MJF — Ocho Duro Parlay Hour (#ODPH) Podcast

Welcome to an all new edition of Blogs Count Anywhere, the complementary pro wrestling blog to the ODPH Podcast & 607 TWS: The Wrestling Show! It’s been a very busy few weeks as I hit New York Comic Con and have been catching up on all the latest pro wresting news. WWE & GCW have been making some headlines the past week. Bray Wyatt has returned in a BIG way. Nick Gage is the GCW Champion avoiding retirement. All have taken up the majority of press. For this entry, there are some other organizations making some waves in their own right that you should definitely know about. Let’s take a quick lap around the feds and see what’s happening, shall we?

Kicking things off is All Elite Wrestling. During all the headlines, it was announced that current world champion Jon Moxley has signed an extension that will keep him with the company for 5 more years. This is a big win for AEW that needed one in the worst way. Moxley has restarted his career in AEW and took that energy to NJPW & GCW just to name a few indie feds. Mox has been the true face of AEW for a while now and seeing him invest back can only help the company during its’ recent locker room woes. During this time, it was also announced that Renee Paquette has joined the company as well. Another HUGE win for AEW as she is an excellent interviewer & commentator. Memo to the AEW powers that be: PUT RENEE ON THE DYNAMITE ANNOUNCE TEAM ASAP!

AEW also finished a run of shows in Toronto with some noteworthy events transpiring. Orange Cassidy defeated PAC to win the All-Atlantic championship. Fans were also gifted a segment to hype up the Adam Page/Moxley title match for the 10/18 edition of Dynamite (Special Day change). Ring of Honor also had their (more than) fair share of TV time this week as Chris Jericho defended the ROH title against Bryan Danielson with an assist from the ROH Pure Champion Daniel Garcia. It was a better show than the 3 year anniversary one but imo, AEW Rampage had the bigger moment coming from its conclusion.

Walking out at the end of the show to face off with ROH tag champs FTR was Mike Bennett, Maria Kanellis-Bennett and Matt Taven, collectively known as The Kingdom. All 3 are very well known members of the previous Ring Of Honor incarnation. Bennett and Taven are an excellent tag team, most recently seen in Impact Wrestling. Taven has been heavily rumored to be on the radar of WWE, but note the word “rumored”. Maria is very well known to make an impact as well being “The First Lady Of Professional Wrestling”. The real question is IF they are all signed to AEW or is this a partial deal?

If I’m AEW, I don’t let them leave the building without a signed contract. Yes, there are a lot of people signed between AEW and ROH but the Kingdom is one not to pass one. They are that good that they should be featured on programming each week no matter what company it is. If ROH is getting a real TV deal, the Kingdom can add some depth to a very stacked tag team division. If They’re not, they could do some work in an AEW tag team division that (imo) has cooled off a bit without FTR & the Young Bucks in the mix. It feels as the shift of tag team has gone to the newly created trios titles. Other than The Acclaimed and Swerve/Keith Lee, what 2 person teams have been making notable noise. FTR hasn’t been NEAR the AEW belts and finally got some time this week against an ROH team that was lost in the shuffle. This wouldn’t happen with Bennett and Taven. Only question now is how long with this reign of the Kingdom be? If AEW is smart, this should last for quite some time….

Major League Wrestling is loading up their MLW Fightland Card slated for September 30th in Philadelphia. The main event is World Champion Alex Hammerstone defending against “The Judge” Ed Njuka in a “last Man Standing” match. The card looks like one not to miss with matches like Lio Rush taking on Jacob Fatu and Calvin Tankman facing Willie Mack. Keep following MLW social media to hear about the match line-up. This is looking like a great card.

Photo Credit: National Wrestling Alliance

The National Wrestling Alliance has just announced a few dates for Louisiana in November that all NWA fans simply can’t miss. On November 12th, “Hard Times in New Orleans” aka “Hard Times 3” will feature a 3-way dance for the world title as current NWA Champion Trevor Murdoch defends against former champion Matt Cardona and current NWA TV champion Tyrus. Also scheduled for the show: NWA Women’s World Champion Kamille defending against KiLynn King, and Nick Aldis challenging Odinson amongst other great bouts. On November 13th, there will be a television taping “Revolution Rumble” that fans will want to catch if they can.

That’s all the pro-wrestling talk for this edition. Hit me up on the ODPH podcast social media and llet me know what pro wrestling you’re watching and think we should be covering. Thanks for reading!

Welcome to an all new edition of Blogs Count Anywhere, the complementary pro wrestling blog to the ODPH Podcast & 607 TWS: The Wrestling Show. This week marks a special anniversary date for All Elite Wrestling. On this week in 2019, AEW Dynamite debuted on the TNT network (8pm EST). With al the hype coming from their first two pay-per-view events, the upstart brand was making a play at something that few have been able to pull off successfully: Weekly Network/Cable TV Programming. Since that time, the company has grown since opening with Cody Rhodes vs. a young upstart named Sammy Guevara. For this blog, we’re gonna take a dive into where the show has gone since and where things are heading now for the big 3 year anniversary show.

