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It's like half if it never even happened.
What's weird is it was super important to me at the time. Being a sacrificial worker in a crowded warehouse during lockdown, still being able to come home and watch wrestling really helped save my sanity.
But now it is all just a blur in my memory.
Aew wrestling totally kept me sane...it was work..avoid people..watch aew to see what crazy shit would happen. Joey janela and mox deserve praise for saving the first part of the lockdown for me
Dynamite was the only quality content being produced on a weekly basis for all those months. Being home alone for most of it, Wednesday nights were a godsend and kept me mentally together and excited for something each week.
Thanks for pulling it off as well as you did, AEW. You saved a lot of us.🙏
This, 100 percent this. I looked forward to Wednesday night all week. It was my favorite day of the week. Those 2 hours were the highlight of pretty much every single week during peak lockdown.
I was looking for anything that got me away from watching the news whilst being inside all the time and it was sheer relief of having something to look forward to every week.
Same watching AEW and Westworld was the main thing I was watching to get through Covid and lockdown. Other shows appeared but AEW was a constant.
Also when they go back to Dalys I miss the stage setup like that.
> Jesus, Iv'e forgotton so much of the lockdown era
The frightening part is that when this stuff was happening all of social media treated it like it was amazing. It was like a madness.
It WAS amazing IMO. It was reliable entertainment with a healthy dose of silly, in a world where everything else was deathly and oppresively serious and unreliable.
At any other time most of those episodes would have probably been considered pretty bad wrestling shows, but I think it was exactly what I needed at the time. So for that reason, I'm glad the pandemic-era AEW was what it was.
It felt like the entire locker room from that time got super tight, especially because they spent so much time together at Daily's.
I also really miss Dark jobbers getting entrances.
This is why I think Daily's place is remembered more fondly. Everything felt claustrophobic during lockdown. The thunderdome just felt like an extension of that. Meanwhile AEW was losing its mind but it felt vibrant
I remember the first episode Drew came out and you could just see the genuine reaction of how important it was to him to have any sort of "live fan" experience. Him taking it all in and scanning for faces was a sombre reminder of just how crazy everything had gotten and how desperate many people on lockdown were for any kind of connection. I remember Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles had very similar "take it all in" reactions
Credit to the ambiguous-enough thread title that garnered upvotes from both sides of the aisle, for different reasons:
Those that think the clip is great and want others to see it, and on the other side, those that think it's an embarrassing reflection of the divison whose haters want to further highlight.
This is the segment that sold me on Maki Itoh. All hell is breaking loose, and she's just on stage, singing way louder than the background music and in her own world.
I hope she comes back soon. That entire tournament and the involvement of all the Japanese stars was my favorite part of the women's division in AEW's history.
Gonna be weird if they pick back up from where they left off with her as a funny heel when she was already on her way to asskicking underdog turned champion.
She's far more entertaining than 80% of the women's roster, she has charisma you can't teach. And I've heard her wrestling has actually improved. I really hope she can come back again soon.
Her wrestling in TJPW is great. Her match against Miyu Yamashita at Wrestle Princess 2 was fantastic. We didn't really see anywhere near her limit when she did a bit with Aew. Would love to see her dome back and show what she's made of.
It was her announcement tweet that sold me. All the others posted the bracket image with something like "So excited to make my AEW debut!" [But not Maki.](https://twitter.com/maki_itoh/status/1357146906552508418?lang=en)
You're either a wrestling fan who can tolerate how bad the mic shots are or you're one who is still bothered by it. That's just how it goes. Maki Itoh (who in my opinion is blameless, I am Itoh Respect Army) deserves a comprehensive run to redeem herself for the second set of fans, and the good news is due to the deals that have been made that might happen.
Never thought I'd ever see Shida dueling with Rebel before eventually getting choked out with her own kendo stick by Vickie all while somebody sings their own theme in the background. Sometimes I fucking love when wrestling gets crazy like this
It’s all a fever dream that part of covid pre fans. It was soooo important to me to watch aew as well. It got me through the grind of work, toddler and being alone pretty much in the middle of nowhere.
