Tiger Driver: Lou Pickney's Wrestling Blog
August 24, 2022 (AEW Dynamite — Cleveland, Ohio)
Notes/thoughts from Lou Pickney:
• Solid segment with Chris Jericho/Daniel Garcia & Bryan Danielson. Jericho vs. Danielson should be a great PPV match. The long-term goal is the build/elevating of Garcia and they're well on their way, particularly for a talent like Garcia who is only 23.
• Dax Harwood vs. Jay Lethal was a good match. MCMG coming in to team with Lethal on the PPV was a welcomed reveal. Keep in mind that getting Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin means more vintage ROH that can be potentially marketed/repurposed, at least if this is more than just a one-off appearance for the PPV.
• Stokely Hathaway: still great. I'm so glad he was able to get out of the WWE system. Tremendous on the mic and able to emote remarkably well with just a facial reaction. You could plug in Stoke with nearly anyone and he'd find a way to make it work.
• They don't trust the reaction for Thunder Rosa in front of a live crowd. Nor should they. I wish they'd have stripped her of the AEW Women's World Title; this reign has hurt that championship (and my opinion of Rosa for that matter), and the Interim idea only compounds the problem.
• Bad ideas from UFC need to stay in UFC, especially on the same night where the coolest guy in AEW rightly buried the concept of an Interim champion once again. This was a failure to course correct in my estimation.
• If CM Punk vs. Jon Moxley to unify the Real vs. Interim AEW World Titles had gone 20 minutes, there would've been complaints that they didn't leave anything to anticipate for the PPV, provided that's still actually the match. The fan in the Punk shirt doing a surrender cobra in a post-match cutaway was amusing to me.
• I'm not sure what this means for the PPV. My anticipation was Moxley winning in Cleveland, fixing the pesky problem that would've happened had Mox won the belt again next year or in 2024. Instead of a a two-time champion with an interim asterisk, Mox would now be a three-time champion in that scenario.
• You'd figure there has to be some sort of stip for a rematch at All Out. There are only a few options that make sense, perhaps the strongest being if Punk puts his AEW career on the line to get a rematch in Chicago. They could also do the Cody Rhodes stip where Punk can never challenge again if he loses, and in a related note that's why it was so important that AEW not let Cody ruin their history of upholding stips because Cody had a change of heart.
• Britt Baker with the giant oversized Terrible Towel was a great visual. Pittsburgh and Cleveland should be rivals in more sports, but there's no NHL in Cleveland, no NBA in Pittsburgh, and the Pirates and Indians/Guardians being in separate leagues in MLB means those teams have seldom played. AL vs. NL: now that's a brand split.
• That six-man tag main event (Will Ospreay & Aussie Open vs. Death Triangle) was outstanding and it's impressive that Ospreay could pull it off so well after his run in this year's G1, particularly the last three singles matches he worked.
I really enjoyed tonight's Dynamite. Genuine emotion = genuine fan spending. But genuine emotion is also difficult to control.
Next week in Chicago should be exciting to watch play out.
NJPW Best of Super Juniors 29 -- After Night #6
May 22, 2022
G1 Climax 31: matches of interest
September 17, 2021
2021 New Japan Cup snap predictions
March 1, 2021
2020 G1 Climax 30 Preview
Night
1 — Sep. 19, 2020 — Osaka, Japan
A Block: Okada/Ibushi, White/Shingo, Minoru/Ishii, Cobb/Taichi, Ospreay/Yujiro
Night
2 — Sep. 20, 2020 — Osaka, Japan
B Block: Tanahashi/Naito, EVIL/Sabre, Goto/KENTA, Sanada/Yano, Juice/Yoshi-Hashi
Night 3 — Sep. 23, 2020 — Sapporo, Japan
A Block: White/Ibushi, Ishii/Ospreay, Minoru/Taichi, Okada/Yujiro, Cobb/Shingo
Night 4 — Sep. 24, 2020 — Sapporo, Japan
B Block: Naito/Sabre, EVIL/Yoshi-Hashi, Juice/KENTA, Tanahashi/Yano, Goto/Sanada
Night 5 — Sep. 27, 2020 — Kobe, Japan
A Block: White/Okada, Shingo/Ospreay, Ibushi/Ishii, Cobb/Minoru, Taichi/Yujiro
Night 6 — Sep. 29, 2020 — Tokyo (Korakuen Hall)
B Block: Goto/Naito, EVIL/Yano, Tanahashi/Juice, KENTA/Sabre, Sanada/Yoshi-Hashi
Night 7 — Sep. 30, 2020 — Tokyo (Korakuen Hall)
A Block: Shingo/Ishii, White/Ospreay, Okada/Taichi, Cobb/Ibushi, Minoru/Yujiro
Night 8 — Oct. 1, 2020 — Nagaoka, Japan
B Block: Sanada/Naito, EVIL/KENTA, Tanahashi/Yoshi-Hashi, Goto/Sabre, Juice/Yano
New Japan returns to Jingu Stadium (preview)
August 29, 2020
Top 10 Matches of the Year for 2019
May 2, 2020
New Beginning in Osaka preview
February 9, 2020
10 Under the Radar Matches from 2019
January 1, 2020
G1 Climax 29: The Stretch Run (B Block)
August 4, 2019
G1 Climax 29: The Stretch Run (A Block)
August 3, 2019
G1 Climax 29: Korakuen Hall
July 17, 2019
Prepping for G1 Climax 29
July 2, 2019
Potential Fresh G1 Matches
June 12, 2019
Kota Ibushi vs. Tetsuya Naito: A History
June 8, 2019
Previous BOSJ Final matches
June 4, 2019
2019 BOTSJ 26 update (plus Lou's recommended matches)
May 23, 2019
2019 BOTSJ 26: Previews and Videos
May 12, 2019
UPDATED tournament match list for 2019 BOTSJ
May 11, 2019
Night-by-night tournament match list for 2019 BOTSJ
May 7, 2019
Location of New Japan's TIME'S UP exterior shot revealed
May 4, 2019
2019 New Japan Cup: The Stretch Run
March 21, 2019
Prepping for Round Two of the 2019 New Japan Cup
March 13, 2019
Previewing the 2019 New Japan Cup
March 7, 2019
Predictions for Wrestle Kingdom 13
January 3, 2019
Preview: King of Pro-Wrestling 2018
October 8, 2018
Stretch Run for the 2018 G1
August 2, 2018
Early Thoughts on the 2018 G1
July 26, 2018
Projecting the 2018 NJPW G1 Climax Tournament
July 13, 2018
Danielson's Final Countdown?
July 3, 2018
The Complete 2018 G1 Climax 28 Schedule
June 19, 2018
Top 5 Anticipated Matches in the 2018 G1
June 18, 2018
G1 2018: The Participants
June 17, 2018
Momentum and Threats
June 15, 2018
Prelude to Dominion
June 8, 2018
Block B scenarios for the final night of round-robin competition
June 2, 2018
Block A scenarios for the final night of round-robin competition
June 1, 2018
Thoughts on the first five nights of the 2018 BOTSJ
May 25, 2018
2018 Best of the Super Juniors preview: Block B
May 18, 2018
2018 Best of the Super Juniors preview: Block A
May 17, 2018
Lou's List of Best NJPW World matches
https://www.tigerdriver.com/best.shtml
