General

BucketofJustice wrote:

It wasn't a full tribute show tbh, most of it was just Dynamite. But boy did Mark Briscoe deliver in that main event. It was 100% a great tribute to Jay, and the ending of the episode itself got me weeping. It was so cathartic to see Mark do his thing in there, I appreciate the hell out of that. Great match too, for what it's worth.

It looks like the (free) ROH Jay Briscoe Celebration of Life show that they filmed after Dynamite last week has been released. This was a last second show that they put together on the fly a literal day after Jay passed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iS93bbBtLU

Thanks for the info. Looking forward to watching Dynamite when I get home.

Partway through Dynamite. The Jay Briscoe video was great. I couldn’t give less of a crap about the rest of this show. So much nonsense and wasted potential.

Edit: up to Mark and Jay Lethal. So good.

Edit 2: Perfection from AEW from the Lethal entrance to the end of the show. Exactly what needed to happen.

Headed to Charlotte in a bit for Vengeance Day. If the Carmelo vs Apollo Crews match is half as good as I'm expecting, it will have been worth it for that alone.
Of course looking forward to the main event too just being a mark for steel cage matches.

Wes Lee vs. Dijak: The crowd was pumped for this match and it was a great way to open the show. Wes Lee is way more over than I realized. Though I am a bigger fan of Dijak I wasn't disappointed in the outcome. You could see Dijak's finger was messed up before they showed a close up of it on the big screen. Gross.

Kayden Carter & Katana Chance vs. Kiana James & Fallon Henley Kayden and Katana work great as a tag team, though I could never get behind the "party girl" type of gimmick they were given. It just seemed forced. Good match overall, don't really care about the two broads that won though, even though I watch it every week it feels like I barely know them.

Apollo Crews vs. Carmelo Hayes: My personal match of the night. In a way kinda glad it didn't go to the third fall because that's just way too predictable, but also disappointed it didn't because I could've watched these dudes go for another hour without getting tired of it. Trick Williams was getting some laughs on the outside. As soon as that big dude came in at the end (which despite sitting across from the entry way I had never spotted him coming down the aisle, it was like he appeared out of thin air) I knew his purpose was to turn against Apollo because the feud with Melo was ending here.

The New Day (C) vs. Gallus vs. Pretty Deadly vs. Chase U: I had a feeling The New Day wasn't retaining here. As expected they were super over with the crowd and probably the loudest pop of the show (not counting Booker T when coming out for commentary and HBK giving a little pre-show speech to the crowd). I'm still beyond tired of them though. Chase U is also unbelievably over and I don't know why. The whole gimmick is corny to me, but apparently people like it. I'm just not sure how they'll get that to work on the main roster, assuming they get called up together. Thea Hail has so much freakin' energy though, and when she screams I'm sure people in the nosebleed section could hear it. Pretty Deadly got some of the loudest boos of the night when they put that commentary table back together and apologized to Booker T and...whoever that other guy is, I forget his name. That was classic heel work. Gallus wins the titles and honestly I don't think majority of the crowd was even familiar with them.

Roxanne Perez vs. Gigi Dolin vs. Jacy Jane: The crowd was pretty hot all night, up until the ending of the previous match and about halfway through this match. It felt like nobody cared until the Toxic Attraction broads started to turn against each other, then the crowd got into it again. The crowd really wanted to see someone go through a table, but the way it happened in this match was too predictable. Not a bad match I suppose, but easily my least favorite of the night. I'm a fan of Roxanne and I like her little backstory that she's been working at getting this far since she was 13. But I feel like her big title run happened sooner than it should've. Like, it only happened because they needed a new champion to replace Mandy Rose and since Roxanne was already number one contender it wouldn't make sense to choose anyone else. I'm glad she's champion and all (and I'm sure she is too) but with a few months more build up it could have been an even bigger moment for her.

Bron Breakker vs. Grayson Waller: Man, I was disappointed when it was announced the match had to be won via pinfall or submission and not by escaping the cage. That's not a real mf'ing cage match then! That only disappointed me because I like cage matches (moreso even than Elimination Chamber or Hell In a Cell) and now the only two I've gotten to see live (this one and a decade ago saw Balls Mahoney vs a local indy guy) it's like the cage was only there for decoration because you couldn't win by escaping. I was pulling for Grayson Waller even though I knew he wasn't winning. I started out as a big fan of Bron when he originally debuted, but I'm getting a little tired of him. I don't know what else is there for him to learn by remaining in NXT.


