We have:

Saturday Summerfest with some pretty big matches. Reigns/Cena has the heat and they're both too good for it to be bad.

Sunday NXT. It may be one of the last of this era of NXT if the rumors are to be believed. I'm happy to see fugging Samoa Joe again. That's for sure.

Phil (and Daniel Bryan) are (allegedly) coming to AEW. Kenny Omega is going around with Harley Race facial hair and being a ridiculous heel goofball character who people want to see lose. And he is SELLING HIS ASS OFF during matches. He sold that Christian Killswitch like it was a burning hammer.

Some of the 'ex-WWE' folks are finding their place around the world. In AEW, Rusev looks great and is having good matches while anchoring the TV title. Malaki Black MOPPED Cody and might actually be taken seriously for a while now. For TNA, Deonna's big fine self is doing work and Christian is back and he's still really good. Now, he can go and try to help Impact stay on its course to being a decent rasslin program worth thumbing through from time to time.

Zoomed out, I'm really happy to see how many 'this person might not ever wrestle again' people we have on the scene right now. Christian. Phil. Bryan. SAMOA DAMN JOE! Hell, even Reigns and Cena! Edge! Even someone like Sasha Banks was looking to be a shaky bet to be back for a while there. At some point, we're getting Becky again too. And now that we know what was up with Keef Lee? Whew!! Even crazy ass Ospreay is hinting at coming back now. This all seems pretty good to me!

And really...

I'm old enough to remember Magnum TA never making it back in the ring. I also remember Dynamite Kid. If we're being honest, we should remember how much time even a guy like Stone Cold spent on ice during his main run. Anyway, I don't take all of these folks being around again lightly at all. Even now, we have Bray somewhere dealing with stuff. And forreal, Harper just smooth died. AKA we can't just assume that these folks are gonna be around forever for us to do the internet complain festival shit about. So, don't let all of these rebook every segment podcasts and tweets trick you. Negativity is obviously their business model. Don't fall for it. If you look around, there's some fun shit going on.

>Sunday NXT. It may be one of the last of this era of NXT if
>the rumors are to be believed.

they beat Ilja on TV last week with a distraction finish? smh lol

but NXT is where Eli Drake / LA Knight is so id be watching anyways. best overall pro wrestler alive imo.

>ridiculous heel goofball character

ive never been a fan of these words in sequence beyond the third match on the card. thats how someone would have described Disco Inferno in 1997. im finding myself not wanting to see him lose matches, but to lose his job and TV time.

>Malaki Black MOPPED Cody and
>might actually be taken seriously for a while now.

Cody launching himself thru a table for no reason whatsoever, and then doing the silliest retirement angle i can think of off the top of my head, stole the show in the wrong way. even trying to get someone else over he had to do a rambling soliloquy about how he doesnt want to do anymore rambling soliloquies. that and the whole Black vs White thing that was way too on the nose for my tastes. and now hes leaving again to go film more TV and even AEWs core fanbase is getting sick of his in and out routines.

>Christian is back and
>he's still really good. Now, he can go and try to help Impact
>stay on its course to being a decent rasslin program worth
>thumbing through from time to time.

Good to know that Impact's champion is tougher and smarter than AEW's World AND Tag Team Champions, AND their manager, all at once. Booker of the year!

nothing against Christian, hes still very good and i popped when he came out for the Rumble. but cmon.

>Zoomed out, I'm really happy to see how many 'this person
>might not ever wrestle again' people we have on the scene
>right now. Christian. Phil. Bryan. SAMOA DAMN JOE! Hell, even
>Reigns and Cena! Edge! Even someone like Sasha Banks was
>looking to be a shaky bet to be back for a while there. At
>some point, we're getting Becky again too. And now that we
>know what was up with Keef Lee? Whew!! Even crazy ass Ospreay
>is hinting at coming back now. This all seems pretty good to
>me!

when i tried (and failed) to make it thru a whole episode of RAW in 2018 for the first time in many years, Samoa Joe stood out to me as a guy who would be a star in any era and in any territory. im looking forward to that very very much.

and Cena...man. he makes the people around him look bad the same way Punk is going to make people look bad, by being SO good on the mic that you cant help but notice that others arent even *within* a few levels, much less on the same one. im actually excited for WWE programming for once in this millennium, altho the Ilja thing is kind of a bummer.

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE

James Harrison and CM Punk are in it

<--- Big Baller World Order

https://youtu.be/_Cx8CyQkQxc

>https://youtu.be/_Cx8CyQkQxc

You know the 'old man' is have a good time on his way out. And you know he loved the whole main event for sure..knowing he was gonna tap and do his part to try to get MJF over.

Could not be less interested and cannot imagine who this is for.

>Saturday Summerfest

>Sunday NXT.

Has there been any reason given (or even rumored) why they switched days on NXT/Summerslam? My friend who follows pretty closely had assumed they were on the normal days until I told him, and I feel like a lot of people will make that mistake.

Anyway, looking forward to Ilja/Walter more than any match this weekend. Gonna be a barnburner and I think/hope Ilja is the one to finally take the big man down.

The only way MJF vanquishing Jericho before All Out makes sense to me is if they have something bigger lined up for MJF at the show. So here’s how I picture it: maybe tonight, maybe next week, but I think “Cult of Personality” or Punk’s previous song starts playing, the crowd goes nuts… only for MJF to come out and laugh at everyone/soak in the boos. He can get some heat by mocking Jericho and throwing some cheap shots at Chicago… then Punk runs in and delivers a GTS to set up a match at the PPV. MJF can eat a loss to the new top face without losing much momentum, and they can easily revisit this a year or so from now to get MJF his win back/truly launch him to the top.

