kinda feels like towards the end of 2021 there was a chance for the industry to rebalance itself, and for various reasons that window is not only shut, but will never reopen during our lifetimes.

who could have ever known that Vince McMahon's deviancy would be the best thing to happen to WWE's product in 25 years?

that was great, with a great finish

not Rhea vs Charlotte "competitively", but it was perfect for what THEY should do

excellent start

At this point, I think I rate matches by if I start going on my phone during the match. That one, I did not go on my phone. Kept my attention the whole time. Well executed match and turn.

and then it took me 3x as long as it should have bc i couldnt keep my head down, so im pickin up what you're layin down

dom's smile after the bell...smarmy lil prick 😂

prime aisle real estate too

that was a good match, i went to go get a coke after the exploder, and Sami had already lost when i got back

i cant pause Peacock on my TV, and since there was no sense of a building crescendo, fuck me i guess

once he eventually turns. Fans typically want to cheer for guys who bring the intensity and can do superhuman physical stuff like the Frankensteiner.

and if they really want him to be a heel hes gotta stop doing that. they couldnt get Ted Bundy booed if he was doing top rope Frankensteiners

that ive never ever been able to replicate via any other avenue

Just old school storytelling - CM Punk , too emotional again

That’s the story of SummerSlam 2024.

It’s all made sense story wise, but I question if it’s too many similar endings to put on one show?

i didnt like that they showed the ref what Finn Balor did. that was a step too far for me, bc that should have been an instant DQ.

beyond that and Nia Jax (which has to be the price for Dwayne laying down for Cody), i thought this was great all the way thru.

in fact they made me look forward to rematches of fully satisfying matches, which is fairly incredible.

I can’t imagine that’s a work.

but him being taken out by that fit into the finish too perfectly for it to be real, didnt it? Unless Reigns was going to take him out too?

he had to be apart from the finish either way

To me it felt like there was another beat between that spot and Roman’s entrance, and Cody and Solo improvised. But I could be wrong.

Unless he's really committed to working it.

He played his part in this section of the storyline perfectly. He's not supposed to BE Roman. He was to play a wanna be, lesser version, delusional ego maniac. He did all of the great imo. He did exactly what needed to be done.

>He played his part in this section of the storyline
>perfectly.

>He's not supposed to BE Roman.

Agreed. But he does need to be a credible, badass threat to Cody and something Roman has to contend with on his return.

>He was to play a
>wanna be, lesser version, delusional ego maniac. He did all of
>the great imo. He did exactly what needed to be done.

I think this was meant to elevate his stature in Roman’s absence. I don’t think the pitch was “be a try hard with no charisma, with odd, awkward blank looks on your face all the time”.

He didn’t need to be Roman, but he needer be good, and he wasn’t.

You don’t make a guy the head of a faction, put him in the main event of one of your three most important shows with your new champion, position him to be the primary threat to a returning, freshly minted babyface, and intentionally make him mediocre.

He should be a credible threat to everyone, up to and including Cody and Roman, not a mediocre fill in with no charisma, weak promos, and mediocre wrestling. Fatu exudes most of what Solo needed to showcase to make this pop.

What we got instead was filler, and Jacob Fatu, and instead of Solo elevating and showing he can hang with the top guys in a meaningful way, we got him showing that he’s not at that level and he’s not particularly close.

they gave him the booking and he played all the notes but he just doesn't connect for me.

There’s not a single interesting or intriguing thing about him apart from being another Uso.

He was the silent muscle until it was time not to be. There could have been groundwork laid with him suspicious of Rocky coming back, suspicious of Jimmy, suspicious that Roman couldn't win without his help. But Rocky took up a looooootttt of oxygen (for the good of the main event, to be fair), and Solo got no development in the relative safety of the OG Bloodline.

There was a glimmer there with him going HAM on Roman to finish the damn match after the Spear/Spike combo, but Roman disappearing means they didn't get to follow up on that face to face until now.

this guy on X is great- "mith gifs"

I have no idea who he is, but he's great at pulling short wrestling gifs that give better context to the scenes we see on TV


Solo wonders if Roman is soft
https://x.com/MithGifs/status/1778954865521357239

Solo realizes the power the microphone wields
https://x.com/MithGifs/status/1680201640127913985

Solo never fw Jimmy
https://x.com/MithGifs/status/1736815088580145308

Solo craves violence more than Roman
https://x.com/MithGifs/status/1684560052320079872


now I think there's a fair convo to be had about Solo Sikoa's overall ability as a performer. On one hand, I don't think I've ever seen a great Solo match or heard a great Solo promo. On the other hand I admit that 1) his arrogance in an unearned position is literally the point of the current story and 2) he wasn't asked to do any challenging work as a real singles performer prior to like three months ago.

So I'll settle at the jury still being out on Solo Sikoa. Give Solo time - he comes from good stock and you know Heyman/Roman will always make sure his creative is on point. And he can't help that Jacob Fatu is just such an obvious star (Fatu's presence actually dims Solo's wattage in my opinion)

I would've told you even a year ago that Jey Uso could never be a main-event-caliber singles star in WWE and boy would I be wrong.

>now I think there's a fair convo to be had about Solo Sikoa's
>overall ability as a performer. On one hand, I don't think
>I've ever seen a great Solo match or heard a great Solo promo.
>On the other hand I admit that 1) his arrogance in an unearned
>position is literally the point of the current story and 2) he
>wasn't asked to do any challenging work as a real singles
>performer prior to like three months ago.


Exactly. All of this. If Solo had been around on the main roster for 3+ years and this is all we got from him, I'd be down on him as a performer. But for what I've seen from him in this time I think he can build on everything from character to promo and to in-ring. But now? He is on brand for what is needed for his character in the moment with Fatu obviously being the clearer threat to Roman.

blank

None of those X links change the abject midcard performer we’ve seen since he got the ball.

>now I think there's a fair convo to be had about Solo Sikoa's
>overall ability as a performer. On one hand, I don't think
>I've ever seen a great Solo match or heard a great Solo promo.

Agreed. “Good enough” seems to be his highest gear so far. And he worked well as Roman’s personal goon.

But he didn’t show much of anything commiserate with his current spot, which is huge.

>On the other hand I admit that 1) his arrogance in an unearned
>position is literally the point of the current story

Is it? As I see it, the initial premise wasn’t much different from Triple H after Shawn lost to Austin:

Roman dropped the ball and Solo called in his blood for reinforcements to create a new version of the old guard. Heyman was the added wrinkle and that piece was pure gold- but because Heyman is a singularly great talent. Not because Solo was particularly great in his role.

The point here is setting up the inevitable civil war for Dwayne to come through and clash with Roman.

Unearned arrogance is just a character trait Solo has within the story, not the point of the story.

And to that point, being mediocre isn’t part of any of it. The crux of the issue is whether or not he’s actually good in the role. He really hasn’t been.

>wasn't asked to do any challenging work as a real singles
>performer prior to like three months ago.

Sure. That doesn’t make his work any better once he got that spot and in no way invalidates the criticism he gets for it.

>So I'll settle at the jury still being out on Solo Sikoa. Give
>Solo time
>he comes from good stock

Sure, he could become something. But he’s been around while now and hasn’t shown any real hints of having something more in the tank. Which is fine. He has enough to make him a believable goon who follows orders. But I din’t see anything that suggests he has another gear.

>Heyman/Roman will always make sure his creative is on point.

His creative has never been been all that good, and once he got something real to chew on, he didn’t do much with it. Sure, it was a lot of heavy lifting and he probably wasn’t prepared for those shoes.

>And he can't help that Jacob Fatu is just such an obvious star
>(Fatu's presence actually dims Solo's wattage in my opinion)

I’d say that’s a generous, even charitable framing. I think Fatu exposed how little Solo actually has.

Jacob Fatu is immediately interesting and exudes every quality Solo lacks. Yes, years of seasoning plays a huge role in that.

>I would've told you even a year ago that Jey Uso could never
>be a main-event-caliber singles star in WWE and boy would I be
>wrong.

I don’t think he’s a real main event star just yet. Not really.

He’s Yeet, cell phone lights, and hand waving. As a singles, he’s an engaging entrance and a quality ally to the real main event stars. He needs either a better promo (a lot better) or a more interesting move set to be a real main eventer. But even with that criticism, he has a *lot* going for him, namely an indelible, Jeff Hardy-esque connection with the fans. You just can’t teach that shit. And when he’s put in real, meaningful stories, he can play his role very well.

He needs the writing to set him up, whereas those true blue main event stars can elevate the writing.

IMO if he had a more exciting move set beyond a superkick and that generic ass splash, he’d be Jeff Hardy 2.0. He has so much going for him that, even with deficiencies, it’s really easy to look at what he could tweak to cement him as a true top guy.

Solo is much younger and much less experienced, so who knows what he is ten years from now. But I remember looking at the Usos early in their career and thinking, damn, these guys can be a great tag team.

Reigns? You could see that shit Immediately- that’s Big Homie energy.
Jacob Fatu? Yeah leave that dude alone, he don’t give a fuck.

Solo doesn’t even give glimpses like that. Whether or not he can get there, who knows. But he’s not there now and he’s not all that close.

>He played his part in this section of the storyline
>perfectly. He's not supposed to BE Roman. He was to play a
>wanna be, lesser version, delusional ego maniac. He did all of
>the great imo. He did exactly what needed to be done.

I think I get it. He's not all that big. Jacob Fatu is, at least, him but better at ~ everything. He's kind of the new Roman with less gifts staring everyone in the face (aka a dude the company is going out of its way to make a thing and the crowd mostly isn't totally buying it).

It'll be fine cuz I think he'll get at least a little better. But he's got some very bright lights on him rn.

That’s completely changed for the time being.

I need to see that follow up promo but goddamn, that’s how you elevate someone to the next tier.

That crowd ain’t shit though, lmao

This shit shouldn’t have gone a minute

If they were going to go this long, it should have been a nonstop ass whoopin done to prolong the pain.

JD should have gotten *zero* offense.

As an AEW fan, I'm kinda bummed, because I certainly liked having them on the card. They'd been there since the beginning, and put on some of the best matches in the fed's history. Honestly, their eight-man match with Butcher and Blade vs. FTR and Young Bucks during one of the nights of Fiter Fest during the pandemic is what REALLY got me back into pro wrestling.

But, if I'm being real, they hit their ceiling in AEW. Their title win over the Bucks was epic and they got to do some seriously crazy shit as Death Triangle. Outside of letting Fenix run with one of the single belts for a while, there's not much more that they could accomplish there. So if indeed Hunter offered both of them the proverbial bag, I'm not mad at them for trying their hands somewhere else.

I really hope they don't get plugged into either LWO or Lega Da Fantasma, like every other luchador who goes there. I have hope since they've been looking for "The next Rey Misterio" almost as long as they've been looking for "The next Undertaker," and Fenix would probably fit the bill. Oh, and with Hurt Business quite possibly reforming over there, that would help as well.

As for AEW, they're not going to be at loss for high fliers with the Luchas gone, with the debut of Hologram, possibly Mistico, and Rick O'Shea (whenever he debuts). However, the Luchas' departure hurts the tag team division, which used to be one of their serious strengths. Having the Bucks as the dick heels who refuse to defend the belts hasn't served the titles well. At least MxM looks promising. And the should probably make Kyle O'Reily and Mark Briscoe a full-time tag team.

Nothing left for them in AEW, might as well get paid and see what Hunter has in store for them. They’ve been grinding on the indies forever, they deserve it. And yeah, let’s just hope they don’t get thrown in to the LWO/Legado mess, never to be seen on tv with anyone else.

Lucha Bros will always have a good place in my rasslin mind because of Lucha Underground. That's just the way it is!

If they go to WWE, I hope Haitch can come up with a way to make them feel dangerous again. In AEW, at worst, they came off like 'here's two more dudes who can have good matches and stuff'. That's cool but I miss my dude Penta doing dramatic arm breaking and being lowkey crazy like he was in LU.

>As an AEW fan, I'm kinda bummed, because I certainly liked
>having them on the card. They'd been there since the
>beginning, and put on some of the best matches in the fed's
>history. Honestly, their eight-man match with Butcher and
>Blade vs. FTR and Young Bucks during one of the nights of
>Fiter Fest during the pandemic is what REALLY got me back into
>pro wrestling.
>
>But, if I'm being real, they hit their ceiling in AEW. Their
>title win over the Bucks was epic and they got to do some
>seriously crazy shit as Death Triangle. Outside of letting
>Fenix run with one of the single belts for a while, there's
>not much more that they could accomplish there. So if indeed
>Hunter offered both of them the proverbial bag, I'm not mad at
>them for trying their hands somewhere else.
>
>I really hope they don't get plugged into either LWO or Lega
>Da Fantasma, like every other luchador who goes there. I have
>hope since they've been looking for "The next Rey Misterio"
>almost as long as they've been looking for "The next
>Undertaker," and Fenix would probably fit the bill. Oh, and
>with Hurt Business quite possibly reforming over there, that
>would help as well.
>
>As for AEW, they're not going to be at loss for high fliers
>with the Luchas gone, with the debut of Hologram, possibly
>Mistico, and Rick O'Shea (whenever he debuts). However, the
>Luchas' departure hurts the tag team division, which used to
>be one of their serious strengths. Having the Bucks as the
>dick heels who refuse to defend the belts hasn't served the
>titles well. At least MxM looks promising. And the should
>probably make Kyle O'Reily and Mark Briscoe a full-time tag
>team.

