My stuff came in! I got my old school WWF logo light and it’s great, but I think I like the Billy Gunn shorts better. They’re short, too. My underwear is longer than them, so I get a weird Van Dam look when I wear them haha. I hope my Tweet shows up here. Otherwise I’m not sure how to post the pictures.
I dunno. I legit hated the match with Danielson, and I saw him in a few RoH matches and they were miserable to watch too. I’m all for giving a guy a chance again but I’d rather watch WCW in 2001 than Rush right now. Maybe he’ll grow on me over time.
That Danielson match ruled so hard, so I can’t imagine you’ll find anything else from him you’d like. Only stuff I disliked from him was his feud vs PCO…. but, ya know, PCO.
Yeah I know. PCO and match quality aren’t usually in the same sentence. Took him forever to find a half decent character. Too bad he couldn’t coast off stealing Bret Hart’s jacket for 25 years.
Damn that sucks. Hoping the best for him. I remember seeing him live when I was like 9 at a random indie show in my home town’s armory. He was still in ECW at the time, so he was classic jeans and plaid Stevie. Wrestled through the crowd and all. Oddly enough, that show was headlined by Goldust vs Val Venis in the middle of their 1998/1999 feud. Probably trying to grow some chemistry for their PPV matches.
Dominic Mysterio looks like someone let the air out of Brutus Beefcake when he was like 20 years old. I’m also digging the Art Barr vibes, particularly in the mullet area.
Bully Ray looks like Alex Jones now. I can’t unsee it.
I hope we get a Judgment Day Demon Finn Balor at Wrestlemania.
I really want Cody Rhodes to win at Wrestlemania. But I also don’t want to see Roman lose. I love that I feel conflicted about it all.
This is the best main event storytelling WWE has ever done. Ever. Usually the matches work and the story sucks or vice versa, and sometimes both are good, but this is next level stuff. I don’t want to see it end, but it also feels like it’s going to end soon.
Carmelo Hayes better be main roster bound. That guy is too good to stay in NXT much longer.
AEW has amazing matches. They can tell good stories, but they haven’t doing a ton of that lately. The blood needs to end. It’s way too much and way too often. Save it for PPV when you can make money doing it.
Saw a couple of clips of Rene Dupree lately. He looks weird. He still sucks too.
Ricky Starks is a fudging star. Make him a star and don’t leave him off TV for a month after a big win.
I hope WWE doesn’t sell. But it appears it will. Comcast NBC Universal or Fox makes the most sense to me, mostly NBC because they already have so much money tied up with WWE now.
Edit for this one: WWE needs to continue focusing on the women’s division. They’re usually just as good as the men. I also want to see more from AEW in the women’s divisions. Saraya can go away again, though. So can Sarah Logan.
> Carmelo Hayes better be main roster bound. That guy is too good to stay in NXT much
> longer.
Agreed and I can't wait for the inevitable "5 star banger" (as the kids on the street say) he and Montez Ford will no doubt put on if given the chance.
> AEW has amazing matches. They can tell good stories, but they haven’t doing a ton
> of that lately. The blood needs to end. It’s way too much and way too often. Save
> it for PPV when you can make money doing it.
Yeah it really devalues it when it is done so often. Make it mean something. You don't look "tougher" because you're bleeding in every match you do, Mox.
Melo and Tez would be… holy crap I don’t even have words for it.
Blood used to be a big deal because it happened so infrequently. Now it’s in the opening match and multiple times a night. It needs to end. Mox is the biggest culprit, but if he were to lighten up on it someone else would take his place and do it in the first 12 seconds of a match.
I will never care about blood in wrestling, personally. Ever. I hope Mox bleeds on his way to the ring one of these days just for the hell of it. Folks are very quick to forget Flair did the same crap for like 2 decades and is currently regarded as a legend (and legendary perv ahh cha cha). I'll take blood in a match over Omos or Theory in a match haha
Yall watching Revolution on Sunday? The card looks friggin great and there is a LOT of buzz about a possible Punk return. Not expecting it, but it'd be pretty fun.
