While I won't argue with her that the IWC is one collective giant piece of moose turd, part of the blame for this goes to Triple H for thinking this broad was in-ring ready for national TV exposure while someone like Xia Li constantly gets left on the sidelines. https://twitter.com/alluringbanks/status/176269153...
RE: Fightful/Virgil - it was painful, SRS considers it the worst interview they ever did and only released it to honor Virgil haha. RIP.
RE: Maxxine. She’s garbage, but fault lies 100% with whoever keeps booking her to wrestle. They have that big ol’ “performance center” that everybody keeps hanging over AEW’s head anytime a dangerous spot happens (for whatever reason) right? Let her “get better” there and stop feeding her to the wolves.
That said, the dude in the crowd is clearly just being an butt-hole on a surface level. Boo and jeer but going that hard on low-hanging fruit just makes him look like an idiot. Guarantee he hasn’t run ropes in his life.
Maxine basically seems like Lana 2.0. I don't hate her or anything...but the in-ring stuff has a ways to go.
I hope they get a good turn out for Sting on his last match. He deserves it. I still question how the Bucks are involved. It seems there would be better guys for him to end it with than those two goobers.
AEW is coming to Winnipeg May 1st. I wouldn't hate going if Mercedes and Ospreay are on the card. It's interesting, though. I was just checking tickets (not much has sold yet). The Canada Life Center here holds around 20K people for an event like this.....but 90% of the seats aren't even available to purchase. Most of the lower sections are also marked as 'unavailable'. WWE usually sells around 10K tickets for their shows here. If every available seat for AEW sells, it's maybe 2000. Why do they do this? I'd attach a picture but it's kinda a hassle on here. It seems kinda dumb to rent a huge arena but then say, "We only want to use 1% of it."
On the bright side, there's a seat right by the railing where they enter a couple rows from ringside for only $317
When it comes to the venues AEW uses, they’re going to keep booking bigger venues for presentation alone. It doesn’t hurt the budget enough to warrant moving to more intimate venues when they want their TV show to look “big.” No one watching at home would ever know how many people are in those buildings without Twitter/looking up attendance numbers. As long as it looks fine on TV, it’ll likely remain a non-factor to Khan’s decision making (being a millionaire and all lol).
Those ticket prices are fudging ridiculous though. No thanks. Love the show, but I’m comfortable on the couch haha
Sting just pulled the classic "descending from the rafters" shtick for his final Dynamite appearance as a full-time roster member. That crap made me feel like I was 10 again.
> When it comes to the venues AEW uses, they’re going to keep booking bigger venues
> for presentation alone. It doesn’t hurt the budget enough to warrant moving to
> more intimate venues when they want their TV show to look “big.” No one watching
> at home would ever know how many people are in those buildings without Twitter/looking
> up attendance numbers. As long as it looks fine on TV, it’ll likely remain a non-factor
> to Khan’s decision making (being a millionaire and all lol).
>
> Those ticket prices are fudging ridiculous though. No thanks. Love the show, but
> I’m comfortable on the couch haha
Call me old fashioned, but it seems odd to not even attempt to sell more tickets. I can't imagine how much of a change it is for the ex-WWE guys he collects to walk into arenas constantly with only 1400 people when they're used to 10x that or more. I have to assume, that, at the end of the day, it's supposed to be a business. If businesses don't make money, they're not in business. I think even 'Billionaire Ted' had to throw in the towel back in the day because he couldn't make 5 cents on a show, despite having a sick stacked roster.
I'm not AEW's accountant but like I said, it probably isn't hurting their budget enough to downscale venue size. They make a crap ton internationally via their TV deals (Canada and UK especially), they get paid for hosting their shows on NJPW World, they have their hands deep in the merch pot, their PPVs always sell great, and they usually sell the amount of tickets they aim to sell. I imagine they understand they're in a cool-down period, so they're not spending on live shows the way they would if they were trying to pack the house -- they're not trying to match WWE's Disney on Ice presentation. They understand the number of tickets will sell given the area, so they plan around that.
Regardless, I can't pretend I care about that stuff to any legitimate degree. I'm not watching wrestling to count the money the companies make haha. I'll let them worry about that, and wish them well.
Ol’ Rock just called out Cody and Seth - Rock/Reigns vs Rollins/Rhodes, if Rollins/Rhodes wins then the Bloodline will sign contracts to be banned from Night 2 for the WWE title match. If Rock/Reigns win, the WWE title is “Bloodline rules” - they can do whatever they want.
I dig the idea honestly. Bloodline wins Night 1, then they all try to help Reigns - then all the folks Bloodline have fudgeed over find a way to help Cody. Would rather a straight up 1v1 so Cody can get a fair win, but they gotta protect Reigns somehow.
The “acknowledge me” bit at the end was real good too.
"Now go home and smoke some more crack" wtf I bet that line gets removed from the YouTube recaps. Good promo by Rocky, I didn't catch him having to peek at notes written on his wrist, so that's a plus.
@shadyfozzie Yah that’s totally also a possibility, I’d just hate for Cody’s “story” and Roman finally losing the title to depend on Rock interference after all this time. At least with two “armies” of guys coming to back both dudes, they could make it come off even. Reigns could always still blame Rock as being a distraction without it being deliberate or something.
Unrelated: I still hate the name “Bron Breakker” especially considering he legit just has the Steiner gimmick.
"Here is my reference flyer, It is my understanding that Sting (then called “Flash”) debuted in November of 1985 so I am assuming that the design of the flyer didn’t change much.
Flyer photo from Classic Memphis Wrestling Facebook Group"
> Or, the Rock can even screw over Reigns night one.. that would be interesting...
Yah tbh I'd rather that. Rock doesn't think Reigns appreciates him enough, costs them the tag match which leads to Reigns losing the WWE title. SummerSlam with Hollywood Rock vs. an actually-over face Reigns. I could get into that.
Friggin swell episode of Smackdown even with (or maybe because) the opening segment taking up 40 minutes of the first hour. Not a lot of time to indulge in filler. Good stuff.
I think Solo will be a big part of Rock turning on the Bloodline. Rock was joking about him singing, but you could tell Solo took offense to it, so he’ll strike when the opportunity presents itself. They didn’t edit anything out of the promo that was obvious on YouTube but they did add crowd noise which is annoying but it is what it is.
Re: AEW. I don’t care anymore. I hope they do well and can fill buildings and make all the money. Until they can do something to get me invested, I’m out. I’m sorry I won’t see Sting’s last match, but I’ll live.
They were muting the audio quite a bit at points during The Rock/Bloodline promo, I don't know what they were chanting but that's probably what they were covering up in the YouTube video.
It took me way too long to acknowledge it (maybe because, y'know, it's not like you get to hear it every week or anything), but Roman's theme is it. I think it's my favorite current theme music, just slightly ahead of Shinsuke Nakamura. I actually just set it as my ringtone. Gross.
His song matches him perfectly. I’m with you. It’s amazing.
There was a YouTube video earlier today posted by Mick Foley about him training for one more match. I’m not super surprised by it, but that sounds like a terrible idea. He's using it as motivation to lose weight, which sounds good but man… allegedly, it’s going to be a death match if it happens. More power to him and I hope it works out for him.
I don't know if I'd want to sit through that, just like I had no desire to sit through Ric Flair's retirement match (it felt like the third or fourth one). Has he hinted at any potential opponents? I remember back in 2011 or so, he and Dean Ambrose insulting each other on Twitter which was supposed to lead up to a match between the two but ultimately went nowhere when Foley took offense to some things Ambrose was saying. Maybe they revisit that? It'd probably have to be outside of WWE anyway, I doubt he could pass a physical.
I'll watch Mick Foley do anything, I just hope he's careful and confident. Not my place to pretend I know if someone should be wrestling or not. Been wrong enough times (Sting lol). I'll be worried but fudge man... if he wants to, he's a grown man.
Last I remember was when he wanted that match with Ambrose all those years ago, when he was willing to do it there was something he didn't pass in WWE's testing. So he went for outside testing with "the top neurologist in the country" as he says, and was told it wouldn't be a good idea to wrestle again. In the same interview he mentions his short term memory being shot, I wonder if that would affect the planning of the match at all and if they'd have to call it in the ring, I also wonder if that had anything to do with him not having written any children's books in a while.
I don't imagine anyone here is watching tonight, but I am jazzed up for Revolution. The card looks crazy stacked and Sting's last match is gonna be emotional as hell.
For those wanting to watch but not wanting to drop the $$$, snag a VPN and pay $25 on Triller (FITE) via an international connection. Or just find a janky stream, either works.
Anyhow yah the Caster rap fudge up is an ongoing part of the storyline. Caster is not happy with being grouped up with BCG, the dissension is starting.
I'm gonna hunt down a stream and hope at some point this year AEW gets on a proper streaming service or something, because the idea of paying for individual PPVs in 2024 feels so...archaic.
I wish AEW would come up with a good streaming option. No way $50 a PPV is worth the price no matter the company anymore since the structure has been changed for a decade, ironically because of WWE getting low PPV numbers. I’ve bought a few AEW shows at full American price and I’ve always questioned if I should be buying any PPV for $50. $6 with ads or $12 with no ads for Peacock and WWE Network before it is fine, especially considering all the archived stuff there too. $15 or $20 a month for Max or something similar if AEW PPVs are there would be fine too.
All you need to do is click your mouse a few times. Truly isn't too much work lol. But whatev, I'm not trying to convince ya. I agree the $50 price is far too much, but they've been teasing something coming for streaming AEW easier so let's hope it happens sometime soon.
It’s harder when it takes a long time for your computer to start and the damn thing can’t even open iTunes lol.
Streaming on something besides stupid ass Bleacher Report for the same price would be nice. I’m sure I can’t order from them again even after I wanted to since I had such a bungled mess of Revolution in 2022 I disputed their charge with my credit card company after they spent a week not helping me. It’s hard to justify $50 a pop when I can get post-Vince WWE for $12 a month with no ads or $6 a month with ads.
I hope AEW get their TV deal straightened out soon too and streaming is part of that. They should’ve had that done already in my opinion, but I’m not there so I don’t know what’s happened. I think if they were super important to TNT/TBS, they would’ve been done by now. It also makes me question whether they’ll get that big raise Tony keeps talking about. I hope they get all the money and all the streaming.
Bleacher Report is fudgein garbage, I don't blame ya. That's why I'm happy the VPN route goes through Triller TV (formerly FITE.TV). Fudge BR.
I do hope they figure something out with streaming, but according to just about everyone, AEW is getting big advances for their programming in 2024 heading into 2025. I have to imagine streaming comes into play sometime this year. Fingers crossed.
I wish WWE was still their own Network, that crap was awesome... Peackock is gross.
I hope everyone is right and AEW get their money. I agree about Peacock being not great but they took the Office from Netflix like a bunch of butt-holes so if I want to watch that I gotta have Peacock anyway. It’s frustrating but honestly wherever WWE puts their crap I’ll probably end up being there.
I hope Kyle gets a decent return. He's been gone for a while.
Yeah, I kinda wish WWE Network stayed its own thing if only because I don't care how poorly something aged, I'm not a fan of going back through the catalog and having to censor things to please Peacock execs.
The censorship definitely got worse with them going on Peacock. I wish they’d never censor anything but I also understand why they do. They should have the option for a censored version, or uncensored with a disclaimer. Also someone should spend some money on some music rights because the song dubs that are there suck ass.
Every time I see his name I remember someone pointing out on Twitter before I left that his name is TAKE CRAP A and I can’t unsee it. I haven’t been on Twitter for about a year, maybe more.
I’m sure it’ll pop up online soon if it hasn’t already. I also believe 100000% Sting found a way to turn back the hands of time as he’s done for like 20 years it seems.
Finally saw the Rock promo from Smackdown. Enjoyed it a lot but you can def tell the Rock is rusty on the mic. Couple times he tripped over himself, but recovered. He also isn’t leaning into this heel Rock and you can see the hesitation. Wouldn’t mind him becoming a corporate replacement for Vince, especially as he is on the board.
He has got to lay off the roids. He was as red as a tomato by the end of that promo and pouring sweat.
I saw the entrance with the movie theatre video and then the post match interview thing. No matter what I ever say about Tony Khan or AEW or storylines or whatever, he did 100% right by Sting. That send off was more than well deserved and Tony did it right. Gotta give them props for that.
Paul Heyman To Be Inducted Into Hall of Fame Class of 2024
I've been saying since last year when it was announced WrestleMania 40 would be in Philly that they needed someone to represent ECW in the 2024 Hall of Fame. Who better? It needs to be Tommy Dreamer inducting him, but if they can't get him I'd also settle for The Dudley Boyz or RVD.
Michael Cole acknowledged Sting's retirement just now on Raw, congratulating him on his career. Pat Mcafee even said "absolutely epic match last night," referring to the retirement match.
For future reference, Nia Jax is the unstoppable force.....unless Becky Lynch attempts a drop kick from the top rope and misses...then she stumbles back stunned and out of the ring.
Other random thoughts....
Bull Nakano....meh. My feeling is there are many far more deserving retired WWE wrestlers who did far more than Bull's forgettable run in the early 90's. She didn't even have her own ice cream bar like Bam Bam Bigelow, Demolition, or Koko B. Ware.
I also really enjoyed Revolution. I'd give the show an over-all 4/5. Women's match felt rushed for all the promotion and build up they had for it.....so now Deonna can disappear into the netherworld with everyone else to make room for Mercedes next week. I also found the 8 man scramble a bit meh and comical seeing guys just standing around outside waiting to be queued back into the ring. Everything else was awesome.
Darby Allen is a bit nuts with his spots. Hopefully he accomplishes a lot in the next few years. His style absolutely does not lend to longevity. It's more likely to cripple him young. Personally, I'd prefer to see him stick around for awhile and become the star he could be. I'll take it over seeing him in a wheelchair all gibbled.
Will Ospreay is by far the most exciting wrestler on the planet today. Nobody can touch the quality of his matches and how he can make anyone look top tier.....I worry if he can adjust to working like that every week, though. AEW isn't Japan or the indies where he can show up once every couple months and go away and rest.
It's good to see AEW using the Bucks as the evil EVP's and buttoning up a lot of loose ends of things that didn't make any sense.
I watched the 'Trilogy' video on youtube on the Briscoes and FTR. I never saw much of the Briscoes other than a match in AEW last year and don't get ROH here so I really wasn't terribly familiar with them. Their stuff was really really very good. Jay was an absolute artist during that feud. Mark is good but he seems to excel being in a solid tag team with someone to offset his wackiness.