>The only way MJF vanquishing Jericho before All Out makes
>sense to me is if they have something bigger lined up for MJF
>at the show. So here’s how I picture it: maybe tonight,
>maybe next week, but I think “Cult of Personality” or
>Punk’s previous song starts playing, the crowd goes nuts…
>only for MJF to come out and laugh at everyone/soak in the
>boos. He can get some heat by mocking Jericho and throwing
>some cheap shots at Chicago… then Punk runs in and delivers
>a GTS to set up a match at the PPV. MJF can eat a loss to the
>new top face without losing much momentum, and they can easily
>revisit this a year or so from now to get MJF his win
>back/truly launch him to the top.

Yep. That’s my guess too. Seems about right. But who knows what Phil requested. You have to figure that he’s gonna work with whoever he wants to..especially at the beginning.

the crowd was chanting for him in the intro graphics.

<--- Big Baller World Order

>The only way MJF vanquishing Jericho before All Out makes
>sense to me is if they have something bigger lined up for MJF
>at the show. So here’s how I picture it: maybe tonight,
>maybe next week, but I think “Cult of Personality” or
>Punk’s previous song starts playing, the crowd goes nuts…
>only for MJF to come out and laugh at everyone/soak in the
>boos. He can get some heat by mocking Jericho and throwing
>some cheap shots at Chicago… then Punk runs in and delivers
>a GTS to set up a match at the PPV. MJF can eat a loss to the
>new top face without losing much momentum, and they can easily
>revisit this a year or so from now to get MJF his win
>back/truly launch him to the top.

Welp, there goes that lol

>

I love wrestling. And I loved the fuck out of that CM Punk return.

Before this, I was fine if Punk never came back..especially if I’m he didn’t want to. Cuz shit, we can all name some dudes who fucked themselves up by not getting out soon enough.

But if AEW was enough to make him come back? Shit, it basically validates the whole company’s existence in one moment even if they eventually fuck it all up. Very very good. I’m pleased.

And true to a lot of the shit he’s said, he shows up and immediately calls out/makes Darby Allen. Very good.

All of this match rating, wannabe booking, and fake ass network exec style analysis that goes on online with rasslin, man? Fuck all of that. Wrestling is supposed to be pretty damn simple to watch (and make).

>>
>
>I love wrestling. And I loved the fuck out of that.
>
>Before this, I was fine if Punk never came back..especially if
>I’m he didn’t want to.
>
>But if AEW was enough to make him come back? Shit, it
>basically validates the whole company’s existence in one
>moment even if they eventually fuck it all up. Very very good.
>I’m pleased.
>
>And true to a lot of the shit he’s said, he shows up and
>immediately calls out/makes Darby Allen. Very good.

It was a nice touch for him to mention Britt Baker/Pittsburgh too.

AEW is far from perfect, but the crowds are regularly hot and there are quite a few wrestlers that are over right now. The show always comes across better when the fans are into it.

And when Punk mentioned the young talent, I couldn’t help but remember how WWE had him work with HHH and Kevin Nash when he was at his hottest. Smh

>And when Punk mentioned the young talent, I couldn’t help
>but remember how WWE had him work with HHH and Kevin Nash when
>he was at his hottest. Smh

The Nash part is really crazy cuz it was obvious dude wasn't interested in doing anything resembling working after making all of that WCW money to basically stand around cracking jokes and being in on the most over thing in the company's history. Then, he chilled out bigtime in TNA and did mostly the same thing. Hella tag matches, talking, and chillin.

Punk and Haitch didn't get along pretty clearly! And it just seems like Haitch wasn't on his best behavior with his pull when he didn't like a guy to put it mildly. Too bad for him, Punk had his money saved and had seen Stone Cold chunk deuces to WWE more than once when they had him do stuff he didn't like.

Mix that with Brock leaving for Japan then UFC, Rock rolling out to do movies and Batista doing the same in 2010 and there were hella seeds planted for Punk to gather his shit and bounce. And then he did it! This says nothing of Eddie, Benoit, and Kurt who I lump together when discussing how unhealthy it could be to be a rassler in the early 2000s. Add in Edge and so many other cats who put on weight and/or jacked up their necks and knees in that time and yeah...crazy time. Even Jericho took breaks too.

That post-Benoit era through the time where NXT really started rolling is a wild time for WWE to look at. Really, everything after Rock/Stone Cold were basically gone is wild times to me. Mania 20 through 30 let's say.

Looking back on it will be very interesting assuming I live long enough to get further away from it and more documentaries (WWE and otherwise) pop up.

As an even more random side, I watched the Untold about Foley and Edge's Mania 22 match in 2006. It doesn't seem real that Foley was in a top end WWE match that recently. And LAWD, Lita looked good. Matt Hardy has certainly achieved! Mix that with the bonkers TLCs and Edge's matches and documentaries since coming back and that dude is floating up my figurative list of greats pretty fast.

You really had to give Punk THAT type of pop. The pop was insane and the visual of seeing fans with tears coming down their faces was some powerful shit. Punk's face while he was soaking it in was amazing. And the announcers knew to just not say anything as it was happening.

Also figured his first opponent was going to be Darby. Allin was technically the first person to hint at what was coming on air, as he said he'd be in Chicago and knew he was "The Best in the World." And it's the right to opponent to put him against. Punk fights a popular homegrown AEW star who helped "carry" the promotion during the pandemic. And Allin can lose without forfeiting his heat.

As for Jericho/MJF, I figure they're setting it up for one last match at All Out. Probably some "for your career!" shit. Jericho finally goes over, and along with Punk match (and probably the Bucks losing the title), gives the crowd their feel good moments on a night where Omega is clearly winning.

-----------------

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>
>As for Jericho/MJF, I figure they're setting it up for one
>last match at All Out. Probably some "for your career!" shit.
>Jericho finally goes over, and along with Punk match (and
>probably the Bucks losing the title), gives the crowd their
>feel good moments on a night where Omega is clearly winning.