AEW World Heavyweight Championship: MJF (c) vs. Bryan Danielson in a 60-minute Iron Man AEW Women’s World Championship: Jamie Hayter (c) vs. Saraya vs. Ruby Soho AEW World Tag Team Championship: Gunns (c) vs. The Acclaimed vs. Jay Lethal & Jeff Jarrett vs. TBD AEW World Trios Championship: The Elite (c) vs. House of Black AEW TNT Championship: Samoa Joe (c) vs. Wardlow Jon Moxley vs. Hangman Page in Texas Death Match Ricky Starks vs. Chris Jericho with JAS banned from ringside
Christian/Jungle Boy will probably get added, and I imagine there will be TBS title and All Atlantic title matches too, unless they run some angle with Orange/Best Friends against The Firm.
Also, the new ROH show starts this Thursday on Honor Club. I'm very much looking forward to that.
Yes, Flair is absolutely guilty of it too. The only time I was ever a fan of his was as a kid during his original WWF run, but that's more because they paired him with Heenan and Mr. Perfect. He didn't overdo it with blood then though, so can't really say it ever bothered me.
I'll likely be skipping the PPV as well, or at least most of it. Might keep a stream open in a minimized tab as background noise though.
I dunno, if a match is good a match is good. There can be no blood, there can be tons of blood. Just makes no difference to me and think it’s weird that this is suddenly an issue in the general US wrestling fandom when it’s been happening for years (just not in WWE). But whatev, to each their own.
When it comes to Revolution, I overall vastly prefer that show’s card to what Mania is shaping up to be. But I’ll be watching both because both will feature some solid wrasslin.
I definitely agree if a match is good, it's good. Can't argue that. Having or not having blood isn't going to affect my enjoyment of a match, but it can make for way more memorable, dare I say iconic moments (examples being Steve Austin in the sharpshooter, Foley at Royal Rumble '99 (I respect him for being the type of idiot that only bleeds hardway) or Eddie Guerrero wearing "the crimson mask" against JBL). The matches would have still been good without the blood, but the blood is what most remember them for. I feel like that's what Moxley is perpetually chasing after.
He could try bleeding on the way to the ring if he wants. It worked for Sandman. Mox could go one step further and just casually step through the curtain and no-sell the fact he's already bleeding. They could make that an alternate attire in the upcoming game, just have him start the match pre-bladed.
Yah I feel you, wonderful examples of some top notch blood spots. That fudgein Eddie blade job is brutal and will always be vivid in my mind. I remember watching that one as it aired and I felt legit lightheaded haha
I just don't necessarily know if Mox is "chasing after" anything in particular though. Whether it was his pre-WWE days in CZW, or his stuff with GCW/Bloodsport, or his stuff in AEW... the dude just likes to bleed when he wrestles haha. He did it in bingo halls with no national attention (still does), so I'm not sure if he's chasing any particular "iconic moment" or anything like that. I think he's just trying to reestablish what the old school territories did constantly/what the worldwide wrestling scene has never stopped doing. He's had plenty of iconic matches that are iconic because of the match itself, not the blood he lost (even when he definitely lost that blood).
To be honest, I do sorta think this idea that blood should solely be a tool for adding "drama" has been perpetuated by WWE and their hardcore fanbase solely because they've been the USA's "industry leader" for so long and because they've used blood so sparingly (even when they allowed it). Which I understand, they need to in order to keep the particular corporate sponsors they have and make the money they've made so when it happens it's a "whoa" for anyone watching... but blood has been a part of wrestling since the start. I can't fault Mox, or any other wrestler going today, for using it when they're allowed to or going for it a lot. In most real-life fights, blood gets spilled. MMA proves that, so it's a nonissue to me personally.
But yah, all that said, I can understand why some folks would rather not see it. Wrestling isn't real fighting after all. I just personally think it's fine, can take it or leave it, and wouldn't hold it against any wrestler or promotion for using it.