Why does it feel like FTR has disappeared from any sort of title picture since Punk left last year? I'm not even sure who the ROH and AEW tag champs are anymore. They don't seem like important titles anymore. All I hear about is the trios thing that nobody cares about.
It was nice of Cole to mention Sting's retirement.....but it felt like he shut down McAfee when he started saying the match was epic.
I'm sensing a double turn at Wrestlemania with Rock turning on Roman and Rollins screwing Cody. Rollins will be upset after losing his belt to McIntyre the previous night.
Please don't let Sami Zayn win the gauntlet next week. Ugh.
The landscape in AEW has changed quite a bit this year with the huge signings. Absolute game changers. Really need MJF and Omega back, though. It'll be weird when they do the Forbidden Door PPV and there's nobody left to come through it, though. >
> Bull Nakano....meh. My feeling is there are many far more deserving retired WWE
> wrestlers who did far more than Bull's forgettable run in the early 90's. She didn't
> even have her own ice cream bar like Bam Bam Bigelow, Demolition, or Koko B. Ware.
Whoa whoa whoa, I'mma let you finish but I gotta stop you right here. I don't see how Bull Nakano's run in WWF was forgettable, it's how a lot of people watching in that era even know who she is. But even still, she's not getting into the HoF just from her brief WWF run. She accomplished far more outside of WWF and that's what is getting her in the HoF. Sorry, but I disagree as she's every bit as deserving of her induction as Liger and Muta were, and they managed to get in without ever wrestling in WWF/WWE (minus Liger's one single match at NXT nearly a decade ago).
I won't disagree that there are lots of deserving people who still need to be inducted, but that's not Bull Nakano's fault. And a lot of the people who still need to be inducted are also ones who accomplished more outside of WWE than in it. Like, how is Lex Luger still not in it? I never liked the guy, but taking into account what he achieved outside of WWF you can't deny he deserves it. Ultimo Dragon is another one who deserves it, but it sure ain't based on his WWE run. Even Sting got in and we know how his WWE run went.
Bull Nakano is deserving of the HoF. Absolutely. Lex Luger and Ultimo Dragon too. How the fudge is SID not in the Hall? There’s so many people that aren’t in that can be, but also very few headline names since WWE blew through them with top heavy classes in past years.
If Eddie Kingston defends the RoH Championship and loses it, does the Continental Crown still exist? Are all 3 belts the crown, and the Continental title its own thing? If New Japan ends their relationship with AEW, does the Strong belt go with it or is there a WWF Light Heavyweight belt situation where it’s still there but no one mentions it? Also is there going to be an RoH title match at Supercard of Honor?
Also, like I’ve said before, Darby Allin is an idiot. Dude… I get wanting to go all out for Sting’s retirement but that was excessive. He didn’t need to do anything like that glass flip bump to go all out. I understand the big moment leads to being motivated but Jesus fudge that was a bit much. I hope he has a long and fulfilling career, but with doing stuff like that, he’s going to have a hard time getting around when he’s older. He might have a hard time getting around in a few years the way he’s going.
Again, super happy Sting got his moment and got to retire in his terms and TK absolutely did right by Sting and everything else that entails. Seek and Destroy is always a good song for Sting and I’m glad Sting got to go out how he wanted with the people he wanted in the match.
The Continental Crown is basically a nickname he was given for holding the ROH, NJPW Strong, and AEW Continental Title....kinda like how people refer to Miz, for example, as a former Grand Slam champion.
I'm catching up on NXT Roadblock from Tuesday while I eat dinner. Really solid opening match cage match between Dijak and Joe Gacy, with Dijak hitting a moonsault off the top of the cage actually justifying the "Holy Crap" chants.
I'm happy for Dijak and Corbin since they've returned to NXT and get to show that with actual good booking you now have a reason to give a crap about both of them. You would never have known they're as good as they are or they have this other side of their personality if your only exposure to them was what you saw on the main roster.
It's nice seeing "10 guy" back too, even if I really am only happy to see him because I hope it could open the door in the future that may lead to an eventual return of The IIconics.
Still though, I want Booker T fired. I don't like having to listen to him, and I haven't since when he was originally doing color on SmackDown years ago. He's not good at his job and only goes to prove that just because you're "good on the stick" doesn't mean you are automatically good at doing commentary.
Tony Khan confirmed there would be a Kingston match at the next ROH PPV - I forget if he mentioned whether it’d be for the “triple crown” or just the ROH title.
I think the Continental Crown is its own specific championship and the other two can be separated from it. The concept of the Continental Classic wasn’t originally supposed to be for the ROH or Strong titles, but Eddie (kayfabe obv) offered them up to the tournament because he held both heading in and said if he lost, he wouldn’t be worthy of the belts. A little confusing naming convention for sure, but Eddie is the Continental Crown champion because he won the Continental Classic - and he’s a “triple crown” champion because he now holds 3 titles at once. At least that’s how I’ve come to understand it.
That Darby spot was crazy but the dude is also a trained stuntman and - while obviously mega dangerous - that’s sorta what stuntmen do. I’ve always been of the mindset to not to judge a wrestler for wrestling the way they want to as long as they’re safe to their opponents. If Darby wants to do wild stunts, that’s on him. I wish him all the best and hope he stays as safe as possible doing it. That said, the crazy fudge is about to climb Mount Everest at the end of the month. That’s literally defying death considering plenty of people die attempting it. Best of luck to the ol’ boy.
Anyhow - Okada in AEW officially now. Ya love to see it. Okada, Ospreay, Omega, Takecrapa, Mercedes, Deeb, Shida, etc etc. AEW is fudgein stacked tight now, and if the build to Revolution + the show itself is any indication, the stories are about to be that much better from now on. Cool new stage for Dynamite too, always love a good ol’ switchup.
It's smart to set up Okada, Ospreay, and Takecrapa with solid mouthpieces like the Bucks and Don Callis while they develop that skill. Ospreay's talking isn't that bad so he'll probably ditch Ol' Don sooner than later.
Heh, I still remember when Callis was an actual wrestler in Winnipeg and his stupid gimmick of 'The Natural', dressing like the lovechild of Randy Savage and Ric Flair and copying their mannerisms. He's come a long way. His actual in-ring stuff wasn't terrible. It was just a weird trying to get behind someone cosplaying as two other current wrestlers. Back then, they had Jericho, Lance Storm, (HA) The Natural, and a couple jabronis called The Male Nurse and Sexton Hardcastle that seemed like they could go far. They had a few former AWA/WWE guys like Jim Brunzel wandering around from time to time, as well. I think most of them became singles and/or tag team world champions in the big leagues (WWE, WCW, ECW) at the time. I'm not sure there's anyone wrestling in there (CWE) now that shows much potential to go big but I might go check out their show on the 30th since it's only 10 minutes away from my home in the bush. $20 for a VIP ticket...a little different from the $300 AEW ticket and $250 WWE tickets....and Savio Vega's on the card so there's that.
He was the driving force in Puerto Rico for a long time and I’d say he did well.
The US Express (Barry Windham and Mike Rotunda) are going in the HoF. I wonder if Mike will become a two time HoF’er for this and IRS since they do like bringing him out of mothballs every once in awhile, and he was one of the better job gimmicks. It’s cool to see Barry Windham be inducted again, too. If we could get someone to be a 3x Hall of Famer, that’d be cool, but I don’t know who that would be.
I was thinking X-Pac would've had the best chance to be in it three times, because he's already in it as part of D-Generation X, and definitely deserves to be in it on his own, but then I realized he wasn't included in the nWo induction, even though he was in nWo when it was still cool and I always associate him as being one of the key members.
Oh, I thought it was just Hall, Nash and Hogan. So X-Pac can then get in a third time because he deserves it solo too. But if they were afraid to put in Chyna solo because of her porn career, X-Pac was in one of those too...
What was The Rock talking about? His own daughters are almost 20 years apart in age, is he saying one of them was a mistake too? Also Cody has three siblings, not just two. Sounds like Gewirtz better do his research.
Smackdown was kinda meh last night. The attempted insults are getting repetitive and boring for what should be a killer match on night 1. It might turn out to be fairly interesting Wrestlemania.
Too bad Sammy Guevara was suspended right before Mercedes makes her debut on Wednesday in Bosston. Looking forward to seeing her back on TV again. Cool interview the other day with her. It's nice seeing these people interviewed in a much more casual way.
I miss having a decent wrestling show on Thursdays to look forward to. It feels like a long wait between Dynamite and Smackdown. I think it's overdue for Dynamite to bump up to 3 hours, especially with the roster they have. The landscape in AEW has completely flipped this year. It's nice having a Bugatti, but you need the right highways to make use of it. If not, it's going to be a real trick to get the crazy talented rookies enough ring time to develop into tomorrow's main events while maintaining the crazy crop of top main eventers they have, and the grizzled veterans they need to keep things inline.
Smackdown was a snooze last night. Less than a half hour of wrestling on a two hour show is unacceptable. At least the last 30 seconds were interesting.
I wouldn’t want a 3-hour Dynamite. It would result in filler and that’s a no go. AEW already has Rampage and ROH to hone anyone they need to (on top of Dynamite and Collision, where plenty of younger guys are utilized and more likely to get some coaching). Plus they can wrestle indies if it doesn’t overlap with their AEW schedule. If Raw has proven anything, it’s that a 3-hour weekly show isn’t a guaranteed great idea.
If Raw could get to 2 hours in the next deal, that’d be great. We don’t need 3 hour shows weekly, no matter what company it is.
I thought Smackdown was solid but not great. The last segment was fantastic and I think if the wrestling they had was better and the angles they were doing were better save the main event segment, then the amount of it wouldn’t stick out like a sore thumb. It’s a balancing act for sure, and they didn’t have a good balance.
No interest in seeing Mercedes debut for AEW. She already said she has a WWE return in her future, and that kind of makes the AEW run feel a little lame duck. I also can’t see how that made Tony happy.
Is Okada really making $4.5 million a year? That seems excessive.
I’d rather wrestlers be up front and honest. It’s a novel idea in pro wrestling but refreshing. Plus, of course anybody who used to be in WWE will eventually show back up in WWE at some point unless they stay under contract with AEW forever. I’m still pumped for her AEW run, that women’s roster is gonna be wild and the matches will rule. Alls I need.
And imo Okada is worth every cent. Lots of folks have been coming out of the woodwork praising that, suggesting that WWE has been underpaying their roster for years and this will just help wrestlers realize there really is more than one big company they can work for. Helps the business. (But I dunno if anyone’s confirmed that or what the deal is there.)
Anyhow, Collision was good stuff tonight. Briscoe/Lethal/Jarrett vs House of Black was a way more fun main event than it had any right being, and the rest of the card was solid. Danielson vs Shane Taylor was real good. Never really been sold on Taylor but gotta admit he moves great for a dude his size and held his own against one of the best.
I've never heard any complaints that WWE was underpaying (minus a few who never made it past NXT). If anything once AEW came around everyone was being offered more money. It's how The Good Brothers ended up re-signing with WWE in late 2019 even though they had told Kenny and the Bucks they'd be headed to AEW when their contracts were up.
Wrestlers have been trying to unionize for decades because several don’t feel they’re all paid correctly or treated equally given the work they do. But what you said about AEW is true - and that’s my point. WWE began paying more because AEW started offering more up front. Okada being paid like the star he is will only create more opportunities for wrestlers to make good money outside of the Rocks, Romans, Cenas and Lesnars of the world.
Well they're definitely not all paid equally in either company, and rightfully so. There's no reason a Funaki should be making what a John Cena does. But anyone not satisfied with that can just do things the Zack Ryder way and bust their ass on the indys around the globe and make more than what either of the two big companies are willing to offer to have him wrestle exclusively for them. Or just git gud at the vidya games and use streaming on Twitch and YouTube as a side hustle like Adam Cole, Kenny Omega and Dakota Kai etc. or wait until retirement and hop on the podcast bandwagon.
To be fair, it’s arbitrary. Funaki was by and far the better wrestler, but McMahon chose to push Cena as the star. Funaki should only not make as much as Cena now because of their career trajectories as dictated by one other person’s preference. It is sorta weird in that respect, but it’s just the norm in pro wrestling.
Regardless, the point there is that several wrestlers - good or bad - have criticized WWE for pay. Otherwise, I’m just saying Okada’s worth the price and it sets a good precedent for the business in general. People can prove themselves and make the money they’re worth in more than one spot.
He's just one piece of the puzzle there. You need to spend money to make it, and he's an incredible wrestler. He's worth it for the risk alone and deserves the bag.
At the risk of getting negged up for my take here (obv not trying to argue) -- but the ratings discourse is pointless. Dynamite's constantly the top show on Wednesdays for TBS and oftentimes the top show on cable for the night. Constantly touted as a top brand by WBD. They don't need to be doing WWE numbers, ratings-wise, to be successful in that metric. They could stay the course and WBD should be perfectly happy with the performance unless something huge changes the TV landscape... which doesn't seem to be happening considering the Nielsen ratings are getting less and less important every year. Even WWE's highest rated show only barely sneaks into the annual Top 100... so AEW's ratings really are a nonissue. Wrestling is niche, nothing is changing that.
Already got into the ticket sale/building size thing and it was as unpopular to defend here as I'm sure it is to defend AEW's ratings, so I won't get into all that again. I'll just say that of course they could be doing better in that regard.
As a fan, all I care about is good wrestling on my wrestling shows. I don't care about ratings or ticket sales -- though I do admit I've been duped into doing this research in the past to see if there really is anything behind all the doomposting on the internet... but there really isn't. At the end of the day, Khan could've paid Okada 300 million and it'd mean absolutely nothing to me, it's his money to spend... if it translates to good wrestling and another attractive spot for wrestlers to make money, I'm down for it.
He’s a big star. In Japan. I don’t think he will move the needle 4.5 million dollars worth here in the US. At least not yet. I do think wrestlers should be paid way more, but the return on investment for Okada isn’t there yet. I hope it gets there for AEW’s sake, because more money is good for everyone and theoretically should yield a better product for everyone.
> He’s a big star. In Japan. I don’t think he will move the needle 4.5 million
> dollars worth here in the US. At least not yet. I do think wrestlers should be paid
> way more, but the return on investment for Okada isn’t there yet.
After one week and a single squash match, of course it's not there yet. He'll at least help retain the audience they already have, which is already enough to satisfy the network they need to satisfy.
That term "needle mover" needs to be retired haha. Didn't Roman Reigns say it in a promo and then suddenly everyone started saying it? To be fair, sometimes it's not about moving a needle and more about keeping a product fresh. If the needle doesn't necessarily need to move, then the latter is more important.