>Lucha Bros will always have a good place in my rasslin mind
>because of Lucha Underground. That's just the way it is!
>
>If they go to WWE, I hope Haitch can come up with a way to
>make them feel dangerous again. In AEW, at worst, they came
>off like 'here's two more dudes who can have good matches and
>stuff'. That's cool but I miss my dude Penta doing dramatic
>arm breaking and being lowkey crazy like he was in LU.
>

Penta was the scariest dude on the planet back then. He was a big enough deal to be matched up with Omega at the original All In. And I’m glad Fenix got a little title run even if it was a fluke injury thing, but still a missed opportunity. He has some of the purest babyface energy of anyone out there.

I think they didn’t want to split up cause they own a business and do meet and greets/indie dates together, but I wish Penta had turned on Fenix at some point. Would have been a hot angle.

>kinda feels like towards the end of 2021 there was a chance
>for the industry to rebalance itself, and for various reasons
>that window is not only shut, but will never reopen during our
>lifetimes.
>
>who could have ever known that Vince McMahon's deviancy would
>be the best thing to happen to WWE's product in 25 years?

I had all sorts of adulting to do the day of the show so I didn't get to watch it anywhere near as clean as I had hoped but yeah...that show and the Raw after was a good ole time. I hope they can keep the good times rolling from now until Mania. The main thing: I hope we all get lucky with healthiness!

The New Wyatts could end up being a really special combination now that we've seen them in the ring. Got a little dusty in the room when Rowan hit that Harper tribute. Lumis is always a blast, and even Gacy's got a little bit of the Bray magic in him (and I HATED his NXT 2.0 stuff).

Is just let the Big Homie (c) Cold Truth be the Big Homie. That was a damn near Austin level pop.

But you beat me to it hahaha

F*ckin Heyman is gonna get a Road Warriors pop at this point

Notice he hasn’t put the one up yet…when he finally makes amends with Jey, Jimmy, and I guess Sami and they throw the 1s up leading into War Games it’s gonna feel like a bong rip.

that 2nd OOOOOWAAAAAH? Deafening.

the OTC chants? Goosebumps

WWE killed it this week on all three shows. I just so happened to catch NXT when Wes Lee turned. I can't remember when all three shows were on fire in a week like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Yd3lQVbkYc
type shit

i was in my living room w/ the 1 up lmao

let's state the obvious first - there's probably not enough wrestling and the show is too long (the former is especially weird considering the latter)

but damn you have to give credit where it's due...

Every conflict makes sense
The characters don't behave like dopes
Storylines get paid off in big ways
Stars are blossoming all over the place (McIntyre, Priest, Rhea are all bigger deals and better performers than they've ever been)

outlining a 3 hour live weekly TV show has to be hard but they're pulling it off by leaps and bounds. Hard to knock them.

>let's state the obvious first - there's probably not enough
>wrestling and the show is too long (the former is especially
>weird considering the latter)

i dont care about this actually. i like weekly TV to be talk heavy, as long as its interesting to listen to. i dont mind if the show is built around hyping the next big matches, bc thats what i grew up with anyways. ironic that the show is now more like 6:05 TBS than ever before.

but, one of my issues with the the show is that a lot of the wrestling isn't people i care about. Cornette joked that they wrestle until they're trusted to talk, and its kinda true. But that makes the wrestling suffer because they might as well be local job guys for all we get to hear from them.

>but damn you have to give credit where it's due...
>
>Every conflict makes sense - check

>The characters don't behave like dopes - check

>Storylines get paid off in big ways - check

>Stars are blossoming all over the place - check

the last one doesnt happen without the first 3, which is why AEW only has stars until theyve been there for 6 months and then they just become like everyone else

>outlining a 3 hour live weekly TV show has to be hard but
>they're pulling it off by leaps and bounds.

this is where i diverge. they are not pulling this off. the negative space means i cant watch live. i HAVE to be able to fast forward. a big hope of mine is that once they go to netflix, entrances become less grandiose because i suspect they only exist to fill their timeslot, to which they are no longer bound.

i fully agree that its better than its been in a loooooooooong time. but the format holds it back from what i would call a good TV show without a qualifier

So that’s a big piece of context I left out that I’m glad you added. No matter how good it is I never prioritize watching it at 8pm on a Monday. Sitting through that show live end-to-end would feel like a chore no matter how good it is.

That said, there’s so many characters I stop fast forwarding for to see and hear from

Gunther
Sami
Priest
Rhea
Gable
Liv
Dom
Breaker
Jey Uso
McIntyre
and of course Punk

I thought this was the norm?

Hell, even PPVs and PLEs...I'm starting a little late on purpose. Sure, I don't get to live tweet. But really..does anyone NEED to see half-baked reactionary rebooking of every match 18 seconds after a finish happens? And I can say 'sheesh, Liv Morgan sure looks good' anytime!

Again, I'm not talking about just rasslin. I do this with sports a lot now too. And shows? C'mon now...I thought we were all too spoiled to watch commercials regularly by now!? Hehe



>So that’s a big piece of context I left out that I’m glad
>you added. No matter how good it is I never prioritize
>watching it at 8pm on a Monday. Sitting through that show live
>end-to-end would feel like a chore no matter how good it is.
>
>That said, there’s so many characters I stop fast forwarding
>for to see and hear from
>
>Gunther
>Sami
>Priest
>Rhea
>Gable
>Liv
>Dom
>Breaker
>Jey Uso
>McIntyre
>and of course Punk
>
>

Some family and friends still reactionary text heavy during a lot of the games I care about the most, so I’ve gotta watch live.

PPV’s - I should do it more often than I do. There’s so much dead time. I complain a lot about the modern style of wrestling and also the TV presentation of it, and here’s another one - the post match instant replays drive me nuts. We all have the ability to replay whatever we want to. I’m trying to watch the wrestlers and see how the crowd is reacting, and you’re making me watch something I already saw, and can see as many times as I need to with my own clicker. Stop!

Raw/Smackdown/AEW - I basically will watch the highlights on YouTube. If an episode interests me enough to see a lot of entire segments or matches, I’ll pull it up and watch the stuff I want to see.

Peacock on my TV doesnt allow me to pause even. It does on mobile, but even if i try to Chromecast it it doesnt really cast it, it just kicks it to the app

He doesn’t have it.

Charisma.
Aura.
Whatever “It” is, he doesn’t have it, and it’s painfully clear next to Big Homie and Jacob Fatu.

That little downward glare he does, it doesn’t look or feel menacing or threatening. It looks and feels like someone who’s trying *very* hard.

Ditto the cheesy, dated, badly and overly telegraphed spike move.

Fatu is out here in a walking boot looking and feeling like a straight up menace to society. Fatu has alllll that shit. Just mind your business and don’t look him in the eye and you might not get your ass whooped.

I don’t buy any of the excuses people have made. Looking and feeling like a C list player is absolutely not the goal for a program centered around the return of the OTC.

He sucks and isn’t good at anything a main event player demands. He doesn’t even feel like a #2 who can’t fill the shoes of #1. He still comes across like Scowling Goon #3 and they need to pivot. He’s better off turning into a proverbial chicken shit heel than this tough guy shit. That glare makes him look slow, on some Baby Huey shit.

I’m glad he got his shot but he’s getting by on the gravity of that bigger story. I liked him in NXT and liked him as that physical enforcer, but he needs to add some layers here.

Big Homie is back though and I can’t wait to see his next chapter. Thankfully Fatu is there to make him work a little.

where the fuck did that come from?

2 amazing bron breakker segments, drew and punk still cooking with napalm, judgement day is interesting again, a couple perfectly acceptable TV matches. i kinda wanted to play fallout with my kid at grandma's tonight, and it took me 2 hours to watch Raw.

incredible.

Yeah, he’s not as compelling, but every time he opens his mouth the building boos the shit out of him

Also Smackdown is a far superior live experience. For one, those Speed matches are way better than Main Event as a warmup act. We got Iyo vs Lyra and Andrade vs Pete Dunne on Friday, which were both fun-ass matches.

KO the Wrestling Understander is the best thing going in WWE today man. He’s a DELIGHT.

Both he and Dom have lucked out and been heavily protected from jump and both will need those protections in perpetuity.

Neither has any gravity or appeal on their own.

But he’s been very goodat leaning into it. He’ll probably never be a main event heel, but he’s made now.

As for Solo, it seems like they’re shifting the writing to give him a chance to establish something as a chickenshit heel. The delivery came off a little better in the building on Friday. This was probably too early for him. But he’s getting a reaction, which is more that you could say, than say, Kross.

>But he’s been very goodat leaning into it. He’ll probably
>never be a main event heel, but he’s made now.

I don’t see him leaning in all that much. I just see him doing the bare minimum and fans are reacting to his relationships with other characters.

Rey
Rhea
JD
Liv

He’s had so much built in for him. He comes out with the Eddie cut and tights, the Three Amigos, etc. He gets to more or less stroll through with a ton of ready made content.

I agree that he’s made in that he’s been around enough and has been placed in enough high profile spots that he’s now an indelible piece of this era, but if he’s ever out on his own without a faction or female companion to carry the day, I don’t think he has anything at all to offer beyond trolling fans via our near universal love for Eddie and Rey.

I’m not even sure how long he can sustain interest while being carried, but I could be wrong there.

>As for Solo, it seems like they’re shifting the writing to
>give him a chance to establish something as a chickenshit
>heel. The delivery came off a little better in the building on
>Friday. This was probably too early for him. But he’s
>getting a reaction, which is more that you could say, than
>say, Kross.

Kross is a big pile of who gives a fuck. He’s a complete waste of air time, so I’ll definitely agree there. But I think he’s like Dom, getting those reactions more as a result of his proximity and spot as an antagonist to someone the people love than anything he does.

I did say earlier that chicken shit heel is the way to go with him right now, so I agree that he has a shot if they proceed with that direction. But so far I need to see more from him. I think he has way more to work with than Dom though.

I do think he’s definitely getting significant benefit of the doubt. I could just be judging him harshly though.

Not everyone has to be Will Ospreay.

Jey Uso, Dominic Mysterio, Solo Sikoa, LA Knight … none of those guys are great in the ring , but they all illicit huge responses right now. Also, none of those guys will ever be world champion and that should be totally ok with everyone.

That’s what I mean by leaning in. He knows what the crowd thinks of him. And he works with it. That’s *why* it works when he does Three Amigos and hits the shimmy.

I saw Dom v Punk on 12/26 @ MSG and in the first 5 minutes of the match Dom probably did it 6 times and it was never not funny

Feel good moment for Danielson to get a huge win on the biggest stage. And I'm sure they really did have to tie him down and threaten to make him eat pulled pork sandwiches to agree to do it.

Going in, I thought for sure Swerve was going to win. I figured they'd done the "beloved wrestler wins his last big match on the brink of retirement earlier in this year" already. It made sense that Bryan was going to go out with the emotional goodbye with the Wembley fans cheering. But once it was clear that Swerve was goig full heel during the mmatch, having him beat Danielson to a bloody pulp i front of his family, and having Prince NaNa dancing right in front of them to rub it in, I knew Bryan was winning.

So, good for Danielson. It'll probably be back on Swerve by October at WrestleDream in Tacoma. Or, hell, Darby might win it at Grand Slam.

The rest of the card was good as well. Osprey also gets his big emotional victory over MJF in England, and they're able to end the Tiger Driver story. Match was flames too. Ladder match was appropriately insane, and happy that Pac also got his Wembley moment.

I honestly didn't think that Mariah May was going to win, but it makes. Toni Storm has been playing this shit to a hilt and being awesome in the process, wouldn't hurt to give her a break. Mone vs. Britt was fine, but the crowd was pretty much spent for most of it due the Osprey match before. Also happy they brought back Hayter during the pre show. Have her fight Saraya at All Out or at Grand Slam.

The Casino Gauntlet was a lot of fun... until the end. Nigel wrestling was a great Holy Shit moment. Zack Sabre Jr. showing up was great as well. Jarrett getting to fight on that stage in front of that crowd was a good pay-off. I've been loving everything the Conglomeration guys have been doing. Hangman further solidified has angry heel credentials. And the Rick O'Shea debut kicked an appropriate amount of ass. However... I was not feeling the Christian Cage win at the time. With Danielson winning, I understand it, because you can run Christian vs. Bryan at All Out with minimal build-up. And it helps them finally pay off the Killswitch/Christian thing. But the match had been operating at a pretty high level, and the ending kinda deflated things. But it does set up the two biggest matches in Chicago in two weeks (the other being Swerve vs. Hangman).

I also understand that the Bucks wanted to win in front of Wembley, and the match was good, But for fuck sake's defend the titles more than once every four months. Like, AEW's tag team division is literally what got me into them, and this current reign has been killing the division. I don't even mind the characters that the Bucks are portraying, but they need to make the titles important again. They've got the pieces to build the division back up, and I hope they do so, and get the belts off the Bucks in the process.

I was fine with Jack Perry keeping his title (at this point, he's the only member of the Elite that should have a belt). Allin gets to move on the World Title picture, and they got to bring back Sting.

And they can finally but the Hook vs. Jericho thing to rest. Match wasn't the best thing that night, but had a satisfying ending was Taz getting involved. Honestly, Hook probaby should have just given the title back to Taz after he won. It's served its purpose and Hook should move on to something. And they can should probably end the Learning Tree here, and turn Big Bill and Brian Keith against Jericho. But given the reactions that Bill has been getting in the OK, he might end up being the babyface in the whole thing.

