Cornette was choked up through much of this, and at the end just had to call it a day because he couldn’t continue. If he outlasts the other members of the Midnight Express (though maybe not Randy Rhodes) and Rock 'n Roll Express, he’ll give similar tributes. His eulogies for Big Bubba Rogers/Bossman and Dusty Rhodes were also classics. Cornette is an excellent storyteller, and when his ego gets pushed to the back, he is an absolute pleasure to listen to.
AEW Dark Taz/Excalibur moment of the day
2.0 (Matt Lee and Jeff Parker, Formerly Ever Rise of NXT) vs Adrian Alanis & Liam Gray
Ex plugs 2.0’s YouTube show, “The Show Rules.” Taz is momentarily perplexed about this and accuses Ex of having an agenda for promoting it.
Ex: Taz, you’ve got your favorites don’t you?
Taz: I’ve got a team of men… that rely on me.
Ex chuckles awkwardly.
Lee dominates Alanis in the corner.
Taz: A lot of energy Matt Lee has, a lot of energy.
Ex: You would know if you tuned in on Saturday to “The Show Rules.”
Taz: No! No! Why do I have to watch anybody’s YouTube channel? I watch Sammy’s vlog, and I watch BTE. I’m a team player.
Ex: So you’re telling me you watch Sammy’s vlog…
Taz: It’s none of their business. I’ll tell you what. I’ll tell you. It’s when Q. T. Marshall’s on.
Ex: OK.
Taz: It’s when Charlie’s not on. How about that? Wiseass!
Ex calls more in-ring action. Taz grumbles “Testing me. How dare you.”
Kenny Omega’s had a busy weekend. Last night he lost the Impact world title to Christian on the debut episode of Rampage. Then tonight, he main-evented Triplemania, successfully defending the Mega Championship against Andrade, who had his soon-to-be father-in-law Ric Flair in his corner.
I guess that explains why Naitch wanted to be released.
there’s a lot of chatter too that charlotte flair might be heading to aew soon also
this is cool I watched a thing a while back on women wrestling and it had some of them from this era and loud mouth moolah …
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/boxing/billy-corgan-s-nwa-acquires-mildred-burke-s-title-belt-to-celebrate-women-s-wrestling-pioneer/ar-AANqszA?li=BB15ms5q&ocid=SK2DDHP
AEW Dark Taz/Excalibur moment of the day
The Wingmen vs Varsity Blonds and Jurassik Express
Taz was largely lucid in this broadcast, but made up for it by singing along with Jurassik Express’s music.
Taz: 
And he runs around the forest
He’s in the jungle and washing in the lake
and he’s with Luchasaurus
and they’re washing each other’s back
Oh wah Oh wah Oh Oh-Oh Oh wah
Gimme the Holdup
Gimme the Holdup
Ricky Starks: I see why Hook is hard of hearing sometimes.
I don’t care how fat and ugly Jericho got.
Nobody has ever had the crowd sing their entrance music like that.
To put a fine point on it:
Well, it’s now official - CM Punk is All Elite.
Punk didn’t just stand there and wave at the fans. He jumped into the crowd, hugged several of them, shook and slapped hands, and looked genuinely happy. When he did his promo, he said his last day of wrestling was (some day in 2007) in Ring of Honor, and 8/20/2021 was the day he came back. He sat the same way he did for the infamous Pipe Bomb promo, and told the crowd he had an extra surprise for them. After the show, they would all get free ice cream!
I always thought his gripe about not having his own ice cream bar in WWE was tongue-in-cheek, but it became a thing and he rolled with it. /shrug
He then called out Darby Allin, who was brooding in the upper deck alongside Sting. He challenged him to a match next PPV, adding “I’ve seen your videos, where you like doing dangerous things. The only thing more dangerous than facing me in the ring is facing me in the ring in Chicago!” to pop the crowd even further. It was an interesting juxtaposition of three generations of anti-heroes. I’m guessing PPV events are the only times Punk’s going to wrestle. He’ll be doing promos on TV otherwise, perhaps getting to beat up designated whipping boys Brandon Cutler and Aaron Solow for some kind of TV action.