> I hope it gets
> there for AEW’s sake, because more money is good for everyone and theoretically
> should yield a better product for everyone.
This is exactly how I feel too. Hopefully it pans out to be good for everyone -- including folks outside AEW and for other promotions in general.
For the needle mover phrase, that was just Roman being a company man, like Jericho is now, just say what you think is expected of you to please whoever is signing your checks. I think Roman said it in an interview when asked what he thought about CM Punk going to AEW. In CM Punk's defense, he did move the needle quite a bit for AEW, and since he left they've still not quite recovered. But you know how it goes, asking someone in one company what they think of something going on in the other company, of course they usually won't give proper credit when due. Roman wouldn't say that now that CM Punk is back in WWE, unless it was planned to lead up to a storyline down the road. Just like I'm sure Batista would only have good things to say about AJ Styles now that he's in WWE, compared to 20 years ago when he was in TNA and Batista had nothing good to say about him in interviews.
As for fans criticizing a company's ratings or ticket sales, I don't see why it's a problem, it's harmless unless it gets to the point where the conversation turns toxic. I'm not a sports fan but what I've learned from people who are is that the fans (conveniently of the losing team) always know what the right play to call is better than that good-fer-nothin' coach does. Or compared to other scripted shows, I'm not a Game of Thrones fan but everyone who was seemed to know how that series could've ended better than the writers it did.
I don't dare say I know how to drive up ticket sales more than Tony knows, but I'd start with maybe smaller venues depending on what market you're in. All those B2G1 ticket deals last year were not a good look for a company that is the #2 promotion in the country. ECW could've easily drawn more than 2,500 fans in Hammerstein when they'd be in the Tri-State area, but even Paul Heyman knew they'd have no chance of selling out MSG, so he didn't even try (he probably couldn't afford it regardless).
Yah I don’t disagree with anything you’re saying. I’m for sure not saying that discussing ratings is inherently a bad thing. I just don’t take much stock in it. Like you said, it mainly depends on whether the conversation gets toxic or not - unfortunately AEW’s ratings attract that too much. There are just lots of folks who act like AEW’s ratings are poor but they only use WWE as a measuring stick, which just doesn’t track.
It’s a bunch of doomposting when AEW’s ratings are objectively what the network is looking for and is happy with. We know that because WBD said that, it isn’t a guess… but folks still argue tooth-and-nail that their ratings are awful and that they’re doomed because of it when that isn’t true (not saying you suggested that btw). At least with sports or something like GOT - those are subjective opinions being discussed ya know? AEW’s ratings being poor isn’t really up for subjective opinion — though the quality of the show totally is of course.
I don't think Sami vs GUNTHER is the way to go. I think it really should've been Chad Gable who won last night. Sami got his WrestleMania Moment™ last year winning the tag titles with his BFF Kevin Owens, I don't think him beating GUNTHER will top that. This could've been Chad's time to shine.
The only way I wanted Gunther to drop the IC belt at Mania was if it were to Gable. That way, a great wrestler who truly deserves the push would win his first major singles title in a huge moment and would be “made” by pinning Gunther.
Sami’s been IC champion already, he doesn’t need to win it again and he got a great feel-good Mania moment last year. For those reasons, I don’t see him beating Gunther at Mania. Gunther will continue on for a while.
That said, the match is going to be awesome - so I can’t be upset in that regard. But yah, I would have preferred they cap off the Gable/Gunther story.
I think the question is typically 'Then what?' when it comes to the WWE belts.
Ya, I think the usual goal of any match is to get some sort of reaction out of the fans- especially title matches. Zayn/Guenther gives me the feeling that it's a good time to go out for a smoke and make snacks and take the dog for a walk. It's a bit tougher to get invested in anything involving Guenther with how small the world is today. Knowing they're heading to Germany soon for a big show and expecting he's going to be a main event there, it's difficult to see him dropping the title to any'one' at Mania. If Zayn beats him, then he looks weak going after Rollins or McIntyre in Berlin....especially since both of them have recently beaten Sami. If he beats Zayn....then, really, who cares? There's nobody on the Raw roster that 'should' beat him clean for it, except maybe Jey Uso.
It's kinda like the question of 'Who should beat Ripley?'. It won't be Becky. I really don't see anyone on the Raw roster that'll be doing that. Maybe Cargill if they ever put her on a show.
Who should beat Iyo? Honestly, who cares? Has she ever defended that thing? Does she do anything besides giggle and cringe by ringside? If they ever do a Forbidden Door with AEW, they could do Iyo VS Hart ..battle for 2 belts that everyone forgot exist.
I'd rather see Logan hold onto his title for awhile. Orton feels stale already....kinda like Edge did 20 minutes after he returned.
I struggle to care about the WWE tag titles. Seeing placeholders ala not actual tag team (Judgment Day) walking around with 4 belts is stupid. Granted, the tag team scene in WWE is weak on a good day.
Reigns title.....idk. I could see Cody winning it....but I love watching him lose so much so there's that.
I'm hoping for some sort of match for R-Truth that gets him fighting in a landfill and he finds the 24/7 championship.
I finally caught up on the John Tenta/Earthquake episode of Dark Side of the Ring. This felt way off from a typical episode. First, around the halfway point of the episode, it's like they shift focus to Typhoon/Shockmaster. And overall, John was a genuinely good, honest person, so there was no scandal to talk about. This just felt more like a documentary than what you'd expect from a typical DSotR episode, because there was nothing "dark" about it at all. Still, I don't regret watching it though. It's nice to know not everyone was a scumbag from that era when cameras weren't rolling.
Edit: Oh yeah, and the episode reminded me of his brief WCW run with the Avalanche gimmick. I had totally forgotten about that, and years ago in one of the TEW games I had signed two jabronis whose names I've forgotten now, but I repackaged them under the Natural Disasters tag team gimmick and renamed them as Avalanche and Tsunami.
Mercedes’ AEW debut last night was about as well done as it could’ve been, and hopefully is the beginning of a good run for her. I think that Gory-bomb-like move she likes to do is awkward and kind of dumb but otherwise solid thumbs up.
I'm seeing a lot of people question why they chose to open the show with her debut instead of save it for the end. I personally didn't mind it though. I mean, we remember CM Punk's big return promo, and how it got cut short because it was saved to close the show and the match ahead of it went a little longer than it was supposed to. I'd rather take no chances of that happening again.
> I'm seeing a lot of people question why they chose to open the show with her debut
> instead of save it for the end. I personally didn't mind it though. I mean, we remember
> CM Punk's big return promo, and how it got cut short because it was saved to close
> the show and the match ahead of it went a little longer than it was supposed to.
> I'd rather take no chances of that happening again.
Maybe not the right call after all. People tuned in for her, but numbers steadily declined as viewers didn't stay for the entirety of the show (I admit I was guilty of that too). It did generate some buzz though. Tony Khan's Tweet that Adam Copeland was "All Elite" has 2.9 million views currently. The same Tweet for ol' Sasha has 2.5 million views in under 24 hours.
Bound to happen. Either pop that big illustrious 1mil at the top of the show to help the overall average for the following 2 hours or risk people getting tired/impatient and tuning out before she shows up. Still a positive for AEW either way.
Not sure how it’s an issue yet. Mercedes spiked a good starting number and then it dropped over 25% by the end of the hour when the Elite were on, and the picked up again for 9PM and then dropped to 627k. They lost 37% overall as the show happened, which isn’t good. The good is that they started higher. It’ll take some time to see whether these 3 big signings can help turn the ratings around. Tony should be concerned but he should also not hotshot stuff because history has shown it doesn’t work long term. I do wish he’d get his TV right secured though.
Sometimes it seems they'd get more people tuning in if they had a little bar on the side of the screen showing how many people were watching at home. That would get all the WWE guys watching and put them ahead in ratings without having to sign anyone.
Wrestling’s super niche, even WWE - Smackdown just barely sneaks onto the top 100 annual shows for Nielsen. So many other shows do wildly better than pro wrestling in general, ratings-wise. As long as AEW stays the course, WBD will be satisfied — which is really all that matters. Khan has made it clear he expects a renewal, and WBD constantly touts how satisfied they are with their performance, so the ratings situation really is a nonissue. They’re contracted until December 31, so unless something catastrophic happens from now until Autumn (when renegotiations are likely to begin in earnest), AEW should be around for quite some time.
Saw an interesting stat yesterday. Between October 2019 (AEW’s debut on cable) to March 2023, average ratings suggest both WWE and AEW programming have lost 600,000 viewers give or take. Obviously ”worse” for AEW because their audience was smaller to begin with, but neither company’s TV audience is actively growing - instead dropping at a similar rate. These ratings drops aren’t indicative of either product either, just of the fact that households are cutting cable. This is reflected in the Nielsen ratings dwindling as a whole year after year.
It just is what it is. To dwell on TV ratings like they’re a true litmus test of either company’s success doesn’t really hold a ton of water. Again, wrestling is niche and that’s not changing any time soon. Overanalyzing AEW’s TV ratings is like overanalyzing an ant in the ratings landscape, and overanalyzing WWE’s TV ratings is like overanalyzing a slightly larger ant.
Seriously… AEW needs to adjust their booking. They’re booking to the people that are already there and never going away. Whether I like the booking or not or someone else likes the booking or not, their attendance and ratings have shrunk. Some of it probably is the ‘new car smell’ wearing off, but let’s also call it like it is: WWE changed bookers (out of necessity) and they’re hot right now. Their stories are better than they were before and make more sense and a lot of the wrestlers have clearly defined roles. AEW is not hot. WWE didn’t make the same number of big signings that AEW did, they focused on better storytelling and got themselves out of their malaise. AEW needs to do the same. Otherwise with ratings and attendance falling off, I do have concern that eventually Tony or Tony’s father is going to say enough is enough and pull the plug to stop losing money. We don’t know what that line is, for better or worse.
Take a gander at my last post. WWE’s ratings have lost the same amount of viewers on average as AEW in the past 4 years. Neither show is growing, but both depleting at a similar rate - that’s just a sign of people cutting cable and watching elsewhere. Booking genuinely has very little to do with it.
AEW is valued at over $2 billion, two billionaires backing it, and several sponsorship deals. WBD is happy with their performance. AEW is in no danger of having the plug pulled.
To be completely honest, and I don’t mean to come off salty because I’m genuinely not — but I AM sincerely still baffled as to why folks even care this much about ratings all of a sudden. Literally nobody was talking about WWE’s week-to-week ratings until AEW showed up. Now everybody talks about TV ratings like it’s still 1998, and like the landscape hasn’t changed dramatically in the 2 1/2 decades since the Monday Night Wars — where ratings only mattered because the two shows were going head-to-head on the same night/time slot, and when TV was the literal only way to watch these shows.
> Sometimes it seems they'd get more people tuning in if they had a little bar on the
> side of the screen showing how many people were watching at home. That would
> get all the WWE guys watching and put them ahead in ratings without having to sign
> anyone.
Obviously I get it's a joke post, but I think majority of "WWE guys" don't care about the ratings. But when Chris Jericho goes and says something so confidently, such as back in 2021 that "within 4-6 months" they'd be ahead of Raw in ratings, that's kinda giving the IWC nerds the okay to start caring about that sort of thing. For that to happen they'd just need to find a way to keep that Big Bang Theory audience from tuning out. That would fix everything.
Talking about a show's Nielsen ratings is not much different than the IWC nerds that circlejerk over Meltzer's star ratings. Change my mind.
@PizzaTheHutt I think for someone to get too caught up about somebody else’s star ratings (aka opinions) is super lame too… but at the very least that’s within the context of the actual content of the wrestling show, which is what people watching wrestling are actually passionate about. It isn’t people pretending (emphasis on pretending) that they actually, genuinely CARE about the TV ratings for the wrestling show they’re watching.
I cannot imagine someone sitting down to watch a show thinking “man I wonder what the ratings for this episode will be! Bet I can guess which demo tuned in for this segment!” It doesn’t happen. People only care the next day so they can grandstand about one promotion or the other - again, as if they’re talking about a Monday night in the late 90s. Ratings discourse in 2024 is literally just fodder for the arbitrary e-war between internet wrestling fans and doesn’t matter whatsoever - and I’d argue matters far less than what somebody’s opinion on the actual content is. No harm if it’s a genuine conversation between people who legitimately do have a passion for TV ratings but I think we can all agree that’s very rarely the case in this scenario.
As for Jericho’s comments… it was a brash, overconfident thing to say for sure. But that’s what one does when they want to make a product feel special. We can’t pretend Jericho is the only dude in the history of pro wrestling promotion to say silly hyperbolic stuff to sell a product haha
> They’re booking to the people that are already there and never going away.
I feel like this is true too. When there was that Wednesday Night War and each show was attracting 800K - 1M viewers each week, then when NXT moved to Tuesdays many people (including me) expected those NXT viewers that now have nothing to watch on Wednesdays would just change the channel and watch AEW since they were already in the habit of watching 'rassling on Wednesdays anyway. But it didn't seem to play out that way. It didn't bring many new eyeballs to their show, the people who want to watch it were already doing so.
It's not too different from the end of the Monday Night War. When WCW was bought out, Raw's ratings went way up from the new audience that was conditioned to watching wrestling on Mondays for the past 6 years, but that only lasted for a month before Raw's ratings went back to what they were already doing pre-WCW buyout. This was before the "invasion" storyline had even began, so without even knowing how bad that would turn out, I feel like by that point the majority of Nitro viewers had already made up their mind if they liked WWF or not.
It’s also fairly important to keep in mind that, because pro wrestling IS so niche, there is a definite overlap between both audiences. Twitter will have you believe they’re two entirely separate groups but they’re very obviously not. A lot of WWE’s audience is made up of people who watch AEW and vice versa.
It’s just that a portion of WWE’s audience doesn’t seek out AEW. That’s either because of the unfathomably dorky tribalism, or just the fact that WWE has been a household name for decades and people have their routine. But as I’ve pointed out twice now, it’s not like WWE’s audience is growing in any substantial way. They are losing Nielsen viewers on average the same as AEW. 600k drop for both shows is telling. Being so niche, it’s not like the booking or storytelling is going to suddenly draw new eyes to either show. At the end of the day, it’s pro wrestling, and pro wrestling has a ceiling when it comes to these things.
> @PizzaTheHutt I think for someone to get too caught up about somebody else’s star
> ratings (aka opinions) is super lame too… but at the very least that’s within
> the context of the actual content of the wrestling show, which is what people watching
> wrestling are actually passionate about. It isn’t people pretending (emphasis on
> pretending) that they actually, genuinely CARE about the TV ratings for the wrestling
> show they’re watching.
