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Forum nameOkay Sports
Topic subjectOKPW 2022: Revolution into Rasslemania
Topic URLhttp://board.okayplayer.com/okp.php?az=show_topic&forum=8&topic_id=2759738
2759738, OKPW 2022: Revolution into Rasslemania
Posted by jimaveli, Sun Mar-06-22 02:42 PM
Wrestling is ongoing.

AEW Revolution is tonight. I shall watch and hope I don't let myself get burned out by the few car crash matches they have planned. I'm AMPED for at least half the card so that's a good sign. Sensible dinners Jericho vs Peanut Butter Pie Kingston has me excited and I keep forgetting about it. That's another sign of a pretty heavy-handed card for these folks.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10028539-updated-2022-aew-revolution-match-card-ahead-of-ppv

WWE's Mania is about a month away and trying to come together around Charlotte/Rousey, Becks/Belair, and Roman/Brock Part 17. I've been looking back at some old manias and lawd hammercy..there's some rancidly bad ones in between some sneaky great ones that stand up TIL THIS DAY. And even some of the ones that are labelled as 'good' are 2 or 3 good azz matches surrounded by some pretty pointless 'cool yourselves off until the next good thing' stuff.

Nobody really knows what's up with Cody.

Cesaro is out in the wild now too allegedly.

Jake Something (decent rassler from Impact) is allegedly not at the tapings today.

Jeff Hardy is coming to AEW. AEW doesn't need anymore badass tag teams to try to book but okay.

Brock's MSG opponent ended up being an offense-free Austin Theory leading into a Reigns beatdown on Brock.

NXT 2.0 is trying to find its way. The diverse array of good-looking young talent IS notable even if WWE taking away the best mega-indy in Murrica still hurts sometimes.

Terminus is a thing that exists post-ROH 1.0. I owe them some of my time at some point. I REALLY need to catch up on NJPW and the Japan indy scene. I'm guessing I'm missing hella goodies there too.

ROH is now owned by Tony Kahn. The tapes, damnit! Imagine how much goodness is on those tapes!

CYN has started doing shows. And the jokes are plentiful early on. For all we've said about AEW leaning too heavy on 'surprises' then not being able to live up to the innanet's wildest dreams (Cena, Brock, folks like that), I'm gonna get wild and say that Austin Aries can't be your 'check out our big surprise' to start, can it?

On AEW, if someone would've told me 5 years ago that a new Murrican wrestling company was gonna show up and end up with Jericho, American Dragon-style Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, any of the 3 members of the Shield, some of the gaijin from New Japan, some folks WWE didn't want anymore, indy folks who vary wildly in goodness, and some youngsters..many of whom have obvious skills and just need a shot, I would've signed off on it without thinking about it for long. And again, I keep admitting this..I would've never guessed that Punk being back on a wrestling show would be this obviously great but it totally is. That SOB is OVER over. And its not just people deciding to like him cuz of his aura or whatever. He's doing supreme work overall.

AEW, flaws and all, is an easy win for everyone who likes wrestling in general as long as you're not worried about getting taken out of Vince's will. Also, I keep saying this too but AEW will, somehow and someway, eventually make WWE better. They've already allowed/forced WWE to thin out their catering room and promo closets. 3 good months of AEW Miro being hossy and great > Rusev post tank entrance/losing to Cena, getting punished for getting Rusev Day over, and whatever that was with Lashley.
2759739, Punk/MJF
Posted by jimaveli, Sun Mar-06-22 02:58 PM
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://t.co/OpsDQPGZ2n__;!!MeVeBiz6!5S5v1tLDMttigYgfWADhzrJ-t7e5t8V3B4-JsOlt9rNnyHSipj3Uzdb96RWCjienv1Zk$

Of course this isn't the only callback/reference/nod/homage in this feud, but wow.
2759745, Revolution Predictions
Posted by mrhood75, Sun Mar-06-22 04:36 PM
AEW Championship: Hangman Page (c) vs. Adam Cole

Page. If this was like six months from now, I'd say Cole would a good person to take it off of him. But not now. AEW doesn't really do short World Title reigns, and I don't see them starting here.

Dog Collar match: CM Punk vs. MJF.

Everything is pointing to Punk. He lost (Twice!) to MJF in Chicago. He's had the shit kick out of him twice to MJF and the Pinnacle He was left bloody as fuck on Wednesday. This should be about Punk getting his getback. However... I can also see a world where Punk wants to make MJF the biggest heel in the business and have him beat him. I will say if MJF going over is the plan, then 1) MJF needs to name his kids after Punk and 2) Punk needs to put into the World Title picture immediately, because there's no where else for him to go. That said, I still expect it to be Punk, with an assist from Wardlow.

Bryan Danielson vs. Jon Moxley.

I can't call this one. I'm leaning towards Danielson, which I gotta imagine was the plan for that first time they were supposed to face each other. I really dope they pull the trigger on the two of them teaching violence.

Chris Jericho vs. Eddie Kingston.
Can't really call this one either. I can see it being Jericho, if they really want to twist the knife. But man, Kongston really hasn't won a "big" match of almost any sort since he got to AEW.

AEW Women's Championship: Britt Baker vs. Thunder Rosa.
It really should be Rosa. Ff Britt wins, it's an Asuka in NXT-type situation: she's cleaned out the entire division, and there's no one credible left for her to face (Hayter? Mercedes?) But the way they've been building it up, and with Rosa pinning him Wexnesday, I'm saying its Baker. Which means she should hold the belt for another six months.


Three-way Tag Team Championship: Jurassic Express (c) vs. The Young Bucks vs. reDRagon.
I think the match will be good, but I'm annoyed the champs are taking a back-seat to the Bucks/redDragon angle. I'd rather FTR be in there instead of the Bucks, and they win. That said, leaning towards Jurassic retaining, but wouldn't be surprised if reDragon wins. Bucks winning the titles back will be groan inducing.


AEW TBS Championship: Jade Cargill (c) vs. Tay Conti.
Jade. But, again, they're setting up a situation where there's no credible challengers down the line. So they need to inject new blood into the division.

Tornado Tag: Adrade El Idolo, Isiah Kassidy and Matt Hardy vs. Darby Allin, Samy Guevara and Sting.
The three-way on Rampage should have the match here. I really like that. This? Eh. Again, the champ is the backseat to the Andrade/Matt Hardy angle, and it's obvious where that's going. Sammy/Allin/Stng win.

Face of the Revolution Ladder match: Keith Lee vs. Powerhouse Hobbs vs. Ricky Starks vs. Orange Cassidy vs. Wardlow vs. Christian Cage.
They've been building up Wardlow for months, so it really should be him. Lee is the only other possibility, but they're setting him up to feud with Team Taz next. I honestly thought there was going to be a surprise seventh, but I guess not.

Preshow match: House of Black vs. Death Triangle
House of Black. Part of me would also guess that this would be a perfect place for Bray Wyatt to debut and help out the House of Black. But seems like a stretch to have a surprise debut on the pre-show.

Preshow match: Hook vs. QT Marshall.
Hook squash to get the crowd hyped. Maybe five minutes instead of his usual two-minute match.

Preshow match: Kris Statlander vs. Lelya Hirsch.
Hirsch, I guess.


Other surprises: No Jeff until later this week/next week, out of contractual issues. Maybe Wyatt (see above)? Maybe Gargano or Swerve Scott? Maybe Cesaro? Maybe Omega comes back after Page wins? Maybe... Cody? Things apparently aren't going so hot with him and the WWE. Obviously, it'll only be one debut and possibly one return, but just throwing stuff out there.
2759752, RE: Revolution Predictions
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Sun Mar-06-22 06:55 PM
Cole vs Hangman: Hangman
Punk vs MJF: MJF via some fuckery interference
Bryan vs Mox: Mox. Bryan is going to make him do some wild shit to finish him off.
Eddie vs Chris: Dont know dont care lol
Tag match: ReDragon
Britt vs Thunder Rosa: Britt Baker
Jade vs Tay Conti: Jade
Revolution Ladder match: Wardlow
Tornado Tag: Sting team
2759754, i cant predict whats in this idiots mind
Posted by cgonz00cc, Sun Mar-06-22 08:17 PM
i can tell you who i think should win

Page
Rosa
ReDRagon
MJF
Sting & them
Kingston

and the ladder match shouldnt even be fucking happening. its shameful that they do this over and over again to cover up the fact that this moron doesnt know how to book, and its ridiculous that we have to see Wardlow/Hobbs/Lee get physical in this environment. Keith Lee is probably happy to just actually be on a PPV, and I dont blame him, but this isnt doing him any favors. i bitch about people winning matches, and they finally do it right with someone (Wardlow) and they blow his PPV match on this. each of the three big man should have a 6-8 minute asskicking instead of this. im legit annoyed
2759753, lmao thanks for stopping by Erick Redbeard
Posted by cgonz00cc, Sun Mar-06-22 07:55 PM
winners get over, losers dont.

why do that to him?
2759755, great opener! then i have to look at Matt Jackson :( lol
Posted by cgonz00cc, Sun Mar-06-22 08:25 PM
Nick has actually carved out a little space in my heart, but Matt is totally clueless.

my wife just said he reminds her of Steve Martin in "2 wild & crazy guys" from SNL
2759758, that was....more enjoyable than I expected
Posted by cgonz00cc, Sun Mar-06-22 08:54 PM
by kind of a lot
2759759, RE: that was....more enjoyable than I expected
Posted by jimaveli, Sun Mar-06-22 09:01 PM
>by kind of a lot

KOR is fucking excellent. He was the glue for the match to me. It was wonderful.

And this ladder match is supreme so far as well. This first hour has been straight up grand.
2759760, the ladder match is not for me
Posted by cgonz00cc, Sun Mar-06-22 09:13 PM
but thats okay. i didnt expect to like the tag match so im ahead of the game

KOR got me with the "i forgot!" lol
2759761, good lord @ Jade's gear
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Sun Mar-06-22 09:20 PM
2759763, RE: good lord @ Jade's gear
Posted by jimaveli, Sun Mar-06-22 10:06 PM
>

We’re in a golden age as far as attractive women wrestling.
2759766, we're in the golden age of Jades existence on this earth
Posted by cgonz00cc, Sun Mar-06-22 10:39 PM
she could go down as the GOAT if she keeps working and learning
2759779, RE: we're in the golden age of Jades existence on this earth
Posted by jimaveli, Mon Mar-07-22 12:25 AM
>she could go down as the GOAT if she keeps working and
>learning

And just think..it looks like they’re putting her around badass wrestlers and humans who dead seriously want to help her be great. She’s already better than a bunch of specimen types ever become. I’m excited for her. And she doesn’t have to carry a name around like Ashley/Charlotte did at first..even better.
2759965, in his post-Revolution presser, Tony Khan said Danielson is helping her
Posted by Tiger Woods, Wed Mar-09-22 11:29 AM
that's a PERFECT talent to lend a hand and exactly the kind of behind the scenes role I'd hoped he'd take on
2759762, CM Punk, my prince
Posted by Tiger Woods, Sun Mar-06-22 09:33 PM
2759764, RE: CM Punk, my prince
Posted by jimaveli, Sun Mar-06-22 10:08 PM
>

With the preshow and the show so far, this is already a really good show. I’m almost out of capacity to watch more good stuff. And here comes fine ass Thunder Rosa vs DMD. Man wow.
2759765, Rosa-Baker pushed the ref heat too far
Posted by cgonz00cc, Sun Mar-06-22 10:37 PM
if theres no cage match at Double or Nothing im gonna be very disappointed
2759769, wow Regal showed up
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Sun Mar-06-22 10:55 PM
2759770, Miseria Cantera!!!!!!
Posted by Cold Truth, Sun Mar-06-22 11:02 PM
2759775, RE: Miseria Cantera!!!!!!
Posted by jimaveli, Sun Mar-06-22 11:48 PM
>

Punk is so wonderful. It’s getting to be hard to accept anyone but him being the main event in these shows. His self-awareness as well as understanding why his shit works when it works is something special. And AEW is smart enough to let him do his thing it seems.
2759772, Moxley had his best match ever for the 2nd time in a month
Posted by cgonz00cc, Sun Mar-06-22 11:08 PM
BD with more wizardry and i like it when matches end with clever wrestling moves more frequently than they have in AEW

that was great. a second match that was way better than I expected, and Regal got involved with the issue just in time.
2759778, RE: Moxley had his best match ever for the 2nd time in a month
Posted by jimaveli, Mon Mar-07-22 12:20 AM
>BD with more wizardry and i like it when matches end with
>clever wrestling moves more frequently than they have in AEW
>
>that was great. a second match that was way better than I
>expected, and Regal got involved with the issue just in time.

Bryan and Punk are AMAZING gets for AEW. They make vets like Jericho at least have to consider tightening their shit up. I mean look at Jericho physically now. Different human. And what he did with Eddie tonight was beautiful. Christian doesn’t need to be pressed to be good but he was a glue guy in the ladder match tonight and who knows what he’s doing that we don’t see around there.

Anyway, Bryan and Punk help button up the show and I love them for it. Being in the ring with either one means you’re gonna do something that makes sense and is good af. They validate AEW’s need to exist. I keep trying to think about them not being around and I basically can’t. What in the fuck would these people be doing? Indies that most of us wouldn’t see? Sit in catering in wwe? Wait to job in a 6-minute nothing match somewhere on a wwe show? I mean really…what would Bryan be doing right on with mania a month out? And how excited would you be to see him wrestle Corbin?

This Revolution show was almost overwhelmingly good for the most part. They had to have some cool off matches and even most of those worked. Jade is on the way and she’s easy to appreciate even tho they took a huge chance putting her in their with Conti, who is also a work in progress. Thunder and Britt are dope enough to be trusted in a spot where they couldn’t go all out. And Sting is hardcore Terry Funk now for some reason and I like it. The other matches were meant to be good azz matches fo sho and mostly achieved. The main event might’ve been the weakest of the matches that weren’t ‘bridge’ matches and it was still solid work even if it was a bit desperate to validate itself as the main.
2759773, Adam Cole isn’t cool
Posted by Tiger Woods, Sun Mar-06-22 11:23 PM
2759777, RE: Adam Cole isn’t cool
Posted by jimaveli, Mon Mar-07-22 12:03 AM
>

His coolness is conditional. He needs help like Munn-Ra needs the ancient spirits of evil.

He’s a rock solid worker but that’s not enough even in a rasslin-centric environment like AEW.

I think seeing him standing next to the Bucks and him being notably smaller hurt him out of the gate too.

He wrestles like he’s been told that he’s super little a lot. So there’s gonna be like 15 super kicks and 6 ‘this could be the finish’ sequences. It’s great that he’s in shape enough to do that shit without blowing up. It’s less great that his matches go 5 minutes too long sometimes because he’s gotta get it in. It’s the same thing some don’t like about the Bucks to me.

His job tonight was to put Page over by losing at his own type of match. He did that and well.

I wonder what the plan is to get the belt off of Page and who is next. I’m running out of reasons to think it’s cool for anyone other than Punk to be the champ/main event. I can’t imagine they aren’t thinking the same thing and figuring out how to do it. Punk was making ‘belt around waist’ motions tonight so maybe something is coming.
2759782, Might be my favorite AEW PPV that I've seen
Posted by mrhood75, Mon Mar-07-22 01:16 AM
I haven't seen all of them, but I was extremely impressed by this. First three matches were pretty much non-stop action, and hey, I really liked the ladder match. The Dog-Collar was a lot more methodical, but it hit all the right notes, and the ending was perfect.

Jade Cargill keeps getting better, and they kept things short, as they needed to. I kind of rolled my eyes at Baker winning, but I understand the move. They're now clearly it up so that Thunder Rosa beats Hirsch and then beats Baker in San Antonio for the re-match.

The Texas Tornnado was a total car crash, but I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. And the Moxley/Danielson match was fucking awesome, and the arrival of Regal was the biggest "OH SHIT!" moment in quite a while. Him sonning both of them post-match and making them shake hands put a smile on my face. Great get for AEW.

The Cole/Page match wasn't the best of the night, as the result was never really in question, but I'd say they both over-delivered. And I imagine that Page/Punk at the next PPV is going to be awesome.

So, yeah, pretty damn awesome night for wrestling.

2759808, Wardlow needed ladder match to get a TNT shot
Posted by Ceej, Mon Mar-07-22 02:28 PM
Every other challenger just had to……… show up?

PPV was great, a little long and that penultimate match was a lot. Maybe figure out how to go from Mox to the Maine event without so much goin on.
2759924, WELP. We're getting KO vs. Shriveled Up Steve Austin
Posted by magilla vanilla, Tue Mar-08-22 06:57 PM
It's been WAY WAYYYYYYY too long for Austin. And like, I get it, if Owens isn't going to challenge for a title at Mania at least he gets to be the guy to protect the old guys when they take their big bow. And there's a lot of trust in that. But cmon.
2759931, They’ve been wise enough to not call it a match
Posted by Tiger Woods, Tue Mar-08-22 07:56 PM
I hope he just gives out a few stunners and leaves
2760064, William Regal, what a ledge
Posted by Tiger Woods, Thu Mar-10-22 11:52 AM
the idea that BD/Mox are the split chromosome of William Regal is just such good shit. Moxley represents Regal's demons, Danielson represents the elite ability. God I love that.

Also, lowkey popped at Regal calling Danielson "the perfect professional wrestler". WOW.
2760067, Schiavone in tears got to me too
Posted by magilla vanilla, Thu Mar-10-22 12:13 PM
That was a perfect promo.
2760074, so unbelievably good at being on television
Posted by cgonz00cc, Thu Mar-10-22 12:47 PM
i dont think i even blinked while he was talking
2760083, RE: William Regal, what a ledge
Posted by jimaveli, Thu Mar-10-22 01:28 PM
>the idea that BD/Mox are the split chromosome of William
>Regal is just such good shit. Moxley represents Regal's
>demons, Danielson represents the elite ability. God I love
>that.
>
>Also, lowkey popped at Regal calling Danielson "the perfect
>professional wrestler". WOW.

Yeah. I popped. In fact, my 'allergies' were killing me during that whole thing.

Kingston had my allergies acting up for his part with Jericho (I hate that new Jericho faction name and all unless it leads to Garcia eventually getting over and away from 2.0).

Regal had my allergies acting WAY up! He fucked Tony up bad too!

I remember the days where I was just turned out by 90s All Japan. And making CAWs on the early 2000s wrestling video games had me all tied out on 'cool movez'. Since that time I've calmed down and had to appreciate that some good talking to get the point across is a big deal too.

Regal, in one lengthy shot, made that BD/Mox/Regal pairing seem like one of the most badass/long-time coming/mandatory things I've seen in a while. I have no idea where they take it but I know I'm gonna have to get me some Flonase if they keep on with these legendary promos/explanations.
2760124, Why wouldn’t they just call that Jericho faction “Inner Circle 2.0” ?
Posted by Tiger Woods, Thu Mar-10-22 04:46 PM
It’s literally the merger of Inner Circle leftovers and 2.0
2760206, i love 2point0 lol
Posted by cgonz00cc, Fri Mar-11-22 05:22 PM
they have more personality than a vast majority of the rest of the field

2point0, The Acclaimed, FTR, Santana & Ortiz, ReDRagon, Darby & Sting

thats the core im interested in tag wise.
the Bucks and Lucha Bros have gotten boring, and Top Flight already does their stuff better than they do. everyone else are basically the Conquistadors.

Moxley and BD can be in there too but im afraid they would end up running thru the other 6 at maximum warp.
2760075, Wardlow might be that dude for AEW
Posted by cgonz00cc, Thu Mar-10-22 12:50 PM
a major, ticket-selling star that permanently takes them out of college basketball arena equivalents and into NBA arena equivalents

the patience and restraint done here compared to just about everything else is hilarious. crazy what just winning matches over and over can do!

and then...this dude is LIKABLE! they kept a microphone out of his hand for 2.5 years until it was time for the babyface promo of the year. incredible.
2760078, He’s as undeniable as Batista was, and being programmed just as well
Posted by Tiger Woods, Thu Mar-10-22 01:04 PM
I assume MJF costs Wardlow the TV title opportunity next week and then their program is on. And the specter of CM Punk still looms over all. This is a legitimately perfect comic book arc type of story where nothing ends it just evolves and morphs into something new.

2760080, Big Wardlow guy
Posted by Ceej, Thu Mar-10-22 01:18 PM
Love the restraint theyve shown too.
2760081, RE: Wardlow might be that dude for AEW
Posted by jimaveli, Thu Mar-10-22 01:21 PM
>a major, ticket-selling star that permanently takes them out
>of college basketball arena equivalents and into NBA arena
>equivalents
>
>the patience and restraint done here compared to just about
>everything else is hilarious. crazy what just winning matches
>over and over can do!
>
>and then...this dude is LIKABLE! they kept a microphone out
>of his hand for 2.5 years until it was time for the babyface
>promo of the year. incredible.

It was so good.

Sometimes wrestling works because the people in roles are awesome moreso than any kind of amazingly planning and/or booking. Here, it felt like both. Now, I want Wardlow to be a champ of some kind within the next year.

He was great in the ladder match that Corny couldn't bring himself to watch because he hates Orange so much. It was WWE-style ladder match booked but it made sense, the idea of the big dudes being the highlight over the crazy folks who were gonna take bumps was a good call too.

On Orange, I loved the spot where he flipped up did the pull-up to get over the ladder. He had his 'oh shit' face-making game together too. And you know I loved it when Keef Lee threw him for the 'Orange isn't interrupting these 3 big men anymore' spot. Loved it.

Booking kudos for having MJF and Punk steer clear of eating a lot of TV time this week. It gave Wardlow a chance to breath and shine. Also, I love the idea that a big crazy PPV match that had a long build should have physical and mental consequences. More wrestling shows need to do that more often. The whole 'man, after that match..I'm gonna need a couple of weeks be ready to go again' stuff works on me. I don't expect Steamboat Mania 3 speech therapy after every big match but give me something!
2760130, Yup! I’m sure it was tempting to give this guy the RyBack push out of the gate
Posted by pretentious username, Thu Mar-10-22 05:55 PM
>the patience and restraint done here compared to just about
>everything else is hilarious. crazy what just winning matches
>over and over can do!

But they let him build a real presence before he got a proper push and a conclusion to the MJF relationship. Really well done.
2760183, Got Dynamite tickets for June
Posted by pretentious username, Fri Mar-11-22 01:16 PM
Their first time in LA and my first time going to the Forum. I'm pumped.
2760420, You’ll have a blast
Posted by Tiger Woods, Mon Mar-14-22 05:45 PM
That’s a big show for them too given the city and venue
2760233, aaaand a broken neck for Big E off a shit suplex from Ridge Holland
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Sat Mar-12-22 12:27 AM
the cherry on top of the shit sundae of how his title run was handled.
2760254, 2 discs fractured, no surgery required thankfully.
Posted by pretentious username, Sat Mar-12-22 12:53 PM
This stinks though.
2760408, RE: 2 discs fractured, no surgery required thankfully.
Posted by jimaveli, Mon Mar-14-22 03:49 PM
>This stinks though.

I hope he doesn't have any extra complications.

I also hope all wrestling companies use this injury as an excuse to audit what moves they allow people to do and where they're allowed.

We're already at least on the verge of being out of hand with apron-related moves. And some of these 'on the floor' deals are kinda wild too.

I fine if wrestling takes a step back on the 2000 CAW suplexes for a bit. So then, maybe just maybe, when someone eats a suplex, it can be sold more seriously without having to be a damn burning hammer.

And like American politicians love to do, let me slide in now with some kind of 'quit doing Canadian destroyers' thing. Or make it to where like 2 people per company can do them and its gotta be a finisher.
2760435, Or let it be only Orange Cassidy doing the CD
Posted by magilla vanilla, Mon Mar-14-22 08:00 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms5BgzcPVb4
2761426, RE: Or let it be only Orange Cassidy doing the CD
Posted by jimaveli, Fri Mar-25-22 04:30 PM
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms5BgzcPVb4

This is ridiculous!

Orange reminds me so much of Chicago Maxwell. CM was over like rover at the indy show I saw him at the weekend of Mania 32 in Dallas.

And he was amazing at the 'yelling out a move' like he was about to really blow everyone's mind and then he'd do the most absurdly simple move instead. And the crowd, of course, would still sell it. Good foolish midcard fun. Maxwell would also do moves from the bottom rope because of course he would. I got his schtick like 2 minutes into a 15 minute match and everything he did worked because the crowd decided in unison to let it work. And it was fine. I view Orange in a similar way.

Even more wild, I kinda view these types of wrestler how I remember ECW RVD vs WWF RVD. ECW RVD was basically 100% spots and routines with outrageous amounts of posing, resting, and bullshitting in between. Bad punches. Stiff/borderline unsafe kicks. Super athletic. Then WWF forced him to fill in some blanks / find a better way to rest and it was fine. If him and Sabu don't get caught with the weeds, there's no telling how long he gets to be a champ there.
2760413, Scott Hall
Posted by jimaveli, Mon Mar-14-22 04:24 PM
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2022/03/14/wwe-hall-famer-scott-hall-razor-ramon-life-support/7037697001/

In duh news, Razor Ramon was the shit. Scott Hall showing up on WCW being all weird about why he was there? Also awesome. And what it led to? Wow.

Less awesome was all of his health issues and demons stuff but the Diamond Stud damn sure had his days..that's no lie.

From my limited experience with this, life support removal is usually a bad deal, but I have seen people come out of it and live. We'll see.

C'mon man. He's 63.
2760437, Say good bye to The Bad Guy
Posted by Cold Truth, Mon Mar-14-22 08:33 PM
Swiping this page is a pain in the ass form my phone. But here’s the link

https://sports.yahoo.com/wwe-legend-scott-hall-dies-at-63-001542879.html

This one hurts. Scott was a huge presence for my/out generation. childhood and teenage years. He’s going to get his due in a big way as one of the more significant figures in the history of the business.

Razor was an incredibly cutting edge character, one I believe would still hold up in todays climate.

But Scott Hall, the on screen persona, was perhaps the most pivotal game changer that would serve as the pivotal catalyst for the biggest boom the business has ever seen.

We’d all seen guys show up in other companies, but that shit hit different. It’s a moment that, truth be told, can inly really happen once.

Truly one of the gods of this shit and I feel a genuine sadness.

I can’t wait for the mountain of retrospectives we’re going to get. He’s going to be so fondly remembered for what he brought to the table, and it’s going to be so well deserved.

I don’t want to hear word one about his demons for a minute. I just want to hear the celebrations.
2760442, RE: Say good bye to The Bad Guy
Posted by jimaveli, Mon Mar-14-22 10:16 PM
The good stories are already plentiful. It’s good to see even at a bad time.

