I have tickets to the next Create-A-Pro (CAP) show which was to feature CAP-alumni and AEW champion MJF versus TNA’s Nic Nemeth. It was cleared before they started shit-talking each other, but TNA stopped their talent from working with AEW talent. Nemeth will now wrestle TNA’s Bear Bronson, another CAP alumni and MJF has an open challenge. Bummed the main event was blown up.
MJF vs. Dolph Ziggler would have been an amazing match.
Tonight, the SmackDown main event will be Jade Cargill vs. Iyo Sky.
Liv Morgan recently debuted a music video, and it is fire.
Packing my bag right now for my trip to Everett tomorrow, for both the live Dynamite and the Collision taping that will be airing on Thursday. This is the comeback set of shows after Sunday’s Dynasty, which saw Darby Allin defeat Andrade to earn a shot at the world championship on tomorrow’s show, Kevin Knight win the vacant TNT championship, and Orange Cassidy & the Undisputed Era win the trios titles, whereas MJF barely eked out a successful world title defense against Kenny Omega via various dastardly deeds, FTR retained the tag titles over Edge & Christian, and Chris Jericho lost his comeback match to Ricochet.
The full card hasn’t been announced, but we’re definitely getting;
- AEW World Championship: MJF (c) vs. Darby Allin
- TNT Championship: Kevin Knight (c) vs. Claudio Castagnoli
- TBS Championship: Willow Nightingdale (c) vs. Kamille
Oughta be a lot of fun.
I’m looking forward to MJF’s scathing promos vs Darby Allin.
“Oh! I think I’ll permanently disfigure myself with tattoos just to show how much I’ve suffered!”
This is a hometown show for Darby, so if he doesn’t win the title there may very well be a riot. 
Painted my face for the show.
HAHAHA! AWESOME!!! (complete sentence)
Steven Borden (Sting’s son) just wrestled a dark match against a guy from DEFY. He’s a good looking young man with solid fundamentals. Doesn’t really have a persona yet and is wrestling in black slacks. Solid little exhibition. He used a Stinger Splash followed by a chokeslam as his finisher.
He’ll be going places.
Well that was quick.
NEW CHAMPION! Darby Allin wins the belt in his hometown in a short match that absolutely blew the lid off the joint. Last time I’ve felt this much energy at a live show was when Daniel Bryan hijacked Raw back in 2013.
Spoiler-free card for tonorrow’s Collision;
- Women’s World Championship: Thekla (c) vs. Alex Windsor
- Continental Championship Eliminator: Jon Moxley (c) vs. Nick Wayne
- Trios Championship Eliminator: The Conglomeration (c) vs. Lethal Twist
- PAC vs. Lio Rush
- The Young Bucks vs. the Rascalz
- Brody King, Mistico, & Mascara Dorada vs. local talent
- Kris Statlander & Hikaru Shida vs. local talent
AEW is partnering with Adult Swim for a new series of animated shorts about its wrestlers.
The first episode is out today and features our new world champion.
That was fucking awesome.
I haven’t watched much AEW recently. Was there some symbolism in Darby clinching the title with a facelock takeover?
MJF beat him with that move in 2023. And 2021. And on the indies in like 2018.
I’d say that the third coffin drop was about the point where the arena crowd completely lost its shit. I for one was marking out like a kid.
That seemed like Rick and Morty animation.
The animator, Mike Carlo, has worked on a lot of Adult Swim projects, including ATHF, Superjail, China IL. Not Rick & Morty, though.
Anyway, to digress from how awesome Darby’s world title win was, apparently WWE is putting on some kind of show this weekend as well.
I gotta say, I haven’t really been feeling the hype for Wrestlemania this year. It feels like TKO is neutering Triple H creatively and is trying to book the show by committee, going off some bland focus-group-approved approach that sounds “safe” on paper but instead is just a bland rehash of stuff we’ve seen before, up to and including literally running it in the same building they did last year, and the way they’ve jacked up ticket prices to draw in whales is just plain distasteful and gross, especially when Tony Khan has gone out of his way to keep AEW ticket prices family-friendly.
