General

I wish they would figure out what to do with her. She’s too good to sit on the sidelines doing nothing for a year or more.

Uso vs Uso confirmed. That PREDICTIONS FORM is starting to fill out nicely.

There was a brief part of The Rock's promo I missed. All I recall was that it seemed like they muted the audio for a second but I didn't hear if it was because he cursed or was the crowd chanting something inappropriate

There was a part where he said you’ve got to be crapting me that they messed with. That’s all I remember.

lmao that stunner > RKO spot was real goofy. Sorta loved it.

It was dumb as crap but I also kinda loved it haha

Danielson vs Shibata was a great match from Collision last night. Real hard hitting stuff that started out super technical, which is no surprise -- I hope they run it back at least once before Danielson hangs up the boots.

Revolver held a show last night too. Marina Shafir vs Speedball Mike Bailey was surprisingly awesome, and Paul Walter Hauser vs Matt Cardona was fun stuff -- until fudging Bubba Ray Dudley showed up. Admittedly great fire table spot between him and Cardona, but Bubba can eff himself. The Revolver main event was fudging wild, too.

Fun night of graps last night.

What did Bubba do now?

Just grifting, as usual. Took to Twitter to complain about the safety in AEW and shat on them for taking risks (as an ECW original, no less) -- going so far as to get absolutely embarassed by some random twitter account. Then the literal next day showed up on the Revolver show, where he powerbombed Cardona through a flaming table, and where the main event included tables, panes of glass, skewers, scaffolds and barbed wire.

He's just another old-timey grifter who didn't get the call from AEW and has a WWE legends contract, so he goes out of his way to trash AEW for things he willingly accepts a paycheck for whenever it's offered.

He's not even the only ECW guy that criticizes AEW either. Stevie Richards does (he does it for any unsafe spot that's trending regardless of company) but I think he had to move his critiquing videos to Patron because on YouTube they kept getting hit with copyright strikes. More recently was Al Snow on Vince Russo's podcast, I didn't watch the whole interview but the part I saw was just him dumping on AEW.

To be fair though, maybe they're just trying to talk some sense into them. Look how beat up a lot of the more reckless ECW guys were in comparison to WWF/WCW guys the same age (but we can't pretend rampant drug use didn't play a role in that too).

Yah if it's a genuine desire to see folks be safe, that'd be one thing. But there's a way to go about that and it isn't revolving entire podcast episodes -- that they promote to a very specific audience and sell for money -- around crapting on AEW. Just comes off spiteful -- especially considering they refuse to acknowledge what was objectively good about a show solely to grandstand about what they found "too dangerous." Just super disingenuous, like a lot of the criticism AEW receives from the old timers.

I wish they would end the bloodline it’s starting to be a bore. Granted it’s little interesting temporarily with the rock. Geez whiz they need to get the belt off reigns.

lazarro wrote:

I agree — Bloodline officially jumped the shark with Roman vs Jey — but I won’t hold my breath:

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Hopefully at least the title comes off Reigns at Mania (I think it will) so that at LEAST the entire show/main event scene doesn’t need to revolve around the constant lazy Bloodline interference finishes.

I can see The Bloodline stuff continuing now that The Rock is involved, just to justify that he didn't turn heel for nothing. Had he gotten to keep his match against Roman at WrestleMania it probably would have just been a one off and he'd be gone to shoot his next movie afterwards (I think I read somewhere it begins in May?)

I had pitched an idea on Discord that maybe they find a way to squeeze Tama Tonga in there. First response back was "he's not even Samoan!" I know he's not Samoan but his family goes way back with The Rock's and Roman's families. Sami Zayn isn't Samoan either, but his career benefited greatly from being involved with Bloodline.

I included a bonus question on the prediction thread asking if Rock and Cody will shake hands at some point on either night, because I honestly sorta feel this heel Rock run is solely to build to Mania. I expect him to be Mr Nice Guy by the end of the show, to send the crowd home happy.

So Okada beat Kingston for the Continental
Championship on Dynamite, officially breaking the Triple Crown. I have a feeling Kingston is also gonna drop the ROH title to Mark Briscoe at Supercard of Honor on Mania weekend.

With the title change, Tony Khan has clarified what the Continental Championship will be moving forward:

-Will be defended by itself under C2 rules, which means no one’s accompanied to the ring & there will be no outside interference.
-Whoever is the Champion after Full Gear (November) will gain automatic entry into the Continental Classic tournament and have to win the tournament to retain their crown.
- A a new winner will be crowned at World's End (December).