Yeah I get it. I personally pay no attention to his ratings, but there's a sizeable chunk of the IWC that act like his word is gospel for some reason. It's why memes like this get made: image
I feel like what the average 20 year old wrestling fan wants to see in a match is not necessarily the same as what 64 year old Dave Meltzer wants to see. Just like when I'm in that age group and I go to the theater to see Freddy Got Fingered (one of my all-time favorite comedy movies), I wasn't giving a crap about Siskel & Eibert's opinions of it.
Yah memes like that also get made because people take everything Cornette takes as gospel haha. Lots of the IWC are easily manipulated depending on how they already want to feel about somebody.
Imo Cagematch is a much better way to get the general consensus of wrestling matches/shows anyhow. I’ve disagreed with the Cagematch ratings in the past but aggregates > one guy’s opinion any day of the week. That said, Meltzer does seem to enjoy what the younger crowd enjoys. Fast paced, hard hitting, etc. But we all have our preferences after all. For me - if it’s a good match, it’s a good match. I love different styles, so I dig seeing them all mashed up.
Hey if WWE doesn’t have plans for her or anyone else then why not? It’s not like she’s being used in a meaningful role at the moment. That is one thing I do like about AEW is letting them work indies if they want. It sucks if/when they get hurt on the smaller show, but at least they can make some more money if they want.
They need to figure out what they're doing with her. I thought they were saving her a nice comfy spot for the relaunch of NXT Europe, but 2023 came and went without a peep from them about it.
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
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
> 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?
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.
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.
Seats/sections open as events sell tickets. They’re not saying “we don’t want to sell these seats,” they’re just selling the seats that will be on camera first. Should those all sell out, more sections open.
I agree AEW has an issue with marketing/promoting live events and they raised their ticket prices to almost unreasonable levels after Punk showed up. They need to promote more (local interviews, etc) - which tbh, they have in recent months - and lower ticket prices. But the seats aren’t available because the sections they have open aren’t selling out.
At this point, they’re still raking in 3k-5k crowds weekly. They aren’t going to go to smaller, more intimate venues because most a tier below only seat 2k-3k. Even with only half arenas, they’re still making more money than if they were to downsize. If it looks good on TV for the network and sponsors (and it does), there’s no reason to switch up their touring schedule. But yah, they could certainly do more to sell more tickets - it just very obviously isn’t as big an issue as some folks tend to make it seem.
When I was at Collision I couldn't shake the feeling "why does this place look so small now?" because I was there 3 months prior for Raw. I didn't notice until a couple hours in that it just felt smaller because they had all the upper sections tarped off, so with the right lighting if you hadn't been there before you wouldn't have known there were seats up there.
At some point unless Tony or Shad the Dad decides to pull the plug, losing money becomes unsustainable. Selling less tickets means less money. AEW isn’t pricing itself out of the market as much as they’re just not drawing like they used to. They’re not a hot property the way they used to be. That’s because AEW isn’t telling compelling stories. AEW might have some amazing characters and the matches are usually good to great, but they’re not taking advantage of the characters. Say what you want. Call me a grifter or whatever but I’m right. We saw it with WWE for over 20 years. We saw TNA circle the bowl because of bad creative. We saw WCW die because they lost so much money, again because of bad creative. ECW couldn’t keep up and that last year and a half was not great. ROH couldn’t clear the hurdle of creative working out, as much as I liked ROH especially early on.
> ROH couldn’t clear the hurdle of creative working out, as much as I liked ROH especially early on.
Yeah, if having the "best wrestling" was all that mattered, there would've been a good 5-6 years in the mid-2000s where ROH would've been the top promotion in the country.and it would've been WWE struggling to find a TV deal.
Shahid Kahn only invested one single time when AEW first started -- none of his money is going into the company. Mike Ozanian, managing editor for Forbes, valued the company at $2 billion at minimum after a private valuation, with further research done by people with less access and theoretical information suggesting it could be floating around $1 billion. Both are fine numbers for a company 4 1/2 years old, but I'm more willing to believe the Forbes editor considering it's, well, Forbes. Ticket sales do need to be better -- but, yes, that is at least partially because of the prices and partially due to the markets they run their shows. Which is likely why Kosha Irby was brought in at the beginning of the year -- because she was WWE's Regional Director of Live Events and is said to be taking over a similar role for AEW after the poor turnouts.
Anyhow, I don't mean to ruffle any feathers obviously, but the "AEW has no compelling stories" shtick is for the birds. It's just a tired argument that holds no real water. There is no metric -- stories are 100% subjective. I, and many others, happen to really enjoy a lot of the stories AEW has told/is telling. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty I didn’t, but I’m mostly fine with what they put out. So I just don’t understand how one can consider it objective fact that the stories are no good based solely on the fact that they personally feel that way. I mean, I personally find very few stories on WWE truly compelling -- even the majority of the Bloodline stuff when Roman/Rock aren't around -- but how I feel is irrelevant to their current success. On average, the same amount of people who tuned in when AEW started are still tuning in now, relatively speaking (see: that graph and info I posted recently). That simply wouldn't be the case if the stories were objectively uncompelling. You can dislike the stories and think those who enjoy them have bad taste, whatever floats your boat -- but, no, creative is very likely not the primary issue.
ECW went under because Heyman is an awful businessman who couldn't pay his talent, keep his shows on PPV or cable, made enemies of all his business partners and ultimately ghosted his crew. WCW sure had its fair share of bad creative, but WCW had far more issues than just that and those have been talked about ad nauseum. Sinclair stopped caring about ROH and mismanaged it brutally during its final days if we're to believe any of the people who worked there when they were closing. WWE were closest to failure in the mid-90s due to the steroid scandal and WCW's ascension pillaging the roster of recognizable names like Hogan, Hall and Nash, forcing them into a rebuilding period. While, sure, bad creative was present for all these companies, it for sure was never the core factor in their closures (or nagging issues, in WWE's case).
None of these situations are similar to AEW's current situation. None of those companies were valued near $2 billion when they went under with all signs pointing to a new lucrative TV deal coming at the end of the year when their current one is set to expire. None of them had the strong relationship with the network when they went under, none of them had the level of sponsorships when they went under, none of them were actively touted as key programming by their networks when they went under, none of them were listed in the Top 5 shows for their night consistently when they went under. AEW doesn't seem to be in any danger of closing due to financials and their recent hire would suggest that the attendance issue is likely because of scheduling/pricing as opposed to subjective storytelling (and hopefully that hire helps right the ship in that regard). Call me a fanboy or whatev -- again, I'm not trying to come off that way and am just approaching this topic with objectivity -- but these tangibles hold more weight than one's opinion on the stories.
Just saw that Bianca Belair, Jade Cargill & Naomi vs. Damage CTRL (Asuka, Dakota Kai & Kairi Sane) was added to Mania. Glad to see they're finally using Jade, even if this particular match doesn't really scratch the itch for me. Still oughtta be good stuff though.
I only watched the first 90 minutes of SmackDown tonight. With Jade's little promo, I felt like that was kind of a waste of time to just come out and say a few sentences and then flex. Is it just me or did it look like she had more to say at the end but they had already started playing her theme music to wrap it up?
I was a Jade fan when she was in AEW. I always got a kick out of the 'cut the crap, Tony' line. WWE needs a Tony to make this happen. I felt her promos in AEW were stronger than this one was tonight. The in-ring stuff there was a bit green...but when you're dealing with other green wrestlers every week, it seems doubtful that would improve much. Hopefully working with Bianca and Trinity helps that more.
I missed a bunch of Smackdown in between making supper so I'll rewatch it shortly.
Is it just me...or was Kairi a much more solid in-ring performer a few years ago during her first run in WWE?
Yeah, Kairi is not on top of her game these days. I'd like to see her put in serious effort in a match with Asuka or Iyo Sky, but we won't see that as long as she's in a stable with them. But then again for as long as they keep sticking her in tag teams (she's never had a chance to do her thing solo on the main roster), maybe she feels like she'll forever be lost in the shuffle.
Yah I watched Jade’s run in segment back earlier and it was just okay. Makes one wonder why they kept her off TV for 7 months to “get better” when she just does all the same crap she did before, but I suppose we’ll have to wait for a proper singles match to see if she really improved or what. She was pretty damn good by the end of her AEW run, her matches with Statlander were awesome. Who knows the thought process in WWE sometimes though.
I still like Kairi but she isn’t doing her best work right now for sure. But I also feel like she hasn’t been given a TON of opportunities to really open up since her return.
Anyhow, here’s part 2 of that 24/7 Mania match marathon since the first video is private now. Tuned in just in time to miss the Wrestlemania VII match with Warrior kicking out of multiple Macho Man elbows in a row and instead get to see the great Savage/Liz reunion.
The Bayley/Sasha/Charlotte/Jax match from WM33 is on right now and I can’t stress enough how much I miss hugger Bayley. Her heel work was fun for sure but she had a legitimately super fun aura about her back in those hugger days. Would be neat to see them bring that back to some extent at Mania this year… I feel like her current face persona is missing something.
Matt Cardona answered Adam Copeland’s open challenge on Collision tonight, giving us Edge vs 1/2 of the Edgeheads. Pop was wild and the match was pretty awesome.
Gonna be a fun episode of the Major Wrestling Figure Podcast next week haha
Was chatting with folks on Discord and the concept of Top 10 favorite tag teams came up. Who would you guys have on your list?
For me, I went with:
1. Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero & Claudio Castagnoli) 2. The Briscoes (Jay & Mark Briscoe) 3. Hart Foundation (Bret Hart & Jim "The Anvil" Neidhart) 4. Von Erichs (specifically David, Kevin and Kerry) 5. Kenta Kobashi & Mitsuharu Misawa 6. Steenerico (Kevin Steen & El Generico) 7. The American Wolves (Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards) 8. The Young Bucks (Nick & Matt Jackson) 9. Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team (Shelton Bejamin & Charlie Haas) 10. Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood
100% just my personal list -- not an objective thing at all. 9 & 10 may be bopped off from some teams I'm just not thinking of. I appreciate Dudleys, Hardy Boys and E&C but they don't top those 10 based on my personal preference. Interested to see if others share theirs, tag team wrestling doesn't get the love it deserves.
No order except number 1. Subjective to the minute as I might have forgotten someone haha.
Midnight Express (Eaton and Lane) Freebirds (Hayes and Gordy) Road Warriors Steiners Uso’s Haas and Benjamin Hart Foundation (Bret and Anvil) Hollywood Blondes (Austin and Pillman) Arn and Tully Briscoes (Jay and Mark)
Edit: honorable mentions to the Varsity Club and Power & Glory.
Edit: maybe also an honorable mention for Ricky Steamboat and stupid ass Shane Douglas. That’s the best work Shane Douglas ever did and it’s not even close. His ECW promo work was great until he just said fudge a thousand times and his matches were almost always disappointing.
Man, CM Punk is a hypocritical yes-man sell out after all. What a fudgein bummer.
Dude legit admitted to choking Perry at All In, said he thought that he was “being responsible,” and then goes on to suggest the reports of him being violent backstage are “overblown.” Again, a mere 20 minutes after admitting he choked somebody before Samoa Joe scared him into snapping back to reality.
Also says “guaranteed money” is the issue with AEW’s contracts… as the man who 1) signed a contract for guaranteed money, like anybody signed to either AEW or WWE do, 2) got pissy when it was suggested he didn’t buy into his own “worker’s rights” spiel and, 3) said “I’m not here to make friends, I’m here to make money” during his WWE return promo. The guy just can’t help but trip over himself.
Dude is an unhinged poser, and this interview has tanked any goodwill I had left for him. Cabana and Hangman were 100% right.
There's tons of those in the business unfortunately. With a big enough payday it's hard to resist selling out. I forgive Bret for doing it, but I've refused to watch his match with Vince to this day (though from what I've heard it wasn't much of a match anyway).
> There's tons of those in the business unfortunately. With a big enough payday it's
> hard to resist selling out. I forgive Bret for doing it, but I've refused to watch
> his match with Vince to this day (though from what I've heard it wasn't much of a
> match anyway).
>
Extremely lucky to have not watched that trash bag match lol. Although it does feature a pretty gnarly Hart Attack to Vince from the Hart Dynasty where Vince bashes his head off the floor like the loser he is. Almost makes it worth the match. almost.
Lol arbitrary hate for somebody who hasn’t done anything wrong other than dare start a pro wrestling company. Keep that bias comin’. I respect you, Bucket -man!
LOL I love how any sort of criticism of Tony and AEW is ‘all he did is start a company and everyone’s blasting him for no reason’ or ‘grifters, I swear’ or whatever other rhetoric you have. As much as you claim to be objective, your bias is really showing. Mine has too, but I’m not lying about it.
> LOL I love how any sort of criticism of Tony and AEW is ‘all he did is start a
> company and everyone’s blasting him for no reason’ or ‘grifters, I swear’
> or whatever other rhetoric you have. As much as you claim to be objective, your bias
> is really showing. Mine has too, but I’m not lying about it.
Brother, I criticized Punk then made a joke about April Fool's and you popped in with an out-of-nowhere Tony Khan bashing. We all get it, you hate Tony Khan. That wasn't relevant to the conversation regarding the interview Punk did today, it was just you for some reason needing to push your weird disdain for a wrestling company's owner into the conversation... again. Give it a rest.
I don't lie about crap. I enjoy both AEW and WWE. I enjoy AEW far more lately. Haven't even sorta hidden that, so not sure what you're getting at. Whether that changes or not is yet to be determined, but it's entirely possible. Sure isn't going to happen because grown ass adults keep whining about Tony Khan, though. For someone you claim is a joke, YOU bring him up an awful lot.
I never called you a grifter, as far as I know you aren't somebody from the pro wrestling industry trying to make money off your arbitrary opinion like Bischoff, Bubba, etc. The objective fact is that, yes, you did "blast him for no reason" today (among several other occasions), and that, yes, all he did was start a pro wrestling company and you, for one reason or another, have seem to taken great offense to that.
I truly don't need you to keep being passive aggressive to me over pro wrestling. Either filter me and be done with it, or stop blatantly riling crap up. I'm completely fine with you, you seem to have a problem with me. Make a decision and I promise i'll be able to live with it. Getting real old.
Would it have been better if I said AEW was the joke? Would that have been better? That’s what I had typed out but I figured you’d go after me for whatever I said so I made it more fun for me.
You crap on Punk an awful lot and I like Punk. What’s wrong with me stating my opinion as you stated yours? I saw you crap on him for no reason and then holy crap I saw a recap of the interview and educated myself and still #TeamPunk.
