@bbb: Ooh, that should be fun. How do you handle wrestling with your kids? Last week I had Jay Lethal vs. Orange Cassidy on whilst cooking and my niece (4) came in. She looked at the TV and asked "What are they doing?" - "They're fighting to see who's the stronger of the two." - "Are they fighting for real?". This put me at a moral crossroads. Being a weenie, I murmued something like "half-way". We watched for a few seconds, I tried to hype up the moves a bit, but she wasn't too impressed (because all those youngsters want to see is SPOTS and FLIPS and don't appreciate a man pretend-jumping on another man's ankle for a while, right? ) and we went on to play something.
We started watching as a family back when Smackdown came to Fox on Fridays. They were about 11 and 9 at the time and weren't sure what to think at first, but we used to watch Rhett and Link on youtube so they'd seen Becky and The New Day before and thought they seemed fun. We watched off and on for a few months, but during the pandemic it was great to have regular new programming to watch. Since then we've watched almost every Smackdown, most "premium live events," and a good chuck of Raw. They love the characters and the silliness and the action and the occasional vulgarity (we're pretty strict about what we watch, so they feel like they're getting away with something by watching wrestling). They LOVED the songs and music videos Miz and Morrison did. My younger daughter is a big fan of Sasha. My older one is a big fan of Becky and Alexa Bliss. They really enjoyed Zelena Vega's work as a manager for Andrade and Angel Garza. We had a lot of fun with The R-Truth gameshow. They enjoyed watching Da Party (Xavier Woods, Tyler Breeze, Cesaro, Adam Cole) on UpUpDownDown. We watched WWE's Most Wanted on A&E and they got a kick out of that. When my older daughter isn't tired on the weekend we stay up and watch wrestling documentaries. We watched Young Rock and I'd have to pause it and explain something to them or explain that something weren't exactly the way they are portrayed on the show.
Aye, that's pretty cool. Also, hearing that the whole family's watching the WWE together (and now. And then. and forever. ) surely would bring a tear to any McMahon's eye. Good to hear how so many things the jaded smark groans about work well with other groups. Something to always keep in mind.
UUDD with the big four was great fun indeed. It's so odd that just one of them is with WWE any more at this point. Good to see Tyler Breeze on UUDD again though.
Finished watching the TJPW Princess Cup; very happy with the result despite things looking not so well in the build-up. Saw a Giant Swing applied by the head rather than by the legs, which is insane, but apparently nothing happened.
Also, I'm liking the Daniel Garcia story.
Spoiler:
The Kenny Omega return. I wasn't hyped before the show. When it happened, I was very hyped. The guy clearly isn't fully healed and they play that up wonderfully I think. I'm willing to believe that any little mishap happening to Omega is rather deliberate at this point, becuase he's done that a lot of times in the past.
The post-match thing with Dragon Lee (he's amazing btw. I deliberately watched a bunch of his matches a few years ago. Phenomenal.) was cut too short; that should have been a big deal.
I watched RAW. It was alrighty. Kevin Owens, man. He's so good. And it's like it's 2016! Crazy. Good to see Bayley back in the ring.
Dynamite was good fun too, wasn't it. Really liking the Daniel Garcia story. I can't wait for him to bust out "I'm DANIEL GARCIA!" when Danielson and Jericho both want him to say that he's a wrestler/Sports entertainer respectively.
The World Championship match was quite something. Things stay exciting.
Death Triangle vs. United Empire was INSANE. Will Ospreay is so bloody good. If you want to get somebody excited wrestling, show them this week's Dynamite. Still very much disliking the Best Friends attire. Why is everybody dressing like an idiot and wears skinny flood-watch trousers? Is that the Floridian uniform?
.) It looks like ReDragon are basically out of AEW. I so hope that this is a work of some sort. I really enjoyed them.
.) Will Ospeay is a madman. It took me a good while to get behind him as a (more) heavyweight baddie, but the things he's done on AEW is just magnificent. He's so bloody good.
.) For a long time I was apologetic, but I agree that the women's division of AEW needs more screen time. And a different champ than Thunder Rosa. Somehow she doesn't sit right with me ever since I listened to her on Talk is Jericho and she was so moved by her own story that she started crying on the podcast. I don't like that crying stuff, especially not when telling your own success story. She's good, she looks great with the paint and all of that, but she wasn't a good champion. And I'm not a big fan of Britt Baker either. Jamie Hayter probably would be the most interesting champ (and then have her be proper domineering), but honestly I'm perfectly fine with Hikaru Shida again.
Another factor in this whole thing I think is Jade Cargill. She's a spectactle and looks great, but please just put that tbs belt on Athena. And then have her fight all sorts of opponents. Jade Cargill stories always seem like a black hole which helps nobody really except Cargill. Which is fine, but somehow everything around her seems to be very encapsulated and detached. AEW should have a nice women's royal rumble or something. Showcase all the very capable ladies on the roster, bring on some people from TJPW (they got a new logo now, they recently got new theme music, they're getting ready to take on the world), bring on Kylie Rae again if she wants. There is depth to that roster, they should give the ladies some more of the limelight (NOT via their own tv show, just on the proper shows). The top dudes are all beaten up anyway. I love a Brian Danielson 5 star match as much as the next person, but at this point I'd rather see Miyu Yamashita beat the living daylight out of Kaylinn King or Willow Nightingale.
And please: DON'T BRING IN OUTSIDE PEOPLE. Tony Khan has to stop getting new toys. He's got great toys already. Imagine the wetness of GW-pants if Tony Khan was a Warhams player. He'd have ALL the armies.
.) I love Miro's promos. He's like Lucifer and some dramatic stage play hero and some sort of supervillain. All in one.
woah, I totally forgot it would happen at a non-silly time due to the thing taking place in Europe!
My predictions: Reigns - McIntyre: McIntyre. I just don't care, as along as eventually Kevin Owens holds at the very least one of these titles. Liv Morgan - Baszler: Liv Morgan. Belair/Bliss/Asuka - Bayley/Kai/Sky: Bayley/Kai/Sky. In an UPSET victory! Kai pins Bliss. Lots of "heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey heeeeeeeeeey bayley..." chants. Riddle - Rollins: Rollins. Gunther - Shaemus: Gunther. He'll be over like rover and everybody will chant Walter. It'll be lovely. Edge/Rey Mysterio - Judgement Day: Judgement Day.
All Out: AEW World Championship Singles Match Jon Moxley (c) vs. CM Punk - Moxley AEW Interim Women’s World Championship – vacant Singles Match Toni Storm vs. Dr. Britt Baker D.M.D. vs. Jamie Hayter vs. Hikaru Shida - Hikaru Shida. She was a great champion, it'll do the women's division good if she is that again. During the match we can see Baker and Hayter's partnership deteriorating, eventually Hayter will get the title too,but not today.
AEW World Tag Team Championship Tag Team Match Swerve In Our Glory (Keith Lee & Swerve Strickland) (c) vs. The Acclaimed (Anthony Bowens & Max Caster) - Swerve in Our Glory. Enough with the silliness.
AEW World Trios Championship – vacant AEW World Trios Title Turnier – Finale – 6 Man Tag Team Match The Elite (Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks) vs. Adam Page & The Dark Order (John Silver & Alex Reynolds) - Dark Order
TBS Championship Singles Match Jade Cargill (c) vs. Athena - Athena. I just want Cargill's reign to end and I wanna see other matches.
6 Man Tag Team Match Wardlow & FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) vs. Jay Lethal & Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley) -Wardlow&FTR
Singles Match Chris Jericho vs. Bryan Danielson - Danielson
Singles Match Jungle Boy vs. Christian Cage - Jungle Boy
Singles Match Ricky Starks vs. Powerhouse Hobbs - Powerhouse Hobbs
6 Man Tag Team Match Sting, Darby Allin & Miro vs. House of Black (Malakai Black, Buddy Matthews & Brody King) - House of Black. It sucks, because I love Miro (not sure I mentioned that before), but HoB HAVE to win something. They gotta be the top baddies stable.
Casino Ladder Match Claudio Castagnoli vs. Wheeler Yuta vs. Penta Oscuro vs. Rey Fenix vs. Rush vs. Andrade El Idolo vs. Dante Martin vs. TBA - Phew. Who's that TBA then? Morrissey? On the Cultaholic podcast the idea of it being Ospreay was mentioned, and I'm kinda liking that idea. I really have no idea, so I'll say: Kushida! That would be pretty darned cool.
Preshow Match Singles Match Eddie Kingston vs. Tomohiro Ishii - Ishii
Preshow Match AEW All-Atlantic Championship Singles Match PAC (c) vs. Kip Sabian - PAC Changed my mind. It's on the pre-show; I don't expect a title change on a pre-show match.
Preshow Match FTW Championship Singles Match Hook (c) vs. Angelo Parker - Hook. Goes without saying.
...with the house-showiest end of all time. I also really dislike Tyson Fury. But that's beside the point. Drew McIntyre's jovial smile is bordering Tom Selleck levels of ultra-jovial...ity.
I loved the women's matches. Those were great. Loved the Bayley chants. The main event was a Reigns match, which as a genre I really enjoy. And he made McIntyre look like a 1000 bucks.
All Out was a lot. Funnily enough within about the same timespan as Clash at the Castle.
Spoiler:
The ladder match was really, really unimpressive. Andrade and Rush looked like idiots. But I guess that's an inherent trapping of the ladder match. Watching the first half of this I kinda got to the conclusion that I didn't like ladder matches. THEN the Joker came out, and the whole of the match was entirely meaningless. Great setup, great choice of music, great execution.
The trios match was great. There was a bloody Alex Reynolds chant! Incredible. Speaking of which, the match was really good.
The tag team match was great as well. I'm not sure why the Acclaimed are as over as they are or why they are so powerful all of a sudden. I like the rap bits and they're good in-ring peeps, but otherwise it's all pretty juvenile. The rightful tag team champions pointed that out in the media scrum (more on that later. phew).
The Athena/Jade Cargill match was a travesty. I don't like wrestlers dressing up as superhero things, especially so if it's 'the in' superhero thing at that point. It's a detractor. Speaking of which - why did Athena not win? What the hedge is going on? Will she go the way of Ruby Soho now? This made me unhappy.
Starks-Hobbs will go on and good for them. The match was in a bad spot, and it's good that Starks did not win. I really like the both of the guys.
The main event was good. Exciting.
I'm fearing for the future of the house of black.
The audience was hot, which was great. But it also led two at least two bits (tag match, MJF return) where I probably would have preferred a different reaction.
Then I looked up the news I'd skipped for three days to avoid spoilers. Then I watche the media scrum. Boy, I really don't wanna see CM Punk when he's really old and cranky. But outstanding personalities don't have to be nice; maybe they can't be, otherwise they'd just be regular people. That may be one of the fallacies of today - not accepting that outstanding people will most probably be dicks in a way or two. It was rather exciting though. It's so weird how WWE feels like the island of peace and pretty good booking now and AEW (at least lockerromwise) seems to be a bit uneven now. Maybe also bookingwise. There is just so much going on, and sometimes it just doesn't end very satisfyingly.
Things are certainly heating up backstage - and in front of the cameras and mics - at AEW.
Partly seems like a work, especially with how blurred these lines are in "Modern" Pro-Wrestling, and with MJF's odd return - along with what might just be the most expensive entrance theme ever - but this one feels...real?
Which, of course, would make it one hell of a work!
Ghaz wrote: Well, Braun Strowman just showed up on RAW...
Well, that’s the first of Vince’s stupid mistakes being corrected then!
Braun said he's going to be on Smackdown this Friday, so maybe the next challenger for Roman?
I'm at the point with Roman where I don't understand why his challengers don't demand that every match be a cage match or hell in a cell or that the boodline be kept in a guarded room for the duration of it. We get it. Roman is a heel who relies on his family to retain his title. It's... kind of boring at this point. If you're not going to let Drew Macintyre win in the UK in front of 60,000+ people... then why bother even having championship matches anymore? Drew, who never got to be in front of a crowd as champion, deserves better.
Alpharius wrote: Things are certainly heating up backstage - and in front of the cameras and mics - at AEW.
Partly seems like a work, especially with how blurred these lines are in "Modern" Pro-Wrestling, and with MJF's odd return - along with what might just be the most expensive entrance theme ever - but this one feels...real?
Which, of course, would make it one hell of a work!
Oh, it's all too real I'm afraid. There would have been NO reason to pull something like this the night you got the biggest return in pro wrestling since Edge. Also, the way CM Punk did that media interview thing and the way he made Tony Khan look. Phew...
@Mad Doc Grotsnik: Oh, she can do it all. Charlotte is a champion, Sasha Banks is a draw where ever she goes and a great wrestler to boot, same with Becky Lynch (plus a lot of self-made stardom), but Bayley is the foundation you can build a women's division on. She doesn't have to be on top to carry the show.
Some early on observations from Dynamite: .) MJF is incredibly smart in reading the fans. He managed to cut a perfect babyface promo AND a perfect heel promo right at the same time. .) Moxley is incredible. Out of the three Shield guys he's probably the best talker. Roman probably is a close second if he's allowed to go off script. .) Orange Cassidy might just have the prettiest Diving Cross Body in the world.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: Omos is impressive. Not only is he a massive chunk of a man, but he’s get really good in-ring presence.
They have to figure out what to do with him and he needs to work on getting himself over.
Smackdown was good overall. Sheamus was really over last night. Sheamus chasing for the IC title from Gunther could do really good business. Brawling Brutes vs. Imperium is somewhat odd for a heel against heel premise, but the crowd was into it and cheering for the Brutes.
Sami cracks me up with the Bloodline.
Nice to see the Women's Tag Titles get defended. Match was okay.
5 way elimination woman's match for Liv's opponent at Extreme Rules was short. It could best be described as Ronda vs her wardrobe.
8-man tag between Street Profits with Hit Row vs Maximum Male Models with Los Lotharios was high energy and fun. My kids love MMM, and even though it's stupid, I find it amusingly stupid. At point point after a double team they both paused for a pose and the camera zoomed in. Stupid, but just the right amount of it.
Braun segment was just kind of there. It didn't do much.
Drew vs Solo was what you would expect, but it was good.
So AEW actually brought in Luigi Primo. And they utilized him FLAWLESSLY.
Now i'm watching Rampage (baby) and - hooray, here's Diamanté! I like her. Even Jade Cargill was rather amusing in that segment with the little "very" and "what? ew.". Very good. And then Diamanté goes ahead and says she'll bring some friend? Please, pleeeeeease stop bringing in outside people. Right this moment is a great opportunity to showcase the depth of the AEW roster. They should do that for a good few weeks. Here, that Penelope Ford vs. Willow Nightingale match was great. That's perfectly fine for Rampage. That I want to see more of. And a separate RoH show with a separate roster. Usually I'm not for roster splits, but AEW's roster and booking has been too top-heavy for a good while. No surprise, they brought in all these amazing wrestlers, and we're loving it, but they got a big rest of the roster as well.
The Cultaholic guys just said 'no' to that. But it's great to see her back. I really hope she gets cleared and gets to wrestle. She's always been one of my favourites.
Agreed. Turns out the first WWE PPV I ever saw was her debut on the main roster. And quite apart from be Easy On The Eye, she was a truly great wrestler.
But…..if Edge can be cleared? I have hope we’ll see Saraya get back to it.
We're only halfway through last night's Smackdown, but the Sami/Bloodline storyline has been a lot of fun so far and pretty good long term storytelling from WWE.
bbb wrote: We're only halfway through last night's Smackdown, but the Sami/Bloodline storyline has been a lot of fun so far and pretty good long term storytelling from WWE.
Yeah, I can see Sami pulling off a Mick Foley face turn and run off of it, like when Mankind was trying to be Vince's friend and just annoying the hell out of him.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: Agreed. Turns out the first WWE PPV I ever saw was her debut on the main roster. And quite apart from be Easy On The Eye, she was a truly great wrestler.
But…..if Edge can be cleared? I have hope we’ll see Saraya get back to it.
Terribly easy on the eye, especially given the context of the divas from back then. Yeah, one can only hope she'll be good to wrestle again in the future.
Sami Zayn is great on every level. I don't watch much WWE weeklies these days, but the things I see him do with the Bloodline is fantastic.
Righty, Extreme Rules is around the corner: SmackDown Women's Championship -- Liv Morgan (c) vs. Ronda Rousey (Extreme Rules Match): Liv Morgan. By some sort of trick. She's the tricksy one and the champion we need.
Raw Women's Championship -- Bianca Belair (c) vs. Bayley (Ladder Match): Bayley. Bianca Belair isn't the cunning-est. Matt Riddle vs. Seth Rollins (Fight Pit Match): Riddle. I don't care much about the feud, but I like that Matt Riddle a.) got his first name back and b.) got a brain. I'm sure they'll put on a great match.
Edge vs. Finn Balor ("I Quit" Match): Bálor got this one. No point in having Edge win. Maybe this is where the white rabbit is resolved, and I sure hope it doesn't have anything to do with Edge (not that he is the white rabbit, but I don't want him in any stories about that either).
Karrion Kross vs. Drew McIntyre (Strap Match): Ha, a strap match! I say that Drew wins this one, because I don't want him bouncing down the card again after just having almost beaten Roman. I know that McIntyre is good for stuff like that because he'll always be over in an instant, but I don't wanna see it happen again so swiftly.
The Brawling Brutes vs. Imperium (Good Old Fashioned Donnybrook Match): Imperium win, Pete Dunne splits from the Brutes.