Swiping this page is a pain in the ass form my phone. But
>here’s the link
>
>https://sports.yahoo.com/wwe-legend-scott-hall-dies-at-63-001542879.html
>
>This one hurts. Scott was a huge presence for my/out
>generation. childhood and teenage years. He’s going to get
>his due in a big way as one of the more significant figures in
>the history of the business.
>
>Razor was an incredibly cutting edge character, one I believe
>would still hold up in todays climate.
>
>But Scott Hall, the on screen persona, was perhaps the most
>pivotal game changer that would serve as the pivotal catalyst
>for the biggest boom the business has ever seen.
>
>We’d all seen guys show up in other companies, but that shit
>hit different. It’s a moment that, truth be told, can inly
>really happen once.
>
>Truly one of the gods of this shit and I feel a genuine
>sadness.
>
>I can’t wait for the mountain of retrospectives we’re
>going to get. He’s going to be so fondly remembered for what
>he brought to the table, and it’s going to be so well
>deserved.
>
>I don’t want to hear word one about his demons for a minute.
>I just want to hear the celebrations.
2760460, He changed Sting's career too
Posted by magilla vanilla, Tue Mar-15-22 09:04 AM
Considering he was the guy that wised Stinger up to The Crow.

I remember like yesterday when he debuted in WWF. The vignettes were awesome, and then he comes out . . . and people were booing? I remember looking over at one of my friends that I was watching with like "what the hell are they booing? This guy's great!"

Dude was one of a kind.
2760637, Rosa and DMD with another gotdamn banger.
Posted by magilla vanilla, Thu Mar-17-22 10:37 AM
Story ended the way it needed to, and I was about to shake my head at the tacks until they proved to be Rosa's escape from the Lockjaw. Just really great comeuppances for Britt the whole finishing sequence.
2760748, so why does this weapons match "count" when last years didnt?
Posted by cgonz00cc, Fri Mar-18-22 09:49 AM
why would anyone construct up a 2 bedroom ranch home with chairs in a fight instead of just repeatedly hitting someone with one of them?

why have a cage match if you arent going to have Reba out there wailing and rending her garments while Britt Baker gets her ass beat?

why have a cage match without a ceiling while your announcer talks someone trying to get counted out?

as Jim Cornette would say, this was a hat on a hat.
2760771, RE: so why does this weapons match "count" when last years didnt?
Posted by jimaveli, Fri Mar-18-22 02:51 PM
>why would anyone construct up a 2 bedroom ranch home with
>chairs in a fight instead of just repeatedly hitting someone
>with one of them?
>
>why have a cage match if you arent going to have Reba out
>there wailing and rending her garments while Britt Baker gets
>her ass beat?
>
>why have a cage match without a ceiling while your announcer
>talks someone trying to get counted out?
>
>as Jim Cornette would say, this was a hat on a hat.

Sometimes it’s fine. And Cornette knows he’s been in on some hat on a hat stuff in his day too.

The crowd was down with this match too so it worked out. I wonder how Thunder will do as champ. Sometimes she can work a little loose for my taste. IE: sometimes she’ll do a slam and look shoot tired while doing it. That type of stuff always scares me.

It IS interesting to hear Jim Ross obviously adjusting his announcing some weeks around things that Cornette complains about. I know there’s no fun in companies taking negative input to heart and trying to do a little better in spots but it’s happening sometimes.
2760784, I wonder how much of that is her selling
Posted by magilla vanilla, Fri Mar-18-22 03:41 PM
> IE: sometimes she’ll do a slam
>and look shoot tired while doing it. That type of stuff always
>scares me.

For example she looked SHOT on that power bomb near the end. But was fresh as a daisy for the Thunder Fire Driver. I wonder if she was trying to sell how much of a war that match was but still make the finish clean as hell.
2760809, Cody to WWE
Posted by jimaveli, Fri Mar-18-22 09:19 PM
Is allegedly confirmed now. Now it’s just a matter of when they have him show up to disaster kick Rollins or whatever.

>Wrestling is ongoing.
>
>AEW Revolution is tonight. I shall watch and hope I don't let
>myself get burned out by the few car crash matches they have
>planned. I'm AMPED for at least half the card so that's a good
>sign. Sensible dinners Jericho vs Peanut Butter Pie Kingston
>has me excited and I keep forgetting about it. That's another
>sign of a pretty heavy-handed card for these folks.
>
>https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10028539-updated-2022-aew-revolution-match-card-ahead-of-ppv
>
>WWE's Mania is about a month away and trying to come together
>around Charlotte/Rousey, Becks/Belair, and Roman/Brock Part
>17. I've been looking back at some old manias and lawd
>hammercy..there's some rancidly bad ones in between some
>sneaky great ones that stand up TIL THIS DAY. And even some of
>the ones that are labelled as 'good' are 2 or 3 good azz
>matches surrounded by some pretty pointless 'cool yourselves
>off until the next good thing' stuff.
>
>Nobody really knows what's up with Cody.
>
>Cesaro is out in the wild now too allegedly.
>
>Jake Something (decent rassler from Impact) is allegedly not
>at the tapings today.
>
>Jeff Hardy is coming to AEW. AEW doesn't need anymore badass
>tag teams to try to book but okay.
>
>Brock's MSG opponent ended up being an offense-free Austin
>Theory leading into a Reigns beatdown on Brock.
>
>NXT 2.0 is trying to find its way. The diverse array of
>good-looking young talent IS notable even if WWE taking away
>the best mega-indy in Murrica still hurts sometimes.
>
>Terminus is a thing that exists post-ROH 1.0. I owe them some
>of my time at some point. I REALLY need to catch up on NJPW
>and the Japan indy scene. I'm guessing I'm missing hella
>goodies there too.
>
>ROH is now owned by Tony Kahn. The tapes, damnit! Imagine how
>much goodness is on those tapes!
>
>CYN has started doing shows. And the jokes are plentiful early
>on. For all we've said about AEW leaning too heavy on
>'surprises' then not being able to live up to the innanet's
>wildest dreams (Cena, Brock, folks like that), I'm gonna get
>wild and say that Austin Aries can't be your 'check out our
>big surprise' to start, can it?
>
>On AEW, if someone would've told me 5 years ago that a new
>Murrican wrestling company was gonna show up and end up with
>Jericho, American Dragon-style Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, any of
>the 3 members of the Shield, some of the gaijin from New
>Japan, some folks WWE didn't want anymore, indy folks who vary
>wildly in goodness, and some youngsters..many of whom have
>obvious skills and just need a shot, I would've signed off on
>it without thinking about it for long. And again, I keep
>admitting this..I would've never guessed that Punk being back
>on a wrestling show would be this obviously great but it
>totally is. That SOB is OVER over. And its not just people
>deciding to like him cuz of his aura or whatever. He's doing
>supreme work overall.
>
>AEW, flaws and all, is an easy win for everyone who likes
>wrestling in general as long as you're not worried about
>getting taken out of Vince's will. Also, I keep saying this
>too but AEW will, somehow and someway, eventually make WWE
>better. They've already allowed/forced WWE to thin out their
>catering room and promo closets. 3 good months of AEW Miro
>being hossy and great > Rusev post tank entrance/losing to
>Cena, getting punished for getting Rusev Day over, and
>whatever that was with Lashley.
2761049, Ok, Kevin Owens. You’ve got my attention.
Posted by Tiger Woods, Tue Mar-22-22 06:21 AM
This is bloody brilliant
https://youtu.be/OFR-jt6mJjU

And watching some of those people in the crowd…wow…what a reminder that there’s still some people out there watching this stuff who are NOT in the know
2761057, OK I'm sold on this.
Posted by magilla vanilla, Tue Mar-22-22 08:46 AM
Like I KNEW Owens would make chicken salad out of the chicken shit hand he consistently gets dealt. But man, this far eclipses even Shawn doing that Hulk Hogan segment.
2761428, RE: OK I'm sold on this.
Posted by jimaveli, Fri Mar-25-22 04:34 PM
>Like I KNEW Owens would make chicken salad out of the chicken
>shit hand he consistently gets dealt. But man, this far
>eclipses even Shawn doing that Hulk Hogan segment.

I watched that Shawn shit a few months ago and was especially entertained. Shawn killed that shit.

Owens got me with this too. Earth knows Stone Cold is gonna whoop his ass! I mean...really! He's gonna eat it! With that, Kevin's job is to make sure he earns every bit of that asswhoopin. Last Monday, he locked it the fuck in. That crowd was PISSED when the glass broke the 2nd time and there was no Austin.

It is obviously going to be fun even if it is kinda short/not a wrestle kingdom main event. Even if Steve is wild enough to try to do even a 8 or 9 minute thing where he gives a little offense to Owens and they can do it safely? Maaaaaaaaaaaaan! Even better!
2761072, The glass breaking the second time is what really did it.
Posted by mrhood75, Tue Mar-22-22 11:50 AM
2761074, So... Bret Hart to AEW?
Posted by mrhood75, Tue Mar-22-22 11:59 AM
It certainly seems like that's what they're setting up: him coming back to manage a face FTR.

AEW could certainly do a lot worse than have both Regal and Bret mentoring the young guys in the back, along with Arn and Tully.

Speaking of which, the one guy who's really suffered on screen from Cody bouncing is Arn. The only thing they have to do for him is manage Lee Johnson and Brock. They should probably turn them heel. Maybe have him and Tully "take over" the Nightmare Factory from QT. Or reunite the Brainbusters and go after the belts (joking of course; they both probably draw SSI checks at this point).
2761369, MJF interview on Ariel Helwani...so good (link)
Posted by Tiger Woods, Fri Mar-25-22 09:24 AM
this kid is sharp

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mjf+ariel+helwani
2761744, RE: MJF interview on Ariel Helwani...so good (link)
Posted by jimaveli, Fri Apr-01-22 12:54 PM
>this kid is sharp
>
>https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=mjf+ariel+helwani

Yeah, this shit is a masterpiece early and often. I’ve seen lots of it but finishing it now.

I love love love love love 1000 times love that he’s pointing out how silly it is for tribal/lazy fans to act like changing wrestling companies is some kind of crime against humanity. It happened a lot in the 80s and early 90s and I’m in my 40s so maybe it’s just simple to me? I don’t know. I remember enjoying it tho..especially seeing it when folks would change characters. Ie: I saw Taker and was immediately like ‘oh shit, it’s Mean Mark! Heart punch somebody damnit!’. Or when Ted DiBiase popped up rich, I was like ‘okay? Ted got his money somehow!? Aight.’.
2761586, NJPW coming to Washington D.C.
Posted by Paps_Smear, Tue Mar-29-22 12:13 AM
May 14th

https://www.njpw1972.com/117898
2761601, really appreciate this tip my guy
Posted by Tiger Woods, Tue Mar-29-22 08:59 AM

EDIT:

yo, if anyone is within 100 miles of this venue you should go. This venue is so conducive to pro wrestling. This is where I saw Dynamite
2761607, Dynamite in Bmore on the 4th NJPW in DC on the 14th
Posted by Paps_Smear, Tue Mar-29-22 12:42 PM
Hoping we get to see some forbidden door shit coming up since these dudes will be in the US. Both venues are great for wrestling. I’ll be at both.
2761628, Umar forgive me but Nikita Lyons is the future
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Tue Mar-29-22 08:43 PM
all black gear suits her so well
2761671, Hey, remember the Prediction thing we used to do?
Posted by pretentious username, Wed Mar-30-22 08:34 PM
Well me and a couple friends are running one for Mania that involves money!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScCw6uKmF_MkEFACS7hSSr7Qm8MPZux08np0UYtWxNfG3uWDg/viewform

We have match bets AND prop bets combined (I'll list the prop bets in a reply).

Every entry is $10 and you can do as many as you want. Entries AND payments are due by Friday, April 1st at 9pm EST (start of the HOF ceremony).
Send your payment via Venmo: @micktacular

Payouts are:
Winner: 60%
2nd Place: 30%
3rd Place: 10%

I'll share the size of the pool once it locks.

Good luck! Share with anyone you think would play.
2761672, RE: Hey, remember the Prediction thing we used to do?
Posted by pretentious username, Wed Mar-30-22 08:39 PM
PROP BETS:

1) How many times will the 24/7 Championship change hands during the show?
2) Who will be the 24/7 Champion at the end of night 2?
3) Will the bell ring in the Stone Cold Steve Austin and Kevin Owens "in-ring confrontation"
4) Does Cody Rhodes show up?
5) Will The Undertaker get physical?
6) Will Vince McMahon get physical?
7) Will Paul Heyman get physical?
8 ) Will Vince McMahon cry during his speech inducting The Undertaker into the Hall of Fame?
9) Which match will be the longest?
10) Which match will be the shortest?
2761730, the 2 Adams might be the worst world title program ive ever seen
Posted by cgonz00cc, Fri Apr-01-22 11:17 AM
booker of the year!
2761735, RE: the 2 Adams might be the worst world title program ive ever seen
Posted by jimaveli, Fri Apr-01-22 11:50 AM
>booker of the year!

It’s not good for reasons that appear obvious to most: Cole is damaged goods and Page is too far behind Bryan and CM Punk to a degree that it makes his strengths matter a lot less.

But c’mon now. Anyone who has watched a decent amount of rasslin in even the last 25-ish years can name some brutal title programs…even some with big as hell names.
2761751, but I havent done that lol
Posted by cgonz00cc, Fri Apr-01-22 01:35 PM
i lapsed from 2000-2019

which is why some of this stuff looks so silly to me. i assume they stopped pretending it was real a little bit at a time over 2 decades, but i went straight from point A to point Z
2761737, I wouldn’t go that far, but I’m surprised to see this program continue
Posted by pretentious username, Fri Apr-01-22 11:55 AM
It was one of the least interesting programs heading into Revolution, and the match was fine, but I figured they’d move on to something else. Hangman needs to get in a program with someone who’s gonna push his promo skills to the next level. Not that Cole is bad on the mic at all, but this “I was the best Adam in our group of friends 5 years ago” shit is NOT it.
2761749, It seems like they're spinning their wheels until they start...
Posted by mrhood75, Fri Apr-01-22 01:24 PM
...the program with Punk. Having weekly TV and quarterly PPVs makes running a three-month program a little difficult. Sustaining a face vs. face feud for that long is an extremely tricky needle to thread.

It seems like they're back to having Punk fight every week. I'd rather they let Page do a series of one-two week programs until they decide to pull the trigger. Like, they went through the trouble to extend Brian Cage, and he's technically the last person to beat Hangman, so they could start by milking a week or two out of that.
2761752, these "personal issues" of 2022...smh
Posted by cgonz00cc, Fri Apr-01-22 01:38 PM
overly sensitive dorks dont know how to credibly act like badasses with animosity towards each other
2761738, Could it really not be Cody?
Posted by jimaveli, Fri Apr-01-22 12:01 PM
Rollins has a mystery opponent. Earth thinks it’s Cody. I think they’ll have a couple of fake ones then it’ll end up being Cody in full Homelander gear with his song and all of that.

R truth. Santino. Gillberg. These types of folks. Maybe Shane comes out to say ‘oh, it’s not me, it’s this guy’ and then it’s Cody.

Im horrified about how badly this could go. If it’s Cody and he wins straight up and strong, folks will say ‘boring. We saw it coming. And what about poor Rollins..who I now love dearly and deeply all of a sudden’. If it’s Cody and he loses straight up and strong, yikes…he’s dead on arrival unless his revenge is ridiculous cuz he starts some badass group or something.

I guess they could do a non-finish too.

If it’s Cody and this is a one night thing, what a wow that could be. Damnit, now that’s kinda what I want. One night, result doesn’t matter, and then he does a summer of just showing up places. Damnit! I tell folks all the time to quit trying to book shows. But here I am.

>Wrestling is ongoing.
>
>AEW Revolution is tonight. I shall watch and hope I don't let
>myself get burned out by the few car crash matches they have
>planned. I'm AMPED for at least half the card so that's a good
>sign. Sensible dinners Jericho vs Peanut Butter Pie Kingston
>has me excited and I keep forgetting about it. That's another
>sign of a pretty heavy-handed card for these folks.
>
>https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10028539-updated-2022-aew-revolution-match-card-ahead-of-ppv
>
>WWE's Mania is about a month away and trying to come together
>around Charlotte/Rousey, Becks/Belair, and Roman/Brock Part
>17. I've been looking back at some old manias and lawd
>hammercy..there's some rancidly bad ones in between some
>sneaky great ones that stand up TIL THIS DAY. And even some of
>the ones that are labelled as 'good' are 2 or 3 good azz
>matches surrounded by some pretty pointless 'cool yourselves
>off until the next good thing' stuff.
>
>Nobody really knows what's up with Cody.
>
>Cesaro is out in the wild now too allegedly.
>
>Jake Something (decent rassler from Impact) is allegedly not
>at the tapings today.
>
>Jeff Hardy is coming to AEW. AEW doesn't need anymore badass
>tag teams to try to book but okay.
>
>Brock's MSG opponent ended up being an offense-free Austin
>Theory leading into a Reigns beatdown on Brock.
>
>NXT 2.0 is trying to find its way. The diverse array of
>good-looking young talent IS notable even if WWE taking away
>the best mega-indy in Murrica still hurts sometimes.
>
>Terminus is a thing that exists post-ROH 1.0. I owe them some
>of my time at some point. I REALLY need to catch up on NJPW
>and the Japan indy scene. I'm guessing I'm missing hella
>goodies there too.
>
>ROH is now owned by Tony Kahn. The tapes, damnit! Imagine how
>much goodness is on those tapes!
>
>CYN has started doing shows. And the jokes are plentiful early
>on. For all we've said about AEW leaning too heavy on
>'surprises' then not being able to live up to the innanet's
>wildest dreams (Cena, Brock, folks like that), I'm gonna get
>wild and say that Austin Aries can't be your 'check out our
>big surprise' to start, can it?
>
>On AEW, if someone would've told me 5 years ago that a new
>Murrican wrestling company was gonna show up and end up with
>Jericho, American Dragon-style Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, any of
>the 3 members of the Shield, some of the gaijin from New
>Japan, some folks WWE didn't want anymore, indy folks who vary
>wildly in goodness, and some youngsters..many of whom have
>obvious skills and just need a shot, I would've signed off on
>it without thinking about it for long. And again, I keep
>admitting this..I would've never guessed that Punk being back
>on a wrestling show would be this obviously great but it
>totally is. That SOB is OVER over. And its not just people
>deciding to like him cuz of his aura or whatever. He's doing
>supreme work overall.
>
>AEW, flaws and all, is an easy win for everyone who likes
>wrestling in general as long as you're not worried about
>getting taken out of Vince's will. Also, I keep saying this
>too but AEW will, somehow and someway, eventually make WWE
>better. They've already allowed/forced WWE to thin out their
>catering room and promo closets. 3 good months of AEW Miro
>being hossy and great > Rusev post tank entrance/losing to
>Cena, getting punished for getting Rusev Day over, and
>whatever that was with Lashley.
2761750, I could see them trying to pull of Shane, but it's probably Cody
Posted by mrhood75, Fri Apr-01-22 01:30 PM
My neighbor said it should be Veer Mahaan. It would turn him into the biggest heel in the WWE.

I do think there'll be a couple of fake outs. I'd say they should do the whole, "It's huge start that we signed from away from another company!" and then send out Marko Stunt. But Rollins has already made that joke.
2761753, What if its Vince?
Posted by Ceej, Fri Apr-01-22 01:58 PM
He's pissed Rollins stood on his desk.
2761755, Only other legitimate option is Wyatt. So I would say it’s gotta be CR
Posted by Tiger Woods, Fri Apr-01-22 02:16 PM
2761759, Punk wanted to laugh so bad at the Acclaimed
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Fri Apr-01-22 05:23 PM
2761768, AEW signed Samoa Joe
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Fri Apr-01-22 09:58 PM
they have to be using ROH as an actual show cause they have way too many damn people
2761772, RE: AEW signed Samoa Joe
Posted by jimaveli, Fri Apr-01-22 10:28 PM
>they have to be using ROH as an actual show cause they have
>way too many damn people

They do have a slew of folks. Clearly some of these people won’t/can’t get signed again/extended. But if they’re going to try to make two good azz feds that can occasionally get some things wildly right, sounds good to me. I don’t need every segment and/or match to rival Bret/Austin. Just get it right often enough for me to trust that you CAN get it right. My ffwd button is my real mvp.

Its wild to think back to the time where wwe was ‘the bloated roster’ company (they’re still struggling to get all of the desirable folks onto a 2-day show), TNA had pretty much ruined its shots, and New Japan and NXT were running hot. And that was like 5 years ago.

ROH having any kind of improved visibility and consistency is potentially good times.
2761771, ol TK just couldnt help himself
Posted by cgonz00cc, Fri Apr-01-22 10:07 PM
Keith Lee and Will Hobbs 2 months too early, on a friday, in a complete clusterfuck

heel gets a visual pin over the babyface, and then they beat the shit out of him

why am i supposed to want to see more of this?

2761776, and on the last night of his career, Taker cuts the promo of his life
Posted by Tiger Woods, Fri Apr-01-22 11:06 PM
I know he’s gotten really involved with his wife’s church in Texas, turns out he’s got a preacher’s cadence. What a pro.
2761793, I only saw the part w/ Shad's wife and kid
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Sat Apr-02-22 08:26 AM
it honestly feels like years since he passed out in that rip current
2761802, Has there ever been a more universally beloved wrestler
Posted by Cold Truth, Sat Apr-02-22 11:30 AM
Than Taker?

He's the only guy nobody shits on in shoots

Nobody speaks about him in terms that are less than glowing.

Everyone who ever talks about him, does so with the utmost respect

I've never heard any "but...." or "except.." statements with him.

That was arguably the greatest pop I've ever seen. I don't know what equals it, let alone tops it.


2761803, 100% accurate
Posted by Tiger Woods, Sat Apr-02-22 11:41 AM
And Vince was right - there’s never been anyone more deserving of the HOF

Keeping in mind how adored he is…random but , something I’ve always been curious about is DDP talking about just how much heat he had with Taker in the early 2000s. The more I hear the boys put over Taker effusively the more I’m convinced DDP must have been a jerkoff (and I’m a DDP mark admittedly)

If you wanna know the kind of guy Taker is in real life consider how he handled Hogan trying to bury his first title run. When Taker was promoting that documentary I can’t remember what outlet he told the story to, but it’s basically that coming out of their Survivor Series match Hogan sold the Tombstone backstage for weeks and blamed it for neck and spine pain. The video shows Taker’s knees clearly hitting the mat and protecting Hogan , and to make matters worse Taker confronted Hogan about it and Hogan denied he was in shoot pain …although Taker knew Hogan had been saying otherwise to Vince. Taker then realized what was going on, that Hogan was being his usual bitchass self, and rather than make a mess of the situation he just took his medicine and accepted the short title reign. Apparently this went a long way in cementing Taker’s reputation in the locker room.
2761808, 2 hours of schizophrenia to start NXT
Posted by cgonz00cc, Sat Apr-02-22 01:56 PM
but Gunther and LA Knight is my flavor of ice cream

60 seconds in and its the best thing on the show already
2761814, so is Carmelo going for the main NXT belt after this
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Sat Apr-02-22 04:09 PM
or to the main roster. cause while i get the story w/ this Grimes dude w/ his dad, he is not champ material
2761815, i dont really watch the show
Posted by cgonz00cc, Sat Apr-02-22 05:22 PM
i just happened to see it on Peacock and turned it on. then Peacock fucked me halfway thru the main event because I paused to go put the baby to sleep and when the event ended i lost the time i was behind. all those 3/4/5/ man fuckfests i sat thru and then i missed the end of Ziggler and Steiner.

i saw Grimes' thing with Dibiase and LA Knight a while back but thats all i know about him

i will say he looks like a goof without his beard, and Carmelo and the Polynesian dude looked a cut above the rest of them today
2761824, Boogs tore his quad, Becky looks amazing, and Bianca intro
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Sat Apr-02-22 08:26 PM
was sick af. mania night 1 summary thus far
2761826, Been dickriding AEW for so long I’ve forgotten just how fun Mania is
Posted by Tiger Woods, Sat Apr-02-22 08:27 PM
I’m sure by this time tomorrow I’ll be fatigued. But just seeing pageantry of this sort is always a blast, I’d forgotten.
2761829, fire match form Bianca and Becky
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Sat Apr-02-22 08:47 PM
2761831, If you’re gonna bet on yourself, be Cody Rhodes. Or Kirk Cousins.
Posted by Tiger Woods, Sat Apr-02-22 09:04 PM
But the point is, he left and really did make himself important. That should be commended regardless of how you feel about him.
2761836, match feels that way too
Posted by cgonz00cc, Sat Apr-02-22 09:22 PM
this is fucking awesome
2761833, commentary is talking like Cody is late run Bob Backlund
Posted by cgonz00cc, Sat Apr-02-22 09:10 PM
i can hear Lapsed Vince over a headset

"Say that he has been away from...legitimate ***competition***. Make sure you say word competition. SAY IT!"
2761837, lol we got a Bionic Elbow
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Sat Apr-02-22 09:26 PM
2761840, lmao i wanted the pin right then and there
Posted by cgonz00cc, Sat Apr-02-22 09:28 PM
2761838, Cody/Rollins , instant Mania classic
Posted by Tiger Woods, Sat Apr-02-22 09:27 PM
Goddamn
2761842, yeah. that about covers it.
Posted by cgonz00cc, Sat Apr-02-22 09:34 PM
that fake pedigree chicken wing powerbomb makes me laugh every time (in a good way)

just great stuff all the way around
2761878, RE: Cody/Rollins , instant Mania classic
Posted by jimaveli, Sun Apr-03-22 10:27 AM
>Goddamn

Those sobs proved their worth. That match was snug and physical and it had the right feeling to it. And Cody loved being loved again. Wow. Two pros having a pro match. They took some real chances and landed basically everything. The one thing they missed..it made sense that they missed it. Just wow.

https://youtu.be/B_gsyVqO-yk
2761843, this was a very impactful group of HoFers for me
Posted by cgonz00cc, Sat Apr-02-22 09:53 PM
the first PPV event i ever went to was when Undertaker beat Hogan for the belt in 1991. even tho i knew he was mean mark callous in a costume, he transcended that burden in a way that kevin nash was never able to. Nash was always Vinny Vegas to me to some degree.

Vader-Sting was a defining feud of my childhood, second only to Flair-Sting. and he was the last monster heel that scared me thru the TV. The matches they had were life and death to me, and he was a unique threat because of all the atuff he could do athletically.

The Steiners...I dont even know where to start. The first time I saw Rick Steiner in his University of Michigan varsity jacket on TBS as a member of the Varsity Club i became a fan for life. The things they were doing were absolutely mind blowing to me, tossing motherfuckers around like sacks of potatoes at the perfect pace. The way they wrestled, to me, was the speed limit of pro wrestling. It was all so god damned REAL, and they did it all in Maize and Blue.

i couldnt imagine pro wrestling without any of these people
2761850, I’ma need the Mania/Final 4 dual screen experience forever please thanks
Posted by Tiger Woods, Sat Apr-02-22 10:19 PM
2761856, I know KO cant believe his life rn
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Sat Apr-02-22 10:49 PM
main eventing mania vs SCSA
2761859, he took a grade A asswhipping
Posted by cgonz00cc, Sat Apr-02-22 11:03 PM
one of the best ive ever seen
2761861, and bammas wanted him in AEW lol
Posted by Tiger Woods, Sat Apr-02-22 11:14 PM
Guy probably makes 2 Ms a year and just worked Austin in the Mania main event in Dallas
2761863, Man I remember when Austin was hyping “Killsteen” on his podcast.
Posted by magilla vanilla, Sat Apr-02-22 11:37 PM
For that to be the guy to bring him out of retirement. Man.
2761881, RE: I know KO cant believe his life rn
Posted by jimaveli, Sun Apr-03-22 11:49 AM
>main eventing mania vs SCSA

Yes! He was one of the right ones for this job. He earned that ass whoopin with his mouth and then bumped around like the fucking pro he is. I’m glad he got picked for this spot. He deserved this. Him and Sami did a good job with Bryan when came back too.