I don’t know Tony enough to hate him. I think he’s wholly unqualified to be in the spot he is and his product reflects as such, but hey he can do what he wants. His stories suck and his attendance and ratings and other metrics we can see show that. I think some of the people he employs, namely the Bucks and Hangman Page and Jungle Jackoff and Jericho, are a detriment to his company but that’s one person’s opinion. He can make his company a distant number 2 and maybe or maybe not get a good TV deal. We’ll see what happens.
Listen to your avatar friend. No animosity on my side, no matter what you may think.
I like AEW, but Punk has a point that a boss that isn’t willing to step in and settle disputes (and creating and separating people into different shows isn’t settling) is never going to be sustainable. Khan needs some sort of enforcer, and honestly these days that has to be a guy that can toe the line between respected/intimidating and on the right side of HR. WWE has Hunter (who knows if that will stay with the McMahon crap), AEW lacks that.
> Would it have been better if I said AEW was the joke? Would that have been better?
> That’s what I had typed out but I figured you’d go after me for whatever I said
> so I made it more fun for me.
>
Why would that have been better? I think it's obnoxious to act like a company's owner has personally offended you, why would it be better to think his company did too? Have fun with that I guess?
> You crap on Punk an awful lot and I like Punk. What’s wrong with me stating my
> opinion as you stated yours? I saw you crap on him for no reason and then holy crap
> I saw a recap of the interview and educated myself and still #TeamPunk.
I didn't "crap on him for no reason." I watched the interview, molded an opinion based off my decades-long fandom of the guy, and posted it here in this thread. There are certain things Punk said that objectively contradicted how he's acted for years, and even contradicted what he said in the same interview. Hashtags don't work here, so not sure why you keep using one, but heck, if you're "#TeamPunk" good on ya! I hope you still enjoy his work, I'm sure his matches will be fine. I just think he's a hypocritical loser.
And let's be fair here, you'd very obviously be #TeamAnybody if they came out and said goofy crap about AEW. Objectivity goes a long way in opinion-based conversations -- when one lets their subjective opinions and blatant, admitted bias drive all their arguments, the opinion suddenly becomes washed. This is why I'd be okay with you filtering me if any criticism I post about WWE is going to become a very serious, very necessary e-war.
>
> I don’t know Tony enough to hate him. I think he’s wholly unqualified to be in
> the spot he is and his product reflects as such, but hey he can do what he wants.
> His stories suck and his attendance and ratings and other metrics we can see show
> that. I think some of the people he employs, namely the Bucks and Hamgman Page and
> Jungle Jackoff and Jericho, are a detriment to his company but that’s one person’s
> opinion. He can make his company a distant number 2 and maybe or maybe not get a
> good TV deal. We’ll see what happens.
Again, you are literally processing Nielsen ratings like they still matter as much as 1998 when they simply do not. That is not a legitimate metric to make the point you're trying to make. Both shows have lost 600k viewers on average since 2019. This isn't a matter of opinion. This one IS objective fact. Not because I'm saying it on the internet, but because all metrics and information suggests this. You choose to disregard this information to continue being inaccurate about AEW out of some weird vendetta towards a wrestling company solely for not producing a product you enjoy.
Your subjective opinion on the quality of AEW creative or just saying his stories suck does not warp reality for everyone else to make it objective truth. I like AEW better than WWE, so look at that - his product works for me! If it doesn't for you, that's totally okay! And if somebody is hung up on attendance -- just don't watch the show? At this point, the "attendance" conversation is really only dredged up by folks who already want to dislike the product and want to use this as yet another example as to why EVERYone else should too. It's pointless. No minds are changing. Simply don't worry yourself with it. Easy peasy!
>
> Listen to your avatar friend. No animosity on my side, no matter what you may think.
Please, please don't backpedal. I'm relaxed. A lot of words =/= anger and rage. You very clearly have a bone to pick whenever I share my opinion of AEW, or criticize something WWE-related. If you didn't we wouldn't be having this conversation for the 40th time. At least own up to it, and move past it. I'm entirely willing to. Alternatively, again, please just filter me. I won't take it personally, I won't hold it against you -- I'm just sick of this extremely corny pissing contest over which TV show is better. It's beyond lame and as a 34-year-old, I don't need it in my life.
> I like AEW, but Punk has a point that a boss that isn’t willing to step in and
> settle disputes (and creating and separating people into different shows isn’t
> settling) is never going to be sustainable. Khan needs some sort of enforcer, and
> honestly these days that has to be a guy that can toe the line between respected/intimidating
> and on the right side of HR. WWE has Hunter (who knows if that will stay with the
> McMahon crap), AEW lacks that.
To be fair, the dude suspended Punk, The Elite, and then fired Punk. These are moves a boss would do. We need to remember - by Punk's own admission - that he didn't like The Elite and didn't want to be there because of that. He, however, had a contract to fulfill, so Khan attempted to keep them separated. This is another thing a boss would do to capitalize on his investment. Punk was catered to at every turn. It's easy for us - or Punk (who wanted to be released by this point) - to say that "this would never work," but audiences were praising Collision and the "soft brand split" every week that it existed. So for some, it did work -- but Punk was being difficult and taking everything to heart, so he got heated.
I can understand Punk's frustration in wanting to leave and Khan has historically been cool with providing wrestler's releases when requested, but he can't then claim to think it was "responsible" to choke Jack Perry. That's unhinged behavior. Khan has a team of folks -- clearly Bryan and Joe work toward "enforcer" roles -- but there's only so much a guy can do if one of their top stars is getting into physical altercations all the time and acting like an angsty child, posting to Instagram and leaking his side of the story to Nick Hausman every other week.
And that's another thing to keep in mind -- all we've ever heard is Punk's side of the story. He's the one doing all the talking, AEW and those involved are just plugging along. It just seems bitter on his part, but I genuinely hope he's happier now and moving toward getting level-headed again. I'm just no longer a fan of the guy, and I honestly should have figured that'd be the case after the whole Cabana podcast situation right after he left WWE, but whatev.
ANYhow, that post-show Rock/Cody beat down was kinda badass. I like that little added realism to the whole ordeal. It DOES feel like it should just be straight up Rock/Cody at this point, so I'm hoping Roman does something between Mania and now to acknowledge (lol) that, but this angle has been fun enough for the most part.
Also fudgein love the sad kid reactions they just showed. Rock heeling to the nth degree.
I admit I can type a lot and it can be obnoxious, so apologies. I mean no ill will. But I'm just calling a spade a spade, the wrestling e-wars are getting old and passive aggression isn't always super passive haha. I'm certainly guilty of that from time-to-time. I just wanna come here and talk wrasslin'.
> tag team belts are both on the line, so they can potentially be split..
Oh yah, good call. There could be two winners to that match -- I could see them going with some wonky finish where two guys from different teams snag different belts at the same time. I'm gonna update the prediction form to put that on there.
Tbh they do need to split them up. Sick of just one team having both... especially JD, since they've been boring me to tears lately. Love Finn and Priest but their reign has been whatev.
Uh oh, on this night of all nights, it looks like multiple AEW releases are expected. Stu Grayson has already been released with more to come, per Fightful.
This is notable because Khan, up until this point, has only released wrestlers based on behavior. Otherwise he just lets contracts expire and doesn't pitch new ones.
It's reported it has nothing to do with CM Punk.
Not happy about that tbh. Could be cost-cutting, could be a simple case of releasing wrestlers who aren't used. We need to see the names first to figure that out. Hope all the grapplers land on their feet regardless.
EDIT: Looks to be a fat cutting scenario.
RELEASED so far:
-Stu Grayson -Backstage interviewer Dasha Kuret -The Boys (Dalton Castle's boys -_-) -Anthony Henry -Slim J -Parker Boudreaux -Jose The Assistant -Jora Johl -Gravity
Damn I forgot it even was today. Did Bill do anything special? I haven't noticed anything.
I also missed Raw, gonna have to read a recap before making any guesses in the WM thread. I usually try not to miss the go home shows before a big event.
I'm not sure why anyone would want to bash Tony Khan. The worst things anyone said about him is that he's a nice guy, but not a boss, and doesn't know how to run a wrestling company. These things are probably mostly true. They aren't necessarily bad things, though.
Maintaining being a nice guy while surrounded by egomaniacs wouldn't be easy. 5 years in and he's still a nice guy? Worst thing he's done is had a few little meltdowns on X? I think he's doing pretty good.
Not being a boss? Is this a bad thing? Sometimes. Vince wasn't the best boss on the planet, either....and I can't recall anyone calling him a nice guy.
Doesn't know how to run a wrestling company? Obviously, he's learning on the fly. It's not like there's a university course for running a wrestling company. Every time won't be better than the last, but if he continues to learn and doesn't toss his personal principles away, then I'd say he's doing ok after only 5 years. He's attained a few of the really good wrestling minds out there to help, but isn't giving the reins to someone else to do. Good on him.
His stance from before the start was that AEW would be an alternative with more sports-based wrestling. He's stumbled a few times. He probably lets talent get away with too much sometimes. He also probably doesn't crap on people (literally) or use Zoom to harass everyone during the show.
AEW stories suck? Well....yeah, they mostly have. I haven't seen anything to compare to the cinematic gold of The Undertaker sacrificing people in the middle of the ring or HHH marrying an unconscious woman or........the Boogyman.....but the AEW stories suck. They've made some strides here a bit. The MJF/Adam Cole thing was looking good til they both got buggered. The EVP Bucks have been entertaining and far more interesting than the previous versions of them.
I'm happy AEW exists so the talent has a place to be and do their stuff on a (smaller) global scale. I'm happy it gives people like Ospreay, Mercedes, Omega, Cole, and many, many more a place to showcase.
Is it perfect? Hardly. Sometimes, it's painful to watch. Is WWE perfect? Ha no.
What does Tony need to do? Keep learning, keep hiring better minds that aren't trapped in the Attitude Era, and make long term plans for some of the crazy signees he's gotten without forgetting about everyone who got him there.
Should fans criticize AEW? Absolutely. Should they hate it? Only if they hate professional wrestling, too. WWE was mostly unwatchable for much of the past 10 years. Sometimes it's easy to forget several months ago when every time something on WWE sucked, it was 'because Vince phoned it in and changed the show'. Now it's "OMG! HHH is a genius!!!" There are still all sorts of things dropped on WWE.
As for Punk's interview, I agree with a lot of what he said. He's not wrong about a lot in there. It's one-sided, but it makes sense. Choking Jack Perry is something everyone should do and shouldn't be held accountable. It's not like he's a real person or anything.
GCW Bloodsport X on now. Already saw Nic Nemeth vs Speedball Mike Bailey among other matches. Watching Charlie fudgein Dempsey (Regal’s kid) put on a clinic. And still got Shayna Baszler vs Masha Slamovich coming up. Mania weekend rules.
It's a bit suspicious that WrestleCon is going on in.......Sunny Philadelphia this weekend. Awful lot of the recentishly released WWE folks and rumored show crashers showing up for that so they'll be lurking around town. Names such as Mandy Rose, The Hardy's, D-Von Dudley, Dustin Rhodes, Elias, Arn Anderson, Fred Ottman (Cody's uncle), The IInspiration (I thought they were both preggers again?), Riddick Moss, Emma, Miro, Dolph Ziggler (yeah yeah....signed to NJPW and TNA...like that means anything, Ricky Starks, Rikishi, Serena Deeb, Summer Rae, Hornswoggle, Trish Stratus, and a bunch of old school legends.
Not sure if any will show up for Wrestlemania...possibly Dustin Rhodes and the Hardy's. Idk....but Raw after Wrestlemania might have some new faces. I wouldn't hate for Serena Deeb to go back to WWE. She started back hot in AEW then disappeared again doing indie bookings and signings. Kinda dumb.
WWE have a meeting planned with execs from TNA and with Rossy during WrestleMania weekend. Rossy was former president of Stardom, now is starting up his own company and a bunch of Stardom talent will be leaving there as their contracts are up to join with Rossy's new promotion (Gulia and several others already have let their contracts run out). This could potentially lead to a partnership that will help WWE getting a foot in the door for the NXT Japan project they wanted to do several years ago before the pandemic screwed everything up.
This is mostly a video game parody news site, but I see they are branching out today. Whoever wrote the article is clearly a wrestling fan because he nailed it. https://hard-drive.net/hd/entertainment/tony-khan-...
Yah saw that… but then they sorta bury their argument in the screenshots they posted. They didn’t want to drive 3 hours to the airport out of Nashville that would have saved money on airfare (via rentals they’d be reimbursed for), so brought it up and were apparently told by the the travel department that they’d try to get new flights and send them over. They then failed to reach out to anybody from management to let them know they wouldn’t make it, later suggesting that lack of follow up from the travel department made them think they weren’t booked — despite knowing they were obviously booked considering they had the Nashville flights.
I can see their frustration and it all seems like a big miscommunication, but I can also understand AEW’s side considering at the end of the day, dates were missed when they didn’t have to be primarily because the Boys didn’t want to drive, and then didn’t reach out to let anyone know that they for sure weren’t going to make it.
Either way, they gotta tighten up that sorta crap. I can easily see a lack of communication between Khan and whoever runs the travel department being the main issue, and if he wasn’t told anything other than the Boys didn’t show up, I can’t blame him for thinking they no-showed. Whoever spoke to them from the travel department and whoever was trying to soften the blows by telling them their release was over “budget cuts” failed with their responsibilities just as bad as the Boys failed at theirs. Khan needs to make sure he has people he can depend on in these spots, not folks looking for shortcuts.
My guess is Khan is able to apologize and iron all this out to bring them back in. He’s historically been pretty diplomatic in these sorts of situations and rarely burns bridges - just look at what Gresham said about him a while back. Either way, get the fudgein Boys back.
I'm finally listening to that CM Punk interview from earlier this week. Early on he mentions having heat in AEW from when he showed up backstage at WWE last year. What gives? WWE was in NC last month and Matt Hardy was backstage, I can say with full certainty he left the building with zero heat on him from either company.
I think the situation between Punk and Hardy are very different. Punk was apparently openly upset working in AEW, so him visiting WWE - a company be was still claiming almost killed him and that he didn’t respect - probably came off fairly bad to those in AEW. Seems in hindsight like it was probably justifiable heat - ya gotta believe that’s when they started stirring the “get Punk back in WWE” pot.
Anyhow, ROH Zero Hour pre-show is live on YouTube. Pretty fun card for Supercard of Honor tonight:
Paul Heyman just gave one of my all-time favorite HOF speeches tonight. I admit that even though I grew up watching so many of the HOF inductees over the years and then when a lot of them give their speech it bores me, but Heyman didn't allow that to happen tonight.
