AEW All-in was great. AEW PPVs are always great. Few things are sure in life. Death, Taxes, and the upcoming AEW PPV will be way better than you're currently expecting. Even the "bad ones" are stand head and shoulders over the average WWE PPV.

Going into this show, for my money, the two best stories going were. The first would be Danielson vs Swerve, which would be elevated by it's very intense yet plausible stakes, and the fact it dovetails into Hangman and Swerve's (increasingly one sided) r...

As someone who no longer watches WWE regularly, Wrestlemania weekend left me feeling a lot of ways about wrestling. This isn't a review. I have no true feelings on whether it was a good show or a bad show. I watched a la carte, and liked what I chose(Gunther/Sami > Rhea/Becky > Io/Bayley > the Six Woman, aaaand the end of Night 2, if you MUST know). WWE, lining up with what I've heard in the last year, seems to be in a good spot, made even better by the removal of Vince McMahon, whose awfulness as a storyteller was only surpassed by his awfulness as a human being. Despite the improvement, despite the scale and spectacle, despite year long storylines coming to a close, the emotions and storytelling felt off. Not that there wasn't emotion. There was a lot of emotions. Big, loud, boisterous emotions! Story beats like giant blocks stones, built up into a giant, drafty castle. Dry bricks lacking the wet mortar to bind everything together into something cohesive.

WWE stories that feel like they're built from lego, assembled through force and held by friction. You can build truly incredible things with legos and in the same way, no one should be ashamed of enjoying the stories within WWE. If you meet WWE on it's own terms, it can be a lot of fun!

But I want to talk about the mortar. The Wet Emotions that are often underused, and under appreciated in US Televised Wrestling.

There is a bitter sweet feeling when I watch a Japanese wrestler or a Luchador get signed with WWE or AEW. With exception (there are more than a few. Classically Rey Mysterio and more modernly, Asuka), you often realize their best work is behind them. But you also know someone is getting a big payday. You can't work super hard forever so slowing down in the places that pay more seems much preferrable.

But it often feels like tourism, or getting food at all you can eat buffet. Sure it's stea...

https://twitter.com/Himanshu_Doi/status/1588221439529734144 Post Match Interview with Mina Shirakawa, after her teeth and jaw got injured during a Stardom show. Content Warning for Blood and Dental stuff

Wrestling is dangerous. Recently two of my favorite wrestlers had a match in with Saya Kamitani messed up her finisher, the Phoenix Splash, and kneed Mina Shirakawa right in the face. This is not the first time something like this has happened, and won't be the last. Supremely talented wrest...

Waka Tsukiyama, being loomed over by a disappointed Tam Nakano. The tag team champions had just lost a 3 v 2 handicap match, because Waka Tsukiyama has never won a match. The handicap was practically for the 2 person team. She has never been on the winning side of a tag, 6 woman, 8 woman, whatever. She has never been involved a draw. In fact, I'm not sure there is a match that Waka has been in since joining Stardom where she was not the one to be pinned or submitted. In her 114 matches in Stard...