General

I watched aew and the devil angle a bit. I figured it might be someone to stab mjf in the back. Which ironic when mjf and Jericho were in a storyline and it was mjf who turned on Jericho

Not comparing the two storylines by no means though

I sort of figured Adam Cole faking an injury to bide his time. Unless it was a real injury. An injury storyline would present a storyline opportunity for Adam Cole to dress up as someone else.

I just finished watching Worlds End, too. I think my opinion lines up fairly closely with Jaw's on it. I figured for awhile that the devil was Cole with Strong and Wardlow involved. I was really hoping the two jobbers, Taven and Bennet, involved wouldn't have been involved and they'd have figured out some guys who could be taken seriously and added some actual shock value to it.....like Hangman and Jay White since they aren't doing much anyway.

So...umm....is Dustin Rhodes now the guy that hangs out in catering to fill in for the guys that don't feel like showing up?

I wonder if White is regretting signing with AEW. His run has been pretty forgettable. Gun Club gold seems like it's basically done with. I'm not sure what happened to the guy with the weird hair. The Gunns were useless. He seems to be really struggling there lately.

I'm still bitter they haven't brought back Serena yet. I understand she's been cleared for awhile now. Their women's division really sucks....not the talent....they have plenty of it...but Abadon and Riho when they've got Baker, Deeb, etc?

But, yeah, it wasn't the worst PPV ever and not the best. It was 'mid'.

I'm not sure what's going on with both promotions leaving top guys at home for PPVs and using all these fill in semi-jobbers. WWE was just as guilty of this last month.

Britt Baker hasn’t been around for 5-6 months. Seemingly, she could pop up at any time. Serena Deeb might be coming back soon. Jamie Hayter will be back in 2024. I hope that AEW can get a solid women’s division going. They have a lot of good talent but they need to put it to good use. The TBS title division is pretty good, but it’s not the main scene.

Crucifying a company for having just a ‘good’ show doesn’t do anything. One of the biggest issues AEW has with a ‘good PPV’ is that the PPV shows are $50 each. They need to get some sort of streaming deal. WWE has a little more leeway with a ‘good ‘ show as a PLE since it’s part of a $6 monthly streaming service. I think AEW would have the same latitude if they could get streaming somewhere that wasn’t Bleacher Report. Hopefully the next deals for their TV and distribution rights will be better, and allow for that.

I’m intrigued by the fallout of the Devil thing. A lot more interested than I was before the reveal. I didn’t like how the AEW title changing felt secondary, but I do think it’s the right move. It’s a little odd seeing an injured guy be the big whodunit reveal, and he turned on a guy who’s also injured. Either the two injured guys heal up and come back to the program later and it’s lost some momentum, or they fight through it and it’s not as good because obvious injuries are obvious, or somewhere in the middle. At any rate, it would be better if they were both healthy. We’ll see what happens, though.

RE: AEW streaming. When joking around about Toni Storm's "films" last night during the media scrum, Khan joked that they could all be found "on Max." I know he's been in talks with WBD to bring AEW content to Max, so this may be a possible hint that it will happen at some point in 2024.

Also, with a VPN connection to, say, Japan or the Netherlands, AEW PPVs are only $20 on Fite (Triller now I guess). This is what I've been doing, so it's tough for me to get salty if the PPV isn't a blow away show of the year contender.

When it comes to Cole/MJF's injuries, I think Cole is fairly close to healed up. I have a feeling the Devil angle was drawn out just barely too long to give him time to heal and figure they did the reveal last night because it won't be long before he's back in the ring. That said, I think the gimmick could still do well if he's just the puppet master pulling the strings while the others do his dirty work. I'm just upset that we've probably seen the last of Roddy Strong's "ADAAAAMM" shtick.

MJF is always teasing a bidding war between AEW and WWE for his contract, so I feel like he'll sit out a while to fan the flames. I think he stays with AEW ultimately -- I'd sorta be shocked if he didn't already sign a new contract, especially after his great Player's Tribune essay recently where he put over AEW and their mission statement huge. If he's off TV for any extended amount of time, the pop when he returns to fend off Cole is going to be awesome.