And Steve? Oh Steve. It looks like he got in good shape and he easily took enough bumps to make it all work. I feel lucky to have seen this return. It’s cool to see a great one still around and willing to do something like this. And he didn’t look blown up either. I love that he respected it all enough to try to ‘dress up’ that asswhoopin. I hope Haitch eventually gets to do one of these.
2761883, HHH has an internal defibrillator
Posted by cgonz00cc, Sun Apr-03-22 01:11 PM
i dont see how that could ever work, from a medical, or at minimum an insurance/liability perspective
2761860, Umm…that was a great WWE show?
Posted by Tiger Woods, Sat Apr-02-22 11:07 PM
Am I wrong?

I was so thoroughly entertained by almost that entire show from end to end. The sequencing was superb. That was quintessentially Wrestlemania - from the entrances, to the Savage/Steamboat-esque Rollins and Cody match, to a surprise heel win with Charlotte, to the feel good Austin/KO main event. If you don’t think that was good TV we probably don’t have much in common.

If they’d just put Lesnar/Reigns on at the end of this it’d be talked about like one of the great Manias.

2761862, yeah that was pretty damn good
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Sat Apr-02-22 11:25 PM
i missed the Charlotte/Ronda match which i don't really care about either of them. but Bianca/Becky, Rollins/Cody and Austin/KO delivered
2761867, I didn’t really enjoy the 1st hour or so, but the rest more than made up for it
Posted by pretentious username, Sun Apr-03-22 12:22 AM
Cody/Seth was my favorite of the night, but SC/KO and Becky/Bianca were a close 2nd and 3rd. I guess Charlotte/Ronda exceeded my expectations, but that’s not saying much. I’m just not into either character at this point.

I figured we’d get a real match with Austin given that it was headlining, but it went way longer that I thought (that’s a good thing) and Steve took more offense than I thought he would.
2761879, RE: Umm…that was a great WWE show?
Posted by jimaveli, Sun Apr-03-22 10:30 AM
>Am I wrong?
>
>I was so thoroughly entertained by almost that entire show
>from end to end. The sequencing was superb. That was
>quintessentially Wrestlemania - from the entrances, to the
>Savage/Steamboat-esque Rollins and Cody match, to a surprise
>heel win with Charlotte, to the feel good Austin/KO main
>event. If you don’t think that was good TV we probably
>don’t have much in common.
>
>If they’d just put Lesnar/Reigns on at the end of this
>it’d be talked about like one of the great Manias.
>
>

I’ve been saying this all morning: night one as is can stand as a really good mania. The stuff that was supposed to be excellent was *cuss word of your choice* excellent.

And for all of my asshole worrying, the Cody shit went off excellently.
2761909, sami a legend for this asswhooping he just took loool
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Sun Apr-03-22 08:14 PM
2761922, after he saw owens he accepted the challenge
Posted by cgonz00cc, Sun Apr-03-22 09:51 PM
2761923, Mcafee legit af O_O
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Sun Apr-03-22 09:56 PM
2761971, hes OVER over
Posted by Ceej, Mon Apr-04-22 03:14 PM
2761924, That Jackass match is arguably the best celebrity Mania match ever
Posted by Cold Truth, Sun Apr-03-22 10:07 PM
As a gimmick match, this was rare Mania air IMO

It largely depends on how you qualify “gimmick match”, I suppose, because I’m not putting it over the OG TLC or Edge/Foley.

But it’s one of those matches that hit every note it was supposed to and needed to.

By all rights, it should have been a bullshit filler match. But they told a fantastic stony that added pitch-perfect levity to the weekend.
2761925, Fatal Four Way was very good too. Everyone is bringing it this weekend
Posted by Cold Truth, Sun Apr-03-22 10:09 PM
This is a high bar for Mania already. I’m just now starting AJ/Edge, which I expect to be fantastic.
2761926, McAfee/Theory > Edge/AJ … I said it lol
Posted by Tiger Woods, Sun Apr-03-22 10:13 PM
This Mania has been an end to end blast.

When Pat McAfee is doing more than Edge and AJ Styles the game is screwed up. Their match was fine but started off awfully indulgent - not sure whose idea it was to open with a mat clinic. Ended well though.

But Pat McAfee is over like rover. Wow!
2761928, youre not wrong. that was fucking awesome.
Posted by cgonz00cc, Sun Apr-03-22 10:26 PM
2761927, no special intro for Roman is surprising
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Sun Apr-03-22 10:23 PM
2761929, This match has real juice. Let’s fuckin go.
Posted by Tiger Woods, Sun Apr-03-22 10:31 PM
2761935, main event was just kind of a wet fart
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Sun Apr-03-22 10:55 PM
felt like there was another 8-10 mins in that match that was needed
2761974, That just kinda is how it is when Brock and Roman face off
Posted by pretentious username, Mon Apr-04-22 03:43 PM
>felt like there was another 8-10 mins in that match that was
>needed

I actually had the same feeling I had 4 years ago: let’s just get this over with. Their characters are the best they’ve ever been and the story was the best it’s ever been, and still, by the time the bell rang I couldn’t care less. I really don’t know what it is. On paper, it’s a genuinely exciting matchup, but it seems like the air kinda leaves the room whenever they face off.
2762002, Like I know it was the empty arena era, but there was so much more
Posted by magilla vanilla, Mon Apr-04-22 08:50 PM
story there when Roman had the match with Cesaro. The shit talking, stalking around, it was all perfect. And I know you lose all that nuance with the crowd there and Brock's a different type of opponent. But surely some of that character work could have gone in there.
2762013, Great point
Posted by pretentious username, Mon Apr-04-22 09:13 PM
I’m sure it’s tough to keep some of that nuance when you’re fighting a guy who is always a bull in a China shop, but I do think he was generally better at it during the thunderdome era.
2761936, Good run for Roman. He’s made, and fully reinvented. Time to drop it.
Posted by Tiger Woods, Sun Apr-03-22 11:02 PM
They’ve done what they set out to do with Roman Reigns. He’s the guy. As cool as Batista, as over as Cena, and a better performer than both. Well done.

That said, he’s at the end of the road of this current run. He needs to fire Heyman or the Usos need to turn on him or something.

That match kind of ended with a thud. Those guys have worked a half dozen times now, and while they don’t need to do much because they’re so over this one wasn’t distinct from the others. Don’t promise me “the biggest match ever” and do what you’ve always done. Should’ve been No DQ. Great back and forth action then a thud of an ending. Fine, but Reigns/Lesnar will not be in the Top 5 of memorable moments from an overall “stupendous” weekend, that’s a surprise and a missed opportunity.

Possibilities are endless where Reigns goes next. We’ve yet to get the proper McIntyre/Reigns feud…sign me up, it’ll be great whenever it happens. Also, stunned to be saying this, but Cody will never be as over as he is now - Reigns v Rhodes, two guys with elite family pedigrees? That wouldn’t suck either.

But it’s time to mix it up. Hell I’d be into Reigns dropping it TOMORROW. Strike while the iron is hot.
2761937, i say go w/ Rhodes before people get tired of him again
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Sun Apr-03-22 11:18 PM
2761962, It felt like they were just getting going
Posted by magilla vanilla, Mon Apr-04-22 01:42 PM
>That match kind of ended with a thud. Those guys have worked a
>half dozen times now, and while they don’t need to do much
>because they’re so over this one wasn’t distinct from the
>others. Don’t promise me “the biggest match ever” and do
>what you’ve always done. Should’ve been No DQ. Great back
>and forth action then a thud of an ending. Fine, but
>Reigns/Lesnar will not be in the Top 5 of memorable moments
>from an overall “stupendous” weekend, that’s a surprise
>and a missed opportunity.

The spear-to-kimura counter should have had some consequences. Instead it was just a spot for Brock to do his purple psycho face and Roman to have a moment of doubt, before he hit one more spear to win it. Did he even get the guillotine on Brock?
2761938, The signature/finisher spamming formula is tired as fuck
Posted by Cold Truth, Sun Apr-03-22 11:25 PM
8 spears and 12 germans or whateverthefuck isn’t the way

Knees to the ribs
Elbows to the face
A massive flurry of hard punches
Powerbombs

They could do the same match and just sub in most of those superman punches, spears, and suplexes, this would match be improved by miles.

It was cool. It had the big match feel, but it didn’t deliver on that promise. Reigns, Brock and Paul all told a great story with their expressions and reactions. I hope that doesn’t get lost in the sea of video game spam moves. They delivered in droves on that front.

But this was an amazing Wrestlemania. Truly one of the best I can remember. Everyone delivered a strong performance, with very few exceptions.


*I still havent seent he McCafee match and the New Day match, since I got a late start.

But those aside, this was an excellent Mania. I have no interest in a direct comparison to other Manias. I do know that, top to bottom, this was enjoyable, fun and engaging af a high level. My complaints are minimal.


Everyone brought their A game.
2761939, If you’re this pleased before watching McAfee, just wait
Posted by Tiger Woods, Sun Apr-03-22 11:36 PM
McAfee makes Bad Bunny look like Great Khali. (And Bad Bunny was good!)
2761963, Pat McAfee is a G, that is all.
Posted by Castro, Mon Apr-04-22 01:46 PM
2761984, RE: Pat McAfee is a G, that is all.
Posted by jimaveli, Mon Apr-04-22 06:35 PM
>

The drinking a beer post-stunner gif alone should keep him employed by WWE for a loooooong time.

https://twitter.com/tommy_endless/status/1510818256201912321?s=21&t=38WSlnPFawQbwGSVpSkUNQ
2761972, Apparently I need to watch the Rollins match again
Posted by Ceej, Mon Apr-04-22 03:20 PM
I was in the company of some bozos so I was a tad distracted.

Either im a mark (for certain) or Brock and Roman were both hurt and that is why the ending sorta just happened. Thoughts?

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed it and goddamn seeing Austin was fun.


Next PPV were getting more Logan Paul and hopefully more McAfee, that dude had 80 thousand people on the White Stripes chant before he was half to the ring.....incredible.
2762044, RE: Apparently I need to watch the Rollins match again
Posted by jimaveli, Mon Apr-04-22 10:42 PM
>I was in the company of some bozos so I was a tad
>distracted.
>
>Either im a mark (for certain) or Brock and Roman were both
>hurt and that is why the ending sorta just happened.
>Thoughts?
>
>Overall I thoroughly enjoyed it and goddamn seeing Austin was
>fun.
>
>
>Next PPV were getting more Logan Paul and hopefully more
>McAfee, that dude had 80 thousand people on the White Stripes
>chant before he was half to the ring.....incredible.

I was traveling so I ended up watching the 2 night mania in 3 sittings instead of 2. I’m pretty confident that something went wrong in the Reigns/Lesnar main and they had to go home early. They’re both too good to have planned that match as it went. Or at least I want to think so. That or someone was hurt going in. Whatever, I want to know what they go with next.

Cody killed the opening on Raw but I wonder how they’re planning to proceed. Or if they might have to fuck around and pull the trigger if Reigns is hurt and/or the crowd takes to Cody stronger than they expected.
2762014, WWE’s video department deserves an Emmy for real
Posted by pretentious username, Mon Apr-04-22 09:16 PM
Not only was the camerawork and editing really crisp all weekend, they even found a way to make Vince’s stunner sell look awesome in the retrospective!
2762191, Cornette's cohost said it looked like they were on Splash Mountain
Posted by cgonz00cc, Wed Apr-06-22 08:37 PM
i about died
2762075, Wtf is this Ezekiel shit
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Tue Apr-05-22 07:48 AM
Elias is taylor made for a ultra return pop. Start the show with the lights blacked out, hit the guitar twang, and we’re printing money already. They just needed to let him actually wrestle and get a push in the ring cause he was already organically over as fuck

Man I hope he asked for this change cause otherwise I would’ve resigned if this was forced on me.

This is like Bray Wyatt coming back as Husky Harris or some stupid ass shit
2762086, Veer was awful too
Posted by Ceej, Tue Apr-05-22 10:31 AM
2762099, Veer is India Edition Umaga
Posted by Cold Truth, Tue Apr-05-22 01:19 PM
2762226, Bruce gotta Bruce
Posted by magilla vanilla, Thu Apr-07-22 10:35 AM
It's amazing because Mania was SHOCKINGLY devoid of gimmicky bullshit. It was a bust-ass wrestling show- even the celeb spots were all centered around hustle. But then we go back to the weekly shows and out comes the Prichard-Brand Boolshit.
2762194, FTR goes hard af
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Wed Apr-06-22 08:58 PM
2762205, Yes they fucking do
Posted by jimaveli, Wed Apr-06-22 10:19 PM
>

And not surprisingly, babyface FTR rules. They know how the shit works. Their catalog of badass matches continues to expand. And if this face run goes right, we’re about to have hella fun.

And the Bucks showed mountains of ass for them tonight. I get that there’s a lot of hate on those guys. And Cornette can’t bash them enough on his stuff. But I don’t know these guys or have a prior biz history with them so maybe I’m missing it? I get that they spam shit a bit when they’re in lazy Muta mode but they generally do a good job with landing elaborate spots and being in the right place FAST to make complex shit look simple. And they’re in shape enough that they rarely ever come off sloppy. And clearly, The Bucks can be so good when they know they have to. Vs FTR, you’re an asshole if you show up half-stepping. The bucks get that so we got a wonderful gift tonight with a crowd that looked amped as hell to be getting it in person.

Whenever someone tries to claim to be really good at tag team wrestling, FTR should show up via Hardy-style portal and whoop their ass on-sight. And hell, they’re kinda on their expedition of gold shit right now so it kinda checks. AEW needs to get the tag titles onto the Acclaimed when Bowens is healthy again so FTR can do them in after a long reign. Or maybe the other way around. Get some transitional heel champs, let FTR beat them, then he’s the Acclaimed get made when they do some bullshit to beat FTR.

IMAGINE MAX CASTER RAPS WITH THE ACCLAIMED AS CHAMPS.

The crowd sounded HOT tonight on Dynamite. That’s for sure. We’re going on a week here where Murrican rasslin is somewhere around on its best behavior. Wwe was in spectacle mode and created a shitload of moments. Other feds tried to lay down some damn good rasslin. Wow. I’ve enjoyed so much stuff. And I still have some catching up to do. I still haven’t seen nxt or all of Briscoes/FTR for instance.
2762197, they gotta let up on the acclaimed
Posted by cgonz00cc, Wed Apr-06-22 09:10 PM
i know its a quasi-compliment to get booked to do a job for Joe on TV, but why does it always have to be the acclaimed? this should have been Joe pummeling shawn spears or something.

even better, have castor pummel shawn spears and let my guy the captain take that premium jabroni spot vs joe.

...

as i type this the Captain has just pinned Shawn Spears (dvr). fuck yeah. i want a Dean/Wardlow vs MJF/Spears tag match. shawn dean won me over during his pandemic run on Dark and id like to see him have a mini run leading to a TNT title match.

...

as i type THAT jade comes out running down mma losers. im in love.

...

AS I TYPE THAT MJF HAS CALLED OUT THE CAPTAIN AND BELITTLED HIS SERVICE. Sometimes this show gets it so right with just the basics...and then usually follows it up with a tables match for no reason.
2762200, I totally disagree. I think The Acclaimed are near bulletproof
Posted by pretentious username, Wed Apr-06-22 09:20 PM
They get their asses kicked every week, come out the next week even cockier than before, and it’s somehow believable and they still get the crowd hyped. I think there’s an organic face turn on the way where the crowd loves them so much they’ll eventually get behind them. Maybe throw in a beatdown by bigger heels and they’re ready to go. I think Tony knows all this and is letting it all build slowly.
2762203, theyre already babyfaces tho.
Posted by cgonz00cc, Wed Apr-06-22 10:06 PM
lovable losers who can't beat anyone, unfortunately. there are so few people who can really talk, that the live AEW audiences are always going to react positively to them. at that point they can be faces that lose, faces that win, or heels that win. heels that lose to highly regarded faces on TV all the time arent even heels, theyre just jabronis.

there usually no benefit to beating the people who could really get over. like, really over. the roster is teeming with people who will *never* be over, so why fuck around?
2762206, RE: theyre already babyfaces tho.
Posted by jimaveli, Wed Apr-06-22 10:22 PM
>lovable losers who can't beat anyone, unfortunately. there
>are so few people who can really talk, that the live AEW
>audiences are always going to react positively to them. at
>that point they can be faces that lose, faces that win, or
>heels that win. heels that lose to highly regarded faces on
>TV all the time arent even heels, theyre just jabronis.
>
>there usually no benefit to beating the people who could
>really get over. like, really over. the roster is teeming
>with people who will *never* be over, so why fuck around?

I get it. But it’s gonna be fine. Everybody loves the Acclaimed. When the trigger gets pulled, it’s going to work.

And again, MAX CASTER RAPS AS A CHAMPION = PARTYTIME.
2762213, banking on "fine later" is why the show sucks now tho
Posted by cgonz00cc, Wed Apr-06-22 11:57 PM
MJF was fine after chris Jericho too, but were any of our lives enriched in the moment?

i would submit that they were not lol
2762212, I don’t think they are fucking around with them
Posted by pretentious username, Wed Apr-06-22 11:50 PM
And I don’t agree that their babyfaces. People love hearing the entrance and seeing their swagger, but that’s because it’s paired with them getting their asses kicked by the Samoa Joes of the world. Their time will come, and it will be even sweeter when it does because we saw this part of the journey. They’re gonna be just fine.
2762214, not intentionally
Posted by cgonz00cc, Thu Apr-07-22 12:27 AM
i just dont think the person in charge of getting people over knows how to get people over
2762225, RE: not intentionally
Posted by jimaveli, Thu Apr-07-22 10:19 AM
>i just dont think the person in charge of getting people over
>knows how to get people over
>

The boo bird posse section of the internet can't wait to complain in the moment as things are happening and, of course, 'the future of everything related to that wrestler is doomed' if any random segment on a weekly show isn't exactly on-point vs some expectation.

In reality, this 2-day Mania went well by most reasonable accounts and barometers. The complaining all the way up to it that most of us were a part of ended up not really mattering because the show was fun to watch and mostly delivered on what WWE tries hardest to do: spectacles and moments.

Current example: Wardlow is doomed as he keeps inching closer to getting his hands on MJF or someone in MJF's remaining crew. He made Spears lose a match. So he's getting there. But oops, he's not getting there quickly enough and/or it doesn't look the same as Brock looks when he interacts with security or whatever, so it apparently sucks horribly and is burying him per the Cornette type of rasslin media.

With some of these 2022 'if its not what I think it should be RIGHT NOW, its sucks and I don't know how it can be fixed without time travel' barometers, let's see...

Stunning Steve Austin is always hurt and could never get over enough in WCW. He never moved the needle even though he was a decent worker. Midcarder for life. And he was getting carried by Pillman and Steamboat anyway.

Steve Austin was a sellout for leaving ECW. They gave him a gig when nobody wanted him.

The Ringmaster is a stupid gimmick and Austin is doomed. MDM isn't big enough at this point to give anyone a rub anyway.

Everyone involved in that Pillman/Austin angle is doomed forever.

Steve Austin losing to Bret at Mania 13 'buried him' cuz Bret basically kicked his ass. Austin isn't a true babyface so the crowd isn't going to buy him in that role if WWF is dumb enough to try to have him there. Hogan was so much more over and sold more merch than Austin has so far. 3:16 was cool but that was a while ago.

Having Mike Tyson involved in Mania 14 took the focus off of Stone Cold's win. Boo celebrities. And the Mania 14 match wasn't good enough to cement that Austin was the man anyway. *some other match* was way better. And HBK's title run didn't draw enough for him to be a big enough deal to give anyone a rub anyway. AND he's hurt!? This is all terrible.

The Rock is cool I guess but he's not a big enough star to give Austin a rub at Mania 15.

Rock/Austin? Again for Mania 17? They just wrestled at Mania 15. WWF has no new ideas ever!

Also, Austin isn't as physically impressive as Hogan and he didn't immediately draw as much so he sucks and WWE is incapable of making any new staaaaa.....

2762244, ok, im gonna address these point by point
Posted by cgonz00cc, Thu Apr-07-22 02:58 PM
>The boo bird posse section of the internet can't wait to
>complain in the moment as things are happening and, of course,
>'the future of everything related to that wrestler is doomed'
>if any random segment on a weekly show isn't exactly on-point
>vs some expectation.

i dont need any of that. they should just be winning matches. universal truth since the beginning of fake fighting is that winning makes you successful, losing makes you a loser. getting beat to death on TV has never made anyone more popular. ever.

>In reality, this 2-day Mania went well by most reasonable
>accounts and barometers. The complaining all the way up to it
>that most of us were a part of ended up not really mattering
>because the show was fun to watch and mostly delivered on what
>WWE tries hardest to do: spectacles and moments.

i agree. ive said as much in this post how much I enjoyed major swaths of the weekend.

>Current example: Wardlow is doomed as he keeps inching closer
>to getting his hands on MJF or someone in MJF's remaining
>crew. He made Spears lose a match. So he's getting there. But
>oops, he's not getting there quickly enough and/or it doesn't
>look the same as Brock looks when he interacts with security
>or whatever, so it apparently sucks horribly and is burying
>him per the Cornette type of rasslin media.

it did make him look like kind of a goof tho, and you can see that last night they went completely the opposite direction of that. so on some level even THEY knew it wasnt a great look. that or they figured it out during the company listening party when the Experience came out.

but youre building a bit of a strawman here, especially because Wardlow broke thru by following the universal truth i mentioned above. he has charisma and he won a bunch of matches, so now hes getting over for real

>With some of these 2022 'if its not what I think it should be
>RIGHT NOW, its sucks and I don't know how it can be fixed
>without time travel' barometers, let's see...

youre assigning me a role based on a very lazy generalization. its inconsistent television that sucks sometimes. making that statement should not be controversial in any way.

>Stunning Steve Austin is always hurt and could never get over
>enough in WCW. He never moved the needle even though he was a
>decent worker. Midcarder for life. And he was getting carried
>by Pillman and Steamboat anyway.

this does not seem to be a parallel to what we are talking about in any way lol.

>Steve Austin was a sellout for leaving ECW. They gave him a
>gig when nobody wanted him.



>The Ringmaster is a stupid gimmick and Austin is doomed. MDM
>isn't big enough at this point to give anyone a rub anyway.

all that was true right up until they threw it in the trash and turned the whole thing upside down. its disingenuous to frame it this way considering the radical nature of the fix.

>Everyone involved in that Pillman/Austin angle is doomed
>forever.

no one ever said that

>Steve Austin losing to Bret at Mania 13 'buried him' cuz Bret
>basically kicked his ass.

no one said that, and the reason no one said that is because it was good. when the show is good no one thinks about stuff like that

>Austin isn't a true babyface so the
>crowd isn't going to buy him in that role if WWF is dumb
>enough to try to have him there. Hogan was so much more over
>and sold more merch than Austin has so far. 3:16 was cool but
>that was a while ago.

again...it was good so no one said that. you cant pretend there is any parallel to 1997 because the quality levels are just too disparate.

>Having Mike Tyson involved in Mania 14 took the focus off of
>Stone Cold's win. Boo celebrities. And the Mania 14 match
>wasn't good enough to cement that Austin was the man anyway.
>*some other match* was way better. And HBK's title run didn't
>draw enough for him to be a big enough deal to give anyone a
>rub anyway. AND he's hurt!? This is all terrible.

again, youre comparing things that were good to things that were terrible and pretending that people thought the good things were terrible at the time.

>The Rock is cool I guess but he's not a big enough star to
>give Austin a rub at Mania 15.
>Rock/Austin? Again for Mania 17? They just wrestled at Mania
>15. WWF has no new ideas ever!

what is going on here? lol

we've gone about 25 miles past the point of reasonable comparison.

>Also, Austin isn't as physically impressive as Hogan and he
>didn't immediately draw as much so he sucks and WWE is
>incapable of making any new staaaaa.....

how is this in any way pertinent to me saying the acclaimed need to win matches?

everyone you mentioned was winning matches on television, even when the gimmicks were stuck in the sand. none of them got over losing on TV once or twice a week for months at a time.
2762252, Maybe not, but he’s letting them get themselves over
Posted by pretentious username, Thu Apr-07-22 04:29 PM
>i just dont think the person in charge of getting people over
>knows how to get people over
>

They’re on TV entertaining the hell out of people and wrestling good matches. I’m not gonna argue wins and losses don’t matter, but they don’t matter nearly as much as solid TV time, which they get plenty of. AEW has a TON of people with amazing records but little TV time (Abadon, Gunn Club,etc.), and no one cares about them. People LOVE The Acclaimed and I don’t see their losses burying them in the least. Sure, that obviously can’t go on forever, but I have no reason to believe it will. The reason they’re on TV all the time is cause Tony is behind them. Their push is coming, and until it does I’m along for the ride.
2762273, but why cant they be on TV winning?
Posted by cgonz00cc, Fri Apr-08-22 12:04 PM
why not The Acclaimed beating the Butcher and the Blade Wednesday instead of that wretched tables match?

they are making people care in spite of their booking, but the booking is trash. its an obstacle for them rather than a step up to the next tier.

AEW uses the insider knowledge of their core fanbase as a crutch and both the show and much of the talent is worse off for it. "regular people" see 6-7 weeks of losses in a row and say "oh this guy must really be a loser", not "man when the booker finally pushes these guys this wont matter."
2762275, What exactly is the big issue if they’re still crazy over?
Posted by pretentious username, Fri Apr-08-22 03:00 PM
>why not The Acclaimed beating the Butcher and the Blade
>Wednesday instead of that wretched tables match?
>

Not everyone can get a push at the same time dude. If they were winning but not getting a title shot, you would be even more frustrated. Right now, they’re keeping their push on ice, but keeping the characters over until they have a spot for them at the top of the tag division. What’s wrong with that?

And the reason Caster is currently in this role of losing to guys like Samoa Joe and Keith Lee, is they want the debuts for those guys to have an impact. If their debuts were throwing around Fuego deal Sol for 2 minutes, no one would care.

"regular people" see 6-7 weeks of losses in a row and
>say "oh this guy must really be a loser", not "man when the
>booker finally pushes these guys this wont matter."

Where’s your evidence of this? This is a problem that you have completely imagined and are getting all worked up about for absolutely no reason. Just enjoy the entertainment they bring until they get their push. If it doesn’t happen, I’ll eat my words, but I’m 99% sure I’m right on this.
2762644, winning matches on TV aint "a push"
Posted by cgonz00cc, Wed Apr-13-22 08:48 PM

>Not everyone can get a push at the same time dude. If they
>were winning but not getting a title shot, you would be even
>more frustrated. Right now, they’re keeping their push on
>ice, but keeping the characters over until they have a spot
>for them at the top of the tag division. What’s wrong with
>that?

youre telling me about how i would feel in a completely fabricated scenario? cmon lol. to the point, winning matches on TV isnt "a push". winning matches on TV is how you make sure you actually HAVE something to push when you want to do it.