I’m wondering why they didn’t promote Punk’s debut on the previous Dynamite. It was generally accepted he’d be in AEW, but there was no official announcement he’d be debuting on Rampage. Did they sign all the paperwork and put this segment together in 2 days?
I think it was supposed to be a surprise, and once Meltzer got hold of the details, they decided to just not overtly admitit while tacitly acknowledging it was gonna happen. Bryan Danielson’s debut is supposed to happen at the NYC show next month, and I expect they’ll treat that the same way.
I’m really happy for Darby Allin. I first saw him wrestle at an indy show in a ballroom at the old Danish Brotherhood hall in Seattle in 2017, in front of about 700 people. That night, he jobbed to King Khash, an Iron Sheik knockoff, but his entrance and music and style definitely marked him as the star of the match. I didn’t think he was the kind of guy who’d ever have a future in WWE - but I couldn’t have imagined that in just a few years they’d have a major competitor he’d be working for, he’d be teamed up with one of the biggest stars of the old era, and he’d get to have a headline match on a PPV with one of the biggest stars of this era, who I was pretty sure was never going to wrestle again.
I saw Darby in a 2019 Evolve show in Concorde NC, where he took on Adam Cole. Future NXT guys Austin Theory, Isaiah “Swerve” Scott (Shane Strickland then), Joaquim Phoenix (DJZ) were there, as well as future AEW stars Eddie Kingston and JD Drake. It turned out to be the second time I saw The Street Profits live. I had seen them in a Charlotte NXT show before.
If Cole’s contract negotiations fall through with NXT, it would make sense for him to land in AEW, but with Punk and DBD arriving, he’s going to be Adam Who? Then again, Everrise went from being extras in NXT to working main events in AEW, so who knows.
Becky Lynch came back at SummerSlam and beat Bianca Belair, a fellow babyface, in 11 seconds to win the SmackDown Women’s Championship. That is fucking ridiculous.
Just Vince burying the young NXT talent once again. He can’t help himself.
As cool as it was to see Becky come back and win the title, Bianca deserved better.
Hopefully they’ll get a chance to put on a five-star rematch at Crown Jewel.
The ending to Lashley/Goldberg was bunk. Though I liked the fact that the crowd booed Goldberg.
And I’m still trying to figure out why John Cena is supposed to be the good guy, given that he threatened to take the title to Hollywood with him and leave SmackDown without a champion until WrestleMania.
Brock Lesnar is back. UGH.
I’m not sure who that ending was supposed to put over. The All Mighty Bobby Lashley, who up until now has been winning clean, is suddenly a chickenshit who runs away from his opponent and needs his manager’s interference to win a match, and Bill Goldberg, the man who won 173 straight matches and took the US and WCW Championships along the way, loses by ref stoppage because he can’t get back on his feet after getting whacked in the knee. The last time Goldberg lost that much of his mystique, there was a cattle prod involved.
I liked the RAW Women’s Threatx3 match and Seth Rollins’s cackle. I otherwise skipped a lot of it.
I find I enjoy WWE PPVs better if I watch them the next day and use the Too Much Stupidity button.
I would like to add I thought the Edge vs Rollins matched ruled, but I was actually rooting for Rollins. I like his evil bastard fuck personna and he’s killing it on his promos. He could have been the heel of the century if he won by exploiting Edge’s neck injury, because that had so much history and rl pain behind it. But, he can’t risk overshadowing SD’s current top heel, so he took the loss.
Apparently, WWE is bringing their blessings back to Saudi Arabia for Crown Jewel in October, for what I can only hope will be the first time they’ve ever had a good show in that country. I’m not optimistic, though: Hearsay tells me that Lashley and Goldberg will have a rematch at that show. I guess Goldberg is going to have at least three matches this year after all.