General

I don’t watch wrestling for realism lol. But some stuff was just ridiculous. Like Hangman wrapping barbed wire around Swerve then doing a fallaway slam. Maybe do that and have Swerve land on the barbed wire so it doesn’t hurt Hangman too. The aforementioned glass spot was just dumb and could’ve been done so much more effectively. Swerve could’ve put a chair on top of the glass and stomped on it, both not hurting himself and protecting Hangman by stomping on a part of the chair with no/less glass underneath it.

This is the only place I talk about wrestling on the internet. I deleted Twitter/X some time ago and if I could hide every stupid Facebook wrestling page forever I’d do it. I don’t care about what the IWC thinks lol. I’m also old and I’d rather watch crap from 1983 than 2023.

Yah I mean, I don't necessarily care what the IWC say either, it just gets obnoxious having to sift through all the bad faith losers who make it their job to demean anything AEW does after every single show. Deleting Twitter is a smart idea, but there are some accounts who I genuinely enjoy reading so I stick it out.

As for the spots you talked about -- they're really no different to the things Foley or Funk, or any number of the more "hardcore" wrestlers, would do back in the day. Throwing "caution to the wind" and all that. Yah it'll also hurt Hangman, but the added momentum from his body performing the move itself and crushing that barbed wire between the two would be real painful. I dunno, there are just always way to explain away wrestling moves, so I never get hung up stuff like that. Once you see a wrestler continue to run after being Irish Whipped, all logic goes out the window haha. But to each their own, if ya don't dig it ya don't dig it.

I had no idea this was ever a thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE5_Lu9CeUs

That’s news to me. I’ll have to watch that later.

I remember something like 10 or 11 years ago about some match that was supposed to be a big deal. Kevin Nash was supposed to wrestle Ricky Morton I think. It got a little media play but apparently the whole thing was a crap show and it never ended up going anywhere.

I wonder if this was meant to be that at some point.

Edit: it’s exactly what I thought it was! Holy crap!

If you're ok with the Steam version instead of console, you can currently get WrestleQuest for $10 bundled with 12 other games (or $20 for the entire 15 game bundle).
https://www.humblebundle.com/games/black-friday-sc...

I might be alone here, but this Survivor Series later today looks like the most underwhelming one in the almost 40 year history. As one of the 'big 4' events of the year, I was really expecting something more to be added other than swapping out Carlito with Dragon Lee. I don't mind the Wargames thing, but I'd prefer if it had its own PLE. There actually isn't a single thing advertised that I care about. Everything seems to be built around having maybe one or two things happen like Damage CTRL turning on Bayley and Orton probably RKO'ing Jey to wreck those matches.....which are both horribly one-sided for the babyfaces.....and if something happens and they lose....who cares?

Guenther vs Miz......ugh, as if Miz wins.
Ripley vs Stark..ummm..sure
Dragon Lee vs whathisname with the beard...who cares? Maybe he'll add some of the NXT guys and they can have a feud with the LWO that nobody will care about.

The only noteworthy thing about the entire event is the speculation that someone who isn't going to return will return. Names like Sasha Banks and CM Punk are floating around....but what would they do? Show up and ruin a crap card? I guess they sell it based on what people hope might happen instead of actually booking a meaningful card.

Also.....umm....where is everyone? Big 4 event?

LA Knight?...this is the big one
Roman Reigns?.
Solo?
Logan Paul?
Women's Tag champs? Big shock that Banks and Glowy chick tossed the belts in the trash and walked. These things are less important than the 24/7 belt.
Alpha Academy?
Street Profits?
Bobby Lashley?
Austin Theory?
New Day?
DIY?
Pretty Deadly?
Kevin Owens?
Nakamura?

Honestly, looking at the card on paper, I don't think I'd go if it was in my backyard.

Meanwhile Brody King vs Eddie Edwards and Shibata vs Yuta on AEW… those 2 matches alone make Collision/Rampage worth watching tonight over Survivor Series imo.

Always down for a good ol’ Wargames match though… even if the angle doesn’t really warrant it.

The last Survivor Series I ended up hyped for was the year NXT dominated. Before that, I can't remember the last one I really enjoyed. Out of the "Big 4" PPVs/PLEs, Survivor Series would be the one I'd miss the least if they were to replace it. I know back in 2010 they were actually close to canceling it but I think too many got in Vince's ear and whined about it being a tradition or something..Just once I want them to hold it on actual Thanksgiving night for old times' sake.

Yeah, I'd definitely look forward to a Smackdown vs Raw vs NXT Survivor Series. I recall, many years ago, they actually took the survivors and stuffed them into a 'Sole Survivor' match at the end. I'm not sure how many times that happened.......once for sure.

I'd take Kingston vs King over the entire 'Survivor Series' posted card, too. I really do expect some swerves and new people popping in....but I wouldn't hate having at least a couple of matches to look forward to. Really, both Wargames matches should be complete squashes by the faces. As hyped as I was when Kairi Saine showed up again, every time she's been on TV, she's one of the first ones tossed on her head. Iyo is great but she definitely has not been booked as a strong champ. Asuka has been great at being a jobber since WM. Bayley is meh......and they're fighting 3 of the most dominant women of the past few years.....and Shotzi.

Oh well...I guess it's another WWE PLE where all the hype is around 'who might show up' instead of any of the actual matches.

Not really looking too forward to either company’s shows this weekend. Survivor Series at least has the War Games match type to see, though. That and Orton returning should be a little bit of fun. Otherwise… meh.

Survivor Series was better than I thought it would be. They’re playing the long game with Damage CTRL and I like that, but I also want them to move that along. Miz and Gunther was better than I thought it would be and I kinda forgot how good Miz can be. Zoey and Rhea went longer than it probably should have. Dragon Lee is really good and Santos is back to where he should be, as a heel. The men’s War Games was what it should’ve been. It was cool seeing new Flair and Rhodes wrestlers in one of the best creations Dusty ever had, and arguably Dusty’s greatest rival.

We also had a big return and I hope that Larry Talbot’s owner can get along with people here better than he could before.

Haven't heard a pop that loud in years
Well, okay maybe a smidge of hyperbole, Cody's was loud too last year, but there were also a lot more people for his. Still, this was one of those rare moments where the pop actually gave me goosebumps.

FYI I was talking about R-Truth. Sorry, didn't mean to spoil it, but this news was too huge not to talk about.

I knew the whole time. His segment with Pretty Deadly was the best thing all night and it wasn’t even close.

I hope this all works out and doesn't backfire down the road and lead to regrets from all parties involved. I know R-Truth doesn't have the best reputation backstage, but the WWE Universe has been waiting a long time for his return and I'm sure he has a special pipe bomb rap planned for Raw that will boost the ratings in ways Seth Rollins wishes he was capable of.

I hope he’s on Smackdown telling Pretty Deadly what’s up. Maybe we can get some cross brand action going on and he’ll team with the rising star Akira Tozawa. Hopefully he’ll declare for the Royal Rumble again too.

I hope this cm punk thing doesn’t backfire. I read that it was sort of a rush job. McIntyre and Seth been with the company a long time and should know cm punk and his antics of voicing his opinions.

I felt surprised reading about since punk basically left wwe on his own terms

I doubt things weren’t really rushed unless their is specifics in the new contract before he signed.

We’ll see what happens. I’d like to think Charles Montgomery will be on his best behavior and knows he’s on triple super not-very-secret probation.

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

Lol this popped me

Survivor Series was just okay besides the Men’s WarGames match and that big boy return, which were real fun. Hopefully they don’t try to stifle ol’ Chick Magnet’s shtick and we see a bit of a tonal shift in the E.

Something tells me Clobbering Man will be on his best behavior, at least in the beginning. He was opinionated and outspoken, but he didn’t get into fist fights in WWE like he did in AEW. Different management, different circumstances and different surroundings can do a lot for a person. Also, Triple H has shown he’s decent at answering ‘What’s next? where Vince really wasn’t able to do that.

I bet they throw CM Punk right into the Seth Rollins championship road track

I watched Saturday Night Main Event for 2 seasons and Wrestlemania 1 and 2 the past month or so. I love it. Roddy Piper is amazing. I might spend a while chronologically catching up through the next few years of WWE. I won't really watch NWA until like 1988 or so. I binged a big chunk of it about 5 years ago.

Punk looks suspiciously much healthier than he did during his AEW thing. I did end up finding a means of watching it and I guess it was basically what I expected. Wargames matches were both alright. I'm still disappointed how weak they're bringing Kairi in as. The other 3 matches were almost mid. It's interesting that a lot of WWE fans make fun of AEW and call it a spotfest and not wrestling...yet, basically the entire Survivor Series this year was exactly that. Trash can off the top of the cage, moonsault off the top of the cage (that almost looked like it could have been really bad for someone's neck), Orton last second arrival, and Punkster arrival. Happy to see R Truth back.

HHH nailed it in the post-event thing saying people talk about CM Punk and made an interesting comment about Cargill. Punk definitely has people talking. I'm glad they're going low and slow with Jade. I interpreted what he said about Cargill as what a lot of people thought of her in AEW...under-developed in the ring. Hoping she's smoothed out enough by Royal Rumble and doesn't become another disappointment like the last 2 'blue chippers' they brought in to development - Steveson and the Great Value Brock Lesner clone.

Tammy Sytch (Sunny) got 17 years in jail today for her nonsense last year, crashing into and killing a man. So many charges I don’t remember them all. I hope she gets the help she needs while she’s in prison. She didn’t get it while she was out.

That six team turmoil match was pretty damn good. Just one more benefit of Vince being gone, tag teams get to show their stuff.

Bronson Reed and Ivar just stunk up the joint. Post-match fight was better than the match itself.

The lack of reaction for Tegan Nox hurts my heart. I hope she can get back on track. She’s too good.

I don't think that pipe bomb left quite the impact the fans were hoping for. Not even sure it was worthy of being called a pipe bomb (I don't think they actually referred to it as one, but it's what we were all expecting) and didn't really need to close the show, though obviously I can understand why they did it (don't wanna end the show with a Randy "Ratings Killer" Orton match).

I think people were expecting him to take a dig at AEW or Tony, maybe slip in a line similar to "Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler would be standing right here with me if they weren't being held hostage by AEW" but I'm not sure that would've been smart to do (X-Pac had some legal trouble when he tried it).

Still, not a bad episode overall. A couple of matches were stinkers, but we've come a long way since 2018's episode on this date, which is regarded as being one of the worst episodes in Raw history.
https://twitter.com/OTD_in_WWE/status/172876204306...

I don't expect it to last, and I wasn't expecting anything wild, but Punk felt neutered in that promo. It was essentially just his AEW debut promo but instead of "I'm back" it was "I'm home" and he was just overall less edgy (probably because he, like Khan, can't legally say anything disparaging). Either way, I'm not sure the lovey dovey "forget everything I ever said about WWE up until 2 months ago" Punk is what I'm really here for, but I'm sure he'll at least put on some good matches when the time comes. Heel Punk would be interesting to see in this landscape. But yah, definitely not a "pipebomb," just sort of an "I swear I'm likable" promo from a guy who built a career by being unlikeable.

Orton's a beast and I'm actually happy to see him back. He seemed more driven to be there than Punk, in all honesty. The match was whatever, but that's mainly because I don't care about Dom. I'm just very over the Judgement Day. I feel like it jumped the shark when the Finn/WHC scenario didn't pan out to be anything interesting (which is ironically when I finally started buying into their shtick a bit), or when Mcdonough officially joined. Priest in particular is disappointing me lately. Loved his work in ROH... but he's so boring in Judgement Day. His monotone voice takes me right out of any promo they have. Balor needs to go solo again, he's the only dude in that group I actually care about (despite WWE's best attempts to make him an afterthought).

Ivar vs Bronson was terrible. I agree the fight in the crowd and with security was much better... but I have no interest in a long-term program between the two.

The tag gauntlet was probably the best thing on the show, glad WWE is showcasing their tag division a bit more nowadays.

I don’t know that I expected a big, grandiose Punk promo. I expected something different than what we got, though. The AEW return was far, far more special than this return. The WWE return was a surprise. The AEW return was an experience. The ‘Cry me a river’ sign was kinda funny, though.

I feel the exact opposite about Priest. He was boring in ROH and WWE made him an interesting character to me. Eh, that’s wrestling. You like what you like.

Got home to see the Drew promo and onward. Again, the lack of reaction for Tegan sucks. But, I still hold out hope she’ll make it one day. Orton is jacked more so than ever before and I’m here for it. Adds something to him and I like it.

Anyone else notice how quiet the fans were for Rollins compared to usual?

I did not. I got home just in time to see Seth tell Drew that he was fighting Jey Uso next week, and then the headbutt.