Wrestle Princess 3:
Moka Miyamoto & Juria Nagano vs Arisu Endo & Kaya Toribami - Endo&Toribami Mahiro Kiryu, Yuki Kamifuku & Haruna Neko vs Yoshiko Hasegawa (GanBare), Nao Kakuta & Yuna Manase (Ganbare) - Team Tokyo University Suzume vs Ryo Mizunami - Ryo Mizunami 121000000 (Maki Itoh & Miyu Yamashita) vs Riho & Hikari Noa - Itoh/Yamashita (that'll be good!) Mizuki vs Hyper Misao - Mizuki Aja Kong, Raku & Pom Harajuku vs Max The Impaler, Rika Tatsumi & Yuki Aino - Max, Tatsumi, Aino Princess Tag Team Championship: Yuki Arai & Saki Akai (c) vs The Uprising (Rhia O’Reilly & Nightshade) - Arai/Akai International Princess Champion: Alex Windsor (c) vs Miu Watanabe - Miu Watanabe, if they feel like she's ready to be sent abroad for matches. Which I think is the case. Anyway, that'll be a good match as well! Princess of Princess Championship: Shoko Nakajima (c) vs Yuka Sakazaki - It will be a battle of several acts, it'll be a 'fight forever' scenario and in the end Sakazaki wins. It's time.
Chances of a GOTCHA! face turn from Dominic, or do you think this is a deliberate push of a youngster some might feel is only signed because of who his Dad is?
Chances of a GOTCHA! face turn from Dominic, or do you think this is a deliberate push of a youngster some might feel is only signed because of who his Dad is?
Heck, I forgot about Dominic. If they turned him face again that would be a major sign they have no idea what to do with him and wanna backpaddle. But to what end? Have him tag with his dad forever in one of the stalest tag teams on the roster? I like where Dominic is right now, with his evil goth dom girlfriend. That's a fun role for Rhea, it's a good way to present Dominic as a proper heel (ie have him have some more character) and more of a solo guy. I think there's a lot of potential in Judgement day. They're all HHH's guys (well, except dominic maybe, but I like him as an addition), they're all good wrestlers, they could do good things. We need factions in WWE anyway.
Btw, I failed to mention that I watched some live wrestling myself last weekend! Been to Vienna comicon, EWA had a ring put up and showed two matches and a royal rumble. Saw Brother Chaos of Watschn Club ("Watsch'n" = slap to the face. Basically a rather self-aware mix of A-Team and Bullet Club.), one of the Team Turbulence guys, saw Krampus for the first time (Krampus of course being a big part of folklore here. Despite a scary mask he's a big babyface) and of course Bambikiller. Good fun, it was well received. I went with a friend and his son (7), neither of whom are wrestling fans. I think the son found it pretty cool though.
Again, it's always a bit embarassing that Italians are the go-to heels and that heel heat is bascially only built on nationality, but it's all in good fun. Germans of course automatically are top heels, but they got plenty of their own promotions, so I assume that they got other places to go than Austria. But yeah. Fun was had.
Many of my predictions were wildly incorrect, but it was fun.
Also watched RAW, very much enjoyed that one too. What a novel feeling that WWE weeklies aren't irritating, but actually enjoyable. It had something for everybody.
Spoiler:
I love the Good Brothers, and it's great to see them back. They got done dirty back then, cool to see them back at WWE. Maybe that's the right place for them right now. Gallows needs to be reigned in.
Good to see Elias return. I like the guy. Great face (as in body part, not as a role). I also really liked Ezekiel, I just wish they'd given him more time before they throw him into a feud carried by Owens (because he can carry everything), but from which Ezekiel had no chance of taking anything positive away.
Bloody Lesnar! I love happy cowboy Lesnar. And he's got a feather on his hat now too!
The DX thing was nice. They did reference Billy Gunn, and in a very nice manner. In exchange there were no Sissor me Daddy chants. All very nice and wholesome and certainly not too long. Also, a nice shout-out to Chyna right at the start. Nice, nice. DX are the most wholesome group in wrestling right now.
It’s definitely sounding like WWE has its head screwed back on post-Vince.
I’ll never understand why they cut Strowman. He was so over, whether as a face or a heel. A rare (well, within WWE at the time) of a Proper Splunger being put to effective use.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: It’s definitely sounding like WWE has its head screwed back on post-Vince.
I’ll never understand why they cut Strowman. He was so over, whether as a face or a heel. A rare (well, within WWE at the time) of a Proper Splunger being put to effective use.
I believe it all came down to $$$ (or ₤₤₤ in the UK ),
Ah yes, yeah, that's what we were told was the reason. And let's be honest, it probably was. At the time Strowman had been one of the few main eventers after all. Roman was out due to Covid concerns, Bray was being used badly (that was pre-fiend) IIRC, who had that Wrestlemania match with Strowman for the championship? Not that Strowman was a particularly good champ, but he, as mentioned above, is a great example for a WWE success story. I think it was Jim Ross who says "there'll always be a place for an athletic big man". Not sure if he's hella athletic, but he sure is a big man And he improved SO much over the first two years.
Back when Lesnar worked a short program with Sami I was hoping that he would challenge the Usos for the Tag Team Championships to annoy Roman. Lesnar would tell Sami that they were now a tag team (an offer Sami could not say no to), "The Canadian Alpha Males." Brock would start the match, destroy both Usos and win the titles without ever tagging Sami.
But it was only a dream.
Now I'd kind of like to see a return to that idea with Brock needling Roman by saying, "You took my Advocate, I'll take your Honorary Uce."
hm. Why not? I'm up for anything that makes Sami's role more sympathetic and makes him a full-on babyface as he tries to hold on to his (apprehensive) friends. I could see it culminating in a Sami vs. Brock match. The Bloodline help Sami (except for sneaky Jay) win. Sami's back with his evil friends, but Jay is being told off for not helping proper, thus sami driving more and more little wedges between the Bloodline members. Eventually we'll get some super group to fight the Bloodline, Sami joins them, him and Kevin Owens powerbomb all of the Bloodline onto the ring apron.
I have to admit, I currently really, really like the Bloodline. That extra drizzle of characterization Sami brought it makes them insanely entertaining.
By the way: Yes, it's true. I'm part of the Wyatt Six.*
*) Everybody's saying it right now to get some clout, so I thought I'd give it a try as well.
.) it's nice to see René Paquette on there. I'm perfectly OK with her being a backstage interviewer. I mean we all know that she's good at everything, she could do commentary without a problem. Thing is that they already got so many commentators. And such good ones.
.) I like Sverve Strickland way better as a heel. He seems like a reasonable, relateable person now.
Smackdown!
.) Liv Morgan is on a good track.
.) I very much enjoy Damage Control
.) Bray Wyatt is a very good promo. I also like the new entrance music. Not sure I'm on board with a "Bray being tortured by baddie incarnations and having to overcome them", but the promo could work either way. Just have him be the devil. Like MJF. Sometimes he'll take the role of the victim (because it's the most powerful role an individual or group can take on), but ultimately - just have him be evil. Maybe I'm wrong though.
Jon Moxley is just the best guy currently, isn't he. Wacky Wheeler Yuta put out a video, admitting to having double-booked himself for Rampage and a New Japan show. He'll go with the New Japan show (correct choice. A.) he's on AEW tv all the time anyway, B.) New Japan probably currently appreciate Western talent honouring bookings, with the whole Karl Anderson stuff going on. I'm not saying that this thing is Anderson's fault. It's just so funny after the OC having talked about all the things that happened in their WWE run and being very, very, very open about their disgruntlement, Anderson especially so. He was very vocal about the whole 'thanking the WWE publically' after they fire you being stupid and so on. And I am rather sure that the OC have been treated unfairly by Heyman and the old regime. But just one year later, Gallows and Anderson will be back on a plane to Saudi Arabia. After all the stuff that happened last time they went. Wrestling is an amazing sport.).
Now back to why Jon Moxley is just the best guy: Instead of Yuta vs. Daddy Magic Matt Menard we now get Moxle vs Menard on Rampage. Did Moxley even have that vacation yet he talked about a month ago? Anyway.
So MJF, eh? He really is the human condition personified, isn't he. Who would have thought that he actually IS the mensch of the cent-sh. I'm a bit afraid that they make him too much of a babyface. On the other hand it would be really lame if that split with the firm would have been just some sort of ruse (and overall AEW probably are in need of a top babyface). We'll see. Things stay interesting.
Rumour has it that TNT move AEW to their sports category and maybe wanna have the tv be a bit more sports-oriented, which I'm all for, because especially lately the shows went very sports entertainment.
Riho is back! For her return she was insanely dressed, now she had a match with Jamie Hayter, Hayter has got to be pushed now, I don't get the focus on Dr.Britt Baker. That's all my glorious, clever thoughts.
Ghaz wrote: And tonight's "WWE Surprise Return" (trademark pending) is...
Spoiler:
Tenille Dashwood, F.K.A. Emma
...which I'm waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay okay with.
Just caught up on some things. Boy, I love the bloodline. Sami Zayn is brilliant; you gotta love him. We always knew it, now WWE acknowledge him again. Nothing but adoration for that whole Bloodline story right now.
Spoiler:
Btw, where do we stand on the smartest man in wrestling currently? Cody? Or Jeff Jarret rather?
Alpharius wrote: Sami's recent work with the Bloodline has me playing attention again to WWE stuff.
He's brilliant, and this story is entertaining and hilarious!
Yep. Pure gold. It's even be said that the WWE changed it's plans due to the popularity of Sami's work with the Bloodline (something Vinny Mac most likely wouldn't have done).
So i've watched Rampage. To be honest, Miky Tyson was 300% better on commantary than I thought he would be. Originally I'd been pretty horrified at the idea, but it worked okay-ish. He very clearly had a script of some sorts or at least bullet points, but he did well there for somebody who a.) isn't a commentator at all and b.) to my knowledge doesn't have much of an interest in pro wrestling.
For a long time Bray Wyatt has been interesting and entertaining outside of an actual wrestling match... it feels like that will continue to be the case.
She fits the group very well, and last night when we watched Crown Jewel, a friend bemoaned the fact that Rhea Ripley's got nothing to do within the Judgement Day (good character stuff aside). Now she does.
Watched Crown Jewel last night!
Spoiler:
.) Sami Zayn Chants. In Saudi Arabia. Gives me hope for humanity.
.) It was just wholesome and nice how all the people I watched with and I instantly hated Logan Paul and all that he stands for. It's just nice to hate together. And he's a youtuber and influencer, hence fully deservant of hatred. I mean who nicks a Buckshot Lariat? What kind of person does that? Also: all the silly friends and the crap cellphone and all. Just no. On a more serious note - Logan Paul is really good. BUT a youtuber and influencer, and thus a gakker by default.
.) Enjoyed every single match.
.) Damage Control won the tag titles back, which is a very correct move. The women's title match was really good as well.
.) Pete Dunne doing Pete Dunne things to fingers. Nice to see that again.
.) Bray Wyatt. Well, let's wait and see. When he started his promo a friend asked if that's gonna be a Cody Rhodes promo, which is eerily correct in a way. Wyatt's recent promos sound a bit like a mirror universe Cody promo, don't they?
edit: Oh yeah, Omos vs. Braun wasn't good, was it. I guess we'll have to give Braun way more credit for improving a LOT over the course of 2016? Or was it 17? Anyway. Omos has a good voice, but that's about it. Kinda concerning. But he IS very, very big.
Yup, if they'd gone all-out with the 24/7 title it would have been interesting, or at least had the potential to be. But they used it as an annoying 'comedy' segment to make PPVs even longer. 1% of the time it was funny, 99% of times it was annoying and embarassing. R-Truth - best travel buddy, according to the great Kevin Owens - possibly will do something with Shelton Benjamin. If they were to work as a serious tag team that would be great. If it turns into yet another "R-Truth wants to tag with somebody, the other person doesn't want to because R-Truth is a crackpot" thing it'll be boring.
Dynamite was alright, wasn't it. I really don't get the popularity of the Acclaimed, especially now that the rap stuff has been seriously toned down for TV. But I guess they're catering to young, happy people and not old, bitter self-appointed smarky peeps. Speaking of which - what do we think of Skye Blue? I can't bear to look at her. She's like Sammy Guevara. She'll be a really annoying heel some day and work well as that. Jamie Hayter - good.
Speaking of Sammy Guevara! That Bryan Danielson match was alright, wasn't it? I probably haven't seen enough 2-out-of-3-falls matches, because the way Sammy gave up the first fall by DQ for the strategic advantage of injuring Danielson early on was something I don't think I've seen before. Remember when Tay Conti was a serious contender instead of a less effective Maryse? Yeah, that was good times. Right now Anna Jay(!!!) seems like a more serious contender than her. Lots of Diva-esque stuff going on with the women's division, and I'm not happy with that. The only strong female wrestler we have right now (with regular air time) is Jade Cargill. And she's a graveyard to storylines and female wrestlers. I'm optimistic for the status of Nyla Rose (I kinda like how she's a cheeky, sneaky lady now instead of just being a monster heel). But why can't we just get proper matches like a random Hikaru Shida - Athena match? Handshake and off we go and have a nice match. It doesn't have to be for the title or something (and please, don't have the winner be beaten down afterwards!), just a nice match.
What do we get though? These nothing-factions centered around a talky dude with money trying to buy somebody and getting beaten up.
I liked the setup for the Trent Baretta match. Doesn't take any more than that.
I like what Jungle Boy is doing right now. The story is simmering, but still engaging.
I think that the Royal Rumble has been mentioned as the most likely time. But then we're talking about the American Rollercodster, so maybe he pops up for next RAW. He's a genetic freak and he's not normal.
* AEW World Championship Match: Jon Moxley vs. MJF - Jupp, this was almost predictable, but very good. And surprisingly bloodless. A very smart decision. Oh, the entrances on both sides were sensationally good.
* Ricky Starks vs. Brian Cage - Brian Cage is a freak. I like him. Ricky Starks as well; important win.
* AEW Tag Team Championship Match: The Acclaimed vs. Swerve In Our Glory - Was also predictable and correct. Good that they did the Sverve - Lee split right at the PPV. Was good.
* Interim AEW Women's World Championship Match: Toni Storm vs. Jamie Hayter - Correct and good. And a good match.
* ROH World Championship Match: Chris Jericho vs. Bryan Danielson vs. Sammy Guevara vs. Claudio Castagnoli - Yay. Another really good match. I mean with those participants this is pretty much a given, but a nice match is a nice match. Also - Jericho vs. Ishii? Oooooooooh yes!
* AEW Trios Tag Team Championship Match: Death Triangle vs. The Elite - Good one. Very classic Young Bucks/Omega match; was fun. I have a bit of an ambivalent opinion on the Elite right now, but it's good to have them back. Especially Kenny Omega too, since he looks to be well now.
* AEW TBS Championship Match: Jade Cargill vs. Nyla Rose - Cargill was painted like some cartoon character again (she looks insanely great; no question), and the outcome was expected. I was just hoping that ANYONE would come along afterwards who could really challenge Cargill. Athena would be that. Ruby Riott, if need be. But I repeat myself.
* AEW TNT Championship Match: Wardlow vs. Powerhouse Hobbs vs. Samoa Joe - Big beefy men slappig meat with an unexpected outcome. But totally ok. Keeping the title on Wardlow wouldn't have helped him anyway.
* Steel Cage Match: Jungle Boy vs. Luchasaurus - Deary me. And all of that in the first match. * Saraya vs. Britt Baker - I didn't pay all that much attention to the entrance, but once the match was under way it kinda hit me: Aaaw, Paige is back in the ring. That's nice. She's been ma favourite. She looked kinda unsure in parts, and she seemed a bit rusty. But I have to say that in the course of this match Britt Baker became more sympathetic to me; she's already good at wrestling. And at the Media Scrum, Saraya was also sensationally likable. What a nice woman (for now).
* Darby Allin & Sting vs. Jeff Jarrett & Jay Lethal - Lots going on, isn't it? Jeff Jarrett does well. Good old pantomime.
The pre-show also featured best Friends and Rocky Romero (so Chaos USA? AEW Chaos? Who knows.) vs. the Factory. I really enjoyed that one more than I thought I would. Pretty early on there's a Trent Beretta bump that was just absurd. I rewound 3x and each time it was better. They also had a 5th man who was announced as "very mysterious, very evil". It was Danhausen of course, BUT he finally decided to be a wrestler again! Why can't we always have this Danhausen? PleasePlease. I don't want to see a youtube clown, er got more than enough of those.
Oh, and Eddie Kingston is the best. Really, really great promo after his match. I think it's nice that he always gets such personal dream matches and can be happy afterwards.
Is there anyone in Pro Wrestling enjoying themselves as much as Rhea Ripley? Like…even close to her level of obviously loving her persona and really pushing it?
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: Is there anyone in Pro Wrestling enjoying themselves as much as Rhea Ripley? Like…even close to her level of obviously loving her persona and really pushing it?
That's a very good question. I think that the Miz has a good time 99% of the time? Hyper Misao maybe? A year ago Big E would have been a clear candidate for that. I think that Dom's also having a good time right now. But you're absolutely correct; nobody gets it across as gleefully hammy as Rhea Ripley. She's the heart and soul of Judgment Day.
I think that Asuka also has a lot of fun. I watched Raw last week, and during the promo of the goodie ladies for the wargames match she made very subtle funny faces to make Mia Yim laugh. I enjoyed that.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: Is there anyone in Pro Wrestling enjoying themselves as much as Rhea Ripley? Like…even close to her level of obviously loving her persona and really pushing it?
That's a very good question. I think that the Miz has a good time 99% of the time? Hyper Misao maybe? A year ago Big E would have been a clear candidate for that. I think that Dom's also having a good time right now. But you're absolutely correct; nobody gets it across as gleefully hammy as Rhea Ripley. She's the heart and soul of Judgment Day.
I think that Asuka also has a lot of fun. I watched Raw last week, and during the promo of the goodie ladies for the wargames match she made very subtle funny faces to make Mia Yim laugh. I enjoyed that.