So, overall, a lot of fun. As the vast majority of AEW PLE's are. Now they just need to formally announce the new TV deal.

But I couldn't let myself miss Danielson's potential last match so I ordered and watched. I had a very good time! And yeah, with AEW, it reminds me of when WWE was catching hell with making any decent weekly TV but the roster was so stacked with pros that the PPVs/PLEs were still a parade of rock solid matches.

That main event was such a grand professional wrestling match with crisp action and high end storytelling. Everyone was on their best behavior for sure. And Swerve!? Yes! He understood his role and played the hell out of it. When I saw Swerve's dope azz gear, I assumed he was losing, but that match had me guessing like crazy. I'm glad he got the main event and that it was such a good time. Hangman showing his crazy azz up mid-match was perfectly logical and I liked that too!

I love love love Broken Toni Storm. And I figured Mariah had to win. But they covered Toni in glory even in defeat.

Britt Baker is also broken but in a bad way. Mainly, it seems like her rasslin timing and spacing is obviously and regularly way off. Like you can see and feel her blue-screening on a spot, the person she's working with is like 'wtf, homie', and they have to somehow keep going but it looks like shit by the time the spot is done. I feel for her and I hope she's not actually a jackass who causes bullshit everywhere she's at. IE: if she's going around acting like she's The Rock or some shit, she needs to cut it tf out post haste before she's gotta be a full-time DMD and that's it.

MJF/Ospreay is one of those matches that only a few can execute right now. They're both young and physically peaking at the same damn time and...yeah...they killed it. I liked it more than I expected. And I'm glad Will cut the crap and put MJF on ice with that Tiger Driver 91.

I skipped the preshow so I didn't know that fine azz Jamie Hayter was back until I took a social media lap after the show. On that, I didn't watch it 100% live so I watched it with absolutely no social media. In the case of a fed that is cold, I generally prefer to watch with no social media during the show anyway. That way, I don't ingest all of the whining about finishes, metrics, comparisons, ranks, or whatever else passes for content sometimes on tha twitta.

I wonder how Danielson ends up leaving. My guess: he shows up trying to retire, people chant nice stuff at him, and...just when he's about to leave, some heel (Christian) rolls up on him ultra heelishly, insults him, his BCC clique, and/or his family and bingo bango, he's gotta keep rasslin. And if its Christian, you know the dad shit is jumping off for sure.

>Feel good moment for Danielson to get a huge win on the
>biggest stage. And I'm sure they really did have to tie him
>down and threaten to make him eat pulled pork sandwiches to
>agree to do it.
>
>Going in, I thought for sure Swerve was going to win. I
>figured they'd done the "beloved wrestler wins his last big
>match on the brink of retirement earlier in this year"
>already. It made sense that Bryan was going to go out with the
>emotional goodbye with the Wembley fans cheering. But once it
>was clear that Swerve was goig full heel during the mmatch,
>having him beat Danielson to a bloody pulp i front of his
>family, and having Prince NaNa dancing right in front of them
>to rub it in, I knew Bryan was winning.
>
>So, good for Danielson. It'll probably be back on Swerve by
>October at WrestleDream in Tacoma. Or, hell, Darby might win
>it at Grand Slam.
>
>The rest of the card was good as well. Osprey also gets his
>big emotional victory over MJF in England, and they're able to
>end the Tiger Driver story. Match was flames too. Ladder match
>was appropriately insane, and happy that Pac also got his
>Wembley moment.
>
>I honestly didn't think that Mariah May was going to win, but
>it makes. Toni Storm has been playing this shit to a hilt and
>being awesome in the process, wouldn't hurt to give her a
>break. Mone vs. Britt was fine, but the crowd was pretty much
>spent for most of it due the Osprey match before. Also happy
>they brought back Hayter during the pre show. Have her fight
>Saraya at All Out or at Grand Slam.
>
>The Casino Gauntlet was a lot of fun... until the end. Nigel
>wrestling was a great Holy Shit moment. Zack Sabre Jr. showing
>up was great as well. Jarrett getting to fight on that stage
>in front of that crowd was a good pay-off. I've been loving
>everything the Conglomeration guys have been doing. Hangman
>further solidified has angry heel credentials. And the Rick
>O'Shea debut kicked an appropriate amount of ass. However... I
>was not feeling the Christian Cage win at the time. With
>Danielson winning, I understand it, because you can run
>Christian vs. Bryan at All Out with minimal build-up. And it
>helps them finally pay off the Killswitch/Christian thing. But
>the match had been operating at a pretty high level, and the
>ending kinda deflated things. But it does set up the two
>biggest matches in Chicago in two weeks (the other being
>Swerve vs. Hangman).
>
>I also understand that the Bucks wanted to win in front of
>Wembley, and the match was good, But for fuck sake's defend
>the titles more than once every four months. Like, AEW's tag
>team division is literally what got me into them, and this
>current reign has been killing the division. I don't even mind
>the characters that the Bucks are portraying, but they need to
>make the titles important again. They've got the pieces to
>build the division back up, and I hope they do so, and get the
>belts off the Bucks in the process.
>
>I was fine with Jack Perry keeping his title (at this point,
>he's the only member of the Elite that should have a belt).
>Allin gets to move on the World Title picture, and they got to
>bring back Sting.
>
>And they can finally but the Hook vs. Jericho thing to rest.
>Match wasn't the best thing that night, but had a satisfying
>ending was Taz getting involved. Honestly, Hook probaby should
>have just given the title back to Taz after he won. It's
>served its purpose and Hook should move on to something. And
>they can should probably end the Learning Tree here, and turn
>Big Bill and Brian Keith against Jericho. But given the
>reactions that Bill has been getting in the OK, he might end
>up being the babyface in the whole thing.
>
>So, overall, a lot of fun. As the vast majority of AEW PLE's
>are. Now they just need to formally announce the new TV deal.

This sucks. Fuck cancer.

I'll say he may still have the best overall presence of any wrestler ever. Going to back to when I first saw him as one of the OG Sky Scrapers, he looked like the biggest bad-ass to ever walk the Earth. And though he was far from the best worker, he made the powerbomb look like the most absolutely awesome move ever. In WCW, him joining the Four Horesmen just seemed so... right.

I was super-pumped when he made it over to the WWF in 1991. And was super pissed when they turned him heel once it looked like he had the potential to eclipse Hogan. That Royal Rumble was one of the first times fans started to turn against Hogan in favor of someone else. I'm sure it freaked Hogan out. I was again super pissed when the McMahon had them edit the audio the end of that match to make it sound like the fans were behind Hogan, rather than Sid.

He wasn't perfect. He seemed more committed to playing softball than wrestling early in his career. And he clearly had multiple screws loose. Sometimes it funny (the story of him confronting Brian Pillman with a squegee) and sometimes it was frightening and criminal (him nearly killing Arn Anderson with a pair of safety scissors). And ring-wise, his run in 2000 WCW was downright embarrassing before it ended with that horrific injury. But when things lined up right, he was fucking incredible.

was that even though i didnt hear the squeegee story until like 20 years later, it absolutely fit in with everything i already believed about Sid Vicious

Sid was the first wrestler I had ever seen up close outside of going to a wrestling show in Memphis and this was when he was still wearing a mask in the promotion. He was legit the first dude I was scared of as a kid, but was the coolest person. Lawler had a traveling softball team and they would play other wrestlers/players in the city on Saturdays and Sid was a beast up at bat. If he had put that same focus in wrestling he'd be so much better. But alas, I think he got his flowers informally.

His look and size were insane. His powerbomb made me cuss in excitement. I too was pulling for Sid over Hogan (cuz he was cooler to a young teenage me than #Hoganwinsthesamewaylol).

In small doses, he was a blast. The big problem with the late 90s was that it was VERY difficult to be over if you weren't constantly on the scene doing SOMETHING. And Sid was mostly a terrible solo promo. But I swear him trying to act like a normal dude going to the parking lot only to find out that Stone Cold Bill Goldberg has somehow tampered with his ride was HIGH COMEDY. Not Cat-Bo funny but damn funny.



>This sucks. Fuck cancer.
>
>I'll say he may still have the best overall presence of any
>wrestler ever. Going to back to when I first saw him as one of
>the OG Sky Scrapers, he looked like the biggest bad-ass to
>ever walk the Earth. And though he was far from the best
>worker, he made the powerbomb look like the most absolutely
>awesome move ever. In WCW, him joining the Four Horesmen just
>seemed so... right.
>
>I was super-pumped when he made it over to the WWF in 1991.
>And was super pissed when they turned him heel once it looked
>like he had the potential to eclipse Hogan. That Royal Rumble
>was one of the first times fans started to turn against Hogan
>in favor of someone else. I'm sure it freaked Hogan out. I was
>again super pissed when the McMahon had them edit the audio
>the end of that match to make it sound like the fans were
>behind Hogan, rather than Sid.
>
>He wasn't perfect. He seemed more committed to playing
>softball than wrestling early in his career. And he clearly
>had multiple screws loose. Sometimes it funny (the story of
>him confronting Brian Pillman with a squegee) and sometimes it
>was frightening and criminal (him nearly killing Arn Anderson
>with a pair of safety scissors). And ring-wise, his run in
>2000 WCW was downright embarrassing before it ended with that
>horrific injury. But when things lined up right, he was
>fucking incredible.

Get that CZW shit out of here.

Featured a lot of brutality, and was mostly a downer overall (there were very few feel-good moments), but damn near of everyone executed.

Best matches were Willow vs. Stratlander and Osprey vs. Pac. I was expecting the former to be good, but it way overdelivered. I wish Willow went over, but I understand why she didn't. Osprey just always executes at a high level, especially on PPVs, and Pac was an ideal opponent for a show that had a limited build. And they fed right into a match vs. Ricochet.

The MJF vs. Garcia opener was dope as well. I kinda wish Garcia went over in this case too, but he got to get his revenge at the end. And now they can move on.

The tag title and Continental title matches were both good, but I really hope they take the belts off of both of them soon. Especially the tag titles. In the two weeks since All In, they're even further along in rebuilding an awesome tag division, and the Bucks refusing to do anything with the belts drag the division down.

Danielson vs. Perry delivered what it needed to. They booed Perry out of the building and he took the ass-whooping at the end. I was worried before the event started that they were going to do the Money in the Bank thing with Christian, and I'm glad they didn't. The BCC turn was expected but still kind of a downer. Claudio and Pac work best as heels, and a mean and recfocused BCC is a good thing. And the Terry Funk/Ric Flair tribute worked

And Swerve vs. Hangman shocking the crowd was a good thing. I find all the pearl-clutching a little weird: it will billed and hyped as a violent psychotic match, and that's exactly what it was. And the hypodermic and unprotected chair-shot were brutal, but they came at the end of the match as the climax, and were meant to be disturbing. And Hangman's character work at the very end was very welll executed.

So, yeah, another solid thumbs up for the PPV.

>
>And Swerve vs. Hangman shocking the crowd was a good thing. I
>find all the pearl-clutching a little weird: it will billed
>and hyped as a violent psychotic match, and that's exactly
>what it was. And the hypodermic and unprotected chair-shot
>were brutal, but they came at the end of the match as the
>climax, and were meant to be disturbing. And Hangman's
>character work at the very end was very welll executed.
>

I didn't watch the match but have seen dozens of clips on twitter obviously. This is smut, this is not for me.

The bigger question is who is this for? Who actually -likes- this degree of violence? At a point it's not just storytelling anymore.

like i think WWE swings too hard in the other direction sometimes w/ the aversion to blood. but AEW does too much w/ it.

>
>>
>>And Swerve vs. Hangman shocking the crowd was a good thing.
>I
>>find all the pearl-clutching a little weird: it will billed
>>and hyped as a violent psychotic match, and that's exactly
>>what it was. And the hypodermic and unprotected chair-shot
>>were brutal, but they came at the end of the match as the
>>climax, and were meant to be disturbing. And Hangman's
>>character work at the very end was very welll executed.
>>
>
>I didn't watch the match but have seen dozens of clips on
>twitter obviously. This is smut, this is not for me.
>
>The bigger question is who is this for? Who actually -likes-
>this degree of violence? At a point it's not just storytelling
>anymore.

As long as that's about it for their conflict for now, I'm okay with it. They don't have another even moderately reasonable place to go with it without Stone Cold-ish manslaughter type stuff going on. We'll see!

lol, that had me laughing.

>lol, that had me laughing.

And you knew something like that was coming. It was just a matter of how he was gonna say it. Gunther almost broke trying to get it out. Good times.

lolololol

I hate the suspicion that I’m getting that it’s a bait and switch for another BCC beatdown.

The chemistry of Cody/Roman is officially Mega Powers-esque or comparable to Austin/Rock

Whereas before it never crossed my mind, for the first time I have to wonder if Cody eventually turns heel

And I think he’s motivated to show how you do a blood feud without going to CZW.

2) I know they’re visually saying Woods is going to turn heel because of the Black Lantern gear but what if it’s Kofi?

3) Iyo/Bianca- give that to me on a periodic basis. That match was GREAT.

I guess I should preface this by saying, I grew up watching pro-wrestling. Stopped watching over 20 years ago now. I would check-in periodically, but I started going to the see the local indie promotion a couple years ago. Earlier this year, after Royal Rumble, I started watching WWE again and around June I started watching AEW some too. It's really interesting watching all this with new eyes as an adult.

Anyway.

