Vaughn vs Jackson was just an amazing opener. Vaughn is an absolutely killer character and the perfect final hurdle for a dark horse pick to barely clear to make you think Noah could go all the way. Fun to watch Noah get gutsy and crotch Vaughn on the top rope and for Vaughn to keep fighting til Jackson's Omega Driver. Back-and-forth, start to finish very believable nearfalls. Could have easily gone either way. Was maybe my favorite match of the night.

Kaye vs Grey was great. Really put Ned over as a legitimate threat given Grey, an otherwise thoroughly dominant competitor in the tournament., had to resort to heel shenanigans to clear him. I've been a fan of the journey Kaye is on, legitimizing himself as a top XWF star, and while this is another setback, it feels like he's building resolve and gathering depth as a character. Excited to continue watching his story play out.

Gina vs Cent was a squash. Interesting characterization to have Cent wait for Gina to agress upon him to do anything, upon which he immediately makes a strategic retreat. But, the moment Cent takes the upperhand, seems academic. Strong win for Cent, glad to have him back.

The Tag-Team #1 contender's match might have had the best character work, but that might just be because the Just-Us League bleeds personality and there's no way to write them as a list of moves happening. Fun character work as well for the Buff Dudes, with Wrekker serving as the mucle and Vagabond serving as the brains directing traffic. Solid fundamental tag-team match ending with the right amount of flavor to keep it interesting.

Jason Cashe auditioning mascot for SAGA was a fun segment. I like the rapport he and Theo have. As someone from Dallas, fuck Dallas. My only note is, i think the description is kind of limited. When you have a ridiculous scene like a mascot audition, I think you want to set the scene with luuuuuuuush descriptors... Every sports mascot is hilarious and ridiculous, so just setting the scene is chance to machine-gun fire absurd visual jokes: A Big-Headed Robin Hood, ready to fire t-shirts from a bow-and-arrow; Two Siamese Twins holding a poster, promoting half-price tickets, Two Guys in a Horse Costume that are Driving a Wooden Trojan Man. Shit like that. Don't leave any comedy meat on the bone.

Omega vs King was good. Maybe just a little short. Good face versus face dynamic and made both guys seem tough, but it felt like it ended at the point most matches would be shifting from second to third gear. But, great fast-paced offense back and forth.

Great showcase squash for 'Mad Dog' Mark Wright over Barney, and well-deserved. Mad Dog debuted taking on two of the hardest opponents I could imagine, (Lacklan and Kido), and it didn't give him much chance to shine in the looming shadow of two XWF top stars. This match really put his personality on the forefront, made him look like a legitimate competitor, and laid down the framework for the crowd to get behind him in bigger and bigger ways. Really happy with this one. Sidenote: Lot of axehandles on this show...

HGH vs Grey was... lol. It's so funny how weird ChatGPT is at writing. Which is why I made up a character just an excuse to play with ChatGPT. It gives these motivational descriptors, getting into move attempts and counters and you're thinking this is fine, then, it'll just flip who's the face and who's the heel. Odd character bits like Sidney knowing HGH is formidable, when... like *does* she? A whole sentence about the championship belt gleaming around her waist. As someone who has tried to force ChatGPT to write a story where one guy pins another guy, I know from experience how much ChatGPT loves writing anything that is not an action scene.

Still, compelling story stuff with the match's ending. I think it's pretty silly to imagine Cent is the mystery attacker, but if we're setting up HGH vs Cent for the Anarchy belt, with HGH trying to make Cent look like an asshole to get in his head, that's compelling!

Wondering if the mystery attacker will play at all into Grey's Uni Title reign (spoiler for later)

The Triple-Threat Tag Title Match was insane. In my scoring, this was Match of the Night. The perfect amount of chaos and order, ebbing and flowing between three very different tag-teams. I think in general, multi-team tag matches can become too chaotic and wild, to the point that it just feels like action figures smacking into each other. This one never lost that the characters were central to the match and it shines for it.