I want to see that level of “bloody loving this” in other Super Stars. Not just in-ring, but personal life as they know their position is about as secure as they can be in such a temperamental industry. I mean, you can be excellent technically, and Over. But we the audience are fickle beasties.
Rhea Ripely is a fantastic, near natural heel. She gets heat so effortlessly, yet playfully. Nothing about the character feels forced or faked.
HHH is hopefully paying attention. The Judgement Day stable are all solid in and out of the ring. Asuka likewise is greatly enjoyable - more so for me than Shinsuke Nakamura, who it feels WWE just aren’t using quite right. I mean, I don’t know how to use him right either, but what WWE are doing isn’t it, I can tell you that much. All hype, and despite really excellent skills, somehow no trousers.
Again, very true. Ripleys current role could come across as really forced and annoying, but she does it wonderfully.
It's really interesting with Asuka and Shinsuke Nakamura. Both were introduced as big deals and bad-asses. Both were reduced to kinda midcarders rather fast after their main roster debuts. How come Asuka became such a hit (she's indispensable for the women's division) and Nakamura isn't? Is it because the men's roster is really dense on top?
Absolutely, yeah. Yup, the AJ Styles feud was just silly. Only thing people remember is slightly underwhelming matches ended by low-blows.
Well, we'll see how Nakamura fares in that NOAH match now. That should be interesting. That whole cooperation is really interesting in general.
Bunch of months ago, possibly a year or so, he was on Renée Parquette's Sessions, and it seemed like he's pretty happy, the wrestling situation aside.
Also, I think I'm kinda on board with the new direction for Austin Theory. There might be something there. But first there's Survivor Series, and either one or two amazing wargames matches. Having Owens and Zayn in a cage alone is very exciting. I'm imagining something like Zayn being laid out on the announcer's table, Butch is gettting reading to jump off the cage and onto him. In the last second Owens pulls Sami off the table and saves him, Butch "crashes and burns". Just like Zayn did with Owens a few years back, when Zayn became Owens' guardian angel, which started his heel run. IIRC.
OR Jey is about to jump off the cage onto Owens, Zayn saves him. But that would resolve the Zayn turn a bit too fast and a bit unsatisfyingly I think. But I do want that spot to be redone.
Unfortunately for Shinsuke, while he can speak English, he doesn't exactly have the right voice for a tough wrestler. Asuka is able to pull it off because she sounds tough and unhinged when she's speaking Japanese and then she punctuates her speech with good-enough English to make a point.
I watched Smackdown. Smackdown and Raw are pretty good fun these days. I laughed very, very hard at the Thanksgiving at the Mysterios bit. The tendency to put up a christmas tree in November never ceases to baffle me. Also very amusing: Braun Strowman getting partnered with "flippy dude" Ricochet after Ricochet beat him. Braun Strowman might be the luckiest guy in pro wrestling. Or a genius. Not sure.
The LA Knight (he's cool af) - Bray Wyatt story is interesting.
Also, I just heard what tv and film roles Bobby Lashley turned down recently. Cool dude. Wish I had an ounce of his discipline and focus.
Rampage was OK. I think this should be a 2 hour show. It all feels so cramped. I do like The Bunny and Penelope Ford popping up together (because I like them both a lot. The Bunny is a veteran, Penelope Ford is really good), and Hikaru Shida is a great good opponent for them. Partner her up with ANYBODY BUT SKYE BLUE and we got a good programme.
Remember when The Butcher looked awesome (and I usually don' use that word)? Yeah, that was good times.
Well, it's Survivor Series time. While I love a last survivor match, that "brand warfare" thing always bothered me. It was like the red and the yellow m&m fighting. Who cares. But with the whole wargames thing it's way more interesting.
5-on-5 Men’s War Games Match - this is all about Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens (as main events should be naturally). The Bloodline wins, but there'll be interesting Sami Zayn things going on. I wrote about this in some above post.
5-on-5 Women’s War Games Match - As much as I like Damage Control and as much as Rhea Ripley is built as a beast and as much as I'd like to see Nikki Cross be mad, I think it's pretty safe to say that the goodies win this one. Good to see Becky Lynch being back to being The Man rather than dressing like a clown. Also, this: Alexa Bliss is the blandest of the whole bunch. Just a few years ago this would have been unthinkable. I'm having the feeling that she's kinda checking out of pro wrestling. Hope she feels fine. Im sure she does.
SmackDown Women’s Title Match - Don't like the name Schotzi Blackheart (last name's okay), not keen on the tank and all of that, and she will lose. Rousey wins and keeps the belt warm for Shayna Baszler.
Triple Threat for the WWE United States Title - Rollins retains, Theory gains more 'interesting points'. He'll turn out well.
AJ Styles vs. Finn Balor - Finn Bálor wins. Just makes more sense and Judgement Day need wins.
Ghaz wrote: And tonight's "WWE Surprise Return" (trademark still pending) is...
Spoiler:
Tegan Nox
Spoiler:
I heard that Triple H is getting all these ladies back because he wants to bolster the roster with 'ring ready female wrestlers'. Makes sense. I certainly won't complain.
Ghaz wrote: And tonight's "WWE Surprise Return" (trademark still pending) is...
Spoiler:
Tegan Nox
Spoiler:
I heard that Triple H is getting all these ladies back because he wants to bolster the roster with 'ring ready female wrestlers'. Makes sense. I certainly won't complain.
Spoiler:
Man, reading her wikipedia page for her main roster career really makes you shake your head at Vinces booking
"On 9 July episode of SmackDown, Nox made her main roster debut teaming with Shotzi as Shotzi & Nox to defeat the WWE Women's Tag Team Champions, Natalya and Tamina in a non-title match. The two would then go on to defeat Natalya and Tamina in numerous tag team matches, but would never receive a championship match.
As part of the 2021 Draft, Nox was drafted to the Raw brand while Shotzi remained on the SmackDown brand, thus ending the team. On 18 November, she was released from her WWE contract without ever appearing on Raw."
Yeah, that reads like a quite uninspiring trajectory. It's really surprising how un-horrible the WWE main product is now. I got into wrestling just 7 or 8 years ago, so this is entirely new to me. I mean Akira Tozawa gets a spot on the weekly shows! That's just boggling the mind compared to the past years.
Ya, several peeps are off Raw TV now. Riddle is in rehab, something's with Scotzi (injured?) and I didn't pay attention what's up with Bobby. Surely nothing bad. He seems like a stand-up god.
Whoop-whoop! Smiley Kylie Rae in the WWE! That's really cool. All the best to her, and I think that WWE possibly is the best surrounding for her. She's been a favourite of mine for a few years now.
Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful is reporting that Rose has been released by WWE as of today. According to Sapp, the call was made by WWE officials who felt they were put in a tough position due to suggestive content Rose was releasing on her page for the website FanTime. Sapp went on to state that officials determined the content was outside of the parameters of Rose's contract with WWE, hence her release.
Holy poo, Dragon Lee signed with WWE! Does that mean I have to watch NXT again now? I mean he could go straight to the main roster. Have him enter the Royal Rumble.
You know, nobody asked. But if they did ask “what’s your single favourite match ever”?
I’d have to say that time Braun Strowman and “totally honestly random kid certainly not a showrunner’s kid, honest” won the tag team championship.
I mean. This is peak WWE. Everything that’s ever been cool and fun and daft and knowingly silly about pro-wrestling, for me, distilled into a single match.
Quite a lot of lead up, with Mr Midcard Shamus getting a justified squelching only adding to the fun.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: You know, nobody asked. But if they did ask “what’s your single favourite match ever”?
I’d have to say that time Braun Strowman and “totally honestly random kid certainly not a showrunner’s kid, honest” won the tag team championship.
I mean. This is peak WWE. Everything that’s ever been cool and fun and daft and knowingly silly about pro-wrestling, for me, distilled into a single match.
Quite a lot of lead up, with Mr Midcard Shamus getting a justified squelching only adding to the fun.
It certainly is a moment. Was that at wrestlemania? I think not, but something big. I'm sure that Nicholas is HUGE by now. Anyway, that question hasn't been asked, but should be, because it's fun.
I'm kinda crap at memorizing wrestling matches and only remember either horrendous things (Hardy compound match), amazing, mold-breaking, transcending things (Firefly Funhouse match, Cody-with-torn-off-arm-cage-match), just universally really good ones (Cody vs. Dustin Rhodes, Cody vs. Nick Aldis at All In. No idea why I only remember Cody matches.), or ones which were surprising because I didn't expect much (that one low-key match between Miz(?) and R-Truth in which R-Truth moved like a 20 year old, or that recent one betwen Mizuki and Arisu Endo, which was a proper battle). Anyway, a while ago I decided that favourite wrestling match is Takahashi vs. Marty Scurll vs. Will Osprae vs. Kushida at Wrestle Kingdom .....2018? That was just an insane match, featuring everything from sports entertain-y poo-housery, comedy, high-flying, speed to proper rasslin'. Maybe a bit light on storytelling. But if I was to show anybody who isn't familiar a wrestling match, this one would be it.
For tag team matches it would be FTR/Briscoes 1 from early 2022. Haven't seen the other ones, but that was amazing. For indierifficness (2020s sort) it would be Speedball Mike Bailey/Ninja Mack at that GCW thing at the Ukrainian Cultural Centre (only thing I remember about the event. )
There's also an amazing John Cena / AJ Styles match from Summerslam 2016(?). Watched it recently more or less by accident, and it's just really good.
edit:
I caught up on Smackdown. Here's what I learned (mostly not new things):
.) L.A.Knight is amazing.
.) Bray Wyatt is a really good talker, but the story got a bit stale, didn't it? Even now that uncle Howdy appeared in person.
.) There's no better way to start a year than with a John Cena match. Btw, what a match to get on free TV.
.) I may have said it 1000 times before, but: WWE is doing everything entirely correctly with the Bloodline storyline. It's increibly enjoyable. Roman is such a star in his "bullet-proof god-like status with a very obvious archilles heel, which goes back to his cratchphrase". It's so elegant and played so well. Sami Zayn, as the naive heroic figure, the Usos (and solo sikoa) as the henchmen, Heyman as the sneaky snek talky person. It's all so wonderful.
.) The return was interesting.
[spoiler]She's great, no question there. However, I didn't miss her much. Not that I like Rousey, but Flair certainly isn't a babyface either. I only remember one instance at which I saw Charlotte in a pure babyface role, and that was in her very first main roster match against Natalya when she cried. I liked her then as a babyface. I like her now as well, but she's just no babyface, is she.)
As I said before - I only started watching that whole stuff in 2015. WWE weekly programming being actually good is entirely new to me, but I like it.
Wrestle Kingdom was really good. FTR vs. Gooto/Yoshi-Hashi was great. Kairi vs. Tam Makano(?) was really hard-hitting. Tama Tonga vs. Anderson was really good as well. Good fun. Omega vs. Ospreay was amazing. It was like bloody 2017 again! Sensational match. :-) Main event was good as well.
Seems like 2023 might be just as interesting a wrestling year as 2022 was....
So the Ospreay-Omega-Match got me thinking. I hate to admit it, but to me Omega has more often than not underwhelming in AEW, given his accolades and the calibre of wrestler he is. I didn't even really realize that until I saw his entrance at Wrestle Kingdom. How come he comes across as the huge superstar in Japan, but at AEW he always looks a bit more like the Young Bucks' slightly weird pal? It's just so weird, isn't it. Maybe they should get rid of all the geeks to come along with him (Nakazawa, Cutler [he's a red flag to me anyway ], even Don Callis, whom I consider to be more of a ballast than anything else and rather irritating.). I like the trios thing they're doing right now at AEW, but I miss Kenny Omega being a singles wrestler Especially so after this match the past wednesday. Sure, it was a BIG time match at a BIG PPV, but still. Maybe Omega doesn't really enjoy working in the US? Who knows.
Alpharius wrote: I agree with you - but I think it was part of making him Heel Kenny when he was the champ, pre-injury.
They do need to get the right shine back on him, as certainly is one of the biggest stars AEW has.
Yeah, I guess you're right. Also, the non-ring-gear outfits of the Bucks of Youth And Friends annoy me. They look like The Dude, save for the bathrobe. Cody is really missed. Now he was a sharp dresser. And if I -the person with the least dress sense in the world - notice that it's a problem.
But i'm sure there'll be a Kenny rebuilding process now in AEW. Maybe a bit more Japanese Kenny, less American Kenny. Unless that match with Ospeay made his body crumble again, which wouldn't be a surprise.
.) Catching up on RAW. I think I kinda like what they do with Alexa Bliss? Even though I despised the spooky Bliss stuff. The promo on theannouncers table was inspired. Btw, did she buy a new face? Has Uncle Howdy stolen her nose? How odd. But oh well. She seems to like the surgery stuff. All the best to her.
.) Austin Theory is on a good, good way. He can talk! And if he's that angry young man, that's great. Wins a title, immediately loses it again (which is what I'd like to see), and he gets angrier and angrier, then he wins again is happy, then loses again immediately.
.) Bayley has good one-liners. I like Damage Ctrl.
.) Seth Rollins can walk on crutches and still look amazing. I'm not the greatest fan of his right now, but that can't be denied.
.) Oh dear. Prison Dom is the best. This is just pure genius. Of course Corey Graves can't hold back and is too much on the nose with it (remember when he was considered 'the cool announcer'? That's a long time ago). But ok, so did the Miz. I guess they don't plan on carrying on with the joke for much longer. The Tag Team Turmoil was good fun.
I'm still not quite familiar with the thought that WWE weeklies can be fun. But they are!
Yeah, very, very interesting. I mean it's not confirmed, but it would be a wonderfully typical Vince McMahon move. I'm really concerned with the amount of advertising Saudi Arabia, Quatar and others do in the west. Do you also get an endless series of adverts for Dubai in private TV and certain magazines all the time? It's so weird. Who the hedge wants to go to dubai, except for ill-informed, tax-dodging streamer/youtuber idiots?
Three potential positives I could see in this: .) WWE going back to being private is an option (I think?), and I think that technically might be better for the fans? Not sure. .) This is an owner we at least very much know how to feel about. With Disney, some people have positive feelings towards them (for god knows what reason). Same with Amazon. With Saudi Arabia we'd all be on the same page. .) Last, but not least: Imagine the poterntial for turning this into an angle. Raw next year: Vince's music hits! He enters on a camel, some baddies (not that sort of baddies, but bad guy wrestlers) with him. Randy Orton HAS to be with him, yet again NOT being allowed to ride a camel (which possibly might be the groundworks for a a faceturn lateron because he couldn't take it any more, always being denied that camel ride). OF COURSE that darstardly Sgt.Slaughter is with them, the Iron Sheik, it's 1988! All of them wear Keffiyehs, the traditional arabian head gear for men. So do the baddies women, because having the burka in there would take it a bit far. the whole thing is more early 20th century orientalist (yes. We're going all-in, maybe even use that word.). Vince announces the sale, ending on the words "YOU'VE BEEN SOLD OUT" in a typical vince fashion. And we go on from there, down to an "AMERICAN [maybe the good guys can call themselves The Western Allies, either way, they're led by Cody Rhodes, maybe calling himself America Rhodes] Invasion of Saudi Arabia" on the next Crown Jewel. Well, maybe it's not that good an idea. I'll give Jim Cornette a call and better ask him.
Two reports that came out last night claiming WWE is being sold to Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund are now under assault, as multiple sources have come forward this morning to dispute the claim.
Late Tuesday evening, Cassidy Haynes of Bodyslam.net and Steve Muehlhausen of DAZN reported that WWE sold to the Saudis, with the intent for the company to go private again instead of being publicly-trade. Muehlhausen's tweet has since been deleted, and Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful was unable to confirm the rumors. Additionally, several reporters now claim there is no truth to the story, most notably Ariel Helwani of BT Sport
Well, it's always been "$$$". Just in the 80s the dolladolladolla was in the US, now it's elsewhere. Doesn't change the nature of the beast in the slightest.
Well, it's always been "$$$". Just in the 80s the dolladolladolla was in the US, now it's elsewhere. Doesn't change the nature of the beast in the slightest.
Live Broadcast usually has a second or two delay built in, and it wouldn’t be the first time they’ve piped alternative audience noise.
Plus the rumour is apparently false - though the wording in the denials has been “not as this time”, which is ambiguous as to whether it’s been discussed.
During the NXT broadcast they announced that Jay Briscoe has passed away. Cause of death was reportedly due to a traffic accident according to Wikipedia.
Ghaz wrote: During the NXT broadcast they announced that Jay Briscoe has passed away. Cause of death was reportedly due to a traffic accident according to Wikipedia.
Ghaz wrote: During the NXT broadcast they announced that Jay Briscoe has passed away. Cause of death was reportedly due to a traffic accident according to Wikipedia.
EDIT: Official statement from the Delaware State Police via Wrestling INC:
The wrestling world has been rocked by the tragic news that Jay Briscoe (real name Jamin Pugh) passed away yesterday following a fatal car accident, and now the Delaware State Police department has provided an official statement on the situation.
The accident took place in Laurel late yesterday afternoon, and resulted in the deaths of Pugh and 27-year-old Lillyanne Ternahan, who was driving a Silverado 1500 which, "for unknown reasons," failed to remain in the correct lane, crossing the center line directly into the path of the Silverado 2500 being driven by Pugh, resulting in a head-on collision. While Ternahan was wearing her seatbelt at the time, Pugh was not wearing his. Both drivers were pronounced dead at the scene.
