The Snapmare Standard

I’ve been thinking a lot about wrestling over the past couple of years.  I dropped out of the hobby for a while, keeping up only via the Flagship podcast from Voices of Wrestling . But when the rumours of CM Punk coming back began I thought it was the time for me to jump back in.  I wrote a weekly review of AEW Rampage for over a year. I still track and star rate every match I watch in a spreadsheet, you’d assume I was thinking about this more than most “normal” fans.  But what I have always struggled with, and find difficult to come to terms with, is how difficult I find analysing wrestling. Maybe this is not the sort of thing you should admit publicly, and least of all on your wrestling related blog, but I do! I found myself not really reviewing Rampage, but writing blow-by-blow play-by-play commentary of the matches. That’s not analysis.  It has its place in the wrestling media ecosystem for sure, but loads of people can do pla y-by-play reviews of TV shows in a ...

Until November 2023, I had watched every single televised AEW match and pay per view since the return of CM Punk.  But no longer. Overwhelmed by the volume of AEW TV to keep up with and underwhelmed by the quality of the shows, I have now decided to pick and choose what I watch.  Deciding to not watch every minute of a television show shouldn’t have such an emotional impact on a person, but it has on me. It feels like the end of an era.  I know I’m being overly dramatic, but I do feel a sense of mourning for a time now past.  Like growing apart from a childhood friend and finally realising you are now two very different people from when you first met.  And that’s okay, that’s fine, these things happen. You don’t hate them, there’s just a level of indifference there that wasn’t there before. And that’s sad. But it’s life.  You can still remember all the great times you had together, no one can take those away.  And when you meet up again, now just a few...

  Rampage 02-21 review 20/08/2021 United Center. Chicago, Illinois. It’s Friday, you know what that means! Episode 2 of AEW Rampage, let’s get into it!  I’ll let you in on a little secret. I kinda knew this moment was coming. I’d heard the rumours circulating online, that Chick Magnet Punk, the great Cookie Monster, Charles Montgomery Punk was returning to wrestling and coming to All Elite Wrestling. That’s what brought me back to watching wrestling again, wanting to get some what caught up before he arrived. I, like many people my age and slightly older, are massive fans of CM Punk. He struck us at the right age, he was cool, he had the look, he was alternative, he told it like it was. He made us believe wrestling was real. I still remember Money in the Bank 2011, watching it in the early hours of the morning round a friends house. We couldn’t believe what we had seen captivated by this man and the stories he told. He’s been gone for seven years. And tonight he returns. ...

  AEW Rampage 01-21 review 13/08/2021 Petersen Events Center. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  It’s fitting really that I start my review writing career covering the very first episode of a brand new show. There’s something quite poetic in that. I hope to grow and develop as a writer and reviewer as this show grows and develops too! You can read my background and how I got into wrestling here, but for the purposes of this review the long and the short of it is: I’m fairly new to AEW. I’ve only really watched Dynamite on a consistent basis for the past month and a bit. So my reviews come in that context of not being the most knowledgeable person in the world, but hopefully I can use that to my advantage!. With that out the way, here we go!  My first impressions are that a four person commentary booth is probably too much. Even three can sometimes be jarring, but four definitely so! Personally I’d get Chris Jericho out of there and let the fantastic Excalibur and Taz lead with Ma...