>And the reason Caster is currently in this role of losing to
>guys like Samoa Joe and Keith Lee, is they want the debuts for
>those guys to have an impact. If their debuts were throwing
>around Fuego deal Sol for 2 minutes, no one would care.

thats not true at all tho. keith lee pounded on some nobody his first time out, and it was the best debut AEW has had. you cant have it both ways, where Joe needs to beat someone important, but its also okay for Max to be losing twice a week on TV. he didnt do anything a bunch of other people havent done, so whats the impact?

> Where’s your evidence of this? This is a problem that you
>have completely imagined and are getting all worked up about
>for absolutely no reason. Just enjoy the entertainment they
>bring until they get their push. If it doesn’t happen,
>I’ll eat my words, but I’m 99% sure I’m right on this.

what do you mean "evidence"? unless im severely misunderstanding the point of having predetermined sporting events on TV, thats like the core philosophy. winners and losers are chosen before the match because the booker wants people to respond to the participants in certain ways.

and you say completely imagined but ol' Corny had something to say about this a few days after i posted that while he amd his cohost made the exact same complaints i did:

"A loser's a loser. And they are establishing that Max Castor comes out and entertains everybody for 45 seconds verbally, and then gets beat. And thats gonna ruin their tag team because when the other guy comes back people are gonna say oh there he is partnered with that loser Castor. They're booking this 'Oh its all entertainment so who gives a shit?'. And for the set number of people who watch this program every week, they dont, but others would, and that why they're not watching."

so...doesnt really seem like something I imagined. seems more like a very basic premise that is just being ignored by the booker of the year because its easier to pretend it's not true and cater to the minute audience that got so "smart" that theyll accept dumb.
2762256, I don't think it's going to be hard to get people to buy into them...
Posted by mrhood75, Thu Apr-07-22 06:43 PM
...as mega-faces once they decide to flip the switch on them.

For example, take Will Hobbs. He spent most of summer 2020 in the jabroni role on Dark. Then he gets put into the Casino Battle Royale at All Out 2020, looks like a monster, and a few weeks later he's scheduled into the main even of Dynamite (got cancelled due to Archer getting COVID). Then he gets inserted into the feud with one of the guys who carried the federation during the pandemic.

Or, for a more immediate (and different type) of example, look at FTR. I know Cornette has dedicated 20 minutes of every podcast for the last nine months to complain about how they're being misused because they don't have the titles and an additional 15 minutes complaining how they're being buried if they lose a match. Then two or three weeks ago they dump Tully and essentially turn face by default. Then, last Friday, they beat the Briscoes in what's already being called one of the all-time great tag matches. Then, last night. they roll into Dynamite as one of the most over teams in the division, with the crowd firmly behind, and deliver another all-time great match. And beat the Bucks in fairly humiliating fashion to boot. And this is week after being used as props to advance the MJF/Wardlow feud.

The crowd will easily accept the Acclaimed. Even last night, he wasn't treated like Cassidy was in the match with Keith Lee. They showed Joe essentially doing the Mourning gif in real time during the pre-match rap. They'll be fine.
2762272, im having a hard time being succinct with my thoughts
Posted by cgonz00cc, Fri Apr-08-22 11:58 AM
but the essence is that we have to constantly keep in mind that this is all fake to be able to look past the presentation of them as ineffectual losers, and that sucks.

the story they are telling me is that Max Castor is an undercard punching bag, and i cant muster up any enthusiasm for undercard punching bags. if thats not the story, then why tell it? im not gonna do their work for them, and when its only gonna be fine because i know this shit is fake and someday the finishes will go another way...thats bad.

ive been posting about the acclaimed for almost a year and a half now, and even *I* am starting to lose interest.

and yes, their devoted 800k will absolutlely accept the acclaimed. but my wife went from dancing with the baby to their entrance to peeking her head out from the kitchen when she hears it to ask me who theyre losing to tonight, and she represents a much larger potential crowd.

as far as FTR, Cornette thinks about their potential value to AEWs business and i dont really think there is a counterargument to what he says, unless keeping the aforementioned 800k is the only thing that matters.

finally, you bring up Will Hobbs and then later mention the way Keith Lee handled Cassidy...who beat Will Hobbs twice. its hard to justify that.

2764570, FTR were midcard punching bags until they weren't anymore
Posted by magilla vanilla, Thu May-05-22 08:49 PM
2762201, I guess they’re just waiting for Bowens to get cleared for action again
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Wed Apr-06-22 09:20 PM
They are L proof rn the crowd loves them every week and you can tell they get love backstage.
2762207, When I went to Dynamite, I was floored at their popularity
Posted by Tiger Woods, Wed Apr-06-22 10:51 PM
They really won me over
2762232, WALTER and Aichner apparently getting called-up to Smackdown
Posted by mrhood75, Thu Apr-07-22 11:57 AM
I don't know if they're just ditching Barthel and they're the new version of Imperium, or if WALTER is going to get a singles push. Regardless, WALTER needs to be a fucking star. I really hope that creative doesn't mess with things further. He's already dropped some weight, but the name change and the reduction of him doing chops is a bit troubling. He's even harder to fuck up than Keith Lee, so I'm he gets the right push.
2762239, RE: WALTER and Aichner apparently getting called-up to Smackdown
Posted by jimaveli, Thu Apr-07-22 01:41 PM
>I don't know if they're just ditching Barthel and they're the
>new version of Imperium, or if WALTER is going to get a
>singles push. Regardless, WALTER needs to be a fucking star. I
>really hope that creative doesn't mess with things further.
>He's already dropped some weight, but the name change and the
>reduction of him doing chops is a bit troubling. He's even
>harder to fuck up than Keith Lee, so I'm he gets the right
>push.

I am hoping like hell WALTER shows up, kicks someone’s ass, and they repeat that for several weeks with occasionally decent opponents who challenge him sometimes.
2762240, Did they change his name back to WALTER?
Posted by Cold Truth, Thu Apr-07-22 01:46 PM
Or is it still Gunther?
2762243, It's Gunther. I'm just being an ass and refusing to acknowledge it
Posted by mrhood75, Thu Apr-07-22 02:55 PM
They're also using a new, more generic and synthetic rip-off of his theme music. Which also kinda sucks.
2762245, poor Marcel Marceau :(
Posted by cgonz00cc, Thu Apr-07-22 03:00 PM
2762247, Yeah, I have no idea what's going to happen to Barthel.
Posted by mrhood75, Thu Apr-07-22 03:05 PM
Do they bother keeping him around NXT 2.0 to see if he has any value putting over the younger guys? Or does he get future endeavored?
2762251, i dont think either of them have value apart
Posted by cgonz00cc, Thu Apr-07-22 04:09 PM
ive enjoyed imperium matches but ive never had an inclination to see either of them do anything singles-wise

id imagine NXT UK
2762246, I think he’s dropped too much weight
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Thu Apr-07-22 03:03 PM
I’m sure it’s excellent for his health but he lost a lot of his imposing visual
2762267, Kinda agree, but what’s most important is how Vince sees him.
Posted by pretentious username, Fri Apr-08-22 09:27 AM
>I’m sure it’s excellent for his health but he lost a lot
>of his imposing visual

He wasn’t gonna push the Walter of a year ago, but a pretty ripped Gunther has a chance.
2762288, It appears that Aichner is the odd man out
Posted by mrhood75, Sat Apr-09-22 02:34 AM
With Barthel transforming into Ludwig Kaiser.

Dumb names and unecessary gear change aside, WALTER's debut was what it needed to be. Squashed a guy in about 2 minutes. They had him deliver multiple chops, step on his opponent's throat, then powerbomb the shit out of him. Exactly what was needed.
2762283, damn Yuta went from nothing to over af in a month
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Fri Apr-08-22 10:43 PM
2762284, Bleedin till you pass out can get a dude over. Look at Stone Cold.
Posted by magilla vanilla, Fri Apr-08-22 11:15 PM
2762417, cmon now
Posted by cgonz00cc, Mon Apr-11-22 05:17 PM
2762289, That was some star-making performance
Posted by mrhood75, Sat Apr-09-22 02:41 AM
Just an awesome war between the two of them. From the opening lunge, it was on. Bleeds like a stuck pig. The near falls were great; can't believe they had him kick out of two Paradigm Shifts and escape the Bulldog Choke. And the post-match stuff was great too.

Probably the best episode of Rampage ever. Opening match was similarly awesome (but not quite as good). Enjoyed the Scott/Marshall match. Red Velvet still not doing it for me, but Willow looked really good and was over in Boston.

Only thing that was not entertaining was the Scorpio/Page/Lambert vs. Sammy/Tai stuff. Lambert seemingly turns everything to shit; or at least the people he's feuding with. And Scorpio and Page really don't need him; Sky can do the same cocky asshole promos without Lambert's involvement.
2762419, funny enough, im receiving this in the exact opposite way
Posted by cgonz00cc, Mon Apr-11-22 05:48 PM

>Only thing that was not entertaining was the
>Scorpio/Page/Lambert vs. Sammy/Tai stuff. Lambert seemingly
>turns everything to shit; or at least the people he's feuding
>with. And Scorpio and Page really don't need him; Sky can do
>the same cocky asshole promos without Lambert's involvement.

i mean its shit, dont get me wrong, but i honestly think Lambert could be great with talent that people cared about in something that makes sense. they dropped the ball on Scorpio Sky, and that ship has sailed. Ethan Page got punked early, and his ship is unmooring as we speak.

and Sammy...hes bumping up against his ceiling until he learns how to talk like a normal person in front of a camera. very stiff and unnatural, and he sounds like a dork. all the charisma he has during a match is electric even tho i think the matches themselves are dumb, and then its completely MIA when hes supposed to talk.

also...why is this weird relationship front and center on TV? he brought his dowdy looking girl onto TV to propose, cheated on her with a co-worker, played victim about his privacy even tho he proposed on national television, and now people are somehow not only *not* disgusted, but like... weirdly enthused about it. this is one of the stranger incursions of real life into the TV product i can ever remember. completely heelish real life asshole behavior, and these weirdo fans are eating it up. its baffling.
2762424, From what I understand, the Boston fans were NOT feeling...
Posted by mrhood75, Mon Apr-11-22 07:06 PM
...Sammy and Conti at all that night. Like, they hated everyone out there, but probably hated Sammy and Conti more than Lambert. Post-production did a serious of muting the booing and the cursing at the two of them. So it appears that "real life" is leaking in.

And yeah, I agree, this would very much make them natural heels, especially if this continues. The unlikeable smarmy couple who are completely into themselves and oblivious to everyone else. If things continue to go this direction, I would hope he doesn't go the Cody route and fight against it.



>and Sammy...hes bumping up against his ceiling until he learns
>how to talk like a normal person in front of a camera. very
>stiff and unnatural, and he sounds like a dork. all the
>charisma he has during a match is electric even tho i think
>the matches themselves are dumb, and then its completely MIA
>when hes supposed to talk.

I mean, he kind of is a dork. He spent the first part of his career wearing a panda outfit. And he communicates better with those signs than when he's on the mic.

2762428, if they are altering the crowd for the TV presentation
Posted by cgonz00cc, Mon Apr-11-22 08:16 PM
that feels like the company is forcing the babyface thing, which is a funny juxtaposition

but its also not surprising because the show is presenting the relationship like some sort of victory for true love. listening to Excalibur talk about them made me even more nauseous than his commentary normally does.

its very strange. why wouldnt someone tell him to lay low? even my wife said something lol. like "are we supposed to just forgrt that he cheated with this girl?"
2762431, RE: if they are altering the crowd for the TV presentation
Posted by mrhood75, Mon Apr-11-22 08:28 PM
>that feels like the company is forcing the babyface thing,
>which is a funny juxtaposition
>but its also not surprising because the show is presenting the
>relationship like some sort of victory for true love.
>listening to Excalibur talk about them made me even more
>nauseous than his commentary normally does.

I do think course correction is possible, even likely, if this persists. Cody notwithstanding, AEW is generally pretty good at listening to the fans when it comes to the face/heel thing.

>its very strange. why wouldnt someone tell him to lay low?
>even my wife said something lol. like "are we supposed to
>just forgrt that he cheated with this girl?"

Yeah, my wife was a fan of both Sammy and Conti when they were separate. Not so much anymore, for the exact same reasons.

Personally, I don't say shit because I know zero of what's going on behind the scenes for all parties involved.
2762647, they need to get Tay and Anna back together
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Wed Apr-13-22 09:00 PM
Sammy is a scrub and he drags her down
2762290, Just an incredible war of a match. But he needs to join their club.
Posted by Tiger Woods, Sat Apr-09-22 07:06 AM
I hope the follow up to that match is that Yuta is the young upstart member of the Regal/BD/Moxley group
2762310, they fit a 30+ minute match into like 12 minutes
Posted by pretentious username, Sat Apr-09-22 12:13 PM
and yeah, I used to not give a shit about Yuta and now I can't wait to see what he does next.
2762700, by and large that was a pretty good episode of Dynamite
Posted by cgonz00cc, Thu Apr-14-22 02:48 PM
unfortunately the end was...not good.

loved the MJF-Shawn Dean stuff, and it seems im gonna get that tag match i want. not sure why the Meat Gentleman© is supposed to strike fear into anyone at all, but whatever.

JE-ReDRagon was decent even tho it didnt much feel like a title match. It was nice actually not knowing who was gonna win. FTR-ReDRagon intrigued me after those battle royals so that should be fun.

Jericho's ideas are still stupid as shit, but he has really put in some sweat to be able to have better matches. I liked it, even tho the vignette and larger picture are pretty dumb and a waste my guys 2point0.

Adam Cole doing a babyface promo was a little weird.

Scorpio Sky is DOA. this whole steez feels super contrived. for such an incredible athlete, its a shame hes been stuck in the mud for like 2 years.

Swerve Strickland stood out to me big time. i dont watch NXT and by the time i knew of Hit Row it was just about over. he was great, the match itself was great, and Ricky Starks continues to be a shining light every time hes on TV. this was one of my all time favorite Dynamite matches i think.

and now...the end. yuck. the chops, the 50 year old man, the chops, the post match nonsense, Excalibur's completely amateur moron commentary trying to make us care about the post match nonsense. Samoa Joe getting wrecked by a former basketball player? seriously? really cast an unappealing pall over what had been a pretty good show on the whole of it.
2762701, Only thing I out and out didn't like was the very end
Posted by mrhood75, Thu Apr-14-22 03:08 PM
And the very end indeed sucked. I have desire to care about the ex-NBA guy. And they certainly didn't need to turn out the lights to introduce him.

As for the match, it wasn't my favorite on the card, but worked for me. All these guys really want to have matches with Suzuki. Especially guys like Joe and Danielson. In this case, Suzuki served his purpose as the transitional champion, got his fight in with Joe, and can move on.

I'll be all in for FTR vs. Red Dragon, before they inevitably have FTR win the titles back in May.
2763415, I didn’t watch for a month or so
Posted by DJR, Thu Apr-21-22 09:36 PM
Sammy is a heel now?
2763438, “It’s complicated”
Posted by Tiger Woods, Fri Apr-22-22 07:24 AM
Sammy left his fiancé for his new home wrecker girlfriend Tay Conti

We were told this was a triumph of love. But a few weeks back the Boston fans emphatically shit on Sammy and Conti and it’s kind of changed things.

So we’re in this holding pattern , kind of like we were with Cody forever, of whether or not they’re going to go all in heel on this or not.
2763440, Lol @ home wrecker
Posted by Ceej, Fri Apr-22-22 07:31 AM
2763470, TRIUMPH OF LOVE! BWAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA!
Posted by jimaveli, Fri Apr-22-22 11:31 AM
>Sammy left his fiancé for his new home wrecker girlfriend
>Tay Conti
>
>We were told this was a triumph of love. But a few weeks back
>the Boston fans emphatically shit on Sammy and Conti and
>it’s kind of changed things.
>
>So we’re in this holding pattern , kind of like we were with
>Cody forever, of whether or not they’re going to go all in
>heel on this or not.

Haha! TRIUMPH OF LOVE! Sammy and Conti need to just steal that phrase from you wholesale and use it ridiculously.

I've been thinking a heel turn was coming as soon as they started saying 'be mad' a lot. Cuz that's clearly baiting for hate to me! And hell, Conti IS hot. And both of them dropping out of relationships to bump uglies with each other was guaranteed to get them some spite online from those who can't wait to pass Twitter judgement.

I don't know when AEW 'knew', but they're totally turning into heels now. They MIGHT still be the self-righteous heels who are holding onto the idea that everyone is 'just haters' who don't like their 'TRIUMPH OF LOVE!'. But still, (fine ass) Conti is already making over the top disgusted heel faces. AND she was wearing hella black this last week. It was harder to boo her with them legs out in jean shorts too! Hehe.

AND they overtly cheated more than once to get Sammy the title back. Having the announcers not immediately turn on them is good work and almost certainly deliberate. I like that too. Everyone can't be McAfee good but still!

And Scorpio laid down a standard 'I'm gonna get to the bottom of this foolishness and get a rematch' 80s regional babyface promo before they all went out to clown the hell out of Tay and Sammy.

And Sammy is damn near a heel even when he's supposed to be a face. The only face thing about him is that he does wild spots that look cool in isolation or a gif (the ladder joint with Cody is especially choice). But his character is a forever jerk. Spanish God? Yeah, that's heel stuff.

Ethan Page is overdue to get some more shine. I have reason to believe that this might help. Being anti-Sammy and Conti looks like a good biz for a face to be in..at least for now!
2763474, They were definitely embracing it the other night
Posted by pretentious username, Fri Apr-22-22 11:58 AM
To the point that they’re trying to turn Scorpio and company face. Not sure how that will work, but Sammy and Tay are definitely heels now.

Tbh, the choice to keep Sammy out of the Inner Circle stuff seems deliberate too, so I think all of this could be intentional, but either way, they’re embracing it now.
2763518, Yeah, the faces, the “haters” crap
Posted by DJR, Sat Apr-23-22 07:39 AM
that looked like classic heel stuff.

And Sammy should always be heel - there’s nothing likable about him and I’ve wanted to punch him in the face since the first episode of AEW that I saw him on, lol.

Now Britt Baker I assume is still heel and that was just some hometown stuff? Because she was still talking heelish. She needs to stay heel for good too.
2763292, CM Punk is Pat McAfee over
Posted by Tiger Woods, Wed Apr-20-22 09:10 PM
How is this guy better than he’s ever been?
2763306, RE: CM Punk is Pat McAfee over
Posted by jimaveli, Wed Apr-20-22 10:43 PM
>How is this guy better than he’s ever been?

Im still excited and impressed with Punk’s return and how good it has been. He’s elevated any segment he’s in. Even these ‘throwaway’ matches have links tying them together sometimes. And even without that, he’s making the people he works with look GREAT. It’s a pretty grand run we’re getting here. And it’s getting to be time for him to run up on Hangman. I’m amped for that. And FTR’s singles match. And Cole vs Ishii. And for the AEW/NJPW show..if Kenny makes it back for that, wow. And the Owen in general. And Jade going for 30-0. And for BCC. And…you get it…
2763316, its almost like trying to make it real makes it better
Posted by cgonz00cc, Thu Apr-21-22 06:44 AM
2763467, because now he can go out and work
Posted by magilla vanilla, Fri Apr-22-22 11:07 AM
As opposed to having to be a base for gooseshit green or past-it big guys.
2763715, Finn Balor random hilarity
Posted by jimaveli, Mon Apr-25-22 01:07 PM
https://twitter.com/danthegrapsfan/status/1518324821876224005?s=21&t=mPThd1SVWl9smo9TnZP6nA

>Wrestling is ongoing.
>
>AEW Revolution is tonight. I shall watch and hope I don't let
>myself get burned out by the few car crash matches they have
>planned. I'm AMPED for at least half the card so that's a good
>sign. Sensible dinners Jericho vs Peanut Butter Pie Kingston
>has me excited and I keep forgetting about it. That's another
>sign of a pretty heavy-handed card for these folks.
>
>https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10028539-updated-2022-aew-revolution-match-card-ahead-of-ppv
>
>WWE's Mania is about a month away and trying to come together
>around Charlotte/Rousey, Becks/Belair, and Roman/Brock Part
>17. I've been looking back at some old manias and lawd
>hammercy..there's some rancidly bad ones in between some
>sneaky great ones that stand up TIL THIS DAY. And even some of
>the ones that are labelled as 'good' are 2 or 3 good azz
>matches surrounded by some pretty pointless 'cool yourselves
>off until the next good thing' stuff.
>
>Nobody really knows what's up with Cody.
>
>Cesaro is out in the wild now too allegedly.
>
>Jake Something (decent rassler from Impact) is allegedly not
>at the tapings today.
>
>Jeff Hardy is coming to AEW. AEW doesn't need anymore badass
>tag teams to try to book but okay.
>
>Brock's MSG opponent ended up being an offense-free Austin
>Theory leading into a Reigns beatdown on Brock.
>
>NXT 2.0 is trying to find its way. The diverse array of
>good-looking young talent IS notable even if WWE taking away
>the best mega-indy in Murrica still hurts sometimes.
>
>Terminus is a thing that exists post-ROH 1.0. I owe them some
>of my time at some point. I REALLY need to catch up on NJPW
>and the Japan indy scene. I'm guessing I'm missing hella
>goodies there too.
>
>ROH is now owned by Tony Kahn. The tapes, damnit! Imagine how
>much goodness is on those tapes!
>
>CYN has started doing shows. And the jokes are plentiful early
>on. For all we've said about AEW leaning too heavy on
>'surprises' then not being able to live up to the innanet's
>wildest dreams (Cena, Brock, folks like that), I'm gonna get
>wild and say that Austin Aries can't be your 'check out our
>big surprise' to start, can it?
>
>On AEW, if someone would've told me 5 years ago that a new
>Murrican wrestling company was gonna show up and end up with
>Jericho, American Dragon-style Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, any of
>the 3 members of the Shield, some of the gaijin from New
>Japan, some folks WWE didn't want anymore, indy folks who vary
>wildly in goodness, and some youngsters..many of whom have
>obvious skills and just need a shot, I would've signed off on
>it without thinking about it for long. And again, I keep
>admitting this..I would've never guessed that Punk being back
>on a wrestling show would be this obviously great but it
>totally is. That SOB is OVER over. And its not just people
>deciding to like him cuz of his aura or whatever. He's doing
>supreme work overall.
>
>AEW, flaws and all, is an easy win for everyone who likes
>wrestling in general as long as you're not worried about
>getting taken out of Vince's will. Also, I keep saying this
>too but AEW will, somehow and someway, eventually make WWE
>better. They've already allowed/forced WWE to thin out their
>catering room and promo closets. 3 good months of AEW Miro
>being hossy and great > Rusev post tank entrance/losing to
>Cena, getting punished for getting Rusev Day over, and
>whatever that was with Lashley.
2763776, This Ezekiel shit is weird as fuck
Posted by Cold Truth, Mon Apr-25-22 11:35 PM
They have KO no less than STONE COLD at Wrestlemania

And used that momentum for........ this

Yeah.
2763791, baseless hunch: it's a slowburn that leads back to Elias
Posted by Tiger Woods, Tue Apr-26-22 09:42 AM

again, "baseless" because that gives them a lot of credit

But if he comes out of some existential crisis as Elias he'd be over big
2763808, Because that worked so well for Abyss
Posted by magilla vanilla, Tue Apr-26-22 01:03 PM
Or Balor. Or Bray.
2764095, Dynamite highlight of the week:
Posted by cgonz00cc, Fri Apr-29-22 03:40 PM
Jericho throws fire at Eddie Kingston, and Tony Schiavone has the exactly right reaction. a mix of anger and disgust and generally, you know, pretending that its real, perfectly setting up Excalibur to....

talk about a tournament qualifying match 🤦‍♂️

thanks for letting me know that its not something i should actually worry about.

Schiavone might be old and generally just happy to be there, but that 30 second bit of TV is so perfectly illustrative of the difference between an educated and experienced TV professional, and an indie goof who hasn't learned a goddamned thing despite sitting between 2 legends for the last 2.5 years.

i hate that fucking guy.
2764137, if JR can wheel right by stuff that he thinks is silly so can Excal.
Posted by magilla vanilla, Fri Apr-29-22 11:44 PM
Seriously though Jericho doing a fucking James Mitchell spot in the year of our lord 2022 SHOULD get steamrolled by the announcer.
2764149, he hasnt earned that, for one thing
Posted by cgonz00cc, Sat Apr-30-22 07:25 AM
Jim Ross is Jim Ross. plus excalibur talks about danhausen like hes casting real magic spells so if they are gonna do a hospitalization angle with eddie kingston, then he should sell that like its the life and death issue it was portrayed as

for another thing...he spent time on it on rampage, so its clearly not a personal aversion. its more not knowing how to do compelling television in the moment.
2764139, With all due respect to the man, JR isn’t doing much teaching these days
Posted by pretentious username, Sat Apr-30-22 12:28 AM
He does a lot of “back in my day, that move was called ____” detractions, and Excalibur is usually the one who has to clean up his messes.
2764150, perhaps, but hes there to be spoken to at minimum
Posted by cgonz00cc, Sat Apr-30-22 07:32 AM
all that time together and hes still the same dude he was at Double or Nothing 2019, and he still has NOT learned that he needs to exist outside of the circus rather than as part of it.

theres no bigger indictment than that imo. hes the exact same goof, with the exact same intonation he brought over from dubbing his PWG DVDs like i used to use to call my Lakers vs Celtics games on Sega Genesis.
2764518, THIS was the promo I needed from Hangman
Posted by pretentious username, Thu May-05-22 11:07 AM
Maybe it’s a few months late, but regardless, I’m looking forward to this match now. And I’m looking forward to seeing if Hangman can hang on the mic when Punk is there.

Keep this version of Hangman away from Dark Order and the Elite and he will be just fine.
2764526, Also, Fenix vs. Dante was AWESOME
Posted by pretentious username, Thu May-05-22 01:11 PM
And House of Black is still doing nothing for me. On paper, it should work, but it just doesn’t. I like all these guys individually, but the presentation is lame as hell, the eye makeup has gotten laughable, and I want to fast forward whenever they’re on the TV. I should especially love a Death Triangle vs. House of Black feud… and yet, I’d MUCH rather just watch Fenix wrestle Dante every week with no storyline.
2764528, I was there live for this last night, it was crazy!
Posted by Paps_Smear, Thu May-05-22 01:40 PM
After the match Fenix took his mask off and covered his face with Alex's jacket real quick, and handed the mask to Dante Martin. Dante was shocked, was a real special moment.
2764542, That’s fucking awesome n/m
Posted by pretentious username, Thu May-05-22 02:55 PM
2764567, RE: I was there live for this last night, it was crazy!
Posted by jimaveli, Thu May-05-22 07:34 PM
>After the match Fenix took his mask off and covered his face
>with Alex's jacket real quick, and handed the mask to Dante
>Martin. Dante was shocked, was a real special moment.

Wow. That sounds awesome. Like most weekly wrestling shows, Dynamite is never 100% killer but they sure do try to put some bangers on every week. I like their best days WCW energy. That's for sure.