I’ll be home tonight and I got Sling back for a month. I’ll pay $20 a month here and there for a month at a time, but they want $40 a month usually and I’m not about to do that on a regular basis. Anyway, I’ll probably watch Dynamite. I should try to see the show, since I’m going in 3 weeks and context is hard through YouTube clips.

I watched Dynamite. The matches were really good. The storylines are meh at best, but tonight was mostly about this tournament thing where they’re crowning another champion? Why does AEW need yet another title? And why did Eddie Kingston give up his titles? Tony needs another title so he can make a Triple Crown? What am I missing here? There’s already too many titles. We don’t need more titles.

Excalibur sucks. Get literally anyone else.

The Edge and Christian segment was delivered well but the story was really, really dumb. We all knew what was going to happen, minus the Go Fudge Yourself that made air and didn’t get bleeped out.

Rush had a great match tonight. I liked it a lot. I don’t know if I see what others see personality wise, but I hope I get to see more. I feel like either he’s not wanting to break out of his shell, or he doesn’t quite know what the next step of his character should be. He’s better than whatever faction he’s in, too.

Seeing Ric Flair on my TV is not something I need to do in 2023. I wish I could go to Greensboro, though, to see Sting. I still hope he shows up in OKC in 3 weeks since I bought tickets. Hopefully the Bucks and Hangman aren’t there.

If you want great matches, AEW was a good show. If you’re looking for more, you’re not going to get it. At least not tonight.

BucketofJustice wrote:

It wasn't a super heavy story-driven show. Some Dynamites are story-driven (like most of the build up to Full Gear, which was great), some are wrestling-driven. That's sort of AEW's ebb and flow. That said, I disagree that they were "meh." Maybe it's just because you haven't been following along week-to-week, and picked an episode where less interesting plot points played out. You watched a "beat" week.


AEW has as many belts as the whole of WWE and considering some are defended more depending on the show, I don't really see what the problem is when people present this criticism. They all get air time and are made to feel important (save for the Trios, which feel lackluster these days). The NJPW Strong title can't really be considered an "AEW" title either, it's just present on AEW TV -- similar to the territory days when champions would carry their belts with them regardless of where they worked.

Plus this new title will apparently be defended in different promotions -- NJPW being the most obvious -- as opposed to feeling like just another midcard title defended randomly on AEW TV. Regardless, the Continental Classic tournament alone makes it all worth it. Round Robin tournaments rule so hard, and this one is fudgein stacked -- it's being presented as a coveted tourney like the G1. We're getting PPV-caliber matches happening on weekly TV like the early days of AEW. Jay White vs. Swerve is a legitimate MOTY contender, with no doubts whatsoever.

Eddie explained point blank why he put the titles up when he first announced he was doing it -- and his story is that he may be regretting that now. Eddie initially put them up to prove that he was the best out of this tournament -- and wrestling -- bar none. Then he lost his first match, so they aired the promo from him tonight where he said "maybe I was too confident" before assuring the audience (but mostly trying to convince himself) that he'd be ready for Danielson in the next match. It's a story of hubris and it makes all the sense in the world if you've been following Kingston's career (AEW or outside of AEW).


Big, giant disagree. One of the most knowledgeable pro wrestling commentators and it's really not even close. He also actually acknowledges the points for the Round Robin tournament, saying things like "he just barely missed out on the 3 points, but got the shoulder up," etc. Almost feels like the points themselves are little mini titles that are must-have, because they are -- and also makes the match, and tournament as a whole, feel so much more legit. Excalibur is one of the best.

I also dug Danielson out there tonight, that was fun.


The GFYS thing was a play off when Copeland initially returned and Christian made it seem like they were getting back together, only to tell him to GF-HIM-S. Just fun little banter. Of course we knew what was going to happen, that was sort of the point. Christian was trying to squeak his way out of the TNT title match he has with Copeland, and Copeland wasn't having it. It was a standard beat in a pro wrestling angle, no more dumb than anything we see on any other show.


He is better than the AEW leg of the faction he's in, for sure, but LFI as a whole rules. It's pretty much the Bullet Club of Mexico. Otherwise, I sort of agree he's not connecting as great as he could be. I think that's a booking misstep tbh. He was ultra over in ROH (until they put him in a program with fudging PCO), so I feel they just need to put him in a focused angle, with legitimate mic time, and let him cook.


Bucks and Hangman rule. Ric Flair does not. Sting will probably be there, he seems to be at every show.


You will get good story from AEW, you just won't get the same type of storytelling that you get in WWE. If you need constant soap opera drama (that, imo, often doesn't hit any emotional nerve), go WWE. If you can accept good wrestling in between major story beats, go AEW. Again, I think this was a case of you not keeping up week-to-week, so a "breather" week won't seem too compelling compared to someone who keeps up. Pro wrestling and, heck, novels, TV, movies... it doesn't matter, they all need to take beats in their storytelling to let them breathe.

Also no idea why I felt the need to break that down quote-style lol. My bad.

A buddy on Discord attended Dynamite last night. He says on the Rampage taping there was a promo by Ric Flair where he came across as a dirty old geezer by throwing out an open invitation to any single women in the crowd to meet him in his hotel room. I know it's just part of his gimmick, but I also know the dude is in his mid-70s and there comes a point where it's just like...stop, grandpa, you can't even get it up anymore.

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

Lol yah there’s a big hubbub about it online. They gotta stop bringing the guy out on TV. He’s been embarrassing himself for a long time and it’s only getting worse with age.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that him, Sting and Schiavone were in the Dynamite promo last night either. Feels like TBS thinks they’re the key to a better show because they were in WCW… literally decades ago.

McKenzie Mitchell was released by WWE. Also, allegedly there are layoffs going on at WWE HQ today.

BucketofJustice wrote:


I was wondering what you meant by that, now I see it's because their PPV will be in Greensboro. I'm gonna try to see if I can convince a couple people to go.

I don’t need to see Flair on TV, but nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

That Bianca and Kairi match felt pretty sloppy, and hate to say it, it looked to be mostly on Kairi's end. They've had good matches in NXT together, must've just been having an off night. It sucks because NYC crowd is always hot, in the Attitude Era this would be one of those crowds you don't want to have a bad match in front of.

Went to GCW for my bachelor party last night. Card didn’t look incredible but holy crap was that fun.

I'm a little bummed I didn't get to see GCW at the WrestleCade thing last week. It just was too expensive, would've had to buy a WrestleCade ticket, then a separate ticket for GCW, then upwards of $50 for each autograph and/or pic with any of the wrestlers. I wish I had known about it over the summer so I would've had more time to save up.

Got a photo with Effy, so that was a win. Dude just hangs out in the crowd after his match lol

Any one watch Wrestlers documentary on Netflix about ohio valley wrestling? What are your thoughts on it?

I thought it was really good. I hope it leads to an increase in OVW business.

Looks like Kenny Omega is out of action indefinitely due to diverticulitis. Brock had that when he had to step away from UFC a while back. My brother-in-law also dealt with that for the past couple of years before finally getting surgery for it (twice) this year. It ain't no joke.

Yah that fudging sucks, but explains why he’s taken a bit of a backseat for a while. Glad they caught it. Positive vibes to Kenny.

Also, ROH Final Battle has been fudging awesome so far.

I hope Kenny can get better and fully recover. All the positive vibes.

Sitting at Dynamite now. ROH will have matches first. People still filtering in it looks. Building isn’t as full as it was for Raw, but OKC rarely sells anything out.

BucketofJustice wrote:

Crowd has sounded great on TV all night. Yall brought it. Been a fun show so far.

I hope it came off better on TV than it did from my seats. AEW won’t get any more of my money based on tonight.

Lol alright

looool hell yah. "I hate you... ahhhyuck gwarssh"

Also Punk is proving a hypocrite more and more every day. Unfortunately. Hope his matches are at least still good so I have a reason to remain a fan.

If I could plus you Mr. TheHutt, I would.

Man, I'm gonna miss the Continental Classic when it wraps up. Sad we're already in the last batch of matches. Easily my favorite US tournament in years (if not ever). There have been no bad matches throughout the entire thing, and now after White beat Mox last night, we get a triple threat between Mox, Swerve and White on the next Dynamite. Plus Danielson/Claudio, Garcia/King and Kingston/Andrade on Collision.

Gonna be nothing but bangers this point forward.

After sleeping off last nights experience, I should probably think on it more than my immediate reaction of ‘they won’t get my money again’. I definitely did not have the good time last night that I did at Raw. There were definitely some good things that I saw live, but I’ll be honest in that floor seats at the Paycom center aren’t the best decision. I couldn’t see as much as I’d have liked, and I severely underestimated the amount of hardcore wrestling fans that were there. The ones that I was near, were annoying as crap. Next time, I’ll be a level up. The wrestling in the matches was consistently really good, as far as I could see anyway. The in-ring has never been the issue. Seeing Tony Khan in person makes me dislike him even more, and I didn’t need to see him 4 times. I’m probably too out of touch on the AEW storylines, which as best I can tell was a whodunit with a disguise MJF used last year, this tournament for a bogus Triple Crown and Roderick Strong doing whatever he was doing. I thought the way he yelled people’s names and put the neck brace on after the match was hilarious. I haven’t watched it on TV yet, but I plan to do that today. I don’t know if I’ll watch Rampage because of time, but I look forward to seeing if OKC comes off better on TV than it did live.

I don’t understand how the triple crown title is “bogus,” personally. Especially being decided in such a consistently great tournament. And yah, I’ll just never understand the hate people have for Khan but we don’t need to dredge that back up.

To be honest, the in-ring never being the issue is the exact thing AEW is focusing on, and has always focused on. There are some great stories throughout AEW’s short history but for the most part they’re catalysts for the great in-ring work. That’s just what AEW is. WWE focuses more on story (similarly of varying quality) and usually save the top tier in-ring stuff for PPVs and/or the guys on their roster who can actually deliver that sort of thing. Just two different styles of pro wrestling show, which is better than just one.

As for the stories themselves, I alluded to this a while back, but it makes sense that you’re not enthralled by the stories going on considering you don’t follow the show. That would be the case for any TV show with ongoing stories — it’s hard to appreciate any story if you only see small portions of it. The MJF devil story has been ongoing for quite a while and has been super intriguing with the various clues and different guys who could credibly be revealed as the culprit. It’s fun and engaging - again, if you watch it consistently.

But yah, Roddy Strong is doing some great work right now. Finally finding his footing as a character and not just a great wrestler. BUCKETTTTT!!

So a new title, a belt that doesn’t have a brand since the last show was in January and a title that hasn’t meant anything in years isn’t bogus? I don’t understand how it’s a good thing they just arbitrarily made a triple crown out of thin air for no good reason. All Japan had a triple crown and it meant something, and this just feels like Tony wanted an American G1, and wants to have an ever-growing collection of belts for… reasons. We have differing opinions of Tony, but 10000000000% agreed that more wrestling products is better than less. I want everyone to have national TV and sell out arenas and make all the money, even if I dislike elements of their products.

I don’t see their storylines as particularly good right now. It feels like they’re going through the motions and propping everything up with a bogus tournament. The MJF/Devil thing gives me 2010 TNA vibes with ‘They’ are coming and then a few months later ‘They’ are coming but the first people doesn’t know who ‘They’ are. No intrigue for me, though you’re probably right about part of why I’m not enthralled.

I’m also sad to say, but Timeless Toni Storm doesn’t translate to a live environment very well. At least not for me. Totally becoming a Rush fan though. I saw Jay White in a different light last night, and he comes off better live than he ever has on TV for me. The Kingdom are stars waiting to happen, and I hope it happens soon. Saraya’s brother Zach (sp?) wrestled Pretty Peter Avalon in the second match. I liked Peter, but not so much Zach. Looks like a million bucks though. The presentation of Saraya is also way better live than it is on TV. Swerve was a little hit and miss. He was on for the match, which was good, but the promo with MJF was kind of eh, for me. I do like where it could be headed, though. I hope they don’t just go from MJF and Joe to that, though. I think it’s time for Joe to become AEW champion, or it’s never going to happen.

I do think like I said, I’d want not-floor seats for my next arena wrestling show. That probably impacted my overall enjoyment a lot. I did like seeing Lethal and Briscoe tearing it up, as much as I could see. The TV presentation was better than my live experience, but again that’s probably because of the view I had and the annoying people around me.

The lack of concessions, and merch stands, and the lack of traffic in and out, was weird to me. WWE had way more stuff open for food and drinks, and 3 or 4 merch stands with lines at all of them. AEW had 1 merch stand, and no line, and most of the concessions were closed. Also, there were police and crossing guards and stuff at Raw where there was not any of that last night. It seemed like a glorified Indy show in some ways, which doesn’t lend itself well to a national product in a big arena.

Oh well. That’s my review. For better or worse.

Just gonna touch on a few of your criticisms here. I know no minds are changing -- just giving my two cents on some of your criticisms because I don't feel they're entirely fair. Sorry for typing far too much, as always.

