martin Douglas Jan 14, 2021. 10 minute read
New Year’s Smash Night 2: AEW Dynamite Recap
The headline-grabbing development from last week’s Dynamite special was Gallows and Anderson storming AEW to continue their reunion with someone they had little on-screen interaction with their first time around. (Those who remember know Kenny Omega only stepped up to lead Bullet Club on the Good Brothers’ outgoing night, when…
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WRESTLING
Colette Arrand Jan 10, 2021. 10 minute read
The Best Sting Is the Sting Who Doesn’t Wrestle
On December 2, the man called Sting debuted in AEW. I’m not a frequent reader of dirt sheets, so I don’t know how much of a surprise it was, but it certainly shocked me—five years after retiring due to an injury sustained in a match against Seth Rollins, now at…
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WRESTLING
Colette Arrand Jan 7, 2021. 11 minute read
New Year’s Smash Night 1: AEW Dynamite Recap and Review
I’m going to acknowledge the weirdness of this moment and move on to wrestling. Back in May, I posed the following question: Why is wrestling satisfied with being a distraction? Yesterday’s double shot of wrestling amidst the storming of the U.S. Capitol was something of a reprieve from the wall-to-wall news…
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WRESTLING
Colette Arrand Jan 5, 2021. 21 minute read
2020 Was the Year Wrestling Went Quiet
For the better part of a year, I have been an advocate for watching wrestling that’s from any era that isn’t what we’re destined to call “the COVID-19 Era.” It’s not that wrestling in 2020 wasn’t fun (okay, it mostly wasn’t), but watching wrestling in 2020 meant getting through an…
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WRESTLING
Martin Douglas Dec 31, 2020. 6 minute read
Forever Exalted: AEW Dynamite Recap
I have never felt more fulfilled to be wrong. When Brodie Lee debuted in AEW as the much-hyped Exalted One of the Dark Order during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, I initially thought it was a miss. A waste of colossal talent who had just spent much of…
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WRESTLING
Colette Arrand Dec 30, 2020. 14 minute read
Remembering Brodie Lee
Jon Huber, known in wrestling as Brodie Lee and Luke Harper, passed away suddenly on December 26, from non-COVID related lung issues. He was 41. In a year rife with shock and tragedy within the wrestling industry, his passing registers as one of the biggest: Universally loved by his peers,…
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WRESTLING
Colette Arrand Dec 24, 2020. 10 minute read
Like Sad Rafter Clown, Like Sad Rafter Son: AEW Dynamite Recap and Review
The NBA returned from its shortest offseason this week and the slam dunk contest its fans ran on AEW and Chris Jericho after the conclusion of the Milwaukee Bucks/Boston Celtics game is the story for a lot of the wrestling world at this moment. Is it mean to paunch-shame Chris…
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WRESTLING
Martin Douglas Dec 17, 2020. 10 minute read
Alpha, Beta, Cuck: AEW Dynamite Recap
After the insane highlights of AEW’s Winter is Coming special, it’s appropriate and justifiable that last week served as a cooldown episode. Some narratives were built upon in fascinating ways — like Sting blowing off Cody’s overtures and praise to shout out Darby Allin, the Inner Circle agreeing to coexist…
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WRESTLING
Colette Arrand Dec 13, 2020. 13 minute read
The Ideal Wrestling Match Is 5-15 Minutes Long
Back in October, I wrote about the legendary Halloween Havoc 1997 Mask vs. Title match between Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio Jr. I was—I am—fascinated with the match as a unit of time, a breathtaking display of groundbreaking wrestling and emotionally gutwrenching storytelling that does more in 14 minutes than…
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WRESTLING