Sun
* 2-Oct-2019(#1)Other thread was closed...so here we are.
Anyone else excited for AEW Dynamite tonight?
theJaw
* 24-May-2023(#124)I really hope this game performs well on Switch (lack of framerate drops etc). I'd love to have a wrestling game that I can take with me or pick up and play while in bed. I want to pre-order it but I'm worried Switch is gonna get the short end of the stick.
I may just pre-order it anyways and cancel it if reviews aren't great, assuming the reviews get released with enough time before it ships.
theJaw
* 27-May-2023(#125)Night of Champions was a pretty good show overall with some duds thrown in for good measure.
Styles vs. Rollins -⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
Stratus vs. Lynch - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Gunther vs. Ali - ⭐️⭐️.75
Belair vs. Asuka - ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Ripley vs. Natalya - ⭐️
Lesnar vs. Rhodes - ⭐️.5
Owens/Zayn vs. Reigns/Solo - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
WWE is failing Cody Rhodes hard. Not because of the result today, but because of the stupid Hogan-esque "adversity" crap they keep piling into his story that they book him to be unable to overcome cleanly. Having him "pass out from pain" after having his "broken arm" trapped in a kimura lock (a move that doesn't restrict blood flow to the brain) for an overall total of 5+ minutes was so fudging goofy, and Michael Cole explaining that his very obviously cloth arm brace was "titanium" just reeked of oversell. They tried to imitate the Hart/Austin finish from WM13 but forgot that Austin passed out due to blood loss, not "pain". Match was a major dud, as was Ripley/Natalya as it was just a squash. Super pumped for Asuka to have won the title, and they delivered a slightly above average match. Gunther/Ali could have been far better but was way too short. Rollins/Styles was a really good match but something just didn't click all the way for me, and the result was more than obvious.
Stratus/Lynch was a great showing from both ladies and probably the best match either has had in quite some time (especially Trish). Match of the night was of course the tag title match - great in-ring work as to be expected, but they threw an actually-interesting (and unexpected) story beat back into the Bloodline story that finally made things interesting again. The amount of momentum that angle lost post-Mania was huge, but they were able to gain a little of that back after tonight. Where they're failing Rhodes, they're at least delivering with the Bloodline (even if it took them 2ish months).
theJaw
29-May-2023(#127)Uncharacteristically flat first half of an AEW PPV for Double or Nothing, but the second half ruled real hard.
Hook & tthe Hardy Boys vs Ethan Page & the Gunns - ⭐️⭐️.75
International Title Battle Royal - ⭐️⭐️.5
Adam Cole vs Chris Jericho - ⭐️⭐️.75
FTR vs Jeff Jarrett & Jay Lethal - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Wardlow vs Christian Cage - ⭐️⭐️⭐️.75
Toni Storm vs Jamie Hayter - ⭐️⭐️
House of Black vs The Acclaimed - ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Jade Cargill vs Taya Valkyrie - ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Jade Cargill vs Kris Statlander - ⭐️⭐️.5 (for brevity, ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ moment though)
MJF vs Sammy Guevara vs Jungle Boy Jack Perry vs Darby Allin - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Blackpool Combat Club vs The Elite - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25
The Buy In was fine but nothing memorable. Battle Royal was entertaining and was happy to see Orange retain, didn't want him to lose the belt in a battle royal. Cole/Jericho was average, more than I was expecting tbh but still sort of slow. FTR vs. JJ/Lethal took a bit to get going, but was straight forward and well executed. Always nice to see Briscoe in there in some capacity (wish he was wrestling though). Wardlow/Christian was a total slopfest but featured several entertaining spots, it was what it was supposed to be.
Storm/Hayter was what it was unfortunately: a title change due to legit injuries catching up with Hayter. Still a strong showing all things considered. Jade Cargill is a star, and put on a good match vs. Taya Valkyrie and delivered a great moment in dropping the belt to the super-over, returning Statlander. The World Title four way match absolutely lived up to the "Four Pillars" name (even if I'm still not 100% convinced they should be considered AEW's pillars), and they delivered match of the night. Anarchy in the Arena was as advertised and delivered what was promised. The Takecrapa heel turn makes this guy sad but it's a real interesting direction to take the story. Glad they didn't depend on any major debut this year and let the ending be dedicated to the ongoing story.
Overall a somewhat average, but good show elevated in a major way by the two top notch main events.
theJaw
29-May-2023(#129)@BucketofJustice Happy birthday brother
theJaw
* 29-May-2023(#131)AEW > WWE lately, by a mile in my book, but Night of Champions was probably the more consistent show overall this weekend. No matches topped the AEW main events though. None even came close other than KO/Zayn vs Bloodline.
theJaw
29-May-2023(#133)I catch an Impact show here and there, still meaning to catch up on their PPV from this weekend. I still prefer AEW but I do enjoy what Impact’s up to lately (minus PCO unless he’s taking brutal bumps).
I just like pro wrestling. No one company puts on exclusively great matches or exclusively bad matches, no company is free of some gold and some crap. I don’t get why so many folks subscribe to one over the other these days as if there are inherent reasons behind it, but whatev. Impact especially has gotten the short end of the stick from folks in that realm and they put out mostly great stuff.
BucketofJustice
29-May-2023(#137)theJaw wrote:> @BucketofJustice Happy birthday brother
Thanks man. Appreciate it.
shadyfozzie
30-May-2023(#140)BucketofJustice wrote:> I think I’ll wait for reviews. Kind of like with AEW Fight Forever.