BucketofJustice wrote:

To be fair, All Japan's Triple Crown title was created because, if it hadn't been, the titles were likely just going to be retired sooner than later anyhow. None of them were treated with any priority by that point -- especially the United National title which had been vacated a bunch of times in the few years before the unification. The NJPW Strong title and ROH titles are still defended on both of those brands. You may not care about them anymore, which is fine, but that doesn't mean they're meaningless. Those who actually follow those shows still care about them -- but even if they didn't, again, all the more reason to unite them into something more relevant.

And tbh, who cares why Khan wanted to do the Continental Classic? Pro wrestling is a make-believe sport where EVERYthing has arbitrary reasoning behind it. The Royal Rumble exists because McMahon wanted a WWF Bunkhouse Stampede. Maybe Khan did just want a US G1... that isn't a bad thing. Round robins rule. Regardless, I think I remember reading that Danielson is the person who wanted the tournament more than anyone else anyhow. That dude should get what he wants out of wrestling IMO.


Well, you do openly admit to not following their programming, so -- to sound like a broken record -- you're bound to not get the full reach of the stories. The Devil storyline is nothing like that TNA angle -- I watched both as they were happening. That one was all smoke and mirrors, whereas the Devil angle has blatant beats that allow for the reveal to be several potential people while still making perfect sense to the story that came prior. The Continental Classic is so far from a bogus tournament too. You may not care about the titles up for grabs and may hate the ground Khan steps on, but the tournament has consistently been one of the best bits of wrestling TV from any national brand in years. Far more engaging than what WWE did with the King of the Ring last time they held it, and with wrestling that WWE hasn't even come close to touching outside of Gunther matches.


WWE treats their events like a Disney On Ice level experience -- with overpriced nick snacks at every corner of the building -- and their audience as folks who will gobble up anything they sell regardless of quality. Which works for them, but that's not what a wrestling company needs to be. AEW is admittedly not at that level but to be honest, it doesn't seem like that's the experience they're going for either way. They ARE trying to emulate the indy style of a wrestling show to some extent, just on a larger stage. Also, I feel like the crossing guard situation is on the building itself, not AEW. I know when I worked for the Garden for a short time, all that detail was organized by the venue and the crossing guards were paid staff. Heck, even when I went to Lowell for ROH Death Before Dishonor 2022, there were crossing guards and ample security. Not sure that's an AEW issue.

It's neither here nor there and none of this affects our real lives but I do need to say some of these criticisms feel designed solely BECAUSE it's AEW and not necessarily because of the actual content. Like... WWE has had terrible stories over the years -- far worse than anything on AEW TV right now -- and an objectively craptier person than Khan in charge for years... so I just can't grasp the need to be so overly critical of AEW for these reasons without taking that same hard stance toward WWE. There are DEFINITELY things AEW needs to do better, but nowhere near the degree that I feel it's an overall bad show. But alas, it is what it is.

When I went to AEW Collision in August I also was surprised at the lack of merch available. The merch booth was on the small side and there were only between 10-12 different t-shirts to choose from (zero representation for the ROH side), some autographed action figures that were $100 each and some replica championship belts. I got a Bullet Club Gold t-shirt and that was it, and now that I think about it I'm not sure if I've even worn it yet. Not even sure why I bought it all these years later. Buying a Bullet Club t-shirt in 2023 is like buying a nWo t-shirt when the only ones left in the group were Horace, Crush, Virgil and Stevie Ray. Alright, maybe not that bad, but the point is the group has run its course and everyone knows it but them.


As for CM Punk being a hypocrite, I absolutely agree. But the entire industry is full of hypocrites. Right off the top of my head I can think of probably a dozen instances of wrestlers crapping on a company after leaving it or a specific person from another company, but they're only human after all, so if enough money is shoved in their face suddenly their minds have changed and they're now happy to be part of said company again.

Yah, BC still has a much larger presence in NJPW but even there, under Finlay, it’s definitely lost a bit of its prominence. (A bit = a bunch.)

I still think BCG in AEW is a great stable though, though I’d like to see White go off on his own a bit more. Which has been the case in the Continental Classic because everyone’s banned from ringside as a surface rule for the tournament. I’ve been enjoying him a lot more lately.

And Punk hasn’t really even crap talked AEW or anything much so far (probably the NDA tbh) - it’s just the way he acts outside of the ring seems antithetical to the crap he claimed to believe in for his entire life. But whatev.

Watching Smackdown the past several weeks, it really feels like WWE has cooled the jets on LA Knight....very little TV time, not on the SS card, and has barely had a mic in his hand since Crown Jewel. Damage CTRL still feels like Jobber CTRL. Overall, Smackdown feels like it has slid behind Raw, despite adding Orton, Aldis, Kairi, etc. At least their belt holders are all part timers. Does anyone realistically expect either Owens or Escobar to go over Logan?

I gotta hand it to AEW for their tournament. Pretty much every match has been great and the guys who appeared wouldn't be winning are doing some great character development...looking at Garcia and Jay Lethal especially. I love the round robin plan so it doesn't feel so pre-determined. Definitely looking forward to the triple threat next week with White, Strickland, and Gimpy Ambrose.

Raw's been some fun the past little while. It feels more like something is building compared to Smackdown that feels more like spinning wheels waiting for the Rumble. Hoping Punk can bring it in the ring again without a mic. His matches in AEW were a mixed bag but he was looking slow and disinterested in most of the actual matches, other than the ones with MJF.

AJPW announced some kind of partnership with NXT a few hours ago. Pretty cool.

As for WWE kinda cooling down on LA Knight, I think so too, and I'm fine with that as my overall opinion of the guy has kinda cooled down as well. First off, they took a little too long to finally pull the trigger and get behind the guy (not unlike the situation with Zack Ryder). And now that they did, I feel like he's just cutting the same promo every week. I give him credit though, like The Miz and MJF, all he needs is a microphone in his hand and he will present himself as a big star, and the people will eat it up.

I said it when it was happening — to put him in a big time title match vs Reigns without having him win it would destroy his momentum. That’s exactly what happened. It’s like they heard the crowd actually enjoying a wrestler organically and gave him a title shot to satiate his fans. Now they can’t claim he’s being fumbled because all the weirdo WWE diehards will just say “UH HE GOT A TITLE SHOT HOW IS THAT A FUMBLE!?”

They fumbled him. And if Cody isn’t the dude to take the title from Reigns at Mania, they fumbled him too. His last year has not been all that engaging at all. The Brock feud was the best bit.

PizzaTheHutt wrote:


Looks like they're sending Charlie Dempsey (Regal's kid) over to AJPW for an event on January 3. Hopefully something else comes out of this, I like that dude. He hasn't had a chance to show any of the charisma his old man has, but I'm a fan of his in-ring work so far even though you could certainly argue he hasn't been in any real meaningful feuds to show what he's really capable of yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HeJ2A93Doc

That’d be cool if it worked out. I think there’s something more there, but time will tell. I hope Charlie will get time to develop since his dad is in the office, but they’ve made weirder and dumber decisions, so who’s to know?

Charlie Dempsey is almost as bad a name as Lexis King.

Names like Lexis King or Dolph Ziggler I think are in totally different categories. They just sound stupid. It's completely up to the talent to make you remember them for something other than a name like that (which Dolph did, but jury is still out on Lexis). Charlie Dempsey as a name reminds me of Daniel Bryan, like it's a name you'd first hear and the words "wrestling superstar" is the last thing you'd think of his profession being because it just sounds so...normal.

Of course it could always be worse, like the infamously bad Ken Raper, who I don't think accomplished anything noteworthy in his career other than his name reaching meme status 20-30 years later.

It’s not a bad name per se, and it’s not so bad it’s good, but it’s just a normal sounding name that won’t headline Wrestlemania or be picked very much in WWE 2K. They’ve done worse names, and they’ll do worse names later, but his name is the least of his worries. It’s not like WWE is opposed to changing anyone’s name mid-run.

BucketofJustice wrote:


I know there are plenty of other examples, but the first one that comes to mind is Hennig's boy going from Michael McGillicutty to Curtis Axel, and you'd think with a name like Michael McGillicutty you can't really get worse than that, but they found a way.

Ric Flair has crypto now. Did he launch a fake currency because he’s so bad at real currency?

https://www.officialwooooocoin.com/

It's getting to the point that I feel like the folks he partners with on these endeavors are taking advantage of a clearly out-of-touch old man to sell their crap. First an energy drink, now crypto. You know Flair isn't coming up with these ideas on his own haha

Kevin Dunn is leaving WWE. Can’t say I’m surprised as he didn’t want to work for anyone but Vince.

I guess if anything changes over the next few weeks we'll see if he really contributed anything other than constant camera cuts. It doesn't seem like anyone credits him with anything good about the company's production, it's always the bad.

He's been there for like three decades if not more, it's safe to say he is set for life and can just retire right now and not have to worry about anything.

Yeah he’s set for life, and his kids lives and so on and so forth. I’m sure he’s got generational wealth now. I doubt he does anything in wrestling again.

Fudge Kevin Dunn.

World’s End was a mixed bag. Some not very good stuff (Julia/Abadon, the Callis Family 8-man tag match), some decent stuff (Andrade/Miro, BCC/Briscoe/Garcia vs the other CC losers), and some fudging great stuff (Copeland/Christian, Kingston/Mox, MJF/Joe). Everything else was just fine.

The Devil was paid off in the most sensible way - it was Adam Cole. Duh. But the reveal was very cool with the whole chair shtick.

The show will be a divisive one, but I thought it was overall real good. Not great, not bad. It was good. AEW has so many banger PPVs, a “good” one will be treated like the end of the world. Fitting name tbh.

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.

I swear some of them are just too easily impressed. You can do a drop toehold and they'll chant about how awesome it is.

I do like a good drop toe hold, but chanting for it like it’s the best thing ever is a little obscene.

Whoa. NJPW just announced that Kazuchika Okada is officially leaving NJPW when his contract ends on January 31.

Wonder what’s next for ol’ Rainmaker.

Would it be weird if it was TNA? It’ll probably be AEW though. Hell of a get for whoever lands him.

BucketofJustice wrote:

Lol I wonder if he’d be willing after his first run there with the goofy “Kato from Green Hornet” gimmick. New management though, so it’s gotta be on the table. All depends who has the cash he’s looking for. Heck, he may even take a break. He’s been going so hard for so long now.

That’s fair. I’m sure he’s hurting more than he lets on. He could use a break.

This showed up in my YouTube recommendations. I got a little chuckle out of Hulk showing up wearing a t-shirt with his own face plastered on it. Is the dude ever seen not wearing his own merch?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR3HPeEtczA

People need to know who he is now. They might not recognize literally everything else about him if he’s not wearing his own face on his own chest.

Ranking system officially back for AEW. Hell yah, getting that OG AEW feeling back.

Revolution card looks like it's shaping up to be stacked:

AEW World title: Joe vs Swerve vs Hangman
AEW TNT title: Copeland vs Christian
Kingston vs Danielson
Sting/Darby vs Bucks in Sting's retirement match (chosen by Sting himself)
AEW Women's title: Storm vs Deonna
AEW International title: Orange Cassidy vs Roddy Strong
(Probably) AEW Trios/ROH 6-Man title Unifcation: Acclaimed vs Bullet Club Gold

FTR/Garcia vs. House of Black in a cage match taking place next week on Collision. Same night as Rumble but still looking forward to it. I gotta move that entire day so prob won't have time for any wrestling regardless.

Sting’s retirement is the ultimate draw and everything else is secondary at best, as it should be. Sting has been awesome since coming to AEW and I hope he closes the show. I hope his match is everything he wants it to be.

Mixed feelings on the rest of the lineup but honestly it’s Sting’s last match so nothing else matters. I do hope (and think) they have some awesome stuff planned for the night. Hopefully the weekend as a whole, too.

Is that the PPV in early March in Greensboro? I still haven't been able to convince anyone else to go because I don't like going to these things alone.

Yah it's Greensboro. Card looks badass. Sting's chosen retirement match is the cherry on top.

I'd 100% go by myself if I were nearby and couldn't find anyone else to go. That's history right there.

Hoping Tony Khan signs Tyler Bate and gives him some ring gear that doesn't look like 1980's Fruit of the Loom underwear....or HHH will notice the error of his ways and address this problem immediately :(

Lol he probably chooses his own gear but it is very undies-like

But whatever, Pete Dunne is Pete Dunne again so all the weird WWE shills can finally stop pretending “Butch” was a good idea. Atta boy, Triple H.

He is...a bit curious if they'll go ahead and make it awkward when Sheamus returns at the Royal Rumble.

Real good promo between Rhodes and Punk just then. Helping make the Rumble match seem important.