I'm like 60% sure that generally for this kind of match, the rules don't say you can pin your tag-team partner to win the titles, but as a rules lawyer, I love characterization like that where Caddy and Graves are bending the rules in a way that most people wouldn't think about. It's the difference between a dickhead heel that you should boo cheats like everyone else does, but a rogueish antihero is thinking up new and exciting ways to bend the rules. And sometimes, they don't work, but it's just fun watching an off-kilter mind at work. Great spot idea to have a pin broken up by Angie doing a contortionist-style stretch extension to tag the pinned person out. I don't think I've seen that in a real match, and it feels like an obvious way to break a pinfall is just tag out the legal man. I like Kido and Cashe as a face tag-team, they seem like two star athletes that like supporting each other, giving each other thumbs ups and rooting each other on, which is such a goofy, face thing to be is just two dudes that are fans of each other. Given that Kido has put out promos where he adopts a puppy, it all fits together nicely. Lacklan and Vaughn were great together and I hope they stick around in a tag-team division where the First Family is still desperately needed. But, SAGA continues to roll, scoring the tag belts.

Dolly vs Dionysus for the TV Title was stellar. I love Heel Dolly so much. Ambushing someone before the match, THEN slipping in and out of the ring to wear down the clock on the 15 minute limit? What a shitbag move. Dionysus looked strong throughout, got a nearfall within four minutes and got a visual pin, hopefully this gives D's writer plenty of fuel to keep firing on all cylinders. Dolly won with a counter into a submission hold, great for a wrestling family virtuoso. All in all, great match.

X-Treme Title Match was ultraviolent, was fun reading JB and Goth just fucking tear into each other, meeting every weapon the other would pull out, with a bigger, more damage-dealing weapon. Two things to note. When you do have a match like that, where a piledriver on the outside gets a two-count, you need something that's a step below murder to finish the match. A match has a natural escalating journey, where the finishing move is the climax, the pin fall is the falling action and the celebration is the story' end. So, the rising action of the match was great, but the 'climax' made it feel like a letdown when juxtaposed with the ultraviolence of the rest of the match. JB pulls out a snake, Goth tosses it into the crowd, then tackles him through the barricade. With a less violent lead-in, that ending would be great, but because everyone's already bleeding from the face, done moves on the announce table, hit each other with steel steps, the finishing moment has less oomph, I think.

Hall of Legends segment was fun. I think more inductions should be done by someone's blood rival who still kind of hates them instead of their good friend. I understand from Corey's intro that the XWF would be hard-pressed to find anyone that *liked* Engy, but this should be an every time thing lol. It feels especially petty to bring in someone who hates a guy to talk about how great he is.

The MM Finals were so good. Having Grey and Jackson both go into heel shit at the beginning, rolling out of the ring. *chef's kiss* Really great back-and-forth war. Heartbreaking someone had to lose, but Sidney Grey turned so many heads in such a short time. Winning Queen of the XWF is an incredible achievement

For the Uni... Match was amazing. Gator crushed it, putting in the same level of work Dolly did at Snow Job, actually tying in plot details of the RP cycle into the match dynamic. Having the Simp Section emptied, the crowd having Bourbon fever, Dick Powers in the crowd as a proud putt-putt papa. Flynn's reign ending by getting tossed off of and Sentoned from the Optimal Path Agro-Crag.

Also, an animatronic gorilla exploded.

I liked it. I really did.

Then. Surprise ending. Bobby tells Sidney Grey to come to the ring and gives her a title shot.

Which... was unexpected.

I think it works, though. Bobby is a daredevil. He's a risktaker. He marches to his own beat. The kinda guy who writes three straight stories about Godzilla-Kaiju fan fiction and doesn't give a shit whether or not you like it. And he loves the fans. So, he decided to
basically give the fans a championship match for free with the recent Winner of the Queen of the XWF Tournament, Sidney Grey.

Honestly, this might be the best thing for Sidney, too. With a heel run, you kind of want the vibe that the champ didn't put in the work or took shortcuts to get there. Sidney has been so dominant and so triumphant week-in and week-out, that by next cycle, it wouldn't be believable trying to do a story where she doesn't deserve a shot at the belt. This was like, the last chance to have fans believably upset about her not deserving the Uni, a thing that she does legit deserve, cuz at this point, she's beaten everybody in record time.

All in all, great show. Starmaking night for S.G.

Looking forward to WarGames, which is always my favorite show of the year.