It looked to be very close to a sellout crowd, it might have even been. I hope this means they take the show on the road more often. I know it's back to just being treated like a developmental brand again, so they could only fly out who was going to be used on the show and that's why we didn't get any dark matches (was hoping for some kind of appearance by The Schism or Wendy Choo).

Some of these guys are beyond "developmental" at this stage. If Carmelo Hayes isn't one of the post-WrestleMania call ups from NXT this year, then someone needs to have a talk with Shawn Michaels because that dude is ready to become a star now. Trick Williams might not be, but that shouldn't hold back Melo from making the big boy money on the main roster. I heard dudes behind me saying they hope he gets called up and paired with Hit Row to replace Swerve, but fudge no that's a waste of his potential and if anyone needs more time in developmental it'd be the remaining members of Hit Row because they were just riding Swerve's coattails anyway. Melo > Swerve, don't argue that because there's no changing my mind.

Did Paul Heyman just try and credit Dusty for training Kevin Owens?

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

My volume was low, but I only heard him credit Dusty for training Reigns. That much is true and I dug them integrating that into the story if Reigns isn’t gonna show up on Raw until after EC.

But to be fair, as Samoa Joe once said, “you never really stop training”. It’s possible that Owens learned a few valuable lessons from Dusty during his time in NXT. But yah, I wouldn’t consider him Owens’ “trainer” per se.

Masterful.

https://youtu.be/EGDXvkriDZE

Yah it’s wild how they built that Mania match with a single promo… I imagine the Reigns/Rhodes stuff will pop into full gear after Elimination Chamber and that oughta be good stuff if they build off the foundation Heyman set up here.

What's all this about
https://twitter.com/MadKing1981/status/16237098445...

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

He’s been going off like this about MJF for a few weeks. I thought it was just a work - folks have been calling for an MJF/Kingston title match for a while. Some folks even wanna see him dethrone MJF eventually (I’d pop), but I dunno. Seems pretty legit haha.

Of course, so did “Brawl Out” and that’s looking more and more like a work with each passing week.

Rewatched a few matches from Dynamite earlier. Danielson/RUSH, MUF/Takecrapa, Elite/Fox&Top Flight. Holy fudge. Dynamite blows any other weekly wrestling show out of the water right now, with 0 doubts.

theJaw wrote:

No doubt the actual wrestling is amazing, but does it actually bring in more fans for the long run?

Well, AEW has been surpassing their network’s standards to the point that they keep expanding their TV deals (new one in Australia via ESPN just this week) but also… who the frig cares? Our job as fans is to watch what we enjoy. That’s where the job ends. Wrestling fans seem WAY too hung up on ratings and numbers and the overall statistics. I said Dynamite blows any other wrestling show out of the water because it’s a good show with great wrestling featured consistently. That’s all. I’ll let the execs worry about how many fans it brings in and continue to enjoy the product put out until it gets bad haha

What the hell is Seth Rollins wearing on his feet?

Those are Clifford shoes. Big red dogs have big red shoes.

Lol the CM Punk/Elite stuff has been the best work in modern pro wrestling history.

image

Jericho has become what he railed against 25 years ago.

Whattaya mean?

Jericho left WCW because of the old guys at the top staying there at the expense of the young guys. He’s now the old guy on top. He didn’t like how guys like Hogan had their friends around like Beefcake, and he has Hager. Jericho hated people that were two faced and spoke out of both sides of their mouth, and he loved working with Punk but he called Punk a cancer and said he should go away.

That’s my opinion anyway, based on what I’ve seen.

I think that was Seth Rollins that said that about CM Punk. Though I guess Chris Jericho certainly could have said it too, CM Punk was known to be a bit of a twinkie backstage even on the indies pre-WWE wasn't he?

BucketofJustice wrote:

I think the "cancer" bit is part of the work. There's no doubt in my mind that they've known Punk would be coming back to AEW for months, but also knew the buzz surrounding the whole All Out situation was keeping him on everyone's mind so they rolled with it. Same thing happened with MJF and the whole contract dispute situation last year. It may have been born of a real life scenario but they're just doing work at this point. Jericho wouldn't have made that post if AEW was truly trying to distance themselves from Punk, and the Bucks wouldn't keep dropping hints on BTE.

As for the WCW comparisons, I don't see them quite the same way. I mean, I get it. He's the "old guard" now, but unlike those folks in WCW, Jericho isn't hogging the main event scene every single week and has actually put over the younger talent. That, and the dude can still go in the ring with the best of them, even if he's a step slower than he used to be. And to be fair, Hager doesn't take up nearly as much real estate on the card as all the dudes Hogan had tag along to WCW with him. For as little as I care about Hager, he's miles better than Beefcake or the friggin Nasty Boys haha

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

Jericho apparently said it directly to Punk and then told the locker room that Punk would never return to AEW. I don't buy it for a second though. Somehow an "insider" was close enough to Punk and Jericho to overhear him calling Punk a cancer but literally NOBODY has any solid details on the brawl at All Out? Doesn't add up.