They're coming to the H in a couple of weeks but work is kinda kicking my ass to the point that I don't know if I would be worth a damn to go to a show mid-week. I'm still thinking about it. I'm still haunted by not going to Mania 17.
2764529, Forbidden Door sells out in minutes
Posted by Paps_Smear, Thu May-05-22 01:45 PM
I got mine but fuck ticketmaster.
2764535, always
Posted by Ceej, Thu May-05-22 01:56 PM
> fuck ticketmaster.
2764540, Wardlow got the Goldberg DLC pack
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Thu May-05-22 02:37 PM
The security detail intro
The crowd chants
Weirdly enough they didn’t do his theme last night tho
2764541, MJF has decreed he gets no ga-ga
Posted by cgonz00cc, Thu May-05-22 02:51 PM
no music, no video board, no pyro, etc
2764765, Backlash
Posted by jimaveli, Sun May-08-22 11:59 PM
Another wwe show where the rasslin was rock solid. It seems like the house shows are helping a lot with making some of these matches ‘feel polished’. Ie: Cody and Seth are pros of course but it’s clear that they’re doing a circuit of matches and we’re getting pieces of things they’ve tried together. I like it a lot.

And duh, Reigns is killer even in these 6 man setups where he milks every little thing to the max. The internet freaking out cuz he said something at a house show is too on-brand for the Twitta. Whatever. He’s here now.

>Wrestling is ongoing.
>
>AEW Revolution is tonight. I shall watch and hope I don't let
>myself get burned out by the few car crash matches they have
>planned. I'm AMPED for at least half the card so that's a good
>sign. Sensible dinners Jericho vs Peanut Butter Pie Kingston
>has me excited and I keep forgetting about it. That's another
>sign of a pretty heavy-handed card for these folks.
>
>https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10028539-updated-2022-aew-revolution-match-card-ahead-of-ppv
>
>WWE's Mania is about a month away and trying to come together
>around Charlotte/Rousey, Becks/Belair, and Roman/Brock Part
>17. I've been looking back at some old manias and lawd
>hammercy..there's some rancidly bad ones in between some
>sneaky great ones that stand up TIL THIS DAY. And even some of
>the ones that are labelled as 'good' are 2 or 3 good azz
>matches surrounded by some pretty pointless 'cool yourselves
>off until the next good thing' stuff.
>
>Nobody really knows what's up with Cody.
>
>Cesaro is out in the wild now too allegedly.
>
>Jake Something (decent rassler from Impact) is allegedly not
>at the tapings today.
>
>Jeff Hardy is coming to AEW. AEW doesn't need anymore badass
>tag teams to try to book but okay.
>
>Brock's MSG opponent ended up being an offense-free Austin
>Theory leading into a Reigns beatdown on Brock.
>
>NXT 2.0 is trying to find its way. The diverse array of
>good-looking young talent IS notable even if WWE taking away
>the best mega-indy in Murrica still hurts sometimes.
>
>Terminus is a thing that exists post-ROH 1.0. I owe them some
>of my time at some point. I REALLY need to catch up on NJPW
>and the Japan indy scene. I'm guessing I'm missing hella
>goodies there too.
>
>ROH is now owned by Tony Kahn. The tapes, damnit! Imagine how
>much goodness is on those tapes!
>
>CYN has started doing shows. And the jokes are plentiful early
>on. For all we've said about AEW leaning too heavy on
>'surprises' then not being able to live up to the innanet's
>wildest dreams (Cena, Brock, folks like that), I'm gonna get
>wild and say that Austin Aries can't be your 'check out our
>big surprise' to start, can it?
>
>On AEW, if someone would've told me 5 years ago that a new
>Murrican wrestling company was gonna show up and end up with
>Jericho, American Dragon-style Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, any of
>the 3 members of the Shield, some of the gaijin from New
>Japan, some folks WWE didn't want anymore, indy folks who vary
>wildly in goodness, and some youngsters..many of whom have
>obvious skills and just need a shot, I would've signed off on
>it without thinking about it for long. And again, I keep
>admitting this..I would've never guessed that Punk being back
>on a wrestling show would be this obviously great but it
>totally is. That SOB is OVER over. And its not just people
>deciding to like him cuz of his aura or whatever. He's doing
>supreme work overall.
>
>AEW, flaws and all, is an easy win for everyone who likes
>wrestling in general as long as you're not worried about
>getting taken out of Vince's will. Also, I keep saying this
>too but AEW will, somehow and someway, eventually make WWE
>better. They've already allowed/forced WWE to thin out their
>catering room and promo closets. 3 good months of AEW Miro
>being hossy and great > Rusev post tank entrance/losing to
>Cena, getting punished for getting Rusev Day over, and
>whatever that was with Lashley.
2765092, Edge, Bryan, CM Punk: Masters who really, truly, gave back
Posted by Tiger Woods, Thu May-12-22 11:54 AM
DB bringing Wheeler Yuta along

Punk's program with MJF

and now Edge and "Judgment Day" ...

once you've done all there is to do and mastered the game, the illest thing you can do next is pass it on.

The game is fucked up when Punk and Edge are -still- the two best promos going. But check this out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQwQVVFnSG4

2765096, Damien Priest could become that dude IMO
Posted by Cold Truth, Thu May-12-22 12:49 PM
All the ingredients are there.

His voice is, goddamn, a commanding one. Imagine if Brock had that voice.

Promos are a little stiff and cheesy at times. But I can definitely see him developing into a top guy. He's old though, so they better get on it.
2765102, RE: Damien Priest could become that dude IMO
Posted by jimaveli, Thu May-12-22 02:34 PM
>All the ingredients are there.
>
>His voice is, goddamn, a commanding one. Imagine if Brock had
>that voice.
>
>Promos are a little stiff and cheesy at times. But I can
>definitely see him developing into a top guy. He's old though,
>so they better get on it.

Yeah, I like him too. And yeah, dude ain't a kid. But they want/need more folks ASAP so he might be in the right place and time if this works out really well. I know this JD thing is slow cooking so I'm not paying too much attention or expecting too much right off. But they have 2 good ones with Edge.

Cody has been really fun too. It is great that he feels like a fit..almost because he's still doing things that don't 100% fit. But he's in great shape, he's got his working boots on, and his talking/character stuff is going over very well.

And fuck yeah I love me some Hookhausen (it is working and it will be fun) and Ezekiel. And MJF's Dark Side of the Ring? Excellent. I was rolling watching all of that.

Punk coming out post-show and getting worked by Hookhausen is gonna give Cornette time to do his negativity thing but whatever. There's only so much time left in this crazy world. Punk is made. Hook is doing well. DH is serving a good purpose after all. Relax, corny.
2765536, Jericho was priceless in the MJF segment
Posted by magilla vanilla, Tue May-17-22 01:52 PM
"why would I narrate for that asshole? . . . how much is he paying?"
2765276, i cant understand the mentality behind
Posted by cgonz00cc, Sat May-14-22 07:51 AM
cooling off Daniel Bryan this way

Wheeler Yuta, if hes extremely lucky AND hard-working, might achieve Frankie Kazerian status at some point in his career.

doesnt seem worth killing what they had with Bryan for a scoop of store brand vanilla ice cream
2765279, I agree. I think even Mox is beneath him. But it’s what he wants to do.
Posted by Tiger Woods, Sat May-14-22 08:55 AM
Whole reason he left WWE was to do his own thing so in guess he’s fulfilling that promise to himself
2765280, RE: I think even Mox is beneath him -- agreed
Posted by cgonz00cc, Sat May-14-22 09:38 AM
i could see it if they were in the top tier mix of tag teams i guess, but thats apparently not where we're going

im sure a lot of guys want to do a lot of things, but someone needs to be the boss over there
2765281, If this is cooling off, then call me Mister Freeze.
Posted by pretentious username, Sat May-14-22 11:01 AM
Idk what that means, just roll with it.

>cooling off Daniel Bryan this way

A) Being a part of an over faction is not really cooling off

B) I’m not sure there was a more interesting storyline for him once he lost his title shot. What else would he do? Chase the TNT title? Get angry at MJF for some reason? I think assembling a group of badasses to take over the company makes the most sense.

>
>Wheeler Yuta, if hes extremely lucky AND hard-working, might
>achieve Frankie Kazerian status at some point in his career.
>

If he didn’t win you over with his Mox match (like he did with me), I don’t know what to tell ya. People are really responding to him now, and I think he’s already a bigger deal than Frankie Kazarian.
2765290, RE: If this is cooling off, then call me Mister Freeze.
Posted by jimaveli, Sat May-14-22 10:07 PM
>Idk what that means, just roll with it.
>
>>cooling off Daniel Bryan this way
>
>A) Being a part of an over faction is not really cooling off
>
>B) I’m not sure there was a more interesting storyline for
>him once he lost his title shot. What else would he do? Chase
>the TNT title? Get angry at MJF for some reason? I think
>assembling a group of badasses to take over the company makes
>the most sense.
>
>>
>>Wheeler Yuta, if hes extremely lucky AND hard-working, might
>>achieve Frankie Kazerian status at some point in his career.
>
>>
>
>If he didn’t win you over with his Mox match (like he did
>with me), I don’t know what to tell ya. People are really
>responding to him now, and I think he’s already a bigger
>deal than Frankie Kazarian.

That negativity force is still strong on them blogs and pods. And they can’t decide if money is the most important thing or not. WWE is breaking records, aew is growing, and people are checking out indies. But sure, no one show is getting watched as much as a 1999 Raw ep. And if people want to make that their ‘validation’ for spewing the negativity and faux nostalgia and it works, cool.
2765478, RE: If this is cooling off, then call me Mister Freeze.
Posted by mrhood75, Mon May-16-22 04:32 PM
Only other direction they could have feasibly gone was to give him the TNT Title at let him beat up people every week.

Which... okay, sure, that would have been fine. But the way they went has been working either. Or isn't better.

It's given Moxley something else to do, it involves Regal, it involves lots of awesome violence, and has gotten Yuta REALLY over. So, it's all worked out great.

I hope they eventually do pull Garcia and Moriarty into the group. But in the meantime, I enjoying the three beating the shit out of people every week, and getting Regal on commentary to boot.
2765650, Yeah, Bryan is (and should be) considered above the TNT title
Posted by pretentious username, Wed May-18-22 08:42 PM
Don’t get me wrong, if Bryan did a Cena/Cody-like open challenge for the title every week, it would be FIRE, but he’s a world championship-or-bust level performer, so since he’s out of the world title picture, a badass faction is the way to go.

I agree a Garcia or Moriaty would be great for this group, but they have time to recruit and it should be a very selective process (as opposed to Jericho surrounding himself with an army of younger guys). I guess Garcia was lined up to be in the group, but Jericho claimed him instead. I like where his career is heading, so I can’t complain.
2765703, it just all feels so non-essential
Posted by cgonz00cc, Thu May-19-22 10:51 AM
>A) Being a part of an over faction is not really cooling off

this faction as a collective is considerably less interesting than heel Danielson was on his own. Moxley's whole act is soooo repetitive, and Yuta cant talk without coming off like someone playing pretend.

>B) I’m not sure there was a more interesting storyline for
>him once he lost his title shot. What else would he do? Chase
>the TNT title? Get angry at MJF for some reason? I think
>assembling a group of badasses to take over the company makes
>the most sense.

they arent doing that tho. they're just having 6 man tags against jabronis.* the TV time theyve had this far is a complete waste of both Danielson AND Regal.


also...putting Danielson in a personal issue with someone shouldnt be hard to do. some babyface or another takes issue with his bullying, steps to him, and embarasses BD with a couple shots that would he considered sucker-punches if you didnt hate the guy that got punched. BD bails with an angry look on his face, pouting his way up the ramp, and we're off. maybe have Brian Pillman Jr do that instead of sending him out on a suicide mission to try to talk us into caring about that dreck with Malakai Black. hes got underdog coursing thru his veins and people are DYINGGGGG for a reason get behind him. that would have been orders of magnitude more fun for me. MJF hasnt sniffed the title scene in almost 2 years. Eddie Kingston, same thing, and they still matter.

>If he didn’t win you over with his Mox match (like he did
>with me), I don’t know what to tell ya. People are really
>responding to him now, and I think he’s already a bigger
>deal than Frankie Kazarian.

he didnt. hes just a bland piece of white bread, and he doesnt make it as real as a bland piece of white bread needs to make it for me to care. he has nothing to say, he goofed around with the cabbage patch kids for too long, and hes mostly just "there".



* this was started before Dynamite last night and now we know that hes going to be in a 10 man garbage match with Chris Jericho. like...cmon.
2765291, They could probably give Christian more to do?
Posted by DJR, Sat May-14-22 11:22 PM
He can still go, doesn’t look, wrestle, or act “old”, can talk….seems he could still be a main guy with a push and some mic time?
2765292, They’re setting up a turn
Posted by mrhood75, Sun May-15-22 02:37 AM
Either him flipping on Jungle Boy or vice versa. Though it looks likely like the former. Might be as soon as the PPV.

I feel they’ve been giving him stuff to do in general. He’s been pretty prominently featured in all the PPVs so far. He beat Omega. Was just in that Golden Ring ladder. And now he’ll get a feud with Jungle Boy.
2765519, Sasha Banks & Naomi left Raw over bad creative
Posted by Tiger Woods, Tue May-17-22 11:33 AM
If what’s being reported is true - that they were going to each go job for the Raw and Smackdown champions OR start a program with Doudrop/Nikki Ash - then they had a legitimate ax to grind.

That said, not sure storming out is ever the move.

We’ll see how this plays out. Naomi is a fine performer, but Banks is a future HOFer and one of the best women performers ever. This will be the 2nd time Banks has stormed out , she did it once with Bayley, and she also took a sabbatical of sorts before as well.
2765534, Smells like a work but I kind of think its real
Posted by Ceej, Tue May-17-22 01:32 PM
Kind of.
2765537, The WWE official statement sort of makes me feel like it's a work
Posted by mrhood75, Tue May-17-22 02:07 PM
Because if not... damn.

It probably gets worked out no matter what.
2765751, the statement is hilarious
Posted by cgonz00cc, Thu May-19-22 05:24 PM
THIS ALL FAKE, AND SHE IS SUPPOSED TO PLAY A ROLE IN THIS FICTIONAL PRODUCTION. DESPITE ADEQUATE REHEARSAL TIME FOR HER ENTERTAINMENT SPECTACLE, SHE WAS NOT WILLING TO FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS IN HER SCRIPT.
2765559, if its a work it's an irresponsible one
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Tue May-17-22 05:05 PM
WWE staff should know better than to serve up two black women on a platter like this to the wrestling fanbase.

also this aint the first time Sasha took her ball and went home because she thought they were on some BS.

so this is definitely real
2765538, Storming out is great, and I hope more people do it, across the workforce
Posted by Cold Truth, Tue May-17-22 02:11 PM
Not just WWE

Too many workplaces get away with FAR too much bullshit, because FAR yoo many people just put up with it, and far too often people who say nah, fuck that, are held to a standard higher than the employer.

The overall sentiment is that people should just deal with it, or “find a better way”, etc

Fuck that, and fuck this whole playing to the middle nonsense.

And no, I’m not coming at you. I’m coming at this subject as a whole.

And yep, I speak with a fair amount of experience, and I in fact just wrapped up a six month battle at my job where I refused to let an abusive, antagonistic, overbearing supervisor overstep the bounds of her position.

FYI, I fucking won, because I was absolutely correct- but they went the extra mile to try to drag me through the mud first. And, because I’m the type who will stand my ground when the facts are on my side, they not only failed miserably, there’s more failure on the horizon for them. Because they fucked up every step of the way.

This is nowhere near my first rodeo at this job, and yes, I’m undefeated in this bitch.

All that to say, this hits home, and in the instances where I’ve lost in the past, i wound up with vindication after the fact. So i know a thing or two about this shit.

We know way too much about the cesspool that is WWE management to not give her the benefit of the doubt, bare minimum.

It’s not just bad creative from what I’ve read. It was a day full of taking their grievances up the chain, finding a resolution, only for that resolution to change, inly to find another resolution, only for that to change AGAIN- all whole being told by producers that they were “entitled” , with said producers yelling about it.

This is after them being given next to nothing of note to do since Mania, despite being told the opposite.

Remember Punk talking about Vince’s “I owe you one”?

Yeah. Fuck that, fuck Vince, and fuck that company.

2765551, I hear you, I think you had it worse than them actually though
Posted by Tiger Woods, Tue May-17-22 04:13 PM

they're pretend fighters on TV, you're a real guy in a real job. I dunno haha. Not to minimize their experiences but I think Banks and Naomi's lives are fine, they're just pissed that they're not getting what they want AND THAT'S TOTALLY ACCEPTABLE...but I'd think less emotional responses from probably everyone involved could've gotten this resolved. Who knows, I wasn't there.

I think the world of Sasha Banks I hope it works out.
2765740, RE: Sasha Banks & Naomi left Raw over bad creative
Posted by jimaveli, Thu May-19-22 03:43 PM
>If what’s being reported is true - that they were going to
>each go job for the Raw and Smackdown champions OR start a
>program with Doudrop/Nikki Ash - then they had a legitimate ax
>to grind.
>
>That said, not sure storming out is ever the move.
>
>We’ll see how this plays out. Naomi is a fine performer, but
>Banks is a future HOFer and one of the best women performers
>ever. This will be the 2nd time Banks has stormed out , she
>did it once with Bayley, and she also took a sabbatical of
>sorts before as well.

Maaaaaaaan, IDK!

Zoomed out, I want to believe that WWE can figure out how to get champs on TV even if it is only some 80s-style 'see this person's face for a few mins and something physical MIGHT happen' type of deal. This should be plausible if the champs are on-hand at the shows. And, as we've seen, it is possible when when the camps aren't available in person.

Zoomed in on Sasha, I'm not sure what Banks wants, but my guess is something like this: 'she wants to be treated like a star. And stars show up on shows and even their absence is notable, noted, and used to move stories forward'. And it seems like WWE is NOT trying to do that with her.

Maybe this is because she hasn't resigned with the company yet, they're salty about it, and they weren't dying to book Sasha strong only to have her not resign/expire. And then she shows up somewhere else shortly thereafter talking big shit and wrestling her ass off. They seem dead serious about trying to give folks the God of War 'lose all of your shit from the prior game' treatment on their way out.

IDK. Hopefully they work it out and/or its a work. And if they don't, hopefully they say 'fuck it, go on, now' and then she goes on to have a good run elsewhere.

I have no idea how Naomi does with this if it isn't a work. She's been off the scene sometimes before this too. Was she hurt? Going thru some thangs? Both? Family ties is one thing, but that shit didn't help ole Nia Jax (maybe she's on the outs with the fam somehow). IDK!
2765683, I finally went to a Dynamite!
Posted by jimaveli, Thu May-19-22 12:03 AM
Had pretty good seats too.

It was fun and regularly loud for lots of people.

Weekly tv always has a risk of catching a weak show but I left feeling like I had seen some good segments and at least a few rock solid/good matches. I was pulling for Cesaro to be the male joker but oh well.

They taped Dark first. Then Dynamite. Then Rampage. A lot of people stayed for Rampage.

Justin Roberts was clowning during commercial breaks and forcing the crowd to stay up. Tony Khan kept on coming out and talking! Haha. And he’d always stay a long-ish time. But he was excited and folks mostly rolled with him.

At worst, it felt kinda ‘cozy’ small vs how it looks on tv. But once forreal folks started coming out and laying their shit in, it was ON and it didn’t matter to me anymore. Good night of rasslin on a weeknight.

What else…

KOR/Fénix was glorious live. Kyle is just fucking good and he got a good one out of Fénix for sure.

Buddy looked jacked in person. I want someone somewhere to throw him into main events.

Jeff Hardy looked unjacked.

Samoa Joe looked great in the ring. Really physical without looking like he was slangin potatoes. I love Morrison and he looked excellent and casually athletic af.

Hangman Page had a banger/physical/adult match and got solid and strong reactions. This whole ‘he ain’t over’ thing is loaded. He’s not CM Punk over but damn near no one is.

Jade looks like a SUPER DUPER ULTRA STAR in person. And huge. Her and the baddies all look great too. And Smart Mark had me rollin. Good goon manager.

Skye Blue! Lawd! She looked outlandishly good. I love her now. Some of her offense had a gang of air/wasn’t connecting. She’s gotta tighten that up. Her and Thunder Rosa were seriously holding on a show with a slew of attractive ladies.

MJF got almost Ciampa with no music level boos. I kinda figured we wouldn’t get Wardlow killing a whole group of humans this time. And we didn’t. MJF is gonna be great for many years I hope

Mfers were dying to sing Cult of Personality and Judas. Jericho soaked that shit up bigtime before Rampage and looked like he was in the shape of his life.

Adam Cole looked small but he also looked to be in decent shape and of course his shit looked snug and professional. I keep saying this but I think the Bucks being visibly bigger than him almost killed Cole as soon as he showed up. But he’s winning when it counts now so let’s see. Britt was still bigtime over and she was a PRO at making the joker’s offense work. Jamie Hayter was a brick….houuuuuse. Not surprisingly.

Max came out with the Gunn Club. People were very excited about it. And the rap was localized and great as per usual.

>Wrestling is ongoing.
>
>AEW Revolution is tonight. I shall watch and hope I don't let
>myself get burned out by the few car crash matches they have
>planned. I'm AMPED for at least half the card so that's a good
>sign. Sensible dinners Jericho vs Peanut Butter Pie Kingston
>has me excited and I keep forgetting about it. That's another
>sign of a pretty heavy-handed card for these folks.
>
>https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10028539-updated-2022-aew-revolution-match-card-ahead-of-ppv
>
>WWE's Mania is about a month away and trying to come together
>around Charlotte/Rousey, Becks/Belair, and Roman/Brock Part
>17. I've been looking back at some old manias and lawd
>hammercy..there's some rancidly bad ones in between some
>sneaky great ones that stand up TIL THIS DAY. And even some of
>the ones that are labelled as 'good' are 2 or 3 good azz
>matches surrounded by some pretty pointless 'cool yourselves
>off until the next good thing' stuff.
>
>Nobody really knows what's up with Cody.
>
>Cesaro is out in the wild now too allegedly.
>
>Jake Something (decent rassler from Impact) is allegedly not
>at the tapings today.
>
>Jeff Hardy is coming to AEW. AEW doesn't need anymore badass
>tag teams to try to book but okay.
>
>Brock's MSG opponent ended up being an offense-free Austin
>Theory leading into a Reigns beatdown on Brock.
>
>NXT 2.0 is trying to find its way. The diverse array of
>good-looking young talent IS notable even if WWE taking away
>the best mega-indy in Murrica still hurts sometimes.
>
>Terminus is a thing that exists post-ROH 1.0. I owe them some
>of my time at some point. I REALLY need to catch up on NJPW
>and the Japan indy scene. I'm guessing I'm missing hella
>goodies there too.
>
>ROH is now owned by Tony Kahn. The tapes, damnit! Imagine how
>much goodness is on those tapes!
>
>CYN has started doing shows. And the jokes are plentiful early
>on. For all we've said about AEW leaning too heavy on
>'surprises' then not being able to live up to the innanet's
>wildest dreams (Cena, Brock, folks like that), I'm gonna get
>wild and say that Austin Aries can't be your 'check out our
>big surprise' to start, can it?
>
>On AEW, if someone would've told me 5 years ago that a new
>Murrican wrestling company was gonna show up and end up with
>Jericho, American Dragon-style Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, any of
>the 3 members of the Shield, some of the gaijin from New
>Japan, some folks WWE didn't want anymore, indy folks who vary
>wildly in goodness, and some youngsters..many of whom have
>obvious skills and just need a shot, I would've signed off on
>it without thinking about it for long. And again, I keep
>admitting this..I would've never guessed that Punk being back
>on a wrestling show would be this obviously great but it
>totally is. That SOB is OVER over. And its not just people
>deciding to like him cuz of his aura or whatever. He's doing
>supreme work overall.
>
>AEW, flaws and all, is an easy win for everyone who likes
>wrestling in general as long as you're not worried about
>getting taken out of Vince's will. Also, I keep saying this
>too but AEW will, somehow and someway, eventually make WWE
>better. They've already allowed/forced WWE to thin out their
>catering room and promo closets. 3 good months of AEW Miro
>being hossy and great > Rusev post tank entrance/losing to
>Cena, getting punished for getting Rusev Day over, and
>whatever that was with Lashley.
2765697, Cosign all of this.
Posted by dagu, Thu May-19-22 08:38 AM
I was there as well, had a great time.

I hate "what" chants so those, combined with how bad the Deeb promo was, was the low point of the night for me.



***Rampage Spoilers***

Still waiting to hear some news on Danielson; hope it's nothing serious. I thought Regal was really injured as well until I noticed everyone concerned about Danielson.
2765704, that was the best episode for me in a very long time
Posted by cgonz00cc, Thu May-19-22 11:04 AM
i didnt need Jurassic Express hokeying up what had been a good piece of TV, and the Bucks/Hardys stuff is the kind of thing that i wouldnt want a stranger to see me watching but otherwise i enjoyed it.

Serena Deeb's interview kinda hurt my feelings. i dont like to think of her as so insecure that she cares what Schiavone says. if she had called Dustin out right away that all would have gone down a lot smoother

Joe vs Morrison was extremely enjoyable and if Morrison is gonna stick around, thats a TNT champion to restore some stability and importance to the title. hes got "im important" oozing out of his pores, and his 450 that missed actually made it seem more real bc the announcers called it like a risky thing that went the way risky things go sometimes.

Page match was good. "too good" in the way that the champs matches shouldnt be good, but taken on its own it was well executed. Takeshita has something.

Jericho went IN verbally, but the letdown of a 10 man hardcore match was real. instant deflation, and i continue to lament the presence of 2point0 and Danielson in this nonsense.
2765709, the crowd and Serena
Posted by jimaveli, Thu May-19-22 12:36 PM
The area I was in had a weird seating issue. It was basically benches just behind and above the floor seats but below the stands. And the venue's security very comfortably directed a shitload of people to sit in the wrong as hell seats. The seats were benches..about 4 long ass rows, but they were numbered weird (the bottom row was row 2 for instance).

And there were legitimately some seats blocked off that were supposed to be available. So lots of people who showed up right before Dynamite started and got screwed. I'm talking about having to stand up and wait for some big cheese mfer from the venue to come find them some seats (the place looked about 90% full and lots of people ended up with great apology seats..I damn near wanted to follow them once I saw where they got put). Add in the normal issue of people trying to do seat shenanigans. AKA some people were dead seriously sitting in seats that weren't anywhere near their seat. But the event folks did NOT handle it properly.

Luckily, I walked in 20 minutes before Dark (aka early AF) so I was good even though they sat me on the wrong row 3x instead of making the jackasses who were in MY seat move. I was in the right section. Right seat number too, but I was 1 row up (IE: row 3 instead of row 2). Silly stuff really but I lived cuz getting there early saved my azz.