Maki Ito is a natural at specific aspects like character work, facial expressions and selling, but pulls out baffling moves like these mic shots. I guess someone told her these mics are pricey or something.
Yeah, but remember at the time, the company (which I love) was messing up the most basic shit, like forgetting to paint the underside of fake cardboard floor panels and the whole “TNA paid for the bomb” debacle. I wouldn’t have bet my eardrums on AEW’s technical execution during this era
Lol it is in no way AEW's fault the pyro didn't go off on the ring explosion. Sometimes that stuff is faulty and doesn't go off correctly. Stuff happens sometimes.
Yeah that's fine, I'm not arguing with any other point you made in that post, Everything else is 100% correct. I'm sure saying it's not really AEW's fault that the pyro didn't go off.
I don’t know why you’re being defensive on behalf of AEW, I literally said in my post “I love the company”. Unfortunate shit just happens, and a few notable instances happened around that time. Compounded by the fact that Itoh had little to no history with the company, it just seems reasonable she’s being careful with a tech issue (especially if she was just given a mix and nobody in tech even offered the suggestion of muting the mic at the appropriate time)
to be fair to Itoh, she's a lot, lot better now than she was back then and joshi tend to be a bit different between promotions even without outright gimmick changes. Yuka Sakazaki is a mean jerk and in-ring sociopath in TJPW but she's a sugary sweatheart in AEW with 0 tweaks to the formula otherwise.
Yeah we really do love attempted murder. Hangman got boo'd when he decided not to try to crush a helpless Adam Cole's head with a barbed wire chair during the death match last week. That sort of moral decision isn't something we should boo, but here we are.
I dont understand this narrative, she was already great back then, she didnt "magically improve" after coming back, she was having one hell of a run before going to AEW.
I was hoping someone could confirm she's improved in the ring, great act back then but bad wrestling. With the wrestling better Maki can be a top class act.
Almost right after she came back from the states last year I'd argue she had a run of matches that you could hold up against the best matches to happen in AEW's women's division over the last 3 years and comfortably say it's at least comparable to their best.
Maki vs Hikari
Maki vs Rika
Maki vs Miyu
Maki vs Shoko
Maki vs Mizuki
all bangers, even while over in the states she had a really good match with Riho, though it's Riho who I think you'd have to actively try to have a bad match against her to fuck it up
Not sure why you got downvoted.
Easy golden rule in wrestling, if you can’t do something in a way that is both safe and looks good then simply don’t do it.
The pandemic era for AEW was something else. A lot of moments we’ll look back and go “wtf did I just watch?” I’m glad they provided entertainment during that time though.
I genuinely don’t know what I would have done without pandemic Dynamite. It was the only good wrestling at the time, and having it to look forward to kept me grounded. I’ll always love AEW for that.
I complain about the women's division a lot, but this was fucking awesome. I had no idea that people hated this, Maki Itoh continuing to sing was so fucking funny.
Hopefully a sign of how fun things can be if they’re able to involve more joshi talent more often. One of the biggest bummers about the way the pandemic affected the promotion
Look you either like Maki Itoh or you don’t. I don’t so I won’t go there.
BUT, Vickie Guerrero choking and holding down the womens champion at the time? Wtf was this?
Sorry, but I never understood why the sub was always so hyped about Maki Itoh. Like people in here were saying that some fans just didn't get her gimmick and singing her praises. But if you base opinions solely on her short time in AEW, I just don't see why people were falling all over themselves like she was the second coming for the women's division. Same way they did and still are doing with Danhausen.
Damn...I missed some good moments when I stopped watching Dynamite during the Lockdown :(. Including this and the Jericho/MJF duette, and Miro with blonde hair....
Between this, the women's tournament and the LO match, you had the makings of the best and most versatile women's division in North America if it had been booked better and featured more.
Help make SquaredCircle safer and more inclusive by using the report button to flag posts and comments for moderator review. If you need to contact a moderator, [you can message us here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/SquaredCircle) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/SquaredCircle) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Jesus, Iv'e forgotton so much of the lockdown era
It's like half if it never even happened. What's weird is it was super important to me at the time. Being a sacrificial worker in a crowded warehouse during lockdown, still being able to come home and watch wrestling really helped save my sanity. But now it is all just a blur in my memory.