Pugh had two passengers in his pickup truck who have been identified as his 12-year-old daughter and 9-year-old daughter, both of whom were correctly restrained. Both girls were taken via ambulance to an area hospital and were admitted in critical condition. There is currently no update on their medical status, although Pugh's wife did create a social media post earlier today asking for prayers as their daughter Gracie was set for surgery on her back. The other daughter, Jayleigh, who was stable and resting, also suffered severe injuries.
Any potential alcohol involvement in the crash is unknown at this time. Troopers are currently asking anyone who witnessed the collision to contact Sergeant J. Burns by calling 302-703-3269. Stay tuned for updates on this developing story.
I remember RAW25, and it was pretty lame. RAW XXX on the other hand was rather fun. There were some slight downers, but mostly good (and several bad) laughs, nice video packages, good things. And the trial of Sami Zayn kept 100% in line with everything else the Bloodline have done the past many, many months - it was really good.
Dynamite was fun! I disliked the therapy thing. I assume that all the Acclaimed-Gunns stuff is meant to be for much, muuuuuuuch younger people and fans of 'sports entertainment', but even in terms of sports entertainment any sort of backstage therapy sequences are always horrible.
Rampage! The book of Hobbs as a concept is fun, him actually carrying a book with him, and commentary explaining that it's an incredibly petty list of stuff that people have done to him is a bit lame. The main event was surprising, but cool. And look, it's only bloody Mei Suruga! Being Emi Sakura's royal heel lackey instead of 'happy lady who likes apples, but also can be pretty nasty to people because she's a bit insane'. Oh well. Anyway, hope to see more of her on AEW TV.
Feels like we're going to see some referencing back to Main Event Jey Uso struggling to acknowledge the Tribal Chief a few years ago.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Just watched a segment on the Pat McAffee show where Michael Cole came on and they talked about the Rumble. Last years RR had the highest ever viewing numbers for a RR ever. This year the numbers were 50% higher than last year. That's crazy. Being on Peacock is doing well for them I guess.
Kroem wrote: Royal rumble kinda sucked me back in; kinda glad they went with letting the current roster shine rather than parachuting in a Attitude Era star.
The right man won of course... on to WrestleMania!
I very much feel the same.
Spoiler:
I love a surprise as much as the next guy, but especially this year it felt like they really got a lot out of their current roster. Especially in the women's rumble it felt like Triple H is showing off the women's roster the built up again or bolstered at least. Also, I really like Emma. And it was great seeing Damage Control dominate as much as they did, because they're a bloody team. Same with tag teams in the men's royal rumble.
Anyway, on the men's royal rumble we had probably the most obvious winner, but also the most logical and most interesting one. No matter the end result, the true winner is Gunther, for whom the whole thing was a star-making moment. Or one and a half hour or so. Anyway, the thing is that going with the obvious isn't necessarily a bad thing. In recent years, WWE booking was all about Vince's MOMENTS. It all seemed painfully tailored for youtube clips and surprising the audience with what they didn't expect at any cost. Tony Khan's booking was much smarter during that time, knowing that the logical/obvious outcome is in no way a bad thing, as long as there's this little doubt here and there during the match that the other guy might come out on top, even though it's extremely unlikely. It's like a roller coaster - you know how it'll end, but you're having a fun ride along the way, and there's this tiny hint here and there where you might get a bit excited. And that's even more satisfying I think than have some big swerve shoe-horned in. And Triple H knows that and utilizes that logic.
Those royal rumbles showed that pretty efficiently. There were the fun parts and the ha-ha and all, but most things just made sense. Having a team mate (and not bloody betray them after 5 seconds) in a royal rumble will be a great boon and so on. I'm not sure if it was necessary to have the (almost) winners all starting at #1 on both matches, but that doesn't really matter.
Also - piper niven's got her name back! I could have slapped the commentators properly for their silly wordplays about drop and "do" the minutes thereafter. I'm not a fan of Pat McAffee (neither am I a great fan of Corey Graves). But Pat is just too on the nose, too loud, too broad. Maybe he just reminds me of one or two people I knew and did NOT care for.
Speaking of people I don't care for - Logan effin' Paul. We all hate youtubers of course, and rightly so. He stole the Buckshot Lariat (I'm sure somebody did it before, that point is more half-jokingly). And then he pulls stuff like that stunt with Ricochet, and it's impossible to fully hate him. Which aggrevates me even more. Stupid Logan Paul being so good at the wrestling! At least they didn't bring out Bad Bunny.
Speaking of musicians who don't belong in a wrestling ring - well, good bloody thing we had country rock LEGEND Hardy there. Oh well. I don't know the guy, nobody I watched with knew the guy, it must be an American thing. It's just funny, because all these musicians are entirely unknown this side of the pond. Maybe I'm just ignorant. Poppy I can deal with. Black Sabbath I can deal with. But Migos? (sorry about the one of them who got killed recently. Condolences.) Hardy? Bloody Machinegun Kelly?
But that's really just nit-picking. This Royal Rumble is the best Premium Live Event since ... I don't know. Wrestle Princess III. It was brilliant. Okay, I wasn a wee bit drunk, but that never hurt a PPV, right?
.) Undisputed WWE Universal Championship: Roman Reigns (c) vs. Sami Zayn - It's a darned shame and we'll all be very sad, but Reigns will win, and it'll be the last big win of the Bloodline. Here's hoping for a three-way at Wrestlemania. Or it'll be Owens and Zayn vs. the Usos for the undisputed Tag titles.
.) Elimination Chamber match for Raw Women's Championship match at WrestleMania 39: Asuka vs. Liv Morgan vs. Raquel Rodriguez vs. Nikki Cross vs. Natalya vs. Carmella - This probably is the hardest one to tell. Realistically it comes down to Raquel Rodriguez, and she'd be an interesting match for Bianca Belair. HOWEVER, Asuka just became a Juggalo and I like her way better, so I'll go with Asuka.
.) Elimination Chamber match for United States Championship: Austin Theory (c) vs. Seth Rollins vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Bronson Reed vs. Damien Priest vs. Montez Ford - I have this perverse interest in Austin Theory being a 'thing'. And holding a title gets him matches, and some screen time, and he guy kinda forgot how to talk I'm afraid.
.) Brock Lesnar vs. Bobby Lashley - Lashley. He's become one of the safest go-to guys for WWE. Lesnar doesn't need any titles.
.) Edge and Beth Phoenix vs. Finn Bálor and Rhea Ripley - I really don't need to see the Phoenixens any more, and Edge even said he'd retire in spring(?) 2023. Judgement Day got this. And please send a grown-up along with Finn Balor's next clothes shopping trip.
Looking forward to the whole thing. It'll be good.
Just like with Royal Rumble, it was a really fun event. Not very many matches, but each was different, served its purpose and it was fun. Women's elimination chamber match: great. Edge&Beth Phoenix vs. Judgement Day: much more fun than I'd thought. Finn Balor is becoming Daffy Duck. The crowd's reaction to Dominic Mysterio was great. How they turned him into this heat magnet was a masterstroke.Brock/Bobby - spectacular, as to be expected, with a result both can live with. Men's Elimination Chamber match - very good. Logan Paul is the biggest tit in the universe, isn't he. Next to him, Austin Theory looks like a good guy.
Then there was the main event. Holy Moly. Hate to admit it, but this felt bigger than Kenny/Hangman. I mean this is Sami Zayn. Kevin Owens and him are 'my guys'. And there he is as a pure babyface (his natural role) vs. Roman Reigns, being a heel. 18 months ago this would have been absolutely impossible to think of. Usually having the family there in the front row is too much and hokey, but it worked so well this time. The minutes they spent just milking the amazing moment at the beginning of the match was great. I think I say that on each PPV Reigns main-events in, but I've come to love the Roman Reigns Main Event. His facials are great.
The only thing I wasn't that keen on was the houseshow-y ending. That I felt was unnecessary. Okay, having KO come out was required, but that went on a bit too long I felt. And I just don't like the stunner as a move. Always feels like it's an hommage to Steve Austin rather than anything else. He could just as well have used the chairs.
My Instagram just threw up on those video thingies, of Paul Heyman. Commenting on someone shouting “my boy” about Chris Benoit.
Heyman absolutely slaps them down, and rightfully so.
Given Heyman is a near constant heel on WWE? To hear him use that voice to make a point I actually agree with? I have a new found appreciation for his acting talent.
Reminds me to look up what happened to that dillweed at Revolution who kept on standing up, shouting crap for the first half or so of the show constantly. All of a sudden he was gone. Good riddance, I say.
AEW Revolution
Spoiler:
...was solid fun!
I really like how different AEW and WWE book their PPVs. The latter is all about the big stories (or the occasional spectacle of big bodies slapping each other), the former is a bit more about the variety, and a litte bit more 'raw'. I like either right now. AEW could do better in some regards, but when you watch the actual matches and PPVs... it is good. Yes, WWE now know how to take their time. They're really good at the moment and that's brilliant. Yes, AEW suffered a bit over the past 6 months or so, but they still produce a.) the only alternative outside of Japan and b.) really good wrestling.
At the beginning I was unhappy with how they dealt with Ruby Soho (not that I'm a huge fan, but anyway). Now she's in the title picture! And then got a big storyline. And now on Dynamite she cut a great heel promo. The sort where you know she's right and she's got a point shame that it's the only women's match. AEW's got a strong women's roster. Remember that Yuka Sakazaki is technically a member of that roster? Get her over to the US, have her tear the house down. Hikaru Shida, Athena, Penelope Ford. I think Kylinn King is still on there? I liked her, even though some stuff she did on dark looked scary. Okay, Abadon can't be a main eventer, but heck, just give us a trios match or something. Trios women's match instead of Joe/Wardlow (no disrespect to either) or Jericho/Starks would have made for a nice, colourful affair. I just don't want to see the big, impressive lady who holds the Tbs title on a PPV. Or what's wrong with a women's royal rumble? Everybody loves a royal rumble, you get to showcase people, all is well.
Jericho - Starks was a very good opener. Nobody was really looking forward to that match all that much, right? But perfect for the opening spot. Ricky Starks is an interesting one, because he's such a natural heel, but it's also easy to root for him. Still, to me he works better as a heel. Look at the interview in the media scrum after the show.
Jungle Boy - Christian Cage was big drama and good fun. That belt whippig sequence was gnarly. Having Mrs. Perry and her daughter around is always fun.
The Elite (c) vs. The House of Black - cool. Great match. They made Brodi King look like a monster, which is good and correct. All of the House of Black are great. I don't get Julia Hart's role. I'm not keen on the hat either. I loved her turn and how long it took, and I loved her with the Varsity Blondes, but how she's this somewhat ill-fitting piece in the House of Black. Very funny when she took that bump though - at least Kenny Omega's reaction, because only Omega can do that without turning heel.
Samoa Joe (c) vs Wardlow- AEW TNT Championship match: Yeah, it was perfectly OK. Don't like the thing where tehy have the next contestant sit up in some loge and watch on. It's pretty distracting and has nothing to say.
Tag titles match: was perfectly OK! Also, correct call to keep the belts on the Gunns (on whom they missed out majorly by not calling them Young Gunns). Good to see FTR back. I hope they grab those titles now and turn the tag team division around again. I did not love The Acclaimed as babyfaces, I don't care much for the Gunns, I get the urge to go away when Lethal/Jarrett turn up. Didn't AEW have this amazing tag division once? Bucks, FTR, Top Flight, Butcher/Blade, the two dark order fun guys? They could also have Wheeler and Castagnoli as a tag team an time. And then they decide to push the Acclaimed and the Gunns as the centre of the tag division? Jeez.
Moxley - Hangman: Two men whose themes I LOVED and whose new themes I don't care for. Oh well. The match was ...yeah, it was a bit of a spot fest but it was alright.
The Ironman match was something else. I loved the little detail that MJF kept on hydrating (including H2O chants by the audience). Daniel Bryan is a scary man. In the beginning of the match he reminded me a LOT of the match he had with Brock Lesnar, where he had studied all those animal techniques before. But that match was quite something.
.) I like the atmosphere of a new page being turned with all the big stories.
Spoiler:
I mean there was a lot of Sports Entertain-y stuff in there, but I kinda liked the 4-pillars-promo. What surprised me the most was Darby Allin. Usually I don't give two hoots about the guy, but in this he came across the best out of all four. MJF did sports entertainy bollocks. First 2 minutes I was doubting him again, going wiht all that super-cheap heat. Then he put the hat on. Which - as we learned later - served a purpose, but you don't look like a champion with that hat on, surrounded by balloons.Jungle Boy came across as rather whiney. Sammy Guevara is an utter wally, but as long as he's a heel I'm somewhat okay with it. His promo was a bunch of lies as far as I know, but it fits the character. He's a tit. Then Darby started saying things and thought "god, young people are annoying" (the bloody film school anecdote. I mean we've seen his little films. Maybe sometimes it's not a bad idea to compromise one's vision) but then it got better and good.
.) I would have liked to see more of Miss Matthews. I know little about Taya Valkyie, but if she takes the tbs title off Jade Cargill, I'm okay with that.
.) Really like the look of The Outcasts. Do not like the use of the word "bitches", and it was a weird analogy. But again - Soho wasn't wrong, Storm wasn't wrong, Saraya was entertaining ("I AM A MIRACLE" is a great, simple heel line. ). They beat down the women's champion and Dr.Britt Baker (who in kayfabe should be pretty much the second strongest wrestler in the company) with ease, but then RIHO comes out. And there's nothing funnier than Riho hitting the ring, striking unholy fear into the hearts of large groups of main-event level heels. Nothing against Riho, she's really good, and I greatly enjoy her matches and joshi wrestling in general, but she isn't exactly the "muscle" type of wrestler. It's just really funny how she comes out with that tube or pipe and in her outfit and the baddies flee. We hat that before, where Riho returned after a long time, came out and beat the heels into submission, all the while wearing a very friendly looking dress. It was great. Anyway. Riho is great. Good to see her back. Not so good to see Skye Blue, but oh well. Nightingale of course is great, no question about that.
Also - that shot in the end. The baddies are in full retreat, Nightingale and Blue (groan) see them off as wrestlers do when the baddies are in full retreat. Riho, DER RING GENERAL, sitting atop the ring post, pointing her lead pipe or whatever that thing is like a general's baton. She is Alexander the Great.
April 3 (Reuters) - World Wrestling Entertainment Inc (WWE.N) will combine with Endeavor Group-owned (EDR.N) mixed martial arts franchise UFC to form a new, publicly listed entertainment giant valued at about $21 billion, the companies said on Monday.
Night 1! Supergood!
Night 2! Supergood! Then good, then annoying, then good, then main event.
Spoiler:
They really got us with the result of the main event. Wtf.
Raw After Wreslemania!
Spoiler:
I'm really down on the whole WWE thing again. I shall retire to the saccharine bubble of Tokyo Joshi Pro and watch AEW in between. Wake me up when Vince is gone.
I'm so sick of Roman Part-Time Reigns. The guys who got to 1000+ days as world champion did so because people wanted them to keep winning. The WM ending is going to alienate more people than it pleased. At this point I don't care about the world championship. Thanks, WWE. Solid booking.
I love Roman's reign. I full appreciate his matches, he's a cool dude who is a great champ BUT I fully agree with you on the booking. I like a long title reign, I like a dominant champion, but the end of night 2 along with RAW thereafter just made me sad. (the RAw much more so than WM night 2. That was just disbelief rather than disappointment. )
Woah, I totally missed Smilie Kylie Rae's WWE main roster debut! Main Event, 15th of December last year. So I went on the network, typed in "Main event" and was rather sure that this is a search query not entered very often. First match on the card, a BARN BURNER against Dana Brooke. I'm a big fan of Kylie Rae's (wrestling under the name of Briana Ray); she's really good. Hope she does great in WWE.
Sure thing. I think that you can really see Kylie Rae's in-ring experience, and she's got a sorta charisma that gets over with fans.
Unrelated, general observation: Man, i'd like to see more tap-out victories in mainstream wrestling. Submissions should be gruesome, right? At least submission finishers. I'd like to see more of those too.
Julia Hart had a match with Kiera Hogan on Rampage. When it was announced I wasn't too enthused. I like Kiera Hogan, but so far I haven't been impressed with Julia Hart in the House of Black. That match though - that Julia Hart looks like a singles wrestler all of a sudden! She can look really angry and makes grunty groany noises, which is always good. Maybe she's one to keep an eye on for a singles run! I wouldn't mind that.
But I just heard news about Madcap Moss going back to being called Riddick Moss.Very happy about this. Nobody should have to be named "Madcap" if they are a rather down-the-middle lower card person without a real character. Very happy for him. He's huge, and I like him by way of liking Emma.
Hey, did the Draft take place on Smackdown two nights ago?
Part of it was on SmackDown, there was a "Saturday Supplemental Draft"... somewhere?, and given the SmackDown part is labelled as Night One, I'm expecting Major Draft Part 2 on tomorrow's RAW.
Aw, I was thinking you'd get one, you lucky bastard. That trip would have been pretty darned cool, but too far and too pricey for me (and hard to argue in front of friends I'd take with me, because alone it wouldn't be much fun). But you'll have a pretty, pretty, pretty good time I'm sure. Meanwhile I'll wait for them to pop over to mainland Europe at some point in time...
Ticket prices were half decent as well, right?
I'll watch Backlash in about 10 minutes. I have NO expectations and I don't give a single hoot about bad bunny. So probably there's a good chance of me really enjoying the show. With WWE especially, having no great expectations really worked out well for me in the past.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Backlash
Spoiler:
Iyo Sky vs. Bianca Belair: Loved the match. The audience was on FAIA and of course loved Iyo Sky because once we set step outside (well, kinda) of the US we see things how they actually are.
Connection to the WWE network is really crap though Bad quality, and even stutters. Had to deactivate the webcam whilst watching with friends over discord. :/
Bad Bunny is really good. And not a complete bunghole, like Logan Paul (to my knowledge).