WWE absolutely did not perpetuate the idea that blood is only good for drama. That was the thought process basically everywhere. World Class and Crockett and Verne and Portland weren’t bloodbaths all the time. Not going to bat for them one way or the other, but blood being just something that happens instead of something that’s built to doesn’t make sense. Ric Flair bled buckets when the situation called for it, until he used it as a crutch when his physical skills deteriorated. Same for most everywhere until ECW popularized blood all the time.
I’m not saying blood should be outlawed. It should be something that has meaning and makes the wrestlers and company money, not just used on an opening match on Wednesday because a guy feels like it. If blood was still viewed as special, ratings and metrics all over would reflect it. They don’t. Blood and Guts is awesome. Put it on PPV where it’ll draw and not a Wednesday to maybe pop a 1 week thing.
How can blood, or anything really, be special when we see it all the time?
WCCW and Crocket and NWA ABSOLUTELY had a ton of bloody matches. Obviously not as often as nowadays, but there also weren't as many high-risk stipulation matches back then. But it certainly wasn't as out of the ordinary as you're suggesting. ECW was nowhere near the first promotion to normalize bloodshed as a constant. Maybe here in America, which was my point, but it wasn't nearly as rare elsewhere in the world. Just about any major Japanese promotion did it literally all the time. Mexico. Europe. Puerto Rico. Other US territories. Literally everywhere did death matches/strap matches/cage matches and a LOT earlier than ECW changed the "E" from "Eastern" to "Extreme".
I friggin LOVE the Austin/Hart match and Austin's bloodshed 100% added to that match without any doubt... but hold that match in Japan in the 90s and the blood that was shed would be absolutely nowhere near the topic of conversation.
Obviously WWE wasn't the first to perpetuate the idea that blood is "only good for drama", but that also wasn't the point I suggested. My argument was that blood can be used without it needing to be this BIG DRAMATIC DEMONSTRATION, considering that's what happens when people ACTUALLY fight and has been used in wrestling for years and years, and that it's WWE's modern product that has perpetuated this idea that blood absolutely NEEDS to be saved for "dramatic moments" above all else and should be frowned upon otherwise. That's just not true. WWE's hardcore fan-base has recently started to run with the misconception that blood HAS to be saved for "drama". That narrative literally only gained so much momentum as soon as AEW made it clear that blood was a non-factor for their programming, that it just happens. Before AEW started, SO many people were clamoring for the Attitude Era and "real hardcore" matches to make a return... suddenly that undying desire has magically disappeared. It was a literal non-issue for so long, but is now suddenly a major factor in what folks criticize AEW/Mox/GCW about.
All that aside, it's been "normalized" here in the states for decades now. There have been countless great, dramatic matches that used blood and often while sharing the card with OTHER great, dramatic matches that used blood. This "AEW uses blood too much" narrative is weightless in the modern day wrestling landscape and is absolutely a result of the product WWE has put out for the past 2 decades or dorks like Cornette, Bischoff and Prichard using revisionist history to make a point on a podcast.
Apologies if that came off a little fiery, I didn't mean it to but am now seeing how much I actually typed haha. I appreciate the actual conversation and not just little sarcastic blurbs. I've spent faaar too much time on pro wrestling Twitter and the whole "blood" thing just seems like a bullet point all the excessively anti-AEW folks post whenever they need to reach the quota for the day & I'm just over all the over-analyzing of pro wrestling these days. My bad buds.
The first segment of this Orange Cassidy vs Big Bill match is real good, a very good way to run a “David vs Goliath” match. Orange is the perfect character for this type of match because he has “avoiding” moves baked into his repertoire.
Mox cut a wildly good promo to hype his match vs Hangman that was aired tonight while he was bleeding a ton from last week and I’ll tell ya what, it did add to the drama big time haha
Anyhow, here's JR trying to answer his cellphone while the commentary team was on camera last night on Rampage. Note his expertise as he does so above his headset. I'd say it was sad if it wasn't so gosh darn funny.
I just got my pre-order in for WWE 2k23 on PlayStation 5. Anyone else getting it? I've heard good things about last year's game, but ultimately decided to skip it. This will be the first one I've bought since WWE 2k16 (I'm not counting that WWE 2k Battlegrounds game, in fact let's all just forget that ever released), so I'm looking forward to seeing how much they've changed things up since then.