I think we're getting Ospreay vs. Ricochet way too soon. This is the kind of thing that should be milked and then happen at a big ppv event. So hopefully, the match in a couple weeks gets cut short. Maybe that Japanese dude that's in the stable with Ospreay's friend interferes or something, but I can't help but see this as a big fumble. Ricochet comes-in at the PPV, wrestles 3 matches, and now gets a title shot? This match should really have more build to it than this. Have Ospreay beat someone and then Ricochet beat them more convincingly the following week. Do the same thing in reverse. Have Ric come out ringside during Will's matches to "observe." Put them on opposing sides of one of these huge tag matches AEW seems to like doing. Build the eventually showdown, damn!

Ricochet isnt a main eventer, but they had ONE baked into him, and it was a fart in the wind

Part of me hopes that Roman hits that Naitch tag at Bad Blood. Part of me hopes they milk his face run. Either way, I’m in, you sonsa bitches.

Dwayne will be shoehorned into this yet again.

And it’s not that Rock doesn’t have incredible value.

He just isn’t needed and while the Mania build wound up being an outstanding stretch of business overall, he still requires to much pomp, circumstance, smoke, mirrors, and yeah, I’m still beating this drum, nostalgia to get there.

Roman and Cody are an exceptional duo with pitch perfect chemistry. IMO they’re on par with any two adversaries I can think of- Rock/Austin, Savage/Hogan, Flair/Sting, Bret/Shawn, you name it, they’re in that mix.

And, frankly, they’ve not only earned the right to carry this ball and build their respective legacies without him, they just plain put out a better, more focused and engaging product.

I’d love to know whose idea that was to go to the 50 yard line at Georgia Tech, because that guy or girl deserves a raise.

"lets do some ATL shit"

mission fucking accomplished

that shit was a lightweight GT commercial, and they shot that stadium skyline view as well as ESPN ever has. its really really striking the first time you see it at night from inside the stadium.

But wouldn't doubt the men themselves got the ball of wax going.

I’ll just post this and feel free to respond with thoughts if you have them.

I’ve watched the first episode so far. It’s a lot of the greatest hits and broad strokes of the “early days,” somits not going to be anything that any of us are unfamiliar with and haven’t heard many, MANY times. But it’s a Netflix doc that’s supposed to be accessible to the uninitiated as well. I do find some of the reevaluations that everyone does with decades of hindsight fairly interesting.

I’ll post more thoughts later.

I realize the audience for these is everyone, but I do not need to sit through an explainer on kayfabe or hear about the screwjob ever again. It was a fine way to pass the time with something on in the background, but yeah, nothing new or groundbreaking.

lol @ that last Bruce Pritchard interview though.

PU’s post seems to underscore that assumption.

Any passionate fan who’s spent any time listening and reading to wrestling media will have heard or read the bulk of what this will show.

As I figured and as others have said, there's nothing new here. Any wrestling fan who's paid attention knows all of the topics that they're going to cover. They fast-forward through everything between Benoit killing himself and his family and the last few years. I found it a little strange that they only mention WM 30 to talk about the Undertaker losing, and not what brought everyone there.

I sort of look at it like that Hip-Hop Evolution series on Netflix. Yes, I know all the history, but I like to hear the people involved talk about the events that happened. Some are better than others. Bischoff is peddling the same horseshit he's been shoveling forever. Hulk is telling the same bullshit about not know if Andre was going to put him over at WM 3. It was kind of a relief to see Meltzer call bullshit on all the WWE myth-making surrounding that show.

Otherwise, the McMahon family dynamic stuff was interesting. Heyman, Michaels, Triple H, and Trish Stratus all had something to contribute. I was surprised that they unearthed Linda McMahon and got her to talk on camera.

And, yes, getting Vince's perspective on the events over the years had some value... except that he's Vince McMahon the fucking rapist, and in the end do I really care how he justifies all of his actions? Or his motivations for doing what he does? Or how close to reality the Vince McMahon character is? Or whether or not anyone really "knows" him? It's also worth nothing that even a few years before he had to step down, the stuff that he "couldn't remember" always had to do with inappropriate conduct with female employees.

The recent allegations and impending federal case really made a lot of the doc pointless. Before that, I guess they were trying to make the case that he was both things: The patriach of professional wrestling and father figure to an entire company as well as the cold father and the alleged rapist who sexually abused women for years. And I'm not sure I'm willing to give him any grace here at all, or if he deserves any.

>The recent allegations and impending federal case really made
>a lot of the doc pointless. Before that, I guess they were
>trying to make the case that he was both things: The patriach
>of professional wrestling and father figure to an entire
>company as well as the cold father and the alleged rapist who
>sexually abused women for years. And I'm not sure I'm willing
>to give him any grace here at all, or if he deserves any.

At no point did I think the makers of the doc were trying to conflate Vince with the Mr. McMahon character. Vince has built a public persona based on conflating the two, and, as is common in docs like these where they’re covering a person who is synonymous with a character, they’re trying to find out what’s fact and what’s fiction while giving the subject every opportunity to fill the gaps. He is not interested in doing that. He wants to declare “I’m not Mr. McMahon” and “I don’t recall that” until he’s blue in the face, which is to be expected, but don’t complain when the documentary makers fill those gaps themselves. You’re not gonna like it.

Helps that he was up against human rag doll Darby, but man he looked GREAT in that match. So long as this keeps him away from skewers I'll be a happy man.

Pleasantly surprised that we actually got Nigel vs. Bryan and for someone who was out for 13 years, McGuinness looked fantastic in there.

Bucks/Aussie Open was fine until the Don Callis of it all. Cannot wait until that fucking screwdriver is gone.

Liked the women's title match and the afters with Willow.

Good show overall but it didn't have the *WOW* of previous Grand Slams.

I still don’t care for his basic moveset

This wasn’t a great promo either. I still don’t like his promo.

That said, he really is the new wave Jeff Hardy.

He’s got a connection with the people that can’t be helped or hindered by any of that.m
He talks better than Jeff, and Jeff couldn’t talk for shit and it never mattered.

It’s just a brute fact of life: the people love Jey Uso.

Full stop, no qualifier.

There’s a very short list of people who evoke this sort of innate connection.

Steamboat, Hardy, Dusty, probably Austin. Darby has that too.

Even guys like Hulk and Rock were products of perfect storms and marketing.
Punk had a certain, well, personality, but he didn’t have this sort of magic.
Roman is a generational talent, as was Cena, but they had to put in serious work to get there.

But Jey has that exceptionally rare connection that runs deeper, far beyond anything you can mold, market or manufacture.

Jey has the type of “it” that just *is*.

Now they need to let him run with it through Mania- and maybe even retain.

I don't see amazing rasslin when he's out there either. But he's good enough at selling and pacing that he's good to go. Promos? Same thing, but he emotes well enough and says Yeet just enough for the folks who wants to say a word and have fun.

To me, he's a beautiful byproduct of that Bloodline Story legwork. Those Uces made people long for Jey to be free from that situation. And he's done at least just enough to do right by that goodwill now that he's out there by himself. And what do you know, he FUCKING WINS MATCHES so the crowd knows to keep caring about what he does. AKA he's more than just Yeet and a little dance even though both help him A LOT.

If/when Roman shows up making faces to try to get Jey to help him with Jacob Fatu and them, its gonna be UNREAL how over they both are. And folks are gonna be crying when him and Jimmy hug it out. And I always love it when him and Sami do little interactions as heat checks to see if anyone still cares about all they went through together!

>I still don’t care for his basic moveset
>
>This wasn’t a great promo either. I still don’t like his
>promo.
>
>That said, he really is the new wave Jeff Hardy.
>
>He’s got a connection with the people that can’t be helped
>or hindered by any of that.m
>He talks better than Jeff, and Jeff couldn’t talk for shit
>and it never mattered.
>
>It’s just a brute fact of life: the people love Jey Uso.
>
>Full stop, no qualifier.
>
>There’s a very short list of people who evoke this sort of
>innate connection.
>
>Steamboat, Hardy, Dusty, probably Austin. Darby has that too.
>
>
>Even guys like Hulk and Rock were products of perfect storms
>and marketing.
>Punk had a certain, well, personality, but he didn’t have
>this sort of magic.
>Roman is a generational talent, as was Cena, but they had to
>put in serious work to get there.
>
>But Jey has that exceptionally rare connection that runs
>deeper, far beyond anything you can mold, market or
>manufacture.
>
>Jey has the type of “it” that just *is*.
>
>Now they need to let him run with it through Mania- and maybe
>even retain.

I need my boo Steph on here ASAP though

Three year contract with an option for a fourth. At least double in $ to what they got last time.

Dynamite and Collision stay on TBS and TNT. And stream live on Max. Talk of developing more original programing for network and streaming. No word on Rampage, but there's been talking of axing it for a while. PPVs will be available to stream on Max at a discounted rate. No word if there'll be a back catalogue library of the AEW programing before the deal's date. Or if old PLEs will be available to order.

So, pretty good. I'd prefer if a Max subscription got you the PLEs for free, but a discount for the increasingly regular events is nice. And I do hope they provide a whole back library of older Dynamite episodes.

this race to the bottom of content platforms is fascinating to observe.

I need a really articulate television exec to explain to me how AEW's content is worth anything close to $150MM a year. It's a horrible TV product that's hemorrhaged audience and market share year over year since its inception.

>this race to the bottom of content platforms is fascinating
>to observe.
>
>I need a really articulate television exec to explain to me
>how AEW's content is worth anything close to $150MM a year.
>It's a horrible TV product that's hemorrhaged audience and
>market share year over year since its inception.

I have started giving AEW the 'when WWE weekly shows are going bad' treatment (think 2016-ish time). I watch occasionally (every few weeks) with HEAVY fast forwarding and/or I let the Twitter point out stuff I should check out. IE: this weekend, I'm gonna watch WWE Bad Blood, Ospreay/Ricochet, and Danielson/dude from Japan who was once dope but is now barely treading at best. I've already seen Moxley talking shit to Danielson..this sure does look like a lead-up to Shane showing up? Could it be? Also, I'm ready for Hurt Biz to be on-hand in full to do whatever cool stuff they'll do.

I haven't gone anywhere near Rampage or Collision. I'm sure I miss a good match or two regularly but I'm out on those shows for now.

The crowd sounds excited. These tighter PLEs feel just about right aka the classic NXT shows.

And bonus: they can load the shit out of the Smackdown and Raw around the show.

And I haven’t even seen Roman and whatever wild shit they’re gonna do for that yet. Good times.

>kinda feels like towards the end of 2021 there was a chance
>for the industry to rebalance itself, and for various reasons
>that window is not only shut, but will never reopen during our
>lifetimes.
>
>who could have ever known that Vince McMahon's deviancy would
>be the best thing to happen to WWE's product in 25 years?

Incredible blowoff and the appropriate time to be more violent. Masterclass

Than Swerve and Hanger got out of Swerve’s childhood home. Because they let the story breathe, and actually talked about the important part on TV.

The biggest problem AEW has is that, for all the work the Bucks and Kenny did to build a diehard fanbase online, they expect that they can break major story bits online and that’ll be enough. Drew and Punk did great social media work, but that’s added sauce on top of the stuff they do and say on TV.

he used social media better than any wrestler ever has, working jack perry into drawing money, with perry's own angle, for WWE

what a legend

But it is WIIIIILD to me that Tony chose Perry over Punk. I get that the Bucks had their thumb on the scale there, but they could have made a MINT and secured their legacies by leaning into their beef on television. On top of what Punk and Drew did, Seth and Punk are about to change a few PA's lives with the money they make WWE when they end up going at it.

and the YBs dont need to sell a single ticket to get massive paychecks, so maintaining the status quo is priority 1

they arent on top, wont ever BE on top, and they simply dont care

Because the succession/Roman soundalike theme, the suitlike gear, the Tag Titles, subsuming Okada's run . .. like, that should all add up to a massive, top of the show heel, right? But it's . . . not. They're reigning, defending tag champs. They ditched the more comical elements of the Elite. They took out Kenny. They should be over like rover. But MAN are they not paying off.

they arent good enough to not be fake ALL the time

they suck at this, and no one cares about them because theres never anything to believe in

i've only ever been to Raw/SD before and this was 10x better

i think this was the first PPV they have had here in 9 years or so. they need to bring Mania here in 2026

idk if it was intentional but when Cody/Roman were staring each other down, the smoke machine at the entrance started and everyone noticed it and got hype then it stopped and we thought the show was over.

then the beatdown postmatch happened and we noticed it started up again but everyone was kind of skeptical. then the music hit and the roof absolutely BLEW off the place. i wish he would've at least got on the mic minute instead of just doing the 123 i wanted to hear him at least say "Finally The Rock has come back to Atlanta"

All the wrestling was very good (at times excellent) and every finish made sense from a storytelling perspective. But their two extremely popular face champions lost, and that lead to the show being a severe downer overall.

You had to put a title on Takeshita at some point, and they've been building the Osprey/Fletcher story for most of the year. Have Osprey exact his revenge on the rest of the Don Callis family, and eventually move him onto the World Title picture.

But you couple that with Danielson having his career ended, in his home state, and then be betrayed by his only friend in the group, who again chokes him out with a plastic bag? That makes for a pretty fucking dark evening on wrestling. There were scant "feel good" moments: Briscoe's win and Darby's win, plus the return of Adam Cole and Swerve sticking with Nana. And those later two didn't really involve in-ring action.

I get that one their main writers just left the company due to burnout, so they saw this as to "turn the page" story wise. And I also get that Danielson wanted to drop the belt to Moxley. But I don't see the point in Danielson retiring from full-time wrestling so that Moxley can have his fourth title reign.