They could still do this, but the 5th labor felt like a pretty definitive end. I thought it was gonna be Jericho winning all 5 labors then MJF surprising him with a retirement stip for an All Out match. Jericho’s interview with Stone Cold a few months back had me thinking the end is very near and MJF would be the perfect person to retire him.

... MJF vs. Sammy at All Out. MJF comes out to talk his shit on Wednesday about how he defeated Jericho. And then Sammy, having ended things with Spears the previous Dynamite, decides to take up the mantle in Jericho's honor. Then Sammy goes over at All Out, setting him up to be the Superstar that AEW has been slowly building him to become.


>Jericho’s interview with Stone Cold a few
>months back had me thinking the end is very near and MJF would
>be the perfect person to retire him.

I do agree that the match is a good "ending place" for his career, even if he doesn't officially retire (the crowd singing "Judas" & MJF making him tap out). They never actually mention the Inner Circle anymore. Them beating the Pinnacle in the Stadium Stampede also served as a great final chapter for the faction. Since then, Hager has barely been on screen. And P&P are seem stuck in limbo due to the FTR injury.

They seem to be grooming Jericho to be an announcer, which I think he's great at doing. I honestly would like to see him as the fourth guy on Rampage; I like Mark Henry, but he's better backstage than as a play-by-play guy.

-----------------

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Checkin' Our Style, Return To Zero:

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Yay,boo I was sad.

I'm a grown ass man. You were making millions. I don't care.
Go be older and slower somewhere else
____________________

<================== Learn the name now before everyone gets
dunked on

i dont know what any of the RAW matches are about, but ive enjoyed everything

i actually didnt enjoy anything about the Alexa Bliss match...but then Piper Niven happened and i kind of loved that

Becky Lynch has never necessarily moved me, so her replacing Sasha Banks and wasting a good angle is a "lateral-minus" tho. I liked those segments of SD.

well holy shit. that whole things just happened in real time between the end of that paragraph and the start of this one. Bianca got Kofi'd lol

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE

<--- Big Baller World Order

no way they just fail to deliver on what Fox paid them to promote right?

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE

My daughter is obsessed with Sasha Banks and that suuuuck

And Becky Lynch isn’t really that special and they jobbed the best athlete in the whole division

and since when would Vince even ask?

that was a highly built angle for a championship; and they dont even have a match to replace the match ppl wanted to see?

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE

Why even bother with Carmella?

And then what....she just died or something after being thrown into the steps?

Why not just have Becky be the replacement in the first place, and then have an actual match?

I hated everything about that.

appreciate the guy's grind but man is he still just so clumsy moving around

Brock Lesnar.

>We have:
>
>Saturday Summerfest with some pretty big matches. Reigns/Cena
>has the heat and they're both too good for it to be bad.
>
>Sunday NXT. It may be one of the last of this era of NXT if
>the rumors are to be believed. I'm happy to see fugging Samoa
>Joe again. That's for sure.
>
>Phil (and Daniel Bryan) are (allegedly) coming to AEW. Kenny
>Omega is going around with Harley Race facial hair and being a
>ridiculous heel goofball character who people want to see
>lose. And he is SELLING HIS ASS OFF during matches. He sold
>that Christian Killswitch like it was a burning hammer.
>
>Some of the 'ex-WWE' folks are finding their place around the
>world. In AEW, Rusev looks great and is having good matches
>while anchoring the TV title. Malaki Black MOPPED Cody and
>might actually be taken seriously for a while now. For TNA,
>Deonna's big fine self is doing work and Christian is back and
>he's still really good. Now, he can go and try to help Impact
>stay on its course to being a decent rasslin program worth
>thumbing through from time to time.
>
>Zoomed out, I'm really happy to see how many 'this person
>might not ever wrestle again' people we have on the scene
>right now. Christian. Phil. Bryan. SAMOA DAMN JOE! Hell, even
>Reigns and Cena! Edge! Even someone like Sasha Banks was
>looking to be a shaky bet to be back for a while there. At
>some point, we're getting Becky again too. And now that we
>know what was up with Keef Lee? Whew!! Even crazy ass Ospreay
>is hinting at coming back now. This all seems pretty good to
>me!
>
>And really...
>
>I'm old enough to remember Magnum TA never making it back in
>the ring. I also remember Dynamite Kid. If we're being honest,
>we should remember how much time even a guy like Stone Cold
>spent on ice during his main run. Anyway, I don't take all of
>these folks being around again lightly at all. Even now, we
>have Bray somewhere dealing with stuff. And forreal, Harper
>just smooth died. AKA we can't just assume that these folks
>are gonna be around forever for us to do the internet complain
>festival shit about. So, don't let all of these rebook every
>segment podcasts and tweets trick you. Negativity is obviously
>their business model. Don't fall for it. If you look around,
>there's some fun shit going on.

-----------------

www.albumism.com

Checkin' Our Style, Return To Zero:

https://www.mixcloud.com/returntozero/

>

The joke online all day Saturday was Vince calling up Becky and Brock in various ways to try to get them to come to the show. The memes had me rolling. It was good to see so many folks happy in general with Summerfest and NXT still to come.

They did a good job of keeping Brock under wraps. And he looked like a damn monster in a fighting game alternate costume. I thought about it briefly when they declined to say Brock’s name in a spot where they were obviously referring to him during the main event. But I thought ‘Nahhhh, probably at some point but not tonight, g’.

WWE is obviously going in the direction of hosses so it makes sense that they’d fork over money for Brock again. I just hope they make it fun with Reigns being as glorious and dynamic as a heel as he has been the last year. This time, I assume he’ll be a little bit more of a bitch about it though..trying to evade Brock, trying to get Paul to talk him down, for sure throwing Uce 1 and 2 at him against their interest, all of that. I’d still think it ends with Reigns on-top before his next thing.