The audience is bonkers. Really, really good.
I love Brock Lesnar. And NOBODY can say that he's not giving his all for that wrestling malarky.
Match of the night: the opener I think. Great, great audience.
Also: Saturday Night Collision officially announced. Bit of a shame they got rid of both AEW Dark shows (now that was a bunch of pure wrestling. Best match: Yuka Sakazaki vs. Kaylinn King.), mostly for Taz's and Excalibur's banter, but okay. I wonder what happens with Rampage.
Also: Saturday Night Collision officially announced. Bit of a shame they got rid of both AEW Dark shows (now that was a bunch of pure wrestling. Best match: Yuka Sakazaki vs. Kaylinn King.), mostly for Taz's and Excalibur's banter, but okay. I wonder what happens with Rampage.
I never watched either of those AEW shows, but I love what they contributed to Botchamania. But I digress...
I feel like WWE should put more TV events on outside continental North America. The Puerto Rican audience was on fire. The UK audience is usually on fire. Main roster has 4 Irish wrestlers, that might make for a good show. It'd be interesting to see if more countries could have an awesome crowd.
bbb wrote: I feel like WWE should put more TV events on outside continental North America. The Puerto Rican audience was on fire. The UK audience is usually on fire. Main roster has 4 Irish wrestlers, that might make for a good show. It'd be interesting to see if more countries could have an awesome crowd.
It's purely down to logistics. Take a look at this article for what WWE brings to an average episode of Monday Night RAW and you'll see that too many shows would be economically unfeasible.
Does it become more feasible if they're doing a RAW/SD tour, doing - for example - a RAW in Ireland, a SD in the UK, a RAW in Germany, and a SD somewhere-else-in-Europe, with some house shows in between?
I can see it being a pain for a one-off, but it seems like doing a run of shows might be better?
Dysartes wrote: Does it become more feasible if they're doing a RAW/SD tour, doing - for example - a RAW in Ireland, a SD in the UK, a RAW in Germany, and a SD somewhere-else-in-Europe, with some house shows in between?
I can see it being a pain for a one-off, but it seems like doing a run of shows might be better?
I suspect not.
Trawling all your gear and gubbins overland is one thing - even if like most productions you tend to hire the venue’s own gubbins. Trawling over land sea and air and entirely another.
Dramatic example sure? But imagine you’re all set for a relatively short flight from Ireland to England….and something goes wrong. Could be crap weather. Could be a strike. You now need to reorganise as short to no notice, or risk no-showing the whole gig. Overland? If your preferred route is buggered, you still have alternative routes available more or less straight away.
WWE doesn't bring more stuff than a music act putting on a big arena/stadium show, and less in fact than some artists.
Like, Roger Waters toured the world between 2010-2013 with a live performance of The Wall, doing 219 dates over that time. The amount of equipment for that show is insane. Show logistics is not some insurmountable problem that is unique to WWE or wrestling.
Or, for a further back example, Iron Maiden's World Slavery tour. That was 189 performances on a 331 day tour.
Battle Royale was perfectly alright. I like a Battle Royale, but of course I like it better if the wrestlers enter one by one with a little time in between. There was a ton of stuff happening in this match.
Cole/Jericho Unsanctioned Match was rather fun; I just can't quite get behind the whole feud. This may sound silly, but it just feels fake, and I'm a bit tired of the fact that every single big return/addition to the roster has to go through a Jericho feud. The ref stoppage was an end that at first felt deflating, but I think it was a good call to go with.
Storm/Hayter - I heard that Hayter was injured, so ...yeah. I guess she'll get the title back in the UK.
House of Black rules match: It was an open challenge, I was sitting there, hoping for "anybody but the Acclaimed". The Acclaimed came out, it was a good match. I like the lighting, I like Julia Hart. That Dominic-line Caster did was funny, but very detrimental to Buddy Matthews' character. Good thing he's such a great wrestler, because he's got it hard enough being the one called "buddy" in the House of Black. Malakai Black is great. Brody King is great.
FTR vs. Jarret/Lethal - fine match with lots of shenannigans and TWO referees getting whacked over the head with guitars. A bad night for AEW referees in general.
Jade Cargill vs. Taya Valkyrie - two special entrances. Valkyrie's I got, Cargill's was an overload of american things which I couldn't quite put together. The rapping lady I think was in the same college sorority as Cargill, and that sorority is HISTORICAL, as everything is right now, because HISTORICAL things can't be copied and pasted and kinda are like eternal copyright, which is something we as a society put the biggest and only focus on. It's like copyright combined with identity politics, which is a strong, strong team-up. But I digress and I'm probably very unfair. Anyway, this was probably my favourite Cargill match so far. She has come a long way (the network seems to love her, she's presented as basically a babyface by now, she has an amazing look, I'm 100% sure she's Cena-levels of professional and disciplined, and surely she's a lovely person to boot), and Taya Valkyrie is a veteran and both had a good match. I really liked that "slip through the ropes" suplex Valkyrie did. That was rad.
Then Kris Statlander appeared and won the tbs title. Which is a good call, it just doesn't make her look super strong, does it? And she doesn't really exude the presence of a champion to begin with (although I like her a lot). I'm sure we'll get there. Main thing is that the title is off Cargill and I hope she goes on holidays or something for a year or two and I hope we'll see a lot of nice matches in which Statlander retains.
4 Pillars 4-way match - Now this felt like a classic AEW main event match. The spots! All this was lacking was a 4-men teddy bear roll. In the beginning Sammy Guevara and Tay Conti announce that they're going to have a baby. Congratulations and all, but this doesn't change an ounce in the fact that Sammy Guevara is a heel and always will be. He has a natural air of "insufferable prick" about him, which has mostly been used very effectively in the past. Seems like people are cooling on Jungle Boy in a massive way. To be honest - and against every fibre of my being - I found Darby Allin to be the most believable baby face in the build-up. Then they showed that vignette before the match. Jeeebus. Didn't like him as much after that.
Anarchy in the Arena Match - They did that thing again where they play the music while a big brawl is happening everywhere! That's always good fun. The exploding shoe was silly (but then everything that puts attention on colourful sports shoes is silly.), the thumb tacks spot was insane, but very clever. The result was the correct one, and the true MVPs of the match were Castagnoli and Yuta. Both looked great, especially Claudio. He's a total freak, he looks amazing, he makes for a great babyface, he makes for a great heel.
Media Scrum - perfectly fine. MJF was out first and high as a kite on adrenaline by the looks of it. It's really interesting how he can put very honest and true points in between his heelish persona. He knows what's expected of him, he caters to that to a point, but also likes to stir the poo a little bit. Statlander was friendly and quiet. I'm sure she's a very nice person. Bryan Danielson scares me. Friendliest guy in the world, sitting there with Nick Jackson's blood all over his hands and nose. Tony Khan is weird. But I guess we all are.
Overall really fun, but you gotta pay closer attention than with a WWE PPV I think. And I think that the show suffered a little from Forbidden Door being just around the corner, and that is what people really look forward to, right?
It was a nice Premium Live Event. How the heck do WWE make a Saudi show almost a feel-good event?
Spoiler:
Really, really happy about the Asuka win. Technically she's a heel now, but let's be honest: She's the coolest and thus impossible to hate. I mean every single audience (outside of the US at least) always cheered Bianca Belair's opponents. Belair is impressive, but ultimately one-note and it's a bit hard rooting for the "smiling happy successful sporty person". She's rather one-note. The match was really good, and I think that Belair - much like batman - works well with a colourful, charismatic opponent. Of course this is by no means a comparison of Asuka to the Joker, because comparing anything to the joker is the most boring thing anybody in the world can do.
Speaking of which - I can't get behind Seth Rollins any more. It was rather plain to see that he'd get the ....tertiary world championship? and he's a supergood wrestler and all, but I can't deal with the character. In some interview he said that this current version of his character is closest to his real personality. Imagine that. Sheesh. Match was fine though.
Cody/Lesnar was fun, because Cody/Lesnar will always be fun, I think.
Rhea Ripley/Natalya was on the card purely because it was a Night of Champions thing any each title has got to be defended, right? Oh well. I like Natalya, because I like people who are around for long. Dom is really good at his role now.
Gunther/Ali was good fun. Lots of stuff happening.
Why did they have LA Knight, Omos and ...somebody else in the audience without them doing anything? Imagine having some employees (or contractors ) fly around the globe only to sit them in the audience. How weird.
Lynch/Stratus was OK. I just hope Lynch is The Man again rather than dressing up like someone who's really, really desperate for attention on instagram. A while ago I heard a threory that pretty people at some point will get bored with being pretty and thus will do silly things to their hair and such. Maybe if you're surrounded by pretty people in the workplace (and are some sort of stage performer person to begin with) it drives you to try to "stand out" visually, no matter how. Which isn't always a good idea. (I'm talking to you, stupid fuzzy red thing on Swerve Strickland's head! I like heel Strickland, why make himself look like a complete idiot?). Anyway. Fingers crossed for The Man. Oh, and it's very good to see that they introduced Zoey Stark to the mix, so the whole thing isn't a weird self-contained nostalgia act any more, but builds somebody new. Only heard of Stark before; she looks impressive.
The main event was great. Just amazing. Peak Bloodline match. I love Roman Reigns' facials and acting. Same with the Usos. Sami Zayn is the most endearing man in the world, Kevin Owens is his donkey. Good match, great story stuff, endlessly entertaining acting. Still, my highlight of the night was Asuka winning.
NapoleonInSpace wrote: Maybe the Chaos powers should fight it out in the ring. Who'll give me odds on Khorne against muh boy Nurgle?
Nurgle, hands down. Khorne is not the most cerebral of assassins, and Nurgle knows how important bells are, so bell to bell he'll outmatch Khorne.
@Alpharius: You know what started all the problems? Trent Beretta cutting his hair.
Seriously though, it's a sad state of affairs. Worst of all - look at how much success people have once they get away from that group: Yuta gets the win in a PPV main event, Statlander beat the unbeatable Jade Cargill, even Orange Cassidy(!) is basically not with them any more and has the run of his life. What do we learn from this? Best Friends hold you back. It's called showbusiness, not friend business someone (Scott Hall?) once said to somebody.
Right. The Cultaholic lads put up a video in which they give (imagined) awards in several categories for the first half of 2023.Of course it got me thjinking about which ones I would choose for each category.
.) Most Improved
Spoiler:
Er. Julia Hart? I was really impressed by the two matches she had recently
.) Most Underrated/Underutilized
Spoiler:
Angelico. Last Rampage was the first time I've seen him in maybe a year? And he's so good at the things!
.) Most Charismatic
Spoiler:
Sami Zayn does make sense. But also: Maki Itoh. I'm not the greatest fan, but she's got IT, and IT gets stronger each time I see her.
.) Best Non-Wrestler
Spoiler:
This is a tough one, because there aren't many managers out there these days, right? And the ones I can think of, Hayman aside, so all the AEW managers, are annoying the socks off me. Maybe Exalibur? Yeah, let's go with him. Because William Regal left AEW a good while ago now IIRC.
.) Best Gimmick
Spoiler:
I'm a bit confused about what a gimmick is really. Which is why I don't use the term much. But I think Roman Reigns is a pretty good call. Is that a gimmick though? I think so, but I'm not sure. If not: Hyper Misao is my other call
.) Best Feud
Spoiler:
Bloodline/Sami Zayn/Kevin Owens. Hands down.
.) Show of the Half-Year
Spoiler:
.) Match of the Half-Year [spoiler]Reigns/Zayn in Canada. The world was a-buzz, and they milked it sooooooooooooooooo well. Great stuff. Honorable mention: Yuka Sakazaki vs. Mizuki for the TJPW title. One of the weirdest matches I ever saw. "I could batter you, but I don't want to fight you." - "foight me!" - "no, lie down, or I'll hurt you bad because I'm so much stronger than you" - "foight me!" - *whack* - *dies* "...foight me!". The person who held the sign up which read "wrestling is redneck anime" those years ago was right. Other honorable mention, this time for the match rather than the drama: Io Sky vs. Bianca Belair. Great crowd, great performances, people cheered the correct person.
.) Promotion of the Half-Year
Spoiler:
WWE was just the most exciting so far this year, right?
.) Wrestler of the Half-Year
Spoiler:
Errrrrr.... Sami Zayn. Quite clearly. Also, isn't it great to be able to say that in a "best wrestler" category?
well, and that's it. What are your picks?
Automatically Appended Next Post: It's weird. From Day 1 I vehemently dislike Sky Blue. There is something about her I find incredibly irritating. Willow Nightingale - great, liked her right away. Billie Starkz (somehow I consider her being kinda in the same cohort as Sky Blue, also smiley young wrestling lady getting an international push) - perfectly fine, she'll be even better in the future. Sky Blue might become a good heel some day, but as a babyface I find her about as believable as Sammy Guevara. Just mentioning him because it's funny how he instantly switched into dad mode. The outfit on Dynamite would look great behind a lawn mower.
These two minor points aside - Dynamite last night was amazing.
edit: And just because I decided to watch some TJPW. The "Hype!" show, ("produced by Hyper Misao") was next on the list, so I watched that, and boy, that was something else. I don't want wrestling to be like that every time, but sometimes - and when you don't expect it to be - it's so, so good. Hyper Misao is Bray Wyatt and Matt Hardy rolled into one. Not understanding the language surely added to the experience, because it felt proper arthouse-y. It was an amazing blend of tribute show to Hyper Misao, silly stuff, the last episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Rocky, that episode of married with children (or Alf) in which the angel shows XY what life would be like if XY didn't exist (based on some classic american film i never watched) and also pro wrestling. I like that promotion, they do really interesting stuff occasionally. And other times they got the giant panda that moves in a silly fashion and that's funny.
The intro sets a fun tone (witha LOT of cm punk clips). CM Punk promo was great, Wardlow/Luchasaurus match was OK (Christian Cage is funny), Andrade and Buddy Murphy are chunky lads and had probably the match of the night. Women's match I skipped because of Sky Blue (as much as I like Willow Nightingale), but it looks like they're about to push her. Meh. Not sure why the Acclaimed were there, but okay. People like them. Great to see Miro again, even though he seemed weirdly flavourless. Main event was good. I'm not the greatest fan of Juice Robinson's outside of New Japan, but each time I see him in AEW he does one thing that makes me giggle. This time it was when he hit that move on Cash Wheeler and went "a-HAAA!" before the pin attempt. Speaking of Cash Wheeler - he is a really good flippy man, isn't he. He can pretend he's not all day, but with spears through the ropes to the outside and some of those insane things he showed - he's a flippy dude or at least a spotty one. Apart from all the other good things. Jay White is a great heel. And Samoa Joe is Samoa Joe, and thus great.
I like 2 hour wrestling shows. Maybe it's the perfect length for a weekly show. And I really like the different commentators. As good as Excalibur is, it's good for the other show to have a different 'voice'. And the look works for me as well, even though I prefer two tunnels.
Either way - Collision is off to a good start. Let's see what people in Ontario have to say about CM Punk next week.
Alpharius wrote: Previously, Sky Blue lost so much that she might has well have been a part of Best Friends.
I rather like her - some parts more than others - but I'd agree that she does need a certain "something" to get her really moving.
A new...gimmick, or purpose, or...something.
But overall, she's pretty nice, and her finishing move is quite good too.
I thought the finish to the women's tag match was a nice touch - always good to see such a tactic come around and bite the people who normally use it.
As for Skye - she's basically been learning on the job since she became All Elite, and has (generally) improved match on match. No injury issues that I recall, and no accounts of injuring anyone else by accident. I think the title shot against Toni was a bit of a test for her, and maybe AEW may now think she's at a point where she can do storylines, rather than effectively having developmental matches?
Even though I never really 'got' him, it's good to see him back. And take it right up again with Miz.
@Dysartes: Yeah, that sounds like a fair assessment. I mean she had to lose tons of matches, as she is new and all. But I'm also just glad there's somebody I don't like on any roster as well. I always get suspicious if I like everything in something. I mean Willow Nightingale basically is home-grown talent, right? She's a huge success story so far. I'd also like to see Nyla Rose more again, or Julia Hart in singles matches, or even Anna Jay (as far as home-grown talent goes. Anna Jay has become a solid, solid heel). Or Kiera Hogan (not home-grown, but I kinda like her), Diamante, Penelope Ford (she's good), I think the Bunny is still injured. Statlander is home-grown as far as I know. I think that the AEW women's roster has a chance of getting really good in the near future. Riho is still around, and while I'm not the biggest fan there's entertainment value in her matches. Not to mention the fact that Yuka Sakazaki is said to relocate to the US in 2024 and naturally will run rough-shot over the AEW women's roster. So at least there'll be lots of people to beat Skye Blue.
Here's a nugget: I just looked up Abadon because I wasn't sure about her current status. So I just learned that she's smaller than Riho. Who would have thunk it.
So how do people feel about LA Knight? I've enjoyed him since he was in NXT and am impressed he was able to work through Max Dupri to become himself again. He's been grinding for years and it seems to finally be paying off. My gut says he's not going to get the US championship and will need to prove his popularity has legs and he's not just a flash in the pan.
Speaking of Max Dupri, I'm disapointed they seem to have moved on from Maximum Male Models. Maxine Dupri is entertaining and teaming her with the Alpha Academy is working, but MMM was entertaining for what it was.
LA Knight is the people's champion. Heck, he might even work as a sort of anti-authoritarian babyface. I can see him do well. Who holds the US title right now? Still Theory? I think I've seen one MMM segment, so I can't comment on that.
