Wrestling is a work. It's sports entertainment with predetermined results. It's a soap opera famously designed for late twentieth century male-identified fans of steroid-riddled beefcakes. It's silly. It, like all sports, is 90% garbage, 10% amazing. It's way better than fat old white guys wearing tacky clothes on a liesurely walk through manicured grass while occasionally hitting a ball with a stick, or that other ball with a stick sport where a bunch of steroid-riddled non-beefcakes stand around in the sun (or the moon if it's a night game) waiting for someone to hit the ball in their general direction so they can maybe catch it or something.

Look, it makes just as much sense as soccer or lacrosse or underwater foosball. When it's great, it's Ping Pong Parkour Great, and when it's bad, it's insufferable golf with sweatier men.

I've watched A Lot of it. First in the eighties. All of my friends were into wrestling during the Hogan-centric era. All of them. Kids would act out The Interviews, not even the matches, The Interviews during recess, probably realizing they were more likely to grow up into Gene Okerlund or Tony Schiavone than Bret Hart of The Ultimate Warrior.

In the 90s, I lived with a family who got really into The Rock, Steve Austin, and Rey Mysterio, and I got hooked back in for a couple of years.

Poetry slam took over most of my life in the 21st century, but I would hear people talk about certain names that I would remember, and I would go on Youtube or DailyMotion and seek out the match and see if it still had any emotional resonance. And sometimes it did.

I am going to Seriously Condense wrestling history into a few seasons. Each season will contain YEARS of storylines. Maybe that sucks some of the drama out when you don't have to wait a full year for a feud to peak and resolve, but I want this list to MOVE. It will be mostly WWE (which is the product I grew up on) and some WCW. And eventually ROH, Impact, and AEW (which didn't even exist when I came up with this idea).

The first season, Rock And Wrestling starts off with a Pilot Episode that doesn't really fit with the rest of the season but includes a bunch of famous matches from before I was born. Some of those matches are historically important, some of them just introduce characters who will come back much later but who you should probably see some of their Ancient Work.

I have edited all of these episodes together for my own personal use. I won't ever be sending these files out to people (because copyright is important) but a few of us meet every week on Discord and watch these reimagined episodes.

Pilot Episode: All-American Wrestling

Welcome to the weird and contagious word of watching wrestling. We begin with the end of The Longest Reigning Champion in Wrestling History’s second reign. Our story for this episode is the rise of Hulkamania as we first see the man Hulk stole his gimmick from, Superstar Billy Graham, win, defend, and then lose his title to a bland collegiate athlete. Said bland collegiate athlete will defend the title in a match with Jimmy Snuka, whose moves will inspire at least one entire generation of wrestlers, many of whom will claim to have seen this match in person. Then we get into a formulaic groove for the WWE where an evil foreigner will win or challenge for the title, only to be defeated by blond-bald headed, blue eyed, steroid dependent unreliable narrator, Hulk Hogan. This episode also features a Death Match, which is the same as a Street Fight, in that it’s more violent than a regular match, and it’s expected to be bloody. There’s also a match in a Steel Cage, where the ring is surrounded by chain link, and a Stretcher Match, where the only way to win is to incapacitate your opponent so badly that a team of medics can put him on a stretcher and take him to the back without him being able to get up and return to the ring. We also have our first match from Japan with Japanese commentary.

Remember what Bob Backlund looks like because he’ll be back next season as an unhinged, weirdo manager. Also, Pat Patterson will be back eventually as a backstage official and one of Vince McMahon’s stooges. Jerry Lawler will soon be one of WWE’s most famous commentators.

At the beginning of this episode, the WWE was known as the WWWF before evolving into the WWF but for consistency’s sake, I will always refer to it as the WWE.


1. Bruno Sammartino (WWE Champ) vs Superstar Billy Graham. 
2. Superstar Billy Graham (WWE Champ) vs Dusty Rhodes in a Texas Death Match.  
3. Fabulous Moolah & Beverly Shade vs Kandy Malloy & Peggy Lee. 
4. Andre The Giant vs Hulk Hogan. 
5. Superstar Billy Graham (WWE Champ) vs Bob Backlund. 
6. Terry Funk vs Jerry Lawler in an Empty Arena Match. 
7.  Andre The Giant vs Killer Khan in a Mongolian Stretcher Match. 
8. Pat Patterson vs Sgt Slaughter in a Street Fight. 
9. Bob Backlund (WWE Champ) vs Jimmy Superfly Snuka in a Steel Cage Match. 
10. Dynamite Kid vs Tiger Mask. 
11. Bob Backlund (WWE Champ) vs The Iron Sheik. 
​
MAIN EVENT: THE IRON SHEIK (WWE CHAMP) vs HULK HOGAN

Season 1 Episode 1: Starrcade (1983, 1984)

Before there was Wrestlemania, WWC aired the first-ever wrestling Pay-Per-View event, Starrcade: Flare For The Gold. It had wrasslin, pomp, circumstance (but not the song “Pomp and Circumstance…that’s Randy Savage’s entrance music in the WWE) and felt like An Event. I’ve edited it down to its best matches, and also included matches from the following year’s Starrcade: The Million Dollar Challenge.

Like referring to the WWWF and WWF as the WWE, which it eventually became, I’ll also be referring to all of the NWA and Jim Crockett Productions matches as WCW, since that what it was called when it went bankrupt.

The Hulk Hogan of the WCW is Ric Flair. Also blue-eyed and blonde (but more haired), his drug of choice was fame and cocaine, which made him a problematic person but a better wrestler and more dependable human being than Hulk Hogan. We start this episode with the end of the 1970’s superstar, Harley Race’s run as the company champ. Three amazing athletes: Dusty Rhodes, Ricky Steamboat, and Tully Blanchard will dominate matches in both WCW and WWE for the rest of the season.

Abdullah The Butcher is a violent, bloody wrestler who serves as an occasional featured performer in this season. He’s like WCW’s much creepier and unhinged Andre The Giant.

We get a fantastic dog collar match in this episode where two wrestlers are chained together by dog collars around their neck to keep them from running away from each other. This match features two wrestlers much more known for their time in WWE but their match here is probably each of their best and most impressive bouts in this Headcanon.

There’s no real theme to this episode, other than introducing some of the major players for the rest of this season and beyond.
1. Abdullah The Butcher vs Carlos Colon from Starrcade 1983. 
2. Rowdy Roddy Piper vs. Greg The Hammer Valentine in a Dog Collar Match from Starrcade 1983. 
3. Brisco Brothers (WCW Tag Champs) vs Ricky Steamboat and Tully Blanchard from Starrcade 1983. 
4. Harley Race (WCW Champ) vs Ric Flair in a Steel Cage from Starrcade 1983. 
5. Wahoo McDaniel (WCW US Champ) vs Superstar Billy Graham from Starrcade 1984. 
6. Ric Flair (WCW Champ) vs Dusty Rhodes for 1 Million Dollars from Starrcade 1984. 
​
THE MAIN EVENT: RICKY STEAMBOAT vs TULLY BLANCHARD from STARRCADE 1984. 

Season 1, Episode 2: The Brawl That Began It All (1984, 1985)

Just before the Pay-Per-View era for WWE, they aired a series of specials on MTV to attract a young audience to their show. They pulled in stars like Cyndi Lauper, Ozzy Osborne, Alice Cooper, Mr T, and more to serve as managers or entourage. They also opened their events with famous musicians singing America The Beautiful. But in this episode, Mean Gene Okerlund, their intrepid announcer, does an a capella version of The Star Spangled Banner. It’s not quite on-par with Aretha Franklin’s performance in a few episodes.

I’ve included several womens matches in this episode not because they’re great but because WWE had a massive misogyny problem. I mean, it still does, but it was Really Really Bad in the 1980s. 

The worst part of this episode, though is a segment where Rowdy Roddy Piper assaults Jimmy Superfly Snuka. It’s an important moment in WWE wrestling, and I have included a match where Snuka, with the assistance of one of the Bloodline Ancestors, gets his revenge.

On a much lighter note, we see a living GI Joe character battle the foreign heel in a typical Rah-Rah-Rah America match. The founder of New Japan Pro Wrestling wins the WWE Martial Arts Championship, which was never again seen in American wrestling. Andre The Giant battles another giant, Big John Studd in a match where the only way to win is to slam your opponent, and the prize is $10,000.

While many of these matches are from Wrestlemania 1, we’re going to skip the horrible and boring main event, and replace it with both a one-on-one match between Roddy Piper and Hulk Hogan, and also another Rah-Rah-Rah ’Murica match where The Soviet Union is represented by Nikolai Volkoff.

There’s some wonderful levity as Bobby The Brain Heenan and Jimmy Hart both serve as annoying and detestable managers who eventually get their come-uppance. Sometimes while wearing bright red briefs.


1. Sgt, Slaughter vs The Iron Sheik in a Boot Camp Match from the USA network, June 1984. 
2. Antonio Inoki vs Charlie Fulton from the WWE on MSG network, July 1984. 
3. Fabulous Moolah (WWE Womens Champ) vs Wendi Richter from The Brawl To End It All, 1984. 
4. Andre The Giant vs Big John Studd at Wrestlemania 1.
5. Wendi Richter (WWE Womens Champ) vs Lelani Kai at Wrestlemania 1.
6. Hulk Hogan (WWE Champ) vs Roddy Piper from the WWE on MSG Network, February 1985. 
7. Wendi Richter (WWE Womens Champ) vs The Fabulous Moolah from Saturday Night’s Main Event #1
8. Junkyard Dog vs Terry Funk from Saturday Night’s Main Event #3
9. Roddy Piper and Bob Orton vs Jimmy Snuka and The Tonga Kid (aka The Bloodline Ancestors) from the WWE on MSG Network.   
​      
MAIN EVENT: HULK HOGAN (WWE CHAMP) vs NIKOLAI VOLKOFF in a FLAG MATCH from SATURDAY NIGHT’S MAIN EVENT #2.

Season 1, Episode 3: Hard Times, 1985


This episode is named for one of the most famous promos of all time. While Ric Flair was always bragging about limousine riding, high flying excess, Dusty Rhodes talks about being a real person having to go through hard times but working through them to get to the good times. 

The mid-80s were Hard Times for WCW, there are certainly some matches worth watching but a lot of the shows featured screwy finishes and subpar wrestling and none of the stories were particularly engaging past the superficial Rich Dude vs Working Man angle or Wrestler Randomly Betrays Other Wrestler. This episode features talking heads behind news desks setting up stories and then breaking down the results.

One of the highlights of this episode is a couple of matches featuring Magnum TA, who was set to be the next big star (a role that ended up going to Sting) but was involved in a car accident that ended his in-ring career and turned him into a popular commentator for a few years. Here he battles Kamala (RIP), a regrettable racist stereotype character that wouldn’t fly today. James Arthur Harris, the man behind the face paint, did his best to turn this character into something worth remembering, and while he is now in the Hall Of Fame, his career is rough to watch through a non-racist lens. We also see Magnum in our first I Quit match, where the only way to win is to make your opponent either pass out or surrender.


1. Magnum TA vs Kamala at The Great American Bash 1985. 
2. Ric Flair (WCW Champ) vs Nikita Koloff at Great American Bash 1985. 
3. Tully Blanchard (WCW TV Champ) vs Dusty Rhodes in a Steel Cage at Great American Bash 1985. 
4. Abdullah The Butcher vs Manny Fernandez in a Mexican Death Match at Starrcade 1985. 
5. Magnum TA vs Tully Blanchard in an I Quit Steel Cage Match at Starrcade 1985. 
6. Minnesota Wrecking Crew (WCW National Tag Champs) vs Wahoo McDaniels and Billy Jack Hynes at Starrcade 1985. 
7. The Koloff Brothers (WCW World Tag Champs) vs Rock & Roll Express at Starrcade 1985. 
​
MAIN EVENT: RIC FLAIR (WCW CHAMP) vs DUSTY RHODES at STARRCADE 1985. 

Season 1, Episode 4: The Matches For The Masses (1985)

Our first tournament-based episode is mostly taken from the 1985 Wrestling Classic. Wrestlemania 2 is mostly a clunker not worth watching. It’s much more fun to see Randy Savage battle the odds, trying to win a tournament that ends up not actually leading anywhere.

I peppered this card with a series of skits from the Halloween Episode of Saturday Night’s Main Event and give it a classic Rock & Wrestling Era ending after the silly but entertaining main event. The wrestling in this episode is the best so far, mostly thanks to Randy Savage, Dynamite Kid, and Ricky Steamboat. 

I was never a huge fan of Brutus Beefcake but his tag team with Greg Valentine was a blast to watch, and I might not have seen any of their matches if not for this project.

We also have the worst, darkest match of this season as Wendy Richter ends up on the losing end of The Original Screwjob because Vince McMahon never like paying women large sums of money unless it’s hush money to cover up his sexual assaults. He never liked paying them appropriate money for wrestling.

Bonus entertainment: Ray Charles sings “America The Beautiful” to open the show with just a tad more prestige than having Gene Okerlund warble "The Star Spangled Banner".

1. Ricky Steamboat vs The British Bulldog (as Davey Boy Smith) from The Wrestling Classic.
2. Wendy Richter (WWE Womens Champ) vs The Fabulous Moolah (as The Spider) from the WWE on MSG Network.
3. Randy Savage vs Ricky Steamboat from The Wrestling Classic.
4. Hulk Hogan (WWE Champ) vs Roddy Piper from The Wrestling Classic.
5. Randy Savage vs Dynamite Kid from The Wrestling Classic.
6. Ricky Steamboat vs Hercules from Wrestlemania 2.
7. Junkyard Dog vs Randy Savage from The Wrestling Classic.
8. The Dream Team (WWE Tag Champs) vs The British Bulldogs from Wrestlemania 2.
9. The Fabulous Moolah (WWE Womens Champ) vs Velvet McIntyre from Wrestlemania 2.
10. Jake Roberts vs Ricky Steamboat from The Big Event.
11. Hulk Hogan (WWE Champ) vs Terry Funk from Saturday Night’s Main Event #4.
12. The Dream Team (WWE Tag Champs) vs The Rougeaus from The Big Event.
​
MAIN EVENT: HULK HOGAN (WWE CHAMP) vs KING KONG BUNDY in a STEEL CAGE MATCH from WRESTLEMANIA 2.

Season 1, Episode 5: Skywalkers (1986)

There’s a lot to love in this weird little WCW episode. Legion Of Doom is in two amazing gimmick matches that we won’t ever see again: A Double Russian Chain Match where two sets of wrestlers are chained together for a bloody brawl, and a Scaffold Match where all four participants climb a tower and fight on a thin scaffold, the losers being whoever falls off.

We get our first quality time with Jim Cornette as a detestable manager in the aforementioned scaffold match where he gets an injury that he’s still justifiably complaining about over forty years later.

There’s also two Dusty Rhodes/Tully Blanchard matches. One in a steel cage. The other is a First Blood Match. They’re both amazing. 

It’s not often that I set a tag team match as The Main Event but this steel cage brawl is a tough one to follow up, so it gets the honors. Also, I wanted a tag team match to follow up the Scaffold Match, which is an important match with some wild happenings but which is, as a wrestling match, pretty limited due to being held on a friggen scaffold.

There’s a lovely anomaly match in this episode featuring a tag team called The Sheepherders. They’re a violent Australian tag team who had bloody tag team matches and were incredibly entertaining. In a few episodes, they show up in WWE as The Bushwhackers, a silly team of two guys who like to lick things and wrestle mostly in comedy matches for children. It’s a WEIRD evolution. While I haven’t included many Bushwhackers matches, they did show up enough that I wanted to take the opportunity to include at least one pre-WWE match where you get to see them really wrestle.

1. Ric Flair (WCW Champ) vs Ron Garvin at NWA World Championship Wrestling 1985.
2. The Legion of Doom vs The Koloff Brothers in a Double Russian Chain Match at Great American Bash 1985.
3. Tully Blanchard (WCW TV Champ) vs Dusty Rhodes in an Unsanctioned Cage Match at Great American Bash 1985.
4. The Fantastics (USW Tag Champs) vs The Bushwhackers (as The Sheepherders) at NWA Jim Crockett Sr Memorial Cup 1986
5. Ric Flair (WCW Champ) vs Dusty Rhodes in a Steel Cage at NWA Jim Crockett Sr Memorial Cup 1986.
6. Big Boss Man (as Big Bubba) vs Ronnie Garvin in a Street Fight at Starrcade 1986.
7. Dusty Rhodes (WCW TV Champ) vs Tully Blanchard in a First Blood Match at Starrcade 1986.
8. The Legion Of Doom vs The Midnight Express in a Scaffold Match at Starrcade 1986.
​
MAIN EVENT: ROCK & ROLL EXPRESS vs MINNESOTA WRECKING CREW in a Steel Cage at STARRCADE 1986.

Season 1, Episode 6: The Cream Of The Crop (1987)

Some of the best promos from the 1980s show up in this episode, which also features several returns to Piper’s Pit, Roddy Piper’s talk show, where we get the setup for this episode’s main event.

Everyone’s favorite giant from The Princess Bride turns into a villain so Hulk Hogan gets a monster opponent. The commentary teams can keep telling us that Andre has never been slammed, even though we not only saw him get slammed in our first episode, we saw him get slammed by Hulk Hogan!

We even get more Bloodline Ancestors as Sika and Haku start to show up.

Ricky Steamboat wrestles two fantastic matches in this episode but has a dud of a “dragon” in his Snakepit Match vs Jake Roberts and his snake, Damien.

Sensational Sherri debuts for us here. She is one of the most important managers of this season but before she had that role, she was an excellent womens champion who got almost no TV matches, so we sneak in a bout from a tour of France so we can get a sense of who she is as a wrestler before she becomes a wild, devious manager.

Bonus entertainment: Aretha Franklin opens up the episode with her rendition of “America The Beautiful”.

1. Sika vs Special Delivery Jones
2. 20 Man Battle Royal
Andre The Giant, Ax, B Brian Blair, Billy Jack Haynes, Blackjack Mulligan, Butch Reed, The Genius (as Leapin Larry Poffo), Haku, Hercules, Hillbilly Jim, Honky Tonk Man, Hulk Hogan, Jim Brunzell, Koko B Ware, Nikolai Volkoff,  Paul Orndorff, Ron Bass, Sika, Smash from Saturday Night’s Main Event #10.

3. Ricky Steamboat vs Jake Roberts in a Snake Pit Match at Saturday Night’s Main Event #7.
4. The Hart Foundation (WWE Tag Champs) vs Tito Santana & Dan Spivey from Saturday Night’s Main Event #7.
5. Harley Race vs Junkyard Dog for WWE King Of The Ring title from Wrestlemania 3.
6. Randy Savage (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Ricky Steamboat from Wrestlemania 3.
6. Jake Roberts vs The Honky Tonk Man from Wrestlemania 3.
7. Sensational Sherri (WWE Womens Champ) vs Velvet McIntyre from WWF on Canal+.
​
MAIN EVENT: HULK HOGAN (WWE CHAMP) vs ANDRE THE GIANT from WRESTLEMANIA 3.​​

Season 1, Episode 7: The Humble Rumble (1987, 1988)

Some super multi-person matches dominate this episode that features both the first ever Survivor Series and the first ever Royal Rumble.

The Survivor Series was a night where all of the matches featured teams of five wrestlers tagging in and out get as many combinations of opponents as possible. This was used to cross stories together, settle feuds without singles matches, and even set up future feuds. There were two excellent matches during their first tournament in 1987.

In 1988, we got our first Royal Rumble. After this one, most would be 30-wrestler chaos machines where wrestlers draw numbers in a lottery. Two wrestlers start out in the ring, and a new person enters every two minutes. A wrestler is eliminated not by pinfall but by being thrown over the top rope. They are allowed to roll under the bottom rope, or sneak through the middle ropes but if they go over the top rope and their feet touch the ground, they’re out. This first-ever televised rumble had just twenty men, and didn’t include the story elements and beats that would be used in future bouts but it’s still fun to watch.

There’s also an absolutely killer tag team match where WWE invents a womens tag team title, straps it on to two of their undervalued women wrestlers and put them in the ring with the Japanese sensation that they dub The Jumping Bomb Angels who put on the best womens showing we’ll see until Bull Nakano shows up next season.


1. The Honky Tonkers vs The Savage Animals from the inaugural Survivor Series 1987.
Honky Tonk Man, Ron Bass, Harley Race, Hercules, and Danny Davis vs Randy Savage, Brutus Beefcake, Jake Roberts, Ricky Steamboat, and  Jim Duggan

2. Hulkamaniacs vs The Giants Of Wrestling from the inaugural Survivor Series 1987.
Hulk Hogan, Bam Bam Bigelow, Don Muraco, Paul Orndorff, and Ken Patera vs Andre The Giant, King Kong Bundy, Rick Rude, Butch Reed, and The One Man Gang.

3. Randy Savage vs Bret Hart from Saturday Night’s Main Event 13.
4. The Glamour Girls (WWE Womens Tag Team Champs) vs Jumping Bomb Angels from the inaugural Royal Rumble 1998.
​
MAIN EVENT: THE INAUGURAL ROYAL RUMBLE 1988
B Brian Blair, Bret Hart, Boris Zhukov, Butch Reed, Danny Davis, Don Muraco, Dino Bravo, Harley Race, Hillbilly Jim, Jake Roberts, Jim Brunzell, Jim Duggan, Jim Neidhart, Junkyard Dog, Nikolai Volkoff, One Man Gang, Ron Bass, Sam Houston, Tito Santana, and Ultimate Warrior.

Season 1, Episode 8: War Games (1987)

Not to be outdone by the WWE, WCW ups the stakes of the Survivor Series concept by having their five-on-five match in a Steel Cage. Two wrestlers start out and every two minutes, a new member of a team enters until all ten men are in the ring. No one can be pinned or eliminated until everyone is in the cage and wrestling, and then it’s a free-for-all until someone is pinned or submits.

We also have our first trios match, which is just a tag team match with three people instead of two.
 
The Flair/Windham match is our first without commentary. There are going to be very few matches without commentary in this Headcanon as bouts have a whole different feel when they lack narration.

1. Legion Of Doom vs The Four Horsemen in a War Games Match from The Great American Bash 1987.
Legion Of Doom, Nikita Koloff, Dusty Rhodes, and Paul Ellering vs Ric Flair, Lex Luger, Arn Andersen, Tully Blanchard, and JJ Dillon

2. Eddie Gilbert, Larry Zbysko, and Rick Steiner vs Sting, Jimmy Garvin/Michael Hayes from Starrcade 1987.
3. Lex Luger (WCW TV Champ) vs Dusty Rhodes from Starrcade 1987.
4. Ric Flair (WCW Champ) vs Barry Windham on NWA World Wide Wrestling.
5. Barry Windham (WCW Western States Champ) vs Larry Zbysko from the Western States Championship Tournament 1987.
​
MAIN EVENT: RONNIE GARVIN (WCW CHAMP) vs RIC FLAIR in a STEEL CAGE MATCH at MID-SOUTH WRESTLING.

Season 1, Episode 9: The War To Settle The Score (1988)

For our first time, an Authority Figure pops up to further a story as the WWE President, Jack Tunney steps in after Hulk Hogan loses an insanely weird match to Andre The Giant, who then hands the title to Ted Dibiase. Tunney rules that none of them can claim the title and sets up a tournament to determine a new champion.

Demolition debuts as WWE’s answer to the Legion Of Doom from WCW.

We also travel to Europe again to get another womens match on the card and to see how dangerous Sensational Sherri can be.

This is also the era where Honky Tonk Man was the longest reigning Intercontinental Champion, a record that wasn’t broken until 2024. His matches aren’t great, so we won’t be seeing too many but you should get an idea for what kind of champ he was before his historic loss.


1. Hulk Hogan (WWE Champ) vs Andre The Giant on The Main Event 1988.
2. Ted Dibiase vs Jim Duggan from Wrestlemania 4.
3. Honky Tonk Man (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Brutus Beefcake from Wrestlemania 4.
4. Randy Savage vs One Man Gang from Wrestlemania 4.
5. Strike Force (WWE Tag Champs) vs Demolition from Wrestlemania 4.
6. Randy Savage vs Ted Dibiase for the WWE Title from Wrestlemania 4.
7. Sensational Sherri (WWE Womens Champ) vs Rockin' Robin on Canal+.
8. Rick Rude vs Koko B Ware from Saturday Night’s Main Event 16.
​
MAIN EVENT: RANDY SAVAGE (WWE CHAMP) vs ONE MAN GANG on SATURDAY NIGHT’S MAIN EVENT 16.

Season 1, Episode 10: Bunkhouse Stampede (1988)

A gimmick sandwich bookended by two great Ric Flair matches. He first takes on Hawk from Legion of Doom in a surprisingly good match considering Hawk is mainly known as a tag team wrestler, and then Flair main events against Sting for the first time.

The Bunkhouse Stampede is a fun stipulation where eight men enter a steel cage wearing regular clothes instead of wrestling gear, and are allowed weapons as they eliminate each other by either throwing a competitor over the top of the cage or through the cage door. The elimination style is dumb looking and convoluted but the violence and storytelling are fun.

​On the other hand, the Tower Of Doom is a mess. It’s a three story steel cage where you have to fight from the top level down to the bottom and escape through the door. Different wrestlers are stationed on different levels. It’s chaos. I can think of three times the stipulation was used and two of them are some of The Worst Wrestling Matches Ever. This one isn’t bad, it’s just confusing.


1. Ric Flair (WCW Champ) vs Hawk at Bunkhouse Stampede 1988.
2. Steel Cage Bunkhouse Stampede from Bunkhouse Stampede 1988
Dusty Rhodes, Arn Anderson, Lex Luger, Barbarian, Warlord, Ivan Koloff, Animal, and Tully Blanchard

3. The Midnight Express (WCW Tag Team Champs) vs The Fantastics on World Wide Wrestling TV.
4. Tower Of Doom Match from Great American Bash 1988.
Legion Of Doom, Steve Williams, Ron and Jimmy Garvin vs Al Perez, Ivan Koloff, Kevin Sullivan, IRS,  and The Russian Assassin

5. Barry Windham (WCW US Champ) vs Dusty Rhodes from Great American Bash 1988.
​
MAIN EVENT: RIC FLAIR (WCW CHAMP) vs STING from CLASH OF CHAMPIONS.

Season 1, Episode 11: The Megapowers (1988)

Without question, the best and most popular storyline of the 1980s was the friendship and eventual betrayal of the two fan-favorite wrestlers in the WWE. It begins here as Randy Savage’s girlfriend/manager/valet runs to get Hulk Hogan when Randy is in trouble and the two wrestlers become The Megapowers. 

Their main feud in this episode sees them have multiple matches against members of Ted Dibiase’s Megabucks stable.

We also see the absurd fall of The Honky Tonk Man, the rise of The Ultimate Warrior, and Jake Roberts and Rick Rude have a fantastic rematch after their stinker of a battle at Wrestlemania 4.

The Survivor Series not only serves as an endpoint for the Megapowers/Megabucks feud, it also has one of the longest and most wrestler-filled Survivor Series match ever as, instead of ten men, ten tag teams battle it out in one ring.

Oh, and we learn that Andre The Giant is afraid of snakes, which is going to come up several times for the rest of the season.

1. Randy Savage (WWE Champ) vs Andre The Giant from Saturday Night’s Main Event 18.
2. Hulk Hogan vs Haku from Saturday Night’s Main Event 17.
3. Honky Tonk Man (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Jim Duggan on Wrestlefest 1988.
4. Bret Hart vs Bad News Brown on Wrestlefest 1988.
5. Jake Roberts vs Rick Rude from Saturday Night’s Main Event 17.
6. Honky Tonk Man (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Ultimate Warrior from Summer Slam 1988.
7. Demolition (WWE Tag Team Champs) vs The Hart Foundation from SummerSlam 1988.
8. Megapowers vs Megabucks from SummerSlam 1988.
9. Ten Team Tag Team Survivor Series Match from Survivor Series 1988.
The British Bulldogs, The Hart Foundation, The Powers Of Pain, The Rockers, and The Young Stallions vs The Bolsheviks, The Brain Busters, Los Conquistadors, Demolition, and The Rougeaus.

MAIN EVENT: SUPER MEGAPOWERS vs SUPER MEGABUCKS in a SURVIVOR SERIES MATCH from SURVIVOR SERIES 1988.
Hulk Hogan, Hercules, Hillbilly Jim, Koko B Ware, Randy Savage vs  Big Boss Man, Haku, One Man Gang, The Red Rooster, Ted Dibiase

Season 1, Episode 12: Chi-Town Rumble (1988)

There’s not too much to say about this episode. There are only five matches but they’re all solid and pretty long. 

The main event here is probably Lex Luger’s greatest match. We’ll certainly see him again for quite a few seasons but Flair brings out the absolute best in him in this Starrcade match from 1988.


1. The Brain Busters (as The Four Horsemen) (WCW Tag Champs) vs Sting & Nikita Koloff from Starrcade 1988.
2. Russian Assassins vs Junkyard Dog & Ivan Koloff from Starrcade 1988.
3. Mike Rotunda (WCW TV Champ) vs Rick Steiner with Kevin Sullivan in a Shark Cage from the Chi-Town Rumble.
4. Barry Windham (WCW US Champ) vs Bam Bam Bigelow from Starrcade 1988.
​
MAIN EVENT: RIC FLAIR (WCW CHAMP) vs LEX LUGER from STARRCADE 1988.

Season 1, Episode 13: The Affray Over The Valet (1988, 1989)

Part two of our Megapowers trilogy mostly focuses on the role Elizabeth unwittingly plays in their destruction.

Other highlights important events include The One Man Gang being rechristened as Akeem The African Dream in a weird, racist jab at Dusty Rhodes, a rare King of The Ring defense, our second Royal Rumble, and The Brain Busters showing up in the WWE just one episode after we saw them as The Four Horsemen in WCW.

Throughout this episodes are skits from Prime Time Wrestling, a long-running WWE show where Bobby Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon showed off their humorous (not quite funny but definitely humorous) relationship when they weren’t doing commentary with each other. It’s weird and oddly wholesome, and I felt it should be represented along with their evolution as an announce team.