Anyway, Serena came out and it seems like more of the bad human being crew on hand (especially the ones who had been a part of seat-gate 2022) decided to give her the biz as soon as she came out. IE: they were saying stuff about her thin frame. And they were gross about it. And I think she heard it cuz the place wasn't huge and she didn't get a big pop when she came out. AND her mic turned on late so it was oddly quiet. Serena was kinda shook after that to me. She's not a wonderful talker anyway and the segment wasn't exactly brilliant (too long, too convoluted, too much Tony like you said). But I gave her a pass based on some of the stuff I heard dudes saying loud and clear to/at her. After that, I recovered by being lazer focused on seeing how fine Thunder Rosa was when she came out.

Some of those same jerks said something wild about Regal. Eddie Kingston heard it, located them, and gave a them a death stare that we all saw, felt, agreed with and loved.

Other things:

Eddie Kingston is wonderful. I mean really really wonderful. Just his whole in-fighting deal with Bryan was top shelf work. And he was the absolute best with the general purpose 'wrestler face-making'. I wanted to see him punch someone almost immediately.

In general, I have to say this again: the obviously seasoned folks got their shine on in that cozy environment. There was some more indy folks on the roster who were struggling with landing strikes clean. And/or you could kinda tell they were going from move to move and you could almost see them thinking about it as they did it. But the PROS!? WOW..the professionals were excellent. Kyle folks. KYLE! I keep going back to it cuz him and Fenix was the match of the night in a walk. It was PHYSICAL and I'm also accusing KOR 'framing' all of Fenix's stuff perfectly. No/low shenanigans. And dudes were crisp and clean pretty much all the way through. It was physically impressive and good forreal. KOR's chest and collarbone was RED like 4 minutes in. He looked gave off the impression of FATIGUE better than anyone the whole night. And Fenix sold like an adult too so he was a willing dance partner. And the nerdy good wrestler nuance stuff was super noticeable live from both of them. It ALMOST made up for me getting absolutely no FTR in-person. ALMOST! I could've taken a little more Jay Lethal too. And that dude with Lethal? That big dude!? Lawd..he was BIG.

I'll tell you this too: even though I was sitting opposite of where the hard cam was (that's what I get for buying tickets last minute), I didn't regularly succeed at being able to hear or even really see people talking to one another mid-match. So it is clear someone is working with people and trying to improve things.

>i didnt need Jurassic Express hokeying up what had been a
>good piece of TV, and the Bucks/Hardys stuff is the kind of
>thing that i wouldnt want a stranger to see me watching but
>otherwise i enjoyed it.
>
>Serena Deeb's interview kinda hurt my feelings. i dont like
>to think of her as so insecure that she cares what Schiavone
>says. if she had called Dustin out right away that all would
>have gone down a lot smoother
>
>Joe vs Morrison was extremely enjoyable and if Morrison is
>gonna stick around, thats a TNT champion to restore some
>stability and importance to the title. hes got "im important"
>oozing out of his pores, and his 450 that missed actually made
>it seem more real bc the announcers called it like a risky
>thing that went the way risky things go sometimes.
>
>Page match was good. "too good" in the way that the champs
>matches shouldnt be good, but taken on its own it was well
>executed. Takeshita has something.
>
>Jericho went IN verbally, but the letdown of a 10 man hardcore
>match was real. instant deflation, and i continue to lament
>the presence of 2point0 and Danielson in this nonsense.
2765713, I had floor seats and the same/similar issue.
Posted by dagu, Thu May-19-22 12:53 PM
>The area I was in had a weird seating issue. It was basically
>benches just behind and above the floor seats but below the
>stands. And the venue's security very comfortably directed a
>shitload of people to sit in the wrong as hell seats. The
>seats were benches..about 4 long ass rows, but they were
>numbered weird (the bottom row was row 2 for instance).

None of the floor sections were labeled and only half of the staff seemed to know where they were. I also had row 8 listed on my ticket and the numbers for each section only went up to row 5. The last staff member I spoke with actually told me to just sit wherever I could find a spot in that section so I guess I was one of the lucky people who didn't get kicked out of their seat an hour plus into Dynamite.
2765858, Justin Roberts is funny af right?
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Fri May-20-22 09:10 PM
him and Daphney were cutting up during the breaks when i went. definitely kept the crowd energy way up through a long night.
2765848, boy they buried the shit out of Sasha and Naomi
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Fri May-20-22 08:43 PM
stripped em of the belts on TV
suspended indefinitely
"Sasha Banks and Naomi let us all down" - Michael Cole
2766205, i think im ready for adam page to go away
Posted by cgonz00cc, Wed May-25-22 08:24 PM
this hasnt worked at all for me

title shot from a battle royale or whatever, pointless hardcore matches on weekly tv, sacrificed BD to try to validate his championship, and now this extremely confusing build

whats he mad about? why is he talking about "workers' rights on camera? why is he suggesting he has a fuller grasp of being a a champion than Punk? why does everything he does default into him struggling with being an insecure bitch?





2766222, he was especially bad tonight
Posted by Tiger Woods, Wed May-25-22 10:24 PM
if you're the champ, you gotta believe you're the champ. He doesn't have any conviction in the title or in what he says. It's time to move on and I imagine they will.
2766229, ill never forget him crying off in the shadows
Posted by cgonz00cc, Thu May-26-22 07:31 AM
while the Bucks and Omega celebrated in the ring

what a bitch. no one wants this hacky character study bullshit.

my new criteria for whether or not i think someone is worth caring about is whether or not i could see them walk out on TBS Crockett TV in 1987 and make me care about them in 120 seconds.

Starks and Hobbs? yes
Swerve Strickland? yes
Jungle Boy? no
Adam Page? no
Scorpio Sky? probably not
Ethan Page? actually, yes
Wardlow? yes
2point0? yes
Wheeler Yuta? no
Moxley? no
Samoa Joe? FUCK YES. KILLER pretape last night!

etc



2766234, The Moxley "no" was not strong enough
Posted by Ceej, Thu May-26-22 09:11 AM
2766245, in retrospect, you are correct
Posted by cgonz00cc, Thu May-26-22 11:18 AM
that was all caps worthy
2766257, You left out FTR, the most obvious answer to your test lol
Posted by Tiger Woods, Thu May-26-22 02:53 PM
2766348, i tried to stay away from the obvious YES tier
Posted by cgonz00cc, Sat May-28-22 11:51 AM
Punk, Danielson, FTR, MJF, etc
2766452, He's modern Magnum TA
Posted by magilla vanilla, Tue May-31-22 10:14 AM
And we never knew what kinda champ TA would have been because of the wreck. But he was a solid worker, a guy for the magazine covers, and he was always in the shadow of someone with a ton more charisma (Dusty for Magnum, the Elite for Page).

But the only way he's going to get more interesting is to get more reps. You have one of the best workers in the business looking to have championship-caliber matches, why not have him help establish your champ? Yes, I know the big problem with Danielson's booking in the other place was that he never got a chance to run with the belt, but he's had several main event caliber matches. He's running with Regal now, which seems like it's a dream for him, and he got to be part of an epic on DoN.

The other issue is that the break with Omega was supposed to be Page's version of the feud with Tully. But the Elite also overestimates how interested everyone is in their personal group dynamics.
2766474, what???
Posted by cgonz00cc, Tue May-31-22 12:50 PM
Magnum TA never acted like a whiny bitch on TV. he was a badass *always*

Adam Page has made being a whiny bitch his core characteristic, and has been seen fuckin CRYING on television multiple times

cmon lol
2766487, I said modern. They're blond Virginians that rep the man of their day
Posted by magilla vanilla, Tue May-31-22 01:52 PM
Which in the 80s JCP territory was an ass-kicker. In the 2020s for "the demo," that's a dude more in touch with his feelings who looks after his friends.
2766236, I think I've got it even as a story...
Posted by jimaveli, Thu May-26-22 09:42 AM
He's insecure because he's the main champion but he's somewhat obviously not the most 'popular' wrestler in the fed. And even though this is not a history-making issue, tha innanet is being its now-normal 2022 shitty self and can't quit crowing about it and shitting on Page/Tony Kahn/AEW about it. And Page is seeing it and hearing it even as he racks up wins/successful defenses. And again, it isn't history-making to have a title run with some ugly wins mixed in with it. All of it is making his old insecurities/instability flare up. So OF COURSE Page is salty and jealous of the bigger names who are taking part in 'taking his shine' when its 'supposed to be his time'.

And to make matters worse, Punk is the captain of that squad of bigger and more popular names. And Page sees the walls closing in. And Punk is lowkey needling him about it.

This is where the WWE video packages could tell the shit out of the above story and make it crystal clear even if the weekly stuff doesn't..especially for the Cornette/negativo pod and blog posse who are almost obviously hate watching all of this WWE and AEW stuff and talking about it in bad faith for clicks/views.

I'm very interested in seeing what the hell they do with this thing at DON. Punk always has a heel turn in him so that could happen. But Page could also use the insecurity as an excuse to do some desperate/bad shit to keep the title, further piss off the innanet, and rob the CM Punk fans of seeing their guy get coronated.

Or one of them could just straight up win the match. We'll see.



>this hasnt worked at all for me
>
>title shot from a battle royale or whatever, pointless
>hardcore matches on weekly tv, sacrificed BD to try to
>validate his championship, and now this extremely confusing
>build
>
>whats he mad about? why is he talking about "workers' rights
>on camera? why is he suggesting he has a fuller grasp of
>being a a champion than Punk? why does everything he does
>default into him struggling with being an insecure bitch?
>
>
>
>
>
>
2766238, I think it works better if hangman wins
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Thu May-26-22 10:19 AM
Whether it’s straight and Punk heels it up after the match. Or hangman goes heel and does some drastic shit. But either way I think this is the chance they have been waiting for to actually do something substantial with Hangman. It feels like they have been biding their time until they really has something good for him
2766240, I like the angle they’ve taken for this feud, it was just hella rushed
Posted by pretentious username, Thu May-26-22 10:39 AM
Typically this company does long-term storytelling well, especially when it involves the title, so it’s disappointing to see this feud just kinda thrown together. They have the right pieces to make it work, it was just poorly constructed. Also, Punk should have been a little antagonistic. Think about how much better this would be if Punk had made sly little comments on commentary a couple months ago. If he had made a little joke about no one caring about hangman’s title reign THAT would have given Page a reason to be angry. As it stands, most of what Hangman has said in his promos has made sense, it just came out of nowhere.
2766246, its more so that this is the angle for everything he does
Posted by cgonz00cc, Thu May-26-22 11:29 AM
hes a whiny bitch leaving the elite

hes a whiny bitch with a drinking problem

hes a whiny bitch teaming with omega

hes literally crying as he sabotages the bucks

hes a whiny bitch parting ways with omega

hes a whiny bitch as the champion, with the added bonus of being jealous of his challenger.

i agree that giving him a reason to feel aggrieved would have helped here, but its still drawn from the same well. ive expressed surprise at how much popularity he was able to retain thru all his terrible creative, but i gotta think that tank is gonna run dry eventually. im there already lol

2766310, Agree with all you’ve said, now wondering if he turns heel and wins
Posted by Tiger Woods, Fri May-27-22 01:46 PM
If Punk wins the title … it’d be exciting in the moment but then where do you go?

But if Hangman cheats huge to win the title … then you’ve got something you can gnaw on a few months
2766346, I think Punk turns and wins
Posted by pretentious username, Sat May-28-22 11:22 AM
And I think they’re going for a “Page was right all along” story, but again, they should’ve done a few more weeks of work to build this and make Punk’s motivations unclear. Oh well, I think the match will be a banger. It might suffer from a long ass card though.
2766347, this is where their smart mark fanbase hinders them
Posted by cgonz00cc, Sat May-28-22 11:49 AM
could you imagine the reaction if halfway thru the match he said "fuck this" and got himself counted out?

then do a REAL tribute to Owen Hart and have him say that he obviously won, bc heres the belt, see?
2766373, what in the name of brian pillman's ghost is going on in vegas?
Posted by cgonz00cc, Sun May-29-22 01:27 PM
if this isnt real, telling everyone MJF has gone AWOL is an interesting way to try to get last minute PPV buys
2766417, Is this the longest PPV ever
Posted by Tiger Woods, Sun May-29-22 10:53 PM
2766434, 145 or the first 150 minutes were completely useless
Posted by cgonz00cc, Mon May-30-22 12:53 PM
everything between MJF/Wardlow and Darby/KOR was an interminable bore. if that Darby match hadnt been added late this would have been a 2 match show

i fell asleep during Martha Hart talking, and it was a struggle to make it that far
2766502, RE: Is this the longest PPV ever
Posted by jimaveli, Tue May-31-22 06:05 PM
>

Haha. I remember feeling like I was never gonna get to leave during Mania 32 in Dallas or 34 in New Orleans. I want to believe I helped end long azz 1-night manias forever by being tired af in those 2 crowds. I remember myself and a shitload of people around wherever I was sitting running out of gas bigtime AND multiple times on those shows.

For this one, yeah...it was a lot of stuff. And I'm not confident they got the match order 'right'. MJF had to be first if he was showing up at all. Page/Punk had to be last cuz duh. The rest of it? IDK!

I can't imagine if I would've started with the Buy-In too! I watched that the next day cuz you can't make me not love Danhausen (he's great at what he's doing and the Hook shit IS WORKING..its buying the kid time to fill in his blanks AND he gets to be a heater for a character who obviously needs a heater). Anyway, I came into the show tired from a long day outside, so at first I thought it might've been me. But I knew it wasn't just me when (God bless her) Martha kept on talking after the Coles won the Owen. I was forced to think 'man, what else do we have left besides the main?'.

Personally, I don't know if I have ever truly recovered from the main NXT Takeover era spoiling me rotten/giving me the rasslin I do adore the most for 2-3 hours and getting out of there. There was gonna be:

- Stuff you were excited to see (IE: anything with Velveteen for me, or some indy/Japan person being treated like THE SHIT making their badass debut in a good match)

- Some well-built rivalry/grudge match that WWE, the announcers, and the workers all did a great job of selling the hell out of before, during, and after. NXT was impressively produced IMO.

- Things that were better than you expected (IE: some random-seeming tag match that would get elevated by dudes being amazing for 18-ish minutes and forcing you to appreciate what they were doing),

- Some BANGER MAIN EVENT to close it all out.

And those NXT groups were small enough that they could do that, give most matches hella time, and still get us out of there in 3-ish hours..if not 2. 5 or 6 matches. Yes yes yes.

Now, with AEW basically being handed a whole roster of folks from WWE in addition to the group they put together on-purpose, they're catching hell with trying to balance 'getting people onto the show in something worthwhile', 'giving people more bang for their buck', and exhausting the fanhood of the people watching the shows at home. I mean I FUCKING LOVE WRESTLING but I don't know if any company with any card can throw 5 hours of wrestling at me at once and keep me rolling through it all in one sitting even 4 or 5 times a year.

The good news, as long as my DVR works and actually records the damn show (I got screwed with DoN), I can make any show a 2-day show! But it is something that has to be figured out by all of these feds. WWE has taken the hint from Wrestle Kingdom and they're down with the 2-night Mania from now on it seems. That is asking a lot of the in-person fan..buying 2 tix instead of one, having to manage 2 commutes to the stadium from the house, some hotel, or whatever, and two 6-8 hour shifts watching wrestling.
2766421, Watching the BCC vs JAS now. They’ve sandbagged Page vs Punk
Posted by Cold Truth, Sun May-29-22 11:07 PM
This match was fun and all, but it’s long as hell, and so much is going on. That crowd is going to be dead by the time Punk/Page starts.
2766423, yeah whoever books AEW needs to give up the sticks
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Mon May-30-22 12:08 AM
great performers for the most part but they get some dogshit to work with

also this shit was so goddamn long because TK was concerned about some damn NBA. run your own race my guy
2766428, I fell asleep, last thing I remember seeing is Jurassic Express win
Posted by Tiger Woods, Mon May-30-22 04:11 AM
Gonna seek out Hangman/Punk now
2766433, Khan does it himself and hes an idiot
Posted by cgonz00cc, Mon May-30-22 12:47 PM
2766435, hard to believe Jericho was the WWE champion
Posted by cgonz00cc, Mon May-30-22 01:02 PM
because his mind shits out some of the worst mudshow silliness ive ever seen on TV

and of course Moxley has to get himself tangled in barbed wire. what a fucking idiot.

just fucking terrible


2766441, I skipped the stuff I didn’t care about, but DoN was enjoyable
Posted by pretentious username, Tue May-31-22 06:47 AM
I recommend moving to the West Coast where sports and wrestling times don’t interfere with life as much! I was mostly watching Game 7 of the ECF, so I was playing catch-up with this.

Let’s start with the bad: Bucks/Hardys was not what it was a few years ago. It’s no wonder that Matt has been more of a manager for the past year or so. The Hardys are cooked.

There were many matches that were fine in a vacuum, but did not fit in on a long ass card. I am told Darby/Kyle was good, but who cares? They want to fit stars like Darby and Jade Cargill on each major card, which I get, but people only have so much energy. This match, the TBS title, and the American Top Team mess were easy skips for me.

Wasn’t crazy about the Owen tourney finals. They’ve given Cole something to hang his hat on, which I get, but Britt didn’t need this as much as Ruby, Kris, or Toni did. Feels like a big missed opportunity.


But there was plenty of good:

Wardlow/MJF was exactly what it needed to be, especially if MJF is gonna be off tv for a while. I’m sure TK asked Wardlow to add a few more powerbombs after the No-show drama.

I think people on this board have dug their heels in on hating JAS and BCC, cause I can’t imagine watching that match and not having a blast. They woke up the crowd at a time when that was needed, but on this board they were screwing over the main event? Cmon. BCC will need to get some major wins after this, but Eddie looking like a horror villain is an image that will stick.

House of Black vs. Death Triangle was absolute fire. This feud has played out in bits and pieces, so it didn’t really belong on the card, but they still brought the house down. Still think the HoB presentation needs some work, but they looked awesome here.

Tag title match was fun, but I think the title should’ve changed hands. Either one of the challengers would’ve been better choices. Women’s title match was good too, almost made up for how weird this feud has been.

I loved the main event. One of them turning heel would’ve made it more memorable, but I also don’t mind waiting to see that. Regardless, the right man won, and Hangman’s decision not to use the belt will add an interesting wrinkle to his character. Let’s see where they go with it.
2766443, Nothing I said came even close to “hating” on either group
Posted by Cold Truth, Tue May-31-22 08:38 AM
It was solely about the timing of the match. That’s it.

Given how much was going on, that there was a single match between that and the main event, it was a perfectly reasonable concern at the time.

In fact, I don’t think you’ll find a single critical word written by me about the groups themselves, much less this feud or match, anywhere in the wrestling posts.
2766448, Fair enough
Posted by pretentious username, Tue May-31-22 09:38 AM
But still, when I watched it I saw it as “we gotta get these people riled up” not “let’s expend everyone’s energy before the main event.” There being a match in between , I understand your view.
2766449, I watched the whole thing from the beginning
Posted by Cold Truth, Tue May-31-22 09:53 AM
I was into it like crazy, but when it came on, I was like, fuck, really?

Because I had all but forgotten it was on the card, and had sat through so much already.

So my “sandbagging” comment was fueled by my own feelings of the show lagging + seeing similar matches on other shows where the crowds were sapped by the time the main event hit.

I definitely don’t think anyone was looking to sabotage Page & Punk. I just saw that as the effect of it, not the purpose.

All that said, that match was one of the greatest moments of pure chaos I’ve ever watched.

It felt like Infiniti War for pro wrestling, everyone fighting a battle on a different front.
2766500, RE: I watched the whole thing from the beginning
Posted by jimaveli, Tue May-31-22 05:24 PM
>I was into it like crazy, but when it came on, I was like,
>fuck, really?
>
>Because I had all but forgotten it was on the card, and had
>sat through so much already.
>
>So my “sandbagging” comment was fueled by my own feelings
>of the show lagging + seeing similar matches on other shows
>where the crowds were sapped by the time the main event hit.
>
>I definitely don’t think anyone was looking to sabotage Page
>& Punk. I just saw that as the effect of it, not the purpose.
>
>
>All that said, that match was one of the greatest moments of
>pure chaos I’ve ever watched.
>
>It felt like Infiniti War for pro wrestling, everyone fighting
>a battle on a different front.

And once it became clear that the music was going to keep going, that made it feel even crazier. And every time the camera seemed to 'find' someone else fighting, there was straight up carnage going down. It was bonkers for a while there. And that visual of EK coming to the ring with intentions of for setting Jericho on fire...wow.

I went into that match with something other than high hopes for real. But once that music kept going and it was clear that they were serious about making it as ugly as possible, it worked on me pretty well. I'm holding onto some excitement about BCC and I might be guilty of trusting (and loving) BD and Regal too much. But whatever..I like them in general even if I only want Mox in doses and/or in certain situations.
2766453, Yeah, DoN ran too long. But there was stuff that I liked a lot
Posted by mrhood75, Tue May-31-22 10:47 AM
Note: I didn't watch it until last night, since I was out of town for the weekend.

Anyway, I think the easiest way to trim down the run time would have been to not have the Owen Hart Tournament finals on the PPV. Neither match was that great: don't know why they put Cole over Joe, and the insistence on keeping Britt so strong has been weird, especially as she hasn't been very good since she lost the title. Furthermore, the Marth Hart presentation/speech went waaaay too long and ground the show to a halt. I'd also like to add that every single Sharpshooter performed by anyone that night sucked.

I liked the O'Reily and Allin match quite a bit, but it didn't need to be on the PPV. O'Reily looked really good, especially carrying things after Darby knocked himself silly. But I'm also not sure why KOR went over, considering they've most had him as a tag team guy. If they're planning on putting him in the TNT Title picture or want to make him Punk's first televised challenger, then sure. But if none of that is coming, there was no "point" to the match.

Jade is the champ and increasingly over with the crowd, but that match was also unecessary. Besides, the ring work itself was the shits. It served its purpose in that it introduced Stokely and Athena, but that probably could have just booked the same match on Wednesday's LA show and it would have been fine.

I love the BCC, and find the JAS entertaining (Jericho's proclaiming "I'm a wizard!" always cracks me up). That said, the match was probably a bit too much of a clusterfuck. Too much going on at the same. The cameras could even keep up with the spots and kept missing the key ones. But I'll grant you that there were some great spots. I'm the one who liked the Darby/Sting/Sammy vs. Andrade/Matt/Isiah at Revolution, and I think this one might have been more... easy to follow (I guess?) if they'd limited it to six total people. Keeping it Moxley/Danielson/Kingston vs. Jericho/Hager/Garcia would have helped things.

I won't front: the mixed tag match worked for me. Well, Paige Van Zandt kinda stunk, but I thought the storyline of the match itself worked. Sammy/Tay being completely insufferable, while an exasperated Kazarian eventually just gets fed up trying to deal with them, made for solid entertainment. At least the angle is over. And Dan Lambert can hopefully go away.

Bucks vs/ Hardys also ended up working, even though the Bucks had to carry just about everything. Jeff looks **really** done out there, and now that they've gotten this match out of the way, they need to keep him from wrestling.

Everything else I liked a lot. In an ideal world, they would have switched up the match order, but real life circumstances intervened. I get they had to start things off with MJF/Wardlow after Saturday's shennanigans, but it would have been a satisfying palette cleanser after Anarchy and before the title match. It was the best built-up match on the card, and it was kind of a shame that they needed to open things with it. Like, it would be REALLY effective to have it be that Wardlow had to spend the entire night in the holding cell before FINALLY getting to get his hands on MJF. That being said, keeping MJF in isolation in a room with Pat Buck for almost four hours would have been hard to pull off. The match itself was everything it needed to be, even if there wasn't much of a "match."

The tag title match probably should have opened things. I agree that I wouldn't have minded a title change, as I found myself really rooting for Swerve and Keith Lee to win, but I also recognize that both of the opposing tag teams were made up of singles wrestlers, and the tag division is so strong that they don't really need Swerve/Lee or Starks/Hobbs holding the title.

Death Triangle vs. HoB was non-stop action, and they finally went somewhere with Julia Hart (though I'm past caring about her). The Acclaimed/Gunn Club interlude was thoroughly enjoyable. It's a shame that Bowens is hurt, because this angle is killing it.

And the title match was really good. Again, it would have been easy to turn one heel (I half-expected Punk to waffle Page with the belt after Hangman decided not use it), but as a story the match hit the right notes. And they were going to have to put the title on Punk eventually.

So, that's my thoughts. The evening was bloated and mess, but I still give it a thumbs up.
2766455, Billy Gunn wishing the Acclaimed were his real sons is great
Posted by cgonz00cc, Tue May-31-22 11:05 AM
almost made me forget Caster did yet another job to a bland piece of untoasted white bread friday night

but yeah, im enjoying that
2766456, I cringed at Ruby’s sharpshooter especially
Posted by pretentious username, Tue May-31-22 11:05 AM
Woof… if ya can’t pull it off, don’t try!
2766472, Who among us didn’t have that shit mastered by age 12?
Posted by Cold Truth, Tue May-31-22 12:35 PM
That was shameful

It’s like people are on a mission to make us forget just how abysmal The Rock’s Sharpshitter was.
2766489, In all fairness, technically Allin did a shitty Scorpion Deathlock
Posted by mrhood75, Tue May-31-22 02:20 PM
But yeah, everyone was intent on making the Rock look like... Owen Hart.
2766501, I almost thought I was being trolled
Posted by jimaveli, Tue May-31-22 05:31 PM
>That was shameful
>
>It’s like people are on a mission to make us forget just how
>abysmal The Rock’s Sharpshitter was.

I'm rarely watching these shows looking for stuff to critique..I go on and on about that probably too much but forreal..I REALLY DON'T!

But good lawd, I was losing my mind on those rancid and terrible sharpshooters. I couldn't believe it!

I was trying to tell myself they were doing them badly on purpose to 'validate' the sharpshooter not being the sentimental/pandering finishes to the matches where they happened.

Then I thought..maybe they were trolling Bret cuz Martha and Bret aren't exactly tight. IDK! But I don't want to believe they were notably bad like that for no reason. But maybe that's all there is to it! Haha. But I'm glad it wasn't just me. I was at the house doing a negative version of the B High 'My gawd!' or the 'C'mon now!'.
2766530, Max out there mixing the Pipe Bomb with Flair
Posted by magilla vanilla, Wed Jun-01-22 08:28 PM
Whewwww buddy. What a promo.
2766531, RE: Max out there mixing the Pipe Bomb with Flair
Posted by jimaveli, Wed Jun-01-22 08:47 PM
>Whewwww buddy. What a promo.

He put all of the blogs, pods, and social media shit together in a stew and delivered a killer promo. It’s gonna be wonderful when he somehow ends up the babyface with Punk as the heel or something like that. Regardless, he’s continuing his badass run as a must-watch item on a rasslin show. And it’s on.
2766533, Rock-like upside. I said it.
Posted by Tiger Woods, Wed Jun-01-22 09:36 PM
That was electric.

Pretty fun how he went out and did his own version of the “pipe bomb”, knowing he’ll forever be attached to CM Punk. He should be the one to take it off of Punk, what a story that would be if the third leg of the trilogy is for the strap - a heel Punk vs a “face” MJF. Hell do it on Long Island.
2766534, My boy was cooking with gas today
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Wed Jun-01-22 10:18 PM
2766535, I was there tonight, and I’m embarrassed to say I went to get food
Posted by pretentious username, Thu Jun-02-22 12:08 AM
right before this segment started.