Goofy that Punk suggested he could separate business from personal matters though, but what can ya do. Bullcrapters are gonna bullcrap.

Raw is going to be on Netflix. This is kind of a big deal.

I’m gonna just come out blunt bad move by wwe using Netflix to show raw. They were better off staying on USA or another station.

Are dedicated viewers gonna sign up and watch on Netflix with a subscription.

I mean royal rumble is peacock exclusive could’ve put raw on peacock streaming

I’ll be surprised if they maintain high viewership when raw starts on netflix

Side note

I do have Netflix but not to watch wrestling

Well that's a weird development. I have Netflix right now but money's tight so who knows if I have it in a year, when Raw starts airing there.

Probably a good sign for AEW though. I don't know if things ever got serious between WBD and WWE about Raw but now that Netflix snagged it, WBD is free to move forward with AEW plans. I expect some sort of streaming agreement and a contract extension.

lazarro wrote:

I think the issue is that USA didn't want Raw anymore. They were fairly open with how Raw wasn't doing the numbers they were expecting anymore. They are getting Smackdown on USA instead, which has been outdrawing Raw for a while now (and is considered the better show by many).

Sorta feels like Smackdown has usurped Raw as WWE's flagship show with this move, in my opinion.

We won’t know what happens until it starts. I think it’s got potential to be a big deal since cable is slowly dying and Netflix isn’t seeing the same amount of churn. I have Netflix free through T-Mobile, so it’s good for me. I do wonder how replays will work, since it’ll go to Hulu the day after and the Cock about a month after.

This is good news for AEW. Don’t know how serious those discussions got, but the fact they happened at all was concerning. I hope they go up on their TV right fees, regardless of how I feel personally about their product.

I'm not too thrilled about this. I subscribe to Netflix maybe one or two months out of the year. And then would buy a three month subscription two or three times a year when WWE Network was its own thing. Peacock is the only subscription service I consistently stay subscribed to, and even that may change with another price hike or two because the WWE content is all I watch on it.

RIP Ice Train.

theJaw wrote:


I was thinking this way back in the day too, when it was revealed that had the Invasion storyline not flopped, Vince was ready to rebrand Raw as the WCW show and keep WWF on SmackDown. Granted, just like today SmackDown was on free TV at the time and so naturally it would draw bigger numbers than Raw. But I just found it hard to believe they were really going to do that because Raw was still the more well known brand.

Oh yeah. No more Kevin Patrick on Smackdown, at least for now. He wasn’t great. He made a lot of bad calls and it seemed he didn’t even watch his own show at times, but I’ve heard worse.

The Vince allegations are back in the news. Alleged trafficking and assault as listed in a lawsuit. John Laurinaitis is also involved, as well as an unnamed WWE star/UFC Champion assumed to be Brock Lesnar. WSJ is behind a paywall for me, but NY Post is not.

https://nypost.com/2024/01/25/business/ex-wwe-empl...

Got the original news from PWInsider, which also has a paywall via Elite subscription (I’m an elite there) or ads.

This obviously isn’t great news for Vince, and hopefully this gets him the rest of the way out of the picture. Johnny Ace can get fudgeed for all I care and not in the nice way. Brock… can’t say I’m either surprised or not surprised. We’ll see where it goes.

Edit: lawsuit can be found here.

https://turnto10.com/news/entertainment/wwe-founde...

I hope crapping on a woman's head during a threesome catches on amongst the scat community and they name it "The McMahon"

Fudge all three of them. True villainous sacks of crap, but can't say I'm surprised whatsoever.

That’s gross, but someone will do it.

I wonder if Netflix is starting to second guess their agreement with WWE after this new info?

The worst part is, this is all on Vince. He has nobody to blame but himself. He got the woman to agree to sign a NDA in exchange for $3 million, which you'd think is chump change to him, but then he only paid her $1 million of it. Had he lived up to his end of the deal none of us would know about any of this.

Yeah I don’t know why he didn’t just pay it, unless he thought he was above the law, so to speak. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what happened and Vince didn’t think she would come forward, at least for a long time.

BucketofJustice wrote:

I mean, back in 2022 he literally went on a "thank you Vince" tour when the allegations first surfaced. Of course he thought he was above the law -- the dude thinks he's untouchable. Pure trash.

Dwayne Johnson has full rights to “the rock “ moniker

I'm surprised they waited so long to hand it over. He's more than earned it.

Yeah I kinda thought he had owned it for awhile now since he has been using Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson for years. It is what it is though.

What it also is, is a day away from the Royal Rumble. I’m digging a lot of what WWE is doing right now. They (finally) have a lot of ways they can go with the Rumble and who wins, and I’m loving the teases and possibilities.

It’s just too bad the Men’s Rumble is the literal only interesting match booked.

I’m intrigued by the women’s one too. That’s two matches. The 4 way is a foregone conclusion but I want to see how they get out of it. I just hope it’s good.

I predict they get out of it with Bloodline interference. Going out on a limb.

Probably. Still better than the Devil angle payoff though.

Big false. Logical stories are cooler than doing the same lame bullcrap over and over. Plus you wouldn’t know, not watching the shows and all.

Lol Slim Jim dropping sponsorship until something’s done about Vince. Ya love to see it.

Triple H and Stephanie were also leading the charge into the 2022 investigation but coincidentally never reached out the victim in question. They have to face some ramifications for that too, I’d think.

Man, of all the theme music these Def Rebel jabronis have farted out over the past few years, Carlito's has got to be among the worst. Big mistake to let the CFO$ guys go, they've made the ones fans like singing along to.

Yah the new themes do not hit like the old ones.

Funny how you say no one reached out to her, but someone who was on the WWE board said they did. I’ll trust the one who was there. Look up the guy Jeff Speed. He was on the board.

https://x.com/BrandonThurston/status/1750978385419...

You like what you like. I like what I like. I don’t need to watch AEW because their YouTube clips are more than enough, if I want to see anything at all. Don’t know what the wink means, though…?

Vince officially gone
https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1751055804...

Fudge yeah!

I even enabled scoring long enough to plus you for that. It’s back to being hidden/disabled now though.

BucketofJustice wrote:

Not sure why you’re getting so defensive lately but you can jog off with that crap.

Jeff Speed is covering his own ass because he was involved with the investigation that, you know, never interviewed the victim in question. All he’s saying is that he’s “confident” their investigation was thorough. What the fudge else is he supposed to say?

You believe ol’ Speed, I’ll trust the victim.


Yes, I like what I like… which is literally all of pro wrestling. Hence why I watch whatever show I have the time to and don’t just assume I’m getting a full picture of shows I don’t watch solely because I’m too cool watch them, thus relying on Youtube clips to convey entire stories. And considering how lost you seem to be whenever discussing the AEW stories, I question whether you even watch clips or are just saying you do.

The wink is me being sarcastic toward you. Obviously. Though you’ll note that you’re the one who brought up AEW solely because you saw someone dare criticize Roman Reigns matches.

Truly not sure where this hostility is coming from but let’s take it down a notch.

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

Good. That sack of crap should’ve been gone a long time ago.

You’re right. I apologize. I went back and re-read some stuff I posted and I was wrong. Not to make an excuse, but I have some things happening IRL and it boiled over. I deleted what I posted because I shouldn’t have posted it at all. I was wrong. I’ll try to be better at checking myself. Wrestling isn’t worth any of the aggravation I may have caused. I’m sorry.

Still not a liar though haha

BucketofJustice wrote:

No hard feelings at all brother, I appreciate ya. Apologies for being a dickhead as well, certainly capable of it. Hope all is well on your end my man.

I appreciate that. Thanks for being cool about it. We’ll see what happens with IRL stuff.

After Vince's resignation last night, Slim Jim is already back as a sponsor.

Over the last year or so Wade Keller has been on top of Vince and Stephanie's relationship. But today he revealed that Vince is rarely allowed to see his granddaughters now.

That isn’t a surprise. I’m curious how Wade would know that, but hey I don’t blame her a bit.

This year has been nuts already and we aren’t even out of January. We’re not even past the Royal Rumble.

Alright, some mumbo jumbo in one more post so I don't gotta split it all up into more multi-posts.

- Raj Giri says there will be a debut tonight. Is this Jade Cargill? I expect Andrade in the men's Rumble, but I don't know if that counts as a debut more than a return.

- Raj also gives a hint to potential surprises tonight, saying "The WWE/TNA relationship is reaching new levels"


I still have so many questions about this stuff with Vince. Like, how "clean" are Kevin Dunn and Bruce Prichard in all of this? Were they involved but just haven't been named yet?

Guys like Chris Jericho and John Cena, they were/are very close to Vince, just as much as Brock is currently, if not more. How much of this stuff did they know was going on?

Not to make excuses for Vince but he has been open about his childhood abuse, and people who go through that often end up hypersexual and in some cases grow up to become the monster that they hated.

I know what the TNA/WWE surprise is. I won’t spoil it. I accidentally tapped on something on PWInsider and it was that. I’d be surprised if Jade didn’t appear. Unsure about Andrade. I hope Andrade is more like he was in NXT than he was in WWE the first time. I don’t know where he fits in unless it’s in the LWO/LDP stuff, like most of the rest of the Hispanic main roster guys. They need to be spread out more.

I thought about the Vince thing too. I believe the victim 1000000% but I also believe that Jeff Speed guy did all he could with the investigation. I think something came out in the investigation and that’s why Speed and a couple others found themselves out when Vince bullied his way back in. I don’t know what anyone else knew or helped with or whatever, but everyone that was involved needs to be held accountable. Period.

Brock also can’t appear tonight. While I’m glad the Jericho thing was baseless? I think so since it seems it died out as quick and it appeared? At any rate, the issues that I read about at Worlds End would be 100x worse if Brock shows up tonight. I think WWE will be smart to keep him off the show while AEW didn’t have time to pivot from Jericho from that show.

Vince went through some crap as a kid. Doesn’t absolve him of any responsibility or guilt.

Gonna be hard to scrub the past of Vince like they did Benoit but you have to imagine they will remove some of the more sexual angles. I think this is the tip of the iceberg and once he’s dead we will get the bigger story. These don’t come out of no where and he was doing these things when he was arguably in a lower position than he was at his height.

I have no idea how they’d completely scrub Vince. They couldn’t completely scrub Benoit. I’d think they do with Vince what they did with Benoit and never mention him and make him unsearchable on the Network/Peacock/whatever streaming service they have. They’re not against scrubbing really bad stuff, so you’re probably right that the worst stuff will be gone.

I waffle on scrubbing material. I don’t know if I’d be totally in favor of the scrubbing of any of the material, McMahon or Benoit or otherwise, because someone somewhere will be dumb enough to repeat it. It should be an option for a filter for sure, but it happened and everyone knows it happened and you can’t run for it. Certainly don’t glorify it or anything, but it happened. I also don’t want anyone to have to relive any trauma or anything like that.

I also wish someone would pay for all the music that all the companies used so I didn’t have to hear crapty cover 48479202 when watching an old ECW show, but it is what it is.

I'm not in favor of scrubbing anything. I didn't like when they did it for Chris Benoit on the old WWE 24/7 OnDemand service either.

Not a fan of it either. But there’s a near 0 chance they at least don’t add some sort of warning or something.

R-Truth is a national treasure.

Pretty darn fun women’s Rumble right there. Cargill looked like a million bucks. Cool to see Grace and Naomi in there too. Right lady won.

Agreed. R-Truth is still a national treasure too.

Triple H claims he didn't even read the lawsuit. I don't know if I believe that. But if he's under an NDA and can't talk about it, he should have just said that.

It was either gonna be what they did or the whole ‘we don’t comment on pending litigation’ thing companies throw around. Seems like there’s NDAs for days, though.

Vince is also still Triple H’s father in law, and I wonder what Haitch really did or didn’t know and for how long. Might not have wanted to open that up for various reasons.

I dislike the 'scrubbing', whether it's Chris Benoit, Vince McMahon, The General Lee, statues of previous presidents, or Adolph HItler. It's history of varying significance and should be looked at and learned from, not hidden. History doesn't have to be liked to still be what it is. I'm sure much worse stuff goes on in Hollywood and the music industry. Besides, based on the texts, it doesn't look like she was against what was going on so long as it benefitted her.

I thought the Rumble was ok. It was weird seeing Reigns actually win a match for the first time in 3 years. Highly disappointed to see guys like McAfee put in for zero benefit when guys like Gable and Mahal were sitting in the back.....not to mention Orton, Knight, and Styles.

I decided to watch the 2014 Rumble last night...the last one Punk was in. It's fun to note Punk was #1. #2 was Rollins. #4 was Cody Rhodes.


'

I don't know how true it is, but McAfee claims he didn't even know he was given a spot in the Royal Rumble. I guess that explains the slight delay before he realized that was his own theme music playing.

