AEW Grand Slam Night 1 (9/22/21)

Finally home after a long day. Cody was absolutely the biggest heel of the night to this crowd. Everyone just seems so over him, Brandi, his celebrity friends. Then he came out in that ridiculous super hero outfit and the crowd wanted to kill him.

Just finished watching the show there. Some thoughts:

Omega vs Danielson was very good. It's Bryan Danielson though so that goes without saying. 30 minute draw was obvious as the match went on, but that's ok. Build to a PPV title match where Danielson goes over. Good stuff.

Punk promo was a Punk promo. Excellent as always.

MJF vs Pillman was a weird one. In hindsight, it was all it was ever going to be. But with the promos leading up to it, I came away wanting more than just a 10 minute win for MJF. Seems like a one and done, but I wanted more for Pillman.

Cody has to turn heel. His entrance is so self indulgent. Brandi getting involved was so self indulgent. I feared throughout that Cody would win, but I think that's what they were going for. Decent match, right winner.

FTR vs Darby/Sting was ok. Sting looked great for his age, but man I can't help but hate the fact that FTR lost to an old man. They are the best tag team in wrestling today, they should've won here, or at the very least lost to Darby instead.

I wanted to like Ruby vs Britt so much, but I'm just not buying the love it's getting. It was messy. I think Britt is great, but an average wrestler at best. Ruby has the hype but isn't good enough to live up to it. Her finisher in particular is awful and looks like it wouldn't knock a child over. Britt winning was correct and I hope they move on to the Thunder Rosa match soon.

8/10 show, was entertained. Looking forward to Rampage.

Amazing show, and I can't wait for Friday!

Great show, as usual.

That was probably one of the hottest openers I’ve ever seen. I figured it would be a draw. I’m glad it was. They should stretch this out as long as they can.

I figured I’d give Punk a chance after ten years. I hate him as much today as I did in 2011. Ended up skipping the promo. I genuinely despise him to the point that there will be times it’ll be hard to watch the show because of him.

Poor FTR. They really can’t catch a break. It was awesome seeing Sting all stenosised up still out there taking bumps. Darby should’ve gotten the pin, but that aside, this is how you book a legend.

Black/Cody was pretty perfect. Cody said in an interview that he’ll never be heel again…in the words of Stone Cold, eh eh. He’s a heel right now, and he knows it. He’s the John Cena of AEW, only chonky. He may have an ego, but he could be such a monster if he wanted to be. I like how he’s been booked. Hell, it wouldn’t surprise me if the dad bod was part of this all. Cody is a 21st Century Heel, he knows what he’s doing. Black is killing it. The right guy won.

MJF vs Pillman was good. MJF is the best heel of the past twenty years. Pillman has some work to do, but he’s coming along strongly. The future looks bright for him. He shouldn’t be with the Varsity Blondes for too much longer, he’s got plenty of singles star magic.

I’ve gotta say that I was disappointed by the main event. You can’t have an opener like Danielson/Omega and end with that. It certainly wasn’t Britt/Rosa. Ruby is cool as hell, but she’s more character than wrestler. Still, it may just be a little ring rust.

Another great show!

Oh, I forgot. On Rampage, Miro attacked Sammy and his lucha pal while Samme was doing his sign bit. I don't think that made TV. He destroyed them.

It was a lot of fun. The sound is always messed up in stadiums. My wife said the mic work on the concourse sounded better than in the actual arena. One of the funniest low key moments of the night was the six man, the bucks come out to a huge pop. Adam Cole comes out to a gigantic pop…and then Christian comes out to a golf clap….and the Jurassic Express come out to a gigantic pop.

That's sad considering he's probably the best wrestler in that match.

Can't even rid threads of 100% cr*p post troll comments anymore. People never modify their behavior anymore and just allowed to use the forum as their own personal litter box time and again, and is only a problem when someone else steps in it and drags it throughout the thread, when it becomes "everyone's fault". Everyone is fair game to mock, criticize, and ridicule, except when the tolerance flips off and all fall on the chopping block. Sane members are pushed past their breaking point and unleash a tirade that gets them deleted or quit of their own volition, leaving just the crazies to occupy and run things.

But hey, Flanders would approve of the swear tolerance in certain boards, by diddly.

This is so cool.