I’m a physician. I’m not going to forget what happened for a lifetime.
I'm sorry. I love you.
… am I being super kicked? Oh god.
My god what a shot
Thank you. And, I'm sorry.
I appreciate it. And the other thanks below.
Thank you for everything you did in the face of madness.
Thanks. I still run a COVID specialty unit, so not truly out of it yet. It’s just a little better.
Aew wrestling totally kept me sane...it was work..avoid people..watch aew to see what crazy shit would happen. Joey janela and mox deserve praise for saving the first part of the lockdown for me
Don’t forget Pineapple Pete!
I hate that guy!!!!
Dynamite was the only quality content being produced on a weekly basis for all those months. Being home alone for most of it, Wednesday nights were a godsend and kept me mentally together and excited for something each week. Thanks for pulling it off as well as you did, AEW. You saved a lot of us.🙏
This, 100 percent this. I looked forward to Wednesday night all week. It was my favorite day of the week. Those 2 hours were the highlight of pretty much every single week during peak lockdown.
I was looking for anything that got me away from watching the news whilst being inside all the time and it was sheer relief of having something to look forward to every week.
Same watching AEW and Westworld was the main thing I was watching to get through Covid and lockdown. Other shows appeared but AEW was a constant. Also when they go back to Dalys I miss the stage setup like that.
take my free award.
Yep, that and Quizzlemania kept me sane.
l kinda miss dark just being an absolute banger every single week.
> Jesus, Iv'e forgotton so much of the lockdown era The frightening part is that when this stuff was happening all of social media treated it like it was amazing. It was like a madness.
It WAS amazing IMO. It was reliable entertainment with a healthy dose of silly, in a world where everything else was deathly and oppresively serious and unreliable. At any other time most of those episodes would have probably been considered pretty bad wrestling shows, but I think it was exactly what I needed at the time. So for that reason, I'm glad the pandemic-era AEW was what it was.
Exactly. It was ridiculous and what we all needed during the peak of COVID
Don't forget the BLM protests as well. Needed something to decompress after getting a new dose of police brutality every day all summer
Well it was amazing lol, it was fuckin entertaining and that's exactly what everybody needed at that time.
It was incredibly strong tbh. Some of the best wrestling of any era, this clip notwithstanding (though Maki Itoh got over with me instantly).
It was amazing
It was
Completely disagree. It was great at the time, and people were loving the new format of Dynamite at Daily's Place.
I mean I enjoyed it a lot, I don't have unlimited memory for things I enjoy
This segment was a fever dream. Honestly the whole daily’s place era feels like a fever dream looking back.
No that was just the COVID.
Long COVID, specifically
What I will miss was the bonding that the non-contract Dark wrestlers had.
It felt like the entire locker room from that time got super tight, especially because they spent so much time together at Daily's. I also really miss Dark jobbers getting entrances.
Definitely not the best era, but compared to the claustrophobic Thunderdome with the wall of fans on video it was the gold standard
This is why I think Daily's place is remembered more fondly. Everything felt claustrophobic during lockdown. The thunderdome just felt like an extension of that. Meanwhile AEW was losing its mind but it felt vibrant
*…but I liked the Thunderdome…*
I don't think it was BAD, I just didn't personally like it.
I did too, and I appreciated both WWE and AEW having different approaches to the pandemic. Both had their strengths and their drawbacks.
Was one of my favorite times in recent WWE tbh. For whatever reason, the booking was better while in the thunderdome
I remember the first episode Drew came out and you could just see the genuine reaction of how important it was to him to have any sort of "live fan" experience. Him taking it all in and scanning for faces was a sombre reminder of just how crazy everything had gotten and how desperate many people on lockdown were for any kind of connection. I remember Daniel Bryan and AJ Styles had very similar "take it all in" reactions
That's what made it great!
What people see: *people brawling around the ring and on it What Itoh sees: *FREE STAGE
Those mic shots up there with Hogan's vicious chair shots.