Kingston putting the ROH and Strong titles on the line for the first Continental Classic set a nice precedent considering now whoever holds the Continental title come C2 time will need to defend the title via the tournament itself. Pretty neat.

So if the champion loses the title to someone mid tournament does that person become the new champion or does it get held up and the tournament winner is the champion?

A tournament for a title where the title is defended and could change multiple hands during said tournament sounds stupid. Conversely, the champ losing a match to someone to lose the title and that guy not winning the title also seems dumb.

I think it's just whoever wins the tournament wins the belt. It makes the champion really prove he deserves it via a tournament filled with top/consistently used guys in the company. I think it's fine, especially since Kingston set the precedent by doing just that the first time around. Something different for a championship, which is fun. It adds a bit of prestige to the belt if you're one to consider the Continental Classic prestigious. I know that'll vary person-to-person, but after the awesome matches we got last year -- I'm somebody who does.

At the end of the day, the wrestling will rule so whatev.

On another note, to touch back on the discussion from the other day, here are the cable subscribers year-to-year since 2019. 800k in 2024 is more impressive than 1mil in 2021. Puts the whole silly "AEW ratings" discourse into perspective, and also helps illustrate why both companies have been steadily losing viewers on average. Booking, show quality, roster, what have you -- sort of null and void if people are just cutting cable in general with Nielsen ratings dropping off a cliff across the board. Like I mentioned the other day, pro wrestling is a niche form of entertainment... the ratings aren't going to change in any spectacular way in the current TV landscape -- which only furthers my opinion that the majority of folks harping on TV ratings as a true metric of "success" usually do so in bad faith (in the larger IWC, not here obv).

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The current TV landscape is a dumpster fire and the quicker everyone gets off it and goes to streaming, the better. Let the cable companies get what they deserve with their ridiculous prices. I cut the cord in summer 2021. When I watch Raw and SmackDown, Dynamite etc. it's via stream on my PC, except for NXT I save to watch on Peacock without commercials, but still none of that will count towards any ratings. The wrestling fans in my family also recently cut the cord and since then they've just been watching the Raw and SmackDown uploads the following day on Hulu, which also wouldn't be counted towards the Nielsen ratings. I don't necessarily think it's that less people are watching pro wrestling these days, it's that they're finding alternative ways to do so. I have no idea if AEW is on Hulu, Prime Video, etc. to give fans a (legal) alternative way to watch their weekly show, but if it isn't already, it needs to be.

Karrion Kross looks like an air hose got shoved up Adam Cole’s ass. The trade off is that the hose took away all the personality.

BucketofJustice wrote:

On the bright side, Tyler Bate seems to have ditched the gitchy looking trunks....I wonder if this is connected to the air hose incident.

Different hose.

There's some good stuff on this guy's channel. He takes parts of various shoot interviews and makes animations to go along with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3gwZDlDUW0

I’ve dug the Mania build for the most part and people seemed to have loved Raw tonight but I thought it was pretty bad. Drew did great and the final moments were effective but Punk came off fudging terrible and the good wrestling was undermined by redundant promos.

AEW Dynasty will be on Triller TV/Fite. Still $50. It’ll hopefully be better than stupid ass Bleacher Report.

I’ve been going through Triller/FITE since like 2020, via VPN (only $20-$25) with no issues whatsoever. Bleacher Report is fudging terrible.

I didn't even get to watch past the first 20 minutes or so. I saw part of a staredown between Cody and Rocky with the crowd chanting "holy crap", like this is the modern day Rocky vs Hogan build up.

I just watched the Drew and CM Punk promo, that was pretty entertaining. I'm not sure what they're going for unless CM Punk will magically be cleared in time, but I don't see that happening. I guess being in Chicago they felt obligated by law to have him on the show.

I was at Raw last night and it was a weird one for sure - all the star power is clearly being sat to stay healthy for Wrestlemania. The promos were top notch and got some of the best pops I've ever heard. The JD/Ricochet match and the DIY match were the only actual matches that people seemed to be into at all. The main event didn't even feel like one, and really seemed only there to set up the interference/ending segment.

There was an insanely eerie silence throughout the Candace Le Ray and Ivy Nile fight - seriously quiet.

PizzaTheHutt wrote:

Punk confirmed he’d be doing commentary HBK-at-Wrestlemania 13-style for Drew vs Seth.