1. Hulk Hogan vs The One Man Gang (as Akeem) from Saturday Night’s Main Event 19.
2. The Ultimate Warrior (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Honky Tonk Man from Saturday Night’s Main Event 19.
2. Mr. Perfect vs Koko B Ware from Saturday Night’s Main Event 19.
3. Haku vs Harley Race for the WWE King of The Ring from Royal Rumble 1989.
4. Royal Rumble Match from The Royal Rumble 1989.
Andre the Giant, Arn Anderson, Ax, Bad News Brown, The Barbarian, Big Boss Man, Big John Studd, Brutus Beefcake, Bushwhacker Butch, Bushwhacker Luke, Greg Valentine, Hercules, Honky Tonk Man, Hulk Hogan, Jake Roberts, Koko B Ware, Marty Jannetty, Mr Perfect, One Man Gang, Randy Savage, Red Rooster, Rick Martel, Ron Bass, Ronnie Garvin, Shawn Michaels, Smash, Ted Dibiase, Tito Santana, Tully Banchard, Warlord

5. Brain Busters vs The Rockers on the WWE on MSG Network 1989.
​
MAIN EVENT: THE MEGAPOWERS vs THE TWIN TOWERS from THE MAIN EVENT 2.

Season 1, Episode 14: Steamboat Ricky (1989)

While Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage put on the most popular 1980s storyline over in the WWE, Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat put on three of the best rated and remembered matches of the decade. They had a fourth match that was merely excellent so it doesn’t get remembered as often.

While they’re all fairly long, I think they deserve to be watched all in one episode. To break it up, I’ve also included Paul Heyman’s arrival in WCW. He goes by Paul E Dangerously and he shows up with the team he dubs The Real Midnight Express, which includes one of The Midnight Express’s founding members. He challenges Jim Cornette’s Original Midnight Express to a match we’ll see here. While the tag team match is fantastic, I’m mainly including this for the interactions between Heyman and Cornette both of whom will go on to be some of the most important and controversial people in wrestling history. Their controversies, though are rooted in relatable human flaws as opposed to the controversies around rapist thug and contender for The Worst American Who Ever Lived, Vince McMahon. As such, seeing them on screen is almost always fun, even when they’re being jerks.


1. Jim Cornette & The Midnight Express vs Paul Heyman (as Paul E Dangerously) & The Midnight Express on NWA television.
2. Ric Flair (WCW Champ) vs Ricky Steamboat at the Chi-Town Rumble.
3. Sting (WCW TV Champ) vs Iron Sheik at Wrestlewar 1989.
4. Ricky Steamboat (WCW Champ) vs Ric Flair in a 2/3 Falls match at Clash of Champions 6.
5. Jim Cornette & The Midnight Express vs Paul Heyman (as Paul E Dangerously) & The Midnight Express at Chi-Town Rumble.
​
MAIN EVENT: RICKY STEAMBOAT (WCW CHAMP) vs RIC FLAIR at WRESTLEWAR 1989.

Season 1, Episode 15: The Megapowers Explode

After the ending of the last WWE episode’s main event, Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan are on a collision course for the title at Wrestlemania. Poor Miss Elizabeth is forced to either be neutral or choose between her long-term emotionally abusive boyfriend (in real life, she and Randy Savage had been married for years at this point) or the lazy, ego-maniacal steroid model who seemed much more interested in being around her than in helping his old tag team partner.

The rest of the episode features the incredibly talented tag team division of the late 80s, as well as our first glimpse of Owen Hart as The Blue Blazer.


1. Mr Perfect vs Owen Hart (as The Blue Blazer) at Wrestlemania 5.
2. The Twin Towers vs Rockers at Wrestlemania 5.
3. The Brain Busters vs Strike Force at Wrestlemania 5.
4. Jake Roberts vs Andre The Giant at Wrestlemania 5.
5. Demolition (WWE Tag Champs) vs The Brain Busters from Saturday Night’s Main Event 21.
6. Tito Santana & The Rockers vs Rick Martel & The Rougeaus from SummerSlam 1989.
7. Demolition (WWE Tag Champs) vs The Brain Busters from Saturday Night’s Main Event 22.
8. The Brain Busters (WWE Tag Champs) vs The Rockers from Saturday Night’s Main Event 24.
5. Ultimate Warrior (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Rick Rude at Wrestlemania 5.
​
MAIN EVENT: RANDY SAVAGE (WWE CHAMP) vs HULK HOGAN at WRESTLEMANIA 5.

Season 1, Episode 16: Sensational Backlash (1989)

In modern WWE wrestling, Wrestlemania is followed by an event called Backlash that includes rematches from Wrestlemania, as well as matches that naturally evolved out of Wrestlemania’s events. While it didn’t exist in the 1980s or early 90s, this episode has the feel of one of those events. 

Randy Savage dumps his sweet, real-life wife as manager and hires the entertainingly weird and devious Sensational Sherri to replace her. This leads to a storyline, which we’ll be ignoring, where Savage teams up with “Zeus”, actor Tiny Lister, who stars as a villain in the Hulk Hogan movie, No Holds Barred. This led to a ton of bad matches, so we’re going to skip them entirely. Just be prepared that Zeus has a cameo in this episode that doesn’t go anywhere.

We’ll be following Hulk into another storyline that germinates here.

The Main Event for this episode is a ridiculous one without too much story behind it, which is a nice diversion as the end of this season gets more soap-operay.


1. Rick Rude (WWE Intercontinental Champion) vs Jim Duggan at Saturday Night’s Main Event 21.
2. Randy Savage vs Jim Neidhart at Saturday Night’s Main Event 21.
3. Hulk Hogan (WWE Champ) vs The Big Boss Man at Saturday Night’s Main Event 21.
4. Rick Rude (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs The Ultimate Warrior
5. The King’s Court vs The 4x4s in a Survivor Series Match at Survivor Series 1989.
Dino Bravo, Earthquake, Greg Valentine, and Randy Savage vs Bret Hart, Hercules, Jim Duggan, and Ronnie Garvin.

6. The Rockers vs The Rougeaus from WWE at Sky One, 1989.
​
MAIN EVENT: THE RUDE BROOD VS RODDY’S ROWDIES IN A SURVIVOR SERIES MATCH AT SURVIVOR SERIES, 1989
Jacques Rougeau, Mr Perfect, Raymond Rougeau, and Rick Rude vs Bushwhacker Butch, Bushwhacker Luke, Jimmy Snuka, and Roddy Piper.

Season 1, Episode 17: Glory Days (1989)

Spinning out of episode 115, the new crazy heel in WCW is Terry Funk. He is on a path to take out Ric Flair but he has to go through Ricky Steamboat first. And poor Ricky has to deal with the famously irrational and disloyal Lex Luger, the US Champ, instead of getting another shot at Flair’s belt.

Next season, WCW is going to have a ton of crossover with New Japan Pro Wrestling. We get our first taste here as The Great Muta comes to America hungry for his first WCW title. Sting is a great opponent for him here. These two will have occasional matches against each other way all the way to the 2020s when The Great Muta retires.

One of the worst types of gimmick match in wrestling history is the Tuxedo Match where two usually non-wrestlers put on formal wear and the only way to win is to strip it off the opponent. Every Tuxedo Match in history is bad but 1989’s Tuxedo Street Fight between Jim Cornette and Paul Heyman (as Paul E Dangerously) is the only one that is, at least, entertaining. Enjoy.


1. Ricky Steamboat vs Terry Funk from Clash Of Champions 7.
2. Sting (WCW TV Champ) vs Great Muta at Great American Bash 1989.
3. Paul Heyman (as Paul E Dangerously) vs Jim Cornette in a Tuxedo Street Fight at Great American Bash 1989.
4. Lex Luger (WCW US Champ) vs Ricky Steamboat at Great American Bash 1989.
5. Legion Of Doom vs The Bloodline Ancestors in a War Games Match at Great American Bash 1989.
Steve Williams, The Midnight Express, and The Legion Of Doom vs The Fabulous Freebirds and The Samoan SWAT Team.

MAIN EVENT: RIC FLAIR (WCW CHAMP) VS TERRY FUNK at GREAT AMERICAN BASH 1989.

Season 1, Episode 18: Poetic Injustice (1989, 1990)

We begin to both wrap up some loose threads from this season, as well as set up the WWE Season Finale. The main story here is the rise of The Ultimate Warrior. He’s a terrible wrestler but an entertaining foil for Hulk Hogan. But not quite as entertaining as The Genius, who becomes the second Poffo brother (Randy Savage being the first) to defeat Terrible Terry Six Moves in a title match.

We had the Brain Busters crossover from WCW in the last couple of episodes. Dusty Rhodes does the same here. It’s a bit weird to see him go from Hard Times wrestler in classic wrestlers’ attire to the polka-dot bespeckled American Dream but he pulls it off, somehow.

The Main Event for this episode is a fantastic Royal Rumble filled with multiple stories. There is a continuity error in this episode as The Rumble definitely takes place before the Ultimate Maniacs match but the Rumble made for a better main event, so I switched them around.
 

1. Rick Martel vs Tito Santana in a Lumberjack Match at Saturday Night’s Main Event 23.
2. The Ultimate Warrior (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Andre The Giant at Saturday Night’s Main Event 24.
3. Hulk Hogan (WWE Champ) vs The Genius at Saturday Night’s Main Event 24.
4. Dusty Rhodes vs The Big Boss Man at Saturday Night’s Main Event 24.
5, Randy Savage vs Jim Duggan at Saturday Night’s Main Event 25.
6. The Ultimate Maniacs vs Mr Perfect and The Genius at Saturday Night’s Main Event 25.
7. The Rockers vs The Hart Foundation at Saturday Night’s Main Event 26.

​MAIN EVENT: ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH AT THE ROYAL RUMBLE 1990.
Andre The Giant, Ax, Bad News Brown, The Barbarian, Bret Hart, Dino Bravo, Dusty Rhodes, Earthquake, Haku, Hercules, The Honky Tonk Man, Hulk Hogan, Jake Roberts, Jjmmy Snuka, Jim Neidhart, Koko B Ware, Marty Jannetty, Mr Perfect, One Man Gang (as Akeem), Randy Savage, The Red Rooster, Rick Martel, Rick Rude, Roddy Piper, Shawn Michaels, Smash, Ted Dibiase, Tito Santana, The Ultimate Warrior, and The Warlord

Season 1, Episode 19: Future Shock (1986, 1990)

This episode starts out with a bit of a flashback. Season 2 is going to have a shift as Ric Flair is replaced by Sting as the face of WCW, and The Ultimate Warrior will replace Hulk Hogan for a bit in WWE. Before their parallel rises to the top of their respective companies, Sting and The Ultimate Warrior were tag team partners. Here, we see the two of them as The Blade Runners taking on Ted Dibiase and Dr Death Steve Williams before we get back to 1989. 

We get another look at The Great Muta here in a fun tag match with a malfunctioning electrified steel cage. (There’s a small fire in the middle of the match) Also, The Skyscrapers tag team, managed by future WWE Authority Figure, Teddy Long, includes Mean Mark Callus who will show up in the WWE next season as The Undertaker. His greatest rival, Mick Foley, debuts here, too, as Cactus Jack.


1. The Blade Runners vs Ted Dibiase & Steve Williams from the UWF in 1986.
2. Ric Flair (WCW Champ) & Sting vs The Great Muta (WCW TV Champ) & Terry Funk in a Thunderdome Match at Halloween Havoc 1989.
3. Mick Foley (as Cactus Jack Manson) vs Norman The Lunatic at WrestleWar 1990.
4. The Rock & Roll Express vs The Midnight Express at WrestleWar 1990.
5,. Legion of Doom vs  The Skyscrapers at WrestleWar 1990.

MAIN EVENT:  RIC FLAIR (WCW CHAMP) vs STING at WRESTLEWAR 1990.

Season 1, Episode 20: Everybody’s Got A Price (1990)

Two stories weave in and out of this WWE Season finale, which serves a last kiss from the 1980s.Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior keep crossing paths as the new monster in the WWE, Earthquake, and his partner, Dino Bravo, both go after the Intercontinental and WWE Championships. The other story is that Ted Dibiase has created a new title, The Million Dollar Championship and he and Jake Roberts go to war over the title, which will completely change not only Jake Roberts’s career trajectory but also that of The Big Boss Man and Virgil next season.
The source material for a few of these skits and episodes are the weekly television show so they are of varying quality. 
As the seasons go on, I like to include a retiring wrestler in the main event of the final episode. I couldn’t really do that at the end of Season One. However, this is the last time we’ll see Andre The Giant in a wrestling ring, and he gets a great sendoff, despite the fact that he was in so much pain that he couldn’t wrestle for a couple of years before this match. We’ll see him a couple of times next season but he’ll be outside of the ring to further stories, rather than in the ring.


1. Ted Dibiase (Million Dollar Champion) vs Lee Peak on Superstars of Wrestling.
2. The Ultimate Warrior (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Dino Bravo from The Main Event 3.
3. Ted Dibiase (Million Dollar Champion) vs Jake Roberts from the WWE at MSG Network.
4. Hulk Hogan (WWE Champ) vs Dino Bravo on Superstars of Wrestling.
5. The Colossal Connection (WWE Tag Champs) vs Demolition at Wrestlemania 6
6. Randy Savage & Sensational Sherri vs Dusty Rhodes & Sweet Sapphire at Wrestlemania 6.
7. The Rockers vs The Powers Of Pain from the WWE at MSG Network.
8. Ted Dibiase (Million Dollar Champ) vs Jake Roberts at Wrestlemania 6.
​
WWE SEASON FINALE MAIN EVENT: HULK HOGAN (WWE CHAMP) vs THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR (WWE INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMP) at WRESTLEMANIA 6.

When I originally started this project during the pandemic of 2020, the intention was to focus on WWE storylines while also showing the WCW/ECW/ROH/Impact stories that fed into the WWE storylines. So you'd know who Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes, Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, etc. were before their first appearances in WWE.

As I fleshed out my ideas for seasons, though, I realized there were too many great WCW matches that I'd never bothered with because I didn't know the wrestlers because they'd never crossed over into WWE. So I had the first two seasons pretty much split evenly between WWE and WCW. 

ECW has some fun stuff, and is hugely important to the evolution of wrestling but it didn't have the quality production or the consistently good matches of the other two companies, so I only infused a few episodes.

Eventually, both WCW and ECW were bought out by the WWE, and there's an entire season of almost all WWe matches. Then, Ring of Honor and Impact/TNA showed up. While Ring Of Honor originally was filmed in high school gyms with poor lighting and probably just one or two camers, their matches were fantastic, so slotting them in to the vacant WCW slots made sense. But then Impact had a pay-per-view ever week and had almost WWE-quality production with a ton of rising, homegrown stars to balance out their Should Be Retired WWE Dinosaurs, so they also got slotted in, and it felt like a golden age.

While Impact and ROH still exist, Impact has slowly been transitioning into a WWE farm league, and ROH is actually owned by AEW and used as a legitimate farm league.

AEW, meanwhile had a brief window where it totally eclipsed WWE in match quaity and star power in a way that even WCW hadn't achieved during the Monday Night Wars. While that era started last season, it dominates this season as the dementia riddled tyrant of the WWE, Vince McMahon made bad decision after bad decision leading to one of WWE's many lean times. Luckily, WWE's resurgence is on the horizon but most of this season is AEW, and it's a joy to watch.

2200. The Monster In Us All, 2021

This season's sorbet episode is an odd one. It's shot like an indie film and it features a pseudo-intellectual narrator telling the tales of these wrestlers who were dissatisfied with the creative in their respective companies coming together to fight each other over ridiculously embellished metaphor. The criticism I saw for the company's two major show is that EC3 saw Fight Club too many times but didn't uite understand what it was about. It's a valid criticism. While I would never want to watch this style of wrestling storytelling on a regular basis, it was an important and creative moment for an industry trying to recover from the 2020 pandemic.

Announcers: The Narrator, Angelo Parker, Mark Menard

1. William vs Parrow
2. Moose vs Matt Sydal (as The Vision)
3. EC3 vs Matt Cardona
4. Parrow vs Gentleman Jervis
5. John Skyler vs Westin Blake
6. Matt Taven vs William
7. EC3 vs Braun Stroman (as Adam Scherr)

2201. First Dance

There are some fantastic matches in this episode, including one of the better Jade Cargill matches as she fought her way through an impressive undefeated streak, despite unimpressive wrestling skills. The real story, though, is pretty simple: CM Punk is back.

Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Tazz, Excalibur, Chris Jericho, Justin Roberts

1. Rusev (as Miro) (AEW TNT Champ) vs Eddie Kingston
2. Dean Ambrose (as Jon Moxley) vs Satoshi Kajima 
3. Britt Baker (AEW Womens Champ) vs Krist Statlander
4. Young Bucks (AEW Tag Team Champs) vs Lucha Bros in a Steel Cage
5. Jade Cargill (AEW TBS Champ) vs Kiera Hogan
6. Chris Jericho vs MJF
​7. CM Punk vs Darby Allin

2202. Grand Slam, 2021

This is probably the only season where we start off with two AEW episodes. Their TV output during 2021 and 2022 was just outstanding. Pretty much every episode of television that they put out had at least one ppv-level match. They were aflush with talent, and while their storytelling left a lot to be desired, their booking, their talent, and their match quality were far superior to WWE.

Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Tazz, Excalibur, Chris Jericho, Justin Roberts

1. Casino Battle Royal For Womens Championship Match
Abadon, Anna Jay, Big Swole, Diamante, Emi Sakura, Hikaru Shida,  Jade Cargill, Jamie Hayter, Kiera Hogan, KiLynn King, Leyla Hirsch, Nyla Rose, Penelope Ford, Rebel, Red Velvet, Riho, Ruby Soho, Skye Blue, Tay Conti, The Bunny, Thunder Rosa
​
2. FTR vs Darby Allin & Sting
3. Kenny Omega (AEW Champ) vs Christian (Impact Champ)
4. Britt Baker (AEW Womens Champ) vs Ruby Soho
5. Supercliq vs Lucha Express & Christian
6. Kenny Omega (AEW Champ) vs Daniel Bryan (as Bryan Danielson)

2203. Gish, 2022

NWA started to build a little bit of post-pandemic momentum thanks to their continued focus on their womens' division and borrowing some AEW and ROH talent to battle their band of ex-WWE stars. I prefer their era of making stars out of rejected WWE midcarders to WCW's era of recycling WWE main eventers who were bordering retirement. 

1. OKG (NWA Tag Team Champs) vs Damien Sandow (as Aaron Stevens) & JR Kratos
2. Mickie James (Impact Knockout Champ) vs Kiera Hogan
3. Tyrus (NWA TV Champ) vs Cyon
4. Chris Adonis (NWA National Champ) vs Judais
5. La Reblion (NWA Tag Team Champs) vs The End
6. Kamile (NWA Womens Champ) vs Melina
7. Trevor Murdoch (NWA Champ) vs Mike Knox
8. The Briscoes vs The Cardonas
9. The Hex (NWA Womens Tag Team Champs) vs Pretty Empowered
10. Matt Cardona (NWA Champ) vs Nick Aldis

2204. Rampage The Foundation, 2021

More solid wrestling. We finally see Omega lose the last of his many belts that he won last season, as CM Punk continues to have solid matches with AEW's homegrown talent, rather than his fellow WWE refugees.

Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Tazz, Excalibur, Chris Jericho, Justin Roberts

1. CM Punk vs Powerhouse Hobbs
2. Penelope Ford vs Anna Jay
3. Dean Ambrose (as Jon Moxley) & Edde Kingston vs Suzuki-Gun
4. MJF vs Darby Allin
5. Lucha Bros (AEW Tag Champs) vs FTR
​6. Kenny Omega (AEW Champ) vs Hangman Page

2205. Day One, 2022

2022 is kind of a crap year for WWE. The fake fall of Vince McMahon (not a storyline, a real life event) gave a sense of promise that fizzled out and ended up with Vince returning to water down the product some more. Of course there are still some great matches but there are some disappointing storylines in this season, and they start here. Also, there are no promos or skits from The Bloodline, and yet they still dominate this show.

Announcers: Michael Cole, Byron Saxton, Corey Graves, Pat McAfee, Jimmy Smith, Kevin Patrick, Mike Rome

1. The Usos (WWE Smackdown Tag Team Champs) vs New Day
2. RKBro (WWE Raw Tag Team Champs) vs Street Profits
3. Big E (WWE Champ) vs Brock Lesnar vs Bobby Lashley vs Kevin Owens vs Seth Rollins
4. Becky Lynch (WWE Raw Womens Champ) vs Liv Morgan
5. Big E vs Bobby Lashley vs Kevin Owens vs Seth Rollins
6. Roman Reigns (WWE Universal Champ) vs Seth Rollins

2206. Winter Remix, 2021

The late 2021/2022 era AEW was rock star central. CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, MJF, Eddie Kingston, Christian, Chris Jericho, Sting, and The Elite all hanging out and mixing it up is fantastic. And in this episode we get to see the debut of Taz's son, Hook, who seems destined to surpass his father's fame in the ring.

​Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Excalibur, Justin Roberts
​
1. Hook vs Fuego Del Sol
2. Daniel Bryan (as Bryan Danielson) vs Rusev (as Miro)
3. Britt Baker (AEW Womens Champ) vs Tai Conti
4. CM Punk vs Eddie Kingston
5. Inner Circle vs Men Of The Year & American Top Team
6. MJF vs Dante Martin for the AEW Dynamite Diamond Ring
7. Hangman Page (AEW Champ) vs Daniel Bryan (as Bryan Danielson)

2207. Course Changes, 2022

AEW showing ppv quality matches on TV is incredibly common. Since its inception, its had more TV matches in this chronology than ppv matches. The same is not remotely true of the WWE. But 2022's early pay-per-views were almost top to bottom awful due to Vince McMahon's declining mental health. Occasionally, a TV match seemed to escape his clutches and was good in spite of itself, and that's almost the entirety of this episode, with the addition of a generational dream match between Becky Lynch and Lita.

Announcers: Michael Cole, Byron Saxton, Corey Graves, Kayla Braxton, Mike Rome, Samantha Irvin

1. Chad Gable vs Randy Orton
​2. New Day vs Los Lotharios
3. Charlotte Flair (WWE Smackdown Womens Champ) vs Naomi
4. Randy Orton vs Seth Rollins
5. Bobby Lashley (WWE Champ) vs Brock Lesnar vs AJ Styles vs Seth Rollins vs Riddle vs Austin Theory in an Elimination Chamber

6. Becky Lynch (WWE Raw Womens Champ) vs Lita

​2208. New Year's Smash, 2021/2022

We have a couple of squash matches in this card from late 2021/early 2022, as well as some dream trios like CM Punk, Sting, and Darby Allin, and Adam Cole and reDRagon. Also, a stellar rematch as Hangman Page puts the title on the line against Bryan Danielson for the second time. 

Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Excalibur, Taz, Ricky Starks, Mark Henry, Justin Roberts

1. Malakai Black vs Griff Garrison
2. The Pinnacle vs CM Punk, Sting & Darby Allin
​3. Hook vs Bear Bronson
4. Sammy Guevara (AEW TNT Champ) vs Cody Rhodes
5. Jade Cargill vs Thunder Rosa
6. Adam Cole & reDRagon vs Best Friends
7. Cody Rhodes (AEW TNT Champ) vs Ethan Page
8. Hangman Page (AEW Champ) vs Daniel Bryan (as Bryan Danielson)

2209. New Year's Evil, 2022

Time to put on your Jams and your Max Headroom shades, it's NXT Splatoon, Vince McMahon and Bruce Pritchard's terrible experiment to prove that neither of them had any idea what made NXT work before they put their wrinkly paws on it. While they didn't quite kill it with their incompetence, it was certainly a giant step down from the Black & Gold era. There's a few wrestlers so talented that they couldn't quite be buried under bad bookins, and these are their stories from the beginning 0f 2022. There aren't really any promos because whoooof, they were even less inspired and intriguing than the matches. 

Announcers: Wade Barrett, Vic Joseph, Kayla Braxton

1. AJ Styles vs Grayson Waller
2. Imperium vs MSK & Riddle
3. Carmelo Hayes (NXT North American Champ) vs Roderick Strong (WWE Cruiserweight Champ)

4. Roderick Strong  vs Gunther
5. Tomasso Ciampa (NXT Champ) vs Bron Breakker
6. Raquel Rodriguez (as Raquel Gonzales) vs Cora Jade
7. Creed Brothers vs Grizzled Young Veterans
8. Dolph Ziggler vs Tomasso Ciampa
9. Carmello Hayes (NXT North American Champ) vs Cameron Grimes
10. Grayson Waller vs LA Knight in a Last Man Standing Match

2210. Back To The Beach, 2022

The end of 2021/beginning of 2022 was an amazing time to be an AEW fan. Every week there was at least one four or five star match on Dynamite or Rampage. The tag team division was absolutely on fire, and the young pillars of AEW: MJF, Darby Allin, Jungle Boy, and Sammy Guevara have incredible up-punching matches with the top veterans: Cody Rhodes, CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, and Dustin Rhodes.

Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Taz, Excalibur, Chris Jericho, Justin Roberts

1. Lucha Bros (AEW Tag Team Champs) vs Jurassic Express
2. Sammy Guevara (AEW TNT Champ) vs Goldust (as Dustin Rhodes)
3. Britt Baker (AEW Womens Champ) vs Riho
4. Jurassic Express (AEW Tag Team Champs) vs Dark Order
5. Nick Jackson vs Trent Baretta
6. Cody Rhodes (AEW TNT Champ) vs Sammy Guevara in a Ladder Match

2211. Because KO Said So, 2022

One semi-interesting story forks into two phenomenal return matches as Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins lose a shot at the tag team belts at Wrestlemania and, after doing battle with each other, each end up with a legendary opponent returning to WWE after a long absence.

Announcers: Michael Cole, Byron Saxton, Corey Graves, Pat McAfee, Jimmy Smith, Samantha Irvin

1. Alpha Academy (WWE Tag Team Champs) vs RKBro vs Seth Rollins & Kevin Owens 
2. Sami Zayn (WWE Intercontinental Champ)  vs Ricochet
3. Dominik & Rey Mysterio vs The Miz & Logan Paul
4. Seth Rollins vs Kevin Owens
5. Becky Lynch (WWE Raw Womens Champ) vs Bianca Belair
6. Cody Rhodes vs Seth Rollins
​7. Steve Austin vs Kevin Owens

2212. Lights Out, Go To Sleep 2022

Hangman Page's TX Death Match with Lance Archer might be Archer's greatest AEW match but the true story of this episode, like the last AEW episode is the feud between CM Punk and MJF. The best talkers in the game are building up to their finest hour. Plus we see some excellent tage team matches and Mr. Pockets, Orange Cassidy has an absolute belter with Adam Cole, bay bay.

Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Taz, Excalibur, Chris Jericho, Justin Roberts

1. Adam Cole vs Orange Cassidy in a Lights Out Match
2. CM Punk vs MJF
3. Jurassic Express (AEW Tag Team Champs) vs Private Party
4. FTR vs CM Punk & Jon Moxley
5. Young Bucks vs Roppongi Vice
6. Hangman Page (AEW Champ) vs Lance Archer in a TX Death Match

2213. Faces Of The Revolution, 2022

All killer, no-filler as The Pillars, The Punk, The Elite, and the two spooky stables of AEW go all-out against each other in this set of fantastic matches.

Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Taz, Excalibur, Justin Roberts

1. Sammy Guevara (AEW TNT Champ) vs Andrade vs Darby Allin
2. The House Of Black vs Pac, Penta El Zero, Erick Rowan
3. Chris Jericho vs Eddie Kingston
4. Jurassic Express (AEW Tag Team Champs) vs Young Bucks vs reDRagon
5. Face Of The Ravolution Ladder Match
Christian, Orange Cassidy, Wardlow, Keith Lee, Powerhouse Hobbs, Ricky Starks

6. CM Punk vs MJF in a Dog Collar Match

2214. TV Timeout, 2022

This season has had very few and far between WWE episodes. While Triple H's cleansing of the brand is in the future, there's a couple more episodes to go with no one's favorite sex-offending-billionaire-with-dementia at the helm. This is mostly still Bloodline, RKBro, and Becky Lynch. We're going to entirely skip Edge's time with The Judgement Day, but we get to see the Finn Balor-led Judgement Day "debut" near the end of this episode.

Announcers: Michael Cole, Byron Saxton, Corey Graves, Samantha Irvin

1. The Bloodline vs Drew McIntyre & RKBro 
2. Becky Lynch vs Asuka
3. Drew McIntyre vs Shamus
4. Bobby Lashley (WWE US Champ) vs Tomasso Ciampa
5. Kevin Owens vs Chad Gable
6. The Viking Raiders vs New Day in a Vikings Rules Match
7. Edge vs Damien Priest
8. Roman Reigns (WWE Universal Champ) vs Matt Riddle

2215. St Patrick's Day Slam, 2022

Wrestling's top gentleman jumps ship from NXT to AEW here, as William Regal begins assembling The Blackpool Combat Club, who will spend years dominating every competitor. We also have some fun multi-man matches and a hell of a main event as Britt Baker and Thunder Rosa go toe-to-toe in a steel cage.

Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Shiavone, Taz, Exaclibur, Justin Roberts

1. Daniel Bryan (as Bryan Danielson) vs Dean Ambrose (as Jon Moxley)
2. Matt Hardy, Andrade & Isaiah Kassidy vs Sting, Darby Allin & Sammy Guevera
3. Hangman Page (AEW Champ) vs Adam Cole
4. Sammy Guevera (AEW TNT Champ) vs Scorpio Sky
5. Adam Cole & reDRagon vs Hangman Page & Jurassic Express
6. CM Punk vs Dax Harwood
7. Britt Baker (AEW Womens Champ) vs Thunder Rosa in a Steel Cage

2216. The Wheeler In Motion

​The Blackpool Combat Club starts to recruit more members, Hook and Danhausen each need a storyline to remain interesting so their paths intersect here, and Samoa Joe returns to Ring Of Honor to wreck house like it's 2004.

Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Taz, Excalibur, Chris Jericho, William Regal, Mark Henry, Justin Roberts, Bobby Cruz

1. Jay Lethal vs Dean Ambrose (as Jon Moxley)
2. Daniel Bryan (as Bryan Danielson) vs Wheeler Yuta
3. Andrade vs Darby Allin
4. FTR (AEW Tag Team Champs) vs Young Bucks (ROH Tag Team Champs & AAA Tag Team Champs)

5. Wheeler Yuta (ROH Puro Champ) vs Dean Ambrose (as Jon Moxley)
6. Hook vs JD Drake
7. Jurassic Express (AEW Tag Team Champs) vs reDRagon
8. Swerved In Our Glory vs Team Taz
9. Minoru Suzuki (ROH Champ) vs Samoa Joe

2217. Back To Backlash

Our final WWE main roster episode of the season takes no prisoners. The Zay/Knoxville match is a silly spotfest but everything else is brutal right up until the best ever Roman Reigns/Brock Lesnar match. This is everything their Wrestlemania 38 match should have been but wasn't.