And they really need to get the belts off of the Elite. And honestly just fold that whole thing, especially with the Blackpool Combat Club and Don Callis Family around. Have Daniel Garcia beat Perry. Find SOMEONE to beat the Bucks. The problem is there are no viable candidates. At this point I say just have the Outrunners win them, or put the on Orange Cassidy and Kyle O'Reily.

So, again, I couldn't complain about the actual matches. But the evening shouldn't have been so bleak.

Allegedly, losing to heel Moxley 'was the plan all along' for Dragon/AEW. I don't love it either.

I think Moxley is okay on a good day so I don't hate him like some do. But I don't know if any roster is good enough to get by when one dude keeps 'showing up out of nowhere' winning titles whenever he decides to try to win one. It reminds me of what people say they don't like about Charlotte Flair/Ronda/The Man when their storyline is 'decided to care about title out of nowhere --> win title --> keep title hostage'.

Also, I think I wanted someone to 'get the rub' directly from American Dragon. Oh well, maybe someone will get the rub from surviving BCC/The dude from The Shield.

Something else: did I miss it where the Bucks/Okada/Jungle decided to stop being the 'save this company from itself by cheating like crazy and kicking everyone's ass' group? Did something happen to slow that down from 'beating up TK' to 'showing up being midcard jerks'?

I'm guilty lately of tuning in for Toni Storm, a few matches here and there and trying to tune out when I see stuff I didn't expect to like so I could have missed it.

Last thing for now: I'm glad af that Private Party won that match. They did a good job of telling the story of them coming up short/turning on each other as possible finishes before they gave the kids the win.

>All the wrestling was very good (at times excellent) and
>every finish made sense from a storytelling perspective. But
>their two extremely popular face champions lost, and that lead
>to the show being a severe downer overall.
>
>You had to put a title on Takeshita at some point, and they've
>been building the Osprey/Fletcher story for most of the year.
>Have Osprey exact his revenge on the rest of the Don Callis
>family, and eventually move him onto the World Title picture.
>
>But you couple that with Danielson having his career ended, in
>his home state, and then be betrayed by his only friend in the
>group, who again chokes him out with a plastic bag? That makes
>for a pretty fucking dark evening on wrestling. There were
>scant "feel good" moments: Briscoe's win and Darby's win, plus
>the return of Adam Cole and Swerve sticking with Nana. And
>those later two didn't really involve in-ring action.
>
>I get that one their main writers just left the company due to
>burnout, so they saw this as to "turn the page" story wise.
>And I also get that Danielson wanted to drop the belt to
>Moxley. But I don't see the point in Danielson retiring from
>full-time wrestling so that Moxley can have his fourth title
>reign.
>
>And they really need to get the belts off of the Elite. And
>honestly just fold that whole thing, especially with the
>Blackpool Combat Club and Don Callis Family around. Have
>Daniel Garcia beat Perry. Find SOMEONE to beat the Bucks. The
>problem is there are no viable candidates. At this point I say
>just have the Outrunners win them, or put the on Orange
>Cassidy and Kyle O'Reily.
>
>So, again, I couldn't complain about the actual matches. But
>the evening shouldn't have been so bleak.

Hope they keep booking him strong like that and fully unleash him. He’s still as good as anyone out there IMO.

starting off with Dark Grey Cassidy is certainly a choice befitting high quality Bad TV™

heavy Total Nonstop Hogan vibes early, making "this company" the damsel in distress.

hes like if Ben Stiller's character in Tropic Thunder was playing a pro wrestler in a movie within the movie

In particular, I think the dynamic between he and Jey create that extra level for the whole to live and breathe in that magical way.

Roman's Tribal Chief/Head Of The Table iteration is generational and, along with Heyman, is obviously the foundation for all of it. But the Jey's journey has proven nearly as important as Roman's, and Sami is the ingredient that pushed it to that level. It took me a minute to come around on Jey, but he's undeniable at this point.

And just like last time, the addition of Sami to the mix makes everything else pop that much more. He adds salt, butter, garlic, lemon, you name it, he's the thing that takes the recipe from very good to timeless classic.

Everyone's dynamic shifts when he's there. I have a genuinely hard time thinking of a faction that had greater chemistry than the Bloodline with Sami. We have great factions like the Horseman, NWO, DX, but at no point did any of them have this sort of long term personal and emotional story.

Obviously this thing isn't complete until the Wiseman return. Overall, they've done a solid job getting the band back together.

Mox is still the third best guy in his group and the presentation is GOD AWFUL. Wastin a perfectly good Claudio on this shit man.

>Mox is still the third best guy in his group and the
>presentation is GOD AWFUL. Wastin a perfectly good Claudio on
>this shit man.

And you know Mox is finna BE winning matches in a Triple Haitch 2005 manner whenever they make him 'wrestle'. I wonder how long they can have him as champ before they accept that they need to dismount. To me, the group exists to get Yuta over as the sympathetic/abused lackey who eventually bucks up and revolts. Also, they NEED to get their azzes kicked outrageously by Danielson if he can show back up. For now, I roll my eyes when Moxley is barely selling anything during altercations. And I've been trying to love Marina Shafir basically forever, but she's still not smooth enough to be guilty of being 'technical' or rough/big enough to be feared. So she's just a cute lady making mean faces/walking like she's wider than she really is and nah. Kamille could've been grand in that Chyna role. Or Shida. Or Purrazzo. Please someone get me more Purrazzo!

For my money, Christian has no business not being world champion cuz he's the best heel on the show and he's dedicated to having no redeeming qualities. Mama Wayne is easy to look at, she's a good Stephanie McMahon heel and I hope she gets her due ass-kicking one of these days. I know Luchasaurus is in a bad way health-wise but still...Christian is the thing in AEW to me (and has been for the longest).

In the meantime, I'd love it if Hurt People Business Syndicate got over enough to where THEY were THE 'kick everyone's azzes/have good matches' group in AEW. Where's Kenny King damnit!? Hehe.

You know AEW is dry/cold/not hitting when the Bucks and Kenny are openly steering clear of being on AEW TV. Sure, Kenny is going through plenty of health stuff and might have to retire but lo and fuckin behold...he popped up in New Japan? Really!? in 2024!? Why!? Hehe.

Even Jericho is back doing the 'trying to get ROH a TV deal' thing.

For all of the disdain the Bucks draw (lots of it isn't exactly unfair..they're terrible at selling and telling stories/when they aren't rasslin), they HAVE been jobbing up a storm when it counts. But their 'takeover/save AEW from itself' faction fell absurdly flat (as expected). I be all up on that fast forward button when I see Jungle Boy. And I never hated him all that much..he's just not it. And it ain't his fault Tony fired the wrong dudes after the backstage fights.

I'm glad Adam Cole made it back. I hope he finds somewhere on the card to be that is worth something. I don't care about him and MJF's thing at all. Maybe its just me at this point.

I like Private Party well enough. But I don't trust that they're not gonna end up broken up somehow.

I was wrong about The Acclaimed being alright despite shaky stories and stuff. I fast forward their stuff now too.

I enjoy Ricochet in the 'legendary high flyer' role. He doesn't have to win every match to be a big deal. He doesn't have to talk a lot to have a match of his be worth checking out. He needs some conflict/saltiness here and there and he's good. He should wrestle Ospreay 2x a year forever cuz why not.

FTR is over with again for now. I BE not caring when the show up.

The model dudes and Morrison is my kind of goofy/silly so I'm down with that as a middle of the show low calorie thing that I can enjoy. Cuz ultimately, if every segment is the announcers acting like every heel with more than 1 accomplice is going to turn AEW upside down forever, it ruins all of em. Reminds me of the worst Attitude era days in WWF where basically everyone was in a group except Stone Cold (and he could show up whenever and whoop the shit out of like 5 dudes).

I miss Toni Storm but she probably needed to break away for a bit after losing. I don't ever miss it when Mina shows up to do anything cuz c'mon.

and this is ESPECIALLY true of their tag team division. We all understand, not everyone can challenge for every title all the time, and sometimes you just need two guys to hate each other to give them a story (i.e. "fighting over a bracelet"). But man, when Creative has nothing for people they REALLY have NOTHING for people. The Acclaimed are a perfect example. If they're not going after a title they ain't doing shit. Wardlow. Hobbs. Archer. All of them have been on the Jinder Mahal "I ain't doin shit OH WAIT LET'S GET HEATED UP FOR A TITLE RUN" treadmill.

>And you know Mox is finna BE winning matches in a Triple
>Haitch 2005 manner whenever they make him 'wrestle'. I wonder
>how long they can have him as champ before they accept that
>they need to dismount. To me, the group exists to get Yuta
>over as the sympathetic/abused lackey who eventually bucks up
>and revolts. Also, they NEED to get their azzes kicked
>outrageously by Danielson if he can show back up. For now, I
>roll my eyes when Moxley is barely selling anything during
>altercations. And I've been trying to love Marina Shafir
>basically forever, but she's still not smooth enough to be
>guilty of being 'technical' or rough/big enough to be feared.
>So she's just a cute lady making mean faces/walking like she's
>wider than she really is and nah. Kamille could've been grand
>in that Chyna role. Or Shida. Or Purrazzo. Please someone get
>me more Purrazzo!

i really cant believe anyone thought this was a good idea on any level. the guy growling about people being someone theyre not is the same guy we saw get tapped out by a paunchy dad in high school gym. cool.

and the island of misfit babyfaces opposing them only hammers home how meaningless this is.

>For my money, Christian has no business not being world
>champion cuz he's the best heel on the show and he's dedicated
>to having no redeeming qualities. Mama Wayne is easy to look
>at, she's a good Stephanie McMahon heel and I hope she gets
>her due ass-kicking one of these days. I know Luchasaurus is
>in a bad way health-wise but still...Christian is the thing in
>AEW to me (and has been for the longest).

hes too deep in the schtick of it all for me. HE is fine, but its time to let go of the dad meme.

>In the meantime, I'd love it if Hurt People Business Syndicate
>got over enough to where THEY were THE 'kick everyone's
>azzes/have good matches' group in AEW. Where's Kenny King
>damnit!? Hehe.

Shelton Benjamin losing clean as a whistle was an odd choice but these dudes are so far above everything else around them that it really just hammers home how weak everything else is. im supposed to take Moxley's loser bunch seriously with a legit US Military wrestling champion standing next to a 2x All American? cmon lol. other than that Shelton L this stuff has been awesome, which means they probably told TK not to mix them up in thr silly shit.

>You know AEW is dry/cold/not hitting when the Bucks and Kenny
>are openly steering clear of being on AEW TV. Sure, Kenny is
>going through plenty of health stuff and might have to retire
>but lo and fuckin behold...he popped up in New Japan? Really!?
>in 2024!? Why!? Hehe.

ive never seen a "popular" thing get less popular as more people see it the way the Bucks have. not only are they not making fans, they're actively driving off some of the ones they already had. ive never seen "stars" that have to go away as often as the YBs.

>Even Jericho is back doing the 'trying to get ROH a TV deal'
>thing.

poor big bill

>For all of the disdain the Bucks draw (lots of it isn't
>exactly unfair..they're terrible at selling and telling
>stories/when they aren't rasslin), they HAVE been jobbing up a
>storm when it counts. But their 'takeover/save AEW from
>itself' faction fell absurdly flat (as expected). I be all up
>on that fast forward button when I see Jungle Boy. And I never
>hated him all that much..he's just not it. And it ain't his
>fault Tony fired the wrong dudes after the backstage fights.

forget wrestling, starting a narrative arc like that and then just dropping it...thats jus flat out bad television, and its the kind of bad television that some people wont give a 2nd chance to.

>I'm glad Adam Cole made it back. I hope he finds somewhere on
>the card to be that is worth something. I don't care about him
>and MJF's thing at all. Maybe its just me at this point.

how could anyone care? WHY WAS HE DOING THEIR YARD WORK???

>I like Private Party well enough. But I don't trust that
>they're not gonna end up broken up somehow.

well they only know 2 programs: "i want you at your best" and "i thought we were friends" so odds are high for #2

>I was wrong about The Acclaimed being alright despite shaky
>stories and stuff. I fast forward their stuff now too.

i said 2.5 years ago that if they kept not winning matches it would be gone and everyone lined up to tell me i was wrong. well...i wasnt.

>FTR is over with again for now. I BE not caring when the show
>up.

what is there to care about? every time the Bucks win the tag belts it reduces the whole scene to meaningless tripe. also, multi-team matches every PPV does nothing for anyone

>Cuz ultimately, if every segment is the
>announcers acting like every heel with more than 1 accomplice
>is going to turn AEW upside down forever, it ruins all of em.
>Reminds me of the worst Attitude era days in WWF where
>basically everyone was in a group except Stone Cold (and he
>could show up whenever and whoop the shit out of like 5
>dudes).

if i didnt know they were real life idiots, id think Excalibur and Schiavone were TRYING to fuck up the broadcasts. they, like much of the show, are what i would conjure up if i were trying to make fun of wrestling, rather than to do it right.

>And you know Mox is finna BE winning matches in a Triple
>Haitch 2005 manner whenever they make him 'wrestle'. I wonder
>how long they can have him as champ before they accept that
>they need to dismount. To me, the group exists to get Yuta
>over as the sympathetic/abused lackey who eventually bucks up
>and revolts. Also, they NEED to get their azzes kicked
>outrageously by Danielson if he can show back up. For now, I
>roll my eyes when Moxley is barely selling anything during
>altercations.