Speaking of whom - what do you think of him? Back in Vince times when he was Vince's adoptive child (kinda) I was cheering him to wind up friends I watch with, but to some degree I think that there's vast potential in the guy. He looks the part, and I think he is able to talk if they let him. People seemed to rather kinda like him when he was an angry young man with a scruffy beard. That Austin Theory I'd like to see more of. Just an angry dude you kinda hate because he's younger, prettier and more athletic than us, but somehow he works because we've all been there, right? I mean it's the WWE audience; they're all older than Austin Theory is now, right?
I have seen the Trial of Roman Reigns. Still love all the Bloodline storyline and the theatric stage performances and so on.
Tonight's Blood&Guts, right? Oh, I'm looking forward to that.
Part of me wonders if they're trying to force LA Knight vs. The management. He got real close at MitB. They gave him a live promo for the US Title match, but maybe they'll screw him out of it somehow.
Theory is just not compelling. He's fine in the ring, but as a personality there's not much there besides being young and arrogant. Maybe a program against LA Knight as a young vs old conflict.
Theory: I'm only 25 and I've been on # PPvs and am a 2x US champion. What have you done LA Knight?
bbb wrote: Part of me wonders if they're trying to force LA Knight vs. The management. He got real close at MitB. They gave him a live promo for the US Title match, but maybe they'll screw him out of it somehow.
Theory is just not compelling. He's fine in the ring, but as a personality there's not much there besides being young and arrogant. Maybe a program against LA Knight as a young vs old conflict.
Theory: I'm only 25 and I've been on # PPvs and am a 2x US champion. What have you done LA Knight?
"I'll tell you what I've done. I've been a competitor. I battled with Seth Rollins - yea - [etc etc, listing matches], while you were the chairman's chosen pet project. You have been given opportunity after opportunity and despite all the protection and the opportunities you're back at square#1, dummy! yea!"
Theory would get destroyed right now by LA Knight. I have no idea how they can get him over, but if the whole Roman Reigns thing taught us and the WWE anything it's that they should just give it time instead of pushing 'the next big thing'. I think that they can do a lot with Austin Theory, just keep him around on the midcard for a few years and I think he can get over by himself. If not - they end up with a capable, experienced mid-carder.
Yup, I think that a Knight vs. management thing could work nicely.
There's only one plot line you need to be concerned with, and that's the megastar vs everyone else in a battle royal. You don't have to like it, but be prepared because it's not just an inevitability, it's a fact of life. Yeah!
Shake-up in the announce teams for the Red Brand and the Blue Brand according to Wrestling INC:
As reported by Variety, Cole and current "WWE SmackDown" broadcast partner Wade Barrett are set to make the jump to "WWE Raw," while current "Raw" announce team Kevin Patrick and Corey Graves are swapped over to "SmackDown." However, rather than a straight-up trade, Cole will also remain part of the "SmackDown" team, working alongside Graves and Patrick.
Absolutely loving the chants at MITB. So amusing to here proper, British swearing.
Automatically Appended Next Post: It is time.
But with Old Man Soft doing to the opening monologue, not what I’d call an auspicious start.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Oh good. Let’s open with Logan Paul. Now, the fact he’s a bit of a knob entirely aside? He does have the moves in the ring and is far from phoning it in. But to see someone get top billing because they’re famous doesn’t sit right with me. Not when there are folks that have worked for years on the Indy Circuit honing their skills.
You’re WWE for heaven’s sake. You are the industry juggernaut. You don’t need stunt casting.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Shayna Ascended entering the ring there.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Summerslam was a bit dull for me.
Women’s Triple Threat was the highlight for me.
Men’s Royal Rumble was crap. Like completely crap. When you know Sheamus “Jobbers Gonna Job” is the second man left, you know the other guy is gonna win.
The rest were broadly OK. Nothing too fancy, but for one of the biggest PPV’s (if not the biggest?) just felt a bit of a damp squib.
2 Words on AEW Collision: Cash Wheeler's mom seems to be a bit above pro wrestling. Or she's the baddest woman on the planet, grinning at Big Bill there. Speaking of which - I always liked Brian Cage, I especially like his tag team with Big Bill. The first I think has been really, really good for a long time now, and Bill seems to have really found his character now and does good with it.
Statlander/Martinez for the tbs title was good, the post-match was painfully by-the-numbers, because in AEW goodies are never allowed to celebrate. It's cool to see Diamante again. I like her. And of course Willow Nightingale is the bomb, but it was all very basic I felt. At least it wasn't bloody Skye Blue who came out to help Statlander.
Scissor Club segment I did not care for, do not care that much about them on the whole since they turned babyface at all. Bang Bang Gang segment was good. I very often hear how Juice Robinson outclasses Jay White, but I'm not convinced. In-ring I'll say that they are just about on par, and on the mic Robinson is just loud. But a bit too much so in my mind. The Gunns aren't funny, but that's okay, because they're annoying heels. White is a good counter-part to all this screamy spray-tanned-ness in that group.
Can't get behind Toni Storm, Trios Match was cool (because the House of Black is da bomb), Samoa Joe is amazing and the Christian Cage interview was the funniest thing I've seen in a while on wrestling tv. The visual as he's holding the unhappiest kid in the world like a puppet was so great. At first I thought that they'd brought the girl Jack Perry had been hiding behind on Dynamite.
Main event Punk vs. Ricky Starks was very good. Starks is a proper dastardly heel again, as he should be by nature.
All In will be INSANE.
I watched SummerSlam last night.
Had skipped MitB (first WWE PPV I haven't seen in forever actually. And I love PPVs from the UK, due to the chants especially, but my WWE watch peeps were occupied and somehow the time window passed.)
Logan Paul is so easy to hate. His twattiness is as real-life legitimate as Lesnar's scariness. He stands for everything that is wrong, and the fact that he's actually really good at this Wrestling stuff makes it all the more annoying. Also - because I'm an easily-led mark - one of the things that annoys me the most about him is how he STOLE the Buckshot Lariat from Hangman Page, one of the purest babyfaces. Paul knows SO well what he's doing, which is also annoying. Cody - Lesnar was great.
Spoiler:
Brock Lesnar is one of the very best things about WWE. And cody is such a hero.
The Slim Jim Royal Rumble apparently got WWE a LOT of money. Wasn't Luke Gallows supposed to be in there?
Spoiler:
Anyway, LA Knight was a big favourite for this one. Somehow I was too hung up on the Slim Jim aspect and thought Otis would win. Turns out he got eliminated very, very quickly. I was hoping for LA Knight not to win, because it's such a stupid match to be able to brag about, and his first big win should have been somewhere else. But oh well. It was an alright battle royale. Having 90% of the contenders in there and then giving 3 more extra entrances is always weird.
Gunther vs. McIntyre was a great match.
Spoiler:
the second best of the night in my opinion.
Rollins vs. Bálor was as solid as you'd expect. Instantly we were thrown by Cole's comment that the SEVEN was a tattoo.
Spoiler:
Some alright drama in the end. I just can't get behind Rollins any more. Would have loved to see Bálor win, because Rollins carries the title in the sense of badge of honour for a loyal worker well, but there really isn't much done with it I think.
MMA Rules match Rousey vs. Baszler I felt kinda bad about. Sure, I don't care about Rousey in the slightest and hoped that this would spell the end of her run in WWE [which acccording to today's news it very well might be]. We know that she doesn't care, the audience doesn't care about her in the ring or on the mic. And Baszler deserves so much more. MMA rules was a bad idea to begin with, but the crowd at Summerslam was pretty nasty right from the get-go. So I felt bad for Shayna for the audience's "this is boring" and boos.
Spoiler:
Rousey should have tapped out. I said it before; I would love to see WAY more tap-out finishes in pro wrestling. If you wanna make the thing feel more 'real', finish more matches this way. It doesn't make the person who loses via tap-out look weak, it makes the hold looks strong. All of a sudden the concept of the "rest hold" would get less and less as well as holds are made to look stronger. TJPW used to end a TON of matches that way, it's perfectly OK. Now they do it less it feels like, but I'd like to see more tap-outs there again as well. That whole 'passing out' stuff always feels so theatric and should be saved for few big babyface losses or something.
[ Triple threat womens championship match Belair vs. Asuka vs. Charlotte. Probably my favourite match of the night.
Spoiler:
All of us three who watched did not want to see Belair win. Wouldn't wanna have to sit through another title reign of her's. Initially I wanted Asuka to retain, as the match went on I was perfectly OK with Charlotte to hold it again. Charlotte is just so bloody good. Ring gear looked cool as well. I like Red Charlotte. Match was frantic, Belair's knee injury (I think cole said she had "her knee injuried") spot was a bit annoying. I mean it looked kinda real for a bit with the black-shirts running to her, but then also a person with a big camera ran to her as well, so it was quite clear that it was worked. The return to the ring got her a 5 on the Cody-Over-the-Top-Heroism-Scale, but ultimately it was just so she could get pinned and keep Asuka strong. Anyway, really cool match. I's the women's title matches on these cards which usually are the sleeper hits in WWE PPVs these days I think. Oh, and we cheered big for Io Sky cashing in.
Main event Jay Uso vs. Roman Reigns in a tribal thing. I love Roman Reigns main event matches, most of all his interactions with the crowds. In the beginning I had NO idea how this one would end.
Spoiler:
Shame it did the way it did. Jimmy turning AGAIN and Sikoa getting a bit more miffed at Roman makes the whole Bloodline story feels like it's just turning around itself and has nothing new to offer..
The whole show felt a bit uneven. There were good things (women's title match, Brock/cody to an extent) and bad things (MMA thingy, Logan Paul didn't really work for me either despite all the heel work, Battle Royale) and okay things. Overall a very long show with lots of unnecessary ads. While I found the location to look pretty cool, summerslam just shouldn't happen under a roof. It was alright, but felt decidedly unspecial for a Summerslam, I agree with MDG.
Agree with much of your thoughts on Rollins - he just is...meh...as the champ.
Interesting to see the split in crowd reaction for Punk and Starks at the start, and then the well executed heel turn and subsequent crowd change as well!
AEW overall, while still not perfect, still holds my interest more than WWE these days...
PWInsider reports that Pillman is expected to be at this week's "WWE NXT" tapings on Tuesday, though it is not currently known whether he would be appearing on TV or wrestling a match. Furthermore, while it has yet to be confirmed, it's believed that Pillman has signed a contract with WWE, and will be working with the promotion going forward. It was previously reported that Pillman attended the Performance Center last month for a tryout.
I'm excited to see him in the WWE (since I live just south of Cincinnati, I'm a mark for anyone who's from the area, e.g., Pillman, Jon Moxley and even 'Wildcat' Chis Harris )
The article also notes that Nick Aldis will be backstage at RAW tonight.
Agree with much of your thoughts on Rollins - he just is...meh...as the champ.
Interesting to see the split in crowd reaction for Punk and Starks at the start, and then the well executed heel turn and subsequent crowd change as well!
AEW overall, while still not perfect, still holds my interest more than WWE these days...
To be fair, it's a 'meh' championship as well. With Reigns still being in the position he's in and holding the actual big championship they could just as well have given the US championship to Rollins and it would have meant the same.
Yeah, just running by Liger is one thing, but whipping Ricky Steamboat cemented his status as a dastardly heel. The reactions Punk gets are really, really interesting right now.
Overall I also enjoy other promotions more than WWE. I do watch the PPVs and generall find myself entertained (and the Bloodline story has been masterful up to ...well, not too long ago), but always find myself a bit annoyed with the WWE-isms. Especially now that we're not allowed to say "wrestling" or "blood" any more again, but advertise gambling. It's that sorta stuff. The quick camera cuts have gotten better though.
@Ghaz: Cool. I like Brian Pillman. And it's good to have indie lads in NXT again who learned this even before getting to NXT. Nick Aldis is great. I remember reports that he was being considered as a producer for WWE?
I love this brand. I truly, genuinely, adore it. It’s not as flashy or dramatic (maybe that should be “dramatic”) as RAW or Smackdown. But it’s the Wrasslin’ basics done really, really well.
Somewhat slower paced, which helps the camera angles maintain Kayfabe. But far from feeling amateur. Every single performer gives it their all, and it feels like they’re allowed to give it their all.
Got tickets for Wrestlemania night 1. There were 2000+ in the queue ahead of me, so had to exceed the budget since all the cheap seats were gone, but on the plus side the seats are really good and my wife was very understanding.
I love this brand. I truly, genuinely, adore it. It’s not as flashy or dramatic (maybe that should be “dramatic”) as RAW or Smackdown. But it’s the Wrasslin’ basics done really, really well.
...
Well, good that you enjoy it. I watched the first episode of NXT 2.0 I think and I listen to the weekly reviews on the Cultaholic Podcast (reminds me of the time I didn't watch Wrestling, but enjoyed Spoony talk about TNA. It seemed like such a strange, distant world ). It isn't as dramatic as the main roster weekly shows? I thought it was all wacky and over the top?
I do the the "enjoying the wrestling bascis" though. I love a nice, pure wrestling experience. Which is why I watch the Japanese stuff I do, especially the small "house shows". It's a bit slower, but builds up (especially main events) and you can really just see the moves done, without any commentary, just the occasional "ooh" from the audience and rhythmic clapping. Btw, this is all I do at wrestling shows too. So I can relate.
@bbb: Cool, I'm sure it's going to be a blast. And of course you might get to see Reigns lose his Undisputed title, which at that point should be kind of a historic event (even though WWE love to call every single fart that hasn't been done exactly the same before "making history" ).
Me, I'm looking forward to All In of course. One day after my birthday too! Until then I should catch up on some things, but somehow I didn't watch all that much wrestling lately. Got into an audio play series, had to get a lot of work/preparation for a show I was invited to short-term... i really should just sit down and watch some wrestling on the tv.
why did the referee keep opening the door for evberybody who got within 2 metres of it all the time? It was mighty confusing and rendered Trish's attempts of getting out of the cage via climing very weird.
Otherwise, it was a fine PPV. Even though some stuff could just as well have been on RAW. Also: The amount of ads on these things is getting absurd.
Cena is great and the miz is a really good wrestler. And props to Trish Stratus. Also: CINNAMON TOAST CRUNCH!!!11
A really cool one at that. The night could have been disastrous, with a PPV in Chicago and CM Punk getting fired just days before. But AEW did the thing well; the fans really didn't have a second to get tired, and the crowd was really into it. Sure, there were a lot of CM Punk and "we want Punk back" chants (and it's very ironic that AEW is now the company facing CM Punk chants. ), but in general there was noise and good atmosphere. Especially during the Miro - Powerhouse Hobbs match. That was just a lot of fun. For me as a sad dumpling in front of the screen, for the people for Ort, for the wrestlers in the ring.
Spoiler:
Oh, and seeing Miro and Lana back together in a ring was just nice. And Brian Danielson is just a godsent to all of us. Hope he's well. Props to ricky starks.
Really just a bunch of awesome matches and a PPV that played very much to AEW's strengths. I liked it even better than All In.
Now I'm watching the media scrum. Christian is amazing, Statlander once more seems like a really, really, really nice person, Danielson is a GOAT.
Yeah, and with GW I don't even mind it. It's made to be broad and mainstream to an extent. And mainstream's so desperate for attention and they know that even just mentioning "broadly popular half-nichey stuff" gets them attention from the people.
Anyway, I'm not a huge fan of Wrestlers catering to "nerdy" stuff. With Shayna Baszler it's okay, because she's got that legit air about her. But on AEW (and you know that I really like AEW) for instance you see a lot of unnecessary cosplay, like Statlander's attire at All Out, Cargill dressing up as "popular superhero de jour" or Nyla Rose (who's supposed to be a monster) making her attire Mega Man X themed. There is a serious need to keep things separate and not just mush what ever we like into one and rub it in people's face. But that's just my particular opinion on that.
Spoiler:
Yeah, Nia Jax is back. I always kinda liked her. She's not a good wrestler by any means, but she cuts an impressive figure and she seems to be up for all sorts of McMahonian silliness if need be. It's weird that WWE got to get her back whilst they had Piper Niven on the roster for years now who could fill a similar niche. Maybe Niven has a too friendly face or something.
Sigur wrote: Anyway, I'm not a huge fan of Wrestlers catering to "nerdy" stuff. With Shayna Baszler it's okay, because she's got that legit air about her.
Does a visit to Warhammer World help? Both her and Claudio Castagnoli are legitimate Games Workshop fans
I know. I've seen the pictures. And I'm sure it's no coincicence either that both of them seem like very sound people from interviews and such. That doesn't mean I have to see it in the ring, just because they like something in private. But as I said, that's just my individual opinion on that sorta stuff.
I don't recall seeing Claudio having 40K iconography on his ring gear, however I don't have a problem with Shayna doing so. It's nothing more than an Easter egg like you'll see in any number of movies nowadays. For the fans in the know it's something cool, and for those who don't they're not really missing anything important.
Looks like the WWE talent cuts due to merger with the UFC have begun with both Rick Boogs and Mustafa Ali having been 'future endeavored' with others expected to join them soon.
Mustafa Ali - argh. The dude never got a break in WWE despite being the full package. Too smoll for WWE though. :/ Emma - argh. I really like Emma. Moss....yeah... I mean....he's got a freaky physique; would have been a good tag team with Boogs as proper big wrestlers. Rick Boogs - I didn't like the guitar thing (I don't like Pat McAffee as a commentator either, just to squeeze that in. ), but he looked great and would have worked great as an 80s-like wrestler. I would have liked to see that. Aliya - i didn't even know she was on the main roster to be honest. Elias - Shame. He's got a really great face and had a fun character for a while. Maybe he can form a great tag team with his brother on the indies now. I liked Ezekiel; there was potential there I thought, but had no proper plan or were too afraid to pull the trigger on him. Then they sent KO to save the angle, but him being KO of course he was brilliant, but couldn't help either. Top Dollah is out - okay. Shelton Benjamin - WILDLY underutilized guy! He could do everything and they did nothign with him when he was rehired a bunch of years ago. Few wrestlers I have seen so little of and still am such a fan. Dolph Ziggler - WTF. Insane. One does not fire Ziggler if one is WWE. He would have been useful to them for life. Maybe he just didn't want any more.