​Announcers: Michael Cole, Pat McAfee

1. RKBro vs Street Profits vs Alpha Academy
2. Sami Zayn vs Johnny Knoxville
3. Seth Rollins vs Cody Rhodes in Hell In A Cell
4. Charlotte Flair (WWE Smackdown Womens Champ) vs Ronda Rousey in an I Quit Match

5. Roman Reigns (WWE Universal Champ) vs Brock Lesnar

​2218. The Penultimate Challenge

While AEW's focus is definitely more on matches than storylines, we do get the bare minimum requirements to set up this season's finale. One of the fun highlights of this episode is two good-natured friendly matches in a row, as CM Punk and Dustin Rhodes square off, and then the two members of the ROH Tag Champs, FTR, go head to head in a tournament qualifying match and it DOESN'T end up breaking up the team.

Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Tazz, Excalibur, Mike Henry, Justin Roberts

1. Hangman Page (AEW Champ) vs Adam Cole in a TX Death Match
2. CM Punk vs Goldust (as Dustin Rhodes)
3. Cash Wheeler vs Dax Harwood
4. Sammy Guevara (AEW TNT Champ) vs Scorpio Sky in a Ladder Match
5. Riho vs Yuka Sakazaki
6. Adam Cole vs Dax Harwood
7. Jeff Hardy vs Darby Allin

2219. Dirty Dawgs

Our second and final NXT episode from the Splatwon.0 era has a decent balance of veterans putting over new talent, and also new talent putting over other new talent. It's fun to see a Dolph Ziggler match, a Robert Rhoode match, and a Mandy Rose match again, and I had no idea until I started watching this era of NXT (which I skipped while it was happening) that there were three good Grayson Waller matches in all of human history.

Announcers: Wade Barrett, Vic Joseph, Samantha Irvin

1. Bron Breakker (NXT Champ) vs Dolph Ziggler vs Tomasso Ciampa
2. Kay Lee Rey & Iyo Sky (as Io Shirai) vs Katy Catanzaro & Kayden Carter
3. Bron Breakker vs Robert Roode
4. Cameron Grimes vs Roderick Strong vs A-Kid
5. Kay Lee Rey & Iyo Sky (as Io Shirai) vs Dakota Kai & Wendy Choo
6. Carmelo Hayes vs Santos Escobar
7. Gunther vs Bron Breakker
8. Tag Team Gauntlet Match
Legado Del Fantasma, Josh Briggs & Brook Jensen, The Creed Brothers, Pretty Deadly, Grayson Waller & Sanga

9. Mandy Rose vs Roxanne Perez
10. Grayson Waller vs Nathan Frazier
11. Tomasso Ciampa vs Tony D'Angelo

2220. Anarchy In The Arena, 2022

The story of this season has been the return of CM Punk and his rise to the title scene, and in this final episode we get to see him in his first title match in a decade. If that's not enough for you, the tag team dream match of the ages happens when The Young Bucks face The Hardys. Oh, and we get Danhausen and Hookhausen's first ever matches in AEW. Very nice. Very evil.​

Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Taz, Excalibur, William Regal, Ricky Starks, Justin Roberts

1. Danhausen vs Tony Nese
2. Death Triangle vs. House Of Black
3. Samoa Joe vs Kyle O'Reilly
4. Daniel Bryan vs Matt Sydal
5. Young Bucks vs Taylor Rust & Jon Cruz
6. HookHausen vs Mark Sterling & Tony Nese
7. Young Bucks vs Hardy Boyz
8. Death Triangle vs House Of Black
9. Thunder Rosa (AEW Womens Champ) vs Serena Deeb
10. Jericho Appreciation Society vs Blackpool Combat Club
​11. Hangman Page (AEW Champ) vs CM Punk

The Dominion War is probably the biggest Long Story Arc in Star Trek's history.  It takes up several seasons of Deep Space Nine's story, and it will reverberate through Lower Decks and Picard in future seasons.We also continue to monitor Voyager's prgress through the Delta Quadrant, and have a couple very heavy episodes of Strange New Worlds.

Given how breezy and fun last season was, it makes sense that things get really dark for a bit. 

1101. By Inferno's Light (DS9)
(Sisko,  Garak, Kira, Bashir, Dax, Odo, Worf, Gul Dukat, O'Brien, Nog, Rom, Martok, Jake)

It's official, The Dominion War is underway. Who will the Cardassians align with? How about the Klingons? Will Worf, Bashir, and Garak escape the internment camp? Will Bashir succeed in his...hang on, are there two Bashirs?


1102. Episode 20: Call To Arms (DS9)
(Sisko,  Garak, Kira, Bashir, Dax, Odo, Worf, Gul Dukat, O'Brien, Weyoun, Nog, Rom, Martok, Jake)

The Dominion War is already, and will continue to be depressing, but here's a somewhat upbeat episode where Jake and Nog try to cheer everyone up through some unusual means.


1103. Ultimate Computer (TOS)
(Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scott, Sulu, Uhura, Chekov, Leslie)

So many of TOS episodes are just the crew of The Enterprise versus crazy or incompetent Starfleet personell that it's nice to see them have to battle technology every once in a while.


1104. Where Pleasant Fountains Lie/I Excretus (LD)
(Boimler, Freeman, Rutherford, Mariner, Tendi, Billups, Ransom, T'ana)

While the Upper Decks crew deals with their own rogue computer, Billups, who has had minimal screen time gets to be the focus of an episode when his mother, a member of a very Rennaisance style race, needs his help to save the planet where he is supposed to be the next ruler. Then the crew is tested on how well they would function as lower decks crew, and lower decks crew would function on the bridge. 


1105.  Sacrifice Of Angels (DS9)
(Sisko, Gul Dukat, Odo, Kira, Rom, Ziyal, Weyoun, Quark, Jake, Garak, Worf, Martok)

Both sides in the Dominion War begin to suffer horribly.


1106. Lift Us Where Suffering Can Not Reach (SNW)
(Pike, Spock, Chapel, 1, M'Benga, Uhura, Ortegas, Sam Kirk, Kyle)

Pike's old girlfriends don't seem as dangerous as Kirk's old girlfriends, and yet, when one shows up asking for help protecting the messiah of her paradise planet, everything quickly falls apart.


1107. Waltz (DS9)
(Sisko, Gul Dukat, Odo, Worf, Kira, O'Brien, Dax, Bashir, Weyoun)

This is a defining moment in the series, and I considered making it the end of a previous season but, uhm, there are some events that happen that I don't want to give the sense of importance that the original series of Deep Space Nine did.


1108. Who Mourns For Morn? (DS9)
(Quark, Sisko, Worf, Odo, Kira, Dax, O'Brien, Bashir)

Quark's most reliable, most silent customer, who's been in almost every episode in our chronology, and yet has never spoken a single line, dies and leaves Quark a fortune.


1109 & 1110. A Year Of Hell  (VOY)
(Janeway, 7of9, Tuvok, Chakotay, Paris)

There are species that even The Borg avoid. When this new threat attacks Voyager, they try a series of increadingly desperate tactics to survive. Nah, something ain't right here.


1111. In The Flesh (VOY)
(Janeway, Chakotay, Tuvok, Doctor, Boothby, 7of9, Torres, Paris, Neelix, Kim)

I remember thinking that Barclay was the weirdest legacy character to show up on a Star Trek series where they're lost in an uncharted region of space. But then Riker showed up. And now ... Boothby? The crew of Voyager is back on Earth at, of all places, Starfleet Academy. Nah. Something ain't right here, either. 


1112. All Those Who Wander (SNW)
(Pike, Ortegas, Hemmers, Uhura, Spock, Chapel, 1, M'Benga, Sam Kirk, Kyle)

A regular old, every day, let's respond to a distress signal mission turns into an homage to Ridley Scott's Alien. It's another great example of how this series manages to seem fun and light, despite having sometimes greater consequences than the very dreary "Discovery" series that preceded it.


1113. Change Of Heart (DS9)
(Worf, Dax, Sisko, O'Brien, Bashir, Kira, Quark)

Worf's relationships have traditionally Not Gone Well. His first wife died just after surprising him with the existence of their son. Then he was married to Troi in a parallel timeline. Now he's married to Dax, the parasitical symbiont who can be any species, race or gender. And it's been going really well. But can he prioritize his most recent marriage over his duty to Deep Space Nine?


1114. Inquisition (DS9)
(Bashir, Sisko, Worf, Odo, O'Brien, Quark, Kira, Weyoun)

Wait...is Bashir a spy for The Dominion? Section 31 (Holy Holy, we haven't seen them since the Discovery story arc. Finally, we see their origin in the Star Trek Universe.) is determined to find out.


1115. One (VOY)
(7of9, Doctor, Janeway, Paris, Torres, Kim, Chakotay)

When radiation from a nebula threatens the lives of everyone else on the ship, 7of9 becomes the crew's favorite member as she and The Doctor team up to save the ship.


1116. In The Pale Moonlight (DS9)
(Sisko, Garak, Bashir, Quark, Weyoun, Odo, Kira, Dax, Worf, O'Brien)

War is a constant shifting of allegiances and ethical dillemas, so nobody should be surprised at how wrong everything goes when Sisko tries to bring the Romulans into the Dominion War.
​

1117. The Sound Of Her Voice (DS9)
(Sisko, Bashir, O'Brien, Kira, Odo, Quark, Dax, Worf, Yates, Jake, Morn)

In the midst of The Dominion War, The Defiant hears a distress call and sets out to rescue a woman stranded on an alien planet. During the trip she gives advice to several members of the crew about their personal lives. Quark also dispenses love advice to one of DS9's newest couples.


1118. ​Message In A Bottle (VOY)
(Janeway, 7of9, Doctor)

It's finally time, the crew of Voyager sends a message back to the Alpha Quadrant, hoping that The Federation will acknowledge that they're still alive.


1119. Tears Of The Prophets (DS9)
(Sisko, Dax, Dukat, Worf, Kira, Bashir, O'Brien, Quark, Odo, Garak, Nog, Weyoun, Martok, Ross, Jake)

Every war has to have its great casualty. When Dukat returns to the picture to help the Cardassian/Dominion alliance win the war, he sets events in motion that change the whole feel of the show. 


1120. Latent Image (VOY)
(Doctor, Janeway, Kim, 7of9, Chakotay, Torres, Neelix, Tuvok, Naomi)

Can a hologram have a psychotic break? Is it morally ethical to erase the memories of someone who isn't precisely sentient in order to help them do their job when it is imperative that they can always do their job to the best of their ability?

Obviously I love all the seasons from this reimagined headcanon. Otherwise, why would I have spent all this time watching and writing about them? This season, however, is probably my favorite. There are a ton of nostalgic adrenaline hits in this season from the first episode to the last. We start with the TOS/TNG crossover film, Worf joins the cast of DS9, Lower Decks gives us some quality callbacks in eac of their episodes, and we also have the brilliant DS9/TOS crossover where new footage is seamlessly added to the "Trouble With Tribbles" episode of The Original Series.

If I ever decide to watch a full season out of the context of the other seasons, it will be this one.

1001. Generations (TOSM/TNGM)
(Picard, Kirk, Riker, Data, Laforge, Worf, Troi, Scotty, Chekov, Crusher)

Not the greatest Star Trek film by a long shot, but we do get to see a prolonged sequence with Picard and Kirk working together to stop the villain from A Clockwork Orange, I mean the villain from Tank Girl, I mean Mad Mod from Teen Titans. It's....watchable, and a fun adventure to start off the season.


1002. Tomorrow Is Yesterday (TOS)
(Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scott, Sulu, Uhura)

Sometimes you just need a basic time travel story to calm your nerves. In this one, the TOS crew return to the 1960s (hey, that's when the series was airing!) to stop a time paradox. This is the introduction of the ol' slingshot the ship around the sun time travel method that series will return to several times.


1003. Future Tense (ENT)
(Archer, Phlox, T'Pol, Reed, Mayweather, Sato, Tucker)

An episode from the Temporal Cold War, the crew of the Enterprise discovers a corpse inside a pod from the future. This episode provides with both a timeloop (still one of my favorite tropes) and involves the Tholians, who we just never have enough time with over the entire course of the franchise, so this is a little treat.


1004. Way Of The Warrior (DS9)
(Worf, Sisko, Odo, Kira, Dax, Garak, O'Brien, Gowran, Quark, Gul Dukat, Bashir)

The Klingons haven't been a big part of Deep Space Nine. Sure, Dax and some of her Klingon friends went on an adventure, and yea, the sisters of Duras were around for an early episode, but for the most part, they haven't been very present. But when Gowran decides The Klingon Empire should protect the wormhole from The Founders, he incites a war between The Klingons and The Cardassians, and it gets so intense that Deep Space Nine recruits Worf from Enterprise to join their crew. Take that, Riker.


1005. Homefront (DS9)
(Sisko, Odo, Jake, Nog)

What if The Founders reached Earth, which has been a paradise since the beginning of this series (apart from the whole Borg attack in Best Of Both Worlds a few seasons ago, and the whale problem from The Voyage Home)? Sisko, Odo, and Jake return to San Francisco (say that five times fast) to help prepare the planet, only to discover The Founders may already be there. This is a particularly good episode about fear mongering and the loss of freedom due to the fear of terrorism (and this was a pre 9/11 series). It's technically part one of a two-part arc, but the second half undoes the power of this episode, if it existed in a vacuum.


1006. To The Death (DS9)
(Sisko, Worf, Dax, Bashir, Kira, Odo, Quark)

After Deep Space Nine is attacked by a faction of the Jem'Hadar, the crew of The Defiant run into another faction of Jem'Hadar who were also attacked. The two crews work together to take down the first faction. There are some great moments of culture examination in this episode between The Jem'Hadar, humans, Klingons, and The Founders. Deep Space Nine was truly the best Star Trek series when it comes to examining how every side in a war is actually The Bad Side.​


1007. Broken Link (DS9)
(Odo, Sisko, Worf, Garak, Drax, O'Brien, Quark, Bashir, Kira, Gowron)

Odo isn't doing very well, and needs the help of The Founders to get better. Of course, shenanigans ensue as Worf and Garak are amongst the crew that heads to The Founders' home planet. This episode sets up a ton of different storylines for the rest of the season.


1008. Apocalypse Rising (DS9)
(Sisko, Odo, Worf, Kira, Bashir, O'Brien, Gul Dukat, Gowran, Quark, Dax, Jake)
​
Last season, it seemed like The Jem'Hadar were the all powerful enemies, but it turned out that they just serve The Founders. Then the Klingons got involved. Then we went to Earth and it looked like maybe The Founders had taken over Starfleet. But what if they actually took over the Klingons? They are Everywhere. And Sisko, Odo, O'Brien, and Worf have to go undercover to unmask Gowran (who, apart from Worf, has the longest ongoing storyline this season). And Sisko makes A Fantastic Klingon. It's a joy to watch.


1009 & 1010. First Contact (TNGM)
(Picard, Riker, Worf, Data, Crusher, Troi, Laforge, Ogawa, Doctor)

It's fun to see the TNG cast in action again (aside from Worf who just won't leave Deep Space Nine). Especially without the baggage of the TOS cast. In what's easily the best TNG movie, the crew follows the Borg into Earth's past, where everyone's favorite assimilators (unless you're a Cyberman fan) attempt to keep Earth's first contact with Vulcans from taking place.


1011 & 1012 .Scorpion (VOY)
(Janeway, Chakotay, Tuvok, Kim, Kes, Torres, 7of9, Doctor, Paris, Neelix)

What could possibly frighten The Borg? Why, a mostly terrible new alien race from another dimension who The Borg just can't seem to assimilate. This new enemy is such a threat that The Borg and the crew of Voyager must team up to stop them.


1013. The Gift (VOY)
(7of9, Kes, Janeway, Doctor, Tuvok, Chakotay, Kim, Torres, Neelix)

The newest member of Voyager is A Borg! And it's up to the rest of the crew to teach her how to be more human. It's somewhat Data-ey, but with more  potential murder than holodeck detective work.


1014: Begotten (DS9)
(Odo, Kira, O'Brien, Keiko, Bashir, Quark, Sisko, Worf)

Quark finds a baby changeling, and gives custody of it to Odo, causing him to rethink his relationship with the doctor who raised him. Alsowhile, Kira is having O'Brien and Keiko's baby and it is awwwwwwwwwwwwkward for everyone.


1015. The Trouble With Edward (ST)/An Embarrasment Of Dooplers (LD)
(Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, Rutherford, Freeman, Ransom, Shax, T'ana)

After we meet the Starfleet moron responsible for the Tribble outbreaks for the entirety of the Star Trek franchise, we meet a different race of reproducing aliens. These ones, however, are a member race of the Federation who happen to duplicate whenever they're embarrassed, and they embarrass easily.


1016. Trials & Tribbilations (DS9/TOS)
(Sisko, O'Brien, Bashir, Worf, Dax, Odo, Kirk, Chekov, Scott, Kira, Uhuru, Spock)

This may be my favorite episode in the whole franchise. Filmed like a TOS episode, the crew of Deep Space Nine goes back in time to keep the Klingon villain from "The Trouble With Tribbles" from changing history.  There are a few scenes from the original TOS episode spliced in, and a lot of fun non-interactions between the two casts. I find this much preferable to the original "Trouble With Tribbles" episodes, so I felt no need to include the original episode.


1017: Affliction (ENT)
(Archer, Phlox, T'pol, Reed, Tucker, Sato, Mayweather)

Why do The Klingons look so different between The Original Series, the Next Generation/Deep Space Nine era, and Discovery? Well, the crew of The Enterprise is back to try and answer that question as best as possible.


1018. Divergence (ENT)
(Archer, Phlox, T'pol, Reed, Tucker, Sato, Mayweather)

A disease has been threatening to make Klingons look more humanoid (as they do in The Original Series). It's up to some rogue Klingons and Doctor Phlox to come up with a cure to save the Klingon identity so that they can all look like Worf again by the time we get to Next Generation. It's a neat explanation, but, uh...why do they look like Glittery bathbombs in Discovery?


1019. In Purgatory's Shadow (DS9)
(Sisko,  Garak, Kira, Bashir, Dax, Odo, Worf, Gul Dukat, O'Brien, Nog, Rom, Martok, Jake)

The standoff with The Dominion gets a whole lot tougher when Gul Dukat leads The Cardassians into an alliance with The Dominion to take on Starfleet. There's a changeling spy on Deep Space Nine, AND Worf and Garak get trapped in a Jem'Hadar prison. This is the episode that cemented Garak as my favorite Cardassian, and soured me on Gul Dukat


1020. Darmok (TNG)/Kayshon (LD)
(Picard, Riker, Data, Laforge, Worf, Crusher, Troi, O'Brien)
(Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, Rutherford, Freeman, Ransom, Shax, T'ana)

Another of my all-time favorite episodes. No spoilers. The TNG episode is about metaphor and languaged. Anyone who tells you why this isn't a great episode or who argues about how the language doesn't make sense is not worth having in your life. I mean this, anyone who dislikes this episode is a joyless buzzkilling troll who does not deserve your time or friendship. I'm willing to disagree about pretty much any book, movie, TV episode, whathaveyou, but I will hold firm on this, if you don't love this episode, that's totally ok. If you hate it and need to suck the joy out of this episode for other people, please join a silent monestary, none of your opinions in life are valid.

The follow-up Lower Decks episode is a fun adventure that re-introduces the race we meet in Darmok. It's also a blast.

This is a really fun season that includes very few WWE episodes. While WWE was the fastest off the blocks during the pandemic, their storytelling was erratic and their matches were super repetitive. Apart from the Bloodline, the feuds were dull, and some of their best talent moved to AEW. 

This gave AEW and Impact some time to shine, and we even got some hopeful glimmers of Ring Of Honor before it folded due to bankruptcy (don't get too sad, it gets relaunched as a sort of minor league AEW pretty quickly next season).

Our big ending last season was Stiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing! The sixty-something year old hero from the WCW days, and the grizzled veteran champ from the early 2000s and 2010s TNA/Impact era was back on TV as a wrestler in AEW. While he wasn't The Big Star that he was in WCW, he was an absolute madman wrestling some incredible daredevil matches this season. He wasn't upper card but he was definitely the highlight of the mid-card.

What are the season long stories to pay attention to? Kenny Omega bringing AEW to Impact, and then bringing Impact back to AEW, the nostalgia factor of Sting in AEW Mickie James in Impact and The Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase in NXT, the Bloodline story doesn't dominate this season as it will in the near future but it percolates away in the background.​

2101. Winter Is Here

The pandemic era is still running wild in AEW, which is a shame because these matches deserved a bigger audience. We're on the cusp of Kenny Omega's double title run, The Young Bucks hold the tag gold, and Japanese wrestlers kick down The Forbidden Door and start to become regular performers in Tony Khan's Live Action Fantasy Wrestling Federation. 

Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Taz, Excalibur, Justin Roberts

1. Kenny Omega & Kenta vs Dean Ambrose (as Jon Moxley) & Lance Archer in a Hardcore Match
​
2. Hikaru Shida, Mei Suruga, & Rin Kadokura vs Veny, Maki Itoh, & Emi Sakura
3. Young Bucks (AEW Tag Champs) vs Inner Circle
4. Hikaru Shida (AEW Womens Champ) vs Ryo Mizunami
5. The Young Bucks (AEW Tag Champs) vs Death Triangle
6. Team Taz vs Darby Allin & Sting in a Street Fight​

2102. Dusty Cups

MSK and the Grizzled Young Vets are front and center in this tag team heavy episode which also shows the last couple of matches in Iyo Sky (as Io Shirai)'s fantastic run as NXT Womens Champ.

Announcers: Wade Barrett, Beth Phoenix, Vic Joseph, Alicia Taylor

1. MSK vs Grizzled Young Veterans
2. Dakota Kai & Raquel Rodriguez (as Raquel González) vs Ember Moon & Shotzi Blackheart

3. Johnny Gargano (NXT US Champ) vs Kushida
4. Iyo Sky (as Io Shirai) (NXT Womens Champ) vs Toni Storm vs Mercedes Martinez
5. MSK vs Grizzled Young Veterans vs Legado Del Fantasmo
6. Iyo Sky (as Io Shirai) (NXT Womens Champ) vs Raquel Rodriguez (as Raquel Gonzales)

7. Finn Balor (NXT Champ) vs Pete Dunne

2103. Hard Times Again,  2021

NWA returns after being relegated to a few fun but not inspiring Youtube episodes during the Covid-19 pandemic. There's a ton of future and past WWE and AEW talent that goes through Billy Corgan's version of the company that spawned WCW, ECW, and Impact. We also get a glimpse of LA Knight here (as Eli Drake) but he doesn't get into the ring, he just gives an unforgettable promo.

Announcers: Wade Barret (as Stu Barret), Joe Galli, Tim Storm, Taryn Tarelle, Kyle Davis

1. Allisyn Kay (NWA Womens Champ) vs Thunder Rosa
2. Kamille vs Thunder Rosa
3. Trevor Murdoch (NWA National Champ) vs Chris Masters (as Chris Adonis)
4. Nick Aldis (NWA Champ) vs Damien Sandow (as Aaron Stevens)
5. La Rebelión Amarilla vs Marshe Rockett & Slice Boogie vs Sal Rinauro & Sam Rudo vs The End

6. Damien Sandow (as Aaron Stevens) & Kratos (NWA Tag Team Champs) vs The War Kings vs Strictly Business
​7. Nick Aldis (NWA Champ) vs Trevor Murdoch

2104. Return Of Honor, 2021

Oh, hey, look! ROH is back, too! While it was permanently hobbled by the pandemic, we do get a couple of episodes of ROH proper before it ends up being swallowed up by AEW and turned into their version of NXT.

Announcers: Ian Riccaboni, Caprice Coleman, Rocky Romero, Bobby Cruise

1. Jonathan Gresham (ROH Pure Champion) vs Flip Gordon
2. Bandido vs Flamita vs Rey Horus
3. Bandido vs Flamita (4/30/2021)
4. Jonathan Gresham (ROH Pure Champ)  vs Mike Bennett
5. Tony Deppen (ROH TV Champ) vs Dragon Lee
6. Rush (ROH Champ) vs Bandido

2105. Too Sweet?, 2021

Crowds returning to The Impact Zone isn't the big story in this episode. No, it's the unification of the AEW and Impact Championship and what that would mean. In fact, before the crowds were allowed back, Omega faced Rich Swann for the unified title and the audience consisted mainly of Tony Khan and Tony Schiavone.

Announcers: Matt Striker, D-Lo Brown, Don Callis,  David Penzer

1. Ace Austin vs Matt Cardona
2. TJP (as Manik) (Impact X Champ) vs Chris Bey vs Rohit Raju
3. The Good Brothers (Impact Tag Team Champs) vs FinJuice
4. Kenny Omega (ROH Champ) vs Rich Swann (Impact Champ)
5. Josh Alexander (Impact X Champ) vs Trey Miguel vs Rohit Raju vs Ace Austin vs Chris Bey

6. Deonna Purrazzo (Impact Knockout Champ) vs Thunder Rosa
7. Kenny Omega (AEW Champ, Impact Champ) vs Sami Callahan

2106. Justice For Sami, 2021

Our first mainstream WWE episode of the season continues last season's stories as Sami Zayn and Kevin Owen, and Rhea Ripley and Charlotte Flair try to settle their differences. We also see The Hurt Business in action, and a killer Hell In A Cell match.

Announcers: Michael Cole, Byron Saxton, Corey Graves, Pat McAfee, Adnan Virk, Jimmy Smith, Greg Hamilton, Mike Rome

1. Bobby Lashley (WWE Champ) vs Braun Stroman vs Drew McIntyre
2. Bianca Belair (WWE Smackdown Womens Champ) vs Bayley in Hell In A Cell
3. Sami Zayn vs Kevin Owens
​4. Sheamus (WWE US Champ) vs Damien Priest
5. Rhea Ripley (WWE Raw Womens Champ) vs Charlotte Flair
6. AJ Styles & Omos (WWE Raw Tag Team Champs) vs RKBro
7. Roman Reigns (WWE Universal Champ) vs Edge

2107. Elite Pillars

This is an All Very Elite wrestling card as we see two title defenses from Kenny Omega, two title defenses by The Young Bucks, and three title defenses by Darby Allin in this all-killer, no-filler episode.

Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Excalibur, Justin Roberts

1. Kenny Omega (AEW Champ, Impact Champ) vs Matt Sydal
2. Darby Allin vs Matt Hardy in a Hardcore Match
3. Young Bucks (AEW Tag Team Champs) vs SoCalU
4. Darby Allin vs Jack Perry (as Jungle Boy)
5. Young Bucks (AEW Tag Team Champs) vs Varsity Blonds
6. Darby Allin vs Rusev (as Miro)
7. Kenny Omega (AEW Champ, Impact Champ) vs Pac vs Orange Cassidy

2108. A Bad Night For The Wiseman, 2021

Despite neither having titles, Seth Rollins and Edge were both in show-stealing condition for the few WWE episodes of this season. The Intercontinental title had fizzled out of importance some time ago, so we get one in a series of multi-men matchups that were more about storylines than the title. Also, Otis and the Alpha Academy join the RKBro-style comedy portion of the show, and both teams excel in humor in a way that WWE hasn't succeeded at since the Jericho/Owens feud.

Announcers: Michael Cole, Byron Saxton, Corey Graves, Pat McAfee,  Jimmy Smith, Greg Hamilton, Mike Rome

​1. Mens Money In The Bank Ladder Match
​Drew McIntyre, Seth Rollins, Kevin Owens, Shinsuke Nakamura, Big E, Riddle, Ricochet, John Morrison

2. Edge vs Seth Rollins
3. The Mysterios (WWE Smackdown Tag Champs) vs The Usos
4. Charlotte Flair (WWE Smackdown Womens Champ) vs Alexa Bliss
5. Apollo Crews (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Big E vs Kevin Owens vs Sami Zayn
6. Otis vs Angelo Dawkins
7. Roman Reigns (WWE Universal Champ) vs John Cena

​2109. The Pinnacle

The Pinnacle is MJF's faction that he created when leaving Chris Jericho's Inner Circle, and they're powerful but not as powerful as MJF would be when he went solo. This is, once again, an Elite heavy episode.

Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Taz, Excalibur, Justin Roberts

1. Serena Deeb (NWA Womens Champ) vs Riho
2. Young Bucks (AEW Tag Team Champs) vs Dean Ambrose (as Jon Moxley) & Eddie Kingston

3. Hangman Page vs Brian Cage
​4. Young Bucks vs Death Triangle
5. Kenny Omega (AEW Champ, Impact Champ) vs Jack Perry (as Jungle Boy)​
6. The Inner Circle vs The Pinnacle in a Stadium Match
Chris Jericho, Jake Hager, Sammy Guevara, Proud & Powerful vs MJF, FTR, Shawn Spears & Wardlow

2110. The Million Dollar Return

I don't think anyone figured on Ted Dibiase becoming a major character in WWE again but he's a nice addition to the Cameron Grimes/LA Knight story. Grimes himself has a decent storyline but he overacts to the point that I have a hard time caring about his character, so it was good that they brought Dibiase in. Other than that, forget the storylines and check out the top tier wrestling.

Announcers: Wade Barret, Beth Phoenix, Vic Joseph, Alicia Taylor

1. Cameron Grimes vs Jake Atlas
2. Pete Dunne vs Kushida
3. Gunther (as Walter) (NXT UK Champ) vs Tomasso Ciampa
4. Adam Cole vs Kyle O'Reilly in an Unsanctioned Match
5. Raquel Rodriguez (as Raquel Gonzalez (NXT Womens Champ) vs Ember Moon
6. Cameron Grimes vs La Knight in a Ladder Match for The Million Dollar Championship

2111. No Blood, No Guts

The AEW Blood & Guts Event of 2021 was famously awful. Capped off by an Exploding Barbed Wire match that was more of a Slightly Carbonated Water Cardboard Match, it left a lot to be desired. Luckily AEW was up to the task, as there were plenty of violent and bloody stipulation matches during the following weeks.

Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Taz, Excalibur, Justin Roberts

1. Hangman Page & Ten vs Will Hobbs & Brian Cage
2. Young Bucks (AEW Champs) vs Eddie Kingston & Penta El Zero
3. MJF vs Sammy Guevara
4. Ethan Page vs Darby Allin in a Casket Match
5. Young Bucks (AEW Champs) vs Eddie Kingston & Penta El Zero in a Hardcore Match
6. Dean Ambrose (as Jon Moxley) vs Lance Archer in a Texas Death Match

2112. Empowerr

NWA's version of The Womens' Revolution highlights some of the hardworkers in NWA and Impact who weren't getting enough screen time. This is an unedited version of the event curated and produced by Mickie James.

Announcers: Alundra Blayze, Velvet Sky, Joe Galli, Brent Tarring, May Valentine, Angela Sharpe 

1. Kylie Rae vs Chik Tormenta vs Diamante
2. The Hex vs Hell On Heels
3. Red Velvet & Killyn King vs FreeBabes
4. Deana Purrazzo (Impact Knockout Champ) vs Melina Perez
5. The Hex vs Red Velvet & Killyn King for the NWA Womens Tag Team Championship
6. Kamille (NWA Womens Champ) vs Leyla Hirsch
7. NWA Womens Invitational Cup
Kiera Hogan, Chelsea Green, Bianca Carrelli, Debbie Malenko, Lady Frost, Jamie Sengal, Jennacide, Masha Slamovich, Thunder Kitty & Tootie Lynn

2113. Fight For The Fallen

This is a fun multi-company episode as we begin with our final AEW matches for this season, which includes an Impact championship match, and then we transition into a few Impact title matches from their own company. Also, Mark Henry is now a backstage personality for AEW in some suits so stylish, you'd swear he was about to doublecross John Cena.

Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Excalibur, Chris Jericho, Mark Henry, Justin Roberts

1. The Elite vs Dante Martin, Matt & Mike Sydal
2. Shawn Spears vs Sammy Guevera
3. Kenny Omega (AEW Champ & Impact Champ) vs Christian for Impact Championship
4. Young Bucks (AEW Champ) vs Jurassic Express
5. Josh Alexander (Impact X Champ) vs Jake Something
6. Deonna Purrazzo (Impact Knockouts Champ & AAA Womens Champ) vs Masha Slamovich

7. Christian (Impact Champ) vs Brian Meyers

​2114. Knockout Your Shot

2021 was really just a good year for fans of Impact Wrestling, as the storylines got a little better but the wrestling never suffered. About half of this episode is from the 2021 Knockouts Knockdown, one of TNA's best events of the year.

Announcers: Ian Riccaboni, Matt Striker, D-Lo Brown, Mickie James, David Penzer, Veda Scott, Tom Hannifan, Bobby Cruise, Melissa Santos

1. The Good Brothers (Impact Tag Champs) vs Violent By Design vs Rich Swann & Willie Mack
​
2. Josh Alexander (Impact X Champ) vs Chris Sabin
3. Deona Purrazzo (Impact Knockouts Champ & AAA Heavyweight Champ) vs Masha Slamovich in a Non-Title Mtch
3. Mercedes Martinez vs Rachel Ellering
4. Christian (Impact Champ) vs Ace Austin
5. Alisha Edwards vs Jordynne Grace vs Kimber Lee vs Savannah Evans in a Monster's Ball Match

6. Trey Miguel vs El Phantasmo vs Steve Maclin for the Impact X Championship
7. Christian Cage (Impact Champ) vs Josh Alexander

2115. Hitting The Links

We wrap up the LA Knight vs Wrestling's Worst Actor storyline, and we see all I imagine we're ever going to see of Karrion Kross in this snapshot of the last days of NXT before it became, *shudder*, NXT 2.0. We also see one of NXT UK's best matches ever, and probably the best match of the season if you're a fan of people beating the heck out of each other.

​Announcers: Wade Barret, Beth Phoenix, Vic Joseph, Alicia Taylor

1. Kushida (NXT Cruiserweight Champ) vs Santos Escobar in a 2/3 Falls Match
2. Karrion Kross (NXT Champ) vs Adam Cole vs Johnny Gargano vs Kyle O'Reilly vs Pete Dunne

3. LA Knight (WWE Million Dollar Champ) vs Cameron Grimes
4. Karrion Kross (NXT Champ) vs Samoa Joe
5. Gunther (as Walter) (NXT UK Champ) vs Ilja Dragunov

2116. When Our Shadows Fall

Three NWA episodes in one season? Truly, it's their Golden Age. This episode sees them dust off Ric Flair to get in the ring and talk for a bit.

Announcers: Joe Galli, Tim Storm, and Velvet Sky

1. Tim Storm vs Thom Latimer Latimer vs Crimson in an Extreme Rules Match 
2. Mickie James vs Kylie Rae
3. Ric Flair says Thank You
4. Kamille (NWA Womens Champ) vs Chelsea Green
5. Damien Sandow (as Aron Stevens) & JR Kratos (NWA Tag Champs) vs La Rebelion
6. Nick Aldis (NWA Champ) vs Tervor Murdoch in a Title Vs Career Match

2117. Streaming Exclusively On Peacock, 2021

It's the end of the Black and Gold era for NXT, as the next generation of stars begins to take over and the old guard moves to either the main WWE roster or AEW. 

Announcers: Wade Barett, Beth Phoenix, Vic Joseph, Alicia Taylor

​1. Adam Cole vs Kyle O'Reilly in a 2/3 Falls Match
2. War Games Match
Iyo Sky (as Io Shirai), Raquel Rodriguez (as Raquael Gonzalez), Cora Jade, Kay Lee Ray vs Dakota Kai & Toxic Attraction

3. Imperium (NXT Tag Champs) vs Kyle O'Reilly & Von Wagner
4. Roderick Strong (WWE Cruiserweight Champ) vs Joe Gacy
5. War Games Match
Bronn Breaker, Grayson Waller, Tony D'Angelo & Carmelo Hayes vs Johnny Gargano, Tomasso Ciampa, LA Knight, Pete Dunne

2118. Crown Jewel, 2021

The Saudi Arabian shows tended not to be great but they slowly improve here with an amazing Hell in A Cell match. Becky Lynch also completely takes over the Womens Division spotlight.

Announcers: Michael Cole, Byron Saxton, Corey Graves, Pat McAfeee, Jimmy Smith, Greg Hamilton, Mike Rome

1. Becky Lynch (WWE Raw Champ) vs Bianca Belair
2. Edge vs Seth Rollins in Hell in A Cell
3. Becky Lynch (WWE Raw Womens Champ) vs Bianca Belair & Sasha Banks
4. Bobby Lashley (WWE Champ) vs Randy Orton
5. Becky Lynch (WWE Raw Womens Champ) vs Charlotte Flair (WWE Smackdown Womens Champ)
​
6. Roman Reigns (WWE Universal Champ) vs Sami Zayn

2119. Countdown To Glory, 2021, 2022

Our final Impact episode of the season will steer us out of the AEW Invasion storyline and start shining the spotlight on their homegrown talent, as well as the legendary Mickie James.

Announcers: Ian Riccaboni, Matt Striker, D-Lo Brown, David Penzer, Tom Hannifan, Bobby Cruise

1. John Skyler vs Vicky Dice
2. Hernandez vs Crrazy Steve
3. Mickie James (Impact Knockout Champ) vs Mercedes Martinez 
4. Fallah vs Sam Beale
5. Johnny Swinger vs Jordynne Grace
6. Moose (Impact Champ) vs Eddie Edwards in a TLC Match
7. Madison Rayne vs Chelsea Greene
8. Tenille Dashwood vs Alisha Tyler
9. Jonathan Gresham (ROH Puro Champ) vs Chris Sabin
10. Mickie James (Impact Knockout Champ) vs Deanna Purrazzo in a Texas Death Match

2120. The End Of Honor

The final episode of Ring Of Honor before it was bought out by AEW features double doses of the stars who really held up ROH in its dying days: Bandido and The Briscoes.

Announcers: Ian Riccaboni, Caprice Coleman, Rocky Romero, Bobby Cruise

​1. Bandido (ROH Champ) vs Flamito vs EC3 vs Brody King
2. The Briscoes (ROH Tag Team Champs) vs OGK
3. The Briscoes (ROH Tag Team Champs) vs FTR
​4. Bandido (ROH Champ) vs Jonathan Gresham (ROH Champ)

I'm white, I'm in my forties, and I grew up listening to a lot of Motown as a kid, and none of that has made me have similar opinions to other white people in their forties. I've heard people I have similar music tastes to absolutely rail against Beyonce. Many of them told me how they "didn't get" her album, Lemonade, as though it were it a college essay assignment and not an intricately woven pop and r&b album deconstructing a troubling time in her relationship and how she recovered from it. I mean, they were right, they didn't get it but I feel that's on par with singing along to pop songs without taking the time to listen and understand the lyrics, something that I still sometimes do to this day.

But we're not at the complex art phase of Beyonce's career yet.

This first album is pretty much The Pre-Lemonade Greatest Hits. Songs that caught my attention at times I wasn't even counsciously listening to pop. Beyonce was simply unescapable almost from the moment Destiny's Child hit the pop scene.

Beyonce's Motown-inspired girl group project, Destiny's Child, was the evolution of En Vogue, TLC, SWV, and the Spice Girls, all of whose roots go back at least as far as Motown. Their work was often inspirational, catchy as Herpes, and deliberately crafted, even if it was basic language repeated ad nauseum, its form never seemed accidental.

Her early solo work was also inspirational, catchy R&B pop but you could hear her maturing as a vocalist and a writer (she began c0-writing most of Destiny's child starting with their second album, The Writing's On The Wall). This is not necessarily my take on her journey there. It's not at all chronological. It's just pre-Lemonade. The songs that found their way to my ears and buried themselves in my brain. If i've missed out on some of her Greatest Hits or your favorite track, I'm sorry. For me, this album is less about Her Important Work and more about what brought me joy when I first saw it on TV, heard it at work, or, in the case of "Irreplacable", when I spent an entire day hearing it on repeat because a terrible roommate put it on repeat before going to work and locked her bedroom door so I couldn't go in and turn it off.

1. The late 1990s/early 2000s pop, house, and reggae scenes loved airhorns and civil defense sirens as instruments in ways that no decades before or, fingers crossed, after, ever will. Ring The Alarm is my favorite use of siren as hook. I even prefer it to Pink Floyd's use of mid-twentieth century European ringtones as percussion. Beyonce's intro lyrics as delivered through a megaphone also draw me right into the song before the girl group harmonies kick in. 

The beat to this song is a military drumline that demands movement from the listener. I'm sure somewhere there are people who hear this song and don't want to dance. If you're one of those people, don't tell me. I don't want to know. I'm not much of a dancer but this song offers its hand to every Poindexter leaning against the walls of a high school dance and refusing to bust a move. 

This song is also a great warning track to the unfaithful fuckbois and sleazy Jolenes who Beyonce will target for her entire career. She's not going to let you get away with it. She tells you several different ways. 

2. 2. In the mid-00s, I spent a ton of time in a particular Internet cafe in Allston, Massachusetts. I can't imagine it's still there. They sold boba tea and Asian-influenced ice cream. I would also swear on the lives of everyone I loved that for five years they played the same hour-long playlist on repeat, and Soldier was one of the songs. You'd think I would have the lyrics completely memorized but, apart from the chorus, the lyrics never penetrated my subcouscious. But the beat? And that chorus. It invaded almost every silence I experienced until 2010.

WHERE THEY AT? WHERE THEY AT? 

"Where is who at?" I would ask my own brain. "I wasn't paying attention to the rest of the lyrics!"

This was the first Destiny's Child song where I really noticed the other Destiny's Child vocalists besides Beyonce. 

3. There's a project I've imagined for about twenty years but I haven't tried to actually write since one of my computers broke around 2007. It's the biography of a musician whose roughly my age. He lives in a similar world to ours but he wrote a ton of incredibly famous songs that, in our universe, came from dozens of different writers from various racial, gender, and class backgrounds. 

In addition to the albums, there are moments in his career that I can see during particular songs.

One of them is an MTV awards show in 1998, where at age twenty, the recently outed-as-queer musician appears in a spotlight and performs Beyonce's If I Were A Boy (which, in this universe he wrote a decade before it was written in the real world). He starts off in sweats and a baseball cap staring straight ahead and slowly removing clothing until, at the end of the song, he's in full glorious drag. During the If you thought I'd back down from you/you thought wrong until the end, he makes dagger-eyes at P Diddy, who had, weeks before the event, released a diss track talking about he wouldn't listen to the singer until he started "singing like a man."

Obviously, the song is much different in a queer, white, cis-male mouth than it is in Beyonce's. But that's how I hear it every time.

4. After the synth opening, Survivor feels like a thousand other inspirational songs. It's not especially tight writing. It doesn't have a memorable beat. It happens to be ust the right level of catchy to build a bomb shelter in the ears of everyone who hears it.

It really should be from a musical movie. But, like Clue, there should be several different versions of the movie released in different theaters so that some people hear Destiny's Child's "Survivor", some people hear Christina Aguilera's "Fighter", some people hear Katy Perry's "Firework", some hear Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive", some hear Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down", some hear Chumbawumba's "Tubthumping". They all have roughly the same experiencce.

Yea, it doesn't tread any new territory but it is to inspirational music what The Police's "Every Breath You Take", George Michael's "Father Figure", James Blunt's"You're Beautiful", and Adele's "Hello" are to creepy stalker songs.

5. The "Edge Of Seventeen" riff in Bootylicious is an oppressive prison housing an otherwise great song. I love the song in spite of it but Dear God that riff overstays its welcome. I don't think I can handle it.

It doesn't help that when I first heard the song via MTV, I thought I was being told that I wasn't ready for Beyonce's spaghetti. Once I realized they were saying jelly I understood how the lyric related to the title of the song.

6 & 7. I definitely heard Wyclef announcing This is the remix on No No No Part 2 before I ever heard No No No Part 1. Neither have ever been my favorite Destiny's Child songs. Not even close.

I do prefer part 1, a breezy 90s ballad that is the Beyonce track most bereft of her personality. This could totally be SWV or latter-day TLC. The b-side to "Red Light Special", probably. It's perfectly acceptable background music but I can't imagine intensely singing this in my car when I'm sad or getting some cleaning done and lip syncing with a feather duster for a 90s rom-com scene. It's the most-fillery song I think I've put on a reimagined album. It fits perfectly on this album but I would never skip another track to get to either version of this one.

At least the remix is peppier? It's still as spicy as vanilla ice cream dusted with flour.

8. If you're going to hit me with a song whose title is the same three syllable word repeated three times, the obvious choice is Bills, Bills, Bills. This is a primer for early angry Beyonce. She ended up with a scrub like you who has left her holding the financial debt in the relationship.

I hope for her sake that this guy is either fictional, or else the same guy from "Irreplaceable" because I have an amazing amount of ampathy for anyone who gets stuck with multiple versions of this song's antagonist.

As much as the lyrics are the big pull for me, the weird latin-esque/popping bubble percussion is a fascinating capsule of turn-of-the-millenium r&b pop. Rarely do I like a pop song that's almost completely trapped in a particular year or so, but this barely pre-Y2K bop lives forever rent free in my head whenever it's time for me to pay my utilities.

9. I know you've been waiting for Jay-Z to show up. How have there been eight Beyonce-forward songs with no Hova? I don't have a solid answer but he's here and hype for Crazy In Love.  

Honestly, the Jay-Z hype and Beyonce's Uh-oh/uh-oh are my favorite part of this somewhat generic r&b groove with easily the most g-rated, radio friendly Jay-Z verse of all time. 

As a love song, it's so bland that you'd have to imagine it was either written by teenagers or written about someone the lyricist didn't have any actual feelings for but was compelled to write about.

10. I am completely unsure why I decided to put Signs on this album when I made it. If I made this in the 2010s, it's entirely possible this was my sarcastic response to a trend in poetry where every poet who had something interesting they should have been writing about were instead telling everyone their Zodiac sign and explaining how it represented their personality.

This is a perfectly good song to listen to. It's arguably better, if not as famous as 
Crazy In Love" or either of the "No, No,No" parts.

It doesn't feel quite like a Beyonce/Destiny's Child song to me, so I did just enough research to discover Missy Elliot wrote this. (She also appears briefly on the track.) It doesn't fully feel like a Missy song. It's unique moment in both their discographies, and I appreciate that. The backwards masking is a nice touch.

11. Starting in late 2009, I spent a few years listening to somewhere between hundreds to thousands of mashups. I was disenchanted with pop. Not because of lyrics or artist perceptions or the inevitable Getting Older. During the rise of autotune, I started hating the sound of the production of most pop. I was working in restaurants and coffeehouses and all the pop stations started to blend together despite the variety of artists making music.

Eventually, of course, pop would evolve into another era of sound that I enjoyed. But during the period that didn't connect with me, I started listening to artists like DJ Earworm, who was mainly highlighting the similarities by making megamixes of similar sounding songs into new pop masterpieces, and Party Ben and members of the Mashstix community who were using a variety of styles to mix vocals from modern songs with music from classic pop, rock, and rap songs, or mixing modern music with classic vocals. This turned me into a ton of pop artists at the time that I might not have otherwise bothered to explore: Lady Gaga, Sia, Adele being just a very few.

"Telephone"  was one of the songs I probably would have missed out on. Not because of Beyonce, who I already liked but because Lady Gaga was on my radar but not in a positive way. It didn't make my Beyonce discography because it pops up on a Lady Gaga Reimagined album. But...but...hearing this track made me seek out I Am Sasha Fierce, which I obviously knew songs from but hadn't examined as an album. It's a banger and not just because of the superhits: "If I Were A Boy" and "Single Ladies". Amongst the other great songs on the album is Radio.

This is a timeless pop anthem. I much prefer it to "Halo", which made single status when this song didn't. I understand why. This is just catchy fluff you can blast out of your car for fun while "Halo" is a song that has widows rushing to Youtube to post about how the song reminds them of their husbands who died of cancer and are now angels. It's an important emotional song for people. Sometimes, that emotional hook will get me. In this particular instance, I much prefer listening to Beyonce sing about having a good time listening to music. 

12. Beyonce put out 43 solo singles before Lemonade, which is the next album in my discography. I feel like you can make cases for about twenty of them being essential Beyonce songs, even though I only picked about ten of them. The one you absolutely Must Include if you're talking about the decade plus where Beyonce was merely a pop force and not A Revered Artist: All The Single Ladies. This song was absolutely everywhere. And with great reasons.

This song has a great, if not particularly memorable beat. It has the glitchy 8-bit pop noise in the background. It has Beyonce going from smooth verse to diva pop chorus. It's masterfully put together. It had a simple but artistically resonant video.

​It's a perfect pop song.

13. Flipping back to the Destiny's Child era. Say My Name is a total 90s En Vogue bop. In an era where there was a major uptick in songs about how You'd Better Start Respecting Your Girlfriend, this was a clear winner. 

If you're so trash that you can't even remember your partner's name, yea, you'd Best get to the proverbial stepping.

There's a version of this song where a music producer thought that the narrative was Too Feminist, so it includes a verse by basketball legend and nobody's favorite rapper, Kobe Bryant, clapping back with a verse about how maybe if Beyonce wasn't always hanging out with her friends, she'd know that he was a standup guy who only called her pet names so he didn't accidentally call her his ex-wife, who he goes lingerie shopping with,'s name. (This song was released about a year and half after Kobe faced sexual assault allegations.)

I don't recommend seeking that version out. As a musician and a boyfriend, he was a very talented basketball player.

14. Confessions has a weird bang/drip intro where it's almost hard but...isn't. Another song with Missy Elliot, this song is a weird precursor to Usher's Confessions album. It's not just the title of the song that's the same, it's a very similar structure and they're both about how the vocalist cheated on their partner.

Usher doesn't explain why he hooked up with another woman and got her pregnant. Beyonce starts the song by saying 

The day you pissed me off, I told Mike to pick me up
I told him you was buggin', and I don't like to fuss
He said he would look out for me if I needed a friend
He took me to his house and then he invited me in (Say what?)
Then we sat on the couch, he put his arms around my waist
Knowin' I need lovin', then he gently grabbed my face
He kissed me like a guy could never kiss a girl before
So you know what happened, baby, I need to say no more

She could have stopped there. She really didn't need to say no more. But she does say that there was at leaset one other time she cheated on him, and, oh yea, she stole a bunch of his money, too.

This is the only song I can think of where Beyonce is the perpetrator of unacceptable behavior and not the victim of it. It's a fascinating blip in her discography.

15. In 2005, I lived with an absolute garbage fire. This person put a false name on our lease, staged a break-in where our front door was removed but the thief bypassed our computers, televisions, furniture, her jewelry, our stereo systems and portable music players and only stole the cash I had given her for that month's rent. When I called her to let her know that the house had been broken into, she immediately asked about the shopping bag she had supposedly thrown the money into. You know, rather than putting it in her wallet or purse. Garbage fire.

One weekend, Garbage Fire packed a bunch of her belongings and supposedly went to Disney World for the week. Unfortunately, she claimed when I texted her about the problem, she got distracted as she was leaving and accidentally left her CD player on, where it looped a horrendous remix of Irreplaceable.

I have been unable to find this remix since. Essentially, it takes the very narrative, very well constructed lyrics, strips them from the song and just adds a reggaeton beat behind Beyonce singing to the lef to the left over and over and over and over and over and over until the listener must decide between fleeing the building where it's playing or else commiting self-harm.

She had, of course, locked her bedroom door, and there was nothing that could be done about it. Well, except unscrewing the door, going into the room, and turning off the CD player, which is what I did. And when she complained about how me removing her door to turn off the music was an invasion of privacy, I reminded her that I replaced the door as soon as it was off, and that I'd barely noticed the dozens of disturbingly sized, unwashed vibrators strewn around the floor.

My personal vendetta against the song ended the first time I heard the actual radio version, which has since become one of my favorite pop songs from that era. Sometimes, though, there is a glitch in the matrix, and I just start jerking my head to the side and saying to the left to the left, to the left to the left, to the left to the left, to the left to the left....

There have been a few intra-family feuds in wrestling history that deserve attention: Bret Hart vs Owen Hart, Bret Hart vs Davey Boy Smith (his brother-in-law), Vince McMahon vs Shane McMahon, Vince McMahon vs Stephanie McMahon, and The Bloodline drama (but not any particular combination within the Bloodline). Most of the rest of the family storylines in wrestling history were boring. I'd much rather watch The Steiners wrestle as a tag team than see them battle each other. Ditto, The Hardys (Ultimate Deletion Match not withstanding). And while there is one excellent Dustin Rhodes vs Cody Rhodes match, I would rather go back and watch them team up and battle The Shield.

The best intra-family feud, though, was the Very Slow Burn destruction of The Mysterio family. Rey Mysterio is an all-time babyface. He just exudes goodness. Even when he was supposed to be a rapscallion in the WCW, his adorable unmasked face just didn't mesh with his cheat-to-win tactics. He was never going to as believable a villain, even when they glued horns on his head. He just seems relentlessly positive and desperate to be liked.

After Dominik and Rhea Ripley beat up his father, in their home, on Thanksgiving, the two returned for Christmas and Evil Dom got arrested and "sent to jail". He returned buffer and badder and became an actual threat who was incredibly fun to watch.

The feud has been fairly quiet over the past year, as, ever the betrayer, Dominik broke up with Rhea Ripley after she returned from a serious injury, only to begin dating the woman who injured her. Meanwhile Rey has been in some underwhelming feuds involving the Latino World Order.

It's only a matter of time, though, before the intra-Mysterio feud kicks off again. It's been widely speculated that when Rey Mysterio is ready to retire, it's going to be Dominik who takes him out. I hope the buildup is so good that this feud goes up another place or four on my list.

​After a few years, Cactus Jack moved to Extreme Championship Wrestling while also fighting in Japan. His matches were wild. In Japan he, Terry Funk, and Mike Awesome were a trio of unassociated Americans fighting in Exploding Barbed Wire Matches where they'd end up bloody and...well...covered in smoke from all the explosions. It was amazing, and each of them brought a bit of that hardcore violence back with them to ECW. Cactus's promos evolved into squealing, passionate declarations about how disappointed he was in the fans. Not because they were fat, gross, or stupid, which was the usual heel promo against fans, but because the fans encouraged such dangerous violence. After ECW fans heckled a wrestler who'd fell nearly to his death and hit his head on the concrete, Cactus Jack lost all faith in the fandom. It was weird, and incredible to watch. But he still wasn't on TV enough for me to consider him a star.

Apart from the occasional casket match, The Undertaker was boringly slogging through matches in the WWF. This wasn't his fault. There was a dearth of talent at the time, and the writing was awful. Eventually, WWF talent relations director and legendary announcer, Jim Ross, convinced Vince McMahon (the world's creepiest sex offender, and owner of the WWF) to hire Mick Foley. But Vince didn't like the Cactus Jack character so they slapped a white button-up shirt or black t-shirt with a red flannel vest, and a leather mask on Foley's face and rechristened him Mankind.  This was an inspired decision.

​Watching The Undertaker dismantle a normal person was pretty boring. Of course, Joe Skimpytrunks couldn't defeat a zombie giant. A four hundred pound sumo wrestler couldn't defeat The Undertaker unless every other wrestler in the company helped him cheat. The creepy, androgynous guy dressed like an Oscar statue couldn't defeat The Undertaker, either. What chance did normal humans have?

Mankind was not a normal human. The basement dwelling, squealing monster almost immediately began interfering in The Undertaker's matches. They battled on the regular, weekly TV show, Superstars, and it was okay. They wrestled at The King Of The Ring, and it was one of the better matches of the night, even though it wasn't exceptional. Still, there was something there. Chemistry. The Undertaker's looming deliberation, and Mankind's insane energy and willingness to let his body get wrecked was a surprisingly good combination.

​During the summer of 1996, Mankind and The Undertaker battled in the first ever Boiler Room Brawl. Basically, they started in an arena basement, which was filled with ladders and lead pipes and chairs and other weapons that weren't common to see in WWF/E matches at the time. The object was just to get the hell out of the basement and into the ring and pin your opponent. It wasn't wrestling, it was a horror movie. And it was a joy to experience for the first time. The two of them destroyed each other, got in the ring, and then had a fantastic twist ending to their fight that demanded there be some sort of rematch.

The rematch? WWF/E's first ever Buried Alive Match. Mankind and The Undertaker had to battle in the ring until one of them could take the other to a grave that had been dug in the arena, and then one of them had to throw the other in the grave and cover them with dirt until they were buried alive. There was a bit more wrestling in this one but it was still more about the gimmick than the athleticism. And that was ok. It's a zombie mortician vs an insane, mask-wearing weirdo, the story is always going to be more important than the actual wrestling. ​

They had other matches after that. Most of them were good to great but there was no way to top the Hell In A Cell match, so they eventually drifted to other feuds. Mick Foley even changed his gimmicks after that, sometimes wrestling as a Shawn Michaels wannabe called Dude Love, and sometimes resurrecting the Cactus Jack character. 

While The Undertaker will appear one more time on my list of best feuds, this was definitely Mick Foley's best. He also had memorable short feuds with Randy Orton, Ric Flair, The Rock, and The Edge but his gimmick matches with The Undertaker were some of the best ever contended in WWF/E history.

I'm not going to fight with anyone over this list. I had a difficult but enjoyable time selecting my Top Ten Favorite Wrestling Feuds, and it spilled over to include ten other feuds that I loved just not as much as my Top Ten Favorites. 

I've tried to include most of the wrestling promotions and draw from all of the eras that I was alive for. I haven't included anything from the 1970s or before because I wasn't alive then, and I'm less interested in what is, for me, wrestling pre-history, and more interested in the characters I grew up watching, as well as the characters currently making wrestling so much fun to experience. Some of these near-misses are going to people's absolutely favorite feuds, and I totally understand why people might shout at their computers "WHAT ON EARTH WAS BETTER THAN THAT?"

Well...wait a bit, I'll tell you.

15. Jake Roberts vs Randy Savage. Randy Savage had spent months as a WWE commentator after losing a retirement match to The Ultimate Warrior. Randy Savage was in the beginning of a potentially amazing feud with The Ultimate Warrior when Warrior was let go for extortion and general jackassery, so the WWE decided to have Jake Roberts, who people were desperate to see in the ring, as his promos from this era were creepy and incredible, goad Savage back into in-ring competition. Roberts's calling card was his giant Burmese Python, Damian. After matches, Jake would pull out his python, and it would crawl all over his terrified opponents. But, in 1991, Earthquake squashed the snake to death (in kayfabe, the wrestler did not really kill a snake) on TV, so Jake The Snake Roberts no longer had his reptilian buddy to torture his opponents. Enter, Motherfucker (his name was never said in the WWE for obvious reasons, but that was the snake's name), a de-venomized King Cobra that chewed on Savage's arm for an extremely uncomfortable amount of time. This attack, in addition to Jake Roberts slapping Savage's wife, Miss Elizabeth, across the face, fueled Savage's return to the ring. If this feud had gone a bit longer, or if the work Roberts did with Warrior had been transposed to his work with Savage, this would definitely have been a top ten feud.

14. Chris Jericho vs Dean Malenko. The cruiserweights in mid-1990s WCW were way more talented, athletic, and interesting to watch than Terrible Terry Five Moves and the rest of the main eventers with their awful wrestling and toothless storylines. Unfortunately, the cruiserweights rarely got amazing stories to tell. When Chris Jericho went heel in 1997, he became The Most Interesting Wrestler In The Promotion. His unmasking of Juventeud Guerrera was part of an incredible feud but his battle with Malenko was better. Malenko was The Man Of A Thousand Holds, so after Jericho soundly defeated him, he began cutting promos as The Man Of A Thousand And Four Holds, which was brilliant. He had dozens of fantastic promos insulting other wrestlers but they all included digs at Malenko, who took a break from wretling after his loss. Months later, Jericho held a Battle Royal to determnine his next opponent. Again, he insulted every wrestler as they entered the match. And at the end, the unmasked Guerrera found himself face to face with the completely forgettable masked cruiserweight wrestler, Ciclope. Clearly, it was time for Guerrera's revenge. And yet, Guerrera stood nose to nose with Ciclope, laughed, and then eliminated himself from the match. Jericho came down to further insult the winner, only for Ciclope to unmask and reveal himself as Dean Malenko. It is unsurprising that their matches after this incident were also fantastic. At the time, this was in my Top Ten Feuds Ever but I didn't want to repeat many wrestlers in my Top Ten list, and Jericho has had several fantastic feuds in the thirty years since his battles with Malenko, and there may be more in his future, as Jericho is still one of the most famous active wrestlers in the world.