This is definitely true. I was watching the Rumble with my nephew and pointed this out every time the buzzer would sound and he'd be like "who is this?" even though he watches almost every week and should know these themes by now, they're just not memorable enough.

image

Apparently CM Punk tore his tricep during the Rumble match and needs surgery, with a 3-6 month window for recovery/physical therapy.

If true and not just a random work, that makes 3 major injuries in a year and a half.

Rough.

The guy is snakebit in big matches lately. I wonder if it’s the same arm that he messed up last time.

Bummer he won’t be able to do Mania this year. I was looking forward to him and Seth.

If I didn’t know any better, that MEGA goody two shoes promo and the fact that they put Punk’s arm in direct risk smells awfully “worky” to me. In a world where Punk isn’t really injured, I could see a Zayn vs McIntyre match ending in a Punk heel turn.

I hate every second of that. No way they should turn Punk this soon.

Maybe I'm wrong but isn't the Raw after the Royal Rumble when they usually start announcing Hall Of Fame inductees? Are there even any rumored names? I'm still hoping for Heyman or anyone that will show some love to ECW in Philly. But I digress...

I think they’ve held off until around the February PPV to start announcing due to them going to 5 or so inductees a year the past few years. But yeah they used to announce them a whole lot earlier.

BucketofJustice wrote:

Imo he needs to be heel. He sucks as a face right now. He was even acting sorta heelish in the Rumble. But (having not seen any segment of Raw other than that opening promo) I’m convinced he’s legit injured so I was probably just reading into it too much.

I think he’s better as a heel too. But, he can be a heel later. He’s had 1 match on TV since he returned after 10 years. Give him the babyface run and they can find a way for him to organically turn later on. Since he’s injured it obviously pushes stuff back but it’s too soon even if he was healthy.

I dunno, Punk has been a great face in the past. Similar to SCSA, Punk is the best as a face when he's playing an "anti-hero" role. His face run since returning has been awful mainly because he comes off as a legitimate parody of his past self. If you were to ask for "the opposite of CM Punk" at anytime between 2003-2013 (and then 2021-2023 by default), it's 2024 CM Punk -- matches or not. It's the character. He's acting the exact way that he had been criticizing his entire career until November 2023. It would, in my opinion, only be worth it if this whole thing was revealed as a (kayfabe) ruse -- that he was just playing the crowd/management the entire time to get his spot back.

Punk is the ONE guy who could have returned to WWE as the "angel of death" type heel and believably make it work. WWE has thus far booked his character to feel like satire. It hasn't been good, at least to me.

I say in 6 months time, book Cody (who will be WWE champion by this point) to beat Drew. Have Drew beat down Cody post-match. Punk returns, makes it seem like he's making good on his promise to gun for Drew first, but then turn on Cody. Set that crap up for WM41, with Cody the clear babyface and CM Punk the "devil," who would have played the greatest trick: convincing the world he didn’t exist. And I know that Baudelaire quote from one single CM Punk ROH promo has been done to death... but it would still make more narrative sense than the whole "glad-handing nonsensical douchebag yes-man" gimmick that he's currently parading for ol' Triple H.

I kinda question if it's a legit injury based on Drew stomping him the other day. These things aren't new for WWE, with even recently, Rollins was wrestling with a 'broken back'. I recall a time when a title holder would drop their title right away after 'losing their smile'.

It seems ok to see Andrade back in WWE. Hopefully they do something with him. His last bit of time in AEW was very good, but mostly forgettable/almost non-existent before that. Apparently Malakai Black and Buddy Matthews intend to return to WWE, as well. Matthews hasn't done a thing in AEW, and, honestly, nothing amazing in WWE, either....but the guy can definitely put on an amazing match. Black started off hot there but went into obscurity as soon as Cody left.

Is it just me or does Kairi Saine not seem too 'into' her role and matches in WWE? She seemed much better before and NJPW in the stuff I saw her in. Asuka seems to have lost a lot of momentum lately, too. Is Iyo still alive?

AEW's been doing some cool stuff with a few performers over there. I stick by my earlier comment that they need more TV time to showcase some of the others. This whole 'hot for a few weeks' then disappearing act for months is exhausting...but the storylines have improved a bit....a bit more cohesiveness would be nice.

Luchasaurus/Killswitch (both stupid names) needs a makeover. Excellent ring work. He seemed ok in a tag team.....even though his partner kinda sucked.....but the dinosaur thing screams mental illness more than cool. It might be fun to see him and Brian Cage as a team with a strong mouthpiece and just stomp everyone. Brian Cage kinda seems like he could be the lovechild of Animal and Hawk.

The 'other' Cage in AEW has been doing the best stuff of his career lately. It seems like a wiser decision for Copeland to join Cage than the other way around. Copeland's stuff in AEW (and his last WWE run)....absolutely boring.

I’ve been digging Copeland’s AEW run. Him vs the Patriarchy has been fun, and now he’s doing these open challenges to build his way back to a TNT title match. I think it’s fun to see him mix it up with Christian while they both simultaneously raise the stock of the younger guys they’ve been working with.

I appreciate him not gunning for the World title immediately. It’s pretty much the opposite use of a legend that folks criticize WWE over. He’s not getting the Goldberg treatment, steamrolling over younger guys to win world titles. Happy with him floating around the upper midcard.

I also wondered if Punk was legit injured or not but signs seem to point toward it being legitimate. We’ll know if he makes some stunning return at the Chamber… but I feel like that’d be shotgunning an “injury/return” angle way too quickly.

Kairi's run has been pretty "meh" so far. Can't even pin this one on creative because she's just been so sloppy in the ring. When she originally left WWE and returned to Japan to be with her husband, she opened a gym. Not the smartest thing to do during a freakin' pandemic, as it lost her a lot of money and had to be closed down. I'm guessing that played a pretty big role in her returning to the WWE, because the money is too good to turn down. I assume money is also the main reason Gallows and Anderson came back too, because they've done fudge all since they've been back. This current run hasn't been any better than their original run, and they've said how unhappy they were the first time, but still re-signed because the money was better than what AEW offered...and then they got fired anyway.

theJaw wrote:

This is Wrestling Discussion so idk why you brought up Goldberg. I didn't mention the Power Puff Girls.... but I get what you're saying. Legends returning can be fun and cool if they're handled well. That doesn't mean they need to lose every time, either....like John Cena. I feel similar about celebrities and wannabe celebrities like Pat McAfee. While they add something the regular roster guys can't, having them go over regular guys clean is embarrassing. Seeing that moron go over on Miz last year......they might as well have just pants'ed him and shaved his wife's head. LT over Bam Bam back in the day.....also stupid. There's plenty more....not all WWE.

I think, with Rock-Reigns, I don't really care since neither one of them is ever around anyway. I think I'd rather see celebrities pretend to beat each other up and let the folks who do it as their bread and butter not have to watch their value sink down the toilet. If Rock came back, beat Reigns then beat Rollins.....I'd be annoyed. I enjoyed Seth's promo the other day dissing Reigns.

With Edge/Copeland, he always seemed like the more interesting of the two in WWE. That's not the case anymore. Even during his last WWE run, when his stuff came on, it seemed like a good time to go put wood in the furnace and make a drink. Yup, he's replaced 80's womens matches for me. He really shouldn't be a conversation for a world title run. There are far more deserving guys in AEW....Strickland, Mox, Danielson, Cassidy....Prince Nana, etc.

Can someone explain the Scissoring Bullet Club please? How did that come about?

I think it happened as they didn't really know what to do with the Undisputed Kingdom since there's nobody for them to feud with. It's basically a collection of lower-mid card guys, one guy who is should be a main event attraction, and an old guy tossed in for comedic effect to feud with a collection of enhancement talent/lower-mid card guys, a mid-card guy, and a guy who could be a main event attraction if he wasn't broken. It's either the plan to have Cole and White go at it someday....or just biding time til MJF returns, if that's in the cards. It's what happens when you have too much talent on your roster for the amount of screen time to present it without either A) Getting more screen time and getting organized so there's some sort of cohesion (like Raw, Smackdown, and NXT), B) Cutting talent, C) Cutting time/quality of matches. It's basically the other choice on a PPV to having a battle royal to just get paid wrestlers out there.

Tony has an amazing box of toys to play with in AEW....all the Lego, the action figures, the Barbie dolls, the playsets.....but it's all tossed in a giant box (Collision) with a few things scattered under the bed (Rampage), a bunch of random broken stuff in a bin somewhere (Wrestlers on the shelf with injury/pending starting) and a few things he actually plays with all the time (Dynamite). He has a messy room. Back in the day, the parent would say, "Clean your room or I will" ....and proceed to toss out most of it, let it go on eBay (WWE) or donate it to Goodwill (ROH, TNA). We're dealing with actual people and not plastic (mostly...looking at you Saraya...love you, k bye).

With guys like Ospreay starting soon and other rumored signings, it could be incredible or it could be a jumbled mess of random matches. There would be some great stuff coming out but a lot of questions and difficulty for fans to follow it, and, understandably, a lot of frustration for the talent who would view it as a ridiculous mess and want to leave.....which is kinda already showing with them struggling to sell 2000 tickets for their weekly shows. While some fanboys seem to find humor in this, it's sad. At some point, a business decision has to be made. A business isn't a business if it isn't making money. Last I heard, AEW has 162 wrestlers on its roster. They're all being paid. This isn't counting ring crew, managers, announcers, etc.

Tony has enough talent not on TV due to injury or contract timing to start another company. Depth-wise for wrestling talent, AEW kills WWE. WWE utilizes theirs better. More fans pay to watch WWE live.

It would be better for everyone if it got cleaned up and organized...better for the wrestlers, better for the fans, and better for the wrestling industry to have a strong and secure alternative to WWE...but also a bit tricky, since, while adding time and organizing is better, there's a balance with over-saturating the market and giving people 'wrestling fatigue' and people tuning out because there's just too much. AEW is only secure due to the billionaire allowing it to exist.

Both The Acclaimed and Bullet Club Gold were attacked by "the devil" and his men on the lead-up to World's End, so they decided to form a "supergroup" in case the Undisputed Kingdom opted to attack them again -- despite early tensions between both teams over the AEW Trios titles. BCG still wants those titles but ended up winning the ROH 6 man titles in their pursuit, so they "agreed" to team with The Acclaimed. With the official rankings released last night placing BCG in the number 1 spot for Trios contenders, I think it's fairly obvious that the booking will all lead to a unification match for the AEW Trios titles and ROH 6 Man titles at some point.

It's been a decently entertaining angle so far but seems to be meandering a bit without them ACTUALLY setting their sights on Undisputed Kingdom since forming. They're just sort of floating around right now, while UK does the same. If they don't just skip a "Bang Bang Scissor Gang" vs. Undisputed Kingdom feud, I could see a big multi man tag happening at Revolution in March... but part of me feels like Acclaimed and BCG will end up stepping on each other's feet too much, fast-tracking that unification match for Revolution instead.

John Laurinaitis is a piece of crap. He’s saying he’s a victim too. What a punk ass. I hope he rots with Vince.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/epv757/co-defendan...

So he's not denying the stuff happened... certainly not good for Vince, who claimed they were lies.

I don’t understand what he’s going for. He’s denying everything, but also saying he’s a victim and that he was forced to do heinous things as well. I believe he was just as depraved as Vince. His victim card is bullcrap.

Yah if he was a “victim” to the same extent, he could have simply… not had sex with Grant during the McMahon-scheduled sessions. According to Grant, he did… so fudge him with Vince, AND Lesnar. Shoot them & everyone else involved into the sun.

Right? Fudge all of them. If Lesnar was part of it (WSJ implied it but he isn’t directly named) then fudge him too. They all need to be held accountable for their crap.

The lawsuit itself implied Lesnar. No other WWE superstar/former UFC champion fits the description in the lawsuit, especially when you take into account that Vince was trying to re-sign the individual riiiight around the time manbun-Brock returned.

There are a bunch of other folks not directly named but certainly alluded to — whose identities can be figured out via context clues — in the lawsuit. Triple H and Stephanie to name two who, while apparently not directly involved in the abuse, eventually became more than aware of it yet still voted Vince back into WWE when the time came.

It’s all super gross, and now Grant’s lawyer is saying there are several others looking to step forward with allegations but that it will take time due to how overwhelming it all is. Crap’s about to get rough for the people in the know.

I know. I want simple ass farmer Sable banging Brock to be the truth but it seems that he’s a piece of crap too.

I’d also like to think better of Papa H and Stephanie since Stephanie left because Vince bullied his way back onto the board, and I can’t think Vince was talking to Paul about any of this stuff. That just doesn’t make sense to me, but what do I know. I feel like she wasn’t left any choice, and neither was the board, when voting Vince back. He had the power to do what he wants and kick anyone and everyone off the board, and that would’ve led to stock price nonsense and even more legal stuff. Some of that happened, with Vince bringing his idiots back when he returned Barrios and Wilson.