Granted, with all the drama surrounding CM Punk and The Young Bucks, it appears that the world title has some stability now with Jon Moxley as the world champion. In this most recent title run, Mox has been defending it regularly with the “eliminator” stipulation put in. If an opponent beats him, they get an AEW title match as a way of earning their shot. This has grown on me immensely. Ironically enough the champion at the premiere Dynamite was current Ring Of Honor Champion Chris Jericho. The whole frequency of the belt being defended i a breath of fresh air for a company that took a BAD pr hit after the “All Out” media scrum.

As for where Mox is heading with the belt….all signs point to a feud with MJF, but where I’m more focused on is this Saturday for GCW vs. Nick Gage title vs. Career match. Even with that match and another with former champ Hangman Adam Page looking, this is the feud that needs to happen and MJF has to go over. With how much momentum he’s currently riding, MJF is ready for the belt. The “waiting in the wings” approach is working but how they extend the feud is what I’m looking at here. Fans don’t need another”5 labors” deal where Mox needs to defeat all the Firm members. Hopefully this doesn’t happen and Mox continues with the open challenges. It’s working and getting over.

Speaking of MJF, the days of fighting Brandon Cutler are long over as AEW’s most polarizing wrestlers steps up to actually wrestle Wheeler Yuta this week. A solid storyline until the Mox feud ramps up. Having MJF go thru the Blackpool Combat Club instead could make for some fun storylines. Let’s just hope it stays to the in-ring battles cause no one on the BCC with the exception of Mox and William Regal can even come close to a promo battle with the Salt Of The Earth!

In 2019, Riho faced Nyla Rose for the AEW women’s title. Hovering right around that mix was Dr. Britt Baker…D.M.D! Fast forward to now and Baker has ascended and never left the main event level, while unfortunately Riho’s run is all but forgotten. This week, Baker is coaching her team from the outside vs. a Saraya led squad. The women’s division is one tha still hasn’t consistently improved on AEW Dynamite. Occasionally the division is featured main event a show or have another match on the card other than in the (usually) 9:10pm time frame. The talent is there and imo, needs to be featured more than they are in front of the live crowds. IF (and that’s in caps for a reason), Saraya is 1000% cleared, then Baker vs. Saraya could be a program to watch for. Fingers crossed for that.

As far as the coveted tag team titles, The Acclaimed has won over fans and the heads of AEW enough to become champion. In 2019, the closest we had to a traditional tag match on Dynamites opener was a six man tag between the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho and the newly signed Santana and Ortiz. The aftermath of that match became the ground work for AEW’s debut faction: The Inner Circle.

Since then, the tag team division has been one of AEW’s bright spots with a well stacked roster of teams. Now with the Acclaimed at the top of the rankings, it’s not only a matter of time until they defend against FTR and fans get to see if FTR can add another title to their current collection of IWGP, ROH and AAA belts. For a company that claims how “Rankings matter”, the fact that Dax and Cash haven’t gotten a shot yet is an insult. I fully suspect this will be answered at AEW Full Gear in November. In the meantime, the Acclaimed are running with a newly found energy from the fans who are completely behind Caster and Bowens. It’s that kind of fan approval that got them there and it will be the same fans screaming for FTR to win whenever that match transpires.

It’s been an interesting road to get to year 3 but give credit where it’s due. Tony Khan and company continue to give fans wrestling each and every week. There are some areas that need attention but when the show is clicking on all cylinders, it’s a fun product to watch. The growth can be seen but there are moments when it feels like it could be a set-back. The in-ring work is consistent but the promos and tv time for the women’s division are 2 big areas of concern.

Those areas should be a priority going into a new year. Adding stars like a Saraya and Hook (featured above) helps the roster but it is gonna take more than new additions to subtract the weaker areas. There are enough high-level wrestling minds on contract that should be demanding to get in on creative and fix these issues. This is low hanging fruit with the people involved with this show to fix.

The pieces are there and the next phase can be summed up with: More consistency from week to week. At the end f the day, the big win is AEW is still on TV and for fans, that’s a very big win! AEW Dynamite 3 year anniversary show airs 10/5 8pm EST on TBS network and the fallout will be on AEW Rampage Friday. Until then, Happy Anniversary AEW!

Hit me up on Twitter and let me know what your favorite AEW Dynamite moment is! For even more pro-wrestling content, check out the latest ODPHpod and 607 TWS. Thanks for reading!

THY KINGDOM AE-DUB/MLW FIGHTLAND/NWA HARD TIMES 3

AEW DYNAMITE MAKES IT 3!/JON MOXLEY/MJF IS READY