13. Bret Hart vs Owen Hart. Bret Hart is acknowledged as one of the best wrestlers who ever lived. His catchphrase was even "I'm The Best There Is, The Best There Was, And The Best There Ever Will Be." His brother, Owen, also became one of the most decorated wrestlers of his era and, if not for his untimely death under the negligent watch of Vince McMahon and Vince Russo, he might have eventually eclipsed Bret's fame. While Bret was originally shown as the cool, level-headed champion of early to mid-90s wrestling, Owen was a whiny "nugget" who constantly cried about being overlooked in favor of his brother. As a feud of promos, this probably wouldn't have made my top twenty matches. But if we're going by pure wrestling, it would probably be in the very top stop. Every match between these two was gold. Forget the silly run-ins, the involvement of their stepbrother/Bret's former tag team partner, Jim Neidhart, and the involvement of all forty-thousand members of Bret and Owen's immediate family. All of those were fine, is a bit uninspired. The wrestling was Top Tier. Every battle between these two was a banger worth several rewatches

12. Rhea Ripley vs Liv Morgan. This feud is still happening. While I'm ready for it to be over, or at least put on hold for a bit, there's a solid possibility that this feud will get even better and crack the top ten. Rhea Ripley has been an absolute beast since her career began. People always cheered her whether she was the loveable underdog or the dastardly villain. When she became the Mami of The Judgement Day, her stock only rose. Everything she did was captivating. Liv Morgan, on the other hand, seemed pretty bland. Her matches were fine. Her stories were forgettable. She had a title reign where she beat Ronda Rousey twice, and both matches were pretty bad both athletically and narratively. When Rhea Ripley had to vacate her title due to a backstage attack by Live Morgan, I don't think anyone expected that it was the beginning of a fantastic feud. But Morgan took over not only as champion but as Dominik Mysterio's new love interest. When Ripley returned, Mysterio sided with Morgan, and they've been putting on mostly inredible matches. I was considering putting this somewhere in the top ten but their match at Bad Blood was terrible and had me wishing they'd both move on to new stories.

11. Bret Hart vs Shawn Michaels. You couldn't really tagline any of their matches with "This time, it's personal" because all of their matches seemed personal. These two had epic storyline after epic storyline, and some of the most iconic matches of all-time. They had the first ever Iron Man match, a sixty minute slog at Wrestlemania. They had the most controversial match of all time when Michaels beat Hart for the title in Hart's last real match in WWE. Dubbed The Montreal Screwjob, the match ending served as inspiration for hundreds of inferior matches ever since. If you're choosing Who Was The Best Technical Wrestler Who Was Also A Great Storyteller In The 90s, your answer has to be one of these two men. I don't think you can argue that one of them was the best and the other was almost the best but you can argue over which of them you prefer. So why isn't this in the Top Ten? I didn't want to repeat many people and Michaels has one feud that definitely tops this, despite how many promos Michaels did about Hart, years after Hart had left for another promotion. Even after Hart had been forced to retire due to injury, Michaels would make promos teasing Hart's return. These two superstars' genuine disrespect for each other made for some of the best wrestling TV of the 20th century. It's also great that they did eventually make up. Their interviews together in the last decade or so are just as entertaining to watch as their antagonistic promos were thirty years ago.

While modern wrestling can be a blast to watch for the athletecism and gymnastic abilities of its biggest stars, for decades the actual grappling took the backseat to soap opera storytelling disguised as a sport. One of America's biggest con-man, carny rapist, sex trafficer, and someone in contention for one of the worst profiteering dirtbags ever born: Vince McMahon didn't even want his WWE (then WWF) referred to as wrestling, he wanted it known as sports entertainment. The 1980s were one of wrestling's biggest boom times behind the personality of Hulk Hogan: a guy who could do four of five moves in the ring and was, without his storylines, boring to watch, as he just put on the same basic match for thirty years.

I loved the stories. I'm in the midst of a weekly watchthrough with friends we're were currently enjoying the 1990s WWE, WCW, and ECW. I'm editing future seasons of our watchthrough, which now involves putting together supercards from 2022 Impact and AEW. I feel absolutely drenched in great storylines, as well as some epic missed opportunities.

For the next few weeks, I"ll be writing about my ten favorite wrestling feuds based on match qualilty, storytelling, and generally how much fun it was to experience. It will be completely North American based wrestling because I'm not as familiar with other products. I've seen my fair share of Americans wrestling in Japan, and I've been privileged enough to see most of the well-known battles between Japanese wrestlers but I've never been knowledgable enough to speak about best feuds in New Japan, All Japan, Noah, Stardom, Dragongate, FMA, or other organizations.

When coming up with this list, I tried not to repeat too many wrestlers. I also didn't include great storytelling feuds where the matches weren't actually very good, so no Flair/Hogan, no Million Dollar Man vs Virgil, no Shawn Michaels vs Marty Janetti, nothing with Jeff Jarrett or his spritual soulmate, The Honkey Tonk Man. There aren't a ton of Impact, Ring Of Honor, WCW, or AEW feuds (though there are at least one from each) because those companies tended to put more emphasis on actual wrestling than storytelling or else they put Vince "Car Crash" Russo in charge and none of the stories made any logical sense or had any compelling characters.

Before I get to my favorite ten feuds, though, here are the first five of my ten Honorable Mentions, and why they didn't make the list:

A coworker in his sixties once lamented to me that his eleven year old son had just "discovered" ACDC. This was around 2015. He was a big funk, R&B, and early hip-hop fan who was also pretty knowledgable about the classic 80s and 90s rock but, despite his love of George Clinton bands, he couldn't get on board with ACDC's amateurish innuendo lyrics.

I understand that. I was probably also around eleven when my family was spending a couple of days with one of my mom's coworkers. The coworker had two kids who were slightly older than me but not so much older that I felt the need to look up to them, nor did they find me annoying.  While our parents drank, we were in the basement, which doubled as their bedroom, watching A Clockwork Orange, which none of our parents would have approved of. 

We must have been eating and drinking solid sugar because the two of them were actually bouncing when the movie was over, and they put on Back In Black. I had probably heard a couple of ACDC songs on MTV or at a friends' house but my parents definitely didn't then, and still don't, listen to Stephen King's favorite rock band. I thought some of the songs were really good and when I, at around age thirteen, scammed Columbia House for cheap albums, I got two or three ACDC albums. I hated them.

I'm definitely a Greatest Hits fan of ACDC, not a true fan. Many of their songs have the same effect on me and I don't think they evolved in any interesting way between when I first encountered Back In Black and when I stopped seeing their more modern songs on MTV in the late 90s/early 2000s. So this is a very mainstream radio friendly One Album Discography of a band that I'm not super into but which was very important to rock history and who have a few unignorable bangers.

1. For Those About To Rock

When I shared this reimagined album description with some friends, I was advised that the beginning of this song is not an amazing synthesizer riff but, in fact, someone finger-picking a guitar. This is an astounding feat of intrumental camouflage but not the only one you'll find on this reimagined album.

This gets opening track credit for its amazing slow build to the heavier portion of the song. This is precisely the type of song I look for when putting together most of these reimagined albums. Neither their best nor their loudest song, I just love the chorus, and how it has a more jangly sound than anything that follows. The weird repeated breakdown/canon fire section about 2/3rds of the way through is late 70s/early 80s metal gold. 

2. It's A Long Way To The Top

There's almost a country rock vibe at the beginning of this track. It was years before I realized this was an ACDC song. I don't know who I thought it was or why I didn't recognize it. I had heard quite a few of the Bon Scott-era songs but I just couldn't place the vocalist, probably because I was so distracted by how a country sounding metal song is suddenly invaded by relentless bagpipes. I do feel like these first two tracks are kind of a cheat, since they're both about rock and roll and contain almost no middle-school innuendo but, and this is rare for me, I prefer their self-referential songs to their dick jokes.

3. You Shook Me All Night Long

Here comes the sex songs! This is an absolutely basic classic rock radio staple. This has been in so many movies, TV shows, commercials, and it's been played so many times while I've shopped in stores that I'm not sure whether I like it or I'm just accustomed to it. 

4. Thunderstruck

I'm certain I enjoy Thunderstruck. The wild guitar lick while a chorus of men do a little sport chant until the lead vocals come in is First Class 70s/80s Arena Rock, so imagine my surprise to find that this is from 1990. The middle of the song is just standard classic rock but that opening minute is worth the price of admission.

5. TNT

Prime 1970s radio metal. The main guitar riff is just a clean riff you might hear in a Joan Jett song. The verses are typical braggadocio about how good at sex the singer is but, honestly, it's top tier sex braggadocio. It's not clever, it's just catchy and not terrible. And the underlying ois are so sing-alongable. The descent into guitar madness at the end works in the song's favor, too.

6. Who Made Who

Stephen King has been singing the praises of ACDC for decades. Rightfully, so. This song, the title track from an album that doubled as the soundtrack for one of King's more memorable, if not necessarily good, movies: Maximum Overdrive. This is another case of a song that I know many of the words to, and bop my head along to but I'm not sure if I like it or if it just happened to play on the radio frequently when I was just getting into harder rock.

7. Highway To Hell

How do you not bop your head to the guitar riffs on this song? The catchy, adolescent rebellion chorus is a classic for a reason.  It also descends into guitar madness near the end before we get one more Highway To Hell.

8. Hard As A Rock

I'd guess this isn't on many peoples' Best Of ACDC list. It's a typical innuendo-based song with a solid but not Earth-shattering riff. It just happened to come out when I was watching a lot of MTV. It's not a legendary track but it's better than just album-filler. I do like the somewhat jangly riff that is mostly under the surface of the main crunch for most of the song.

9. Hell's Bells

The title-necessitated bells. The lead guitar could have made this a hit without any vocals. When the vocals come in, they're great, but this one is driven mostly the Young brothers, and whoever rang those bells.

10. Dirty Deeds Done Cheap

Decades ago, a friend who was the lead singer of a hardcore band told the story about hearing this song when he was really young, and how he used to wail "Dirty deeds and the Dunder Chief!" I can definitely hear that interpretation. This is one of the band's all-time best. John Popper of Blues Traveler used to play the harmonica so blisteringly, you'd swear it was a guitar. The guitar in the middle of this track, conversely, is so blistering, you'd swear it was a harmonica. The chanting on the way to the outro is also magic.

11. Let There Be Rock

I thought I closed out this reimagineed album with a great counterpoint to the opening track. Another rock song about rock. This one is a bit heavier with a couple of epic breakdowns scattered through its six minute length. Along with "Devil Went Down To Georgia", this has to be one of the best ever songs presenting lyrics as a religious fable. As much as I loved it, I realized there was a better closer.

12. Back In Black

​The clicky intro, the strummy, percussive guitar parts, the way Brian Johnson makes the word back have five syllables. I tend to end rock albums with ballads but I can't think of an ACDC ballad that works as well as a closer than this absolute scorcher of a finisher.

I think this album contains all the songs I'd reasonably listen to when I'm in the mood for ACDC. But were I to make a second album, I couldn't really go in-depth about my choices but it would probably be:

1. If You Want Blood (You've Got It)
2. Whole Lotta Rosie
3. Demon Fire
4.Sink The Pink​
5. Touch Too Much
6. Kick You When You're Down
7. Nervous Shakedown
8. Livewire
9. Rock & Roll Train
10. Have A Drink On Me
11. The Jack

Having been watching Doctor Who on and off but mostly off for the last forty years, I am excited by the current re-re-rebooted series featuring the fourteenth and fifteenth doctors. After a divisive Twelfth Doctor, and a Thirteenth Doctor who was, herself, very interesting and entertaining, but whose overall storyarc was less than satisfying, I'm relieved to be optimistic about the show, even if it still had a couple of clunker episodes.

I've already done a How To Watch Doctor Who project that focuses just on the great episodes, and how to watch them in order for most enjoyment.

This is something different.

If you love continuity, you're going to either want to skip this one or watch it very, very closely. This is Doctor Who told incredibly out of order. Each series will have a theme and/or a complex storyline. Each season will use multiple Doctors and companions, and will rarely (but not never) follow their adventures in such a way that you see a companion's growth as a character.

I did this, not just because I think it's fun to try and experience the series in a new way but I offer this to people who haven't watched Doctor Who, who would like to see some of the old episodes but can't stomach watching the 20th century episodes for several months in order to get to the modern stuff. We start modern and bop around so that you're never stuck in the black and white era or the 4,000 minute long serial era for very long.

The first season is all about learning who The Doctor is. He's a seemingly somewhat immortal time traveler, and when he gets really ill, he regenerates into an entirely different looking/behaving person who tend to have a sort of temporary amnesia. We're going to be introduced to the first thirteen Doctors (except 4) in this season, out of order, usually including their first episodes where they are unsure what kind of person they are and struggle to get a handle on their new personas.

101. Blink
(10, Martha, Weeping Angels)

Some argue that this a terrible introduction to Doctor Who because The Doctor is hardly in it. That's why I enjoy it as an entryway. This is a fun sci-fi/horror story with a mysterious character who we're soon going to get to know. And there are really imaginative monster antagonists.


​102 & 103. The Family Of Blood / Human Nature
(10, Martha)

Now we find out who The Doctor i---oh, The Doctor has to go into hiding during World War One. His companion is there watching over him but racism is making things difficult. As are aliens.


104. Time Heist
(12, Clara)

An entirely different face of The Doctor and a new companion find themselves in the middle of a bank heist with no memory of how they got involved and what their aims are. They puzzle it out as shenanigans unravel around them.


105. The Woman Who Fell To Earth
(13, Ryan, Yasmin, Graham)

Another another face for The Doctor. This time a woman who acknowledges she was just a raving Scotsman. She meets a new crew of potential companions tracking down a monster who appears to be hunting humans for...teeth?


106. The Invasion (episodes 2, 7 & 8)
(2, Jamie, Zoe, Brigadier, Cybermen)

It's Cybermen vs UNIT (we are meeting both for the first time), as a black and white era Doctor must make military alliances on Earth to keep it from being destroyed.


107. War Games (episodes 1, 9 & 10)
(2, Jamie, Zoe, Timelords)

Yet another face of The Doctor and a couple of his companions find themselves in the midst of a very confusing war. Just as they begin to sort everything out and plot their escape they're taken to The Doctor's home planet where they are separated, and we learn a little bit about how The Doctor's face keeps changing.


108. Spearhead From Space
(3, Brigadier, Liz, Autons)

Picking up from the previous episode for the first time, we meet a new and confused face of The Doctor and see him interact with someone who was familiar with a previous face. We also meet the Autons, an odd race of mannequins.


109. Terror Of The Autons
(3, Brigadier, Jo, Mike, Autons, The Master)

More mannequins! More Brigadier! The introduction of a very important villain who also appears to be a Time Lord.


110. Rose
(9, Rose, Mickey, Jackie, Autons)

This is probably the last time we'll see The Autons. It's much further down The Doctor's timeline, and they're targeting London. Once again, there's a new face of The Doctor, and he's trying to get a hold on who he is.


111. The Christmas Invasion
(10, Rose, Mickey, Jackie, Harriet Jones)

Oh, hey, we're back to the very first face of The Doctor we met this season. Only, oooh, this is his first adventure. Is it those damned mannequins again? Luckily, we have three companions from the last episode to help a seemingly exhausted Doctor remember who he is and what he should be doing: saving Earth from aliens! 


112. The Eleventh Hour
(12, Amy, Rory)

Another another another face of The Doctor, also confused, lands on Earth and discovers cracks on a young girl's wall. We also see for the first time several of the faces he's already had on this weird journey.


113. & 114. The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood
(12, Amy, Rory, Silurians)

The Doctor's companions from the last adventure join him on a drilling expedition where they go too far beneath The Earth's surface and get involved in interspecies warfare.


115. Vincent & The Doctor
(12, Amy)

After the previous episode's events, The Doctor takes Amy to visit one of Earth's greatest painters.


116 & 117. Silence In The Library / Forest Of The Dead
(10, Donna, River)

Back to our original Doctor. He and a friend are drawn to a library where an expedition has arrived to research why there are no people there. One of the members of the expedition seems to know The Doctor but he has no idea who she is.


118. Time Crash / Castrovalva
(10, 5, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan, The Master)

This is a fun, weird continuity floof. Our friend the 10th Doctor runs into a face we haven't met yet (The Fifth Doctor), and they suss each other out. Then we follow The Fifth Doctor into his first adventure where he wakes up surrounded by companions who know him but, as we're becoming accustomed to, he isn't sure who he is or what he should be doing. Oh, and The Master is around, which is annoying.


119. The Enemy Within
(7, 8, The Master)

Two new faces in one! The Seventh Doctor has The Master's remains, and is trying to determine what to do with them when, of course, something goes awry that ends up causing The Doctor to regenerate in America where everything is a teensy bit darker and more violent.


120. The Fugitive Of The Judoon
(13, Yasmin, Ryan, Graham, Judoon, Fugitive)

And now we're back to the Steampunk Doctor. A military alien race has quarantined Earth as they search for a criminal who, you're never going to believe this, turns out to be Another face of The Doctor.


121.  The Two Doctors
(6, 2, Jamie, Peri, Sontarans)

Another multiple Doctor affair sees some Sontarans and some Earthlings and some other rogue aliens teaming up. One of the alien races is always searching for new and more refined culinary experiences and they bring a very silly element to an otherwise grave situation.


122. War Of The Sontarans
(13, Yasmin, Dan, Sontarans)

There's not a silly culinary alien in sight when The Sontarans due to some weird timey-wimey scenario, end up on Earth during World War One and therefore on Earth for the entirety of the 20th and 21st century? Steampunk Doctor must try and correct a very jumbled history. 


123. & 124. The Time Meddler
(1, Vicki, Steve)

Reaching way back into the black and white era, we see The Doctor and his companions have to deal with The Monk, another time traveler who is messing up history by exposing ancient civilizations to twentieth century technology.


125. Heaven Sent
(12)

It's just The Doctor. Trapped in a puzzle, he must figure out not only how to escape but why he's there but every time a mysterious entity reaches him, he is dissolved and has to start the quest over. It's a phenomenal episode and shows exactly who The Doctor is when he's focused and against insurmountable odds.

2020 was a serious drag. Pandemic, another terrible American election, Brexit kept getting somehow worse, it might have made you want to lock yourself in your house, if you weren't in fact mandated to stay in your house because of a plague.

The Thunderdome era featured WWE piping in fan noise and having walls of iPads showing fans who were watching online. NXT, AEW, and Impact just had very limited audiences, usually made up of non-competing wrestlers and personalities. 

While this was a bit of a bummer, most of the companies found creative ways to entertain, including cinematic matches, and a ton of stipulations.

The biggest story to come out of this is The Bloodline Saga, which is somehow still going on, over four years later.

Starring: Roman Reigns, Bayley, Sasha Banks, Dean Ambrose (as Jon Moxley), Chris Jericho, Rhea Ripley, MJF, Finn Balor, Drew McIntyre, Cody Rhodes, Asuka, Io Sky, Rey Mysterio, Kenny Omega, Hikaru Shida, FTR, Kevin Owens, Jey Uso, Hangman Page, Daniel Bryan, Darby Allin, AJ Styles, Shaemus, Brodie Lee

2001. The Silent Wrestlemania

The first live sporting event during the pandemic era was Wrestlemania. Bookended by a couple of cinematic matches, we have a series of matches without an audience. It's a huge departure from typical WWE production but it was a welcome distraction when everyone was stuck at home. Both of these cinematic matches were wild, and they're very different tones from one another. The Firefly Funhouse Match being more of a skit than a match while The Boneyard Match was a stunt-focused brawl. Usually I end one of these fictional seasons with a superstar's final match, but this season we begin with what is, hopefully, the last ever Undertaker match. It was the perfect sendoff for him.

Announcers: Michael Cole, JBL, Byron Saxton, Tom Phillips, Titus O'Neill, Greg Hamilton, Mike Rome

1. Bray Wyatt (as The Fiend) vs John Cena in a Firefly Funhouse Match
2. Becky Lynch (WWE Raw Womens Champ) vs Shayna Baszler
3. Kevin Owens vs Seth Rollins in a No DQ Match
4. Miz & Morrison (Smackdown Tag Champs) vs Heavy Machinery
5. Goldberg (WWE Universal Champ) vs Braun Stroman
6. Bayley (WWE Smackdown Womens Champ) vs Sasha Banks vs Naomi vs Tamina vs Lacey Evans

7. Dolph Ziggler vs Otis
8. Brock Lesnar (WWE Champ) vs Drew McIntyre
9. Undertaker vs AJ Styles in a Boneyard Match

2002. Money On The Roof

Some solid matches sans audience, including a surprise cinematic tag team match, and two Money In The Banks matches happening simultaneously in WWE headquarters. The cinematic matches are pretty silly but entertaining.

Announcers: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Byron Saxton, Tom Phillips, Samoa Joe, Greg Hamilton, Mike Rome, Howard Finkel

​​1. Bayley (WWE Smackdown Womens Champ) vs Tamina
2. Jeff Hardy vs Cesaro
3. Drew McIntyre (WWE Champ) vs Seth Rollins
5. Street Profits (Raw Tag Team Champs) vs Viking Raiders
6. Edge vs Randy Orton

7. Womens Money In The Bank Ladder Match
Asuka, Shayna Baszler, Nia Jax, Carmella, Lacey Evans, Dana Brooke

8. Mens Money In The Bank Ladder Match
Rey Mysterio vs Daniel Bryan vs AJ Styles vs Malakai Black (as Aleister Black) vs Baron Corbin vs Otis

2003. NXT In Your House

The first pandemic-era NXT show is a super throwback to the early 90s cheese that was In Your House. The matches, however, are totally 2020 barn burners.  The women in this match are the future (or in Charlotte's case, the present) of the WWE main roster, while most of the men in this episode will be AEW bound in the not so distant future.

Announcers: Todd Pettingill, Mauro Ranallo, Beth Phoenix, Tom Phillips, Alicia Taylor

1. Mia Yim, Shotzi Blackheart & Tegan Nox vs Dakota Kai, Candace LeRae & Raquel Gonzalez

2. Finn Balor vs Damien Priest
3. Keith Lee (NXT North American Champ) vs Johnny Gargano
4. Charlotte Flair (NXT Womens Champ) vs Rhea Ripley vs Iyo Sky (as Io Shirai)
5. Finn Balor vs Cameron Grimes
6. Roderick Strong vs Johnny Gargano vs Bronson Reed
7. Adam Cole (NXT Champ) vs Keith Lee (NXT North American Champ)

2004. Stadium Stampede

AEW begins the season in style with their version of Money in The Bank, followed by some killer individual matches, leading up to the absolute mayhem of the ten person, no rules match taking place in an empty football stadium. It's bananatown. Plus, Mike Tyson returns for the first time in fifteen years. Luckily for all involved, he doesn't wrestle this time, either.

​Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Excalibur, Justin Roberts

1. Casino Ladder Match
Darby Allin, Colt Cabana, Orange Cassidy, Joey Janela, Scorpio Sky, Kip Sabian, Frankie Kazarian, Brian Cage, and Luchasaurus

2. MJF vs Jack Perry (as Jungle Boy)
3. Cody Rhodes vs Lance Archer for inaugural TNT Championship
4. Nyla Rose (AEW Womens Champ) vs Hikaru Shida
5. Dean Ambrose (as Jon Moxley)  (AEW Champ) vs Brodie Lee
6. The Elite vs The Inner Circle in a Stadium Stampede Match

2005. An Eye For An Eye, 2020

The stipulation for the second match on this card is ludicrous but the match before it is great. We also see Asuka get two shots at two different womens titles, and it turns out that the climax to the Otis/Ziggler feud is actually Mandy Rose vs Sonya Deville. Plus, Baby Bastard Dominik Mysterio gets his first singles match, fifteen years after he debuted on Raw (as a child/prop).

Announcers: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Byron Saxton, Tom Phillips, Samoa Joe, Greg Hamilton, Mike Rome

1. Apollo Crews (US Champ) vs Andrade
2. Seth Rollins vs Rey Mysterio in an Eye For An Eye Match 
3. Drew McIntyre (WWE Champ) vs Dolph Ziggler
4. Mandy Rose vs Sonya Deville in a Loser Leaves WWE Match
5. Bayley (Smackdown Womens Champ) vs Asuka
5. Seth Rollins vs Dominik Mysterio in a Street Fight
6. Sasha Banks (WWE Raw Womens Champ) vs Asuka
7. Drew McIntyre (WWE Champ) vs Randy Orton

2006. All Under One Roof, 2020

The Thunderdome era really kicks off with the return of Roman Reigns and the seeds of The Bloodline storyline which will dominate the WWE for over four years. We also build the Mysterio storyline which is super tame at this point but is going to get wild down the line. This also marks the last time we'll see The Fiend, and the last time that we'll see Braun Stroman for quite a while. Both had matches after the one in this episode but none ended up being worth a watch.

Announcers: Michael Cole, Byron Saxton, Corey Graves, Beth Phoenix, Tom Phillips, Vic Joseph, Wade Barrett, Samoa Joe, Charly Caruso, Kayla Braxton, Greg Hamimlton, Mike Rome

1. Big E vs Sheamus
2. The Golden Role Models (WWE Womens Tag Champs) vs Shayna Baszler & Nia Jax
​3. Rey & Dominik Mysterio vs Seth Rollins & Buddy Murphy
4. Bray Wyatt (as The Fiend) (WWE Universal Champ) vs Roman Reigns & Braun Stroman
5. Rhea Ripley vs Mercedes Martinez in a Steel Cage
6. Iyo Sky (as Io Shirai) (NXT Womens Champ) vs Shotzi Blackheart 
7. Drew McIntyre (WWE Champ) vs Randy Orton in an Ambulance Match

2007. You've Got To Fyte For Your Ryte To Party, 2020

Don't think that because we've had five WWE-centric matches, and this is only our second AEW match that this speaks to the quality of either company. WWE just never took a break when the pandemic hit, whereas AEW took a month to figure out what to do. When they came back, every one of their weekly shows was a monster. Pay-per-view level shows on a weekly basis. Very little story but a lot of great wrestling. FTR (the Revival from NXT and WWE) show up and suddenly AEW has every good tag team in the US besides New Day and The Usos. The title scenes were all banging, too. 

Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Excalibur, Chris Jericho, Justin Roberts


1. FTR vs The Butcher & The Blade
2. Cody Rhodes (AEW TNT Champ) vs Marq Quen
3. MJF & Wardlow vs Jurassic Express
4. Hikaru Shida (AEW Womens Champ) vs Penelope Ford
5. Cody Rhodes (AEW TNT Champ) vs Jake Haeger
6. Hangman Page & Kenny Omega (AEW Tag Team Champs) vs Private Party
7. Young Bucks & FTR vs Lucha Bros & The Butcher & The Blade
8. Chris Jericho vs Orange Cassidy

2008. Mimosa Mayhem

A ridiculous stipulation match gives its name to this episodes but this is mainly about John Moxley's title run in AEW, as well as continuing to see the rise of MJF. And, as is usual for 2019/2020/2021 AEW, a bunch of excellent tag team matches.

Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Excalibur, Tazz, Justin Roberts

1. The Elite vs Jurassic Express
2. Cody Rhodes (AEW TNT Champ) vs Eddie Kingston
3. Dean Ambrose (as John Moxley) (AEW Champ) vs Darby Allin
4. Young Bucks vs Jurassic Express
5. Hangman Page & Kenny Omega (AEW Tag Team Champs) vs FTR
6. Chris Jericho vs Orange Cassidy in Mimosa Mayhem
7. Dean Ambrose (as Jon Moxley) (AEW Champ) vs MJF

2009. Top Tier, 2020

The birth of the Bloodline storyline gets all the headlines this season but the Smackdown Women's Championship is also a highlight. We get two matches between the former Golden Role Model teammates, and then a preview of future title contenders. Plus, the second of two incredible stipulation title matches between Drew McIntyre and Randy Orton.

Announcers: Michael Cole, Byron Saxton, Corey Graves, Tom Phillips, Samoa Joe, Kayla Braxton, Charly Caruso, Mike Hamilton, Greg Rome

1. Jeff Hardy (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs AJ Styles vs Sami Zayn
2.Bayley (Smackdown Womens Champ) vs Sasha Banks in Hell In A Cell
3. Roman Reigns (WWE Universal Champ) vs Jey Uso  in an I Quit Match
4. Drew McIntyre (WWE Champ) vs Randy Orton in Hell In A Cell
5. Sasha Banks (Smackdown Womens Champ) vs Bayley

2010. Championship Horror Show

​The Bloodline story continues, as Jey Uso struggles to maintain his position in the family. Plus, several excellent tag team matches, and Sasha Banks's spectacular run as Smackdown Womens Champion.

Announcers: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Byron Saxton, Samoa Joe, Pat McAfee, Tom Phillips, Kayla Braxton, Mike Rome, Greg Hamilton

1. Street Profits (Smackdown Tag Team Champs) vs New Day (Raw Tag Team Champs)
2. Sasha Banks (Smackdown Womens Champ) vs Asuka (Raw Womens Champ)
3. Roman Reigns (WWE Universal Champ) vs Drew McIntyre (WWE Champ)
4. Sasha Banks (Smackdown Womens Champ) vs Carmella
5. Roman Reigns & Jey Uso vs Kevin Owens & Otis
6. New Day (Raw Tag Team Champs) vs The Hurt Business
5. Roman Reigns (WWE Universal Champ) vs Kevin Owens in a TLC Match

2011. Halloween Havoc Rises From The Grave

The Pandemic Era of NXT took a while to get to interesting stories but they wasted no time with high quality matches. Finn Balor returned to NXT, Iyo Sky (as Iyo Shirai) absolutely dominated the women's division, and Damien Priest and Gunther (as Walter) continued their inevitable ascents to the main roster.