>
> Also Impact has a weird new match type they’re gonna be rolling out. Seems odd,
> but we’ll see what happens. Can’t be worse than a reverse battle royal.
>
Actually looks pretty interesting.. the winning team of the 8 man tag face off later on in a fatal 4-way.. Like old school Survivor series with an interesting twist.. Basically, the team will work together to win, then face each other..
What the hell is a reverse battle royal?? I'll have to look that up
theJaw
* 30-May-2023(#142)It was always hilarious watching folks TRY to not get into the ring if they knew they weren’t supposed to make it to the second phase. They’d always have blatantly easy paths to get in the ring (considering that’s probably the easiest thing a wrestler can possibly do) but had to find some excuse to avoid it. Some guys would legit be on the apron but then opt to drop an axe handle or something on someone instead of just… enter the ring haha
theJaw
* 30-May-2023(#144)PizzaTheHutt wrote:> August 8 release date
>
>
I still don't even fully understand the concept of this game. Is it just wrestling matches in wild settings, incorporating JRPG elements... like is the whole game just a battle system pretty much? Or is there a story and exploration, etc? The trailer didn't do a ton to clear any of that up for me.
shadyfozzie
31-May-2023(#146)I always liked the "last 2 have to win via pinfall or submission: part of TNA...
shadyfozzie
31-May-2023(#147)Here's an interesting concept similar to the 8-4-1..
Have a random draw of tag teams and have a two round tournament with say 64 people.. after 2 rounds, you have 16 wrestlers left.. Those 16 enter a battle royal.. you can create some cool story lines, fun teams and the ability to create new storylines with teams that lose.
theJaw
* 1-Jun-2023(#150)Yah the more I see of the game, the more interested in it I am. I just went ahead and preordered the standard edition for Switch. I have enough faith that I’ll have a good time with it.
I do wish the wrestlers exclusive to the Elite Edition were just included in the main game, especially FTR & Danhausen, but whatev. I’ll just order them separately eventually down the road.
PizzaTheHutt
1-Jun-2023(#152)What are some promos that left you scratching your head by the time it was over even after re-watching it multiple times? Had I watched them for the first time as an adult and not a 10 year old mark, probably "every Ultimate Warrior promo ever" would fit that category, but for now I'll go with that "worked shoot" where Dustin Rhodes crapped on WWF, Goldust, Seven and WCW.
I don't know what message he was trying to get across with this nonsense. Of course I understand the frustration he must've been feeling with the effort he put into this gimmick and the network shooting it down, but the line that always got me the most was "I left WWF for gimmicks like this", but he specifically wanted a gimmick that would not draw any comparisons between him and his dad. Plus he said "Goldust nearly ruined my career", but lest we forget he was committed enough to the Goldust gimmick that he had pitched the idea of getting real titty implants for it. It makes even less sense all these years later now that you know he went on to return to the Goldust gimmick four or five times after that.
I know he was battling his demons with drug addiction when he left WWF originally and very likely was still going through it in WCW (and it only got worse years later in TNA during the Black Reign era, another over-the-top character with facepaint) but this was not the way to kill the Seven gimmick in a "I'm gonna pretend this gimmick was forced on me and that I didn't come up with it all on my own" type of promo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TsAjp6AzGM PizzaTheHutt
3-Jun-2023(#155)theJaw wrote:> Also on the topic of awful/odd promos:
>
Ugh, how could I have forgotten that one?
That was the promo equivalent of the infamous Jenna Morasca vs Sharmell match from TNA.
Another one I forgot about was "
the genesis of McGillicutty. Some veterans may argue about how promos are too scripted nowadays, but some people desperately need them to be because look what happens when they're allowed to just say whatever
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-NpQEiyfY4 theJaw
* 4-Jun-2023(#156)Damn, apparently 3 matches for AEW/NJPW Forbidden Door 2 were announced last night at NJPW Dominion.
-IWGP US Title: Kenny Omega (c) vs Will Ospreay
-Bryan Danielson vs Kazuchika Okada
-NJPW World TV Title & ROH TV Title: Samoa Joe (ROH) vs Zack Sabre Jr (NJPW)
Those 3 matches are worth the price alone. Omega/Ospreay running their incredible WrestleKingdom match from January back. Danielson/Okada is a literal dream match. Also oughtta be interesting to see how both NJPW/ROH handle the TV title situations regardless of who wins both belts. Cannot wait for this show.
EDIT: apparently the TV title(s) match isn’t official and was only teased on ROH, which means it may not even happen at Forbidden Door… though it’d make sense. Also unsure if the hypothetical match would be for both belts. I just went off the Wikipedia entry, but it looks like that’s just a fan’s wishful thinking atm.
Still, the other two matches are top notch and all I need in order to know I’ll be tuning in.
theJaw
* 4-Jun-2023(#158)To be fair, almost all the top programs last year had to get shifted due to injuries. It was considered “cursed” heading in haha
Either way, I’m fine with the “great wrestler vs great wrestler” shtick since the show is between companies from two different countries and both have a stacked schedule for June in their respective native lands. I sorta feel the entire purpose of Forbidden Door is solely to put on good pro wrestling matches, like the old ROH/NJPW mash up shows.
That said, Danielson/Okada is really the only one that doesn’t have a story other than potential US GOAT vs potential Japan GOAT. Omega/Ospreay have been part of an on-again/off-again story for over a year now.