Punk was known as a twinkie to Vince McMahon, Triple H and Ryback, notoriously three of the biggest twats in the history of pro wrestling haha. I think he only had heat with Kevin Steen while on the indies, but that hatchet was apparently buried a long while ago. And then of course Colt Cabana, but that came after his WWE days. There are guys like Powerhouse Hobbs, FTR, Wheeler Yuta, etc, who have talked openly about how much of a help Punk has been to them since joining AEW so he can't be all bad I suppose.

I personally think AEW are just leaning in to the whole "Punk is bad" reputation because it'll make it that much more wild when he returns. I could absolutely be wrong, but I think we've just been getting worked for a while here.

Vince wants 9 billion dollars for WWE, according to Bloomberg. It’s behind a paywall, so I won’t post a link, but hot damn it’s not worth that much.

Hit Row is fudging terrible, and so is this Wyatt/Uncle Howdy crap.

BucketofJustice wrote:

I was thinking the same thing when Fox paid them 5 Billion just for SmackDown, but apparently they get their money's worth out of it. It's got a loyal audience that will tune in on Fridays which is typically the worst night you could be on (previously I don't think Fox has had anything good on Fridays since the days of X-Files), 53 episodes per year including Tribute To The Troops, good ad revenue and they get to promote their weekend sports crap for free.

Vince's best days of booking a company are long in the past, but as a businessman he knows what he's doing.

If WWE sold for $8 billion, this is roughly what key people in WWE would make from the sale -
• Vince McMahon: $2.5bn
• Stephanie McMahon: $170.8m
• Linda McMahon: $50.3m
• Kevin Dunn: $24.2m
• Nick Khan: $13.8m
• Frank Riddick: $10.9m
• Paul Levesque: $8.3m

These numbers are according to WON. It's interesting to see that Shane and his wife aren't even listed.

theJaw wrote:

The biggest question is truly "Who is Uncle Howdy"

This crowd was hot tonight. That reaction for Sami reminded me of Hulk Hogan's return to SmackDown 20 years ago, where the ovation went on for so long they had to cut to commercial break.

I see people were complaining about the audio jobbing before Sami even got to speak. It's because the crowd was chanting "Fudge You Roman" (it wasn't getting muted on the stream I was watching)

Michael Cole ripping Top Dolla is one of my favorite things ever. Top Dolla looks brittle as fudge, kinda like an inked up egg with Kevin Nash knees and a strong breeze would knock him over.

What do you guys think comes from this Elimination Chamber tonight? The Bloodline stuff was one of the best things to happen in a long time, and for that I think Sami deserves his WrestleMania moment out of it. But so does Cody. But I'm a lot less interested in seeing Sami vs Cody (if Sami were to win tonight). Are they going ahead with one undisputed championship for the foreseeable future (which I would prefer)? If not, why not just have Roman defend one title on each night of WrestleMania?

Crowds like this help make an already good show even better. Ya gotta love it. For far too long when Vince was still in charge we'd only get crowds like this once a year at WrestleMania, but now they're getting pretty consistent.

edit: These guys did some pretty sick bumps in this match. Doesn't matter that it's for a B title on a B level "premium live event", they gave it their all. I really was hoping for Montez to win it, but his big push is supposed to be coming after WrestleMania.

I don't think Sami Zayn is over with this crowd.... lol

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

Best chant: F U Dominik

Imagine if this was the biggest swerve in WWE history where Sami just lays down for Reigns lol.. .would be epic

this has RVD vs. JOhn Cena ECW one night stand vibes

Well, that sucks

May have been a predictable card top-to-bottom but still a real good show. There was never any chance of Sami winning but I think what they did worked real well and it was satisfying to see Zayn and Owens truly work together a bit again.

Now I’m watching NJPW Battle in the Valley, Mercedes Mone vs Kairi. Mone is doing really great, which isn’t really a surprise. She entered with a Hana Kimura homage which was awesome to see.

I was a little disappointed they didn't pay to use the Bouncing Souls song at least just for last night.

Was very surprised to see both Usos there. With their previous DUIs they hadn't been able to get into Canada for a while.

Lol good sign:

image

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.

https://twitter.com/positivelydan/status/162782678...