You’re right in that crap will get real, and this is only the beginning. I hope that Endeavor cleans house, but I also know it won’t be overnight if it happens at all.

Welp, Lesnar was just dropped from WWE 2K24.

theJaw wrote:


Cain Velasquez did a match or 2 in wwe but it’s definitely Brock Lesnar


I don’t really see the big deal here. Tagyoursponsor documented the sheiks paying $10000 to fly out instagram influencers to fly to Dubai, have sex, and be a Dubai porta potty. It was news at the time but apparently Vince is paying millions to these girls?

If you really don’t remember tagyoursponsor you can google “Dubai portapotty” and read some of the accounts

@dracula the timeline for Cain doesn’t fit what the lawsuit is suggesting, or the information that the texts were relaying.

If you don’t see what the big deal is for Triple H and Stephanie to have been overseeing the investigation into Vince’s gross shenanigans, yet not interview Grant before voting Vince back into a position of power… I don’t know what to tell ya. They were aware of what he was doing.

Also the issue is Vince using his power in WWE to help control and traffic women under his employ to other men in the company. It has a literal nothing to do with Dubai.

Did you read the lawsuit or…?

Dang Brock got dropped from 2K? I knew he was removed from that mobile card game but I didn’t think there would be enough time to remove him from 2K since it’s like a month away. I’m sure he’ll be tucked away in the files and modded back in, if they did remove him.

There's also no way that the former UFC champion in the lawsuit is Cain Velasquez. He sucked in WWE and he did like 1 TV match to lose to Lesnar and then he got released. I think he did some stuff in Mexico, though.

I don’t remember tagoursponsor. I’ll be back. Edit: just saw a Reddit thread. Nope.

@BucketofJustice oh nope, you’re right. It was 2K Supercard, not 2K24. My bad.

Well he might be gone from 2K by the time it releases. I know they’re on a fast turnaround time, but I don’t know their ability or lack thereof to get him out before the game releases in a month. Vince definitely has to be out of it, though, so I guess if they can do one they can do the other.

Oh I even said it’s definitely Brock. But Cain and Ronda are both former mma world champs. And worked wwe

Having sex for cash is technically illegal and if you move a prostitute across state lines it would be a violation of the Mann act.

Vince isn’t under arrest he is being sued. If he agreed to pay Ms Grant 3 million and only paid her $1million he should definitely pay the rest.

It’s about coprophilia. (Which is essentially taking dump on a hookers mouth and having her eat it) A lot of sheiks are paying $10000 plus shopping for a girl, usually British or from USA to do this.

(This is not a link to crap photos just the girls who take part in it)

http://tagyoursponsor.com/kmelnichenko/

The girls sometimes agree to the coprophilia in a video . I’m just saying the prostitutes are out there, they are much younger than Ms Grant

https://youtu.be/-wExMdvsjYw?si=eC2sB-pvAC9Qx7M6

dracula wrote:

Again, read the actual details of the lawsuit. It wasn't JUST that said individual was a former UFC champion. It was the circumstances and timeframe for when it happened. Acknowleding it was "definitely Brock" but then saying "but other people who were in UFC worked for WWE" is pointless.


He isn't under arrest because he forced the woman into an NDA (that he didn't pay). Sex trafficking is illegal and, now that he's being sued, he could certainly be facing legal repercussions. Or, well, anybody else would be if they didn't have millions of dollars. Hell, the mere act of making sexual advances on an employee is illegal in the US and is enough to land most normal-level executives in hot water. This isn't a difficult concept.


This isn't about the sheiks in Dubai. What's the point of this whataboutism? Vince McMahon employed at least one woman that he then forced into sexual situations with both himself and other high-ranking men in his company. That is sex trafficking. That is illegal. Dubai sheiks have literally nothing to do with this, and there's no reason whatsoever to be posting weirdo links in this thread.

If you folks haven't watched Maven's YouTube channel, I recommend. It's a fun time.

I've been watching Maven the past few months. It's pretty good stuff, I thought for sure it would lead to him being a surprise entrant in the Rumble last week because once his channel started getting noticed even Prichard and Jim Ross mentioned him on their podcasts. As far as wrestling stuff on YouTube, lately I'm more into stuff like Maven, Stevie Richards and Rene Dupree's channels. The midcard guys usually have the best stories and knowledge to share, especially in this era where shoot interviews are kinda dead since the rise of social media, and since they aren't full-time competitors anymore they don't have to worry about who they piss off.

You can't have an NDA for illegal activities. If he was prostituting her out across state lines that is an illegal activity. If she is claiming rape (or coercion is probably what they are going after) an NDA does nothing.

@beavis In this scenario, an NDA can cover illegal activity if the terms of the NDA are simply not to discuss any goings-on that occurred while under McMahon's employ. An NDA can be created without specifics of any illegal activity being disclosed for the simple purpose of keeping those signing the NDA quiet about any details regarding their employment/involvement.

It's most likely the NDA McMahon had Grant sign fell under similar terms and she agreed because, well, $3 million is a lot of money. Of course he wouldn't have filed the NDA using language like "I raped her with sex toys and trafficked her to John Laurinitis, so she needs to keep quiet."

I thought if the items that weren't supposed to be talked about don't include illegal activities? Like if I sign an NDA but an employer is doing something illegal, it would fall under whistleblowing. I don't know, NDAs seem like bullcrap and I avoid signing them if able.

I'm sure NDAs aren't SUPPOSED to be used to cover up illegal activity, but when you've got more money than god and just want to make sure someone keeps their mouth shut about the weirdo stuff you do, I have to assume you bend the rules a bit using less-than descriptive language to cover your bases.

The Rock looks in way better shape now than he ever did as a full-time wrestler. Lucky for him part timers don't have to take wellness tests.

I hope they have an out for what looks to be happening. Can’t say I liked that last segment at all.

That was fudging terrible.

Well......that was fun until Rock showed up. On the bright side, he'll have the chance to find out how Batista felt. Idk, Wrestlemania was looking real fun this year but now it feels kinda underwhelming. So......Smackdown.....no LA Knight, no Orton, no styles.

Moving along, I hate to admit it, but Logan Paul is getting real good. That thing with Bianca was hilarious. I'm not sure what they'll set him up with at Wrestlemania. Maybe one of the three guys up there...but I don't really feel any of it. Maybe they'll bring back Hulk Hogan or Bad Bunny for that.

I guess there's still someone needed to play with Gunther and Rhea. Does anyone care about the tag titles anymore?

Agreed about Logan Paul. I know he gets hate for being an "outsider", but IWC needs to back off with the gatekeeping when Logan can go in the ring more than some of the people on the current roster that spent years training to be wrestlers. He didn't even get the dreaded part-timer schedule that everyone assumed he would get, he's on the road just as much as the rest of them. The dude does a such a good job at playing a natural heel too. It's not like The Miz or MJF where they are good talkers, but you know they're just saying what they're saying to get a reaction from the crowd because they thrive on those boo's. Logan Paul sounds like a believable douchebag when he talks, and that is one of the best compliments you can give a heel.


Got my ticket to SmackDown next week and Raw on May 20. I'm pretty dang hyped.

Damn, even TMZ is covering this stuff with The Rock and how unhappy fans are (the video of him on last night's SmackDown has over 300,000 dislikes, the most of any video on that channel). I hope The Rock's ego will take the hint. I admit I'm not that invested in Cody's little "story", I didn't want him or CM Punk to win the Royal Rumble this year even though it was obvious one of them would, but I just don't see the benefit of a part-timer dropping the title to another part-timer. In fact anyone on a part time schedule should just stay the hell away from the title scene. When The Undertaker would show up, it was just to take care of business, not always to chase after titles.

https://www.tmz.com/2024/02/03/dwayne-the-rock-joh...

I hope they pivot from Rock and Roman at Mania. There’s no good reason, from a business or storyline or logic standpoint to do what they started last night. It’s fudging terrible and WWE and Dwayne Johnson just crap on everything they’ve been doing for almost 2 years with Cody, for over 3 years with Roman and killed a ton of goodwill Rock had in WWE. Fudge him, and fudge them.

A while back, Tony Khan was getting crap from every corner of the internet because STARDOM didn't want to do business with AEW -- "Khan doesn't book women right" or "STADROM knows they're too good for AEW" etc etc.

Tonight, STARDOM co-founder Rossy Ogawa was fired for "poaching talent and staff" who ultimately ended up in WWE. Kairi Sane being notable in the situation.

Tony Khan has taken to Twitter to cook WWE with crap posts. And I fudgein love to see it. Some may deem it "unprofessional" but I'm not sure that word applies when the owner of WWE... well, ya know. At this point, it's sorta undeniable that just about everything Khan has thus far insinuated about WWE management is true. I hope he memes them until his heart stops beating.

I know that Reigns/Rock has been wanted by some folks, but I think the situation is even worse because the only reason Rock is back is to improve his image. Which kinda makes it more funny that the reception was lukewarm at best.

It’s been downright negative. The most disliked video on their YouTube. They NEED to course correct ASAP. Rock’s abdomen fell off vs Cena in 2013… there’s no way Rock/Roman is going to be a match worth watching. Legit feels like one of Hogan’s throwaway Mania main events. Might as well be watching Hulk vs Slaughter.

People wanted Rock and Roman, and still would want it, but not at the expense of a story they’ve been telling for over a year and were really close to paying off. I hope they course correct.

Honestly, being off Twitter for about a year now, I don’t give a crap what anyone does anymore. I know nothing, and it’s great. I used to lurk, but I’ve even stopped that. Apparently there’s a funny Kurt Angle meme that was making the rounds and I had no idea. Tony is gonna do what Tony does, right or wrong or indifferent, as is everyone else and I’ll be oblivious unless it gets reported on PWInsider or if it gets posted on one of those Facebook wrestling things I snooze every 30 days because they won’t fudging go away forever.

Rock/Roman would be fun... if it didn't derail the clear narrative WWE was setting up for 2 years. Just such a try hard move designed to gain good will back... but entirely backfired. Not fun and if Rock/Roman is the main event for WM40 -- woof.

As for twitter... a lot of it sucks, but there's still some fun crap on there. I'm on there & tbh have no idea what the Angle meme is lol. I dunno, I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy keeping up with the day-to-day from time-to-time. I still don't know how the storylines are playing out or anything, I just see what the business is going through. I just think that Khan's posts are funny, and that WWE's known morally bankrupt practices are getting more and more difficult for them to cover up.

PWInsider did post about Ogawa though: https://pwinsider.com/article/180007/stardom-found...

Rock/TKO for sure have their work cut out for them. Off to a goofy start but let's hope it leads to some sort of culture shift.

I'd say re-shuffle the cards, we still have plenty of time before WrestleMania. They want the title off of Seth so he can heal his knee. Originally that was supposed to be CM Punk's job until he got hurt too, so just let Drew do it and have him finally get to be champ with real fans in the arenas until CM Punk returns and beats him.

Let Cody have his match with Roman back and if ol' Rocky must be involved, let him be the special guest ref, or make it a damn triple threat (I hope they don't go that route though). I'll be at SmackDown on Friday and I hope The Rock shows up and I hope the crowd boo's the heck out of him. The last time I was a fan of his was during his heel run back in 2003, so I would've been boo'ing him this week anyway, just now I hope I'm not alone.

I'll be honest though, I, like most people, did look at Seth's title as the "runner-up trophy" of the two brands' world titles since the day they revealed it. But Seth's promo on Raw last week kind of sold me on it. If I was Cody, I would take that match into consideration even though he wanted Roman's title last year.

I was just playing some RetroMania Wrestling for the first time in a while and have to say, it’s a great extension of the old 90s 2D wrestling games. I just with they stayed true to the promise of extending the roster. I think only Chris Bey was released and that was like… over a year ago.

Oh well, still a fun time to pick up and play once in a while.

dracula wrote:

Not showing up

I’ll try again

dracula wrote:

Still not showing up correctly, but also still pretty gross.

It’s only mud. This time

Oh crap, it's real!
https://shop.wwe.com/en/mens-fanatics-branded-blac...

lmao rare wrestling merch W

Ugh, fans clearly give zero craps about this match. Kairi with botch after botch... Just end it.

I'm sorry, I just cannot bring myself to care about Cody vs Drew. Just a pitstop before Cody vs Seth at Mania, which is still the incorrect direction to take.

Raw was a lot of nothing tonight.

I was watching Shrek the other day and now that's what I hear when McIntyre talks

theJaw wrote:


I'm kinda just learning to get over it. I think they're really pushing to have Roman Reigns surpass Hulk Hogan's title reign, so regardless if it's Cody or The Rock, Roman will not be getting beaten until SummerSlam at the earliest. If that is indeed the route they're going, I don't want to see Cody losing two years in a row. If it's not the route they're going, I also don't want to see The Rock win either way. If he was going to lose to make Roman look stronger it should have been last year. In fact, The Bloodline storyline was so hot last year I wouldn't have been surprised if there were a decent chunk of the crowd cheering on Roman and booing The Rock. That might still happen this year actually...or the Philly crowd just craps on them both like MSG did to Brock and Goldberg.