Bull Nakano's was good too, though I wish it was longer, I'm sure she has many stories to tell. Honestly not interested in the rest of the inductees so I'll be turning off here.
Apparently I passed out shortly into the HoF thing. It was sometime shortly after Keith Lee wandered into the CM Punk interview.....not sure if it's related. Looks like the next replay is Monday so I'll try to catch that.
Fun interview with HHH on the McAfee show. I'm sure he made a few comments that ruffled some feathers. I'm not sure if it was a direct dig against Ospreay or just talent in general, but the comment about picking the light schedule over the grind is interesting. On the one side, I absolutely see his point. If someone is only in it for some quick cash and showing up for work once a week, they aren't going to make it in the big leagues. They aren't going to be a part of what WWE has going on globally. They aren't going to be performing in front of tens of thousands of people or showcasing to millions around the planet. They aren't going to become a household name and any opportunities to move into something more prominent towards the end of their career will be greatly diminished. The old saying, "Success only comes before Work in the dictionary" rings here.
On the other hand, looking at it from, say, a Will Ospreay point of view. AEW clearly offered a LOT more money and super light schedule. This allows him not to have to pack up and move to the US where I'm sure he doesn't want to raise his family. Instead, he can fly back home Wednesday after the show and hang out for 5 days before heading back. He's still fairly early into his career but he's had some issues and his style doesn't lend to longevity...like many of the older gen stars. I understand he's already toned down some things after an incident awhile ago. AEW's light schedule allows him to keep going at his pace and having time to recover more between matches. He chose that life over being a 'WWE Superstar'. He's still Will Ospreay and he still puts on most of the best matches on the planet. THIS is the guy that needs to be pushed because he brings his A game every time he shows up. Everyone will know soon enough that he doesn't 'call it in'.
Looking at Mercedes, it's a bit different. While she's still young, as well, she already has a bunch of other things going on professionally. Telling her to show up once a week, wiggle her ass a bit and talk about having matches seems like a good deal for the reported $10 million a year she's getting for showing up maybe 60 times. This allows AEW to be a side hobby while she does her other stuff while thinking about heading back to WWE.
Okada...I dunno. My feels tell me he's only there for the cheque. I thought his match last year with Danielson was great. I haven't seen anywhere near that level from him since actually signing with AEW. I haven't heard him say a peep about being excited to be there and for the new challenges. He's honestly looked disinterested. For anyone not familiar with him, he's just another guy that shows up every few weeks, stands behind the EVPs, says 1 line, and heads back to Japan. It's not easy getting behind someone like that.
I suppose it depends what's important to these people. If being super famous and being in front of huge crowds is important, AEW isn't the place to be. If making killer money and still having at least 6 days a week for other things works better, then it certainly can be. I'm sure most common/normal people would gladly work 1 day a week for 6x the money than grinding it out. You make a living, you live well, and you're able to build a life. On the flip side, that's why they'll remain common and normal people. It's not a bad thing. For some it's the best they'll ever get. For others, it's a choice.
Ospreay has been grinding the past several years harder than Triple H ever did in his life. H just doesn’t want to acknowledge that because it wasn’t in pursuit of a WWE contract.
> Was chatting with folks on Discord and the concept of Top 10 favorite tag teams came
> up. Who would you guys have on your list?
1) Minnesota Wrecking Crew, Arn and Ole 2) Harlem Heat 3) Steiner Brothers 4) Mega Powers 5) Hart Foundation -Bret and Jim 6) Road Warriors 7) Edge & Christian 8) Brain Busters 9) Midnight Express 10) Rock n Roll Express
Perhaps that was somewhat accurate sometimes. Japan liked the days long tournaments, but that wasn't the statement. Will chose to work 1 day a week with higher pay over working a few days a week for less pay. To hourly normal people, that seems like a no brainer.
Will has shown up every week since signing. He's had a handful of matches along the way. There is zero beef with what he's done in AEW...but it's maybe 1 match a week. Zero house shows. The very occasional PLE that may or may not add a match sometimes. Diehard wrestling fans know him. Casual fans have heard his name and he's only recently starting to get some North American exposure.
Nobody suggested Will 'couldn't' do a tougher schedule with more matches, appearances, etc....but he absolutely chose not to. As I said before, there's nothing wrong with that. He feels it's better for him right now or for good....but AEW isn't currently capable of providing near the same exposure, so, by default, he won't become a household name. That's simply the trade off. Does he care? Probably to some degree but I'm sure those fat cheques help take the pain away. Still better than moving furniture 6 days a week 8-10 hours a day.
I can't comment on what kind of houses he drew in NJPW but I imagine it wouldn't change much there since the fans are so quiet no matter what happens. Different culture. He's seen the 70,000ish stadiums and said he was completely blown away. He'll see that again to some degree at Wembley later this year. I have to think it messes with a performer's mind when they go from that to wrestling in 1/4 full arenas with areas tarped off and talking to empty seats. That has to be a big adjustment for any former WWE folks that go there.
Is that AEW's fault? Somewhat, for sure. They are still new and still growing and learning.
WWF wasn't pulling those numbers 5 years after starting, either. Compare AEW to WWE/F at that stage and AEW is absolute leagues ahead...though WWE wasn't paying people millions of dollars to sit in catering all the time and occasionally come out. Vince saw this and revolutionized the industry.
Simply, the choice was this:
AEW: Light schedule (much lighter than NJPW), a ton more money out of the gate, lots of time to go home and be with his family, Tony is a nice guy, he has some familiarity with the talent and backstage people, and a few PLE's a year. Apparently the company is doing financially well, but you'd never know it looking at their small audiences.
WWE: Heavier schedule, including house shows, less money out of the gate, less time to go back home, HHH seems decent compared Vince but much more business-minded than Tony, doesn't know too many of the talent or backstage people there, a LOT more PLE's...but he'd be on 'The Grandest Stage of them All' and be in front of massive crowds all the time.
Trade off and decision. Maybe he feels AEW can become a juggernaut and his help would get it there. Maybe it will someday, but that day isn't this weekend. He's not the first guy to make that decision. Many others also chose not to go there. If it doesn't align with what he wants then it doesn't. I don't know if he looks at things like Wrestlemania weekend and thinks, "Man, I should be there" while he's being body slammed onto the steel steps by a Hobbes.
6 Pack Ladder match - 3.5/5 ...pretty solid as far as multi-person ladder matches go
Rey and Andrade vs Dom and Santos - 1.5/5 ..had potential to be a solid 4 until those idiot football guys wrecked it
Jey vs Jimmy - 2/5. I'd give it a 3 but I hate Lil Wayne. He absolutely sucks
Damage CTRL vs Jade, Bianca, and Naomi - 3.5/5. Decent multi-tag and did its job showcasing Jade.
Gunther vs Zayn - 4.5/5 ...didn't love Gunther dropping the belt to that nimrod but couldn't deny it happening after Gable said he'd owe him a favor. Where does Gunther go from here??
Rock and Reigns vs Cody and Seth - 5/5 - You could see a lot of effort went into this one. Rock was moving good for a 50+ year old. It's also the only match I recall Reigns winning that didn't have outside interference.
> On the other hand, looking at it from, say, a Will Ospreay point of view. AEW clearly
> offered a LOT more money and super light schedule. This allows him not to have to
> pack up and move to the US where I'm sure he doesn't want to raise his family. Instead,
> he can fly back home Wednesday after the show and hang out for 5 days before heading
> back. He's still fairly early into his career but he's had some issues and his style
> doesn't lend to longevity...like many of the older gen stars. I understand he's already
> toned down some things after an incident awhile ago. AEW's light schedule allows
> him to keep going at his pace and having time to recover more between matches. He
> chose that life over being a 'WWE Superstar'. He's still Will Ospreay and he still
> puts on most of the best matches on the planet. THIS is the guy that needs to be
> pushed because he brings his A game every time he shows up. Everyone will know soon
> enough that he doesn't 'call it in'.
I will not deny Will Ospreay's talent, because that'd be dumb. But when you have the amount of talent he does, why wouldn't you want to showcase it for the world to see? The fact is you will get more worldwide exposure from even just curtain jerking at WrestleMania than you ever will from headlining a Wrestle Kingdom, which in turn can give you reason to up your asking price even more. If not wanting to relocate to the US was the deal-breaker though, I understand.
Welp, looks like "the Bucks" are going to air the Punk/Perry security footage from All In on Dynamite this week -- according to reputable outlets, it's not a bait and switch. We're going to see what happened. They're apparently going legitimately air the footage.
I still have to believe it's a work, which is a little goofy. But if it's legit... good. Sorta look more forward to that than Mania Night 2 lmao... except of course for Rhodes/Roman 2. That's gonna be edge of your seat crap.
>> On the other hand, looking at it from, say, a Will Ospreay point of view. AEW
> clearly
>> offered a LOT more money and super light schedule. This allows him not to have
> to
>> pack up and move to the US where I'm sure he doesn't want to raise his family.
> Instead,
>> he can fly back home Wednesday after the show and hang out for 5 days before heading
>> back. He's still fairly early into his career but he's had some issues and his
> style
>> doesn't lend to longevity...like many of the older gen stars. I understand he's
> already
>> toned down some things after an incident awhile ago. AEW's light schedule allows
>> him to keep going at his pace and having time to recover more between matches.
> He
>> chose that life over being a 'WWE Superstar'. He's still Will Ospreay and he
> still
>> puts on most of the best matches on the planet. THIS is the guy that needs to
> be
>> pushed because he brings his A game every time he shows up. Everyone will know
> soon
>> enough that he doesn't 'call it in'.
>
>
>
> I will not deny Will Ospreay's talent, because that'd be dumb. But when you have
> the amount of talent he does, why wouldn't you want to showcase it for the world
> to see? The fact is you will get more worldwide exposure from even just curtain jerking
> at WrestleMania than you ever will from headlining a Wrestle Kingdom, which in turn
> can give you reason to up your asking price even more. If not wanting to relocate
> to the US was the deal-breaker though, I understand.
>
I dunno. He didn't go into detail other than saying that WWE's offer 'wasn't even close'.
I totally get what you're saying. It's not like it's two bricklaying companies vying for a guy to mix cement and carry tools. The entertainment industry is a bit different. Maybe he doesn't really want 'the fame'. Throughout a few interviews, he talked enough about his girlfriend and kid. Maybe they don't want to live in the US. Maybe he doesn't want to be on Dark Side of the Ring in 20 years having everyone say what a deadbeat dad he was because he chose his career and fame over his family. I don't know if they went with him to Japan. Based on his schedule there, he wouldn't have had much time to go back home. Maybe they don't want to raise a family in the US. It's not like that country has the strongest reputation for safety in schools. I don't know. People could speculate all day and still not know.
Personally, with the bit he said, I agree that AEW was the best choice for him. It's familiar and he knows a lot of people there. A lot of people on this side of the pond don't know who he is. They're finding out. I'd love to see him go up against guys like Rollins, Rhodes, etc, too....but it's not like AEW is full of scrubs. In-ring talent wise, I'd still say AEW has more top tier performers than WWE does that would fit his style a bit better.
> Welp, looks like "the Bucks" are going to air the Punk/Perry security footage from
> All In on Dynamite this week -- according to reputable outlets, it's not a bait and
> switch. We're going to see what happened. They're apparently going legitimately air
> the footage.
>
> I still have to believe it's a work, which is a little goofy. But if it's legit...
> good. Sorta look more forward to that than Mania Night 2 lmao... except of course
> for Rhodes/Roman 2. That's gonna be edge of your seat crap.
I just saw something about that this morning. I'm not sure that Meltzer is a reputable outlet. All I see that the EVPs posted was 'Roll. The. Tape." I hope it's legit footage. There are always 3 sides to every story. His side, their side, and what really happened. I'm sure it'll get a lot of viewers Wednesday...at least until that airs and people will talk about it.
What's the fallout if it's legit?
It shows Punk lied and was wrong? Egg on his face, WWE marks won't care and will forget about it before Smackdown airs. Punk detractors will be, "See, I told you he's a cancer". WWE won't care. Punk won't care. He'll simply say it didn't show what lead to that. They have bigger issues with Vince and the rest of his former execs.
If it's inconclusive? Then why waste TV time on a show? Nobody on the other side said a word about it during TV. It was done through podcasts and crap like that.
.,..and if it's a parody or a work?
Look out. Years ago, after the Montreal screw job, WWE did a parody of Bret Hart returning and had a midget come in to be humiliated. A LOT of people boycotted WWE between the two things and it took a real long time to get that back. Casual AEW fans won't be impressed or entertained. It may raise viewership for a few minutes and murder it going forward.
I feel it would make more business sense to have it posted onto social media platforms. Here's the footage. Make up your mind about what the facts are. We have a show to do. Make sure to tune into Rampage this Friday where you can see some typically dull matches on our C show that you already know the results of since it happened 2 days prior and a recap of Mercedes wiggling to her amazing theme song.
I confess, a part of me enjoys this part of the business - people taking shots at the competition. Most of both rosters and management are guilty of it. It's a fun distraction between shows.
> Gut feeling reigns keeps the damn belt why else make the title matched booked for
> bloodline rules.
It's gonna end with an "Avengers assemble" moment where all the folks who the Bloodline wronged over the past few years come out to back up Cody -- Jey, KO, Sami, Seth, Knight, Rey, maybe even Drew in a sorta "for the greater good" moment.
Would rather Cody just "finish the story" on his own but it could make for a satisfying moment (assuming that is what actually happens obv).
The Young Bucks are going to clobber Cody in the back of the head with Mercedes Mone then Will Ospreay is going to pound Reigns with an Oscutter while Tony Khan suplexes HHH across the stadium and gives him the stinkface.
Bucks and Cody are still good friends tbh. That's the main reason I find the internet tribalism so silly. Just wait -- Cody wins tonight, we're gonna see the "too sweet" gesture, maybe even followed by the "smoking gun" gesture. The good ol' Cody is Bullet Club through and through lol
> I confess, a part of me enjoys this part of the business - people taking shots at
> the competition. Most of both rosters and management are guilty of it. It's a fun
> distraction between shows.
I have mixed feelings on it. I don't hate it, but it has to make sense. Paul Heyman knew what he was doing when trying to rally up the core ECW fanbase to hate WWF/WCW (especially WCW). Not one of those fans knew Paul was accepting a little bit of financial support from Vince, or else Paul would've looked like a moron to those same fans.