There's definitely something missing here. I tend to hate the "destroy the company from within" angle. And Claudio, Pac, and Wheeler are all good here. I'm one of the people on here who likes Moxley in general, but being this type of heel isn't working with me. Especailly if they're trying to keep the title on him long-term until All In or so.

>And I've been trying to love Marina Shafir
>basically forever, but she's still not smooth enough to be
>guilty of being 'technical' or rough/big enough to be feared.
>So she's just a cute lady making mean faces/walking like she's
>wider than she really is and nah. Kamille could've been grand
>in that Chyna role. Or Shida. Or Purrazzo. Please someone get
>me more Purrazzo!

Eh, I like Shafir in this role. Kamile playing the Nash role to Mone's HBK is pretty good. I agree there needs to be more Purazzo. They need to figure what the Vendetta angle with her and Taya Valkyrie. Talent-wise, the AEW women's division is stronger than it's ever been. And they're able to have decent non-title related feuds as well. It just needs to come together.

>For my money, Christian has no business not being world
>champion cuz he's the best heel on the show and he's dedicated
>to having no redeeming qualities. Mama Wayne is easy to look
>at, she's a good Stephanie McMahon heel and I hope she gets
>her due ass-kicking one of these days. I know Luchasaurus is
>in a bad way health-wise but still...Christian is the thing in
>AEW to me (and has been for the longest).

He definitely generates heat. I don't leave the MITB thing they're running, but they can pay it off right (it shouldn't involve him winning the title).

>In the meantime, I'd love it if Hurt People Business Syndicate
>got over enough to where THEY were THE 'kick everyone's
>azzes/have good matches' group in AEW. Where's Kenny King
>damnit!? Hehe.

I definitely think they have serious potential to be awesome. I'd even add Will Hobbs to their ranks.

>You know AEW is dry/cold/not hitting when the Bucks and Kenny
>are openly steering clear of being on AEW TV. Sure, Kenny is
>going through plenty of health stuff and might have to retire
>but lo and fuckin behold...he popped up in New Japan? Really!?
>in 2024!? Why!? Hehe.

The Kenny stuff is weird. The Bucks angle ended up crapping out because of the decision to not have them wrestle for a while. I do hoe that they're not keeping them off TV so that in a couple of months they and Kenny can come back as conquering babyfaces to save the company.

>Even Jericho is back doing the 'trying to get ROH a TV deal'
>thing.

I've liked the Learning Tree angle overall, but it's run its course. And Jericho shouldn't have the ROH title. The only reason to do it is if you were going to put the tag belts on Briscoe and KOR, but that's clearly not going to happen.

>For all of the disdain the Bucks draw (lots of it isn't
>exactly unfair..they're terrible at selling and telling
>stories/when they aren't rasslin), they HAVE been jobbing up a
>storm when it counts. But their 'takeover/save AEW from
>itself' faction fell absurdly flat (as expected). I be all up
>on that fast forward button when I see Jungle Boy. And I never
>hated him all that much..he's just not it. And it ain't his
>fault Tony fired the wrong dudes after the backstage fights.

Addressed the Bucks above. As for Jungle Boy, I'm pretty neutral on him now, though I definitely did not like the angle for a while. His feud with Garcia is the most interesting thing they've had him do in over a year. That said, they need to finally pull the trigger on Garcia at Full Gear.

>I'm glad Adam Cole made it back. I hope he finds somewhere on
>the card to be that is worth something. I don't care about him
>and MJF's thing at all. Maybe its just me at this point.

It's definitely hurt by a weird dynamic and MJF being off shooting movies. And making Roderick Strong and Undisputed Kingdom default faces in the process isn't working. Either fully bring back Undisputed Era or don't bother. Ah, what could have been if only he hadn't shattered his ankle.


>I like Private Party well enough. But I don't trust that
>they're not gonna end up broken up somehow.

I think they're doing pretty well and they've got the fans really behind them for the first time in a while.

>I was wrong about The Acclaimed being alright despite shaky
>stories and stuff. I fast forward their stuff now too.

The problem with the Acclaimed is that they never improved. Or, really Max never improved beyond his raps. When he's not rapping, his personality is just annoying. Meanwhile, the Gunns grew and pretty much lapped them. And the Outrunners have also sold themselves to the audience and everyone is buying in.


>FTR is over with again for now. I BE not caring when the show
>up.

I still enjoy them quite a bit, but having them lose to the House of Black was the right decision. Having them turn on the Outrunners will probably work too.

>The model dudes and Morrison is my kind of goofy/silly so I'm
>down with that as a middle of the show low calorie thing that
>I can enjoy. Cuz ultimately, if every segment is the
>announcers acting like every heel with more than 1 accomplice
>is going to turn AEW upside down forever, it ruins all of em.
>Reminds me of the worst Attitude era days in WWF where
>basically everyone was in a group except Stone Cold (and he
>could show up whenever and whoop the shit out of like 5
>dudes).

Eh, I really like MxM and Morrison is a very good fit. And I think there's potential strength in a lot of the other heel factions, even if the Elite and the Death Riders aren't working. This is the best the Don Callis Family has been in forever. The pieces are there.

>I miss Toni Storm but she probably needed to break away for a
>bit after losing. I don't ever miss it when Mina shows up to
>do anything cuz c'mon.

Toni Storm's promos have been even better as she's been away. She's a treasure and hoipefully Full Gear signifies her return.

I forgot about the Gunns and Outrunners! I enjoy both. I was scurred about the Gunns but they took advantage of being around some serious pros and they're a good time most of the time.

Harley has me rolling now too.

And I hope they don't squander Anna Jay's Japan run, general improvement, etcetera. I was always hoping she'd pull it together and do justice to how absurdly good looking she is. She's on rasslin in 2024 where there's good looking humans in basically every segment on AEW/WWE/NXT and she still looks pretty much special.

Zoomed out, THE ROSTER IS INSANE. AKA if someone would've rolled up on me in 2018 and rattled off the names that AEW has managed to get together, I would've been like 'c'mon now...that isn't possible! How are all of those people going to end up on the same show and its not WWE-related!?'. And here we are, but some pretty wild and unfortunate things put some stank on em. It sucks cuz I feel this way WITHOUT consuming most of the hating for clicks 'content' that so many out of the business folks are putting into the world now. And my algos keep trying to tell me when Rikishi complains about something with his kids on WWE when all of those mfers are basically as important/over as they've ever been? Hush it up, fella! Hehe

I hope AEW can figure out a way to heat up a main event program and allow that heat to sprinkle some good will over the whole show. They're smart enough to know that's what they need. They just haven't figured out how to do it yet. There's clearly some good things happening on the show from time to time. I still watch at least Dynamite but I'm at the point where I'm crazy quick on the draw with the fast forward button. Maybe I need to give them a cleaner shot. I also need to get over my dream of what Collision was gonna be (the ultra coherent and wildly expensive NXT black and gold-style rasslin show) and give it another shot to be whatever it is now.



>
>>And you know Mox is finna BE winning matches in a Triple
>>Haitch 2005 manner whenever they make him 'wrestle'. I
>wonder
>>how long they can have him as champ before they accept that
>>they need to dismount. To me, the group exists to get Yuta
>>over as the sympathetic/abused lackey who eventually bucks
>up
>>and revolts. Also, they NEED to get their azzes kicked
>>outrageously by Danielson if he can show back up. For now, I
>>roll my eyes when Moxley is barely selling anything during
>>altercations.
>
>There's definitely something missing here. I tend to hate the
>"destroy the company from within" angle. And Claudio, Pac, and
>Wheeler are all good here. I'm one of the people on here who
>likes Moxley in general, but being this type of heel isn't
>working with me. Especailly if they're trying to keep the
>title on him long-term until All In or so.
>
>>And I've been trying to love Marina Shafir
>>basically forever, but she's still not smooth enough to be
>>guilty of being 'technical' or rough/big enough to be
>feared.
>>So she's just a cute lady making mean faces/walking like
>she's
>>wider than she really is and nah. Kamille could've been
>grand
>>in that Chyna role. Or Shida. Or Purrazzo. Please someone
>get
>>me more Purrazzo!
>
>Eh, I like Shafir in this role. Kamile playing the Nash role
>to Mone's HBK is pretty good. I agree there needs to be more
>Purazzo. They need to figure what the Vendetta angle with her
>and Taya Valkyrie. Talent-wise, the AEW women's division is
>stronger than it's ever been. And they're able to have decent
>non-title related feuds as well. It just needs to come
>together.
>
>>For my money, Christian has no business not being world
>>champion cuz he's the best heel on the show and he's
>dedicated
>>to having no redeeming qualities. Mama Wayne is easy to look
>>at, she's a good Stephanie McMahon heel and I hope she gets
>>her due ass-kicking one of these days. I know Luchasaurus is
>>in a bad way health-wise but still...Christian is the thing
>in
>>AEW to me (and has been for the longest).
>
>He definitely generates heat. I don't leave the MITB thing
>they're running, but they can pay it off right (it shouldn't
>involve him winning the title).
>
>>In the meantime, I'd love it if Hurt People Business
>Syndicate
>>got over enough to where THEY were THE 'kick everyone's
>>azzes/have good matches' group in AEW. Where's Kenny King
>>damnit!? Hehe.
>
>I definitely think they have serious potential to be awesome.
>I'd even add Will Hobbs to their ranks.
>
>>You know AEW is dry/cold/not hitting when the Bucks and
>Kenny
>>are openly steering clear of being on AEW TV. Sure, Kenny is
>>going through plenty of health stuff and might have to
>retire
>>but lo and fuckin behold...he popped up in New Japan?
>Really!?
>>in 2024!? Why!? Hehe.
>
>The Kenny stuff is weird. The Bucks angle ended up crapping
>out because of the decision to not have them wrestle for a
>while. I do hoe that they're not keeping them off TV so that
>in a couple of months they and Kenny can come back as
>conquering babyfaces to save the company.
>
>>Even Jericho is back doing the 'trying to get ROH a TV deal'
>>thing.
>
>I've liked the Learning Tree angle overall, but it's run its
>course. And Jericho shouldn't have the ROH title. The only
>reason to do it is if you were going to put the tag belts on
>Briscoe and KOR, but that's clearly not going to happen.
>
>>For all of the disdain the Bucks draw (lots of it isn't
>>exactly unfair..they're terrible at selling and telling
>>stories/when they aren't rasslin), they HAVE been jobbing up
>a
>>storm when it counts. But their 'takeover/save AEW from
>>itself' faction fell absurdly flat (as expected). I be all
>up
>>on that fast forward button when I see Jungle Boy. And I
>never
>>hated him all that much..he's just not it. And it ain't his
>>fault Tony fired the wrong dudes after the backstage fights.
>
>Addressed the Bucks above. As for Jungle Boy, I'm pretty
>neutral on him now, though I definitely did not like the angle
>for a while. His feud with Garcia is the most interesting
>thing they've had him do in over a year. That said, they need
>to finally pull the trigger on Garcia at Full Gear.
>
>>I'm glad Adam Cole made it back. I hope he finds somewhere
>on
>>the card to be that is worth something. I don't care about
>him
>>and MJF's thing at all. Maybe its just me at this point.
>
>It's definitely hurt by a weird dynamic and MJF being off
>shooting movies. And making Roderick Strong and Undisputed
>Kingdom default faces in the process isn't working. Either
>fully bring back Undisputed Era or don't bother. Ah, what
>could have been if only he hadn't shattered his ankle.
>
>
>>I like Private Party well enough. But I don't trust that
>>they're not gonna end up broken up somehow.
>
>I think they're doing pretty well and they've got the fans
>really behind them for the first time in a while.
>
>>I was wrong about The Acclaimed being alright despite shaky
>>stories and stuff. I fast forward their stuff now too.
>
>The problem with the Acclaimed is that they never improved.
>Or, really Max never improved beyond his raps. When he's not
>rapping, his personality is just annoying. Meanwhile, the
>Gunns grew and pretty much lapped them. And the Outrunners
>have also sold themselves to the audience and everyone is
>buying in.
>
>
>>FTR is over with again for now. I BE not caring when the
>show
>>up.
>
>I still enjoy them quite a bit, but having them lose to the
>House of Black was the right decision. Having them turn on the
>Outrunners will probably work too.
>
>>The model dudes and Morrison is my kind of goofy/silly so
>I'm
>>down with that as a middle of the show low calorie thing
>that
>>I can enjoy. Cuz ultimately, if every segment is the
>>announcers acting like every heel with more than 1
>accomplice
>>is going to turn AEW upside down forever, it ruins all of
>em.
>>Reminds me of the worst Attitude era days in WWF where
>>basically everyone was in a group except Stone Cold (and he
>>could show up whenever and whoop the shit out of like 5
>>dudes).
>
>Eh, I really like MxM and Morrison is a very good fit. And I
>think there's potential strength in a lot of the other heel
>factions, even if the Elite and the Death Riders aren't
>working. This is the best the Don Callis Family has been in
>forever. The pieces are there.
>
>>I miss Toni Storm but she probably needed to break away for
>a
>>bit after losing. I don't ever miss it when Mina shows up to
>>do anything cuz c'mon.
>
>Toni Storm's promos have been even better as she's been away.
>She's a treasure and hoipefully Full Gear signifies her
>return.

Speaking of returns, where the FUCK did Jamie Hayter go? She came back, looked like a million bucks and now she’s just here to be in Julia Hart’s way when SHE returns? This is EXACTLY what I’m talking about.