They fucked up the Becky/Sasha thing pretty big and did it in a petty way with how they produced and announced it. They shouldn’t be this worried about anything happening on AEW or anywhere because they are number 1 by a lot in all of the ways they claim to care most about. What AEW eats shouldn’t make them shit..and certainly not ice cream! Haha. They should make badass shows filled with shit that is generally fun and sensible and know that nobody should be able to catch them. Let the other feds have their fun spending big money and doing their fan service stuff. It’ll just excite the ‘I will watch your wrestling show..just make it fun’ folks like me and it’ll be fine.

And like most, I wonder what’s going on with Banks. Rona seems like the obvious guess but there’s no telling until they tell with her. It was wild to find out that Belair had gone through some rough stuff in her past. I hope she’s good too cuz she’s right around the top shit for women’s wrestling for me. And her husband is dope too.

>They did a good job of keeping Brock under wraps. And he
>looked like a damn monster in a fighting game alternate
>costume. I thought about it briefly when they declined to say
>Brock’s name in a spot where they were obviously referring
>to him during the main event. But I thought ‘Nahhhh,
>probably at some point but not tonight, g’.
>WWE is obviously going in the direction of hosses so it makes
>sense that they’d fork over money for Brock again. I just
>hope they make it fun with Reigns being as glorious and
>dynamic as a heel as he has been the last year. This time, I
>assume he’ll be a little bit more of a bitch about it
>though..trying to evade Brock, trying to get Paul to talk him
>down, for sure throwing Uce 1 and 2 at him against their
>interest, all of that. I’d still think it ends with Reigns
>on-top before his next thing.

they are gonna get everything they can out of Roman (of whom there is still a LOT to give) and then he is going to make a franchise babyface for the next 5 years.

>They fucked up the Becky/Sasha thing pretty big and did it in
>a petty way with how they produced and announced it. They
>shouldn’t be this worried about anything happening on AEW or
>anywhere because they are number 1 by a lot in all of the ways
>they claim to care most about. What AEW eats shouldn’t make
>them shit..and certainly not ice cream! Haha. They should make
>badass shows filled with shit that is generally fun and
>sensible and know that nobody should be able to catch them.
>Let the other feds have their fun spending big money and doing
>their fan service stuff. It’ll just excite the ‘I will
>watch your wrestling show..just make it fun’ folks like me
>and it’ll be fine.
>And like most, I wonder what’s going on with Banks. Rona
>seems like the obvious guess but there’s no telling until
>they tell with her. It was wild to find out that Belair had
>gone through some rough stuff in her past. I hope she’s good
>too cuz she’s right around the top shit for women’s
>wrestling for me. And her husband is dope too.

it had to be Covid. i dont remember them ever mentioning it again after the announcement, and if it were an injury or something i dont think they would have done that.

with a marquee thing unavailable i understand why they pivoted to another marquee thing, but jesus christ @ that outcome. why not just piss in Biancas face while shes down there?

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE

i fell asleep during Edge-Rollins, woke up for 30 seconds during Goldberg's entrance, then woke up again for the Roman-Cena finish

the shit i was most excited to see didnt even start until almost midnight

and the commercials...jesus.

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE

Stop trying to swerve everyone from nowhere, stop trying to elevate the brand or whatever, stop trying to prove that you’re anything more than a great wrestling company and just be a great wrestling company. You saw last night, when they just go with straight ahead stories that make sense and rely on their performers the results are almost always fantastic. RKBRO, Usos, Rollins/Edge, and Cena/Reigns were all exactly what I want from a Summerslam.

But what is this Nakamura pointless entrance? What are these commercials? What’s this just brutally hard to watch Goldberg schmoz all about?

The Lashley ass kicking was so thorough that the longer it went the more convinced I became that Big E was going to cash in, especially considering he wasn’t even on the main show (reminder- he has a golden ticket that in theory can give him a championship match at the snap of a finger) But that was it! Your shoot fighter juice head champ who everyone agrees is in his prime just beat a dude in his 50s who can’t pick up his opponents anymore. What are we doing?

Again, most puzzling was the decision to promote the Banks/Belair match all the way until the bell and then pull the bait and switch. For one, it’s just unprofessional bullshit to do that. There’s surely kids there who came to see Sasha for one. Then there’s the fact that Bianca Belair WHO WOULD BEAT THE DOGSHIT OUT OF BECKY LYNCH IN A GENUINE STREETFIGHT just gets jobbed in 30 seconds, one minute after Becky said they were going to “blow the roof off this place.” I think Becky Lynch is as overrated a performer as Cena is, which is to say it’s all personality and mic and very little in-ring prowess. What a mess that whole scene was.

Reigns/Cena was not surprisingly very good. Cena was and still is just such a clumsy guy, I feel like he could trip and face plant at any moment. And I’m in my 30s so obviously his gimmick is irrelevant to me too. I appreciate all he did and acknowledge that he’s an all time draw , but man he’s so inferior to Roman Reigns in just about every credible way that I think they could’ve gone either further. This could’ve been more violent in my opinion, but for what it was it definitely felt like a worthwhile main event for an NFL stadium.

Reigns is all they understand how to book and when you’re that good it’s hard to botch. Booking Reigns is like coaching the 2017 Warriors., He’s the most consistent and the most over, the cool of Batista with the ability of his cousin Rock. I’d leave the belt on him 2 years, or at least until Big E has to cash in before the briefcase expires.

>But what is this Nakamura pointless entrance?

ill abide no slander for Nakamura and Boogs. i love that shit for some reason. if they werent having a match anyways im fine with the new IC champ doing a victory lap, but i wanted more of them.