In my defense though, I had barely eaten all day.
2766537, YOU FUCKED UP! YOU FUCKED UP! YOU FUCKED UP! YOU FUCKED UP!
Posted by Cold Truth, Thu Jun-02-22 01:23 AM
>right before this segment started.
>
>In my defense though, I had barely eaten all day.

So fucking starve!

Lol

Jokes aside, that sucks. I was mad that I didnt cop tickets for this, but to have been there and miss that particular moment has to sting a bit.
2766539, Eh, I was really fucking hungry
Posted by pretentious username, Thu Jun-02-22 07:44 AM
>
>Jokes aside, that sucks. I was mad that I didnt cop tickets
>for this, but to have been there and miss that particular
>moment has to sting a bit.

One of those days where my stomach was being weird, so once it was ready to go I had to grab something and wolf it down while there were no lines.
2766549, I'm just fucking with you
Posted by Cold Truth, Thu Jun-02-22 12:01 PM
2766560, Yeah I know, I just have a history of this lol
Posted by pretentious username, Thu Jun-02-22 02:13 PM
But it’s always something different.

Once took too many edibles and had to leave before the finals of the PWG BOLA tournament. I wasn’t falling over or anything, just overwhelmed, and I said “I’ll buy the blu ray later, I gotta gtfooh.”

At Mania 34, after 2 straight days of eating greasy food, I had a very rare “I gotta go to the bathroom RIGHT now” moment, so I missed the whole Ronda & Kurt vs. McMahons match. Biggest moment of the night, but I had to go.

No regrets, just wish I had better timing.
2766532, AEW is a complete existential indictment of WWE creative
Posted by cgonz00cc, Wed Jun-01-22 09:05 PM
and a complete validation of their infrastructure

the ex WWE guys are by and large just MUCH better pro wrestlers, effectively making stuff look more believable while staying safer. but they have 3 hours of WWE guys every Monday and its the worst prime time show on TV in any genre of any night. the last full episode of RAW I watched was in August of 2000, and today i cant make it thru the first hour.

(this dude just said AEW Galaxy lmao)

even when AEW sucks balls it still lets them be themselves, and it gives it a vitality the WWE lost a long time ago. it truly hurts me when its embarrassingly bad, to the point where im offended on behalf of what it used to be...but Eddie Kingston cant be Eddie Kingston on RAW, and RAW would make Ricky Starks read a script. fuck that.

if i have to watch indie goofball bullshit, i AM going to shit on it. but if the other side of the bullshit might give me that little zap that makes me care i do have to watch it.

i NEVER feel like i have to watch RAW.
2766541, RE: AEW is a complete existential indictment of WWE creative
Posted by jimaveli, Thu Jun-02-22 07:56 AM
>and a complete validation of their infrastructure
>
>the ex WWE guys are by and large just MUCH better pro
>wrestlers, effectively making stuff look more believable while
>staying safer. but they have 3 hours of WWE guys every Monday
>and its the worst prime time show on TV in any genre of any
>night. the last full episode of RAW I watched was in August
>of 2000, and today i cant make it thru the first hour.
>
>(this dude just said AEW Galaxy lmao)
>
>even when AEW sucks balls it still lets them be themselves,
>and it gives it a vitality the WWE lost a long time ago. it
>truly hurts me when its embarrassingly bad, to the point where
>im offended on behalf of what it used to be...but Eddie
>Kingston cant be Eddie Kingston on RAW, and RAW would make
>Ricky Starks read a script. fuck that.
>
>if i have to watch indie goofball bullshit, i AM going to shit
>on it. but if the other side of the bullshit might give me
>that little zap that makes me care i do have to watch it.
>
>i NEVER feel like i have to watch RAW.
>

AEW is getting some things right that wwe barely ever even tries to do and that’s their thing..kinda like what you’re saying.

I keep typing this but you missed at least 5 or 6 good years worth of wwe. The internet doesn’t make money to tell people about good wwe shit from the last 20 years so you’re not going to read that in a lot of places. But the Angle/Benoit/Jericho/Eddie/Booker T/Batista shit had all sorts of good times. Even large chunks of Hogan’s last run was great. And if you’re not bullshitting about not watching it since before even the unanimously beloved Mania 17, you for real missed Shawn’s whole 2nd run. Don’t let bad faith Cornette bullshit tell you Shawn’s story with Taker was bad and the resulting matches weren’t purely excellent. Or that Cena’s whole run where he started going out of his way to show ass to indy guys to orient them to WWE crowds wasn’t useful. Just because the docs aren’t out yet doesn’t mean the shit didn’t happen. And just because the old guys getting paid to be negative about everything since 1999 don’t speak on it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. It blows my mind that people pay attention to Disco Inferno about anything.

At some point, wwe DID stop trying to make weekly tv anything that couldn’t be captured in a video package before a ppv match. And it does make raw not anything that has to be watched in full. But people ignore that earth has changed, these shows are cut up for highlights all the time, and wwe is obviously making money hand over fist doing shit the way they’re doing it so it won’t stop. It is up to the viewer to be smart enough to not sit there for fucking 3 hours with no fast forward capabilities. It’s just not the way to watch the show.
2766546, i stopped watching bc i had nobody to watch with
Posted by cgonz00cc, Thu Jun-02-22 10:59 AM
i went off to college in 2000 and i didnt make any wrestling friends. i watched RAW right up until the week before i moved, and then when i got there i just didnt have anyone to watch with. we did randomly watch WM 2002 bc we had a hacked DirectTV card and we were all just bored on a sunday, but that was it. my friends' minds were blown by how much background i gave them lol.

i did miss the entirety of HBKs second run, all of the eddie guerrero run, peak Cena, all of the Benoit run etc etc. from what i understand 2002-2008ish was full of good stuff, but the longer i was away the easier it was to stay away and i became lapsed.

by the time my life slowed down a bit in the mid to late 2010s, when i tried to watch RAW it was just excruciating. if their business model allows them to do what they do and make money, then of course theyll keep doing it. but its not fun, and in a MAJOR indictment, its not even fun to crack jokes on like the terrible movies i love.
2766548, the same thing ALMOST happened to me
Posted by jimaveli, Thu Jun-02-22 11:57 AM
I started college fall 96. The summer before that, I was going out all the time, trying to get my little love-making on before I left town, and not watching much TV at all. So I was barely watching WWF or WCW. And I wasn't online until fall 96 (LSU computer lab!).

But I got saved. It just so happened that me and my college roommate were sitting around talking in August. It was just two strangers trying to find common ground. We both listened to rap music so we were good there. I said 'wrestling'. He said 'oh yeah, I used to watch that back in the day. What's going on now?'. We literally turned on the TV, saw Hogan wearing black and obviously acting a fool as a heel, and said 'oh shit, we have to watch this to see what in the hell is going on!'. Luckily, they kept showing the turn from BATB, so we got updated pretty fast. From there, we watched every Monday the whole time we were in college. So I just barely got to catch Bret going off the deep end, HBK crashing and burning, Stunning Steve Austin becoming big shit as Stone Cold, ECW, all of that late 90s shit that people go on and on about now (Hell in a Cells, Godfather, Goldberg, DDP, WCW cruisers, etcetera).

If my college roommate doesn't say 'oh yeah' when I say 'wrestling', there's no damn telling when/if I resume watching. WHEW!

And even after that, when I got back to Texas after graduating from college, my local friends had also all but stopped watching wrestling. That's partly how I ended up not going to FUCKING MANIA 17 in Houston 30 mins away from my house. ICK.

BUT

I knew very quickly that I had screwed up because I watched the show from the house. It sent me further into a rasslin nerd spiral. I got more into tape trading, the All Japan dudes (Kobashi is my fav), started filling in gaps with NWA/WCW/WWF stuff that I had missed over the years, and going back and rewatching things while still staying up with WWE and peeking in on TNA (too much Jarrett!). So I saw all of the Manias and Summerfests with adult eyes (and every Mania since) for instance.

>i went off to college in 2000 and i didnt make any wrestling
>friends. i watched RAW right up until the week before i
>moved, and then when i got there i just didnt have anyone to
>watch with. we did randomly watch WM 2002 bc we had a hacked
>DirectTV card and we were all just bored on a sunday, but that
>was it. my friends' minds were blown by how much background i
>gave them lol.
>
>i did miss the entirety of HBKs second run, all of the eddie
>guerrero run, peak Cena, all of the Benoit run etc etc. from
>what i understand 2002-2008ish was full of good stuff, but the
>longer i was away the easier it was to stay away and i became
>lapsed.
>
>by the time my life slowed down a bit in the mid to late
>2010s, when i tried to watch RAW it was just excruciating. if
>their business model allows them to do what they do and make
>money, then of course theyll keep doing it. but its not fun,
>and in a MAJOR indictment, its not even fun to crack jokes on
>like the terrible movies i love.
2766672, Okay, I'll be that guy: I didn't love the MJF promo
Posted by mrhood75, Fri Jun-03-22 04:03 AM
At least not a lot of the content and ideas behind it.

First of all, I generally HATE worked shoots. And I don't think one was needed here. The Pipe Bomb promo worked because Punk was echoing what a lot of fans thought: WWE was ignoring its audience. That's one thing that AEW has never been accused of,

To echo Meltzer, AEW is playing with fire . They're coming off what they're saying is, again, their most successful PPV. And 24 hours later, they're making TK and the company the heels? I don't know if potentially setting up a dynamic where the audience hates the idea of bringing in ex-WWE talent, when generally they've been doing a good job at booking most of them. Right now things aren't perfect, but the roster is a good balance of "home-grown" talent and people the WWE was misusing or given up on. Conditioning them to reject these new signees seems counterintuitive and really is booking for the social media reactions, as much as I hate to say it.

Not to mention that the promo pretty much erased what Wardlow did the night before. He destroyed MJF, sending him off in a stretcher and neck-brace, and now he's back the next night, vaguely mentioning being "hurt," but mostly acting like nothing happened.

Seems like the next step is setting up a Punk/MJF rematch at All Out, where like Punk goes heel nad MJF turns face. Which is fine, but undermining their own success on the way to getting there is a... weird choice.
2766674, I hear ya, I just trust the hands it’s in
Posted by pretentious username, Fri Jun-03-22 05:49 AM

>
>First of all, I generally HATE worked shoots.

WWE was ignoring
>its audience. That's one thing that AEW has never been accused
>of,

I generally hate worked shoots as well, but I think they’re pulling it off well, and they’re not taking the angle that AEW/Tony are out of touch, just that they disrespect a homegrown talent.

>
>To echo Meltzer, AEW is playing with fire .

I know what you mean, it runs the risk of getting very WCW, but again, I trust the hands it’s in.

Conditioning them to reject these new
>signees seems counterintuitive and really is booking for the
>social media reactions, as much as I hate to say it.

I doubt that will happen. I think that line sells MJF’s gripe, but I’d be surprised if fans take that and run with it as an anti-new signees thing.

>
>Not to mention that the promo pretty much erased what Wardlow
>did the night before. He destroyed MJF, sending him off in a
>stretcher and neck-brace, and now he's back the next night,
>vaguely mentioning being "hurt," but mostly acting like
>nothing happened.

3 days later, but yeah, I don’t disagree with any of this. The content of the promo wouldn’t have been hurt by some classic MJF excuses up top.
2766677, im with you actually
Posted by cgonz00cc, Fri Jun-03-22 06:51 AM

>First of all, I generally HATE worked shoots. And I don't
>think one was needed here. The Pipe Bomb promo worked because
>Punk was echoing what a lot of fans thought: WWE was ignoring
>its audience. That's one thing that AEW has never been accused
>of,

to me it went wayyyyyy past the point where it it could credibly NOT be explicitly endorsed by the company, and jumped the shark early.

>To echo Meltzer, AEW is playing with fire . They're coming off
>what they're saying is, again, their most successful PPV. And
>24 hours later, they're making TK and the company the heels?

even simpler than that it makes that fucking idiot part of the show now.

>I
>don't know if potentially setting up a dynamic where the
>audience hates the idea of bringing in ex-WWE talent, when
>generally they've been doing a good job at booking most of
>them.

this I dont agree with tho. everyone mattered more on the day they came in than they do now other than Punk.

>Right now things aren't perfect, but the roster is a
>good balance of "home-grown" talent and people the WWE was
>misusing or given up on. Conditioning them to reject these new
>signees seems counterintuitive and really is booking for the
>social media reactions, as much as I hate to say it.

the whole company is built around getting a social media reaction, and this seems to be entirely around being able to say they fooled the losers that make up 90% of the wrestling "media"

>Not to mention that the promo pretty much erased what Wardlow
>did the night before. He destroyed MJF, sending him off in a
>stretcher and neck-brace, and now he's back the next night,
>vaguely mentioning being "hurt," but mostly acting like
>nothing happened.

YES. completely diluted stretcher job. might as well have just gotten up halfway up the ramp and walked a la Sid Vicious 😂

>Seems like the next step is setting up a Punk/MJF rematch at
>All Out, where like Punk goes heel nad MJF turns face. Which
>is fine, but undermining their own success on the way to
>getting there is a... weird choice.

other than appreciating the conviction of his delivery, i dont really see why anyone would cheer for him. that requires an overwhelming amount of "oh this is all fake anyways so it doesnt matter". granted their 700K core audience doesnt have much problem with that, but still. i dont think this is a good foundation for that, especially if Wardlow is going to be a big part of the show.
2766733, to me, the only error in this is that it happened too soon
Posted by Tiger Woods, Fri Jun-03-22 11:56 AM
there's all sorts of dumb nonsensical bullshit on this show. Doing something that comes this close to "real" is refreshing and necessary.

On no planet should Adam Cole win a fist fight against Samoa Joe. Kris Statlander is an alien, maybe? The Young Bucks are treated like they're special...Malakai Black keeps turning off the lights...Orange Cassidy and Danhausen...there's dumb unbelievable bullshit all over this show every week.

So I'm totally fine with MJF going in this direction. It makes sense and it keeps MJF hot after having suffered two huge PPV losses in a row. This is probably the angle they always wanted to do but thought of doing closer to 2024, but like he said who else other Punk matters as much as him? Do it now, F it. He's so much more interesting than anyone else on the show not named Phil Brooks, and that somehow even includes guys like Danielson, Omega, and Keith Lee.

The only issue, and it's a legitimate and big issue, is that they did this on the first show after he got his ass so badly kicked by Wardlow. He wasn't in a sling or neck brace or anything and I'd expect him to know better because I think he's a wrestling savant. So it does make for a random and abrupt tonal shift going from the Wardlow beatdown to a fiery promo only a few days later with no signs for wear.

2766742, Dynamite in LA review
Posted by pretentious username, Fri Jun-03-22 02:04 PM
I LOVED The Forum. I think it's my 2nd favorite arena I've seen wrestling in after MSG. Great atmosphere, and it didn't seem like there was a bad seat in the house.

Only caught the last Dark match, and it was Death Triangle, so you know I was loving it.

Punk as champ was super over (though there were some scattered boos). And The Acclaimed + Gunn Club pairing is fantastic. The "Ass Boys" bit is so goddamn funny. First time seeing FTR live in a while. God, that finisher is gold.

Tanahashi's appearance got a HUGE pop. I personally would've preferred Naito vs. Punk, but this ain't even a consolation prize. Tana is the shit and has been arguably been New Japan's MVP during the pandemic. I'm looking forward to this match.

We already covered MJF's promo earlier. I'll just add that this BETTER not lead to TK becoming an on-screen character. All he did that night was say "we have 30 seconds till the show starts!" and it was somehow still super awkward. LMAO.

Miro's return got a huge pop. I hope Johnny Elite keeps coming around and gets some wins eventually, but he was a great opponent to reestablish Miro.

As others mentioned, would've liked a better follow-up for Wardlow, but I've been getting a kick out of this Smart Mark angle. He's gotta represent someone big though, can't be Tony Nese.

Speaking of things I get a kick out of: JAS is great. Hager sticks out like a sore thumb, but they need a heavy. Jericho shutting off his music got more heat than what you could hear on TV. Matt Menard absolutely kills me. It's like if the Tazmanian Devil was a slapstick comedian. "Appreciate Us" and "What kind of a man burns another man?" are just incredible lines.

I think Eddie may have gotten the biggest pop of the night. Everyone LOVES that guy.

I was happy that Hikuleo made an appearance. I'm really high on the guy, and he looks even more gigantic when compared to Darby and the Bucks.

The Athena/Jade segment was a mess. They need writers. I like Athena, but she needs a mouthpiece and some acting lessons. It seemed like Stokely was a little nervous too. He's got a TON of potential as a manager though. He's a perfect match for Jade, but they should lose the Baddies. All they add is distractions/interference, which Jade shouldn't need ever.

The women's tag match was pretty good and I was glad to see Ruby get her win back. It's just annoying that they put the women's match in the same "we're just killing time till the main event" time spot pretty much every week.

Nothing really to say about Mox vs. Garcia. It was brutal and I enjoyed it.
2766757, Shiiiiiid, daaaaaaamn, mutha-fuckaaaaaa
Posted by jimaveli, Fri Jun-03-22 09:57 PM
Damn damn damn Phil!

Of course, Punk gets his Finn Balor on and gets some kind of jackass injury right as/after he wins the title. Boo. This blows. Reigns is off somewhere on break and now this!? Damnit.

Jericho kept saying ‘relinquish’. And now they’re on some interim/WCW 92 shit. I guess we will find out next week. It’s cool that the roster has like 10 plausible/reasonable champs. And maybe they can just ice this MJF thing if Punk was gonna be heavily involved. The time lapse could make it even more grand.

>Wrestling is ongoing.
>
>AEW Revolution is tonight. I shall watch and hope I don't let
>myself get burned out by the few car crash matches they have
>planned. I'm AMPED for at least half the card so that's a good
>sign. Sensible dinners Jericho vs Peanut Butter Pie Kingston
>has me excited and I keep forgetting about it. That's another
>sign of a pretty heavy-handed card for these folks.
>
>https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10028539-updated-2022-aew-revolution-match-card-ahead-of-ppv
>
>WWE's Mania is about a month away and trying to come together
>around Charlotte/Rousey, Becks/Belair, and Roman/Brock Part
>17. I've been looking back at some old manias and lawd
>hammercy..there's some rancidly bad ones in between some
>sneaky great ones that stand up TIL THIS DAY. And even some of
>the ones that are labelled as 'good' are 2 or 3 good azz
>matches surrounded by some pretty pointless 'cool yourselves
>off until the next good thing' stuff.
>
>Nobody really knows what's up with Cody.
>
>Cesaro is out in the wild now too allegedly.
>
>Jake Something (decent rassler from Impact) is allegedly not
>at the tapings today.
>
>Jeff Hardy is coming to AEW. AEW doesn't need anymore badass
>tag teams to try to book but okay.
>
>Brock's MSG opponent ended up being an offense-free Austin
>Theory leading into a Reigns beatdown on Brock.
>
>NXT 2.0 is trying to find its way. The diverse array of
>good-looking young talent IS notable even if WWE taking away
>the best mega-indy in Murrica still hurts sometimes.
>
>Terminus is a thing that exists post-ROH 1.0. I owe them some
>of my time at some point. I REALLY need to catch up on NJPW
>and the Japan indy scene. I'm guessing I'm missing hella
>goodies there too.
>
>ROH is now owned by Tony Kahn. The tapes, damnit! Imagine how
>much goodness is on those tapes!
>
>CYN has started doing shows. And the jokes are plentiful early
>on. For all we've said about AEW leaning too heavy on
>'surprises' then not being able to live up to the innanet's
>wildest dreams (Cena, Brock, folks like that), I'm gonna get
>wild and say that Austin Aries can't be your 'check out our
>big surprise' to start, can it?
>
>On AEW, if someone would've told me 5 years ago that a new
>Murrican wrestling company was gonna show up and end up with
>Jericho, American Dragon-style Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, any of
>the 3 members of the Shield, some of the gaijin from New
>Japan, some folks WWE didn't want anymore, indy folks who vary
>wildly in goodness, and some youngsters..many of whom have
>obvious skills and just need a shot, I would've signed off on
>it without thinking about it for long. And again, I keep
>admitting this..I would've never guessed that Punk being back
>on a wrestling show would be this obviously great but it
>totally is. That SOB is OVER over. And its not just people
>deciding to like him cuz of his aura or whatever. He's doing
>supreme work overall.
>
>AEW, flaws and all, is an easy win for everyone who likes
>wrestling in general as long as you're not worried about
>getting taken out of Vince's will. Also, I keep saying this
>too but AEW will, somehow and someway, eventually make WWE
>better. They've already allowed/forced WWE to thin out their
>catering room and promo closets. 3 good months of AEW Miro
>being hossy and great > Rusev post tank entrance/losing to
>Cena, getting punished for getting Rusev Day over, and
>whatever that was with Lashley.
2766758, Man, he can’t just Hulk Hogan/Brock Lesnar that shit?
Posted by DJR, Fri Jun-03-22 10:16 PM
Just show up and talk shit and hold the title up in the air every now and then for a few months, until it’s healed? Let all the other workhorses carry the show? When’s the next PPV anyways? AEW doesn’t have them every month like WWE. If he’s not ready by the next PPV, just have him make an appearance, and have the main event be for a title shot or something. Or let the TNT match main event and make it really matter like the old 80s-early 90s IC title. They used to do shit like that all the time - go back to it, who cares? Nobody got time for keeping up with this pressed ass title match at every monthly PPV, 5 different champions in a year, modern WWE bullshit schedule anyway. Nobody following wrestling like THAT. Slow it down and let him hold it, who cares?
2766759, RE: Man, he can’t just Hulk Hogan/Brock Lesnar that shit?
Posted by jimaveli, Fri Jun-03-22 10:28 PM
>Just show up and talk shit and hold the title up in the air
>every now and then for a few months, until it’s healed? Let
>all the other workhorses carry the show? When’s the next
>PPV anyways? AEW doesn’t have them every month like WWE.
>If he’s not ready by the next PPV, just have him make an
>appearance, and have the main event be for a title shot or
>something. Or let the TNT match main event and make it really
>matter like the old 80s-early 90s IC title. They used to do
>shit like that all the time - go back to it, who cares?
>Nobody got time for keeping up with this pressed ass title
>match at every monthly PPV, 5 different champions in a year,
>modern WWE bullshit schedule anyway. Nobody following
>wrestling like THAT. Slow it down and let him hold it, who
>cares?

Yeah. They could do something like that. But Punk probably doesn’t want to be that type of champ (even tho it would make that MJF story everyone keeps booking a WOW for a different reason). And maybe he’s FUCKING HURT and he could be out for longer than they even wanted to say. Like 6 months or something more.

Now that you bring it up, I also wonder wtf WWE is about to do. Rollins/Cody is the number one program in the company and Reigns is off somewhere doing something/on some Brock+ shit. They’re kinda doing what you’re talking about. There’s rumors that Jack Tunney isn’t walking through any doors (with his defense every 30 days rules) and Reigns might not defend again til damn near Summerfest.
2766760, RE: Man, he can’t just Hulk Hogan/Brock Lesnar that shit?
Posted by DJR, Fri Jun-03-22 10:51 PM
>>Just show up and talk shit and hold the title up in the air
>>every now and then for a few months, until it’s healed?
>Let
>>all the other workhorses carry the show? When’s the next
>>PPV anyways? AEW doesn’t have them every month like WWE.
>>If he’s not ready by the next PPV, just have him make an
>>appearance, and have the main event be for a title shot or
>>something. Or let the TNT match main event and make it
>really
>>matter like the old 80s-early 90s IC title. They used to
>do
>>shit like that all the time - go back to it, who cares?
>>Nobody got time for keeping up with this pressed ass title
>>match at every monthly PPV, 5 different champions in a year,
>>modern WWE bullshit schedule anyway. Nobody following
>>wrestling like THAT. Slow it down and let him hold it, who
>>cares?
>
>Yeah. They could do something like that. But Punk probably
>doesn’t want to be that type of champ (even tho it would
>make that MJF story everyone keeps booking a WOW for a
>different reason). And maybe he’s FUCKING HURT and he could
>be out for longer than they even wanted to say. Like 6 months
>or something more.
>
>Now that you bring it up, I also wonder wtf WWE is about to
>do. Rollins/Cody is the number one program in the company and
>Reigns is off somewhere doing something/on some Brock+ shit.
>They’re kinda doing what you’re talking about. There’s
>rumors that Jack Tunney isn’t walking through any doors
>(with his defense every 30 days rules) and Reigns might not
>defend again til damn near Summerfest.

Man, I don’t even know what’s going on there - I didn’t even watch Mania, and Sasha walking out lets me know I’m missing nothing that I care about.

Good point on Punk possibly not wanting to do that, but man I have to wonder if anyone would even know if they slowed it down properly. The whole industry could use a cool down a kill off the hot shot shit, the pressed shit. They lost their minds in the attitude era and have been chasing that ever since. Maybe that was the fluke, and the sweet spot blueprint was the stuff before that? Hope he’s not 6 months hurt like you said though. If he’s not, I say let him be the champ without wrestling for a few months and then build to something big. He doesn’t need to wrestle every week to build - he knows how to do it.
2766761, that works a LOT better with a heel champion tho
Posted by cgonz00cc, Sat Jun-04-22 10:46 AM
what happens when Ethan Page or Will Hobbs comes out and says its bullshit that someone can carry the belt around for months calling himself the champ without defending it?

everyone just nods and says "hm, hes right"?

2766823, this era of Seth Rollins cant be over soon enough
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Sun Jun-05-22 09:30 PM
goddamn it sucks
2766828, damn Cody bruising is disgusting
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Sun Jun-05-22 09:37 PM
https://twitter.com/btsportwwe/status/1533638601484951553

i cannot believe they are letting him do this
2766829, " I cannot believe..." that's a great way of putting it
Posted by Tiger Woods, Sun Jun-05-22 09:38 PM
2766827, Cody Rhodes is wrestling right now with a *fucked up* pec
Posted by Tiger Woods, Sun Jun-05-22 09:36 PM
I appreciate the effort but boy this is gnarly
2766830, damn that was kinda iconic
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Sun Jun-05-22 10:02 PM
it's gonna be crazy when Cody comes back at the Rumble
2766831, RE: damn that was kinda iconic
Posted by jimaveli, Sun Jun-05-22 10:07 PM
>it's gonna be crazy when Cody comes back at the Rumble

Yeah. If he wasn’t already made man material around there, he totally should be now.

And yeah, whenever he shows up healthy again, it’s gonna be a party. Hopefully it’s a total surprise.

Also, I’m about to turn into Samuel L Jackson about all of these injuries. It’s easy to forget how this shit isn’t ballet but damnit!!!!! Punk, Danielson, Cody, maybe Reigns too..all at once!? Shit!
2766832, high-risk / high-reward scenario that will pay off huge
Posted by Tiger Woods, Sun Jun-05-22 10:11 PM

at first-glance that was pretty alarming I gotta say, and you can't tell me that physically it didn't do more harm than good for Cody.

But to gut through and have a good match is a pretty big deal.
2766834, Shit. Cody put himself in a whole other league with this
Posted by Cold Truth, Mon Jun-06-22 12:50 AM
I’m not a gan of him going on tonight.