It for sure doesn't affect me on a personal level or anything haha, I just think it's awful storytelling and, once again, makes it difficult to care what WWE does. It's pro wrestling -- Mick Foley said it best: nobody cares about numbers or records, they care about moments. I don't care what records Roman beats, so arbitrarily keeping his run going for that reason alone just makes it even more obnoxious from my POV.

They told a (pretty okay) story for 2 years regarding Cody and his goal, and very blatantly set it up to climax at WM40 when they had Cody win the Rumble and vehemently call out Roman during his celebration. I understand the lawsuit/Punk injury changed things up -- but Roman and Cody are still right there. They could have easily built a card around that main event still happening... but, instead, we get The Rock. Which just won't be an interesting match to watch. On a "spectacle" level, it's not nearly the same as Hogan/Rock... it's not even on the same level as Rock/Cena. It's just that Rock and Roman are related. Take that with the fact that the actual WRESTLING will likely be tempered by the fact that Rock could barely make it through WM28 or 29 over a decade ago and... yah, just doesn't interest me in the slightest.

I dunno, nothing about it does anything for me. It doesn't upset me or anything, I don't even think about it when I'm not actively talking wrestling, but it just kinda stinks that I don't have an interesting main event to look forward to at the biggest show of the year -- and most likely solely because WWE wants to pivot focus from the McMahon situation. Ah well though, that's just how the cookie crumbles for a lifelong WWE fan haha

So I wonder if this Rock thing is a work. If it is then it is legit genius. If it isn’t, yea still sucks. If they reverse script and turn it to a work at least they are smart.

I’ve seen the “work” idea posted online, but I don’t even see how it being a work would be genius tbh. They bring the Rock in to detour from the established story for, what? A month tops? What good does that do?

If the story reverts back to Cody/Reigns, it’s course correction. When Rock showed up on Smackdown, that was 100% the direction they wanted to go.

I mean it does drive huge organic buy in to Cody. It also sets up something similar to Daniel Bryan back in 14 if they do a three way. I don’t know, maybe I’m just looking for the sense in all of it haha

Cody already has organic buy in from fans. He is right there and all he needed/needs is for the Roman match to happen and he wins at Mania. If Roman is going to break the Hogan record then Cody shouldn’t have won the Rumble and they shouldn’t have built to it with teases and staredowns. If literally anyone else won the Rumble this would be a moot point and we’d all probably not have as much dislike for Dwayne at this point. I appreciate looking for sense in a nonsensical situation though haha

I watched Alvarez and Meltzer discuss it, Meltzer does say it is a work and has been "for a while". In a separate video he said The Rock's WrestleMania match was part of his deal with TKO.

I'm not one to hate Meltzer like a lot of other folks -- I tend to enjoy seeing his star ratings even if I disagree with them a lot of the time. It's fun to see people with different opinions on matches as long as it's not weird like the Twitter folk. That said, I'm far more inclined to believe his reports on AEW than WWE. It seems he's always very wishy washy with WWE news these days -- likely from years of guys like Prichad getting mad that he used to learn stuff so easily.

Regardless, if it's a work just to get Cody back into the main event, it's super silly. Cody isn't benefiting from it one way or the other. He already had the ground swell of support and is easily the most over pure babyface WWE has produced in years -- with Sami Zayn being the runner-up. But in Sami's case, it was clear the story they were building for him was the "tragedy" in Roman's WWE title reign. He was the "Red Wedding" for that story, always meant to be the martyr in that scenario -- and it was played perfectly. Cody was legitimately groomed (for lack of a better term) to be Roman's downfall the second he showed back up at WM38 and even more so following Rumble 2023. So this isn't a Bryan Danielson situation, where Cody NEEDED to rely on a "movement" because the company didn't want to push him -- he was pushed as the ultimate babyface... then Rock showed back up. Tale as old as time. Manufacturing a goofy Cody movement would be redundant.

Unless they have Cody come out and look like a dork who just suddenly changed his mind, the route for him getting back to Roman would need to pan out one of two ways: 1) A triple threat to mirror WMXX and WMXXX. Roman/Rock/Cody, or 2) Rock vs Roman for Night 1, and Roman vs Cody for Night 2. Either situation would need to be initiated by our lord and savior Rock as to not make Cody look like an idiot, and either would only make the WHC/Rollins' great reign seem even MORE secondary. But they've already fudgeed the WWE title scenario up so ridiculously that they HAVE to be considering one of those two options. If it's Cody vs. Seth and Rock vs Roman... that's disappointing.

I've seen fans saying that for the icing on the cake of if Cody were to beat Roman, it should happen at Madison Square Garden. I have no idea if there are any PLEs taking place there in the near future. It's too small for a WreslteMania though, they'd probably have to make it a 7 night event to compare to the type of money they make from the huge stadiums they book it at now.

Scott D’Amore is out of TNA. Appears to be some sort of corporate reshuffle from what I’ve been reading. Nothing else really to report on that. It sucks too since TNA has had upward momentum for the first time in forever.

Saw that earlier. That could prove to be one of the more tone-deaf decisions from Anthem regarding TNA. The guy who brought the brand back to prominence is ousted as soon as the rebrand takes place. I feel like something must have happened behind closed doors to lead to that decision, like an argument or creative differences or something.

Might be a triple threat at Mania:

https://twitter.com/WWE/status/1755656070515548662...

Rock was on Pat McAfee saying something about "Cody crybabies". I guess it will be made official today whenever that press conference is. I don't really want to see a triple threat match, but it could be fun if Rock is in heel mode.

I've only ever enjoyed The Rock as a heel, but this is just one scenario where it doesn't make sense.

Well, nothing about The Rock challenging for the title at WM makes sense lol. Anyway, I thought Cody posted that after Rock said that, but it was apparently before. Maybe they're just trying to get people interested in seeing the press conference tonight. Guess we'll see.

With Cody Tweeting the other day telling his fans to "just wait", I'm ready to pump the brakes a little and see just how this all plays out and I am convinced they have something big planned in the long run and we just have to hope it all pays off in the end. The Rock wouldn't have been my first choice to shoehorn into this, but I'm not going to not watch because of it. I'm impressed the Cody crybabies are backing this guy so hard, with 5 out of the top 10 best selling merch in the WWE Shop right now being occupied by Cody shirts (R-Truth and LA Knight bumped completely off the list) I don't think they are that clueless to just abandon all plans for Cody just because TKO worked out a deal with The Rock.

If Rock's heeling it up, then I have to imagine Cody inserts himself into the Rock/Roman situation to make it a 3 way, or somehow forces his title match for Night 2 and the Rock/Roman match for Night 1.

I dunno, but Rock playing a heel does make the angle sit a little better as long as Cody gets back involved... even if it does feel like a gut reaction to appease how annoyed the fans got.

I guess we find out in about 10 minutes. Here's the link for the stream on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ7MzwRPFgY

Cody talks crap about Roman/Reigns family, takes the match from the Rock, Rock says he is still involved and will back his family as a special guest referee, match starts, great back and forth, couple of close finishes, Cody hits finisher, Rock slow counts, glass breaks, IT'S STONE COLD HES GOT A CHAIR/WHYs HE GOT A REFREE UNIFORM, hits Rock over head, Cody hits finish, Stone Cold fair counts, match's end, beer is thrown and drank.

My prediction

Had to end the press conference with some Jerry Springer crap. Probably going the triple threat route. How'd they get us to sit through an hour of that and still not give a definitive answer?

It did its job, though. I'm a heck of a lot more interested in this now than I was before.

I almost feel like it’s gonna result in a Rock/Roman vs Cody/Seth tag match to echo the first WrestleMania. Kind of a cool idea and would probably be a fun match, but still doesn’t “finish the story.”

But Cole just confirmed that Rhodes’ decision to choose Roman tonight makes Rhodes/Reigns official despite everyone having no idea what’s going on.

Rock then jaw jacked at Triple H backstage and it looked like Triple H was gonna rip his head off. If Triple H can get cleared for one more match, that’d be a fun route to take.

But yah I don’t know… I appreciated the promo work between the 4 tonight, but it’s still a mess and no real answers were delivered.

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

Same. I wonder who Seth will face now.

theJaw wrote:


Sounded like ol' Rocky forgot they're TV-PG now.

Haha, added a nice little sense of realism to the whole thing. Despite it all still being a mess, I do enjoy this temperamental, overly defensive Rock character. That's sorta what makes me feel like it's going to be more of a tag situation between Rock and Roman, if anything. They came off more united than adversarial, which doesn't make for a great 1 on 1 match.

Triple H said something about people going into business for themselves, and then Rock told him to fix it or he will. I guess they're going to use his position on the TKO board to make it seem more "real". (Someone on the panel mentioned it as well.)

Anyway, Triple H said it was official on Twitter... Reigns vs Cody at WM. We'll see what they actually end up doing, but it is intriguing.

Well it’s still wonky, but it’s better than it was. I’m intrigued.

With them actually mentioning The Rock being on the board (I don't think they had mentioned that on-air previously), I hope it could eventually lead to a Team Corporate-era Rocky return, showing up in expensive outfits again, instead of tank tops with whatever his current silly catchphrase of the week is, and forbidding the crowd to sing-along with the champ.

A hybrid of that and Hollywood Rock could kick ass.

Just watched the press conference. They're definitely doing Roman & Rock vs Cody & Seth at WM, with both titles on the line. Guarantee it.

I don’t know how a tag match with titles on the line on both sides would work. Maybe a 4 way with all the titles up for grabs? I’m infinitely more intrigued than I was yesterday that’s for sure.

It wouldn't surprise me if they decide to unify the titles again. WWE can't ever seem to decide how many champions they want to have.

It all just seems like such a convoluted way to get to the only match most folks actually want to see, that being Cody vs Roman. I will say the messiness is more interesting than whatever the road to Rock vs Roman would have been otherwise, but it's still just a bunch of nonsensical booking. Fun enough, but nonsensical.

I'd be sort of into a tag match at Mania... but if it were for the titles, I wouldn't like either outcome. Either Roman retians and Rock becomes WHC which... is lame. Or Seth retains and Cody becomes WWE champ which... deflates Cody's "story" in that he couldn't defeat Roman one on and one and needed partner + the chaos of a tag match to finally win the belt.

If they do a tag match, it needs to just be an exhibition. Maybe they do Rock/Roman vs. Seth/Cody on Night 1, with the winning team deciding what the Night 2 main event is? Rock takes the pinfall to lead to Cody/Roman on Night 2 (with Cody promising his partner, Seth, the first shot at the WWE title should he win as an incentive).

Wouldn't be surprised if it turns into a 4 way... I just don't like the idea of them unifying the titles this early considering Seth is the literal only guy to hold the WHC. And, of course, the crowd would be sorta pissed if it didn't come down to Cody/Roman, so what's the point?

I dunno, hopefully it's a fun road to getting these answers. And I'd also hope, with Rock being on the TKO board and WWE in full-on Mania mode, that he actually shows up weekly along with Roman to move the story forward consistently.

They could always do Rock vs. Cody on night 1 and then Cody vs. Roman night 2. Rock and Cody have a storyline issue now, so it’s plausible. I don’t like that Seth got bumped to the side as hard as he did, but really if he was going to be there at all, that’s what had to happen. A tag match is lame, and somehow a 4 way for all the belts seems worse.

I don't necessarily like any outcome that isn't just straight-up Cody vs Roman II, I'm just trying to piece together possible scenarios for this mess of a storyline.

Cody vs Rock Night 1 then Cody vs Roman Night 2 seems like the best option to take if Rock HAS to be involved at all, but yah like you said, Rollins is the outlier. Why have him out there for the angle at the press conference if he wasn't going to somehow play into the WWE title scenario heading into Mania? Just doesn't make sense, which is why I'm trying to figure out ways for the dude to be involved. Otherwise, having him just be an onlooker for the angle at the presser and then just... go off and fight McIntyre or somebody at Mania makes him look like even more of a doofus.

I don’t know if there’s a solid way out for everyone, but it seems course correction happened hard. We also have like 8 or 9 weeks left and there can be a lot of twists and turns to get it righted. I think we’re all trying to make the best of a crap sandwich right now though.

theJaw wrote:


Unfortunately I don't expect either one to be there tonight. After all that chaos last night, I wouldn't be surprised if they just show a recap on the TitanTron and leave it at that, maybe Triple H or the GM say they were barred from the arena tonight or something. I hope I'm wrong, because even if I don't like the guy, it'd be nice to see The Rock live for the first time in forever (a house show at MSG in June of 2000 would be the last time I've seen him). But we still have to get through Elimination Chamber first, and Roman isn't even booked for that show.

