Really liked the passion from Starks but he rambled a bit and jumped around at various points. One of those promos that would be amazing to be in the crowd for, but on TV it felt like it was about 30 seconds too long. It'll come with time hopefully, but it was a bit noticeable when sandwiched between MJF and Joe's pretape, who are both incredibly eloquent. I cracked up at the dime store Dwayne line because that's exactly how I saw his old gimmick. There's definitely something there though, especially if he learns to focus it better and keeps building it into this firey baby face character.
The battle royale... Tony sure loves his gimmicks because he can't figure out how to book people into championship storylines huh? At least it wasn't a tournament this time I guess. I hate that they eliminated all the people who could realistically win it or the crowd would enjoy right away. Naturally I was begging for Dustin to win since he just announced that 2023 is going to be his last year and it would be a crime if he retires without at least one world title (black) reign.
Joe and Darby was pretty sick. Basically what I expected, I even felt the coffin drop into coquina clutch coming haha. Muscle buster on the trucks was nasty but at least it was cruiser wheels and those lovely cushiony soft indy bushings
And of course we're getting another mystery opponent match. He really is totally out of ideas isn't he? Please hire a booking team already.
The Regal thing was really cringe worthy. Yeah he totally taped an interview with a sappy message weeks ago just in case something happened! If he's leaving just write him off and don't talk about him anymore, don't try this stupid retcon "I swear we filmed this week's ago and not today" shit. You already got rid of him on camera twice, did we really need a fake interview to close that door?
Claudio VS Hager was decent but I'm not a huge fan of either guy. I don't really like superman booking unless it's a champion or super top dog, when midcard Claudio does it It feels kinda hokey to me.
They finally let Hayter talk, albeit not live, and it was good. Cocky little brit brat that can back it up, getting some light Chris Adam's vibes from her. Also I've never really noticed it before but that belt looks really good, it might be my favorite women's belt ever actually. Hayter looks great too.
Thigh Blue looks like she's been working out a little bit. Slightly less jiggling than usual, but I'm not complaining. Shes getting better in the ring too, she needs to come out of her shell a little but the connection with the fans is there and she's pretty smooth. Great selling and bump taking as well.
Main event I didn't really care about even though it's two decent teams. I do wonder how many dumb old wrasslin fans there are who hate the acclaimed for being "woke" though, so I guess FTR was an interesting opponent for that reason... Kind of an old school VS new school thing. Still didn't care though since there was no reason to be invested and both are babyface teams.
Pretty mixed bag overall. There was some decent stuff and in-ring was good but man their booking is still putrid and it's still hard to watch them make the same mistakes over and over again. It feels like they're scrambling week to week rather than moving through a planned progression right now.