I just hope it was 100% his idea and choice, without pressure from higher ups. That’s all.

If that’s how this went down, and his long term health was jot at any serious risk, I’m all for it.

But holy hell did he put himself in another category with this.
2766848, Once the tendon popped free on Friday
Posted by magilla vanilla, Mon Jun-06-22 09:39 AM
that was the extent of the damage- he couldn't have hurt his pec any more. After that, it's just pain tolerance and making sure that you're not in a position where your chest strength is the main thing keeping you and your opponent safe. And good on Rollins for protecting him too.
2766851, Cody Rhodes continues to gamble... and win big
Posted by Tiger Woods, Mon Jun-06-22 10:59 AM

When the book on Cody Rhodes is written he won't go down as the biggest money draw ever or the greatest wrestler of all time or a hugely influential character for future generations. But he will, deservedly, go down as the wrestler who benefitted the most from believing in himself and taking calculated risks.

From leaving WWE, to then leaving AEW, to performing last night, I think you'd be hard pressed to find anyone else in this modern era with as much conviction and fearlessness as Cody.

In a way Cody is both an indictment of Tony Khan AND Vince McMahon.

First, it took Cody going out on his own to become the American Nightmare. In returning to WWE he re-arrived as a fully formed prodigal son, a guy who left a boy and came back a man. Part of the evolution is lived and earned. Vince can't fast forward time obviously. But part of that is also Cody knowing who he is and having the freedom, belief, and work ethic to go be that person. He could never have become the American Nightmare organically had he stayed in WWE all of this time.

But when you look at just how well Cody has been presented and in turn received since Wrestlemania it's pretty damning for AEW and Tony Khan. In AEW, Cody probably had too much freedom. I recall going to Dynamite earlier this year and finding him insufferable. He was clearly given little if any notes for promos and given too much time for his promos in general. He lit himself on fire, he did some weird anti-racism promo that was HARD cringe, he did an awful angle with the Ogogo guy...in AEW Cody had no confines and in hindsight I feel he suffered from the lack of structure. Worst of all was the decision to never include him in the title picture, slotting him as an undercard guy right off the rip - that feels like an idea that Cody himself would've come up with and thought was good at the time.

Cody is unique. He's not a special wrestler per se, nor is he a super original character. To me, he's especially interesting because of two things that have nothing to do with workrate or mic skills: 1) He's legacy but so very unlike his father and 2) goddammit he just WANTS it. He looks and moves nothing like Dusty and he's extremely emotional; it's captivating, credible, and simply enough.

I've thought about what Cody did last night all day today. I can't get it out of my head. Not only did he go out and perform, but he performed so well and was one half of what will most likely go down as a classic match. It's probably better than anything AEW has ever done except for maybe a few exceptions like Punk/MJF 1 or Lucha Bros v Bucks. Honestly, the GOAT AEW match is still Goldust v Cody from the first PPV. Go figure.

More importantly, what he did last night was a microcosm of what he's been doing for a decade - he took a risk and reaped the reward. He's definitively the Number 2 guy in the company now right? I mean who's a hotter babyface in the world as of today than Cody Rhodes? They'll miss him this Summer and I will too, but he's a made man on Day 1 whenever he comes back - again returning even more popular than when he left just by being him.

I know they've got their sights set on Reigns v Rock. I understand why. But Reigns v Rhodes would be *so* much better and more important and would still do a huge business at WM next year. Here's hoping that's the direction they go in.

2767010, another reason why it used to be better ©
Posted by cgonz00cc, Wed Jun-08-22 11:46 AM
it wasnt that long ago that doing what Cody did wasnt so much of a gamble but a necessity

add a little bit more to your arsenal with every stop until you finally put it all together

he lived the territory life and it turned him into the biggest full time star in wrestling
2767015, if I'm MJF and the WWE money is comparable or better?
Posted by Tiger Woods, Wed Jun-08-22 12:16 PM
then my mind is already made up
2767022, the difference is Cody can be 100% Cody in WWE
Posted by Oak27, Wed Jun-08-22 01:35 PM
can MJF be 100% MJF in WWE?
2767033, If he can be 80% MJF and make bank
Posted by pretentious username, Wed Jun-08-22 02:09 PM
I think he makes the jump. He’s got a lot of years left (especially with his style) and he’s gotta be wondering if he can climb the mountain in the E. He can always go back if they treat him like shit. By the time his next contract is up he probably won’t even be 30.

I think the biggest downside for jumping to WWE is the schedule/restrictions on what else he can do. But usually a couple million extra can soothe that, and Reigns is showing that the big stars are gonna have some negotiating power regarding the number of dates they work. Maybe MJF isn’t on THAT level of stardom, but Vince is gonna do whatever it takes to steal this guy.
2767056, What a strange way to go about this interim title situation
Posted by pretentious username, Wed Jun-08-22 02:48 PM
Tanahashi, who was already deemed good enough to face Punk (presumably for the title), now has to beat Hiroki Goto, who is kind of a joke as far as top contenders go.

Then, on the other side, Mox becomes #1 contender despite being focused on team wrestling for the most part, and will presumably beat the battle Royale winner since New Japan has been teasing Mox/Tana for like a year or so.

I like Mox, but the prospect of another Mox title run isn’t very inspiring. If it does happen, I hope someone else takes it from him before Punk comes back. Hope I’m wrong all together and the winner of the battle Royale is someone kind of out of left field and they surprise everyone.
2767289, tournaments and battle royales used to be so cool to me
Posted by cgonz00cc, Thu Jun-09-22 06:42 PM
this jackass has just beaten every ounce of life out of them

2767125, Doesn’t this company have enough titles?
Posted by pretentious username, Wed Jun-08-22 08:54 PM
https://www.cagesideseats.com/aew/2022/6/8/23160519/aew-announces-new-title-all-atlantic-championship-tournament-forbidden-door

So we got:

AEW title
ROH title
AEW Women’s title
ROH Women’s title
TNT title
TBS title
All-Atlantic title
ROH Pure title
Tag team title
Owen Hart Men’s Title
Owen Hart Women’s Title
FTW Title
People walking around with MMA belts for some reason

Did I miss any?
2767127, + all the forbidden door/NJPW randos
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Wed Jun-08-22 08:58 PM
this show is an absolute mess rn. i cant wait for this Forbidden Door thing to be done and AEW can focus inward
2767138, I love New Japan, and I have to agree
Posted by pretentious username, Wed Jun-08-22 09:23 PM
I think Mox and Tana can put on a banger and I have been looking forward to it, but again, Mox as AEW champ doesn’t do much for me. There aren’t many fresh matchups and I don’t think him as champ sells any tickets.

Outside of that, they don’t have enough time to sufficiently introduce the NJPW roster to folks that don’t know them, and the folks that do are already watching no matter what they do. This doesn’t bring any eyeballs to the product in America. Maybe a few in Japan.
2767290, Moxley isnt beating Tanahashi
Posted by cgonz00cc, Thu Jun-09-22 06:44 PM
aside from already having tipped their hand last week, i have a hard time believing NJPW is sending him over here to job to this mudshow clown
2767303, lol, yes he is
Posted by pretentious username, Thu Jun-09-22 09:39 PM
>aside from already having tipped their hand last week, i have
>a hard time believing NJPW is sending him over here to job to
>this mudshow clown

Your personal feelings on Mox have nothing to do with it. Tana is amazing, but he currently exists to put over other big stars. And Mox is also a New Japan star who gets booked VERY strongly. Tana loses nothing by taking the L here.
2767313, so they tease Punk and Tanahashi for nothing?
Posted by cgonz00cc, Fri Jun-10-22 07:19 AM
this whole thing just seemed like a convoluted way to take up time until they can deliver on said tease

also, the new champion is gonna be rolling around in the mud with 2point0 3 days later?

that doesnt make any sense to me.

obviously none of this makes sense, but after all these personal travails, theyre not gonna give Punk his big match with someone from NJPW? instead its with Moxley? what use to me is Tanahashi if he cant beat Moxley? why is there no overarching angle to this? why arent these NJPW people beating the shit out of the AEW Dark crowd on Dynamite so JR can set the table for us? where is sonny onoo when you actually need him?

i believe what you say abt Tanahashi, but this is all so ill conceived. they bring in NJPW because theyre running out of matches, just for Moxley? im not seeing the vision
2767318, Huh? Tana was gonna lose to Punk and will also lose to Mox
Posted by pretentious username, Fri Jun-10-22 08:25 AM
No offense to Tana, but that wasn’t the most high profile match they had on the table for Punk. NJPW probably doesn’t want Okada, Naito, or Jay White to lose to him, so Tana was tapped for the job cause he’s a big name and can still go. That’s how the “politics” of these shows work. Both companies have their guys that can’t lose and their guys that can. You match them up from there so that everyone is happy. Mox is a big guy in both companies, he probably ain’t losing.

>also, the new champion is gonna be rolling around in the mud
>with 2point0 3 days later?
>
>that doesnt make any sense to me.

I don’t see how that’s an issue when it’s Mox we’re talking about. They also booked Blood and Guts before they knew the extent of Punk’s injury.

>
>obviously none of this makes sense, but after all these
>personal travails, theyre not gonna give Punk his big match
>with someone from NJPW? instead its with Moxley? what use to
>me is Tanahashi if he cant beat Moxley?

They’re not planning out a 2nd forbidden door, dude. They’re rolling with what they have for the first one. Tana was booked to lose and still is. They’re not worrying about a future Tana vs. Punk match rn.

why is there no
>overarching angle to this? why arent these NJPW people
>beating the shit out of the AEW Dark crowd on Dynamite so JR
>can set the table for us? where is sonny onoo when you
>actually need him?
>
>i believe what you say abt Tanahashi, but this is all so ill
>conceived. they bring in NJPW because theyre running out of
>matches, just for Moxley? im not seeing the vision

Idk what you’re saying here. Yes, this was all poorly planned, and on top of that they have injuries to deal with, so they’re booking on the fly. But with this match, there is an angle that they are not responsible for. NJPW has been teasing Tana/Mox for a year (Mox has been acting like Tana has been ducking him). When Punk went down, this is the direction they chose. That doesn’t mean Mox is gonna lose. If I were a betting man, I’d put a lot of money on Mox.
2767336, i know he was going to lose to Punk
Posted by cgonz00cc, Fri Jun-10-22 10:51 AM
>No offense to Tana, but that wasn’t the most high profile
>match they had on the table for Punk. NJPW probably doesn’t
>want Okada, Naito, or Jay White to lose to him, so Tana was
>tapped for the job cause he’s a big name and can still go.
>That’s how the “politics” of these shows work. Both
>companies have their guys that can’t lose and their guys
>that can. You match them up from there so that everyone is
>happy. Mox is a big guy in both companies, he probably ain’t
>losing.

the point isnt that Tanahashi might beat Punk, just that it would happen. the idea that theyve constructed this nonsense in a way that seems specifically designed to kick it down to road to Labor Day, but arent going to actually do that, is confusing to me.

>>also, the new champion is gonna be rolling around in the mud
>>with 2point0 3 days later?
>>that doesnt make any sense to me.
>
>I don’t see how that’s an issue when it’s Mox we’re
>talking about. They also booked Blood and Guts before they
>knew the extent of Punk’s injury.

right, but they dont have to make a participant the interim champion

>They’re not planning out a 2nd forbidden door, dude.
>They’re rolling with what they have for the first one. Tana
>was booked to lose and still is. They’re not worrying about
>a future Tana vs. Punk match rn.

is that not what everyone wanted to see 9 days ago? they dont have to do a 2nd forbidden door. theyd just need Tanahashi to come back one time as interim champion, and then everyone gets to see the thing Dynamite dangled in front of them. might even get some actual heat this summer without MJF, which seemed impossible.

>Idk what you’re saying here. Yes, this was all poorly
>planned, and on top of that they have injuries to deal with,
>so they’re booking on the fly. But with this match, there is
>an angle that they are not responsible for. NJPW has been
>teasing Tana/Mox for a year (Mox has been acting like Tana has
>been ducking him). When Punk went down, this is the direction
>they chose. That doesn’t mean Mox is gonna lose. If I were a
>betting man, I’d put a lot of money on Mox.

well then this doubly confusing, because they seem to be building their own weekly TV around what you say is a NJPW storyline. Tanahashi, with a win over Moxley and a summer of "taking the belt back to Japan", is a much more appealing All Out opponent for Punk imo than Moxley becoming champ again after beating a battle royal winner and someone who's never been on American TV.
2767341, More interesting, yes, but I just don’t see them doing business this way
Posted by pretentious username, Fri Jun-10-22 11:22 AM

>
>the point isnt that Tanahashi might beat Punk, just that it
>would happen. the idea that theyve constructed this nonsense
>in a way that seems specifically designed to kick it down to
>road to Labor Day, but arent going to actually do that, is
>confusing to me.

It’s not big enough for All Out, simply cause NJPW isn’t big enough here. It’s a dream match for some, a novelty match for some, and meaningless for others. The point of booking the match is Tana is big enough to be a believable challenger to anyone at the top, but he’s not a guy who HAS to win.

>right, but they dont have to make a participant the interim
>champion

I don’t understand the issue here. Mox holds up the title, people cheer, and then he gets bloody with a bunch of guys.

>
>well then this doubly confusing, because they seem to be
>building their own weekly TV around what you say is a NJPW
>storyline.

They’re not building anything. They stumbled into this. This whole PPV is stumbling into matches. It’s a mess.

Tanahashi, with a win over Moxley and a summer of
>"taking the belt back to Japan", is a much more appealing All
>Out opponent for Punk imo than Moxley becoming champ again
>after beating a battle royal winner and someone who's never
>been on American TV.

Like I said, it may be more interesting, but it’s simply not how these companies do business. Inter-promotional shows are built around who each company is willing to see lose. There may be a couple surprises, but nothing crazy. Tana is a guy who would be booked to lose to Punk, Mox, Bryan, Page… maybe even Jericho still. Again, that’s not a knock on the guy, he’s where John Cena is at today (w/o the Hollywood career of course).

2767266, I don't love the idea of a new title
Posted by mrhood75, Thu Jun-09-22 03:50 PM
(and you forgot the impending Trios title, which is likely coming once Omega gets healthy)

But with a roster this big, I can see the point of feeling the need of giving people something to do. Especially since they're trying to go for long reigns these days, and want to keep people looking as strong as possible. I'd guess they know someone like Miro is just screaming for a belt, but the just moved the World Title to Punk and have seemingly committed to giving a longer reign to Scorpio Sky.

As for the others, the ROH ones will "go away" once it gets it's own show/PPV events. Khan and the others still seem committed to making it its own thing; the Bucks apparently got them to re-sign Colt Cabana to put him on ROH, where I assume that the re-signed Brian Cage will head as well.

And the FTW Title is just a vanity title, like when the WWF first created the European title just to give it Davey Boy Smith. It pretty much out-lived any usefulness once they took it off the aforementioned Brian Cage.
2767271, It’s just visually weird when practically everyone has a belt
Posted by pretentious username, Thu Jun-09-22 04:15 PM
>(and you forgot the impending Trios title, which is likely
>coming once Omega gets healthy)

Trios titles are fun, although they always become the “we don’t have anything else for these guys, so here are some awesome matches” titles, so they tend to change hands a lot and don’t quite gain much prestige. New Japan JUST started treating their trios title seriously like a year ago, probably only because the top of the card kept getting injured tbh..

>But with a roster this big, I can see the point of feeling the
>need of giving people something to do.

I hear that, but this also is part of the issue with the overcrowding of ppvs. They gotta get most of the titles AND some personal feuds on the card, then they squeeze in workrate stuff like Darby/Kyle on there.

>
>As for the others, the ROH ones will "go away" once it gets
>it's own show/PPV events.

Looking forward to that tbh, although I do think they’ll still pop up here and there on AEW programming, which is tolerable I guess. Even without those, I think there’s too many titles though. None of those were featured on DoN and the show was still probably an hour and a half too long.

>
>And the FTW Title is just a vanity title, like when the WWF
>first created the European title just to give it Davey Boy
>Smith. It pretty much out-lived any usefulness once they took
>it off the aforementioned Brian Cage.
>

It does get defended every now and again, and I love Ricky btw, but it’s just about visuals to me. The more titles they introduce, the less each one of them means.
2767281, RE: It’s just visually weird when practically everyone has a belt
Posted by mrhood75, Thu Jun-09-22 05:24 PM

>I hear that, but this also is part of the issue with the
>overcrowding of ppvs. They gotta get most of the titles AND
>some personal feuds on the card, then they squeeze in workrate
>stuff like Darby/Kyle on there.

I mean, as I said above in DoN review, the Owen Hart Tournament stuff shouldn't have been on there. That eliminates about an hour off the rip. If they can afford to leave FTR off two consecutive PPVs, they can afford to leave off Adam Cole, Samoa Joe, and Britt Baker for one.

And regardless, those two Owen Hart belts are **really** belts. They probably should have gone the trophy route, but opted for the belt visual instead.

>Looking forward to that tbh, although I do think they’ll
>still pop up here and there on AEW programming, which is
>tolerable I guess. Even without those, I think there’s too
>many titles though. None of those were featured on DoN and the
>show was still probably an hour and a half too long.

They desperately need to sign a streaming down with HBOMax or Hulu or whoever. Then go the previous NXT route and put all the ROH stuff on there. Until tnen, you've got a very deep roster and 3 hours of TV to put them on. They can try and hype up Dark and Dark Elevation as someone different, but it's always going to be the equivalent of what WWF Superstars was back in the day: enhancement talent putting over mid card guys.
2767314, I hate to be so cynical, but I'm not sure they have a clue
Posted by Tiger Woods, Fri Jun-10-22 07:47 AM
you watch this show and that last PPV and it at least seems that Khan has too many toys and no idea how to play with them. Outside of CM Punk, the show has devolved into a complete clusterfuck in record time. The momentum they carried into 2022 has evaporated.

I'm so confused by AEW right now. What they make a point of emphasizing and think is good just baffles me.

- is this all Jurassic Express is?

- why does FTR not get 15 minutes of wrestling every week?

- Jericho and everything he does right now is dogshit

- you picked O'Reilly over Danielson for the interim title match?

- Adam Cole is not it. Sorry.

- Their women's division already sucked. So here's Paige Van Zant?

- Hangman was champion. Again, Hangman was champion.

- Hardy Boys in 2022? I'm all set.


THE SHOW IS MJF, CM PUNK, DANIELSON, SAMOA JOE, AND SOME GOOD TAG WRESTLING. DO THAT.

2767337, they dont
Posted by cgonz00cc, Fri Jun-10-22 11:05 AM

>- is this all Jurassic Express is?

yes.

>- why does FTR not get 15 minutes of wrestling every week?

EVPs

>- Jericho and everything he does right now is dogshit

yes

>- you picked O'Reilly over Danielson for the interim title
>match?

that was the "qualifying match". in the big picture, they seem to have picked Moxley over Danielson

>- Adam Cole is not it. Sorry.

you arent excited for"Whos the best Adam?" Part 3???

>- Their women's division already sucked. So here's Paige Van
>Zant?

this actually could have been cool i think, but not the way its played out

>- Hangman was champion. Again, Hangman was champion.

this also could have been fine if theyd built him up before he became champion instead of trying to do it after the fact

>- Hardy Boys in 2022? I'm all set.

uh...yeah. i was set on the Hardy's 2 years when Matt teleported in. doubly set when he bashed his skull on the concrete. triply set when they tried to do a fake version of Sammy bashing his skull in Matt's garage.

>THE SHOW IS MJF, CM PUNK, DANIELSON, SAMOA JOE, AND SOME GOOD
>TAG WRESTLING. DO THAT.

im now on the Swerve train. he was BY FAR the most interesting part of that whole episode last week.

also, as it pertains to tag team wrestling. i invite you to consider a world where Starks and Hobbs won the belts and feuded with FTR all summer, 2 or 3 creative non-finishes, leading to a match at All Out where a DQ or countout induces a title change.

in a very generous allowance, maybe the Bucks genuinely think ppl want to see them wrestle FTR and drop the belts to them at All Out. well....we dont.
2767383, And the women (and let’s say tag team shit 2x)
Posted by jimaveli, Fri Jun-10-22 02:47 PM
I think AEW tries to do a decent job of making it clear that some people are sneaking around racking up wins. It’s not perfect but it’s a good way to not require people to see every match. And it’s not reasonable to act like seeing every match was ever a requirement for any fed ever. Cuz it wasn’t. For AEW, it’s there if you want to see it/seek it. But you don’t really need it. The biggest issue there is that there’s whole business models devoted to moaning about every little thing aew does that doesn’t immediately appear perfect. Wrestling feds in general really. ‘WWE has sucked since 1998’ is some lazy shit that makes me want to scream every time I hear/see it.

Besides that, they’re legitimately messing up some stuff. The biggest thing to me is that they don’t have the women’s shit rolling at all besides Jade. And the innanet has decided that DMD is AEW’s Charlotte Flair so she can’t do anything without crowing and crying following. Some of the ladies can for sure work a solid/physical match and several more of them are at least moderately good looking, which doesn’t hurt.

As for the tag team shit..yeah, they have hella good teams and 3-man squads but it seems like they can’t get enough of it going at the same time to max it out. And yeah, the wrong team is champ. MAYBE they’re more active than I know and I’m missing it but they’re not doing a good job of getting it across.

>you watch this show and that last PPV and it at least seems
>that Khan has too many toys and no idea how to play with them.
>Outside of CM Punk, the show has devolved into a complete
>clusterfuck in record time. The momentum they carried into
>2022 has evaporated.
>
>I'm so confused by AEW right now. What they make a point of
>emphasizing and think is good just baffles me.
>
>- is this all Jurassic Express is?
>
>- why does FTR not get 15 minutes of wrestling every week?
>
>- Jericho and everything he does right now is dogshit
>
>- you picked O'Reilly over Danielson for the interim title
>match?
>
>- Adam Cole is not it. Sorry.
>
>- Their women's division already sucked. So here's Paige Van
>Zant?
>
>- Hangman was champion. Again, Hangman was champion.
>
>- Hardy Boys in 2022? I'm all set.
>
>
>THE SHOW IS MJF, CM PUNK, DANIELSON, SAMOA JOE, AND SOME GOOD
>TAG WRESTLING. DO THAT.
>
>
2767384, tbf Bryan is injured rn.
Posted by BrooklynWHAT, Fri Jun-10-22 02:51 PM
thats why he wasnt involved in the Interim thing
2767391, Ah didn’t even know
Posted by Tiger Woods, Fri Jun-10-22 03:17 PM
2767339, RE: It’s just visually weird when practically everyone has a belt
Posted by jimaveli, Fri Jun-10-22 11:20 AM
>
>>I hear that, but this also is part of the issue with the
>>overcrowding of ppvs. They gotta get most of the titles AND
>>some personal feuds on the card, then they squeeze in
>workrate
>>stuff like Darby/Kyle on there.
>
>I mean, as I said above in DoN review, the Owen Hart
>Tournament stuff shouldn't have been on there. That eliminates
>about an hour off the rip. If they can afford to leave FTR off
>two consecutive PPVs, they can afford to leave off Adam Cole,
>Samoa Joe, and Britt Baker for one.
>
>And regardless, those two Owen Hart belts are **really**
>belts. They probably should have gone the trophy route, but
>opted for the belt visual instead.
>
>>Looking forward to that tbh, although I do think they’ll
>>still pop up here and there on AEW programming, which is
>>tolerable I guess. Even without those, I think there’s too
>>many titles though. None of those were featured on DoN and
>the
>>show was still probably an hour and a half too long.
>
>They desperately need to sign a streaming down with HBOMax or
>Hulu or whoever. Then go the previous NXT route and put all
>the ROH stuff on there. Until tnen, you've got a very deep
>roster and 3 hours of TV to put them on. They can try and hype
>up Dark and Dark Elevation as someone different, but it's
>always going to be the equivalent of what WWF Superstars was
>back in the day: enhancement talent putting over mid card
>guys.
>

It’s an odd situation now for sure. People can’t/won’t accept that being a good midcard guy is not a shot to the heart of a guy’s career. AKA even with a bunch of belts, multi person matches, tv shows, online shows, and/or feds, someone has to be the main event. And that main event crew will change OR the cries of ‘stale’ shall be loud and fierce cuz Twitter and bad faith pods can’t just show up and say ‘wow, there’s like 100 good wrestlers that any reasonable fan of this shit could like..this is a good time to like wrestling. And sometimes it’s not gonna be your favorite’s turn’. And we know why..they can’t rank, rate, compare and/or complain about shit all day if that’s where the convo starts and ends. It’s easier and lazier to just say ‘everything sux now cuz Cesaro isn’t champ, MJF isn’t the richest dude wrestling, there’s too many titles, and nobody is as big a deal as The Rock, Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and Stone Cold Steve Austin..aka the most over mfers since cable tv blew up’.

I swear I remember 80s and 90s weekly shows being a lot of ‘midcard’ guys doing shit with some guest appearances of the big shit dudes. And then, the hook was occasionally having the big shit dudes get into some kind of conflict with a ‘midcard’ character. And then the mission was to sell the fan on the idea that the midcard dude had a real chance to win. And then, they usually would FUCKING LOSE! And then it was onto the next feud after they’d gone around the country wrestling each other.
2767409, i think youre kinda leaving some stuff out of the picture
Posted by cgonz00cc, Fri Jun-10-22 06:52 PM
primarily, everybody talked every week on TV in the 80s, even if they were just local promos. when i started watching wrestling i was watching TBS when it was still a JCP show, and Ric Flair, Dusty, Road Warriors, Midnight Express etc etc etc never wrestled (well the tag teams sometimes did)...but they always talked. *always*. sometimes Tully and JJ might do 2 promos on the same show wrapped around a 3-4 minute jabroni match.

there were definitely a ton of midcard guys wrestling all the time, but i even cared about them. the first angle i remember was Kevin Sullivan smashing a "cinder block" over Jimmy Garvin's knee. i was completely horrified. those people werent main event caliber talent by then, but the show was good, because people could make me care about who they were. the realest thing anyone has ever said on Dynamite was MJF last week saying that he knows how to make us *feel* without anyone falling on their heads.

for a good example, lets take Swerve Strickland. i dont care if hes ever a champion, but he managed to make himself important in that ridiculous battle royale with one elimination, one facial expression, and one logical reason for stabbing his friend in the back. i want to hear what he has to say about that. i want to hear what he has to say about everything tbh. its a nice plus that he seems to be an extremely fluid athlete with impressive physical ability, but if all he did was holds, throws, and pinning combos i would still want to hear him talk, and now i want to see him on TV every week doing *something*. thats why EVERYONE LOVES THE ACCLAIMED lol. bc Max Caster built a promo into every single appearance he makes on camera. FTR doesnt have to wrestle every week, but its sacrilege for them to disappear for weeks.

i think its slightly disingenuous to frame it the way youre framing it without acknowledging that none of these people know how to be real on camera. could you imagine if some of these clowns had to do local market promos? it would be a disaster.
2767291, creating interesting programs has never needed 10 belts
Posted by cgonz00cc, Thu Jun-09-22 06:46 PM
the real issue is that so few people know how to make us care, including the booker, that they need to create props for artificial interest