Also yah, the women's division needs some seasoning. Mone's talks with WWE have apparently fallen apart and she's expected to end up somewhere "imminently," and I think AEW is the only other company who'd pay her what she's asking. Like Bucket said, with Hayter, Baker and Deeb apparently returning eventually, and with Thunder Rosa finally returning recently, the division will get a nice kick in the ass. If Athena wasn't the best part of ROH, I'd say throw her in the mix too. Though I do have to give props to ladies like Toni Storm, Julia Hart, Willow Nightingale, Kris Statlander, Riho & Shida for bearing the brunt of the weight there. They may not be the hugest names in wrestling but they've been putting in the work.

I didn't even get to see any of the PPV. Was thinking of downloading it after, and I still might, but I know the results now so it's not a priority. I'm more interested in this stuff involving Chris Jericho.

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

I tend to believe victims, but no victim came forward. Nick Hausman is CM Punk's right hand journalist and got into a Twitter fight with Jericho over NDAs, then Hausman conveniently made the allegation that Jericho sexually assaulted women and got them to sign NDAs on AEW PPV day. He then went on to offer absolutely no evidence or further information, he just sat on Twitter criticizing the media scrum. 1) If he's lying, he's a scumbag and will likely face legal issues. 2) If it's true and he sat on the nearly 5-year-old information until it was convenient for him, he's also a scumbag. To then sit on Twitter and care more about how he "stuck it" to Jericho as opposed to the ACTUAL sexual assault he "reported" on leads me to believe he's likely full of crap.

Some folks assumed the woman in question was Kylie Rae and the internet ran with that. She apparently left a heart emoji under a tweet where a troll account reposted a screenshot of a woman who said "I wonder how many young women are afraid to speak out about Chris Jericho" or something along those lines. That lady then responded to the troll account who was using her tweet as "evidence" saying she shouldn't have said that, and that she was only speculating due to there being so many rumors about wrestlers stemming from the Speaking Out movement. Kylie Rae has spoken overwhelmingly positively about her time in AEW, and Jericho's own site even posted her thoughts on leaving. She's been getting so much hate from the weirdo incels on Twitter that I doubt she ever talks about it -- and, quite frankly, she doesn't have to considering it's likely all a sham.

So TL;DR: an infamous Jericho-hater made unsourced and baseless allegations, the internet decided for themselves it was true and who the woman in question was, and then the person who proposed the original Jericho question straight up admitted that she was just speculating and had no knowledge of Jericho doing anything wrong. Hausman is just a grifter who wanted to give Jericho crap on the day of an AEW PPV and it worked.

All that said -- if anything comes of this situation or any ACTUAL information besides one allegation from a bias journalist is revealed, I'll happily reevaluate my stance. But to me, if it looks like bullcrap and smells like bullcrap, it's probably bullcrap.

Refresh my memory - at what point did R-Truth basically become the black Santino Marella? 2011-ish?

Around then. He had that heel turn where he fought Cena that one time and tagged with Miz for a few months. Then he became a babyface again and ran around with an invisible kid and he’s been a comedy character ever since.

Watching my first Charlie Dempsey match right now. Vs Katsuhiko Nakajima for the AJPW Triple Crown title. Goofball name aside, I really dig this guy. I'm gonna need to deep dive into his UK stuff. Watched NXT New Year's Evil earlier and it was a very boring show save for a few bits, and I can't imagine seeing Dempsey work that style. That show and this match are night and day when it comes to wrestling.

Anyhow, I'm a fan of this guy. Like a perfect mix between Regal and Danielson. jerk just did a spinning Cattle Mutilation.

He's on the Level Up show with Drew Gulak more than regular NXT.