MMModels - don't know them well enough; I ignored the angle too when it was on. Not familiar with the NXT people I'm afraid.
It also seems like Matt Riddle is out now? Maybe for the best, for WWE and Riddle himself. I'm not entirely opposed to it; i have to admit that I found him grating on the main roster.
Dana Brooke.... she's a tough one. Obviously she put in a ton of work over the years. I actually liked her as Charlotte's slightly incapably henchman. That wasn't bad. Otherwise I'll remember her as "the woman I never recognize when I see her", because her face always looked a bit different. She'll do fine though, doing training and videos on the internet and bodybuilding and such.There's a huge market for that (for some reason).
Sigur wrote: Mustafa Ali - argh. The dude never got a break in WWE despite being the full package. Too smoll for WWE though. :/
Mustafa Ali was set to challenge Dominik Mysterio for the "WWE NXT" North American Championship at the No Mercy PLE next Saturday, so the release is a real
Sigur wrote: It also seems like Matt Riddle is out now? Maybe for the best, for WWE and Riddle himself. I'm not entirely opposed to it; i have to admit that I found him grating on the main roster.
Yeah, it looks like it was just a case of him burning through one too many chances and a bit of a coincidence that it happened alongside all of the other releases (he had another incident at JFK airport earlier this month).
STAMFORD, Conn., September 26, 2023 – WWE today announced it has signed Jade Cargill to a multi-year contract. The news was first reported by ESPN.
Cargill, a standout performer who has earned accolades as an industry-renowned talent, will begin training today at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando.
There had been rumors that she was going to debut on the main roster and bypass NXT altogether. I guess we'll see.
Yeah, I mean she's rather new to the whole wrestling thing (to avoid an 'insider term'), but having her go straight to the main roster makes all the sense in the world. I'm sure she'll do well in WWE. She's not a great wrestler yet, but she has a ton of potential and has an incredible presence.
I really like Julia Hart as a singles wrestler. Nice match. Can we please have another women's match on the card? It doesn't have to be about the title. Just give me Athena vs ...I don't know, Hikaru Shida on the main card.
I'd say it's a typical AEW PPV, with even more wrestling this time. Which means LOTS of matches. And lots of technical wrestling. I'm too much of a muggle to have been able to appreciate Danielson/SabreJr.'s match all the way through. Especially with Wheeler Yuta and Ricky Starks having just shown really strong mat wrestling in the beginning of their match right before that. Speaking of which - that was one good match. Both guys are great new(ish) talent. Moxley on commentay is refreshing. Somehow the match transported a weird thought - Big Bill and Ricky Starks look like the way nicer people than the Blackpool Combat Club. They help each other, while Moxley just keeps saying how they beat down Yuta every day. But i guess that's the idea behind that heel stable of the coolest dudes on the roster
The 4-way Tag match was fun and chaotic.
The Omega Boys vs. The Callis Family was really good (despite one or two silly spots). I have no idea why Omega loses all the time. It's just insane. Kota Kota'ing up was rather cool. I know it's silly, but at the moment it's cool.
FTR/Ozzy Open - super. As to be expected. Quick and entertaining.
Strickland vs. Page was a crazy match. The crowd was very, very much into it (mainly into booking and cussing out Page, which I found unwarranted. Who doesn't love Hangman Page?! ). Swerve Strickland is great and both put in a great performance. I'm starting to appreciate Prince Nana. Not because of the headband thing, but because of the tireless dancing.
Darby Allin vs. Christian was rather cool too. I'm not the greatest fan of Darby Allin's. Everybody keeps saying he's a very sound and creative guy, which is great, but the character just isn't for me. He's just for a different age demographic, right? In 20 years time we'll see young wrestlers in interviews talk about how they were either a Darby Allin guy or an Orange Cassidy guy.
Oh, I almost forgot (because I already watched them on Monday): Kingston/Shibata was as to be expected. I do think this Kingston dream run is very cool. It makes him happy, and Eddie Kingston is the kind of guy you like to see when he's happy. MJF/Righteous was ....entertaining. A good opener. I hate the kangaroo kick so much. The thing about MJF ending matches with hip moves I like, but that was a bit comedic for my taste. I also find The Righteous more weird than scary. I think they could be presented a bit better.
The big surprise was spoiled to me the day before (I only watched it on Tuesday rather than Monday). I mean it's been rumoured and with the Allin/Cage Match going on last it was rather obvious, but still. Oh well. Looking forward to what's going to happen. The debut was nicely done.
Have yet to watch the pre-show (and in the end I probably won't anyway), but it looks pretty big. Barnett/Castagnoli and all. Also, it's cool to see Athena, Billy Starkz (she's making quite a splash. Cool. The better Skye Blue ), Kojima(!), Diamanté (i like her) and so on. At least in the pre-show.
Hey, Fastlane was fun, wasn't it. Again, very interesting to see the different booking on WWE PPVs vs. AEW PPVs. Which is all the nicer, because we have variety.
Funny thing about the Fastlane is that there was just one singles match. Some bits in the tag matches seemed positively AEW-like in the chaotic segments. I really enjoy those WWE women's matches. Three outstanding wrestlers in there in Charlotte (she's a heel forever, but in the ring she's just such an all-round pro), Asuka (can't ever boo her, she's captivating) and Iyo Sky (great babyface, great champion right now).
Bobby Lashley and the Street Profits are a great coupling. One thing I notice about WWE heels - I usually like them better, because they don't do silly things. Street Profits minus the cups and less dancing - i'm on board with that! And Lashley is just worth his weight in gold for WWE. Always a spectacle, dependable (as far as I know), put glasses on him and a suit around him and he becomes this superstar. Love Lashley glasses.
That press conference afterwards with Cody and Jay Uso is something else.
Hikaru Shida wins the Women's championship. And rightfully so. She's not the most exciting or flamboyant Wrestler on the AEW Women's Roster, but she is the greatest AEW women's champ to date.Dependable, we won't see any silly vignettes (let's hope), just rasslin'.
I also liked the back and forth between MJF and Jay White. I never thought they'd go even remotely to that place with what Juice Robinson I think did. I'm not hugely into Juice Robinson. Jay White's better, isn't he.
Swerve Strickland is class. And since the last PPV I'm also a big fan of Prince Nana for some reason
Watched NXT instead. Got to see the Undertaker (in his American Badass persona) chokeslam Bron Breakker. Also got to see the first NXT promo by Brian Pillman, Jr.
@Ghaz: I haven't watched NXT since 2.0 started, but this would almost intrigue me, with all the main roster people on there. Why does Brian Pillman Jr. look like he's a cartoon figure? I'm aware that this is a silly question, but he looks so, so, so groomed.
@bbb: Oh yes, I very much wanted Nakamura to win this too. The title has a tough stand as it is, being (and until something itneresting happens with it) the "consolation prize". And Seth Rollins just doesn't make it any more interesting, specially at this point. Now Nakamura will rattle down the food chain again and just "be there" for years and years. Well, I hope he gets a lot of time off to surf and cook and have a good time. It's just a shame that they have Shinsuke Nakamura and didn't do much with him. Honestly, maybe it would be best to have Rollins relinquish the title due to kayfabe back issues; let's have a tournament for the world title. Rollins can take some time off, maybe return with a more mature character even, then he has a ready-made programme with Nakamura and with the new holder of the title.
Sigur wrote: @Ghaz: I haven't watched NXT since 2.0 started, but this would almost intrigue me, with all the main roster people on there. Why does Brian Pillman Jr. look like he's a cartoon figure? I'm aware that this is a silly question, but he looks so, so, so groomed.
They had all of the main people on their for the exact same reason AEW had their 'Battle for the Belts' last night. AEW got moved to Tuesday due to sports and neither NXT or AEW was going to let the other win the ratings race. Right now, the only main roster star assigned to NXT seems to be Baron Corbin (with occasional appearances by Dom Dom, Mami and Co.). With that being said, without Vince's daily involvement with creative, NXT to slowly moving back to the Black & God era.
As for why 'Lexis King' (named for his late sister Alexis Reed) looks the way he did, no idea. This was his first appearance where we saw his face. Everything else was just teasers mainly focusing on what was on the television.
Sigur wrote: @Ghaz: I haven't watched NXT since 2.0 started, but this would almost intrigue me, with all the main roster people on there. Why does Brian Pillman Jr. look like he's a cartoon figure? I'm aware that this is a silly question, but he looks so, so, so groomed.
They had all of the main people on their for the exact same reason AEW had their 'Battle for the Belts' last night. AEW got moved to Tuesday due to sports and neither NXT or AEW was going to let the other win the ratings race. Right now, the only main roster star assigned to NXT seems to be Baron Corbin (with occasional appearances by Dom Dom, Mami and Co.). ...
A bit more separation between WWE brands. Adam Pearce is the GM of RAW and Nick Aldis is the GM of SmackDown. And killing two birds with one stone, in the same announcement Kevin Owens goes to SmackDown in place of Jey Uso
Rhea Ripley will be defending her title at Crown Jewel against Nia Jax… and Shayna Baezler… and Raquel Rodriguez… and Zoey Stark. It’s a Fatal Five Way BAY BAY!
Ghaz wrote: Rhea Ripley will be defending her title at Crown Jewel against Nia Jax… and Shayna Baezler… and Raquel Rodriguez… and Zoey Stark. It’s a Fatal Five Way BAY BAY!
...and it's a beefy one!
@MDG: You're a good'un. And one doesn't miss much, because the Saudi events are still bascially non-canonical, right?
Sigur wrote: Okay, I have to admit that Lexis King is a pretty good name. And he's got a pretty good story built in. I'm just not a fan of the angular hair.
According to this article from Wrestling INC, it seems like Eric Bischoff. Mickie James and Tommy Dreamer like it as well.
Sigur wrote: Okay, I have to admit that Lexis King is a pretty good name. And he's got a pretty good story built in. I'm just not a fan of the angular hair.
According to this article from Wrestling INC, it seems like Eric Bischoff. Mickie James and Tommy Dreamer like it as well.
...so all of us important people in The Business agree then.
Just two random notes: .) Realized that German TV is showing Dynamite. Hadn't seen it last week, so this way I got to catch up on Omega vs. Kyle Fletcher. Which as cool. .) Mizuki's Whirling Candy is one of the most impressive wrestling moves I know. She doesn't use it often, only against stronger opponents (with good reason), but when ever she does it I rewind several times, slow it down and watch it again a few times. It's just so insane. So I looked for a compilation on youtube; of course there is none, because Japanese companies are fierce about not letting anything on youtube. But I learned about R-Truth's Lie Detector, which is somewhat similar, but no less cool move. Each time I see R-Truth wrestle, he's super impressive, even recently. Remember a few years ago when he was John Cena's biggest fan and had a match with him? R-Truth was insane. On the latest Cultaholic wrestling podcast a listener sent in a question, asking which wrestler the hosts liked best without ever really watching many matches featuring him/her. To me, R-Truth must be really up there, along with Speedball Mike Bailey and Mei Suruga. And Willie Mack. He's also great each time I see him. Which isn't often, but I like him.
Ghaz wrote: The food court in the new WWE headquarters...
Friends attended the WWE house show in Munich last week. Waiting for them to report in.
Me, I don't watch as much wrestling any more the past few weeks. I think I even skipped the last episode of Dynamite...
My friend and I were talking bollocks the other night, and we hit upon a concept for a Wrasslin’ ‘pooter game. But an actually realistic one.
See, the days of Kefaybe are pretty much gone. We know it’s choreographed and scripted.
Yet except for the Hard Of Thinking? That’s actually kind of added to the appeal. To see incredibly buff folks throw one another around, but for the most part actually not injure one another is an art to be appreciated in itself.
So make something like a rhythm game of it. You start out as a fresh recruit. The aim is to become The Face Of The Company.
You start at the bottom. In-game, nobody really knows you, nobody really trusts you with the more dangerous moves. But, as you train and progress and get Over with the crowd? Your fellow talent become ever more open to the idea of a march, as they learn to respect your competence.
Then, add in some kind of random Botch Generator. A quick time type event which as your career progresses, involves you Knowing The Crowd to effectively mask.
Make the length of your character’s career open ended. If you suck and never get Over in your first few matches? Game Over. But, the more you progress, the more crowd goodwill exists to literally forgive the odd crappy match.
I think this might work as a Brand Agnostic Game. But it’s a game I wanna play!
Yar, I wonder how that would work gameplaywise. Not sure I fully enjoy the idea of taking keyfabe out of the thing, but i absolutely am all for the idea of the never-ending campaign thing. Because wrestling never ends either.
Fire Pro Wrestling's got a fun little aspect (apart from all the other cool aspects) in that each match gets a percentage rating in the end, based on how well it was structured. I think that this is something that goes a bit in the direction you imply there.
I caught up on Dynamite and Collision a bit. Just the main event on Dynamite, but boy howdy, that was something. Claudio throwing OC around is something to behold. I could look at that for hours. Also: Okada is a BIG boy, isn't he. He's great.
Collision:
Spoiler:
Los Ingobernables are faces, hooray! Shame they don't have Andrade with them. I appreciate how much Toni Storm puts into this character, but I do NOT like it. I'm okay with a cute character twist or anything (Julia Hart - supergood. Abadon - perfectly fine with that.), but this is just ... I don't know. It reeks of backstage vignettes and skits. Maybe that's what I don't like. The in-ring should always be at the centre of attention, right? This also is the difference between say Orange Cassidy and things like Toni Storm's current character (The Fiend suffered from that a LOT for instance) - one is a wrestler with a quirky character, but that's all played out in the ring. What Toni Storm does right now (and it'snot her fault, she gives it her all and that's commendable) is just a bunch of skits and vignettes, but has nothing to do with the in-ring. But that's just me.
I just watched the backstage segment featuring Statlander, Nightingale and Blue. Speaking of whom, I detested that character. Draw some make-up on her face, make her roll her eyes and be "like wha'ever" and I like that charactre a LOT better. Maybe I'm just simple. Either way, these three together are fun. I wanna see them either as a trio or in a tv show, solving crimes in France.
I think maybe keep it as an actual fighting game for “televised” matches. Maybe a power bar type thing, where so long as you gain heat and hype the crowd, your career progresses regardless of the outcome.
Or even have non-player winnable bouts, where the aim is to gain and maintain crowd heat, with the actual ending being a cinematic of you being pinned.
.) I hate Logan Paul, even if he saved Rey Mysterio from falling on his head. He's the symptom for a lot of things that are going wrong. A big middle finger to him, his silly matchbox car, the 'hydration business' and youtube stars.
.) Ooooh, there's Kairi Sane again, looking pretty darned cool. Great story unfolding there.
.) Enjoyed the crowd being firmly behind Drew McIntyre for the opening match.
.) Rhea Ripley's entrance was weird, wasn't it? Oh well. She looks cool, the match was a pretty forgone conclusion. I decided that I like Zoey Stark.
.) The Miz TV segment was utterly senseless. Ibrahim seems like a lovely man, but this actually made me pine for the early days of Crown Jewel, where they at least showed try-outs for wrestlers and had them in-ring there. Go Feisal!
.) Cena went from Superman to relateable man. How odd. And he's untiring in putting over younger people. Bless Mr.Cena.
.) People all over the world love shouting "yea!" and the result was as to be expected.
.) Cody is a mega star, should have beaten Reigns last WM.
FLY EMIRATES!
Btw, did I hear CM Punk chants? And one man screaming "CEEEEEEEEE EM PUUUUUUUUUUUUNKKKKKK" at the top of his lungs at one point?
edit: Aw, The Bunny left AEW. She was one of my favourites from that women's roster.
Full Gear coming up! And like most AEW PPVs, it snuck up on me entirely unseen. Surely will be a good show to end the AEW PPV year. Kota Ibushi's All Elite now, which is nice.
For all the things I kinda not enjoy as much currently, I greatly enjoy Swerve Strickland and Adam Page's story. MJF's story is alright as well. How he's increasingly isolated and stuff, it's kinda poetic. And Joe looms over him, and that makes everything more interesting always. They also toned down the silly things around him, because he doesn't belong in silly things. Same with Adam Cole.
Speaking of silly stuff, I'm very worried about the women's title match on Saturday and that Toni Storm, possibly with the help of Mariah what'shername (who got introduced like the greatest geek in the world.), might win it.
Athena and Billie Starkz are a tag team. I'm all for that! Put Julia Hart and ....whoever into a tag team, get the bunny back and put her with Penelope ford and you got a division. Include Britt Baker, if you must. Team her up with Kris Statlander.
Finally got around to catching up on this thing. I didn't watch the pre-show Buddy Matthews vs. Castagnioli sounds great, and Kingston vs. Jay Lethal was definitely solid. The Gunns vs MJF/Joe tag match was certainly fun and had implications for the main event.
Spoiler:
Opener: Trios Match. Sting/Allin/Copeland (with Ric Flair. Flair's signing is still inexplicable to me. I know there's this lemonade deal coming along with him, but I still don't see the benefit) vs. Christian/Luchasaurus/Wayne. Fun entrance for the villains; Christian's character is perhaps the most solid heel in AEW, next to Jay White. Adam Copeland likes to dress like other people he teams with and likes to paint his face. But it's ok, it looked very pretty. Absolutely solid opener, then Sting gets cheered for a bit, which was nice.
Then the whole MJF story is explained. Curiosity is peaked.
Intl.Championship Title Match: Moxley vs. Orange Cassidy. Unbelievable, but I had forgotten all about this match. But it was a good match. Fast-paced, hard-hitting and all that.