Announcers: Corey Graves, Beth Phoenix, Wade Barret, Vic Joseph, Alicia Taylor

1. Finn Balor vs Timothy Thatcher
2. Iyo Sky (as Iyo Shirai) (NXT Womens Champ) vs Shotzi Blackheart
3. Bronson Reed vs. Cameron Grimes vs. Damien Priest vs. Velveteen Dream vs. Johnny Gargano in a Ladder Match for the North American Championship

4. Iyo Sky (as Iyo Shirai) (NXT Womens Champ) vs Candace LeRae in a TLC Match
5. Finn Balor (NXT Champ) vs Kyle O'Reilly
6. Iyo Sky (as Iyo Shirai) (NXT Womens Champ) vs Rhea Ripley
7. Gunther (as Walter) vs Ilja Dragunov

2012. Late Night Dynamite

Luke Harper of the Wyatt Family moved to AEW and became Mister Brodie Lee. We see a trio of matches involving him here. Also, MJF continues to be a turd, and Proud & Powerful and The Best Friends go to war over a van owned by one of The Best Friends' mom.

Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Taz, Excalibur, Kenny Omega, Hangman Page, Justin Roberts

1. The Elite & FTR vs The Dark Order
2. Hangman Page vs Frankie Kazarian
3. Best Friends vs Proud & Powerful in a Parking Lot Brawl
4. Cody Rhodes (TNT Champ) vs Luke Harper (as Brodie Lee)
5. Darby Allin vs Ricky Starks
6. FTR (AEW Tag Team Champs) vs SoCalU
7. Luke Harper (TNT Champ) vs Cody Rhodes
8. Wardlow vs Hangman Page

2013. Takeover Vengeance Day

Stipulations abound in this satisfyingly violent episode. The Cameron Grimes/Dexter Lumis feud is a weird blast, and we get two War Games matches. Oh yea, and a rematch between Iyo Sky and Rhea Ripley.

Announcers: Beth Phoenix, Vic Joseph, Wade Barret, Alicia Taylor

1. Cameron Grimes vs Dexter Lumis in a Blindfold Match
2. Iyo Sky (as Io Shirai) (NXT Womens Champ) vs Rhea Ripley
3. Womens War Game Match
Toni Storm, Dakota Kai, Candace LeRae, and Raquel Gonzalez vs Iyo Sky, Rhea Ripley, Ember Moon, and Shotzi Blackheart

4. Cameron Grimes vs Dexter Lumis in a Strap Match
5. Mens War Game Match
The Undisputed Era vs Pat McAfee, Pete Dunne, Danny Burch, and Oney Lorcan

2014. An Actual November Worth Remembering

Several stellar matches lead up to the biggest return in wrestling up to this point in history. I was going to say "ever" but there is a bigger return on the horizon. This one was still pretty cool, though.

Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Tazz, Excalibur, Don Callis, Kenny Omega, Chris Jericho, Justin Roberts

1. Hangman Page vs Kenny Omega
2. Cody Rhodes (AEW TNT Champ) vs Darby Allin
3. FTR (AEW Tag Team Champs) vs Young Bucks
4. Chris Jericho vs MJF
5. Dean Ambrose (as Jon Moxley) (AEW Champ) vs Eddie Kingston in an I Quit Match
6. Team Taz vs Cody Rhodes & Darby Allin

2015. Head Of The Tables, Ladders & Chairs

Sami Zayn reenters the headlining scene in this episode as a conspiracy theorizing madman desperate for a title. We also see Kevin Owens and Roman Reigns continuing their epic rivalry. The highlight, though, is the Women's Royal Rumble, which put the men's version to shame. This is also the last time we may ever see Big E wrestle, as he had his neck broken in a botched move not too long after this match.

Announcers: Jerry Lawler, Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Byron Saxton, Samoa Joe, Tom Phillips, Greg Hamilton, Mike Rome

1. Drew McIntyre vs AJ Styles in a TLC Match
2. Roman Reigns (WWE Universal Champ) vs Kevin Owens in a Cage Match
3. The Dirty Dawgs (Smackdown Tag Team Champs) vs Daniel Bryan & Caesaro
4. Big E (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Sami Zayn vs Apollo Crews
5. Womens Royal Rumble Match
Bayley, Naomi, Bianca Belair, Billie Kay, Shotzi Blackheart, Shayna Baszler, Toni Storm, Jillian Hall, Ruby Riott, Victoria, Peyton Royce, Santana Garrett, Liv Morgan, Rhea Ripley, Charlotte Flair, Dana Brooke, Torrie Wilson, Lacey Evans, Mickie James, Nikki Cross, Alicia Fox, Mandy Rose, Dakota Kai, Carmella, Tamina, Lana,  Alexa Bliss, Ember Moon, Nia Jax, Natalya

​2016. Universal Contenders

The pandemic road to Wrestlemania wasn't one of the all-time greats. There was pretty much one story and it was Roman Reigns can't be beat. The Rumble had some fun moments but it's not at all an all-timer, and the Elimination Chamber was a buildup to the absolute squash that was one of the final stops on Daniel Bryan's road to AEW.

Announcers: Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Samoa Joe, Greg Hamilton

1. Roman Reigns (WWE Universal Champ) vs Kevin Owens in a Last Man Standing Match
2. Mens Royal Rumble
Edge, Randy Orton, Sami Zayn, Mustafa Ali, Jeff Hardy, Dolph Ziggler, Shinsuke Nakamura, Carlito, Xavier Woods, Big E, John Morrison, Ricochet, Elias, Damian Priest, The Miz, Matt Riddle, Daniel Bryan, Kane, Baron Corbin, Otis, Dominik Mysterio, Bobby Lashley, The Hurricane, Christian, AJ Styles, Rey Mysterio, Sheamus, Cesaro, Seth Rollins, Braun Strowman

3. Nia Jax vs Lana in a Tables Match
​4. WWE Universal Contenders Elimination Chamber
Daniel Bryan, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Cesaro, Jey Uso, Baron Corbin

5. Roman Reigns (WWE Universal Champ) vs Daniel Bryan

2017. Hard To Kill

Watching TNA during the pandemic was rough. Their recently crowned First Ever In The World woman as Heavyweight Champ disappeared in a cloud of controversy, unlike AEW and WWE, their set ended up looking like a set of bleachers in a middle school, and their roster just didn't rise to the occasion the way the larger companies did. But it wasn't all bad, and while this was another bumpy era for them, it does provide continuity before they started getting back on the right track.

Announcers: Don Callis, Josh Phillips, Madison Rayne, Matt Stryker, D-Lo Brown, David Penzer

1. The Rascalz vs Motor City Machine Guns
2. Impact Knockout Gauntlet For The Gold
Kylie Rae, Tasha Steelz, Johnny Bravo, Kimber Lee, Kiera Hogan, Susie, Katie Forbes, Madison Rayne, Havok, Taya Valkyrie, Alisha Edwards, Nevaeh, Rosemary, 

3. Eric Young vs Ace Austin vs Trey vs Eddie Edwards vs Rich Swann for vacant Impact Championship

4. Deanno Purrazo (Impact Knockout Champ) vs Su Young
5. TJ Perkins (as Manik) (Impact X Champ) vs Chris Bey vs Rohit Raju
6. Eddie Edwards vs Sami Cahill in a Barbed Wire Match
7. Kenny Omega & The Good Brothers vs Chris Sabin, Rich Swann & Moose

2018. Make Your Moment, 2021

Thunderdome isn't quite over but we do get our first live event of the season for WWE, as Wrestlemania goes to Tampa Bay, and we see two matches in front of an audience of fans for the first time this season. There's a lot of interference and shenanigans in the first two matches but the last three are pure one-on one battles.


1. WWE Championship Elimination Chamber
Drew McIntyre (WWE Champ) vs AJ Styles vs Randy Orton vs Shaemus vs Kofi Kingston vs Jeff Hardy

2. Roman Reigns (WWE Universal Champ) vs Daniel Bryan
3. Shaemus vs Drew McIntyre in a No Holds Barred Match
4. Seth Rollins vs Caesaro
​5. Sasha Banks (WWE Smackdown Womens Champ) vs Bianca Belair

2019. Reigning Champions, 2021

The Bloodline continues to dominate. Rhea Ripley climbs to the top of the women's division, and we even see a rare, entertaining Baron Corbin match.

1. Baron Corbin vs Sami Zayn
2. Riddle (WWE US Champ) vs Shaemus
3. Asuka (WWE Raw Womens Champ) vs Rhea Ripley
​4. Roman Reigns (WWE Universal Champ) vs Daniel Bryan vs Edge
5. Roman Reigns (WWE Universal Champ) vs Daniel Bryan
6. Rhea Ripley (WWE Raw Womens Champ) vs Charlotte Flair vs Asuka​

2020. Ten Bells For Brodie Lee, 2021

Sadly, John Huber (aka Brodie Lee, aka Luke Harper) was hospitalized for a lung infection shortly after his dog collar match to Cody Rhodes. He never recovered. This episode is bookended by matches where his Dark Order teammates, as well as his former Wyatt Family teammate, Eric Rowan, break from storylines to put on matches that Brodie's son wanted to see. It's very touching. Less touching is that Don Callis from TNA invades AEW bringing several wrestlers from various promotions with him, in order to take down John Moxley.

Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Excalibur, Tazz, Don Callis, Chris Jericho, Justin Roberts

1. Hangman Page & Dark Order vs Inner Circle
2. Dean Ambrose (as John Moxley) (AEW Champ) vs Kenny Omega
3. Hangman Page vs John Silver
4. Kenny Omega (AEW Champ) vs Rey Fenix
5. Dax Harwood vs Jack Perry (as Jungle Boy)
6. Britt Baker (AEW Womens Champ) vs Thunder Rosa
7. Bullet Club vs. Dean Ambrose (as Jon Moxley) & Death Triangle
8. Brodie Lee's Dream Team vs Team Taz

Last season, we learned some things about the Cardassians and the Ferenghi, as well as meeting the crew of the Cerritos on Lower Decks, and the crew of Voyager​. Now we find out that the real problem for The Federation is actually on the other side of the wormhole as The Founders and the Jem'Hadar enter the fray. Plus, transporter accidents, espionage, and the introduction of the Pakleds!

This is an intensely fun season of stories that weave together seamlessly.

901: Jem'Hadar (DS9)
(Sisko, Jake, Quark, Nog, Odo, Kira, Dax, O'Brien, Bashir)

A father/son bonding trip between Sisko and Jake (as well as Quark and his nephew Nog) goes horribly awry when they are kidnapped by the new Big Bad of Deep Space Nine. Forget the Cardassians, the Jem'Hadar are nonfuckwithable warriors from the other side of the wormhole, and they're about to change the whole feel of the series.


902: A Piece Of The Action (TOS)
(Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scott, Uhura, Chekov)

"City On The Edge Of Forever" took place in New York City, during the Depression. This episode takes place on an alien world, but an alien world that has based their system of government on 1930s Chicago gangster rule. Kirk does a hilariously and probably intentionally bad gangster accent for most of the episode. This is a truly silly episode that encapsulates some of the potential that most of The Original Series aspired to but didn't quite reach.


903: Second Chances (TNG)
(Riker, Laforge, Crusher, Data, Worf,  Troi, Picard)

A transporter accident splits a crew member into two distinct entities which is going to have minor but long-reaching consequences for the entire universe.


904: Cupid's Errant Arrow/Much Ado About Boimler  (LD)
(Boimler, Tendi, Rutherford, Mariner, Freeman, Ransom, T'ana, Ramsey, Docent, Barbara)

Mariner suspects Boimler's girlfriend has ulterior motives for liking him. A stressed captain from another ship wishes to transfer to the more borning Cerritos. And sure, some transport accidents give you a cool clone with fake sideburns, but in Lower Decks they make it so that Bornier is slightly out of phase, so he's sent to The Farm for ... a better life? 


905 & 906: The Search (DS9)
(Sisko, Odo, Quark, Kira,  Bashir, Dax, O'Brien, Garak)

So, it turns out the Jem'Hadar are just soldiers who work for The Founders, and they are the unfuckwithable adversaries for the season. Starfleet uses their newest ship, The Defiant, to try and track them down. But the Jem'Hadar have other plans. Oh, and Odo ends up finally meeting aliens just like him. 


907: The Defiant (DS9)
(Riker, Kira, Sisko, Dukat, Bashir, Dax, O'Brien, Quark)

Here's some consequences from "Second Chances" that I wouldn't have predicted: Starfleet has their first cloakable ship and it's been hijacked by one of their own. Erm. Sort of one of their own.


908. Worst Case Scenario / Crisis Point (VOY)/(LD)
(Paris, Tuvok, Janeway, Torres, Seska, Doctor, Neelix, Les, Kim)

A Holodeck program pits the Starfleet members of Voyager against the Maquis members, and a few members of the crew find themselves trapped in the program.

On the Cerritos, a Holodeck adventure teaches Boimler something the audience has known for a while but will change the relationships between the Lower Decks crew.



 909 & 910: Improbable Cause/Die Is Cast (DS9)
(Garak, Odo, Bashir, Sisko, O'Brien, Dax, Kira, Eddington)

It has been inferred since the beginning of Deep Space Nine, that Garak, a Cardassian tailor, is actually a high ranking spy. So when his shop is blown up under mysterious circumstances, Bashir and Odo delve into his past.


911: The Adversary (DS9)
(Sisko, Dax, O'Brien, Eddington, Jake, Quark, Kira, Odo, Bashir)

Like Odo, The Founders are all changelings, so imagine the damage they could do if they infiltrated Starfleet and Deep Space Nine. Oh, shit, did that already happen?


912:  Doomsday Machine/Veritas (TOS)/(LD)
(Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scott, Sulu)
(Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, Rutherford, Freeman, Ransom, Shaxs, Tana, Billups, Q)

After discovering several ravaged star systems, Enterprise encounters The Constellation, another Federation ship, but one that's been badly damaged. Like every Starfleet Captain they encounter, Constellation's has gone cuckoo pants. When the planet killing machine that damaged The Constellation starts to follow The Enterprise, Captain Cuckoo Pants takes over the ship before Kirk can get back on board. The planet killer is deduced to be from an alternate dimension. Wait...so...there are other Star Trek dimensions?

The Cerritos lower decks crew is put on trial to defend the actions of the bridge crew but something is very, very amiss.


913 & 914: Descent (TNG)
(Data, Picard, Riker, Crusher, Worf, LaForge, Troi, Lore, Hugh)

The Borg are back, and a couple of characters we haven't seen for a while resurface and threaten the Federation with imminent destruction.


915. The Samaritan Snare (TNG)
(Riker, Laforge, Troi, Picard, Wesley, Data, Pulaski, Worf)

Introducing, the Pakleds, an unevolved race that seeks the immediate satisfaction of technology and weapons. But, alas, Picard is away getting surgery, so it's up to Riker, Data, Troi, Worf, and Pulaski to rescue Laforge when the Pakleds take him hostage.


916. Return Of The Archons / No Small Parts (TOS)/(LD)
(Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Sulu, Uhura)

We go all the way back to OG Kirk/Spock times as the most familiar crew of The Enterprise ends up on a planet where a cult is all prim and proper during the day but at night it's All Purge All The Time. How is this connected to a previous Starfleet mission?

On the Cerritos, we travel from "Return Of The Archons" to "The Samaritan Snare" to "Second Chances" references in this delightful episode where Boimler accidentally reveals a secret he shouldn't know.


917. The Chase (TNG)
(Picard, Riker, Worf, Crusher, Troi, Data, Laforge)

It's all about unity when the Federation, The Klingons, The Romulans, and The Cardassians chase down an ancient artifact on a strange planet.


918.  Deadlock (VOY)
(Janeway, Torres, Kes, Doctor, Chakotay, Paris, Neelix)

Two Voyagers? This seems like it could be a problem. Can one Janeway see through the rift in time and save her crew where the other Janway failed?


919 & 920. All Good Things (TNG)
(Picard, Crusher, Troi, Laforge, Worf, Data, Riker, Q, Yar, O'Brien)

Picard is having memory problems causing us to bounce around the Star Trek timeline a bit more than usual.

2019 was an absolutely crucial year for wrestling, and we didn't really appreciate it. Yes, AEW's arrival and first year as a full fledged rival to WWE was always going to be important, and they did a great job of quicky becoming the most competitive alternative to WWE since WCW started circling the drain in 1999. It did help that 2019 was an atrocious year for WWE's Raw, Smackdown, and main roster Pay-Per-Views as nobody's favorite demented grandpa, Vince McMahon was chock full of terrible ideas and unwilling to listen to his employees, all of whom could have done a better job booking.

What we couldn't have known was just how bad 2020 was going to be. Not because of wrestling but because, you know, a worldwide pandemic shut pretty much everything down. The NBA and NHL were the first sports organizations to announce the cancellation of their seasons, and Major League Baseball ended up delaying their season four months due to COVID-19.

WWE didn't even take a week off. We'll get to that next season.

I mention it because I usually end these seasons with a major retirement or the ending to a major storyline. The retirement of Ric Flair, the retirement of Shawn Michaels, the end of The Undertaker's streak. This season ends with the last match in 2020 with fan attendance. This unfortunate break will mean that next season looks very different for WWE, for NXT, for AEW, for ROH, for Impact, and for the NWA. 

This season also features NXT being recognized not just as the minor leagues of WWE but as a third brand. Due to the Saudi Arabian government pulling some morally questionable shenanigans (surprise!) after WWE's Crown Jewel event (which absolutely sucked), Vince McMahon and most of the Smackdown roster were stuck in Saudi Arabia. So what did WWE do? Triple H and Shawn Michaels brought NXT's hardest hitters to Smackdown for a mini-invasion, which leaked over into Survivor Series where all three brands battles for all sorts of titles. And that's just how we start the season for WWE and NXT.

Meanwhile, AEW fires on all cylinders, and wastes no time snagging any WWE wrestler disappointed in Vince McMahon's creative direction. (It is episode 8 before we see a WWE episode this season that isn't focused on NXT.) So, despite the terrible WWE mainstream shows, 2019 was truly the best year wrestling had seen for many years.

1901. All Out, 2019

We kick off the season with AEW for the first time, as they put on one of their best ever (and I don't mean so far, this was only their second ever...this still stands as one of their best ever) pay-per view events. We don't even get the Kenny Omega/Dean Ambrose (as Jon Moxley) match yet, instead they're each in two incredible matches where the other one...might show up. Plus, the first ever AEW Heavyweight champ is crowned...erm...belted?

Announcers: Jim Ross, Excalibur, Goldenboy, Justin Roberts

1. SoCalU vs Jurassic Express
2. Pac vs Kenny Omega
3. Darby Allin vs Joey Janela vs Jimmy Havoc
4. Cody Rhodes vs Shawn Spears
5. Lucha Bros (AAA Tag Team Champs) vs Young Bucks in a Ladder Match
6. Chris Jericho vs Hangman Page for inaugural AEW Championship

1902. A Little Bit Of The Bubbly, 2019

Now that we have a Mens' Heavyweight Champion (and a Womens' Champ, we'll see her in action soon), it's time to figure out who's going to wear AEW's first ever tag team belts via an old-fashioned tournament which runs throughout this episode. Also, Chris Jericho loses the belt immediately after winning the title. Oh, he doesn't get defeated, a non-wrestler literally steals the belt during Jericho's celebration, and AEW ends up having to make a new one for him. And, hey! Tony Schiavone is back on commentary for the first time in many seasons, pairing with Jim Ross for the first time since Season Two.

Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Excalibur, Tazz, Justin Roberts

1. Cody Rhodes vs Sammy Guevara
2. Young Bucks vs Private Party
3. Kenny Omega vs Joey Janela in a Lights Out Hardcore Match
4. Dean Ambrose (as Jon Moxley) & Pac vs Kenny Omega & Hangman Page
5. The Elite vs Cima, T-Hawk & Private Party
6. Lucha Bros vs Private Party
7. Kenny Omega vs Joey Janela
8. Lucha Bros vs SoCalU for the AEW Tag Team Championship

1903. Takeover Smackdown, 2019

Sure, we've had a number of Raw, Smackdown, and NXT TV matches sprinkled throughout the pay-per-view top tier matches but this episode, for the first time, is All Free TV matches. October 2nd, 2019 was probably the best ever NXT episode. The next few episodes also had some excellent matches. Then, Crown Jewel happened, and most of the Smackdown roster got stuck in Saudi Arabia...so what could the WWE do? NXT invaded Smackdown and put on a couple banger matches including the first ever battle between Daniel Bryan and Adam Cole.

Announcers: Nigel McGuinness, Mauro Ranallo, Beth Phoenix, Tom Phillips, Renee Young, Pat McAfee, Cathy Kelley, Kayla Braxton

1. Adam Cole (NXT Champ) vs Riddle
2. Mia Yim vs Iyo Sky
3. Shayna Baszler (NXT Womens Champ) vs Candace LeRae
4. reDRagon (as The Undisputed Era) (NXT Tag Team Champs) vs Street Profits
5. Pete Dunne vs Damien Priest
6. Bayley (WWE Smackdown Womens Champ) vs Nikki Cross
6. Adam Cole (NXT Champ) vs Daniel Bryan

1904. Rise Of The Knockouts, 2019

Tessa Blanchard was the story of 2019/2020, and then fell hard from wrestling grace. Here she rises from rookie Knockout to challenging for the Heavyweight Championship. Not the Women's Heavyweight Championship, THE Impact Heavyweight Championship. There's also some killer tag team matches, Johnny Nitro having a resurgence, and an amazing Monster's Ball Match for the Knockout Title.

Announcers: Don Callis, Josh Matthews, Jeffrey Scott

1. Gail Kim vs Tessa Blanchard
2. Lucha Bros (Impact Tag Team Champs) vs LAX
3. Taya Valkyrie vs Jessicka Havok vs Rosemary vs Su Yung in a Monster's Ball Match for the Impact Knockout Championship

4. Rich Swann (Impact X Champ) vs Johnny Nitro (as Johnny Impact)
5. Brian Cage (Impact Champ) vs Michael Elgin
6. Lucha Bros vs Proud & Powerful
7. Tessa Blanchard vs Sammy Callahan

1905. Takeover Toronto, 2019

​

1. Lio Rush (WWE Cruiserweight Champ) vs Angel Garza (NXT 11/13/19)
2. Dolph Ziggler & Bobby Roode vs Chad Gable & Mustafa Ali (Smackdown 11/15/19)
3. reDRagon (as Undisputed Era) (NXT Tag Team Champs) vs FTR (as The Revival)
4. Team Ripley vs Team Baszler in a War Games Match
Rhea Ripley, Dakota Kai, Candice LeRae, Tegan Nox vs Shayna Baszler, Bianca Belair, Iyo Sky, Alba Fyre (as Kay Lee Ray)

5. Finn Balor vs Riddle
6. The Undisputed Era vs Team Ciampa
Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, Bobby Fish, Kyle O'Reilly vs Tomasso Ciampa, Kevin Owens, Keith Lee, Dijak

1906. Full Gear, 2019

The first AEW pay-per-view that benefitted from being built up in weekly shows sees Le Champion take on one of the founders of AEW, a few more excellent tag team matches, and our first glimpse at the AEW Womens' Champ, Riho, as she takes on her mentor, Emi Sakura. 

Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Excalibur, Dean Malenko, Arn Anderson, The Great Muta, Justin Roberts

1. Young Bucks vs Best Friends
​2. Pac vs Hangman Page
3. Young Bucks vs Proud & Powerful
4. SoCalU (AEW Tag Team Champs) vs Lucha Bros vs Private Party
5. Riho (AEW Womens Champ) vs Emi Sakura
6. Chris Jericho (AEW Champ) vs Cody Rhodes

1907. Crossover Appeal, 2019

It's the first ever Raw vs Smackdown vs NXT pay-per-view. All titles on display. 

Announcers: Jerry Lawler, Michael Cole, Byron Saxton, Corey Graves, Nigel McGuinness, Beth Phoenix, Vic Joseph, Aiden English, Kayla Braxton, Cathy Kelley, Sarah Schreiber, Greg Hamilton, Mike Rome, Alicia Taylor

1. New Day (WWE Smackdown Tag Team Champs) vs Viking Raiders (WWE Raw Tag Team Champs) vs reDRagon (as Undisputed Era) (NXT Tag Team Champions)

2. AJ Styles (WWE US Champ) vs Shinsuke Nakamura (WWE Intercontinental Champ) vs Roderick Strong (NXT North American Champ)

3. Adam Cole (NXT Champ) vs Pete Dunne
4. Bray Wyatt (as The Fiend) (WWE Universal Champ) vs Daniel Bryan
5. Team Smackdown vs Team Raw vs Team NXT in a Survivor Series Match
Roman Reigns, Braun Stroman, Mustafa Ali, Baron Corbin, Chad Gable vs Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre, Randy Orton, Kevin Owens, Ricochet vs Tomasso Ciampa, Gunther, Riddle, Damien Priest, Keith Lee

6. Becky Lynch (WWE Raw Womens Champ) vs Bayley (WWE Smackdown Womens Champ) vs Shayna Baszler (NXT Womens Champ)

1908. Stadium Starcadium, 2019

It's tough to even make storylines out of the 2019 main roster WWE stuff. The only multi-episode story is the Bray Wyatt/Daniel Bryan feud which, in this episode, manages to pull in The Miz, who has never been known as a friend to either of them. We also get a one episode story where New Day and FTR clash because FTR doesn't like "flippy wrestling." Eh.

Announcers: Jerry Lawler, Michael Cole, Byron Saxton, Corey Graves, Vic Joseph, Beth Phoenix, Wade Barrett, Tom Phillips, Samoa Joe

1. FTR (as The Revival) vs Heavy Machinery vs Chad Gable & Mustafa Ali vs Gran Metallik & Lince Dorado

2. Lio Rush (WWE Cruiserweight Champ) vs Angel Garza
3.  Street Profits vs Good Brothers
4. Kabuki Warriors (WWE Womens Tag Team Champs) vs Becky Lynch & Charlotte Flair vs Boss & Hug Connection vs Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross

5. New Day (WWE Smackdown Tag Team Champs) vs FTR (as The Revival) in a Ladder Match
​
6. Buddy Murphy vs Malakai Black (as Aleister Black)
7. Bray Wyatt (WWE Universal Champ) vs The Miz

1909. Into The Fire, 2019/2020

NWA picks a truly cursed time to start running their own promotion, as a bunch of ROH and Impact stars unite with some people on the indies to put on some stellar matches just in time for Covid to hit and put everything on pause.

Announcers: Jim Cornett, Tony Schiavone, Joe Galli, Ian Riccaboni, Cyrus Fees, Nigel Sherrad, Gilbert, Caprice Coleman
​
1. Jazz (NWA Womens' Champ) vs Penelope Ford 
2. Willie Mack vs Sam Shaw for NWA National Championship
3. Nick Aldis (NWA Heavyweight Champ) vs James Storm
4. Flip Gordon & Bandido vs Guerrero Maya Jr & Stuka Jr
5. The Briscoes vs Rock & Roll Express
6. Villain Enterprises vs Satoshi Kojima & Yugi Nagata
7. Willie Mack (NWA National Champ) vs Colt Cabana
8. Nick Aldis (NWA Heavyweight Champ) vs Marty Skrrul

​1910. Takeover Blackpool, 2019/2020

While NXT US has been dominated by Adam Cole Baybay and The Undisputed Era, NXT UK has been at the mercy of Gunther (as Walter) and Imperium. We see matches from both sides of the pond on this episode, culminating with a 4 on 3 match between the two hottest factions of 2019 and 2020.

Announcers: Jerry Lawler, Nigel McGuinness, Tom Phillips, Beth Phoenix, Alicia Taylor

1. Adam Cole (NXT Champ) vs Finn Balor
2. Shayna Baszler (NXT Womens Champ) vs Rhea Ripley
3. Buddy Murphy vs Malakia Black (as Aleister Black)
4. Alba Fyre (as Kay Lee Ray) (NXT UK Womens Champ) vs Toni Storm vs Piper Niven
5. Tyler Bate vs Jordan Devlin
6. Broserweights vs Mark Andrews & Morgan Webster
6. The Undisputed Era vs Imperium

1911. TNT, 2019/2020

The Elite have had a surprisingly poor showing since they birthed AEW. I mean, their matches are all excellent, and the fans love them but they can't seem to get their hands on any titles. Can they turn things around as we begin a new year of storylines?

Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Tazz, Excalibur, Adam Page, Justin Roberts

​1. Dean Ambrose (as Jon Moxley) vs Kenny Omega in a Lights Out Hardcore Match
2. Pac vs Hangman Page
3. Nick Jackson vs Rey Fenix
4. Kenny Omega vs Kip Sabian
5. Young Bucks (AEW Tag Team Champs) vs Proud & Powerful in a Hardcore Match
6. Cody Rhodes vs Darby Allin
7. Bullet Club vs Pac & Lucha Bros

1912. Worlds Keep On Colliding, 2019/2020

After all the success of NXT vs WWE's Main Roster, it's time for NXT vs NXT UK. Sadly, NXT UK didn't last for too long but you do see most of the wrestlers in this episode popping up again in the American version of NXT. There are some solid matches here, and we get to see our debut of future AEW star, Swerve Strickland.

Announcers: Nigel McGuinness, Tom Phillips, Beth Phoenix, Alicia Taylor, Andy Shepherd

1. Alba Fyre (as Kay Lee Ray) vs Mia Yim
2. Finn Balor vs Ilja Dragunov
3. Angel Garza (WWE Cruiserweight Champ) vs Swerve Strickland (as Isaiah Swerve Scott) vs Jordan Devlin vs Travis Banks

4. Dakota Kai vs Tegan Nox in a Hardcore Match
5. DIY vs Moustache Mountain
6. Rhea Ripley (NXT Womens Champ) vs Toni Storm
​7. Broserweights vs Grizzled Young Vets

1913. Two Many Rumbles, 2020

The payoff match to the Daniel Bryan/Fiend feud serves as a sorbet between the two rumbles. The mens' rumble, in particular, is one of the last great WWE matches before the pandemic.

Announcers: Jerry Lawler, Michael Cole, Corey Graves, Booker T, Tom Phillips

1. Womens Royal Rumble
Alexa Bliss, Bianca Belair, Molly Holly (as Mighty Molly), Nikki Cross, Lana, Mercedes Martinez, Liv Morgan, Mandy Rose, Candice LeRae, Sonya Deville, Kairi Sane, Mia Yim, Dana Brooke, Tamina, Dakota Kai, Chelsea Green, Charlotte Flair, Naomi, Beth Phoenix, Toni Storm, Kelly Kelly, Sarah Logan, Natalya, Xia Li, Zelina Vega, Shotzi Blackheart, Carmella, Tegan Nox, Santino Marella (as Santina Marella), Shayna Baszler

2. Bray Wyatt (as The Fiend) (WWE Universal Champ) ​vs Daniel Bryan in a Strap Match
3. Mens Royal Rumble
Brock Lesnar, Elias, Erick Rowan, Robert Roode, John Morrison, Kofi Kingston, Rey Mysterio, Big E, Cesaro, Shelton Benjamin Raw, Shinsuke Nakamura, MVP, Keith Lee, Braun Strowman, Ricochet, Drew McIntyre, The Miz, AJ Styles, Dolph Ziggler, Karl Anderson, Edge, King Corbin, Matt Riddle, Luke Gallows, Randy Orton, Roman Reigns, Kevin Owens, Malakai Black (as Aleister Black), Samoa Joe, Seth Rollins

1914. AAA Impact, 2020

Just before the pandemic hit, AAA did a massive show at Madison Square Garden. The video here is without commentary, it's just pure wrestling. This is followed by the last hour of Impact stories before Covid times, which sees a massive title change.