I found a match on YouTube that’s from I think Booker T’s company. Reality of Wrestling. It’s Charlie Dempsey vs. Axiom. It’s pretty good so far. Dempsey did that spinning cattle mutilation in this match too.

https://youtu.be/vQ3RmgLeiHI?si=0ml9bQ8zJ_XpKCPf

Any of you gentlemen catch night 1 of WrestleKingdom? I missed it but I'll try to catch night 2 tonight/early morning by finally subscribing to NJPW World. It's so much easier when both nights line up with the weekend, but obviously NJPW has no control over that.

I did not. I hope it’s good though.

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

I think WK was just one night this year. Tonight is New Year’s Dash if I recall.

I watched the first half, was up until 4am. Will be finishing it tonight though. What I saw was super fun.

Mox/Finlay/Ospreay, Danielson/Okada & Naito/Sanada were all fudging awesome. Probably my favorite Wrestle Kingdom since the Omega/Okada days, WK11.

Caught Smackdown. Well, most of it, anyway. Came home sick from work and dozed off some. Felt like a show building towards things and continuing storyline beats towards something bigger. Some stuff hit and some didn’t. The Authors of Pain returning with Karrion Kross had the crowd going mild. Mia Yim vs. Iyo Sky was good but no one cares about Mia Yim and that match wasn’t in doubt at all as to who was winning. Owens vs. Escobar was pretty good, and the main event was also pretty decent. I didn’t like the blood, but at least no one drank it, so there’s that. Paul Heyman is still one of the most gifted speakers there is, and the day he’s done will be a sad day.

Not enough blood drinking (and then immediately spitting) in wrestling imo

Smackdown was a boring show. Main event was fine, but nothing really did it for me otherwise. I keep hearing Smackdown is leagues better than Raw. Raw’s nothing to write home about either, but tonight’s show certainly didn’t seem leagues better by any means.

Cool to see Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne team up though. That match was good.

I’d agree with that. Tonight was decent, but that’s about it. That crowd sat on their hands for most of the show. Also Kevin Patrick sucks.

I ended up skipping all wrasslin' this week except for NXT. Even signed up for NJPW World but couldn't stay up late enough for last night/this morning's show, but I guess I'll try to watch a replay over the weekend but I kinda have this thing where if I can't watch something live then I have a hard time caring about it at all.

Was The Rock at least on SmackDown tonight, or was his comment alluding to a future match with Roman Reigns just another way of him saying "I'll be back when I can fit this place into my schedule"?

As far as Raw vs SmackDown, even since the original brand split I've always just preferred SmackDown, even though we are at the point (and have been for a while) where they're the same show, just one is red and one is blue. One show is thee hours of mediocrity and the other is two.

No Rock on Smackdown. Heyman cut a good promo on him though.

The Failed TNA Pilot: All Wheels Wrestling
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN1W7lwVTIw

Uhhh oh, Tony Khan dared to acknowledge the hypocrisy of a certain sect of internet fans via Twitter again.

Cue the feigned internet outrage that will disappear within two days in 3... 2... 1....

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

lol this is good

Tony needs to put down the Twitter machine. Whether he’s right or wrong or indifferent, he’s not doing anything to help his cause or his company.

Nah, let him cook.

Let him cook what? He’s not doing himself any favors and he’s showing that people can get under his skin, fairly easily too since this is far from the first time this has happened.

So what? He’s human. He’s not pretending to be a machine like McMahon or Triple H. The simple existence of AEW or Tony Khan gets under people’s skin. At this point the double standards are egregiously apparent, and one needs to make a conscious decision to ignore them in order to act like Tony Khan is overreacting.

It’s also far from the first time Bischoff or USA’s twitter have taken pot shots at him. Khan doesn’t respond nearly as much as he could (or should) - yet nobody gets all bent out of shape when the grifters talk. Only when Khan dares to respond. Respectfully, I say fudge that. Let him ratio those dorks. People would get under your skin too if you were attacked every single day solely for starting a wrestling company.

All involved are a bunch of tools. No need to defend any of them.

I'll defend Khan to an extent. A little bit of a dork for sure, but he gave wrestlers high-paying gigs where they otherwise may not have received them, he doesn't fire employees out of nowhere without honoring the length of their contracts, and he takes care of the families of those who pass away while under his employ. If he wants to defend himself against grifters, I say have at it. He's not a bad person by all accounts, which can't be said for so, so, so many other business owners/promoters.