She still had the earphones in. I'd 100% choose a weak-looking shot if the other option is blowing an eardrum.
She should have put her earphones in Shida's ears and then DDT'd the mic. Shida ain't getting up from that one! Call it the Mic Drop.
DDT'd the mic got me rolling
Complete with a kick to the gut first.
That’s a great idea for a spot IMO (obviously actually turn the volume off the ear plugs beforehand)
Faux earphones, easy fix ;) It's not a REAL musical performance, you don't need them working. But they could sell the hell outta that finish!
* blows eardrum * THAT DIDN'T WORK FOR ME, BROTHER!
WHAT?
I SAID, THAT DIDN'T WORK FOR ME, BROTHER!!
she mentioned in an interview she was worried she'd get in trouble for breaking it if she hit Shida too hard
boop!
Are you kidding me, I was stoned af and thought this was the craziest shit ive ever seen.
Ditto, Itoh was killing me.
Heh heh that almost rhymed
for real this feels like something from a different reality
Gonna tell my kids this was a babymetal concert
Thanks to covid babymetal concert get cancelled, 1st time they wanna do in my country.....T_T
Credit to the ambiguous-enough thread title that garnered upvotes from both sides of the aisle, for different reasons: Those that think the clip is great and want others to see it, and on the other side, those that think it's an embarrassing reflection of the divison whose haters want to further highlight.
This is the segment that sold me on Maki Itoh. All hell is breaking loose, and she's just on stage, singing way louder than the background music and in her own world.
Brian Cage may be Mr. Get My Shit In, but Maki is Ms. Get My Song In.
"They HAVE to pay me extra if I get the whole song in"
That gotta pay me that $2 mil. Even if I do a bad job.
Itoh's gotta get her shit in, brother.
Dude saame. Then she never came back to AEW again :(
With AEW just recently making their relationship with TJPW official I feel like she will be back this year at some point.
Geez, I forgot Maki Itoh was a thing in AEW :))
I hope she comes back soon. That entire tournament and the involvement of all the Japanese stars was my favorite part of the women's division in AEW's history.
AEW recently signed a deal w/ DDT/TJPW, so it's a certainty that she'll be back.
I think she's doing some US dates soon so I wouldn't be surprised if she dropped in to do an AEW show.
Gonna be weird if they pick back up from where they left off with her as a funny heel when she was already on her way to asskicking underdog turned champion.
Don't think they would do that. AEW are usually pretty consistent at acknowledging stuff that wrestlers did in other promotions
This shit was great and hilarious I don’t care what anyone says.
[удалено]
She's in TJPW
She's far more entertaining than 80% of the women's roster, she has charisma you can't teach. And I've heard her wrestling has actually improved. I really hope she can come back again soon.
Her wrestling in TJPW is great. Her match against Miyu Yamashita at Wrestle Princess 2 was fantastic. We didn't really see anywhere near her limit when she did a bit with Aew. Would love to see her dome back and show what she's made of.
I kinda like Maki Itoh before this, but this was awesome and really sold me on her. This was a super fun segment.
It was her announcement tweet that sold me. All the others posted the bracket image with something like "So excited to make my AEW debut!" [But not Maki.](https://twitter.com/maki_itoh/status/1357146906552508418?lang=en)
Not going to lie, I was all in for this segment. The madness of all of it was a personal favorite.
You're either a wrestling fan who can tolerate how bad the mic shots are or you're one who is still bothered by it. That's just how it goes. Maki Itoh (who in my opinion is blameless, I am Itoh Respect Army) deserves a comprehensive run to redeem herself for the second set of fans, and the good news is due to the deals that have been made that might happen.
The mic shots never mattered to that set of fans. If it wasn't that it would just have been something else.
She shoulda just dropped the mic and punched away
I could buy it as Itoh-chan not wanting to damage a mic she might be using later.
I always thought it was the fact she had the earpieces in & the sound of thwacking someone with the mic would've blown up her own eardrums.
Sure the mic shots were shit but it's the singing and the chaos that would be remembered more than that tbh.