Announcers: Don Callis, Josh Matthews, Jeffrey Scott, Gabby Loren

1. Tessa Blanchard (AAA Reina de Reinas Champ) vs Taya Valkyrie
2. Puma King (DDT Iron Man Heavymetal Champion) vs Daga vs Aerostar vs Flamita
​3. Lucha Bros (AAA Tag Team Champs) vs Proud & Powerful
4. Brian Cage, Cain Velasquez and Psycho Clown vs Los Mercenarios
5. Dr Wagner Jr vs Blue Demon Jr in a No DQ Match
5. Jake Crist (Impact X Champ) vs Tessa Blanchard vs Daga vs Ace Austin vs Acey Romero in a Ladder Match
6 Brian Cage vs Sami Callahan in a No DQ Match
7. Eddie Edwards vs Michael Elgin
8. Sami Callahan (Impact Champ) vs Tessa Blanchard 

1915. Takeover Portland, 2020

Our final NXT episode of the season gives us our first meeting between the future of WWE's women division, and we get a climax to most of the main events of the last couple of seasons. 

Announcers: Nigel McGuinness, Beth Phoenix, Mauro Ranallo, Cathy Kelley, Alicia Taylor

1. Keith Lee vs Dijaak
2. Finn Balor vs Johnny Gargano
3. Rhea Ripley (NXT Womens Champ) vs Bianca Belair
4. reDRagon (as Undisputed Era) (NXT Tag Team Champs) vs Broserweights
5. Adam Cole (NXT Champ) vs Tomasso Ciampa

1916. Year Without Honor, 2020

Our final check-in with ROH this season sees Jean-Pierre Lafite, the guy who stole Bret Hart's jacket back in season two, have a run as the ROH champion. There's also a slew of tag matches, which is where ROH really shined in their final days before becoming part of AEW.

Announcers: Ian Riccobani, Caprice Coleman, Nick Aldis, Bobby Cruise

1. Villain Enterprises (ROH 6Man Tag Champs) vs Rey Horus & Mexablood
2. Jean-Pierre Lafite (as PCO) (ROH Champ) vs Rush
3. The Briscoes vs Mexablood
4. Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham (ROH Tag Champs)  vs 2 Guys 1 Tag
5. Jean-Pierre Lafite (as PCO) (ROH Champ) vs Dragon Lee
6. Angelina Love vs Martina
7. Jean-Pierre Lafite (as PCO) (ROH Champ) vs Rush vs Mark Haskins

1917. Back To The Beach, 2020

Before the pandemic hit, AEW Dynamite was a weekly Must Watch show. Unlike WWE, which mainly holds back their biggest matches for Premium Live Events, AEW put on banger after banger, at least one per show, to make up for the fact that their premium events were quarterly as opposed to monthly (or sometimes every three weeks). Every match and promo from this episode is from AEW Dynamite in February  of 2020.

Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Tazz, Excalibur, Brandy Rhodes, Justin Roberts

1. Best Friends vs Young Bucks vs Proud & Powerful vs Adam Page & Kenny Omega
2. The Elite vs. Lucha Bros, The Butcher & The Blade 
3. Riho (AEW Womens Champ) vs Nyla Rose 
4. Jungle Boy vs MJF
5. Dean Ambrose (as Jon Moxley) vs Jeff Cobb
6. Adam Page & Kenny Omega (AEW Tag Team Champs) vs Lucha Bros
7. Cody Rhodes (AEW TNT Champ) vs Wardlow in a Steel Cage Match

1918. A Healthy Climax, 2020

Apart from Omega/Tanahashi, we don't get any stories here, just incredible matches from New Japan in 2019. A bunch of NJPW stars who ended up in AEW, and a few who would end up there in a few years, square off in this incredible card. Plus, a bunch of senior NJPW stars fill out an eight man tag match for the retirement of Jushin Thunder Liger, who had to be 210 at the time of recording.

Announcers: Don Callis, Kevin Kelly, Chris Charlton, Rocky Romero, Makoto Abe

1. Hirosha Tanahashi (IWGP Champ) vs Kenny Omega
2. Kota Ibushi (IWGP Jr Heavyweight Champ) vs Will Ospreay
3. Dean Ambrose (as Jon Moxley) vs Tomohiro Ishii
4. Jushin Thunder Liger, Tatsumi Fujinami, Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask vs. Naoki Sano, Shinjiro Otani, Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Ryusuke Taguchi

5. Kota Ibushi (IWGP Intercontinental Champ) vs Jay White
6. Chris Jericho vs Hiroshi Tanahashi

1919. Don't You Dare Be Sour, 2020

This Go Home episode should be leading to Wrestlemania as the final episode. Unforunately...pandemic. Because the feel of the audienceless shows is so vastly different from the usual wrestling fare, it didn't seem right to include Wrestlemania in this season. So you have to wait next season when the storylines that carry over end up getting cinematic matches for a very different but not unwelcome experience. For now, we end on one of the best ever Elimination Chamber matches. It's a shame they never pushed the winner as hard again after this episode because it looked like she was going to be the Brock Lesnar of the womens' division.

Announcers: Jerry Lawler, Michael Cole, Byron Saxton, Corey Graves, Tom Phillips, Greg Hamilton, Mike Rome

1. New Day (WWE Smackdown Tag Team Champs) vs MnM
2. Daniel Bryan vs Drew Gulak
3. Andrade vs Humberto Carrillo
4. Tag Team Elimination Chamber
MnM (WWE Smackdown Tag Team Champs) vs New Day vs The Usos vs Heavy Machinery vs Lucha House Party vs Dolph Ziggler & Bobby Roode

5. AJ Styles vs Malakai Black (as Aleister Black) in a No DQ Match
6. Womens Elimination Chamber
Asuka vs Natalya vs Shayna Baszler vs Ruby Soho vs Liv Morgan vs Sarah Logan

​1920. Final Bow For Now, 2020

Now it's time for AEW's final episode before the pandemic. It's Revolution, and it is filled with killer matches from the biggest names in the promotion.

Announcers: Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone, Excalibur, Justin Roberts

1. Kenny Omega vs Pac in an Iron Man Match
2. Darby Allin vs Sammy Guevara
3. Hangman Page & Kenny Omega (AEW Tag Team Champs) vs Young Bucks
4. Cody Rhodes vs MJF
5. Pac vs Orange Cassidy
6. Chris Jericho (AEW Champ) vs Dean Ambrose (as Jon Moxley)

801 & 802. The Caretaker (VOY)
(Janeway, Kim, Paris, Chakotay, Torres, Tuvok, Neelix, Doctor, Kes, Quark)

The Maquis situation is out of control, and The Federation has called in Voyager to handle it. Our new cast of officers follows our new cast of villains through a wormhole and end up waaaaaaaaaaaaay far away from home, and might even have to work together to survive. Cool concept, right? Well, it will go out the window pretty shortly, so enjoy the tension while it lasts.


803. First Contact (TNG)
(Picard, Riker, Troi, Crusher, Data, Worf)
​
Prime Directive episodes are usually tedious interactions where different crew members argue over whether or not to help some world that they probably imperiled in the first place. I've spared you from most of them. In this episode, they've pretty much been caught violating The Prime Directive, despite their best efforts to blend in to an alien populace. This is a damage control episode where the crew tries to work diplomatically to rescue Riker, who was undercover as a Malcorian. There's a lot of American political allegory that is still, sadly, relevant, twenty-six years after this episode aired, but it's not as heavy handed as Star Trek allegory often is.


804. Second Contact / Envoys (LD)
(Boimler, Mariner, Tendi, Rutherford, Freeman, Ransom, T'ana, Barnes)

In this episode, we meet the crew of the Cerritos, whose mission is to visit planets that have had some limited contact with The Federation. Instead of the bridge crew, we spend more time seeing things through the eyes of the less-experienced crew. Then we watch ensign Boimler worry that Mariner is better at everything than he is.


805. Timescape (TNG)
(Picard, Data, Troi, Laforge, Crusher, Riker, Worf)

While several key officers are on an away mission, The Enterprise attempts to rescue some Romulans and everything goes wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey. The away team thinks they've figured out a way to overcome the time problems, but can they fix The Enterprise or the Romulan vessel before either or both of them explode?


806. Crossover (DS9)
(Kira, Bashir, Sisko, Odo, Dax, O'Brien, Quark, Garak)

It's really a Golden Age of Star Trek. Next Gen overlaps with Deep Space Nine, which then overlaps with Voyager. Such good times. So why not have a crossover. But let's have Deep Space Nine crossover with, oh, I don't know, THE MIRRORVERSE DEEP SPACE NINE. Dun dun dun. Any timeline with Smiley O'Brien in it, seems like a fine timeline to me.


807. Learning Curve (VOY)
(Janeway, Tuvok, Torres, Chakotay, Neelix, Doctor, Kes, Paris, Kim)

One of the rare Voyager episodes that spent time dealing with the differences between Starfleet and The Maquis. Also, Neelix accidentally causes some unique chaos.


808. Lower Decks (TNG)
(Picard, Worf, Crusher, Riker, Laforge, Troi, Data, a bunch of people you'll never see again)

Did you know there are other people on the Enterprise besides the usual crew? In this episode we watch a bunch of ensigns vying for promotion on the ship. It's a cool way to explore the relationship between the senior staff, and how they've grown over the duration of the show.


809. Relics (TNG)
(Scott, Laforge, Picard, Riker, Crusher, Worf, Data)
​
One of the best episodes of the series, the crew of The Enterprise finds Commander Scott from TOS trapped in a transporter loop. Not only is this the best episode featuring Scott of the series, it's one of the best Laforge episodes, too. That's three "best"s in one paragraph. It seems as though I enjoyed this treatise on how quickly technology makes the old seem obsolete.


810. I Borg (TNG)
(Picard, Crusher, Laforge, Guinan, Data, Riker, Troi, Worf)

The Borg are interesting villains in that they don't care to kill or acknowledge individuals, they are only interested in assimilating entire species at once. So when the crew of The Enterprise rescues a single Borg, against the wishes of Picard, Guinan, and most of the crew, everyone has to reevaluate their position on TNG's biggest bad. This episode gave me one the most positive visceral reactions to a Star Trek episode I've ever had.


811. Changeling (TOS)
(Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scott, Uhura, Sulu, Chapel)

It's the original series cast vs. Wall-E, as a friendly little Starfleet droid threatens to destroy the entire universe if it doesn't get its way.


812. Dreadnought (VOY)
(Torres, Janeway, Chakotay, Doctor)

There isn't enough of the Maquis storyline in Voyager, given its pilot episode. This is a nice glimpse of what might have been as Torres encounters a Cardassian weapon she reprogrammed when she was a part of the Maquis. Can she stop it from destroying a completely innocent planet full of life?


813. Whispers (DS9)
(O'Brien, Keiko, Sisko, Bashir, Odo, Jake, Quark)

Is O'Brien having memory problems? Or is he just fine, and the entire crew of Deep Space Nine, including his wife, has turned evil? This is a fun twist on the alternate universe trope in Star Trek. 


814. Flashback (VOY)
(Tuvok, Janeway, Sulu, Rand, Neelix, Kes, Doctor, Chakotay, Kim, Kang)

On Voyager, Tuvok seems to be having an emotional response to a memory. In order to determine the cause, he mind melds with Janeway and they go back to his most important memory, when he served under Captain Sulu, during the plot of "The Undiscovered Country", way back in season three of this continuity. I think this would have been a solid episode, even if it didn't feature cast members from TOS, but seeing Sulu and Rand again is an absolute blast. Plus, Kang from a terrible TOS epsode, "Day Of The Dove," is back again (and yes, he is the basis for the Treehouse Of Horror alien from The Simpsons).


815. Frame Of Mind (TNG)
(Riker, Picard, Crusher, Worf, Data, Laforge)

Is Riker insane? While practicing a play about losing his mind, Riker wakes up in solitary confinement. Uh-oh.


816. Eye Of The Needle (VOY)
(Janeway, Torres, Tuvok, Paris, Kim, Doctor, Neelix, Kes)

Is the crew of Voyager saved already?  They find a wormhole back to the Alpha Quadrant. Ok, it's too small to fit a ship through, but they can send a message and get rescued, right?


817. A Matter Of Perspective (TNG)
(Riker, Picard, Laforge, Troi, O'Brien, Worf, Crusher, Data, Wesley)

Guilty until proven innocent is the law of the land for a planet where Riker is accused of murder. It's a court drama episode that's mainly hear as a comparison for the next episode


818. Ex Post Facto (VOY)
(Tuvok, Paris, Janeway, Chakotay, Tprres, Kes, Neelix, Doctor, Kim)

Now it's Paris's turn to be accused of murder, and it's up to Tuvok to save him, which involves a good, old-fashioned Vulcan mind meld! 

​
819 & 820. Chain Of Command (TNG)
(Picard, Worf, Crusher, Riker, Troi, Laforge, Data)

There are FOUR lights, and they all point to a war with the Cardassians on the horizon.

It's been a few days since the last diss track was released so it seems as if we've at least reached a pause in the Drake/Kendrick beef. Articles have gone from Check Out This Amazing Creative Run Of Songs By These Major Artists Targeting Each Other to People Need To Stop Giving These Misogynists Attention How Dare They Release These Songs While We Clutch Our Pearls Standing At The Fire We've Spent The Last Month Pouring Gasoline On.

I'm not here to dissect the lyrics nor to point out that collateral damage to most beefs be it rap or rock and roll has almost always been women and queer men. I just think there was some solid music released that I enjoyed listening to, even if you won't see me singing these at karaoke in the near or distant future.

I'm giving the last word to Mackelmore, which I feel weird about because this was a feud that sometimes centered on the valildity of the Blackness of the artists. But. In addition to the more positive Free Palestine/criticism of how the American media and Biden's administration of "Hind's Hall" , I feel like it sums up the media's quick turn of Why Are We Paying Attention To Drake? So it's hopefully not like ending a mix about the Dr. Dre/Eazy-E feud with "Thrift Shop".

I thought this was going to be the conclusion (as of May 7th, 2024) of the Drake/Kendrick Lamar beef. But an important part of the most recent release in the feud is that Drake had written a Part 6 for a series of songs written by Kendrick Lamar. It's not good. But it's definitely an important part of the feud, and it hinges on knowing some of Lamar's "The Heart Part" songs. I decided to include 2-5 on this album, which includes an incredible but also incredibly long track by 24 Carat Black. So this album is already stretched to an hour, and I just couldn't justify going for another 45 minutes or so.

So there will be a What Beef 5 posted later today.  There aren't really many features on this album, as the actual Kendrick and Drake songs all came out in the last week, and they didn't have time to get collaborators. Also, if I were anywhere near this feud I would have also backed out this week. As Kendrick's songs get tighter and more specific, Drake's get limper and eventually, for all their personal barbs, they sound more like a white mom with no writing skills was writing an angry Youtube comment than the verse of a professional rapper with twenty years in the business. His song on this album is okay. But I don't think it's much of a surprise that he's not the rapper on this album that has a Pulitzer Prize and a bunch of Grammys.

1. Taylor Made by Drake
2. Euphoria by Kendrick Lamar
3. You're My Latest, My Greatest Inspiration by Teddy Pendergrass
4. The Heart Part 2 by Kendrick Lamar Ft. Dash Snow
5. The Heart Part 3 by Kendrick Lamar
6. Poverty's Paradise by 24 Carat Black
7. Don't Tell A Lie About Me & I Won't Tell The Truth About You by James Brown
8. The Heart Part 4 by Kendrick Lamar
9. What A Wonderful Thing Love Is by Al Green
10. The Blacker The Berry by Kendrick Lamar Ft. Assassin
11. The Heart Part 5 by Kendrick Lamar
12. 6:16 In LA by Kendrick Lamar

The Drake vs Kendrick Lamar beef had a slow build. First it enveloped J Cole but then Future's collaborative albums, We Don't Believe You and We Still Don't Believe You upped the game a bit. It dared Drake to respond. So Drake responded. 

These are pretty much the slapping of a 19th century dueling glove. Yea, there's a little bit of sting here but as far as personal attacks go, it's got nothing on part four. But musically, this has some solid steel. I debated whether to include the Temptations version of "Smiling Faces Sometimes", which has always been a favorite of mine but The Undisputed Truth's version, which appears here just fits better with Future and Drake's music. 

1. Redemption by Snorre Tidemand
2. Look Me In The Eyes by Joe Washington and Wash
3. First Person Shooter by Drake Ft. J Cole
4. Eazy Duz It by Eazy-E
5. Like That by Future Ft. Metro Boomin and Kendrick Lamar
6. 7 Minute Drill by J Cole
7. Five To One by The Doors
8. Takeover by Jay-Z
9. Smiling Faces Sometimes by Undisputed Truth
10. Jumpman by Drake Ft. Future
11. We Still Don't Trust You by Future Ft. Metro Boomin and The Weeknd
12. Red Leather by Future Ft. J Cole
13. (Don't Worry) If There's A Hell Below We're All Going To Go by Curtis Mayfield
14. Show Of Hands by Future Ft. A$AP Rocky and Metro Boomin
15. Push Ups by Drake and DJ Akademiks

In 2018, I did a musical primer for the Drake/Meek Mills feud, complete with the songs they sampled, and the songs that inspired their feud.

It's 2024 and Drake is in a deeper feud with someone whose lyrics and musical skills put Drake's to shame. And Drake is by no means terrible. He just isn't Kendrick Lamar.

It's going to take two mixes just to take us up to May 2024. This one starts in 2010 and goes to last June. Like the original "What's Beef" primer, it's full of samples that go back to the 1970s, and it's designed to be chronological to the beef but also fun to listen to as one long mix. 

I can't offer much commentary because I'm a music fan not a music journalist. But check out any site that proclaims to be about music and they'll have at least three articles about this feud. If they don't, they're either incompetent or racist. 

1. Double Barrel by Ansel & Dave Collins
2. Biz Is Going Off by Biz Markie
3. Buried Alive Interlude by Drake ft. Kendrick Lamar
4. Poetic Justice by Kendrick Lamar ft. Drake
5. Any Time Any Place by Janet Jackson
6. El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido by Quilapayún and Sergio Ortega
7. Get Bizy by Kendrick Lamar ft. Kurupt
8. Me Against The World by Tupac Shakur
9. Control by Big Sean ft. Kendrick Lamar
10. SRL2 by Lupe Fiasco
11. Everyone Nose (Remix) by NERD ft. Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco
12. TKO (Black Friday Remix) by Justin Timberlake ft. J Cole, A$AP Rocky, Pusha T
13. The Language by Drake
14. 100 by The Game ft. Drake
15. Feel The Fire by Peabo Bryson
16. Element By Kendrick Lamar
17. Ha by Juvenile
18. Sticky by Drake
19. PDLIF by Bon Iver
20. Hillbillies by Baby Keem & Kendrick Lamar

Last season was all about Barry Allen and Team Flash, and Oliver Queen and Team Arrow. This season we expand to other universes as we see a pre-Batman Bruce Wayne in Gotham, as well as a few episodes from the 1990 version of The Flash where we see an alternate version of Barry Allen where he has a completely different team and different circumstances .

I didn't watch Gotham when it first came out because I just couldn't stand to watch another origin story for Bruce Wayne. So we skip the murder of his parents and the overwrought introduction of the various major players. Instead, we dive right into the meat of the first season with a focus on the Falcone/Maroni war and the tension between Jim Gordon and Harvey Bullock. Bruce and Alfred are there but in the background. And then, the supervillains arrive.

Our two different versions of The Flash TV show, Barry battles with a criminal who killed one of his close relatives AND also has to deal with The Trickster (played by Original Flavor Luke Skywalker in both shows).

And on Arrow, we eventually reach a pause in the Starling City madness that started this series but not before Oliver Queen sheds the Arrow identity in order to become a supervillain.

201. Spirit Of The Goat (Gotham)
(Harvey Bullock, Jim Gordon, Ed Nygma, Sarah Essen, Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Barbara Kean, Oswald Cobblepot, Renee Montoya, Selina Kyle, Crispus Allen, Gertrude Kapelput, Kristen Kringle)

While Bullock deals with an old case coming back to haunt him, and some members of the GCPD are convinced Jim Gordon is a killer on a different case. Also, Ed Nygma is a CSI agent but he's certainly no Barry Allen.


202. The Penguin's Umbrella (Gotham)
(Jim Gordon, Fish Mooney, Harvey Bullock, Oswald Cobblepot, Carmine Falcone, Sarah Essen, Barbara Kean, Renee Montoya, Victor Zsasz, Crispus Allen, Sal Maroni, Aubrey James, Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Butch Gilzean)

​Gotham is under mob rule in this era. Falcones vs Maronis. Penguin vs Fish. Gotham City Polics vs Major Crimes Unit. We get a great glimpse into the politics and relationships of the show.
​

203: Fallout (Flash)
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Martin Stein, Ronnie Raymond, Wade Elling, David Singh)

​Nobody went quite as boom as was expected last season but things are still tense. Also, that military guy is still hanging around, and that can't be good for anyone. He's not even cool enough to be a rogue.


204. Public Enemy (Arrow)
(Oliver Queen, Andy Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Thea Queen, Roy Palmer, Lauren Lance, Quentin Lance, Ray Harper, R'as Al Ghul, Nyssa Al Ghul, Maseo Yamashiro, Tatsu Yamashiro, Malcolm Merlyn)

The League Of Assassins new plan exposes Oliver Queen as the Arrow, shoots an arrow into Ray Palmer and the mayor, and causes even more intense drama in the Lance family. In the flashbacks, Oliver runs into Shado's twin sister.


205. Broken Arrow (Arrow)
(Oliver Queen, Andy Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Thea Queen, Roy Palmer, Lauren Lance, Quentin Lance, Ray Harper, R'as Al Ghul, Nyssa Al Ghul, Maseo Yamashiro, Tatsu Yamashiro, Malcolm Merlyn)

Roy has taken the fall for Oliver, and confessed to being The Arrow. He's a big target in prison, which worries  the rest of the team. Also, Felicity struggles to save Ray from his injuries.


206. Out Of Time (Flash)
​(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Eddie Thawne, Mark Mardon, Linda Park, David Singh, Clyde Mardon)

Time travel! Repercussions from the pilot! Relationship growth! Identity reveals! Someone is badly injured! This almost feels like a season finale.


207. The Blind Fortune Teller (Gotham)
(Jim Gordon, Leslie Thompkins, Fish Mooney, Jerome Valeska, Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Harvey Bullock, Oswald Cobblepot, Barbara Kean, Paul Cicero, Gertrude Kapelput, Edward Nygma, Sara Essen, Selina Kyle, Victor Zsasz, Butch Gilzean, Kristen Kringle)

When a sideshow performer turns up dead, the police end up embroiled in a heated feud involving the Flying Graysons. Plus, Fish Mooney tries to take over the prison underneath The Iceberg Lounge. Bruce Wayne tries to learn more about The Wayne Foundation's connection to Arkham Asylum.


208. Pilot (Flash 1990)
(Barry Allen, Julio Mendez, Iris West, Christina McGee, Pike, Tony Bellows, Warren Garfield, Henry Allen)

It's an alternate universe version of The Flash! (straight out of the 1990s). This universe's Barry Allen lives in a world where his father is alive, he has brothers, oh and there's a biker gang terrorizing Central City. But then lightning strikes him and voila, he's The Flash. He builds  a completely different Team Flash and deals with some very dated visual effects.


209. The Trickster (Flash 1990)
(Barry Allen, Christina McGee, James Jesse, Julio Mendez, Tony Bellows, Warren Garfield)

A complete psychopath is going state to state, falling in love with women and then killing them.  When he stumbles on one of Barry's former coworkers, The Flash gets involved, and The Trickster begins a reign of terror in Central City, where everyone is trying to learn the identity of The Flash.


210. Tricksters (Flash)
​(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1,  Henry Allen, Eddie Thawne, David Singh, Eobard Thawne )

There's a new Trickster in Central City, and his whole schtick is pissing off the original Trickster who has been in prison for twenty years...which is weird because this is clearly the same Trickster, but this is a different Barry Allen and a different Central City. Oh, and we already figured out that Harrison Wells isn't who we thought he was, but he's also not who anyone else thinks he is, either. 


211. All-Star Team Up (Flash)
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1,  Henry Allen, Eddie Thawne, Christina McGee, Eobard Thawne )

​Someone is killing scientists using weaponized bees. Christina McGee ends up being targeted, and it's up to the troubled Team Flash to save her. Luckily, they have some help because Felicity and Ray Palmer are in town to troubleshoot issues with The Atom suit.


212. Under The Knife (Gotham)
(Jim Gordon, Leslie Thompkins, Bruce Wayne, Selina Kyle, Harvey Bullock, Oswald Cobblepot, Barbara Kean, Gertrude Kapelput, Edward Nygma, Alfred Pennyworth, Sid Bunderslaw, Sal Maroni, Butch Gilzean,  Sara Essen, The Ogre, Kristen Kringle)

A serial killer called The Ogre targets the loved ones of any cop who crosses his path, so, of course, Jim Gordon deliberately gets in his way. Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle kill a lead in Bruce's investigation into the corruption in Wayne Enterprises. At the Iceberg Lounge, Moroni interrupts one of The Penguin's schemes. 


213. The Anvil & The Hammer (Gotham)
(Jim Gordon, Bruce Wayne, Harvey Bullock, Oswald Cobblepot, The Ogre, Barbara Kean, Edward Nygma, Sal Maroni, Selina Kyle, Alfred Pennyworth, Leslie Thompkins, Butch Gilzean, Sid Bunderslaw, Lucius Fox, Kristen Kringle)

While The Ogre has Barbara, Harvey goes to an S&M club. The Penguin makes another move against Maroni. Bruce begins to learn more about Wayne Industries.


214.  Who Is Harrison Wells? (Flash)
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Eddie Thawne, Laurel Lance, David Singh, Quentin Lance)
 
Team Flash goes to Arrowtown, and they don't even bother to see how Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak are doing? Bad. Form. At least Canary can be useful. We also have a rogue of the week who can turn into anyone he touches. I bet that creates complicated social interactions.


215: The Trap (Flash)
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Eddie Thawne, David Singh)

Everything starts to come together as the gang seeks to out the identity of Reverse Flash to help get Henry Allen cleared of his wife's murder. 

​
216. All Happy Families Are Alike (Gotham)
(Jim Gordon, Oswald Cobblepot, Carmine Falcone, Leslie Thompkins, Barbara Kean, Fish Mooney,  Selina Kyle, Harvey Bullock, Sal Maroni, Butch Gilzean, Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Edward Nygma, Kristen Kringle)

The Maroni/Falcone war escalates, explodes, and further evolves, throwing everything into chaos. Plus, Barbara chooses Leslie as a trauma counselor.


217. Fast Forward (Flash 1990)
(Barry Allen, Christina McGee, Pike, Julio Mendez, Tony Bellows, Warren Garfield)

When his brother's killer is released from prison, he immediately targets The Flash, and his actions turn Central City into a dystopia. Can Barry Allen prevent that future from happening?


218. Rogue Air (Flash)
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Leonard Snart, Oliver Queen, Ronnie Raymond, Mark Mardon, Eddie Thawne)

The Particle Acclerator is going to go boom again, so the heroes need to relocate all those supervillains they've been imprisoning in that vicinity. Not only does this mean another Arrow team-up, it also means thinking outside of the box, which means More Captain Cold!


219. Al Sa-Him (Arrow)
(Oliver Queen, Andy Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Thea Queen, Lauren Lance, R'as Al Ghul, Nyssa Al Ghul, Maseo Yamashiro, Tatsu Yamashiro, Malcolm Merlyn)

Oliver Queen is the new R'as, and he's in Starling City to eliminate his competition, Nyssa. Team Arrow has to side with Nyssa against the League Of Assassins. 


220. This Is Your Sword (Arrow)
(Oliver Queen, Andy Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Thea Queen, Malcolm Merlyn, Lauren Lance, R'as Al Ghul, Nyssa Al Ghul, Maseo Yamashiro, Tatsu Yamashiro)

Now that Oliver Queen is set to get married and become an Al Ghul, Team Formerly Arrow needs to figure out new alliances​


221. My Name Is Oliver Queen (Arrow)
 
(Oliver Queen, Andy Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Thea Queen, Malcolm Merlyn, Lauren Lance, R'as Al Ghul, Nyssa Al Ghul, Maseo Yamashiro, Tatsu Yamashiro, Barry Allen)

The final Arrow episode of the season brings all the drama back to Starling City. Family melodrama oozes out of every line. And in the end, the world gets the R'as Al Ghul it deserves.


222. Knock Knock (Gotham)
(Jim Gordon, Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Jerome Valeska, Barbara Kaen, Lucius Fox, Sara Essen, Theo Galavan, Harvey Bullock, Edward Nygma, Kristen Kringle, Tabitha Glavan, Leslie Thompkins, Aubrey James)

The gang war is over. It's time for the age of supervillains. A whole group of criminals has been broken out of Arkham in order to seed chaos in the streets. After announcing their name, The Maniaxx, they take down the Gotham City Police Department, the mayor, and the new commissioner. And according to their leader we "ain't seen nothing yet!"


223. The Last Laugh (Gotham)
(Jim Gordon, Bruce Wayne, Jerome Valeska, Leslie Thompkins, Barbara Kaen, Theo Galavan, Harvey Bullock, Paul Cicero, Alfred Pennyworth, Oswald Cobblepot, Tabitha Galavan, Selina Kyle)

The Maniaxx begin to clear their pre-Arkham lives, and the streets of Gotham, and Jerome Valeska takes Gotham's millionaires and billionaires hostage. Luckily, there's a new hero in town to put a stop to all the madness. 