There's this story going around about MVP and Chris Jericho getting into a heated argument around 4 years ago. It ended up with MVP knocking Jericho out on his own cruise.

Then it got me thinking...CM Punk caught so much crap for his backstage shenanigans in AEW (rightfully so), but Chris Jericho has a long history of it himself that nobody ever seems to give him any flak about.

I personally think Jericho’s a self righteous douchebag, but Brian Last and Jim Cornette are right there with him. I wouldn’t take too much stock in what Last claims to know, as he’s been debunked a million times over on other things. And Cornette’s Cornette, so there’s that. The websites picking up on that story and running with it are infamously anti-AEW, like Ringside News, so it’s entirely possible it’s fabricated (like most things reported there). That said, it wouldn’t necessarily surprise me to hear MVP DID knock Jericho out, it’s just extremely suspicious that the extent of that is only coming out now - from infamous AEW detractors - so soon after Hausman made goofy allegations. Timing is awfully weird.

When it comes to Punk, according to EVERY outlet (not just the goofy ones), the dude flew off the handle. “Cry me a river” isn’t enough to start a brawl over.

DJ Whoo Kid (who went out with Swerve right after Punk vs Joe at All In) just recently (maybe today?) talked about what he saw because he was “right there.” Punk apparently went legit crazy, swinging and threatening people - to the point that Samoa Joe (who Whoo refers to as “that Hawaiian looking n word”) had to break it all up. Apparently Joe was yelling that Punk was ruining the moment for the company and other workers, suggesting he was ultimately sabotaging the show. Apparently told Punk to just “go out there and do your crap.”

If Joe, one of the most respected dudes in the business, is acknowledging historically incendiary CM Punk as an instigator, I’ll trust that. If Brian Last, infamously bias podcaster, is claiming MVP knocked Jericho out - well, I also sorta believe that (but take it with a grain of salt). Point being the difference between the two is sorta night and day. Almost makes me believe the report that Punk really does have a special “behavior” clause in his WWE contract.

Chris Jericho needs to stop drinking and get off Twitter when he’s drinking. I think that would solve a lot of his current, self-made problems.

Okay, my fault I guess for not doing my research ahead of time and just assuming NJPW did things like WWE/Peacock, but apparently tonight's NJPW show (Battle in the Valley, live from San Jose) isn't even available on NJPW World outside of Japan. They treat all NJPW events that take place in the states as PPVs and so I'll have to pay an additional fee to watch it on Fite. Gross, and I'm not doing it, I will find an alternative stream and pay nothing.

I had planned to watch it and chat along with some of my Japanese friends but had no idea they do things this way. I was just eager to finally give some money to NJPW because it took them forever to get a proper app on Roku, but I'm not giving money to Fite too.

New Japan stuff is usually pretty expensive. I wouldn’t give them the extra money either. I kind of wish TNA had a more widely distributed app. I can’t believe I just said that, but here we are.

Although it’s been ongoing already, they just announced at Hard to Kill that TNA and AAA are officially partnered up. That means there’s a possibility for a AAA x TNA x NJPW x AEW crossover at some point down the line. That would rule so hard.

Jack Perry just showed up on NJPW Battle in the Valley, laying out Shota Umino. He then ripped up his AEW contract and put an armband that said "SCAPEGOAT" on.

I like to see this crap.

Dolph Ziggler is the TNA signing they’ve been hyping. I hope it goes well for all parties and he gets to show what he can really do.

Nemeth also teased an NJPW match at WreslteKingdom. Gonna be a busy guy. Can’t wait to see what he can do without handcuffs.

Good show overall. I especially like it when "this is awesome!" chants are actually warranted. Some AEW and NXT crowds should be taking notes, that chant isn't to be used lightly *shakes fist angrily*

I’ve grown to hate that chant, precisely because it’s so overused. It’s in Canadian Destroyer territory for me.