>What are these
>commercials?

$5 a month access instead of PPV makes a lot more financial sense now that they can run commercial breaks. natural consequence of the platform imo.

>The Lashley ass kicking was so thorough that the longer it
>went the more convinced I became that Big E was going to cash
>in, especially considering he wasn’t even on the main show
>(reminder- he has a golden ticket that in theory can give him
>a championship match at the snap of a finger) But that was it!
>Your shoot fighter juice head champ who everyone agrees is in
>his prime just beat a dude in his 50s who can’t pick up his
>opponents anymore. What are we doing?

Big E cant cash in the briefcase if he doesnt have it. which to be honest, i love this Baron Corbin stuff too. credit to him for making this funny wothin the acceptable boundaries of silliness.

>Again, most puzzling was the decision to promote the
>Banks/Belair match all the way until the bell and then pull
>the bait and switch. For one, it’s just unprofessional
>bullshit to do that. There’s surely kids there who came to
>see Sasha for one. Then there’s the fact that Bianca Belair
>WHO WOULD BEAT THE DOGSHIT OUT OF BECKY LYNCH IN A GENUINE
>STREETFIGHT just gets jobbed in 30 seconds, one minute after
>Becky said they were going to “blow the roof off this
>place.” I think Becky Lynch is as overrated a performer as
>Cena is, which is to say it’s all personality and mic and
>very little in-ring prowess. What a mess that whole scene
>was.

theres no way they just tabled it. something happened, but the squash aspect was definitely suspect.

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE

with the Original Midnights, and was enough of a dick to turn Cornette babyface

fast forward to now and WWE's central program is based around 2 guys he manages

what an incredible run. probably wont ever see another like it.

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE

The first is of course the Midnights vs. Midnights, which was just great TV. The fact that it culminated in a Tuxedo Match between Paul E. and Cornette that could have understandibly been a complete comedy match that they both decided to play fairly straight was also awesome.

The second is the whole Dangerous Alliance angle, which was also 20 types of awesome and culminated in probably the best War Games ever. Then it stopped because WCW didn't know what the hell else to do with them.

But yeah, Paul E. has great vision, an eye for talent, and ability to book to everyone's strengths. So many of the guys still at the top of WWE and other top guys we are around wrestling or his projects or guys he championed.

-----------------

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>The first is of course the Midnights vs. Midnights, which was
>just great TV. The fact that it culminated in a Tuxedo Match
>between Paul E. and Cornette that could have understandibly
>been a complete comedy match that they both decided to play
>fairly straight was also awesome.

this was actually one of the first angles i can remember in all my years of watching. Corny getting bloodied with the phone and cutting an all timer of a babyface promo was the kind of realistic angle that sustained kayfabe for me longer than my friends who watched WWF. WWF was fun, but stuff like this was REAL.

>The second is the whole Dangerous Alliance angle, which was
>also 20 types of awesome and culminated in probably the best
>War Games ever. Then it stopped because WCW didn't know what
>the hell else to do with them.

Agreed on the GOAT War Games. As a kid it all tied together nicely for me that losing War Games would be then end of them as a unit, but in retrospect it all ended way too soon. It did give us Paul E vs Madusa Gender Warz tho!

>But yeah, Paul E. has great vision, an eye for talent, and
>ability to book to everyone's strengths. So many of the guys
>still at the top of WWE and other top guys we are around
>wrestling or his projects or guys he championed.

It crazy to think of the ongoing influence of him and Cornette. The self-proclaimed "Paul Heyman guy" doing what he did Friday, Paul E booking the champ, OVW alumni still driving the bus for SummerSlam 2021 (Orton, Cena, Lesnar)...pretty wild.

The fact that Paul E's influence still extends to being on-screen in the flagship angle on primetime network television in 2021? Fuckin astonishing. I wish they would plop him down behind a microphone full-time while he's still got the juice to handle the schedule, but there's no way that jives with the office's "vision" for commentary.

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE

>The second is the whole Dangerous Alliance angle, which was
>also 20 types of awesome and culminated in probably the best
>War Games ever. Then it stopped because WCW didn't know what
>the hell else to do with them.

It was awesome.

>But yeah, Paul E. has great vision, an eye for talent, and
>ability to book to everyone's strengths. So many of the guys
>still at the top of WWE and other top guys we are around
>wrestling or his projects or guys he championed.

Just don't let him book anyone in a storyline with their significant other and he's fine.

---------------------------------
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"This (and every, actually) conversation needs more Chesterton and less Mike Francesa." - Walleye

>with the Original Midnights, and was enough of a dick to turn
>Cornette babyface
>
>fast forward to now and WWE's central program is based around
>2 guys he manages
>
>what an incredible run. probably wont ever see another like
>it.

This IS crazy. Wow. I'd forgotten about how he came in.

Of course, I'll never forget that big azz cell phone/weapon. Or ECW.

It is wild to think about ECW now. It deserves at least some credit for creating some energy on earth to make more people feel like they could start their own rasslin companies. TNA, PWG, ROH, WWN, Chikara, and places like this come to mind. Now sure, we're very fortunate that lots of those feds didn't go overboard on the violence like ECW wasn't above doing. But still, the world is a better place when rasslers have multiple places to go work. That's one of Corny's really strong talking points about 'tha territory days'. If you left/had a falling out at one place, you could show up some other place and either:

- do the same stuff again in another town (IE: the 'get suspended and show up as an alternate character' gimmick; redoing storylines/feuds, sometimes with all of the same people and match finishes)
- do something completely different and have a clean af slate because people weren't going to make a habit of chasing you around the territories yelling your old/completely different gimmick at you (IE: Mean Mark --> Undertaker; Isaac Yankem --> Kane; Vinny Vegas --> Diesel; hell, even something like Demolition Crush --> Islander Crush --> Brian Adams).