Another example (but in the opposite way), a random scrub on Twitter was mocking WWE's Performance Center for not producing any stars, so MJF chimes in with a list of names that came from the PC with no experience before signing with WWE and are definitely stars now. That one I liked because the fan was hating for the sake of hating and had clearly done zero research before he decided to Tweet that.
Of course DX invasion on Nitro, f'n classic and will never be topped.
But there are times where it falls flat too, like those "Billionaire Ted" skits with "Nacho Man and The Huckster", which was just Vince being butt-hurt that his stars had moved on. I did think the skits were funny, but that was mostly because by the time they aired I was well beyond the "Hulkamania" phase and couldn't stand the guy anymore. I had no opinion on Ted Turner personally though. In retrospect if they wanted to attack Savage, leave his age out of it and talk about what a paranoid freak he is about whoever he's dating. In either case, I think both of them were 43-ish at the time, which is standard age of most people in the main event scene of either company these days. It means nothing, because you can either still go at 40 or you can't. R-Truth is 52 and moves around that ring just as easily as people 20 years younger than him. He can pop a crowd easier than most of them too.
Where has this Iyo been for the past 8 months? It feels like it was her first title defense. Has she defended it before? She's amazing. I'd basically written her off a long time ago as someone that was good at being a nothing champion.
Word is Giulia has now signed with WWE and will start in NXT shortly. She's another import I'm really not familiar with other than seeing her name in various ratings and dropped here and there. I guess I've got some youtubing to do when I get a few quiet minutes.
Disappointed Drew lost the title before tomorrow. Hopefully he's sticking around and not leaving. His work the past several months has been incredible.
Priest as WHC is ok, too, though. He's put in the clicks. I guess it's time for Imperium to get back to feuding with Judgment Day. Gunther vs Priest in Berlin?
Was interesting that the Bucks and Omega were featured during the Cody preamble for WM.
I'm wondering if this recent back and forth between AEW and WWE is a work and they're plotting something together. Plenty of mention of names such as Jericho, Banks, Edge, etc over and during Wrestlemania. Never would have happened with Vince around...CM Punk insults Tony by saying he's a nice guy. Stone has been thrown.
I don't know if Giulia has signed with WWE yet, but it's definitely happening. I know they brought her in for a try-out around 6 months ago, but since then Rossy got booted out of Stardom and last I heard is she will be sticking around to help him build up a name for his new promotion as a favor to him. The new promotion is expected to be up and running by this summer.
A lot of the broads from Stardom are loyal to Rossy, not to Stardom as a company, so by giving him the boot, that company is about to become the craps. 5 of the more known women (including Giulia) have left to go with Rossy and more have announced they will not be re-signing when their deals are up. It is looking very likely WWE and Rossy's promotion will form a partnership of some sort and I couldn't be more excited.
No fudgein crap. She pulled it out. Bayley/Iyo became the second best match of the show, right behind Gunther/Zayn. Her title reign was booked fudging terribly. Props to Iyo though, she did her best.
Predictions for RAW tonight? 1) Who debuts from NXT/Random signings? 2) Who does Gunther go after, Rhodes or Priest? Whichever he chooses (Probably Priest), who will face the latter? 3) Does Gable cash in on his favor? 4) First challengers for Raw tag titles? DIY/Pretty Deadly? 5) Will Reigns/Rollins/Drew/Rock/Drew come out and address crowd? 6) Will we get a new challenger for Ripley? 7) Any other big announcements?? New Belts (like woman's intercontinental belt or Cruiserweight belt comes back?) 8) Will woman's tag belts FINALLY be challenged by maybe Jade/Bianca/Naomi combo?
For the first time in a long time, I'm actually interested in the direction WWE is going...
1) Random signings...there's usually one anyway. I can't think of any free agents they'd be interested in...unless MJF actually made the jump, but I doubt it. I could see some people coming back who've been off for awhile like Strowman, etc. Possibly Tyler Rotunda.
2) They kinda already started some friction between Judgment Day and Imperium so I'd expect that to start up again. I've got nothing for Cody...probably do the open challenge crap for awhile until they figure it out....or someone turns heel.
3) Of course he does
4) Pretty Deadly being left off the card was a tragedy.
5) Maybe Drew, but I doubt it.
6) There's nobody left to challenge Ripley that could be taken seriously. Probably Liv Morgan, though.
7) Not yet
8) Are those still a thing? They haven't mattered in 2 years.
> That was a bad episode of Raw. Cody/Rock was fun though.
What was the point of the Cody/Rock thing anyhow?? It was pretty lame, and to be honest, cheesy as hell.. IT was 49 minutes long and quite honestly, could have been cut to like 15 minutes.. The best part of Raw was the Judgment Day part when R-Truth came out.. This was one of the worst post Wrestlemania Raws I've seen..
> Yup. That Bray doc fudging annihilated me. Life's too gosh darn short, fellas.
+1 to watching the Bray Wyatt documentary. Listening to his family/friends recount the day he passed was absolutely brutal. Highly recommended, but be prepared to shed at least a few tears.
On a happier note, The last 5 minutes of the Reigns vs Rhodes match was awesome. Felt like a little kid again.
I think one thing WWE does very well consistently is creates anticipation for 'what's next'. A few things will be mentioned throughout the show, a few newish feuds may start up or continue since the Wrestlemania break, and people expect to see some new faces show up. I'm sure if MJF had sauntered out there, most everyone would have been, "OMG, best Raw EVERRRRRRRRR". Some would be, "Who's this guy? New manager?" The 47 minutes of the Rock being booed wouldn't have mattered anymore. The endless recaps of Wrestlemania wouldn't have been the talking point to anyone who saw it....but he didn't, nor did anyone else of interest so the talking point is The Rock abusing his power and privilege to hijack the first hour of the show....again.
So, what people found out...
Liv Morgan is next to go after Rhea
Sheamus is coming back soon
The Draft starts in a couple weeks. NXT is involved
Cody will continue to be on Smackdown, at least until after the draft is finalized
Punk is all better and will be feuding with McIntyre imminently
Shinsuke Nakamura might as well go back to NXT, Japan, TNA, or somewhere he might get over again. I'd normally say AEW....he'd be great there, too...but he wouldn't be winning anymore than he does now.
Chad Gable is turning heel. I don't think he'll be winning the belt next week in Montreal but expect Zayn/Gable at the next PLE, where he'll go over.
Also, if everyone keeps ramming sunshine up Cody's ass, the fans are going to turn on him hard. He suddenly desperately needs a new feud soon - before Rock comes back and continues his wasting of TV time....but who could harass him that would be believable after these past few months? Also, he does cry pretty much every week. I didn't notice so much until Rock said it. It needs to stop.
From there, they leave some unanswered questions so tune into Smackdown this Friday...and they will.
I was thinking about it. I think that may have been one of the only Wrestlemania's I've actually watched live while it happened. It's also the first year since Wrestlemania began that there is a possible way to do that in Rural Manitoba without going to some public place that 'might' be airing it. It's different watching this stuff this way, rather than by my usual alternative methods after the fact with slow internet and no TV provider. Watching it all go down after you already know what the results are isn't as fun.
I guess the Rock/Cody had some good callbacks to past events, which from a storytelling standpoint is great. It didn’t play out well real time though. Rock needs to move along the dialogue, too much posterizing for the crowd.
Cody needs to lose the awshucks aspect of his character and lean into being a face champion. While he was irritating to me at the time, looking back Cena was the best at that.
> Where was the part with Tony "fearing for his life"?
>
>
Probably when Punk was walking through a table screaming at him after they got pulled apart. EDIT: My question is where was the part that triggered Punk's Silva/Sonnen reference from the interview, where he suggested he pushed Perry because he "couldn't let him get close?" Punk got directly in his face then leapt on him.
Either way, Punk's original side of the story for sure wasn't what happened. He does come off as a punk though, that's for sure.
I haven't watched Dynamite yet. I watched their Youtube clips and whatever little vids they posted on X, but those seemed to show enough about this to form the start of an opinion.
To start with, I will finally give Tony Khan his flowers. He's FINALLY promoted something about his show to get people to watch and talk about it before and after. Based on what I saw from the ringside vids, it didn't sell a ticket, but it's a start. It's unfortunate that something wasn't his own amazing roster or current events. For next week, he can start promoting that they have the video of CM Punk orchestrating 9/11 and being the reason Putin invaded Ukraine.
So....Ospreay comes out and says he got permission from Tony to address the HHH comments from last week from some podcast interview thing but only a few minutes since TV time is expensive. He goes on to say what he said...words which have never been spoken before by anyone else heavily featured and advertised later in the show. K, so, I like his energy. No real harm done here. HHH isn't brittle and the feedback his promotion has gotten speaks for itself.
They go on to continue pushing that the Bucks are going to air footage.
The Bucks eventually proceed to spend 11 minutes talking and show the vid that lines up fairly well with what Punk said on the podcast last week when asked about the situation. X had several people post them simultaneously to compare before TK had them taken down. I have no idea what that thing up there is or who it's from, but the vid and Punk's interview were consistent with what he said.
Never have I said I dislike AEW or that it exists. I've always enjoyed the promotion and the opportunities it's created for discarded talent and for talent that wants other options to, what once was for a long time, an incoherent parody of professional wrestling, overly scripted and inconsistent mess calling itself sports entertainment. The amount of talent on that roster is insane and gets even more maniacal when you look at all the injured talent that hasn't been around for awhile (Omega, MJF, Hayter, etc). It's always been new and exciting.
What I have done is criticized AEW for having crapty promotion of their product, having weak or non-existent storylines, and pushing people too much who don't deserve it and sidelining people who do.
After this fiasco - and it was a fiasco, it doesn't even look like a competitive promotion. It really looks like some billionaire's hobby. I've seen people comment that when WWE puts down something AEWish, it's fine, but when AEW does it to WWE, then it's petty and lame. I don't see it like that. What I do see is some WWE people (Punk, HHH, Grayson Waller - recently...(if you take anything he says seriously) say things on some platform of social media and then get responded to by TK, The Bucks, Copeland, Ospreay, etc directly on their flagship TV show. When you hear someone on WWE say something that even acknowledges AEW, it's typically not done during TV time....and, if it is, it sure as hell isn't advertised for a week before the show that they're going to do it as if it's the main event.
Many are saying the question to be answered is 'Why?'. The real question is, where does AEW go from here? Indications are they're turtling from the backlash - deleting vids of it on X, and being mum, hoping people will forget about it in a week or two. They will forget. It wasn't memorable. They're probably better off leaning into it. The Bucks trying to spin it into their match with FTR is weak. FTR is also good friends with Copeland and many others. Is that their next feud? Thigh slapping the Ultimate Geriatric?
I mean, at the end of the day, showing the footage was only partially to set the record straight. Punk was the aggressor, got in Perry’s face and waited until the dude had his arms up to start attacking him. He contradicted himself not only in the interview, but also in what he said happened when Fightful reached out to his camp after it happened. It’s perfectly okay to acknowledge that.
Past that, in storyline, it was the obnoxious and petty heel Bucks showing the footage to further the storyline with FTR and reintroduce the “Scapegoat” Jack Perry character, which was made blatant right from the start. It was effective in that sense.
Was it an incredible idea? No. Was it as bad as all the Punk/WWE stans or inherently anti-AEW crowd are making it out? No.
I heard that people were chanting CM Punk in the arena while it aired in there.....but the only footage I've seen so far, you can only hear one or two people doing that. I think one thing that bugs me about watching smaller shows is that you can actually distinctly hear fan's voices as if they're on commentary. On larger shows, it seems to need a lot of people in unison to be coherent.
Back to the Perry thing. Not many people are mentioning what led to the altercation. Perry going against what he was told by his mini-bosses not to use real glass for a pre-show match and damaging a rental car. Sure, Punk went up to Perry. You can see they're exchanging words. Perry appears like he doesn't care what's being said, playing with his hair and looking away. This leads to Punk, clearly getting angry, pushing him and trying to grab a hold of him. I got a kick out of Hook just kinda standing there like he didn't know what to do.
Did it add anything useful to the FTR match? FTR's thing has been that the Bucks have been ducking them. I don't think FTR and the Bucks needs it anymore than FTR and the Briscoes needed much by the third match.
You don't have to love Punk/WWE or hate AEW to look at this and think 'what the hell?'
Ospreay's promo on HHH still confuses me. He literally said he chose AEW because the schedule was light and the pay was better. His only reply about the grind, other than the lame one, was flying back and forth to the UK every week....not how he used to do 5 nights in a row regularly overseas. The schedule works better for him. The money was better. It makes sense from the being there for your family standpoint. It doesn't need anything else. He chose that. HHH comes from a gen that worked the roads and grind driving town to town. TK didn't and his universe is vastly different. It's weird HHH lets it slide for guys like Logan Paul, though.
The Bucks are being heels and, with the match looming, are trying to get in FTR’s heads. Do we want storyline development or no storyline development? It always seems to shift in AEW’s case. If there was nothing, people would be criticizing the lack of story - so they took this route. This may not have been everybody’s cup of tea, but it did add heat to the match. And with Perry’s new “scapegoat” persona, the footage helps develop that before he even appears on AEW TV again.
A crowd chanting CM Punk means nothing to me these days, especially with the heels presenting the footage. It’s just a longer “what” chant - people do that anytime the dude is mentioned. It doesn’t change that the footage shows him being the aggressor and taking a cheap shot, nor do any of the Twitter accounts tripping over themselves to suggest otherwise.
It’s fair if one sees this and thinks “what the hell,” no doubt. But it simply isn’t as big of a deal as the internet is making it out to be. At the end of the day, it can be looked at as heels making excuses for themselves and their buddy Jack Perry. Just an added bonus that we, the audience, get to see footage of an altercation nobody can stop talking about and come to our own conclusions. WWE has molded this idea that transparency is a no-no when that doesn’t always need to be the case - especially in the age of Triple H saying it’s always “best to blur the lines.”
And Triple H was suggesting Ospreay was a grind runner… avoiding the grind of being on the road every day at “that early in his career.” Could totally see why Ospreay would take umbrage with that considering dude has spent a decade grinding his ass off - wrestling 150 shows a year and flying all over the world to do so. Triple H’s comments ultimately equated to saying “if you don’t sign with WWE when we ask you to, you don’t work hard enough.” That just isn’t the case, even if AEW has a lighter schedule. The work in the ring alone proves that well enough.
Also the videos getting deleted off X weren’t of the footage itself, but doctored footage to make it come off worse - like Helwani adding commentary or people chopping it up. There are plenty instances of the actual footage still floating around.