224. Fast Enough (Flash)
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Leonard Snart, Martin Stein, Oliver Queen, Ronnie Raymond, Henry Allen, Eddie Thawne, David Singh)

The season finale has The Flash getting into proper timeline hijinks. Our season-long arc about clearing Henry Allen's name gets ... closure ? complications ? wibbly-wobbly timey -wimey ? It's a thoroughly satisfying place to end the season, and would have even worked as a series finale if the show had been cancelled. 

I stopped posting the Buffy/Angel headcanon a few years ago, knowing there was at least one more season to go. But I'd reached the end of the actual Buffy shows, hadn't read the comics, and mistakenly thought I'd seen all of Angel, but not recently enough to properly recall it. It turned out, I had missed several episodes of the final three seasons. But I've recently fixed that, watching the last few seasons of Buffy and all of Angel together with my fiance, who hadn't seen past the first two seasons of Buffy. 

Personally, I think I enjoy the last televised season of Angel more than the final televised season of Buffy. Not the final episodes (Buffy had some fantastic episodes in the final season, they were all just sort of crammed together with a bunch of filler between them, while Angel made every episode count, using different tones, not always progressing the overall story, but always giving the viewer something entertaining. I would say that it's a shame that Angel was cancelled before they got to do another season, but if the graphic novels are at all representative of what Whedon wanted to do during the next season, then television dodged a toxic, stinky bullet.

The rapey elephant that's showed up in the room between when I started creating this headcanon and now is that Whedon has been outed as a misogynist, racist, and general abuser. Even actors who work with him, and say positive things about him tell stories that they think are charming that actually expose what a complete piece of shit Joss Whedon has always been.

Normally, I'd say this brings up the argument about separating the art from the artist. But, for my two cents? I don't think Whedon wrote a single episode or comic issue that anyone ever enjoyed. I think Whedon has always been a complete hack who happens to be buoyed by an excellent writing staff and talented actors/artists. It is a shame that he gets any money for this franchise, but I think you can safely enjoy the best parts of this universe, secure in the knowledge that, while Whedon took credit for it, he probably didn't write anything you actually enjoyed. His comic work has exposed that he's not a very talented writer. His ideas can best be described as stale, his plots aimless and dull. But if you give his characters and an outline to one of his TV writers, or a storied comic writer, you can end up with gold.

This season is just the best parts of Season Five of Angel. I had a great time watching it, especially as I'd missed so many of the good episodes when I watched it in reruns on channels like TNT.

101. Shiny Happy People
(Angel, Wesley, Gunn, Lorne, Fred, Conor, Jasmine)

When we last left the gang, Cordelia was pregnant, and an apocalypse was going down. (Must have been a Tuesday.) We pick up this season with Cordelia's child having been born an adult (beats being raised in a Hell Dimension between episodes, amirite Conor?) She seems absolutely lovely. It's like there isn't even going to be any tension in this storyline. 


102. Peace Out
(Angel, Wesley, Gunn, Lorne, Fred, Conor, Jasmine, Lilah)

Ok, so Cordelia's kid was a total nightmare. Probably evil. Definitely not good for the city of LA, and the gang has to put her down. Who's surprised? Raise your hand.


103. Home
(Angel, Wesley, Gunn, Lorne, Fred, Conor, Lilah, Knox)

Say goodbye to the hotel, Angel and the gang move up in the world as they are given the reigns to Wolfram & Hart, you know, the Big Bad that's been responsible for much of the suffering during the entire run of the show. Things are obviously about to change in a major way.


104.Just Rewards
(Angel, Spike, Wesley, Gunn, Harmony, Lorne, Fred, Knox)

Team Wolfram & Angelhart received a surprise in the mail. An amulet fell out and *poof* Spike appeared. Spike The Sort Of Friendly Ghost Vampire haunts the office and adds some much needed humor into the team. Also, Angel's receptionist is Spike's ex, and everyone's second favorite mean girl from Buffy (RIP Cordelia), Harmony!


105. You're Welcome
(Angel, Cordelia, Spike, Wesley, Gunn, Harmony, Lorne, Fred, Lindsey, Eve)

Wait, Eve is working with Lindsey? Awww. I'm glad he's back for some closure. And, speaking of closure, this is a much needed episode involving Cordelia, who deserved better than the mommy-in-a-coma treatment that was used to write her off the show. It's not perfect here, but it's cathartic, and nice to see her on screen again.


106. Smile Time
(Angel, Spike, Wesley, Gunn, Harmony, Lorne, Fred, Knox)

Puppet Angel may be one of the highlights of this season. The overall story may be a bit of silly villain-of-the-week nonsense but it's very welcome after the last melodramatic season and a half.


107. A Hole In The World
(Angel, Spike, Wesley, Gunn, Harmony, Lorne, Fred, Knox, Eve, Drogyn)

A seemingly random delivery in this episode has dire consequences for the rest of the series (there isn't much left, I realize), as we say goodbye to one cast member and find out how many of the other characters are somehow complicit in their departure. This is probably the saddest episode in the season.


108. Origin​
(Angel, Spike, Wesley, Gunn, Harmony, Lorne, Illyria, Conor, Cyvus Vall)

Conor's back? Well, earlier this season Angel made a deal with The Powers That Be so that Conor would forget everything about his life and grow up with a nice, normal family. But they didn't take away his strength or agility, so when he's unaffected by being run over by a truck, his new, normal family does some research to determine the best people to help them figure out what's wrong. So they take him to Wolfram & Hart, which not only brings up some emotional trauma for Angel, it also returns the memories of the rest of the cast who'd forgotten he existed, which means they forgot a ton of their interpersonal problems from both last season, and the beginning of this one.


109. The Girl In Question
(Angel, Spike, Darla, Druisilla, Wesley, Gunn, Harmony, Lorne, Illyria, Andrew)

The penultimate episode of the TV portion of this headcanon is a much needed comedy break. Fred's parents, who don't know she died in the last episode, come for a visit, (that's not the funny part) and Illyria pretends to be her. The funny part? Angel and Spike are sent on a mission to Italy to stop a demon war and keep getting distracted because their old nemesis is also in Italy and is...dating Buffy. Plus, we get to see Andrew for the first time this season!


110. Power Play/Not Fade Away
(Angel, Spike, Wesley, Gunn, Harmony, Lorne, Illyria, Conor, Lindsey, Eve, Cyvus Vall)

​It's the end of the TV version of this headcanon. That must mean another apocalypse is nigh, and the surviving members of the cast are off to probably meet their deaths.

The CW DC Superhero Universe is like our universe, finite, but constantly expanding.  Last season we added Gotham to the mix of shows, and we saw an alternate universe Barry Allen (aka the 1990s TV show) enter the canon. This season brings us the show Constantine, and brings us yet another speedster from yet another universe, Jay Garrick.

There are time jumps in every show between last season and this one. Sometimes, this is my editorial decision cutting out some of the less interesting parts of continuity but, in the case of The Flash, it's just what happened in the series. 

The focus of this season is the adventures of John Constantine. After this season, he'll disappear for a long time, as his solo show only had a one season run. But the series was a solid adaptation of the comic series, and he will eventually play a role in the larger DC universe.

This season also puts together the B-Team cast from Arrow and Flash and elevates them to easily the most fun part of this continuity, a team of time traveling heroes called The Legends of Tomorrow.

(301. Non Est Asylum  (Constantine)
(Constantine, Chas, Manny, Astra, Ritchie Simpson)

One of Constantine's dead old friends contacts him and tells him to protect his daughter, who is having A Terrible Day. A demon is involved so Constantine, Chas, and an angel named must work together to protect her. 



​302. Haunted (Arrow)
(Oliver Queen, Thea Queen, Laurel Lance, Quentin Lance, John Diggle, Constantine, Sara Lance, Damian Darkh)

There's been a massive time jump since the last time we saw Team Arrow. Oliver is himself again, and running for mayor. Thanks to the Lazarus Pits, Sara is alive again...sort of, and Oliver needs to figure out a way to stop the resurrected Sara from killing Thea, who, you know, killed her first. Plus, we meet Damian Darkh. Back on the island, Oliver has a team-up with Constantine.


303. The Man Who Saved Central City (Flash)
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramone, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Martin Stein, Henry Allen, Ronnie Raymond, David Singh, Jay Garrick, Zoom)

Six months after the singularity that ended last season, Central City's mayor wants to give The Flash the key to the city, but everyone is still reeling from the betrayals and  deaths from last season to think properly.


304. Flash of Two Worlds (Flash)
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramone, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Martin Stein, Patty Spivot, Jay Garrick, David Singh, Zoom, Francine West, Harrison Wells II)

Jay Garrick, The Flash from another Earth, arrives and wants to help Barry catch the criminals that Zoom is bringing through breaches between the Earths. Team Flash is justifiably cautious, given the whole Harrison Wells situation.


305. A Feast Of Friends (Constantine)
(Constantine, Zed, Manny)

A hunger demon is accidentally released when one of Constantine's Newcastle friends gets caught by US customs.  


306. Scarification (Gotham)
​(Jim Gordon, Selina Kyle, Oswald Cobblepot, Butch Gilzean, Bridgit Pike, Theo Galavan, Harvey Bullock, Nathaniel Barnes, Leslie Thompkins, Edward Nygma, Kristen Kringle, Tabitha Galavan)

When GCPD targets The Penguin's empire, he reigns down revenge in fire.


307. Mommy's Little Monster (Gotham)
​(Jim Gordon, Theo Galavan, Edward Nygma, Selina Kyle, Oswald Cobblepot, Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Butch Gilzean, Silver St. Cloud, Harvey Bullock, Nathaniel Barnes, Leslie Thompkins, Tabitha Galavan, Victor Zsasz)

The new mayor of Gotham has quickly turned his powerful friends into powerful enemies. Butch finally has his freedom, Edward Nygma works on self-confidence, Selina and Silver St. Cloud meet, and The Penguin's target of revenge changes significantly.


308. The Fury Of Firestorm (Flash)
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramone, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Martin Stein, Jefferson Jackson, Patty Spivot, Christine McGee, Francine West, King Shark, Harrison Wells II)

In order to save Professor Stein, Team Flash must find a new partner compatible with the Firestorm Matrix. Plus, Iris's mom is back in town, and nobody is happy about it. 


309. Danse Vaudou (Constantine)
(Constantine, Chas, Zed, Manny, Jim Corrigan, Papa Midnite)

In attempting to help people get closure with dead relatives, Papa Midnite accidentally resurrects ghosts who are wreaking havoc in New Orleans. Chas, Zed, and Constantine team up with Jim Corrigan to figure out how to help the ghosts find peace.


310. Enter Zoom (Flash)
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Patty Spivot, Harrison Wells II, Linda Park II, Linda Park)

Dr. Light, one of the metahumans that Zoom brought through the breach, happens to be the Earth 2 counterpart of one of Iris's coworkers. 


311. Legends Of Yesterday (Flash)
(Barry Allen, Oliver Queen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Harrison Wells II, Thea Queen, Kendra Saunders, Malcolm Merlyn, Vandal Savage, Patty Spivot, Carter Hall, Damian Darkh, Jay Garrick, Joe West, Samantha Clayton)

Cisco's new girlfriend is the target of the latest villain of the week, leading Team Flash to seek out Team Arrow for protection.


312. Legends Of Today (Arrow)
(Barry Allen, Oliver Queen, Felicity Smoak, Cisco Ramon, Kendra Saunders, Carter Hall, Malcolm Merlyn, Vandal Savage, Samantha Clayton, Caitlin Snow, Thea Queen, John Diggle, Laurel Lance)

Vandal Savage won't rest until he gets his hands on Hawkman and Hawkgirl, the two least interesting characters in the DC Superhero universe. Oh, and Oliver finally finds out about his son. Then....time shenanigans!


313 & 314. Legends Of Tomorrow (Legends)
(Sara Lance, Ray Palmer, Mick Rory, Leonard Snart, Martin Stein, Jackson Jefferson, Vandal Savage, Rip Hunter, Kendra Saunders, Carter Hall, Oliver Queen, Laurel Lance, Gideon)

A rogue Time Master is out to stop Vandal Savage from destroying the world, and he assembles a team of eight characters from The Flash and Arrow to travel through time to help him. Oh, and for some reason their ship is the same computer system that Harrison Wells The First had.


315. Rage Of Caliban (Constantine)
(Constantine, Chas, Manny)

John and Chas go on a road trip that involves a series of muders possibly involving child abuse, which, naturally, leads to some of their own childhood traumas.


317. Blessed Are The Damned (Constantine)
(Constantine, Zed, Manny, Eddie, Sara Lance, Michael)

After his successful (?) road trip with Chaz, John teams up with Zed again to investigate a snake cul with a resurrected leader. We also get our first taste that this is part of the larger universe as Black Canary appears.


318. Fail Safe (Legends)
(Sara Lance, Cisco Ramon, Leonard Snart, Ray Palmer, Mick Rory, Martin Stein, Jefferson Jackson, Ray Palmer, Kendra Saunders, Rip Hunter, Vandal Savage)

It's  a prison break episode! And not just because Captain Cold and Heatwave are in it. This is a fun Bringing The Team Together episode.
 

319 & 320. Saint Of Last Resorts (Constantine)
(Constantine, Chas, Zed, Eddie, Michael)

More fallout from the Newcastle Exorcism threatens Constantine's friends and associates. Team Constantine decides to reveal some truths about themselves in order to gain each others' trusts.


321. Son Of Gotham (Gotham)
(Jim Gordon, Harvey Bullock, Leslie Thompins, Bruce Wayne,  Alfred Pennyworth, Selina Kyle, Oswald Cobblepott, Edward Nygma, Silver St Cloud, Tabitha Galavan, Theo Galavan, Harvey Dent, Nathaniel Barnes, Aubrey James, Father Creal) 

Blackgate Penitentiary is just as much of a revolving door for criminals as Arkham Asylum. The Order Of Saint Dumas turns out to be a family affair that will engulf Gotham and threaten Bruce Wayne and many of those around him.

322. Star City 2049 (Legends)
(Olvier Queen, Sara Lance, Leonard Snart, Ray Palmer, Mick Rory, Conor Hawke, Martin Stein, Jefferson Jackson, Ray Palmer, Kendra Saunders, Rip Hunter, Deathstroke)

The Arrowverse future is very similar and highly related to the main time period in the show. So we see a lot of mirroring to previous storylines and a ton of drama involving the next generation dealing with the previous generations baggage. But, unlike in Arrow, instead of being bleak and shadowy, it's fun and bright.


323. Angels & Ministers Of Grace (Constantine)
(Constantine, Chas, Zed, Manny, Linda, Jim Corrigan)

Zed has a tumor that might be responsible for her visions. Manny and Constantine switch up their techniques in hopes of impeding some of the impending doom.

​
324. Worse Than A Crime (Gotham) 
(Jim Gordon, Harvey Bullock, Leslie Thompins, Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth, Selina Kyle, Oswald Cobblepott, Edward Nygma, Barbara Kean, Lucius Fox, Silver St Cloud, Tabitha Galavan, Theo Galavan, Nathaniel Barnes, Aubrey James, Father Creal, Ethel Peabody, Victor Fries) 

​

I'm a Marvel fan. I came to comics through the X-Men. And while I did enjoy the Tim Burton Batman movies, it wasn't until the X-Men movies that I loved comic movies, and it wasn't until the Marvel Cinematic Universe that I Loved comic movies. Yea, I liked the first two Nolan Batmans, but that's pretty much it. The DC Cinematic Universe is not for me. And that's ok. I have loved several seasons of their cartoon properties. Teen Titans was amazing. Batman The Animated Series was wildly inconsistent, but the good epiodes were years beyond other comics-based cartoons. Batman: The Brave & The Bold was a blast. Both incarnations of The Justice League, and the Young Justice cartoons are about as perfect as you can get. But the live action shows?

Obviously the 1966 Batman show was iconic and necessary, even if it's complete cheese. The original run of The Flash was ... fine. Birds Of Prey was watchable. And then came a new wave of DC shows. For the most part, pretty good. But not all good.

It would take 510 hours (over 21 days) of no meal or bathroom breaks to watch through all of the Arrowverse, and that's not including the supplementary series that are going to creep their way in here (Gotham, the 1990s Flash, Birds Of Prey, Smallville, Lois & Clark, Superboy, Wonder Woman, the 1966 Batman, and more). You shouldn't waste that much time. Some of it is really, really terrible.

This particular reimagining is how I would string together these shows to form a fun, watchable universe. Usually, I do ten episode seasons of condensed storytelling, but I'm going to go for twenty-four episode seasons because that's how long these stories seem to need in a season. The reimagining is centered on The Flash. It's my favorite of the series. I like its tone, its characters, and much of the early stories. But in order to get to The Flash, we must start with Shirtless Arrow's origin.

I couldn't get into Arrow, originally, referring to it as Shirtless Millionaire Frat Boy Escapes Death Island To Return To Grimy City Home And Play Even More Melodramatic Batman. It's still often too melodramatic for me, but there are some great episodes sprinkled throughout its run, even ones that don't involve Barry Allen at all. 

​So let's spend this season meeting Oliver Queen and Team Arrow, and then Barry Allen and Team Flash, and see how well the teams work together.

101. Arrow
(Oliver Queen, John Diggle, Tommy Merlyn, Laurel Lance, Moira Queen, Thea Queen, Quentin Lance, Sara Lance)

A millionaire playboy returns after years of being marooned on an island and begins a vigilante campaign against the men who are destroying his city.  Amongst the baggage he returns to are an ex-girlfriend whose sister he slept with and who died in the shipwreck that marooned him, a bodyguard he's trying to evade, a sister whose grief turned into a drug problem, and a very complicated mother. 


102. The Odyssey
(Oliver Queen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Moira Queen, Thea Queen, Slade Wilson, Yao Fei, Fyers, Shado)

We fast forward nearly half a season. Diggle is now Oliver's co-conspirator, and we meet the very helpful Felicity Smoak after Oliver gets shot by ... checks notes ... his mother. We also see flashbacks to Oliver's time on the island where he's training with Slade Wilson to be a soldier. 


103. Darkness On The Edge Of Town
(Oliver Queen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Moira Queen, Thea Queen, Tommy Merlyn, Quentin Lance, Slade Wilson, Yao Fei, Fyers, Shado, Malcolm Merlyn, Roy Harper)

The big arc of the season surrounds Oliver's mother being involved in a massively evil scheme to destroy the poor part of town: The Glades. Her partner is Tommy's more evil father. We also meet Thea's boyfriend from The Glades, a guy who idolizes her brother's alter ego. Tons of CW family melodrama in this storyline.


104. Sacrifice
(Oliver Queen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Moira Queen, Thea Queen, Tommy Merlyn, Slade Wilson, Fyers, Shado, Malcolm Merlyn, Roy Harper)

The night of Merlyn's plans, every character in the current timeline must work in their own way to stop The Glades from being destroyed. In the island storyline, Oliver must stop Fyers from destroying an airplane and framing Yao Fei for its destruction.


105.  The Scientist
(Oliver Queen, Barry Allen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Moira Queen, Thea Queen, Roy Harper, Slade Wilson, Shado, Sebastian Blood, Malcolm Merlyn, Sara Lance)

Oliver Queen has now been a vigilante for a while, he has mucho mucho baggage, and is in the midst of massive plot shenanigans with Slade Wilson and Sebastian Blood when a meek little scientist named Barry Allen shows up. Back during the island days, it turns out Sarah Lance survived the shipwreck and is just as much a badass as Oliver Queen.


106. Three Ghosts
(Oliver Queen, Barry Allen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Moira Queen, Thea Queen, Roy Harper, Slade Wilson, Shado, Sebastian Blood, Tommy Merlyn, Sara Lance, Ivo)

Barry joins Team Arrow in his quest to stop Slade Wilson and Sebastian Blood. During the island days, Oliver is given an impossible choice by Ivo.


107. Particle Accelerator
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Oliver Queen, Henry Allen, Eddie Thawne, David Singh, Clyde Mardon) 

The actual pilot for The Flash gives us all the Barry Allen backstory we need to know. Oh sure,  we'll get it several more times over the series, but all the important stuff is here. Family trauma, new family, love life, superhero origin. All tightly packed in an episode where Arrow stops by to check in on Barry. Isn't that sweet?


108. Going Rogue
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Leonard Snart, Felicity Smoak, Eddie Thawne, David Singh)

See? Rogues! And this episode introduces a doozy! Captain Cold is pure fun. He's great in the modern comics, and he's wonderful here. He's just the kind of villain you wish had his own show. Oh well, we can dream. Also, The Flash is refererred to as The Streak. Huh.


109. The Promise
(Oliver Queen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Moira Queen, Thea Queen, Quentin Lance, Slade Wilson, Roy Harper, Shado, Sarah Lance, Sebastian Blood, Ivo)

Much of this episode deals with Oliver's time in the island because, uh-oh, Slade Wilson is still alive and in Starling City, offering to support Moira Queen's run for mayor against Sebastian Blood.


 110. Deathstroke
(Oliver Queen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Moira Queen, Thea Queen, Slade Wilson, Laurel Lance, Roy Harper, Shado, Sarah Lance, Sebastian Blood, Ivo)

When Slade kidnaps Thea in the midst of an election, all of Oliver's secrets start to spill out to various friends and loved ones, and nobody takes them very well. 


111. Plastique
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Eddie Thawne, David Singh, Wade Elling)

Barry Allen was adopted by Joe West after Allen's mother was murdered. This makes Iris West sort of his sister. She's a journalist writing about The Streak (we're still calling him that? ok). Everyone wants her to stop. Meanwhile this episode's rogue of the week can blow shit up just by touching it. Of course the military wants a piece of her.


112. Flash Is Born
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1,  Eddie Thawne, David Singh, Tony Woodward)

Finally. Am I right? Streak no more. Barry Allen is The Flash. The rogue of the week is Girder, who is as silly as his name sounds. But there are some cool developments with Eddie, Joe, and Barry in this episode.


113. Seeing Red
(Oliver Queen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Moira Queen, Thea Queen, Slade Wilson, Laurel Lance, Roy Harper, Sebastian Blood, Samantha Clayton,  Sin)

Slade Wilson goes full rampaging villain. Roy, infected with Mirakiru, is hunting Team Arrow, and while Sarah wants to put him down, the rest of the team struggles to take him alive.


114. Streets Of Fire
(Oliver Queen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Thea Queen, Slade Wilson, Laurel Lance, Sara Lance, Quentin Lance, Roy Harper, Malcolm Merlyn, Sebastian Blood, Sin)

The city is under seige by Slade's army of Mirakiru-infused Deathstroke masked men. The police, Team Arrow, and Sebastian Blood must pool their resources to save the city that all of them have failed. 


115. Unthinkable
(Oliver Queen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Thea Queen, Slade Wilson, Laurel Lance, Sara Lance, Quentin Lance, Roy Harper, Malcolm Merlyn, Sebastian Blood, Sin, Amanda Waller, Nyssa Al Ghul)

The League Of Assassins arrives in Starling City to help distribute the Mirakiru cure, while Amanda Waller and ARGUS have blocked out any escape from the city. Plus, Thea's reunion with her father doesn't go well.


116. The Calm
(Oliver Queen, Barry Allen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Laurel Lance, Sara Lance, Ray Palmer, Quentin Lucas, Roy Harper, Amanda Waller)

As the city recovers from the previous episode's drama, Oliver tries to balance his life as Oliver Queen and Arrow. Felicity meets Ray Palmer and accidentally empowers him to take over Queen Consolidated. Our flashbacks move from the island to Hong Kong, as we start to figure out Amanda Waller (who just sort of started showing up with Argus a few episodes ago) 's identity. Oh, and Barry calls Oliver for some help. (Technically, that scene takes place before we even started The Flash episodes but shhhhh....from now on everything will line up continuity-wise.


117. Flash Vs Arrow
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Oliver Queen, Felicity Smoak, John Diggle, Roy Harper, Eddie Thawne, Digger Harkness, Amanda Waller)

Team Arrow needs Team Flash's help to deal with (let me check my notes here, ah yes) Captain Boomerang. A classic Flash rogue. But another rogue with a very silly name shows up and turns The Flash into Public Enemy #1.


118. The Brave & The Bold
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Oliver Queen, Felicity Smoak, John Diggle, Roy Harper, Eddie Thawne, Digger Harkness, Amanda Waller, Samantha Clayton)

Evil Flash is a problem, so Team Arrow is going to have to go to Central City to help Team ummm...Flash, I guess?  It's fun seeing the different characters invade the tone of the other show.


119. The Man In The Yellow Suit 
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Eddie Thawne, Henry Allen, Ronnie Raymond, Christina McGee)

One of my least favorite parts of The Flash, across TV or comics, is that a good chunk of his rogues are Other People Who Run Fast But In Slightly Different Colored Suits. This episode introduces the first of them, Reverse Flash. If he were the only one, I'd be more forgiving, but this is the beginning of an unfortunate trend. We do get to see the debut of Firestorm, though, and he'll be around for a bit. Sort of.


120. The Climb
(Oliver Queen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Thea Queen, Roy Palmer, Lauren Lance, Quentin Lance, Ray Harper, Malcolm Merlyn, R'as Al Ghul, Nyssa Al Ghul, Maseo Yamashiro, Tatsu Yamashiro)

The League of Assassins comes to Star City to avenge a death from an earlier episode, setting up a showdown between Oliver Queen (who's being framed for the death) and R'as Al Ghul. Also, Thea's relationship with her father may be more complicated than they were in previous episodes.


121. Revenge Of The Rogues
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Leonard Snart, Mick Rory, Eddie Thawne, David Singh)

Get our your popcorn. The Reverse Flash story continues to be interesting, but Captain Cold's return, and his first teamup with Heatwave is the beginning of one of the most pure, beautiful villain friendships in television history.  Oh yea, and Barry has more weird love feelings blah blah blah.


122. Nanda Parbat
(Oliver Queen, John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, Thea Queen, Roy Palmer, Lauren Lance, Ray Harper, Malcolm Merlyn, R'as Al Ghul, Nyssa Al Ghul, Maseo Yamashiro, Tatsu Yamashiro )

Who will lead The League Of Assassins if anything happens to R'as Al Ghul? Why is Laurel wearing her sister's Black Canary outfit? Will Oliver and John be taken down The League? Lots of family drama in this episode. Must be a CW show.


123. Crazy For You
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Martin Stein, Ronnie Raymond, Eddie Thawne, Wade Elling, Linda Park, Henry Allen)

The villain of the week is Peek-a-Boo, a transporter. While Team Flash tries to figure out how to stop her, Barry tries to get over his feelings for Iris by dating her coworker, Linda.


124. The Nuclear Man
(Barry Allen, Iris West, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow, Joe West, Harrison Wells 1, Martin Stein, Ronnie Raymond, Eddie Thawne, Wade Elling, Linda Park)

Firestorm proves that Barry isn't the only one affected by the particle accelerator that didn't turn out to be a villain. But can Team Flash keep him from accidentally destroying the city? And is Barry actually The Man In The Yellow Suit?

Mattel's 1980s toy shilling cartoon was far from Ahead Of Its Time in the writing department. Despite an amazing 80s voice cast, many of the episodes were pretty schlocky, even for a kid's show. I didn't have many fond memories of it despite having a complete set of the action figures, castles, and vehicles when I was a kid.

Bored at work in 2022, I decided to listen to the Kevin Smith continuation of the story while I did paperwork and data entry. I was surprised by how progressive and entertaining it was. I decided I should check out the old series. It, uhh...it didn't endear me.

But there are some episodes that feed into the 2021 series that are not only watchable but entertaining in a nostalgic way.

I have made a four season series leading up to the Kevin Smith's series, including ten episodes per season of the 1983 He-Man and the 1985 She-Ra series that were historically important to the new series but also fun to watch.

The first season introduces you to the characters and sets up the journey to the 21st century cartoon. The animation is dated, the writing is...fine. The surprise to me is that even the 80s series is surprisingly progressive, at least when it comes to gender representation and alternatives to violence. One of the recurring themes is that heroes and villains need to work together/keep each other safe from physical harm.

101. Teela's Quest

A really cool introduction to the good guys. We first see how Eternia is connected to Earth, and then we follow Teela as she searches for her birth mother. We also meet Orko, The Sorceress, and Merman. And we see that He-Man is a true hero, not just a violent barbarian. 


102. The Diamond Ray Of Disappearance

Meet the rogues gallery as Skeletor summons all of his henches to Snake Mountain in order to organize an attack on The Royal Palace and capture Castle Grayskull. Plus, meet the never-fleshed-out tertiary heroes whose action figures you only got if you were super whiney or your parents were super rich. 


103. Creatures From The Tar-Swamp

So far, Orko has been the clumsy, somewhat annoying comic relief. In this episode we learn how the magician saved Prince Adam and Cringer as a child (and a kitten). You'll be shocked to know that this episode also features Skeletor trying to conquer Castle Grayskull.


104. Dawn Of Dragoon

More Orko! A female, uhm, Orko arrives and guides him back to his home world where he battles a half-man half-dragon and gets back in touch with his magical powers.  The Sorceress gives He-Man some Alice In Wonderland style magic to help bring Orko back home. 


105. The Witch and The Warrior

He-Man and Teela  journey to a desert to protect a magic fountain from the evil Kothos. Then, jealous Skeletor decides he should take the fountain instead of Kothos, and sends Evil-Lyn and Clawful to interfere. 


106. Prince Adam No More

Skeletor fires Beast-Man for incompetence, and the King of Eternia reluctantly agrees to be guarded by Prince Adam instead of He-Man. The two stories intersect with disastrous results. 


107. The Search

He-Man must stop Skeletor as he drills to the center of Eternia in order to something something power something something Castle Grayskull. 


108. Evilseed

The...gnome?..dwarf..? farmers of Eternia plant an invasive vine that cracks a damn and floods a fertile crescent and then threatens to destroy the palace. The only way to beat the plants may be to team up with a certain skeletal themed villain destined to betray them. 


109. The Taking Of Grayskull

It's Orko's birthday and nobody is paying attention to him. But while their backs are turned on him, they're also turned on Grayskull which, along with He-Man's sword, totally disappears. Sadly, this is the first episode where not one but two strong female characters can't handle the danger themselves and need to be rescued by He-Man.


110. The Problem With Power

Skeletor's new plan to build a giant portal isn't just evil, it's also not going to pass an OSHA inspection. And when He-Man acts first and thinks later, he causes collateral damage causing him to rethink whether he is worthy of the sword of Grayskull.