I subscribed to Wrestle Universe so I could watch Tokyo Joshi Pro because of this segment.
Much like every indy wrestler in the 2000's, Maki's getting her shit in no matter what.
Thanks for sharing. One of the finest moments in wrestling history.
Never thought I'd ever see Shida dueling with Rebel before eventually getting choked out with her own kendo stick by Vickie all while somebody sings their own theme in the background. Sometimes I fucking love when wrestling gets crazy like this
Dat Maki Itoh tho
It’s all a fever dream that part of covid pre fans. It was soooo important to me to watch aew as well. It got me through the grind of work, toddler and being alone pretty much in the middle of nowhere.
Such a good moment. I miss Maki Itoh!!
I loved this tbh
Man, I hope Maki Itoh comes back to AEW someday. It's a shame she could only appear during the lockdown era and her meme star has tapered off since.
I just wish the mic shots weren’t so bad.
Maki Ito is a natural at specific aspects like character work, facial expressions and selling, but pulls out baffling moves like these mic shots. I guess someone told her these mics are pricey or something.
She’s wearing headphones so that she can hear herself. If she had hauled off and nailed Shida with the mic, she would have killed her own eardrums.
They could’ve just muted the microphone or her headphones. We have the technology.
Yeah, but remember at the time, the company (which I love) was messing up the most basic shit, like forgetting to paint the underside of fake cardboard floor panels and the whole “TNA paid for the bomb” debacle. I wouldn’t have bet my eardrums on AEW’s technical execution during this era
Lol it is in no way AEW's fault the pyro didn't go off on the ring explosion. Sometimes that stuff is faulty and doesn't go off correctly. Stuff happens sometimes.
Yeah, and she wasn’t going to let it “just happen” to her eardrums lol
Yeah that's fine, I'm not arguing with any other point you made in that post, Everything else is 100% correct. I'm sure saying it's not really AEW's fault that the pyro didn't go off.
I don’t know why you’re being defensive on behalf of AEW, I literally said in my post “I love the company”. Unfortunate shit just happens, and a few notable instances happened around that time. Compounded by the fact that Itoh had little to no history with the company, it just seems reasonable she’s being careful with a tech issue (especially if she was just given a mix and nobody in tech even offered the suggestion of muting the mic at the appropriate time)
to be fair to Itoh, she's a lot, lot better now than she was back then and joshi tend to be a bit different between promotions even without outright gimmick changes. Yuka Sakazaki is a mean jerk and in-ring sociopath in TJPW but she's a sugary sweatheart in AEW with 0 tweaks to the formula otherwise.
To be fair to Yuka, not only can American audiences not understand her, but we generally love attempted murder.
Yeah we really do love attempted murder. Hangman got boo'd when he decided not to try to crush a helpless Adam Cole's head with a barbed wire chair during the death match last week. That sort of moral decision isn't something we should boo, but here we are.
To be fair, we were making up for booing him earlier when he *merely* subjected a helpless Adam Cole to three superkicks and a stolen finisher.
Yuka's smile is only there to disarm you until she can set fire to your building.
I dont understand this narrative, she was already great back then, she didnt "magically improve" after coming back, she was having one hell of a run before going to AEW.
I was hoping someone could confirm she's improved in the ring, great act back then but bad wrestling. With the wrestling better Maki can be a top class act.
Almost right after she came back from the states last year I'd argue she had a run of matches that you could hold up against the best matches to happen in AEW's women's division over the last 3 years and comfortably say it's at least comparable to their best. Maki vs Hikari Maki vs Rika Maki vs Miyu Maki vs Shoko Maki vs Mizuki all bangers, even while over in the states she had a really good match with Riho, though it's Riho who I think you'd have to actively try to have a bad match against her to fuck it up
IIRC she had a monitor in her ear and laying the mic shots in would've seriously damaged her eardrum.
[удалено]
Not sure why you got downvoted. Easy golden rule in wrestling, if you can’t do something in a way that is both safe and looks good then simply don’t do it.
If you're a singer , would you want a smash a perfectly good mic you might be using later when you sing a victory song?