Don't ask why I decided for this to be the first PS5 game I pay the full $70 for instead of waiting for a price drop. Like the previous games of the past 15 years (or however long it was since the series was rebranded as SmackDown vs Raw) I expect to just play through whatever story modes there are and then mess around with CAWs for a month before I never touch the game again. I never mess with the online multiplayer in these games.
Does the AEW game have a release date yet? Have any sites written up any recent previews on it?
I got WWE 2K22 and legit have only played GM Mode as that was the main reason I got it. It’s limited (even after the updates) but still a fun enough time (when save data doesn’t corrupt). I’d have played more Universe mode if it weren’t for those save issues happening all the time, wiping out any downloaded wrestlers/arenas/shows. If there are any significant changes to GM Mode in 2K23 (and the data issue is resolved), I’ll probably pick it up eventually.
2k22 was first wrestling game I got in like 10 years. I enjoyed it but still hated the controls. I’ve been patiently waiting for AEW to give a release date. Supposed to mirror controls from N64 games. I also like that they don’t plan a new game every year but just a yearly update. As long as reviews are decent I’ll get that.
Revolution is easily show of the year so far, even topping Wrestle Kingdom. By a wiiiide margin. Top to bottom, great stuff. May even be AEW's best showing period.
That MJF/Danielson Iron Man Match is probably the best of that gimmick. Tough to beat Brock/Angle but I think it did.
> 2k22 was first wrestling game I got in like 10 years. I enjoyed it but still hated
> the controls. I’ve been patiently waiting for AEW to give a release date. Supposed
> to mirror controls from N64 games. I also like that they don’t plan a new game
> every year but just a yearly update. As long as reviews are decent I’ll get that.
>
During the media scrum last night, Tony Khan said the game is finished and a release date announcement is coming soon, but he couldn't spill the beans just yet. Apparently it won some award at a festival or something. The graphics aren't super impressive but I'll be able to look past that if the gameplay is good.
@BucketofJustice have you had a chance to watch the first episode of ROH on Honor Club? I thought it really felt like ROH of old, just with that Orlando studio sheen. The Zack Sabre Jr vs Blake Christian match was probably my favorite from the show. ZSJ feels like if Danielson and McGuinness had a baby conceived via wrestling match. Guy’s great.
>> 2k22 was first wrestling game I got in like 10 years. I enjoyed it but still hated
>> the controls. I’ve been patiently waiting for AEW to give a release date. Supposed
>> to mirror controls from N64 games. I also like that they don’t plan a new game
>> every year but just a yearly update. As long as reviews are decent I’ll get
> that.
>>
>
> During the media scrum last night, Tony Khan said the game is finished and a release
> date announcement is coming soon, but he couldn't spill the beans just yet. Apparently
> it won some award at a festival or something. The graphics aren't super impressive
> but I'll be able to look past that if the gameplay is good.
Probably talking about the Best Sports/Racing Game' Award At Gamescom 2022. It has been at the beginning of every trailer. Just read that community creations possibly won't be an aspect of the game despite what has been said is a robust CAW system. That is disappointing if true. They keep talking about the mini games and from what I've seen so far they seem goofy and pointless. I just hope that the controls are tight, the animations are good, and it has enough of a CAW system to keep me engaged.
> @BucketofJustice have you had a chance to watch the first episode of ROH on Honor
> Club? I thought it really felt like ROH of old, just with that Orlando studio sheen.
> The Zack Sabre Jr vs Blake Christian match was probably my favorite from the show.
> ZSJ feels like if Danielson and McGuinness had a baby conceived via wrestling match.
> Guy’s great.
I haven’t. I hope to watch it tonight, since my Sling subscription is gone so all I have access to is Smackdown through my antenna. I need to figure out how to get it on my TV, but if I can’t then I’ll at least have the iPad.
Two of my pals are there live tonight. Looks like they stacked this show. Which is good, because Raw has been about as interesting as me peeing lately.