>Toni Storm's promos have been even better as she's been away.
>She's a treasure and hoipefully Full Gear signifies her
>return.

…is that you’ve got a really deep women’s roster and it’s going to be difficult to give everyone something to do. Shoot, Hikaru Shida and Britt Baker MADE AEW’s women’s division, and Shida is being used to put Kris Statlander over (makes sense) and theyre trying to figure out how to use Baker. This doesnt even account for what they’re going to do with Willow whenever she returns. And Athena is more than ready to go from ROH to AEW again, but with two mega heel champs, there’s no real role for her character.

Yes, it would be nice if Hayter gets more of a run. Maybe have her be the one who beats Mone eventually.

She’s taken everything she’s been given and run HARD with it. I don’t have any doubts that she’ll be fine no matter what AEdub do.

and NXT is still the best of all the weekly wrasslin shows.

bless HBK

>and NXT is still the best of all the weekly wrasslin shows.
>
>bless HBK

She's better than I thought too. I love that we don't have to worry about stars like her getting booked in some terrible and/or racist manner. She's getting the 'Steamboat showing up in 89 to kick Ric Flair's azz' treatment. AKA heels are usually shook af when she comes around and its great to see!

I haven't had this much lust on my soul watching rasslin since AEW was doing Skye Blue vs Toni Storm matches all the time. Every pin attempt on them joints drove me crazy! Haha.

HBK is doing nerdy callbacks to old stuff to glorious effect, getting a bunch of people over, and cooking with basically the best looking roster of young hosses in many years if not ever. And even when they bring in someone 'established', they seem to use them well to help get some youngin reps with a pro.

I remember being openly skeptical of WWE cleaning house away from NXT being being THE mega indy, but it looks like they were right! I'm guessing we're watching hella future stars right now.

And what do you know..they probably feel like they could get most anyone back from AEW that they really want by now. I continue to stand by the stance that good rasslin anywhere will eventually benefit WWE the most cuz they're the best/most opportunistic.

That written, I hope AEW gets hot when they go to MAX so I can quit having to decide if I'm gonna give them 50 more dollars for some of these shows. This next card has some good matches on there.

Growing up watching wrestling, you only saw wrestlers in wrestling boots, or maybe some unbranded shoes... loafers, wingtips, combat boots etc., but since I've started watching again, every week these dudes are out in the newest and hottest Nikes. They're out here in the Travs, Roman in back to back appearances had the newest Js on, on that had been released just a couple days before and the other hadn't even gotten it's official release. How long has this been going on?

i think the rest of em, it's just a generational thing. Jordans are just kind of the default shoe for millenials. we wear em to weddings, the gym, work, etc.

My two favorite guys in the business (wwe or aew) right now are Ospreay and Swerve.
Both lost, and narratively it was the right choice for both of them.

Ospreay vs Fletcher was excellent (MOTY contender).
Swerve vs. Bobby was great in a much different way.

Other than that...
Ricochet vs Takeshita was okay.
Moxley vs. Cassidy was good.

Moxley works for me in this role, but that crew doesn't seem strong enough to be running roughshod over the company... and really they're not. They're running roughshod over the lower midcard. Which is why that angle is weird to me. Like okay Darby is a borderline main event guy, but the rest of the main event caliber guys, have nothing to do with this angle. They've got their own things going on and don't seem to care that Mox nem are "running the company"

I have little faith that they’ll keep it going without screwing it up, but for now I’m going to enjoy it.

MVP is killing it, and they’re actually treating Shelton with respect. I’m in.

kind of a dull card all around. highlights were
- whatever friendship Rhea and Iyo have going on
- Jacob being Jacob
- Tiffany continuing to exist

but other than that the matches were kind of all whatever tonight. the women dont need to have a wargames match having 2 on the card just sucks a lot of air out the night.

Women’s War Games match really dragged. I thought LA vs Nak was laid out pretty poorly, but was happy with the result.

I liked the last 3 matches quite a bit though, minus the Judgment Day interference in the World title match. When Sheamus finally gets the IC title the arena is gonna explode. Punk and Roman making faces in the waiting cage is one of the most entertaining things I’ve seen in a while. Can’t wait to see what that favor is.

…then we didn’t

But when you think about what’s around the corner (SNME, Netflix, Rumble) this may have been the calm before the storm

Btw - I think Owens may beat Cody

if it was a PPV I think KO might win but I think they want to introduce a new audience to Cody as the champ/face of the brand and roll into the netflix deal w/ him as well.

I'd say the main issue is the same problem with all the incarnations of WarGames/Blood N Guts for almost a decade now: The first 20 minutes are a protracted set-up for the 20-minute "everyone in the ring!!!" spot-fest that "ends" the match. But I did notice that both the women's and men's match had the exact same lay-out and story beats. And both were too long, and the women's match was pretty meh overall.

For the men's match, it should have pretty definitively ended the Bloodline 2.0 story-arc, as all the faces stomped out Solo for the finish. I guess you could have Jacob usurp Solo's role and have The Wise Man betray Roman (and Punk) to become their new advisor, but that would seem like an extremely pointless rehash.

The next feasible step would be to bring back The Rock at some point. Though with all the meaningful looks exchanged during the match, it does seem like they're setting up Roman vs. Punk somewhere down the road.

Jacob is so insanely loyal to Solo that I imagine he’s sticking by his side regardless (for now), but yeah, I’d be surprised if Bloodline 2.0 actually continues.

That shit was hard to hear but so damn well done. ESPECIALLY after reading E’s Player’s Tribune article today.

I could be totally wrong, but my hunch is E is eventually coming back

If he gets physical on Monday then it all but confirms he’s cleared. This way, something like a Rumble return will hit even harder

Could be totally wrong though

I had myself looking back at when E posted his latest neck update, and it looks like he did that Kevin Nash stem cell treatment back in June. So could be close (and they wouldn't have mentioned "never medically cleared" if that wasn't the case, I'm hoping)

they were telling the truth about him not having surgery, but thats because his injury cant be operated on.

the C1-C2 joint is highly intricate. out of all of the thousands of spinal surgeries i was ever involved in, the only ones involving C1 were all fusions going *past* C1 to the base of the skull. one was a kid who dove in 3 feet of water and the other was a downs syndrome patient (their C1-C2 joints degenerate over time), and both were going to be in motorized chairs for the rest of their lives controlled by blowing into a tube.

hes lucky to be alive.

it's like the entire program is on fast forward

pace of the wrestling is too fast
no selling
commentary says too much
Renee Paquette interviews galore

it's really just fascinating to think what this company was two years ago

Absolutely at home on the commentary desk. That was a super fun show.

to MacAfee and Cole who Damian was...

But other than that moment, it felt like Pat was a LOT tighter on commentary than he's been. And his game went way up when Jesse joined the desk.

theres no reason he should be THAT much better at this than everyone else on earth

hes been gone for almost 30 fuckin years and he just saunters back in as the best color guy in wrestling

what a bump!!

he took it wayyyyyy back insulting the Steiner intellect and the other guys didnt know what to say

McAfee's reaction was appropriate for him, but for this to reach its highest level Michael Cole is gonna have to start reacting to it. whether disgust, annoyance, admonishment, or whatever, its going to be less than what it could be until the other guys stop being reverential and start being a little oppositional.

>kinda feels like towards the end of 2021 there was a chance
>for the industry to rebalance itself, and for various reasons
>that window is not only shut, but will never reopen during our
>lifetimes.
>
>who could have ever known that Vince McMahon's deviancy would
>be the best thing to happen to WWE's product in 25 years?

Lots of feuds have heat on them. There’s various types of heels. Babyfaces seem to show the right kind of fire for whatever the situation is. I love it.

that have made it feel more like a real good television show. Yeah, there's still stuff like Chelsea smelling like garbage and the Wyatts, but because that's the exception it feels like it still fits.

That was so fun.

>That was so fun.

Will is on a roll. And he's mostly been presented as king shit rassler (who needs to get over his bullshit and shed the clowns around him to be great). And what do you know..it kinda works cuz he's such an athletic performer in an era where we see lots of guys doing some tricks to make matches 'feel' more epic than they really are sometimes. I hear and see the issues with SOME of the bigger noselling stuff, but I'm mostly okay with it cuz he's really good. And he's gonna get better as he further figures out what he needs to do and when in big matches.

This is some bullshit.

Joke’s on me I guess. Somehow, it’s the worst Raw in a while. It’s like they’ve hit “reset” on everything they’ve done for the past year thinking they’re introducing the Star players to a large new audience of viewers, but ironically I don’t think they’re going to pick up anyone with this show between the commercials and poor uninventive booking. It doesn’t help that this crowd seems pretty weak too.

Maybe Rollins/Punk bails this show out

Lmao.

They a half an hour before there was an actual match to be had... and then they went to commercial. The Rock segment was essentially an earnings call speech; and he certainly made it sound like he wasn't goin to wrestle at WM.

Most of the matches weren't particular good, besides Punk/Rollins. I certainly hope this is finally the end of Roman vs. The Bloodline, because there's absolutely no where else to go after the combo of Survivor Series and this. And they finally and definitively ended Ripley vs. Liv Morgan/Dom. The "highlight" of the night was Hogan getting booed out of the building.

And, honestly, I found Hogan's presence at this thing, and WWE's continued and now apparently enhanced relationship with him, pretty offensive. Beyond just having his racist and MAGA ass at the event, they've now entered a partnership to shill/have a minority ownership stake in his beer brand, which he creating to feed off the Anti-Trans horseshit campaign against Budweiser. So, fuck them for geting further into bed with Hogan.

So, yeah, this show, and overall this fed, just isn't for me.

and that he turns on Roman soon.

Otherwise, it could’ve been a press conference and basically would just have retconned the entire last year of his part in the angle.

I had some friends over and I’d say maybe half of them had never watched wrasslin before, or in years at least. The show definitely had the feel of a pilot episode introducing the major plot points of the year. The only thing that didn’t really land was the Jey/Drew match. That was def the piss break of the night

>This is some bullshit.

There WAS hella commercials. I was worried about it at least a bit going into it.

BUT

I was committed to letting them do their thing with this first ep. They clearly saw it as a big af deal and they wanted to handle things a certain way. They were gonna explain stuff/try to keep things simple/try to make it obvious who they think a big deal is. AND they were trying to sell it as a sample platter. I like it.

Punk and Rollins getting the main event was glorious. And those two mfers went out there and HIT IT HARD. They 'understood the assignment' and had a rock solid match. Cornette-ish quotes apply here: it looked and felt like a fight. Dives and/or landings looked chaotic in a way that would make Bret smile. Lots of strikes looked Attitude Era SNUG. And considering all the shit they talked and the story, it was right.

I don't love that the crowd wasn't out of their minds the whole way through, but hey...a 3 hour Raw is hard on a live crowd. Sooooo many damn breaks! But yeah..I assume people were proud af of that match.

Wasn’t exactly “mania level” as was rumored, and I think I’m pretty much price gouged after this, but it was fun. I loved all the matches.I would have been annoyed by the commercials if I didn’t have an edible in my system lol. There was a strange element to it where they had to give us small glimpses of what is usually on Raw (cause the matches booked were all main event level and took up so much time) so it felt more like a victory lap than a debut episode.

I’ve never seen a bigger misstep than bringing Hogan out there. It dawned on me how badly it would go earlier in the day, and it was even louder with boos than I had imagined. The Rumble in Saudi announcement got heavily booed as well, but the crowd watching at home didn’t hear that. I know this is LA, but I think the WWE has severely overestimated how much of a mandate “Trump’s America” has right now. Hulk got booed in Tampa Bay a few years ago. He’s gonna get booed pretty much everywhere. They gotta rethink this beer sponsorship.

This was my first time seeing Jey Uso’s solo entrance. Holy shit what a blast. Over like crazy. One of my favorite things is when Michael Cole is having fun, and that’s why I like Pat McAfee at commentary. He brings out a different side to Cole that is a lot more fun to watch and listen to.

Very disappointed I didn’t get to see Penta’s debut, damn.

- Cornball gimmick that’s aged horribly
- serial liar
- hasnt wrestled In over a decade
- documented racist
- Trumper
- beer probably blows

Those boos felt something more guttural than “boooooooo”

>
>- Cornball gimmick that’s aged horribly
>- serial liar
>- hasnt wrestled In over a decade
>- documented racist
>- Trumper
>- beer probably blows
>
>Those boos felt something more guttural than “boooooooo”

>>
>>- Cornball gimmick that’s aged horribly
>>- serial liar
>>- hasnt wrestled In over a decade
>>- documented racist
>>- Trumper
>>- beer probably blows
>>
>>Those boos felt something more guttural than “boooooooo”
>


His return from banishment in TAMPA(of all places) went poorly and since then he hasn’t given many people a reason to like him. At best, he might get a mixed reaction in some of the Trump-heavy parts of the country, but trotting him out in front of LA was either delusional or a deliberate plan to embarrass the man.

Taker also doesn’t whore himself out as a Trump mascot like Hogan. I think that’s part of it too.

I think he flies under the radar with it enough to where most don’t know/care though.

Honestly was never even much of a Taker fan anyway though. Gimmicks and feuds were almost always too goofy for me, even as a kid.

but they have ruined mark calloway for me

- debut him in a heavily-Hispanic market
- have him wrestle an Angle-lite pseudo xenophobic character
- WORK THEIR ASSES OFF
- babyface Bilingual promo after

Very early in the “Netflix-era” but it seems they’re determined to make a dozen guys larger than life fixtures. It feels very late 80s to me, with Roman as Hogan but still a bunch of guys who all fill the roles of Macho, Dibiase, Warrior, Big John Stud, Piper, Jake the Snake. Everyone had a big look and unique feel then and that’s kind of where we are now again. They’ve done a masterful job setting up guys as different from one another in the last two years…for a time , every character except Cena just wore a black T-shirt…now only Owens wears a black T-shirt, as that’s basically his gimmick.