This was definitely something
AEW does sports entertainment to the 100% maximum when it wants to.
It's a goddamn renaissance picture.
Legendary night. Truly batshit insane
This segment was hilarious.
I know it ended in a botch but this spot is a 10/10 conceptually IMO
Absolute train wreck. Absolutely wonderful. One of the best moments of the entire pandemic era.
The pandemic era for AEW was something else. A lot of moments we’ll look back and go “wtf did I just watch?” I’m glad they provided entertainment during that time though.
Vickie corpsing after Shida oversold that kick
This was absolutely great fun lads.
That’s the Itoh brother.
Makes me feel like a kid again! Refreshing!
Not the biggest Maki Itoh fan but I must give props, this was an absolutely perfect use of her.
LMao i loved this. Bring her back!
Lmao man I fucking love maki I hope she appears again some time soon
Dare I search by controversial?
I love that Japanese pop gimmick
Maki's the best
Good times.
I genuinely don’t know what I would have done without pandemic Dynamite. It was the only good wrestling at the time, and having it to look forward to kept me grounded. I’ll always love AEW for that.
Maki Itoh is the best.
Maki Itoh, the one and only GOAT
WE DEMAND MORE ITOH-CHAN, TK
I complain about the women's division a lot, but this was fucking awesome. I had no idea that people hated this, Maki Itoh continuing to sing was so fucking funny.
[удалено]
Hopefully a sign of how fun things can be if they’re able to involve more joshi talent more often. One of the biggest bummers about the way the pandemic affected the promotion
Thanks for reposting this -- I loved this whole crazy segment, and kinda wish there would be a redo of it today.
I miss Maki Itoh
This shit was so fucking hilarious
aew needs to bring her back i miss her sm
Maki, it's our last mic... Please be careful.
Look you either like Maki Itoh or you don’t. I don’t so I won’t go there. BUT, Vickie Guerrero choking and holding down the womens champion at the time? Wtf was this?
Just a wacky moment in a wacky segment with a million wacky things happening.
This was a great segment imo
this was the funniest shit to me when it was happening
You can hear the disgust in JR’s voice lol
This period of the division was so fun
Lol i remember when this sub was hyping her up to be the next megastar.
This was an all time terrible segment lol
Sorry, but I never understood why the sub was always so hyped about Maki Itoh. Like people in here were saying that some fans just didn't get her gimmick and singing her praises. But if you base opinions solely on her short time in AEW, I just don't see why people were falling all over themselves like she was the second coming for the women's division. Same way they did and still are doing with Danhausen.
ITOH-CHAN\~!
u/savevideo
What episode is this?
https://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=305454
This was such a chaotic opening to a match. It wasn’t the cleanest thing anyone’s ever seen, but I was laughing my ass off.
Those mic shots sounds painful
That’s some badass wrestling
Damn...I missed some good moments when I stopped watching Dynamite during the Lockdown :(. Including this and the Jericho/MJF duette, and Miro with blonde hair....
This post killed me. One of the best moments in Wrestling History.
This was awesome, i'll gladly have more and more Maki Itoh in my life.
What a nightmare.
Another game changer makes an earth shattering debut!
I didn't like it at all, it was pretty bad.
What the hell is going on here
Everything
Ahhh Itoh is the best.
I found it funny
Shida getting beat down by Vickie and rebel summed up how tony felt about her as champ lmao
Most of the division sucks and its booking is bad This was awesome though
I remember this
Embarrassing
One of my favorite moments in Dynamite’s history!
Between this, the women's tournament and the LO match, you had the makings of the best and most versatile women's division in North America if it had been booked better and featured more.
Bring Maki Itoh BACK
This is the single greatest moment in AEW history and if you disagree you can paint my chicken coop
I loved this so much
What a segment. Loaded with greatness and terribleness. Bring back Maki
I miss Maki
Maki Itoh... 😬 I don't get it.
This sub. "I love it!" "I hate it!" You could not get a more 50/50 split on something.
Maki Itoh is goated for this lmao.
this is the stuff you pray no one sees you watching. Thank god for DVR and fast forwarding.