I dunno, just seems much ado about nothing and I felt that way when it was first announced that the footage would be shown. I think most folks are ready to just move on, but with Punk going in depth with a shill like Helwani, I truly can’t pretend like Khan/AEW were in the “wrong” to defend from their company being buried to such an extent on what is blatantly a WWE-adjacent podcast.
WWE spent much of their biggest weekend of the year taking little potshots at AEW during panels and whatnot, so fair’s fair.That said, hopefully Khan grows from all this and learns to manage issues of this extent better. But I’m personally for sure ready to move on from the AEW/Punk saga. He’s happy where he’s at now, good for him. Both parties should move on now.
Yeah, I'm sure HHH is certainly a bit bitter about not getting Sasha and Will for sure, especially since everyone knows he wanted them and they went to the competition...which he suspiciously says they don't have. Maybe AEW isn't a competitor for fans, shows, global standing, merch, etc, but absolutely a competitor for talent. He didn't seem to care about Okada that much.
In unrelated news, I got a few minutes yesterday afternoon to stalk some Giulia matches on Youtube. She's actually pretty good in the ring and has a real unique look. It doesn't hurt that she's a stunner. I couldn't find much of her talking, but I understand she's still learning English...the worst language to learn...so I look forward to that debut someday this year. Curious if they'll be lazy and toss her into Damage CTRL or do something interesting.
Back to the AEW thing, yeah, WWE definitely took a few jabs and a couple of uppercuts at AEW over the weekend during panels, podcasts, etc...but not much at all during the actual shows. That's kinda a big difference. I don't know how many people make a point of listening to every podcast or watch pre-show panel crap. I will if I'm bored, but I tend to have other stuff to do and get back in time for the actual show. I'm not sure if HHH's ego would ever get him on the phone with TK to do something more useful or vice versa.....but it would be cool to have one last Shield reunion at a multi-company PLE, see Ospreay vs Rollins (2 guys that can actually go in the ring), Hook vs Dom Dom, White vs Balor, Styles vs Omega, and more. Too bad WWE's tag scene still kinda sucks. They're getting more teams...but none of them stand out like the teams in AEW do. I still think Pretty Deadly is about the most interesting team they have.
If I'm reading this right, due to the All In PPV taking place in London and their laws being different, Tony apparently needed written permission of every person in that video before he broadcasted that footage. If CM Punk chose to, he could ring up his lawyer. I expect him to pay no mind to it, enough people are already saying how bad of a look it was to air it in the first place.
Anyway, skipping SmackDown tonight to watch NJPW Windy City Riot. So far though it is just meh. Womens match was alright I guess. Now preparing for a clusterfudge tag match.
I'm sure Khan's not worried if he has to pay out, or gather his army of lawyers. I'm sure it's not worth it for either side. Either way, the discourse over the Punk/AEW situation is fudging exhausting. It was petty, but it did also show that Punk wasn't being 100% truthful. Folks are taking it far too seriously but that's the internet. I'm retired from giving too much of a good gosh darn about it at this point.
Also watching Windy City Riot, the Punk-killer just arrived. But have Smackdown on underneath it. Potential big story line kicked off:
New Bloodline formed... Tama Tonga showed up and he and Solo kicked Jimmy out but kept Heyman. I bet Fatu joins them and we get New Bloodline v OG Bloodline (Reigns/Usos) at SummerSlam (Solo ripped Heyman's phone out of his hand when he was trying to talk to Reigns). I imagine that leads to a Reigns/Rock match down the line somehow. Totally fantasy booking obv but that's half the fun.
lmao Chicago is very much not as anti-Perry as I was expecting. Dueling "you got choked out" vs "no he didn't" chants of equal volume. There were some "real glass" chants earlier. Perry's benefiting greatly from that footage, career-wise... also became a top merch seller with his Scapegoat shirt selling out twice.
> I was always indifferent to Perry. Maybe it changes with this heel run, but he had
> a definite glass ceiling with that Jungle Boy shtick.
>
>
Oh I agree 100%. I loved the team with Luchasaurus at the start but was clamoring for a change of character toward the end of Jungle Boy... I'm just saying he's been consistently great, in-ring. He's definitely putting in good heel work in NJPW, and is catching major momentum since last Wednesday. Folks can think what they want about the dreaded footage, but it's definitely working to some extent, at least for Perry's character.
Who cares what the IWC thinks? Just like what you like and dislike what you dislike. Takahashi always does silly crap like that, I personally think he's fun. And WWE does plenty of goofy crap, cmahn now.
But Ali won and Kidd/KENTA/Conners/Finlay beat Kingston/TJP/Cobb/Homicide. 3 matches left.
Smackdown was alright. I'm suspecting Solo and Tama are reporting to the Rock now. Also figuring on Jey and Jimmy reuniting after the draft and being recruited by Reigns somewhere down the road. I don't see Rock/Cody happening at Wrestlemania.....seems more likely to be Reigns/Rock.
Tiffy time.....is going to turn into Titty time if she doesn't switch up her ring gear. She's one fantastic arm drag or sunset flip away from having a 'malfunction'. A bit surprised she took the L, but it's probably best for her character right now.
Ok....AEW fans....you can have Rey Mysterio now. There's a whole new locker room of Mexican wrestlers there to turn on him for being the way he is. Glad to see LA Knight and AJ Styles in the final for the title shot.....completely puzzled why Owens and Escobar were involved. Logan and Randy would have made it a bit more interesting.
Patiently awaiting Jade to turn heel on Belair. She's not as fun as a good guy....but WWE still needs a Tony first.
Finally watched Dynamite this afternoon....not a bad show.....not the best show compared to others they've done this year. I love Mercedes....but she needs to stop talking....would prefer she sticks with what she's good at....wrestling and wiggling to her weird theme song. As for who attacked her....looks like a toss up between Saraya and the Bucks over whose position is higher. I think she gets paid more than both of them combined. I'm hoping it was someone more interesting than Julia or Willow and they bring back the DMD or Hayter....but they'd both be fed to Mone. I think the rest of the matches were fairly forgettable. I'm still in shock that Dustin didn't beat Joe.
@y2k Mercedes was definitely attacked by either Willow (doubtful) or Statlander (probable). Mercedes and Willow have been beefing and Stat/Willow are a little group with Stokely lately. The lights going off was definitely supposed to suggest Julia Hart, but I think that's a red herring. Saraya's busy being her brother's valet on Rampage (as we speak actually) and the Bucks are obv doing their own thing.
> Who cares what the IWC thinks? Just like what you like and dislike what you dislike.
> Takahashi always does silly crap like that, I personally think he's fun. And WWE
> does plenty of goofy crap, cmahn now.
I know, and it's to be expected from WWE, but I feel NJPW would get a free pass because...Japan. Also re-reading my post, I don't mean I turned it off in protest or something, I just had something to do that I kept putting off and felt like that would be a good time to finally do it without missing anything important.
The matches that followed that match have been bangers haha. ZSJ is the new (2x) TV champ and we still got an IWGP title match coming up. Nemeth vs Ishii is about to get started.
But naw, NJPW gets a pass because they always do stuff like that -- Takahashi especially. Expected from both because wrestling rules.
I def recommend you go back and watch ZSJ/Riddle. Riddle is a fool but that was a great match.
I did catch the Riddle/Zack Sabre match and watching Nemeth and Ishii now, it was just the second half of the Ali match I missed. The show has definitely picked up after those first two or three matches that weren't doing much for me.
It's the ghosts of Xia Lia and Nikki Cross hacking the satellite feed trying to get Triple H's attention on behalf of the women's division that shows up to TV every week only to get stuck in catering.
Marigold is Rossy's new promotion, and their first event will be on May 20. Looking forward to it. Giulia is advertised, so that's in line with what one of my Japanese friends said that she isn't signing with WWE just yet, she's doing a favor to Rossy and will be helping to grow his promotion in the early stages before heading over to WWE.
I liked what I saw, but I only got to sit through a little past the first hour and liked that the crowd was really into it. I did want to see the Sami and Chad match, hopefully they at least put highlights on YouTube.
1) Stone Cold Steve Austin 2) Mankind/Cactus Jack/Dude Love 3) Macho Man Randy Savage 4) Daniel Bryan 5) Scott Hall 6) HBK Shawn Michaels 7) Booker T 8) Dolph Ziggler 9) Kurt Angle 10) Yokuzuna
Damn, this is tough. Some of these I feel like their order could change if you asked me again in a week, except #1 is forever my absolute favorite. I'm trying not to show any outside bias and keep this based on their in-ring work and not let that be affected by something stupid they might have said on social media years later or something they did in their personal lives (I wouldn't hold it against anyone if they listed Chris Benoit or Kane, in fact Kane almost made my list and he probably would've if he had retired 5 years earlier than he did).
Dudes 1. Mr. Perfect 2. Bret Hart 3. CM Punk 4. Eddie Guerrero 5. Kurt Angle 6. The Undertaker 7. Shawn Michaels 8. Brock Lesnar 9. Bryan Danielson 10. Claudio Castagnoli / Tajiri
Dudettes 1. Asuka 2. Molly Holly 3. Sara Del Rey 4. Chyna 5. Beth Phoenix 6. Bull Nakano 7. Io Shirai 8. Bianca Belair 9. Awesome Kong 10. Sasha Banks / Gail Kim
I still don't feel 100% satisfied with either list, and I don't like doing a tie, but I've spent the past 15 minutes flip-flopping on each list between which one of the two at 10 gets cut and I just can't decide. I dislike "honorable mentions" even more because I don't wanna take anything away from those who were good enough to make the list, so a tie it is!
Guys 1) The Rock 2) Bret "The Hitman" Hart 3) Kevin Owens 4) Undertaker 5) Jake "The Snake" Roberts 6) Stone Cold 7) Ric Flair 8) "Macho Man" Randy Savage 9) Dusty Rhodes 10) Sting
Forbes officially released their breakdown of the most valuable combat sports promotions in 2024. UFC, WWE and AEW are the top 3, with that $2 billion valuation of AEW being confirmed as accurate. I thought WWE was around $9bil but $6.8 sure is nothing to scoff at.
Ric Flair, Sting, Triple H and Chris Jericho made it on fewer lists than I'd have expected (the latter two not appearing on any). I wanted to squeeze Randy Savage onto mine but I don't know who he could replace.
Tajiri making my list probably looks like the odd man out, but he has a guaranteed spot on my list since I went through some old ECW shows a few years back which then got me re-watching his WWE stuff again and I came to the conclusion he's one of the most underrated of all time. Whether it was big guys, small guys, medium sized guys, he could work with them all and make them look like a million bucks. He'll never get the praise of someone like Rey Mysterio, but in my opinion he deserves every bit as much (or more, since Mysterio didn't even cross my mind when putting my list together). If it came down to it I think ultimately I would have bumped Claudio off in favor of Tajiri, but at the time I felt they just both deserved to be on there.
I can’t describe my hatred for Chris Jericho. I remember the Y2J crap being hyped for weeks and when he came out all I could think was that nobody from WCW? Guy has made an admirable career at being mid at everything, wrestling, music, podcasting. Other than his 20 second cameo in Macgruber I can’t stand him. I do hear he’s a safe worker which is good I guess.
Jericho is legend. Absolutely no disputing that. His last 2 years in AEW have been pretty lame for sure… the “JAS” and whatnot is stupid. But now he’s, what? Doing his old Lionheart gimmick in the most bottom a mid-card can get? FTW title vs Hook? Cmahn. He’s a solid worker in his older years and as long as he’s not trying to form a new faction or go after the AEW title, he still has value on a pro wrestling card.
Beat Rock & Austin. First Undisputed WHC. Main evented Mania. 2 goated feuds vs HBK. Wonderful feuds vs Punk, KO, Rock, Cody, MJF, Mox. IC title legend.
You don’t have to “stand him” (Fozzy sucks and he seems like a tool irl), but his pro wrestling career is undeniable.
I confess there are and have been several wrestlers over the years that I take advantage of them being on and go to the bathroom or make a meal whenever they're on. Jericho hasn't been one of them....but he's getting close. His weird little meeting with Hook and Tazz didn't help that feeling at all. Does anyone tune in for this crap because it keeps them awake at night wondering if Hook will choose Jericho's 'learning tree'?
Rumor has it that there will be some 'big surprises' at Dynasty this Sunday. Hoping it's a few returns and not anymore new signings. I do look forward to AEW's PLE's. It's too bad they're so expensive to see up here live. $55 cdn to watch and no bars play AEW.
Drew McIntyre has never sold a single ticket as a WWE/World champion in WWE or TNA. Hopefully that doesn't end up being his legacy. Sasha broke her curse with a successful title defense a few years ago. So far, it's been pretty meh with her in AEW. She didn't even wiggle this week.
MJF must be getting real close to returning. Too bad the guy he's supposed to feud with is still broken. Silly freak accident for ol' Cole. As funny as I think it'd be if he stumbled onto Monday Night Raw, I don't know if he'd be heralded as the second coming there or be 'the MJF' that people expect to see.
I'm sure everyone saw Matt Hardy's post the other day suggesting he's joining the Bray Wyatt club thing WWE's been teasing. I hope not. I can wrap my head around Bo Dallas, Strowman, and Rowan. Those ones seem guaranteed. I could see Alexa Bliss being involved since she's training for her comeback. I'd hope the other 2 members are less annoying than Hardy. Maybe Dexter Lumis and someone else would be ok....people who could be believable and interesting as a problem....you know, less known as complete jobbers.
I was watching Eric Bischoff's 83 weeks thing on Youtube the other day. Notwithstanding his views on things, but that guy, Conrad Thompson, he talks with sounds suspiciously like a younger JR.
> Jericho is legend. Absolutely no disputing that. His last 2 years in AEW have been
> pretty lame for sure… the “JAS” and whatnot is stupid. But now he’s, what?
> Doing his old Lionheart gimmick in the most bottom a mid-card can get? FTW title
> vs Hook? Cmahn. He’s a solid worker in his older years and as long as he’s not
> trying to form a new faction or go after the AEW title, he still has value on a pro
> wrestling card.
>
> Beat Rock & Austin. First Undisputed WHC. Main evented Mania. 2 goated feuds vs HBK.
> Wonderful feuds vs Punk, KO, Rock, Cody, MJF, Mox. IC title legend.
>
> You don’t have to “stand him” (Fozzy sucks and he seems like a tool irl), but
> his pro wrestling career is undeniable.
Nah, I hate him and he's lame. I get that isn't the universal opinion and he is regarded as one of the top of all time. I just don't see it that way. Which is fine, there are plenty of other wrestlers I like and don't like that others don't agree with.