I suppose I’ll run down the card and my predictions.
NIGHT ONE
- Undisputed WWE Championship: Cody Rhodes (c) vs. Randy Orton (w/ Pat McAfee) - McAfee must quit WWE if Orton loses. Is there REALLY anyone clamoring for another Randy Orton title run in 2026? Probably not, but the bean-counters at TKO are looking at 2000s nostalgia money, and they’re not gonna cut McAfee loose, so Orton wins, possibly with a Cody heel turn in the mix as well.
- Women’s World Championship: Stephanie Vaquer (c) vs. Liv Morgan. I’m gonna say Liv wins this one.
- Women’s Intercontinental Championship: AJ Lee (c) vs. Becky Lynch. You’ve got the last great woman wrestler of the Divas era vs. the breakout star of the era that followed and which AJ sort of paved the way for (even though they’re both the same age). This oughta be a pretty good match. I’m gonna say Becky wins.
- Women’s Tag Team Championship: Nia Jax & Lash Legend (c) vs. Charlotte & Alexa Bliss vs. Bayley & Lyra Valkyra vs. the Bella Twins. I HATE the idea of it, but since this entire card seems to be built around nostalgia for the WWE of roughly 10-15 years ago, I’m gonna say the Bellas pick up the win.
- Seth Rollins vs. GUNTHER. GUNTHERWINSLOL.
- Jacob Fatu vs. Drew McIntyre. Fatu is a future world champion. He should absolutely win this one.
- Logan Paul, IShowSpeed, & Austin Theory vs. the Usos & LA Knight. Nothing about this match appeals to me. They SHOULD have booked Logan vs. Bad Bunny in a singles match. That’s the celebrity match people want to see and it would be a license to print money. The Youtube boys win this one.
NIGHT TWO
- World Heavyweight Championship: CM Punk (c) vs. Roman Reigns. Punk is FINALLY getting the Wrestlemania main event that he was denied 12 years ago and which lead to him quitting wrestling for seven years. It’s the last thing on his pro wrestling bucket list and logically he should get the win so that he can wrap up his career in the near future. With TKO at the helm, though? ROMANWINSLOL. I feel like the goodwill Roman picked up with the fans after his face turn at Summerslam 2024 has been squandered and he’s getting pushed back into the “THIS IS YOUR HERO WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT, WE’LL TELL YOU WHO YOU LIKE AND YOU’LL LIKE IT” slot Vince McMahon had him in for the better part of a decade. The more things change, eh?
- US Championship: Sami Zayn (c) vs. Trick Williams. Could go either way. I’ll say Sami retains, because that ska-punk number he comes out to is still a banger after all these years.
- Ladder match for the Intercontinental Championship: Pentagon Jr. (c) vs. Je’Von Evans vs. Dragon Lee vs. JD McDonaugh vs. Rusev vs. Rey Mysterio Jr. I want Penta to retain, but seeing Rey get one last title run would also be satisfying, so that’s my prediction.
- WWE Women’s Championship: Jade Cargill (c) vs. Rhea Ripley. I’ll give this one to Mami.
- Brock Lesnar vs. Oba Femi. Oba should absolutely win this one to establish him as the next “monster” type wrestler.
- Demon Finn Balor vs. Dominik Mysterio. Feels like YEARS since we’ve last seen the Demon. He rarely ever loses as the Demon, so I’m inclined to predict he wins here as well. OTOH, Dom is probably gonna be WWE champion at some point, so beating the Demon would be a great way to solidify his reputation. I’ll call this one a toss-up.
I’m gonna miss Night One because of work, so I’ll have to watch the replay when I get home. Night Two I’ll be able to watch live.
And now for something completely different - the trailer for the new Street Fighter movie, featuring Cody Rhodes as Guile, Roman Reigns as Akuma, and Hirooki Goto as E. Honda.
Update: Due to her having not been cleared to return from injury, the part of Nikki Bella will be played by Paige.