For example , I look at what they’ve done with Nakamura in the last few months and just applaud. They’re not repackaging the guy, just tweaking him enough to inject more life into him.

So I say all that to say that this version of Penta makes perfect sense. Larger than life, international appeal, can work work work. Penta vs Jacob Fatu? Vs Bron Breaker? Vs AJ Styles for no good reason eventually? A+ across the board. An inspired signing.

>- debut him in a heavily-Hispanic market
>- have him wrestle an Angle-lite pseudo xenophobic character
>- WORK THEIR ASSES OFF
>- babyface Bilingual promo after
>
>Very early in the “Netflix-era” but it seems they’re
>determined to make a dozen guys larger than life fixtures. It
>feels very late 80s to me, with Roman as Hogan but still a
>bunch of guys who all fill the roles of Macho, Dibiase,
>Warrior, Big John Stud, Piper, Jake the Snake. Everyone had a
>big look and unique feel then and that’s kind of where we
>are now again. They’ve done a masterful job setting up guys
>as different from one another in the last two years…for a
>time , every character except Cena just wore a black
>T-shirt…now only Owens wears a black T-shirt, as that’s
>basically his gimmick.
>
> For example , I look at what they’ve done with Nakamura in
>the last few months and just applaud. They’re not
>repackaging the guy, just tweaking him enough to inject more
>life into him.
>
>So I say all that to say that this version of Penta makes
>perfect sense. Larger than life, international appeal, can
>work work work. Penta vs Jacob Fatu? Vs Bron Breaker? Vs AJ
>Styles for no good reason eventually? A+ across the board. An
>inspired signing.

My Lucha Underground nerd heart was feeling great! Hehe.

Yeah, they handled their biz with this. They set him up to look good and he held up his end (not shocking). It is a wild concept they keep exploring where they sign folks and then do a good job with them out of the gate. I love it and hope they keep doing it.

It also shows how many times we've all been hurt by 'lacking' debuts because there's usually at least a little shock when people show up and it doesn't immediately tick you off in some way.

Chad was a PRO out there and made him earn it. And Penta was SELLING in 80 font cuz duh..he's a damn pro too. Good times. To be greedy, I wonder when we get his brother...

I mean, I’m still a little scared that Penta will suffer the same fate that every luchador has, but I would be DREADING his debut if Vince was still in charge. Hunter pays attention to everything and knows exactly how much potential there is here. Also, most importantly, Cole and McAfee did their job (and then some) to sell the audience on him being a big deal, which helped a lot. Glad that he still debuted in Cali. If it was another area of the country he wouldn’t be as well known.

Hoping they build up his singles resume a bit, bring Fenix in for a brief tag team run (babyface Lucha Bros vs. heel New Day would be FIREEEEE), and then have Penta turn on him in a super vicious way. They can print money with that shit.

thats wild to see

Thought for sure one of them was winning.

I haven’t been following all that closely though. Sometimes watching these PPVs is more fun that way. I enjoyed that ending!

The RR is really the only WWE PLE that I'm interested in, and this year delivered, mostly on the strength of the Men's match.

Women's RR was kind of blah. Waaaaaay too many bodies clogging the ring for long periods of time. And once Charlotte entered, it was obvious she was going to win.

Tag match was solid enough, but I kind of hated the ending. Some clever shit in it.

Ladder match was appropriately brutal. Even had Cody working kinda heelish. I don't know what they do with KO now, aside from a violent as hell match vs. Sami at WM. I would have liked to see him win.

Men's Rumble was really good. Solid pacing. Some big moments/eliminations, which I prefer to a lot of "surprises." The pace was good, and they kept it to 6-8 people in the ring at a time, except near the end.

Once they got down to final six, it really was a "Damn, I could see any of them winning this" moment. And I thought for sure it would be Cena, especially after Punk got eliminated.

It's dope that Jey is main eventing, but presumably it's against Gunther, and they literally just did that. On free TV. So I wonder how they'll set it up.

But overall, good show.

but we did get some good Stephanie Vaquer action. crowd popped for her almost as loud as anyone in that match

Stratus, Bliss, and Charlotte returns - that’s a lot of star power on paper.

But as said elsewhere, way too much time with like 12 people in the ring and little happening.

Those Nia throwing 9 people at the same time spots are corny at this point too.

And is it me, or has Bianca really been de-emphasized? I figured she was a threat to win, or be one of the last 2 or 3, and she just kind of went out in meaningless and unmemorable fashion. Feels like she she be in one of the title matches at Mania again, and she’s still just puttering around in a tag team? And not even with Jade….or are they headed for a match against each other? The first Netflix Raw is probably the only show Ive watched in months.

I still have my issues with some of his deficiencies, but that innate connection he has with the fans is undeniable. There’s been a lot of top guys who never had that quality like this.

Shit they even have the lights doing the hand wave.

Outside of Sammy (before the Cody/KO match at least) nobody else would have gotten this reaction in a win.

He’s on some People’s Champ shit right now.

In past years, they’ve waited too long on some guys. This feels like the right time to go with him.

Everyone in the arena with their hands in the air chanting "Yeet" is a great way to end Night 1 of Mania.

I don’t understand people who don’t think he’s genuinely, seriously, massively over right today.

People loved Tye Dillinger and his “10” entrance, and Zack Ryder, shit like that, so I get why the beginning of this felt kinda like that, just on a bigger level.

Thing is, these crowds fucking *love* this man. Not the gimmick, or the song, or the motions.

But HIM.

This isn’t just playing along for funsies. This is genuine affection.

And it’s something you really can’t teach.

It’s not just Jeff Hardy. It’s Daniel Bryan. It’s DDP. Sami Zayn.

It’s special. And it’s the sort of journey that makes pro wrestling beautiful, and not as mere entertainment or art.

But on a human level.

Like you said, he's crazy fucking over and people connect with him. They only arguments that make any sort of sense have to do with the merits of the alternatives and don't take anything away from Jey.

One could argue that Punk is having even more problems staying healthy, and if you wanted to give him a WM main event, now is probably the time. But I'd imagine that they're going slot him into another match with Rollins, especially if Roman being out "indefinitely" isn't a work.

Or one could argue that if this is really Cena's swan song, having him win the title at WM would be ideal. Though I'd guess he'll end up facing whoever Jey doesn't.

I can also sort of understand the match-up thing. They really have done Jey vs. Gunther A LOT this year. I'd actually kind of prefer if they have him fight Cody instead.

But, overall, there really is nothing wrong with having Jey win it all this year. They have been building towards for five years, and he's definitely earned it.

And Jey should go over on that.

It knocks Cody down a peg, which is necessary of they want to solidify him as that Cena type babyface going forward, and gives him a legit shot to see what he can do in that spot.

I don’t want to see 2 months of a “good friends getting ready for a match against each other” program. I’d rather see Gunther keep needling Jey telling him he isn’t worthy of this spot.

happy for the guy...he's wildly over and certainly earned the opportunity.

But he's Samoan LA Knight. There's very little substance there once the bell rings. I've never seen a good Jey Uso solo match.

most matches just feel like guys taking turns getting their moves in. There’s no real selling. Finishers don’t matter. Everybody uses the spear and the super kick. Every big match has a bunch of false finishes.

Jey doesn’t stand out as any better or worse than most of the guys on the roster. They just do a bunch of shit that mostly doesn’t matter for awhile, until one of the 37 big spots finally wins the match.

like yeah the performers might not be as good because they are learning on the fly but the general match structure/logic and booking is far better than what's on the main shows

*disclaimer: Stephanie Vaquer is already the best female performer in the company and she's one of the few men or women on in the company w/ actual aura. if they really wanted to treat NXT as a legit 3rd brand competitively, you could credibly stick her in the ring rn w/ Rhea, Bianca, etc

outside of just getting yourself over. thats all, and jey is out in front there.

>One could argue that Punk is having even more problems staying
>healthy, and if you wanted to give him a WM main event, now is
>probably the time. But I'd imagine that they're going slot him
>into another match with Rollins, especially if Roman being out
>"indefinitely" isn't a work.

Reigns is gonna be out indefinitely for real if that just means not wrestling. WWE has thrown their weight behind selling the medium term impact of this violence, but. hes not legitimately out of action.

also, why could one argue that?

>Or one could argue that if this is really Cena's swan song,
>having him win the title at WM would be ideal. Though I'd
>guess he'll end up facing whoever Jey doesn't.

if he wins the Rumble he cant announce hes also gonna be in the elimination chamber with that A+ serious promo. they're playing chess with Cena.

>I can also sort of understand the match-up thing. They really
>have done Jey vs. Gunther A LOT this year. I'd actually kind
>of prefer if they have him fight Cody instead.

after the shit Gunther said on RAW i dont see any way around it

>Reigns is gonna be out indefinitely for real if that just
>means not wrestling. WWE has thrown their weight behind
>selling the medium term impact of this violence, but. hes not
>legitimately out of action.
>
>also, why could one argue that?

Because he's had three pretty major injuries in the past three years. Including one not that long after he signed with WWE. As part of a career that's been marked with health issues. He's not THAT much younger than Cena. I think there's likely a lot less time ahead of him in the ring than behind. At some point, I could see him wanting to just step away into a new role. They probably originally envisioned being the other main event in WM 40.

Given all that, one could aruge for not wanting to risk waiting another year and putting him in the main event this year. But there's also a legit argument for making it Cena and figuring now is the right to pull the trigger on Jey.

-

i haven't watched AEW in a minute but i have a broad idea of what's going on because of the twitter algo. i was flipping channels and saw her pretending to be Mariah May and GODDAMN lmao. she is blessed.

Yesterday I saw a pic of her in the middle of the ring with her lipstick smeared on my Instagram and it looked like someone crunched the picture to make her look like EXTRA Pixar mom. So I’m like there’s no way this is real so I went to YouTube to watch the clip…imagine unpleasant surprise hahahaha

The funniest/saddest part is, like you, I don’t watch AEW at all

>i haven't watched AEW in a minute but i have a broad idea of
>what's going on because of the twitter algo. i was flipping
>channels and saw her pretending to be Mariah May and GODDAMN
>lmao. she is blessed.

Yes she is. Her character is a good time too. At least a tad silly but its fine by me cuz she does it well. Whenever she needs a good promo to sell a match, she's gonna deliver. And she can still go in the ring. AND yeah, her lower half is serious business fo show. When she was constantly wrestling Skye Blue, I was having the time of my life watching those matches. Every pin was an experience! Hehe

The way WWE never would. Those are 2 of my all time favorites, so I’m enjoying seeing them heavily featured and pushed, and I’ll overlook the AEW mistakes that fans are supposed be upset about. I don’t care!

he lost his second match, and didnt win the tournament that should have existed SOLELY for him to win it

but they are letting him do his shit his way, whether because they trust him or because they're legitimately scared of him and Lashley. probably a healthy mixture of both tbh, but theyve made themselves the best part of the show and got over the old fashioned way, kickin some fuckin ass and letting you hear about it.

ive never said this before about anyone, and i resent when other ppl say it about *anyone*...but there are Steiner vibes to them.

he looks like way more of a threat in AEW.

Tag champs, often winning in matches that are damn near squashes, and getting some much stronger looking offense in than he usually got in WWE.

And IMO he’s actually funny as shit and charismatic, which usually didn’t show in WWE, but is coming across better in AEW.

And I agree with you, he shouldn’t have lost so early and should’ve won that tourney. But this has been better than anything else he’s gotten in the last 20 years.

I’m still bitter that WWE put him on that losing streak and completely killed his future as a top guy back in ‘05. I remember him getting cheered over guys like Cena and Jericho, putting on a classic with Michaels, beating HHH to huge pops…..I got back into wrestling after accidentally catching one of his matches and being intrigued enough to start tuning in weekly. He could’ve had a Benoit type career(unfortunate reference, talking strictly wrestling), if they didn’t screw it up, IMO.

ive known who he was since his NCAA days and even when i wasnt watching in the aughts i still tried to keep tabs on him. what he was doing never seemed to match up with where he was doing it on the card.

i watch his parts on Dynamite every week...and thats all lol

hes been working around the clock since he stormed out of Survivor Series 2023, and is a living testament to what happens when you stop "playing" someone and start BEING someone

he and LA Knight know what the people want to see, and they made it look good. even i considered the possibility for just a brief moment.

Cedric Alexander
The Good Bros.
Giovani Vichi
Sonya Deville
Blair Davenport
AOP
Paul Ellering


I imagine AEW signs Alexander and reuintes the full Hurt Business/Hurt Syndicate. Blair has history there too, so they probably make a play for her. Maybe the Bucks try to bring in the Good Bros., but that seems a little doubtful. They probably go back to New Japan or take jobs as trainers in NXT or work with TNA, which is essentially NXT Jr. now.

they filmed vignettes about him, showing him as this remade man ready for action, and then he got beat his first match and we never saw him again 😂

my dad and I loved picking guys out in a "is that mean mark callous??" way and GV would have us DYING when he popped up again

personally i never rated him as more than an average talent so i am curious to see how this turns out for him. compared to the women's side, mens NXT is kinda devoid of depth so he should be able to make something of himself quickly