I remember seeing folks change gimmicks/fed as a kid and thinking stuff like 'wait, Ted DiBiase is rich now!? Okaaaayyyy'. Or 'Wait a minute, ain't that Diamond Stud!?'. 'Hey pops, that one dude in Doom has to be Butch Reed, right?'.

And of course, 'damn, Tugboat busted his ass coming through that wall!! Bwahahahahaha!'.

>It is wild to think about ECW now. It deserves at least some
>credit for creating some energy on earth to make more people
>feel like they could start their own rasslin companies.

i think Jim Cornette might get take umbrage haha. SMW beat Heyman to ECW by a few years. that being said your point stands. ECW had the internet to work with and eventually became something I could see on syndication in Detroit, whereas i never saw SMW before the last few years. since i missed the territory days by just this><much (and Detroit wasnt in SMWs region), ECW was the first TV i ever saw outaide of the Big 2.

>TNA

i feel like ol' Double J was destined to give it a go regardless lol

>PWG, ROH, WWN, Chikara, and places like this come to mind. Now
>sure, we're very fortunate that lots of those feds didn't go
>overboard on the violence like ECW wasn't above doing. But
>still, the world is a better place when rasslers have multiple
>places to go work. That's one of Corny's really strong talking
>points about 'tha territory days'. If you left/had a falling
>out at one place, you could show up some other place and
>either:
>- do the same stuff again in another town (IE: the 'get
>suspended and show up as an alternate character' gimmick;
>redoing storylines/feuds, sometimes with all of the same
>people and match finishes)
>- do something completely different and have a clean af slate
>because people weren't going to make a habit of chasing you
>around the territories yelling your old/completely different
>gimmick at you

in listening to old pods of his, and where I am now he's going deep into what wrestlers were making at various times in various territories, and its nuts. people all over America making Wrestlemania payoffs once or twice a month in the flagship town of a weekly territory.

I have to believe the territory system forced stuff to be more creatively inspired yet with minimal fakery. its crazy to think about how good stuff had to be to go buy a ticket every. single. week. and not even always on the weekends, but like, Tuesdays. continually having to do that over and over with different crowds who like different shit made getting yourself over an imperative, rather than thinking you were just gonna come in and do "your stuff"

>(IE: Mean Mark --> Undertaker; Isaac Yankem -->
>Kane; Vinny Vegas --> Diesel; hell, even something like
>Demolition Crush --> Islander Crush --> Brian Adams).
>I remember seeing folks change gimmicks/fed as a kid and
>thinking stuff like 'wait, Ted DiBiase is rich now!?
>Okaaaayyyy'. Or 'Wait a minute, ain't that Diamond Stud!?'.
>'Hey pops, that one dude in Doom has to be Butch Reed,
>right?'.
>And of course, 'damn, Tugboat busted his ass coming through
>that wall!! Bwahahahahaha!'.

my dad and I loved playing this game! in fact, growing up,I had trouble accepting that guys like Kevin were championship level because "Vinny Vegas could obviously never beat Bret Hart!". Scott Hall won me over everywhere because he was so good, but even in WCW the second time i had trouble buying it, and I was old enough to have my license.

The vicious blood-thirsty Sheepherders becoming the Bushwhackers was a big one for me, because the fear of them led me to flee backstage at a Crockett show before I got to meet Sting (Tommy Young let us come back bc we asked for his autograph and made him cry lmao). when they showed up on WWF TV licking babies a few months later I was HOT. i felt like a huge dumbass.

even Stone Cold, it took me a minute to warm up to him as more than a high level IC Champ kind of guy because no one had ever presented him as a King of the Mountain type.

Barry Darsow and Mike Rotunda even retroactively ruined their Demolition and Varsity Club gimmicks for me with Repo and IRS respectively (altho IRS had a little bit of Scott Hall-type redemption with his wrestling), because "oh wow these guys were idiots the whole time" lol.

i could talk about guys switching gimmicks during the Silly Gimmick Era alllllllllll day.

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE

Yes yes yes. A million times yes. I had them in midsouth and those dudes were monsters and menaces straight up and down. And yeah, I was scared of those dudes like Japanese folks looked to be scared of Stan Hansen for years with him forreal swinging a bull rope all up into the crowd. When they showed up with the jokes in WWF, it made me lowkey hate WWF for a minute.

I also didn’t love that Jim Duggan and JYD weren’t big shit stars in WWF. I still have that big plastic JYD figure tho. That’s fo sho.

And yeah, Smokey Mountain is a real thing..Corny deserves love for pulling that off too. I’d figure that Paul E would throw some flowers out over that too. Like you, I didn’t see much of it.

Side note: I still don’t understand why Dr. Death Steve Williams went to Japan instead of being big shit somewhere here. He was EXCELLENT for hella years. A guy like him now would print money.