I don't know how tonight's show came across on TV, but it was pretty fun live (I've never been to a live show I didn't have fun at tbh).

I was disappointed at only getting to see Damage Control for like 30 seconds. There wasn't any DC merch either, though now with Bayley kicked out I guess their merch is a bit outdated now and they've probably got new stuff coming. I ended up just getting a Hell Froze Over shirt. Drew was there but they didn't have his meme shirt, and no Judgment Day shirt even though R-Truth was there (and Dirty Dom, but he was only in a backstage segment). As expected, Cody, Randy Orton and CM Punk had the biggest presence at the merch booth.

Of course mega boo's when Paul Heyman said he'd have Roman and The Rock with him next week instead of tonight. I think next Friday they are taping two weeks worth of SD, so good for those fans, but the live crowd doesn't want to hear about what big plans you have for next week, you need to satisfy us tonight.

First dark match was Gable Steveson vs Cedric Alexander. Big pop for Cedric, since he's the hometown boy, he definitely wouldn't have gotten that pop anywhere else. Gable won via Angle Slam. Not a terrible match, but...there's a reason why it was not featured on the show itself. No flippy-floppy stuff from Cedric, which is what got him over during the 205 Live days. Not to sound like a dick, but not sure why either of these guys are kept around. I mean, I guess in Gable's case they want him to improve enough so they can capitalize off his name and Olympic history, but Cedric's time is up. He's lost in the shuffle, they should cut him loose, let him make a name for himself elsewhere and come back as a star, like Cody, Drew, Lashley, etc.

Post-SmackDown dark match #1: Cameron Grimes vs GUNTHER. Pretty decent match, we all knew GUNTHER was going over. People were really wanting to hear his knife-edge chops in person, and they got to. Again, big pop for Grimes for being from the area. Afterward GUNTHER grabbed the mic and said "was this really the best this city has to offer?" cue R-Truth's theme music to one of the loudest pops of the night. GUNTHER says that he is in the best shape of his life, while R-Truth is 55 years old and is no match for him (Google says he is 52, but who am I to correct GUNTHER?) They fight a bit back and forth, then eventually R-Truth has GUNTHER down and he hits a Five Knuckle Shuffle to another big pop.

Post-SmackDown dark match #2: Cody vs Solo
Cody with a big pop (I hope nobody was expecting otherwise). Jimmy was eventually ejected yeeted from ringside when the ref caught him trying to trip Cody. Cody won, grabbed a mic afterwards and gave a turnbuckle pad to a lucky fan. Then he told us a secret that not many people know, and it's that he was actually born in Charlotte, NC. So he had the ring announcer re-announce him again, this time saying he's from Charlotte. Big pop, of course. I don't know if that is true, or if he just says that after every show to make the fans pop, but until I'm convinced otherwise I'm just gonna pretend he only says it for the pop and that every week he was born in [insert city here]. It's more fun that way,

As for the show itself that made it on-air, that tag match with Bate/Dunne vs DIY was good. I couldn't tell from my seat, but was Johnny busted open? For a quick second on the big screen I caught a glimpse and thought his hand/wrist tape might've had blood on it.

R-Truth had a backstage segment. What was it about? I couldn't tell ya, because I couldn't hear a damn word of it. As soon as he appeared on screen the "We Want R-Truth" chants erupted, maybe worried he wasn't really there and this segment was pre-taped or something, because he's from Raw. But because of the chants it was impossible to hear what was being said. Same thing again when Dom was on the screen, I don't know what the heck was being said between he and Kevin Owens except for the last thing Kevin said before Dom walked away. I'll have to catch a replay on Hulu tomorrow and hope it wasn't edited too much (they chop down Raw from 3 hours to 90 minutes every week, idk how much they shorten SD to).

A little disappointed we didn't get a promo or anything from LA Knight, only the viewers at home got to hear him on commentary. Even though I'm starting to not care about him as much these days, I'm all for anyone that can get a live crowd to make noise. AJ Styles vs Drew was good though, as was Sami vs Orton. Am I wrong or did Sami used to have pyro in his entrance? It was the only one tonight I remembered to brace myself for, but then it never came..I thought it was at the "Let's Go!" part.

Ugh....I used to go to the live shows all the time when they came to Winnipeg, but haven't been for many many years. Not on them....but the public events up here have so many stupid rules, massive pain in the ass to find parking, and vendors inside are stupidly priced....just really not worth the hassle anymore.

As for Elimination Chamber, I have this weird hunch that Dom Dom's going to get in somehow. It's also a bit suspicious that none of the Aussie wrestlers are on the card other than Rhea.

It's kinda sad that Jade isn't ready yet, but I trust it'll be worth the wait. I think it would be worse for her to show up and look off.

It sounds like our buddy, Tony Khan, has signed Okada and Mercedes. The AEW roster is ridiculously stacked already and adding Okada, Mercedes, and Ospreay has got to have a lot of people there worried. His roster must be at least double the size of WWE's.

@y2k According to https://www.thesmackdownhotel.com/roster/ -- which lists every member of a roster on any given day (pretty neat site) -- WWE's roster is currently at 234, whereas AEW's is at 200. The idea that AEW's roster is too "bloated" compared to WWE's is another strange creation of the internet. Sure, WWE's roster is split up between Raw, Smackdown and NXT... but the same can be said about Dynamite, Collision and Rampage, just a bit less strict/a bit more crossover. AEW has the best roster in pro wrestling right now, bar none.

This booking leading to Revolution has been the most consistent and interesting build toward a PPV AEW has done in quite a while. Lots of good, ongoing stories and lots of the roster getting used consistently. It feels like after the hectic 2022/2023, AEW is finally getting back on a steady foot in 2024.

I also don't know how much more ready Jade needs to get. Of course everyone can be better, but she improved a lot during her AEW run and her last few matches were legit good (especially her last one vs Statlander). She's at least better than some of the ladies WWE currently books on TV (Jax, Shotzi, Maxxine, etc etc). At this point, it feels like WWE just hasn't pinned down their creative plans for her, but according to her pal and former AEW wrestler Fuego del Sol, she knows of her plans and has said she's excited for them, so we'll see. She looked great at the Rumble so I'm really looking forward to seeing her show up.

Also, in other, grosser news, the stuff coming out about Ashley Massaro -- or, the stuff that's already been out and being revisited about her -- is legit awful. I won't type it here, but look it up if you'd like to see how terrible WWE executives have been in the past. Stephanie McMahon has now been named as being aware of the wrongdoings by Ashley's best friend. It's just wild how deep the corruption in WWE goes.

I'll never stop watching WWE because there are lots of innocent performers/crew members who now depend on that machine for a livable wage but any executive with prior knowledge of the gross practices that went on there need to be ousted fast.

The whole industry has a pretty nasty past. Like Snuka killing some broad, Fabulous Moolah pimping her female trainees out to male wrestlers, the abuse Japanese joshi wrestlers were put through by their trainers, etc., stuff that we didn't learn about until many years after the fact. Social media helps out some, like that #MeToo thing back in 2020 where a bunch of women outed Brit wrestlers as creeps/abusers/rapists, but there's still so much crap we'll never know about.

THIS is the Rock worth watching. Full on heel Rock > catchphrase dork Rock.

Dude for real. Hollywood Bloodline Rock rules.

That is the Rock we’ve wanted to see. That was greatly executed and he looked like he enjoyed it.

Heel Rocky is the only good Rocky. But! This promo just didn't do it for me. I'm not a sports guy, but The Rock is, and sounded a little dumb in his promo with that sports analogy.

If you lose the Super Bowl and the next year get back to the conference championship (Royal Rumble) and win...you do go to the Super Bowl (WrestleMania) again! Duh! They completely glossed over the fact that Cody won and deserves this match with Roman, instead choosing to make it sound as if he was handed this rematch out of nowhere. Brian Gewirtz goofed with writing this promo and I'm surprised Rocky didn't correct him. But then again up until a few weeks ago I doubt either one was keeping up with what was going on with the company or storylines etc.

I think they intentionally glossed over that fact about Cody winning the Rumble. That seems like a very big oversight for Rock to make.

Several TNA talent have Tweeted the hourglass emoji. I wonder if they're all planning to walk out with the crap that happened with Scott D’Amore.

I think I read that a lot of the wrestlers were part of the open letter about bringing Scott back. Maybe the hourglass is them waiting for a response to that. Or, could be what you said. Not sure.

That woman Cara Pipia, that went around to the media claiming to be Ashley Massaro's best friend and that WWE/Vince/Stephanie knew about Ashley Massaro's rape and were trying to cover it up, Ashley's daughter has stepped up to say that Cara and Ashley were no longer friends by the time Ashley passed, and after Ashley passed that woman sent her (the daughter) and other relatives some "unsettling/delirious" messages.

The daughter doesn't deny that what Cara said could be true (because she refuses to watch the videos to know what was said), but says she and her grandmother/Ashley's mom didn't want the situation talked about, especially by "the last person my mom would want speaking on her behalf", but now this ex-friend is trying to get her 15 minutes of fame at the expense of someone she hadn't spoken to in years.

Just when TNA was starting to get some momentum again and morale was up, Anthem blew it.
https://twitter.com/SeanRossSapp/status/1761198660...

Such a ridiculous decision by Anthem. The roster is clearly super pissed, as they should be.

Yeah I don’t think I would’ve fired the guy that got positive press and momentum going for TNA after all that time of absolute nothing. Allegedly there’s a talent and staff meeting today and I’m sure at some point we’ll find out what happened in it.

Elimination Chamber was good but really predictable. No result was in doubt, but this is one of those times it’s good to go with what we’re expecting. I do wish they’d have a better spot for Bobby Lashley because that dude is money, but it is what it is. We could say that about a ton of people in WWE, and AEW, and TNA, and MLW and everywhere else though.

I gotta be honest, EC bored me to death. It was nowhere near the quality of the other PLE’s that they’ve hosted in different parts of the world. The Women’s EC was fun as hell though, so maybe that being the first match made the rest feel like a slog.

I just finished watching it. Usually 5:00AM is when I'm just going to bed, I wasn't staying up any later for this. Overall I enjoyed it, wasn't disappointed by any match on the card. Predictable outcomes? Yeah, because we have WrestleMania coming up and they're not going to stray off that path for a B-level PLE. I feel like any show in-between Royal Rumble and WrestleMania is always predictable.

I dunno, Elimination Chamber can usually be fun. This one was the first that I feel truly felt “B” level. Usually it feels like a second Rumble to some degree.

Collision is a taped show, why didn't they let the Acclaimed dude redo his rap intro?

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

Collision’s a live show, they tape ROH afterwards though. I missed it tonight. Did Caster fudge up?

Crap you're right, I was mixing it up with Rampage. I've even attended Collision and should know it was live.

I guess he just forgot his lines during his entrance

AEW Fight Forever may have come up a bit short as far as game modes go but I really do love the gameplay. It’s been a reliable “pick up and play for 15 minutes” game for me lately. I guess there is some replayability after all, contrary to my own beliefs.

But they NEED to add more modes. If there was a booker mode in this I’d be all over it.

Fight Forever is exactly what I thought it would be: bare bones, half-baked and a good start. It’s at the same place TNA Impact! was before Midway went bankrupt. Games aren’t easy at all, especially from scratch, and a sequel will surely be good stuff.

Speaking of Fight Forever… anyone want my copy?

Maybe my favorite moment from any Road to WrestleMania. Loved this crap when it happened.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eiwjNtOoUqU

That was great. I like how Rowan basically just went along with Bryan and what he was doing. He didn’t seem too mad haha

You're right that the core Fight Forever game is very good. There are minor tweaks I would make (some indication of how close you are to kicking out/tapping out, slower build till special, more damage from special) but it really is a great spiritual sequel to those N64 games.

However, we are in a streaming world and to get those streaming views they need to have a more robust CAW system. The reason the WWE2K24 games sell so well is you can pretty much (with a little bit of effort) create almost any wrestler ever known. Most of the time I see people streaming a wrestling game they aren't even playing, they are building dream matches and just watching the computer go through the match. When they are actually playing it's an online game and that is another area that FF is lacking. I played Stadium Stampede a couple of times and I can see where people would enjoy it, but I found it frustrating to control.

They also need to evaluate their cost for DLC. Lean into CAW for both wrestler and stadiums, introduce some new match types, and expand the roster.

Yah the DLC prices are too fudgein much. Haven’t bought a single one.

That segment on Raw a couple minutes ago with Judgment Day and Imperium, that's the kind of stuff I like to see, and the stuff I miss from Attitude Era. Two stables that wanna kick each other's asses, doesn't matter that they're both heels, the crowd was into it.

RIP Ole Anderson

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