Just watched the beatdown promo from last night, uncensored because it was filmed by a fan in the arena. I'm not really a fan of The Rock's overuse of profanity. It comes off even worse as a viewer at home where they have to constantly mute the audio for it.
I may have already said that at some point in this thread before, but it's obviously happening more now than it was before. I've only ever really gave a "free pass" to New Jack when he'd curse in promos, he presented himself as a legit badass and it was easy to believe that even when cameras weren't rolling, you'd know not to mess with him. 99% of other wrestlers using profanity just end up sounding like a wannabe tough guy. Like, The Rock can drop 50 f-bombs in 2024 and I'm still not gonna forget he's the same clown who wrote a song about "poontang pie" 20+ years ago.

I don’t mind the profanity, can take it or leave it. I just wish they’d stop censoring it. The censorship is what makes it unbearable to me.

I feel Rock should cut back on the sweating. Not because I don’t like it but because he’s more creative than that.

I would argue he is not lmao. He just says buzz phrases, that’s The Rock. Works for him, but the man is no genius.

At what point do the networks step in and remind them the show is still TV-PG? They can mute it for the kids watching at home, but not the ones live in attendance.

Rock co-runs the place. Wouldn’t be surprised to see those constraints loosened up. Rock alone can garner sponsorship. I don’t think the PG sponsors are much of an issue for WWE anymore.

ngl that was pretty damn cool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acMx4JorgFw

PizzaTheHutt wrote:
apparently there are a bunch of matches with these two on youtube

Somehow I lost track of what's been going on in AEW. It seemed like they came up with this Bang Bang Scissor Gang....that has now disbanded... to combat The Undisputed Empire.....but I can't recall why they were upset with them and I don't recall them ever getting into it. Did I miss a show somewhere or something?

Y2k wrote:

Jay White (obv leader of Bullet Club Gold) was the first person attacked by the Devil and his pals (now known to be the Undisputed Kingdom), and the Acclaimed were attacked backstage after offering to help MJF against them. When Acclaimed came back and Cole was revealed to be the one pulling the strings, they formed a tenuous relationship to fend off the Undisputed Kingdom should they ever have to.

Welp, they never had to. On the “Bang Bang Scissor Gang” side, they ended up genuinely getting along and went with the “supergroup” shtick for a few weeks before they started stepping on each other’s toes, and then breaking up because the Acclaimed didn’t want to beat down Darby Allin. They’re now probably going to unify the ROH 6 Man titles and the AEW Trios titles at Dynasty (or maybe even Supercard of Honor, who knows). I felt like this should have happened at Revolution because it was a little weird that they got along at all given their animosity before joining up, so it seemed dragged out a bit. But the inevitable match oughta be fun and all the guys involved have been entertaining in their roles, even if those roles are very much secondary to the overall shows.

On the Undisputed Kingdom’s side, it’s very obvious that AEW are spinning their tires with the group until Adam Cole’s ankle is cleared and MJF returns. They keep having notable story beats (Wardlow losing his title shot, Roddy winning the International Title, etc) with lots of “not much” happening in between as other angles take the spotlight. I dig the stable and concept, so I’m looking forward to the payoff when a legitimate feud vs MJF is finally realized — just stinks that it’s taking so long due to Cole’s injury. That’s what snakebit the lead up to World’s End and is now delaying Undisputed Kingdom from reaching their full potential as a group… but, as is common with AEW, the actual WRESTLING has still been awesome even with the slow storytelling.

Lmao Eric Bischoff literally cancelled one podcast to start a new one devoted to trashing AEW. We wrestling fans are no longer allowed to get upset when Khan makes a few pointed tweets on his off time. Dude’s got every old, dorky grifter gunning for his company.

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This is the seating plan for the upcoming Dynamite on May 1st in Winnipeg. They're not even attempting to sell the greyed out seats other than the east/west floor. Why? The blue areas have seats available. Some are sold, but most aren't. There has been absolutely ZERO promotion for this even happening up here yet. It's only a month away and should coincide with most people getting their tax returns. They have every opportunity to pack this up.

A good part of AEW's roster have strong connections to Winnipeg (Jericho, Omega (injured, but whatever), Callis, Copeland, and Christian). WWE seldom comes here and the top guys usually sit it out. It's basically an open market.

I've been to movies and concerts that are virtually empty. It's not the same experience when it's packed. I hate people, but it absolutely changes the experience.

I don't care about TV ratings. I know I sure don't contribute to those...but I watch their show anyway. Empty arenas are a bit depressing. Empty because they can't sell their product is one thing......but empty because they don't want to fill them is another question. Filling arenas would shut up guys like Bischoff et al. Everyday isn't going to be Wembley, but they can still feel like it.