>
>>It is wild to think about ECW now. It deserves at least some
>>credit for creating some energy on earth to make more people
>>feel like they could start their own rasslin companies.
>
>i think Jim Cornette might get take umbrage haha. SMW beat
>Heyman to ECW by a few years. that being said your point
>stands. ECW had the internet to work with and eventually
>became something I could see on syndication in Detroit,
>whereas i never saw SMW before the last few years. since i
>missed the territory days by just this><much (and Detroit
>wasnt in SMWs region), ECW was the first TV i ever saw outaide
>of the Big 2.
>
>>TNA
>
>i feel like ol' Double J was destined to give it a go
>regardless lol
>
>>PWG, ROH, WWN, Chikara, and places like this come to mind.
>Now
>>sure, we're very fortunate that lots of those feds didn't go
>>overboard on the violence like ECW wasn't above doing. But
>>still, the world is a better place when rasslers have
>multiple
>>places to go work. That's one of Corny's really strong
>talking
>>points about 'tha territory days'. If you left/had a falling
>>out at one place, you could show up some other place and
>>either:
>>- do the same stuff again in another town (IE: the 'get
>>suspended and show up as an alternate character' gimmick;
>>redoing storylines/feuds, sometimes with all of the same
>>people and match finishes)
>>- do something completely different and have a clean af
>slate
>>because people weren't going to make a habit of chasing you
>>around the territories yelling your old/completely different
>>gimmick at you
>
>in listening to old pods of his, and where I am now he's going
>deep into what wrestlers were making at various times in
>various territories, and its nuts. people all over America
>making Wrestlemania payoffs once or twice a month in the
>flagship town of a weekly territory.
>
>I have to believe the territory system forced stuff to be more
>creatively inspired yet with minimal fakery. its crazy to
>think about how good stuff had to be to go buy a ticket every.
>single. week. and not even always on the weekends, but like,
>Tuesdays. continually having to do that over and over with
>different crowds who like different shit made getting yourself
>over an imperative, rather than thinking you were just gonna
>come in and do "your stuff"
>
>>(IE: Mean Mark --> Undertaker; Isaac Yankem -->
>>Kane; Vinny Vegas --> Diesel; hell, even something like
>>Demolition Crush --> Islander Crush --> Brian Adams).
>>I remember seeing folks change gimmicks/fed as a kid and
>>thinking stuff like 'wait, Ted DiBiase is rich now!?
>>Okaaaayyyy'. Or 'Wait a minute, ain't that Diamond Stud!?'.
>>'Hey pops, that one dude in Doom has to be Butch Reed,
>>right?'.
>>And of course, 'damn, Tugboat busted his ass coming through
>>that wall!! Bwahahahahaha!'.
>
>my dad and I loved playing this game! in fact, growing up,I
>had trouble accepting that guys like Kevin were championship
>level because "Vinny Vegas could obviously never beat Bret
>Hart!". Scott Hall won me over everywhere because he was so
>good, but even in WCW the second time i had trouble buying it,
>and I was old enough to have my license.
>
>The vicious blood-thirsty Sheepherders becoming the
>Bushwhackers was a big one for me, because the fear of them
>led me to flee backstage at a Crockett show before I got to
>meet Sting (Tommy Young let us come back bc we asked for his
>autograph and made him cry lmao). when they showed up on WWF
>TV licking babies a few months later I was HOT. i felt like a
>huge dumbass.
>
>even Stone Cold, it took me a minute to warm up to him as more
>than a high level IC Champ kind of guy because no one had ever
>presented him as a King of the Mountain type.
>
>Barry Darsow and Mike Rotunda even retroactively ruined their
>Demolition and Varsity Club gimmicks for me with Repo and IRS
>respectively (altho IRS had a little bit of Scott Hall-type
>redemption with his wrestling), because "oh wow these guys
>were idiots the whole time" lol.
>
>i could talk about guys switching gimmicks during the Silly
>Gimmick Era alllllllllll day.

>Yes yes yes. A million times yes. I had them in midsouth and
>those dudes were monsters and menaces straight up and down.
>And yeah, I was scared of those dudes like Japanese folks
>looked to be scared of Stan Hansen for years with him forreal
>swinging a bull rope all up into the crowd. When they showed
>up with the jokes in WWF, it made me lowkey hate WWF for a
>minute.

ppl whove only ever known them as the BWs would be repulsed at how they behaved before WWF lol.

>I also didn’t love that Jim Duggan and JYD weren’t big
>shit stars in WWF. I still have that big plastic JYD figure
>tho. That’s fo sho.

as a midsouth guy, if you havent read "King of New Orleans" you absolutely HAVE to. its sooooo good, and not very long. i listened to the audiobook and im gonna listen again. nice dive into why he was the perfect guy for that time and that place, and why Watts tried so hard to recreate him. in retrospect JYD was kind of a "catch and kill" signing, which is too bad.

>And yeah, Smokey Mountain is a real thing..Corny deserves love
>for pulling that off too. I’d figure that Paul E would throw
>some flowers out over that too. Like you, I didn’t see much
>of it.

all of SMW is on Youtube and Im about 8 eps in. fun hour so far and stuff hasnt really even picked up yet.

>Side note: I still don’t understand why Dr. Death Steve
>Williams went to Japan instead of being big shit somewhere
>here. He was EXCELLENT for hella years. A guy like him now
>would print money.

id guess it was because of the style and lack of mic work. lean hard into what he ws good at, avoid what he wasnt

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE

Clearly I have work to do! I added this JYD book to my audible stack. I’ll come back once I get it in. JYD was my shit as a lil lil kid. And my pops was sure to pump him up to me. There’s no telling what my dad knew about JYD and his drug stuff but whatever he knew, he didn’t clue me in on it. My pops worked for newspapers in Houston and back then, there was still a little bit of the Japan-style ‘covering wrestling like it’s real’ stuff going on…at least for midsouth.

Funny and random as hell aside, years later my pops knew Tony Norris…the dude who gained 40 extra pounds and became Ahmed Johnson for a bit there. He was in great shape before throwing on that ‘look good to Vince’ weight. He randomly called the crib when I was back home from college. Said he was ‘Big Tony’. I recognized his voice somehow so I clowned with him for not using his working name/not protecting kayfabe on the phone and then he came clean! Haha.

And know that you pierced my soul with your take on WWF signing Dog to kill him. They did it with a bunch of folks so I prolly can’t be too salty or hurt just cuz Dog was…err…my dog. Those dudes got action figures and, in some cases, easy ass in-ring assignments (more show than go WWF style vs the southern, more physical style of a UWF or midsouth for instance). But yeah, killing the territories was clearly the goal. Side: if Corny tells stories about Dog being drugged out with Watts, there’s no telling what dude was doing in New York.

SMW on YT? Aight. Good looking out again. I ran myself into the ground over the weekend with rasslin and documentaries..ngl. But I’ll be good by next week to jump back into some rasslin history study. Thanks for this.

>>Yes yes yes. A million times yes. I had them in midsouth
>and
>>those dudes were monsters and menaces straight up and down.
>>And yeah, I was scared of those dudes like Japanese folks
>>looked to be scared of Stan Hansen for years with him
>forreal
>>swinging a bull rope all up into the crowd. When they showed
>>up with the jokes in WWF, it made me lowkey hate WWF for a
>>minute.
>
>ppl whove only ever known them as the BWs would be repulsed at
>how they behaved before WWF lol.
>
>>I also didn’t love that Jim Duggan and JYD weren’t big
>>shit stars in WWF. I still have that big plastic JYD figure
>>tho. That’s fo sho.
>
>as a midsouth guy, if you havent read "King of New Orleans"
>you absolutely HAVE to. its sooooo good, and not very long.
>i listened to the audiobook and im gonna listen again. nice
>dive into why he was the perfect guy for that time and that
>place, and why Watts tried so hard to recreate him. in
>retrospect JYD was kind of a "catch and kill" signing, which
>is too bad.
>
>>And yeah, Smokey Mountain is a real thing..Corny deserves
>love
>>for pulling that off too. I’d figure that Paul E would
>throw
>>some flowers out over that too. Like you, I didn’t see
>much
>>of it.
>
>all of SMW is on Youtube and Im about 8 eps in. fun hour so
>far and stuff hasnt really even picked up yet.
>
>>Side note: I still don’t understand why Dr. Death Steve
>>Williams went to Japan instead of being big shit somewhere
>>here. He was EXCELLENT for hella years. A guy like him now
>>would print money.
>
>id guess it was because of the style and lack of mic work.
>lean hard into what he ws good at, avoid what he wasnt

I don't ever know if I've heard of the JYD signing as "catch and kill." If anything, I'd heard Vince considered him and Snuka as possible candidates to be the WWF;s champion during their national push before it became apparent that they could sign Hogan. Though that could be anti-Hogan after the fact speculation. They certainly marketed the shit out of JYD during the mid 1980s: making lots of action figures out of him and putting him in the Saturday morning cartoon.

As for Dr. Death, they did bring him into the WWF in 1998 with the idea of putting him against Austin. But the legend goes that him getting injured and knocked out by Bart Gunn in that pointless Brawl For All killed that possibility.

-----------------

www.albumism.com

Checkin' Our Style, Return To Zero:

https://www.mixcloud.com/returntozero/

She stole the show IMO.

Edge getting that crazy look and choking Rollins out was great. Lashley destroying Goldberg was great. Cena-Reigns was cool. Couldn’t have cared less about anything else. That Alexa Bliss goofy shit has gotta go.

I wasn’t quite ready to tap in early so maybe I missed out on something?

They really just killed Cesaro’s push? I don’t watch the weekly shows, but he can’t even get on the SS card? SMH. Give me Cesaro, Samoa Joe, and AJ Styles solo matches on every PPV card and id enjoy these shows a lot more.

i forgot all about it because the show was so interminable, but they beat the piss out of each other

Usos - Mysterios was cool too

also i just learned Big E and Baron Corbin were on the preshow (six. fucking. hours.), which i sadly missed. ive been watching Smackdown lately and Baron Corbin has been killin me.

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE

is making AEW look real amateurish right now.

i cant say that it was all "better" television per se from top to bottom, but the matches themselves and the top-of-the-card builds are eons ahead of what AEW is offering up. the booking specifically. tournaments and battle royals to determine championship matches because no one actually knows how to do it any other way.

the Anoa'i family next to The Elite is a perfect representation of things

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE

other face(s) runs down to help. Heels are chased off.

Wash, rinse, repeat. Like 4 times every show, lol.

Out of the five, two were out-and-out great: Grimes vs. Night and Walter vs. Dragunov. Both of those were booked and executed just about perfectly, no complaints at all. Grimes winning winning with DiBiase was an awesome feel good moment. And the Walter match was further proof that Vince needs to do whatever it takes to put him on the main roster. Then build him up and have him be the guy who beats Roman after Wrestlemania next year (assuming that Roman does indeed fight the Rock and turn face afterwards).

But the rest of the card was pretty hit and miss in terms of booking and especially execution. The Women's title match was like the inverse of Walter vs. Dragunov, with the smaller heel trying to beat the face champion. But thhe match itself was still booked like Kai was the face, getting beaten up and then bouncing back.

Only the street fight fall of Cole vs. O'Reily was any good. And, honestly, it probably should have just been a street fight match, since the cage played very little part in the third fall. You could have even used the exact same finish.

And Joe looked REALLY rusty in the title match. Like, it was a good Musclebuster at the end, but otherwise he looked blown up pretty early. And it didn't help that Kross has spent weeks being booked to look like a moron on the main roster.

I certainly have my issues with the Elite in AEW, but you at least see how it can be properly paid off at All Out (especially the Bucks). NXT looks like it's in trouble.

-----------------

www.albumism.com

Checkin' Our Style, Return To Zero:

https://www.mixcloud.com/returntozero/

>I certainly have my issues with the Elite in AEW, but you at
>least see how it can be properly paid off at All Out
>(especially the Bucks). NXT looks like it's in trouble.

It’s looking like they’re transitioning back to purely a developmental brand, which they can pull off and still make it pretty entertaining, but the roster they currently have doesn’t reflect that yet. This also brings about other issues they’ll have to deal with (they have too much TV time and too many titles for a developmental brand), but the main issue is USA Network will be very unhappy if/when they take another hit in the ratings.