Toni Storm vs. Hikaru Shida. Honestly, I haven't watched Toni Storm segments in a while, so I had no idea her butler/manager/hiwi was Luther. Match goes back and forth like this, then Storm pulls out the pan. At first I thought they were doing a Mei Saint-Michel spot, but nope! They're making it a modified Rika Tatsumi spot! Or something like that. It's clear that AEW has become a very butt-heavy promotion lately, but that's perfectly okay. The human bottom is one of the most likeable and funny body parts at the same time after all. Timeless Toni Storm is definitely too "sports entertain-y" for my taste. It was good that she still had the pan in her pants for the victory celebration, but I'm still not happy with the whole thing.
Fortunately, there was an interview that Renee Parquette did with Eddie Kingston to appease humorless people like me right away. I like tournaments. Wrestling should always be a tournament, right? Kingston putting EVERYTHING on the line is a bit of a gamble, but let's see. Maybe there really will be a Triple Crown title and ROH will be integrated into AEW (because this existence as it is now is a bit unsatisfactory. Either a separate promotion, with flying changes of personnel between the rosters, or fully AEW).
Three-Way Tag Team Ladder Match - Chaotic, big spots, so basically a team ladder match. Good winners (I'm digging Big Bill at the moment), good match. Hope everyone is okay. I'm a little worried about the House of Black. They could be more dangerous.
tbs Championship Match Skye Blue vs. Julia Hart vs. Kris Statlander - Totally ok. I love Julia Hart as a character, she's gotten really good as a singles wrestler in such a short time. Was also the correct winner. I think Kris Statlander is a lovely person, but she doesn't seem like a convincing champion or even a bit badass. Maybe it's time for a women's tag title. Team her with Willow Nightingale for a sort of powerhouse babyface team, Athena and Billie Starkz, Saraya and Ruby Soho, then they should bring back the Bunny and team up with Penelope Ford, once Tay Conti is back in action they can reactivate Tay-Kay (especially because I like the entrance), then they can add Riho and Emi Sakura, Hikaru Shida teams up with Jamie Hayter, .... the AEW Women's roster is really big; you just see so little of it. Heck, team Nyla Rose with Abadon or bring in Max the Impaler and Heidi Howitzer for a few mathces.
Britt Baker can try to take the tbs title from Julia Hart and fail 23 times for all I care. Of course, the tbs title is then taken by Yuka Sakazaki at Revolution, who then proceeds to wins the Women's Title from Jamie Hayter (who has long since dethroned Toni Storm by this point) in fairly quick succession. Why I'm not head booker at AEW, I don't understand.
Oh yeah, Ospeay is now All Elite. Cool. I'm glad. Was to be expected, is totally ok, will be a wonderful thing. I'm honestly really tempted to go to the 2024 Wembley show.
Page vs Strickland. Texas Death Match. I'm not a fan of 90% of special entrances, but I liked this one okay because I'm happy each time I see Prince Nana now. Swerve Strickland is great. I think Page is really good in general because he's one of the few babyfaces that really work. And that's insanely valuable, especially in a promotion that has a crazy array of "cool, funny heels". And then the match starts with big moves right away (no entrance for Hangman, and that's another correct choice for a match like this). This doesn't fit well with what I just wrote about Page, but THIS is the Hangman we want to see in a death match. It's a comparatively "small" spot, but when he drinks the blood that's booming out of Strickland's head.... that's probably the most impressive spot of the year. Really absurd. Just like the rest of the match. You can think of death matches what you like, but IF you're going to do one, do it like this. Crazy. Match of the Night.
Golden Jets vs. Young Bucks tag match. I have to admit, I didn't watch this match all the way through. I've seen a lot of Bucks matches, I've seen a lot of storylines about who's friends with who in the Elite, and I've seen a lot of Jericho matches in AEW. They were all great in this match, nothing else was to be expected , but I just wasn't that interested. Also, I don't find the Golden Jets all that interesting. Just seems like they threw two top guys together for an interim program while Omega's next (last?) big thing is being prepared.
Main Event: Adam Cole (standing in for MJF) vs. Jay White. I really like Jay White as a heel. And AEW have a remarkable talent for making their babyfaces look like komplete dweebs, especially Adam Cole. Of course, that certainly has to do with his physique and so on. But that was already too much. And then MJF makes his Cody-esque return, and it's all very story-heavy and MJF is a valiant babyface and outside is Cole with the towel, and in the end everything comes as it always does and then it's over. I'm not crazy confident in the MJF run. If Cole doesn't turn on him soon or vice versa or something I'll be even less interested. You can draw comparisons to Reigns' reign, but of course that's a bit unfair because the Bloodline storyline (at least with Sami Zayn and stuff) was an absolute masterpiece. At Crown Jewel, for the first time in a looooooooooong time, I wasn't convinced by the Reigns match. Anyway, the match was perfectly OK. I assume that Cole's injury delayed everything, and that's why we're floundering a little at the moment, But I'm sure they'll turn it into something good soon.
As always, nice matches and a very balanced mix. So there was something for everyone, only the main event left me a bit cold. Texas Death Match was amazing though, as was the ladder match and the tbs title match. And let's not forget about Moxley/Cassidy. Good stuff.
...and here's what's going to happen at Survivor Series (or what I think will happen):
Damage CTRL (Bayley, Asuka, Iyo Sky & Kairi Sane) vs. Charlotte Flair, Bianca Belair, Becky Lynch & Shotzi - Damage CTRL clearly must be the winners. Best stable in WWE, just got bigger and better. Great group.
Intercontinental Championship -- Gunther (c) vs. The Miz - Gunther. Giving the title to Miz (Babyface-Miz especially) makes so little sense given the circumstances.
Women's World Championship -- Rhea Ripley (c) vs. Zoey Stark - This should be a very, very interesting one for Zoey Stark. First big singles match at a PPV. Ripley wins.
Carlito vs. Santos Escobar - I think that long term Escobar should win, but Carlito is back and finally somewhat hot and will win.
Cody Rhodes, Sami Zayn, Jey Uso, Seth Rollins & Randy Orton vs. JD McDonagh, Drew McIntyre, Damian Priest, Finn Balor & Dominick Mysterio (WarGames Match) - Phew. I'm so convinced that Damage Ctrl win, so predicting the baddies to win here as well probably is a bit bold, but I can't see the Judgement Day not win this. Are these war games matches for any titles? I don't think they are, so it wouldn't even cost the JD much. AND it's Orton's return match. Still, Judgement Day, possibly with an Orton turn.
..and that's it? WWE don't do pre-shows any more either, so that should be over rather swiftly. Maybe 3 hours 15minutes? Unless it's one of those deals where they do ungodly amounts of advertising.
What do you think?
Automatically Appended Next Post: It just dawned on me - the probably most popular characters on either side of the imaginary (and silly) fence are Mommy and Father. Interesting.
Me neither. And I got it spoiled big time xD Didn't even watch the PPV even though I was looking forward to it. But the peeps I watch these with got sick, so ...meh.
Anyway, interesting times abound. Also: QT Marshall leaves AEW! Looking at the Nightmare Family, isn't it weird that Dustin Rhodes is the one who sticks around AEW for the longest? That's stories only life can write. Well, him and Red Velvet, I guess.
The upside: This certainly is the end of QTV, and that is quite a relief.
Me neither. And I got it spoiled big time xD Didn't even watch the PPV even though I was looking forward to it. But the peeps I watch these with got sick, so ...meh.
Anyway, interesting times abound. Also: QT Marshall leaves AEW! Looking at the Nightmare Family, isn't it weird that Dustin Rhodes is the one who sticks around AEW for the longest? That's stories only life can write. Well, him and Red Velvet, I guess.
The upside: This certainly is the end of QTV, and that is quite a relief.
Ha!
And yeah, it is weird that Dustin's the last man standing for that Family in AEW.
Hopefully Cody can Win the Big One in WWE too.
And of course I forgot to watch/record RAW last night too...
Yes. Cody should have won it last Wrestlemania really. I'd rather see him than [returned man who is not R-Truth] with the big title. I watched bits of the media scrum after Survivor Series, and he looks unreal. He's a cartoon man who got dropped into our world. But he's great.
Lexis King has a pretty high opinion of himself, entering on a throne and inserting himself into the personal animosity between Trick Williams and Carmelo Hayes. So it is not a shock to learn that, like all villains, King sees himself as something of a misunderstood anti-hero. On X, King was asked about a recent selfie, which showed a new design cut into his stark-brown facial hair, not unlike the bottom of the crest that Batman wears on his chest. "Because I am the hero NXT deserves, but not the one it needs right now," King wrote in response.
Spoiler:
Why does @LexisKingWWE have the bat signal on his chin?
Because I am the hero NXT deserves, but not the one it needs right now…
The quote comes from the end of Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight," the middle entry in Nolan's trilogy about the DC comics character. The film has been immensely influential to professional wrestling since its 2008 release, especially Heath Ledger's portrayal of The Joker, which has gone on to inspire the likes of Rey Mysterio and even Braun Strowman, who tried out a character based on Ledger's performance last year.
King is currently one of the prime antagonists on "WWE NXT," as last night's show revealed evidence he might have been behind the sneak attack on Williams, though if his social media post is any indication, he's claiming to be a maligned hero that is being framed for a crime that he didn't commit, much like Batman at the end of the film. King debuted at "NXT" Halloween Havoc, after spending years on the independent scene and in AEW under his birth name, Brian Pillman Jr.
And now we know (and knowing is half the battle... ).
Yeah, Ledger (well, probably any portrayal of that character) has done quite a lot of damage to all sorts of media with that Joker. Many annoying and pointless characters can be traced back to "being inspired by the joker".
So basically Lexis King has a weird beard and it looks like the bat symbol. But mostly it looks just weird.
Right. So Riho is back in AEW! Very good. I'm not a rampant fan, but I'll take anybody over Toni Storm. I think it's not a good idea for AEW to try to be more like WWE rather than anything else.
Anyway, then I read that there was a match a few years ago. Mixed tag match, Riho and Omega vs. Miyu Yamashita and Antonio Honda (who's an acquired taste. Which I have acquired.). It's on youtube. Things I got from it: .) TJPW's Mizuki really is a bit of an alternate-reality Riho. I'd like to know more about her history with Yuka Sakazaki. Now that would add layers to things. I'm not saying that Mizuki is a Rino "knock-off"; because Mizuki is good in her own right.
.) It kinda made me sad to see how bloody good Kenny Omega was.
.) Antonio Honda is good in his quite unique role.
.) Miyu Yamashita is in the position she is in because she's just that good.
With the holidays coming up, and payday Thursday? Gonna sign up to WWE Network again.
And…I have mixed feelings on the return of R-Truth.
As a human bean? I have nothing but respect for him. Came from nothing, screwed up, then got a chance and seized it with both hands.
As a Wrestler? One of my all time favourites. He’s the Jack Of All Trades of Jacks Of All Trades. Just a solid all-rounder that sells every single match he’s involved in.
But. How WWE uses him annoys me. To quote Spike Lee? And I’m going to asterisk some syllables here…”c**nery and buffoonery”. Kind of trapped as a stereotype younger black performers aren’t.
Now. If that’s how he makes his money and he’s happy to do it? All power to him. Genuinely. It still makes me feel a bit ick watching it.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: With the holidays coming up, and payday Thursday? Gonna sign up to WWE Network again.
And…I have mixed feelings on the return of R-Truth.
As a human bean? I have nothing but respect for him. Came from nothing, screwed up, then got a chance and seized it with both hands.
As a Wrestler? One of my all time favourites. He’s the Jack Of All Trades of Jacks Of All Trades. Just a solid all-rounder that sells every single match he’s involved in.
But. How WWE uses him annoys me. To quote Spike Lee? And I’m going to asterisk some syllables here…”c**nery and buffoonery”. Kind of trapped as a stereotype younger black performers aren’t.
Now. If that’s how he makes his money and he’s happy to do it? All power to him. Genuinely. It still makes me feel a bit ick watching it.
Yeah, he seems like he's genuinely having a good time, and he gets camera time without having to bump around the place too much. So good for him. We all know that he's actually an amazing athlete (I said it before - the Lie Detector is one hell of a move), and a funny guy. Certainly having a better time than BUTCH doing crisp commercials on a WWE PPV.
I caught up on AWE Collision. Nice show, really good wrestling.
One thing irked me (and it's tiny and silly) - there's a street fight between Mercedes Martinez and Diamanté (good to see her back!) vs. Kris Statlander and Willow Nightingale. The baddies show up with lead pipes and baseball bats and street clothes and so on. The goodies show up... and they're dressed up as Travolta and Jackson from Pulp Fiction? I mean maybe it's in line with their silly characters, but I'm really, really unhappy when ever a wrestler dresses up as a video game or film character. They dress up for a lving already. They should dress up as the role they play in the wrestling, right? AND they should take matches seriously, especially so a street fight. But okay. Anyway. Great wrestling.
8 man tag match (Castagnoli, Danielson, Briscoe, Garcia vs. Brody King, White, Lethal, Rush) - was perfectly fine. To be honest I didn't pay that close attention. Somehow I'm a bit down on wrestling lately. Not sure why. Maybe I'm down on everything.
Interesting how there were no tag matches on the card. Two 8 man tag matches. Also: Pac is sorely missed. Where he heck is he??
Miro vs. Andrade: I love Andrade in AEW. Rumour has it he's on his way out, and I'm sure he'll be handled better than before in WWE. He's a star and cool and a really good wrestler and supergood. Miro is great as well of course. I'm having a hard time following the storyline to be honest. .D
Storm vs. Riho: Funny how over Riho is. I was kinda hoping for a Yuka Sakazaki debut (ot at least a Mercedes Moné one), but okay. Toni Storm clearly puts a LOT of effort into her character (I watched her part of the media scrum. She's really good at that character). Her character reminds me of Bray Wyatt. There isn't quite the creative genius behind it, but instead (and that's almost better) a dedicated to details and craft. Either way, why her current version reminds me of Wyatt so much is that I can somewhat appreciate the character outside of the ring, but I can't manage to see this as a wrestling character. Doesn't translate to the ring for me. Maybe it#s better if wrestlers are just wrestlers?
Strickland vs. DUSTIN RHODES!?: Yeah, like 30 minutes before the show it was announced that Keith Lee couldn't compete. Sucks. Strickland made it a really cool part of his character though. He's legitimate and a competitor. I like that. Dustin Rhodes is just really, really good at his job, isn't he.
Jericho, Guevara, Sting, Darby Allin vs. Takeshita, Starks, Big Bill and Powerhouse Hobbs [completely forgot that he's in the match!]: Well, that was weird. I only learned about the Jericho thing after the PPV, so I thought that people just really, really hated Guevara as a babyface (which is a very correct assessment). It all seemed a bit off.
Julia Hart vs. Abadon: These two in a PPV title match. I'm happy. The fans also had fun with their chants, I don't hate Skye Blue any more. Things are OK.
At this point I was warming up to the whole show again.
Copeland vs. Christian: Oh, that was cool, wasn't it. A bit overblown and all, but it fit. And hey, I even think that Nick Wayne could become a really good heel: When he helped christian putting the table on fire, said "hey, this is fun!" to the camera... there was something. And then he did the spot and it worked mostly great and I think they're on to somehthing there. The end was insane. Very Christian in style.
And then they announced that Moxley vs. Kingston was next and I was hooked. Great match. Not too long, not too short, I love both guys, the outcome was the correct one. The BCC is an amazing asset to AEW. Just a group of top-level tweener wrestlers they can use in the face or heel role at will and still make them look legit. Because they are.
On to the main event! For the past few months, if somebody had asked me (and nobody did, because nobody ever asks me about my clever and valuable insights about pro wrestling for some reason. ) if I'd rather watch an MJF main event title match or a Roman Reigns main even title match, I probably would have gone for the latter. And the Roman Reigns matches haven't been all that recently either. But I just don't like face MJF much. I appreciate how little of a twist it required to make his character an uber babyface, but the story with the friendship and so on didn't really grip me. And the effin kangaroo kick. I detest that thing. Then there's the Devil story, which to me wasn't all that interesting either because it's rather spors entertain-y, went on for too long and had a lot of potential to go wrong. Of course they had a ton of back luck as well with the Adam Cole injury, it has to be said, but still.
Anyway, Samoa Joe vs. MJF for the AEW title: This was rather good. I absolutely loved Joe's counter of the kangaroo kick, this to me was the poetic centre of the whole match. "enough with that stuff." Whammo. The outcome was very wisely chosen. The big thing afterwards was correct. Sometimes the obvious way of doing things is the best, and Tony Khan (for all his downsides) knows that and books accordingly. Honestly, I didn't recognize Wardlow at first. When the guys unmasked all I was looking for was Kyle O Reilly. Oh well. But it's a good group, Cole should be a superb heel, I hope they keep Britt Baker away from the whole thing, and I'm looking forward to how they make MJF's life annoying, turning him proper heel again too (which I doubt will happen any time soon, but who knows), OR MJF gets himself a group as well and they'll do a wargames match. Or something.
All in all a perfectly fine PPV to end the year. Not sure if AEW will do more PPVs next year. If so I might have to ge a bit choosey about which ones to buy. But let's see. Thing is this: AEW are really good at PPVs and the wrestling matches. And for me that works. I want the rasslin' to be the rasslin' and everybody's a competitor and everything's a tournament, and there are no faces and heels, but only rasslers and ... oh well. Maybe that goes a bit far. Also, maybe I should just get New Japan World or watch Noah or something.
I mean, we’ve never met and most likely never will. But it’s the principle of the thing
It's the weird way the male brain works. I very often catch myself thinking stuff like that. Well, not in regards to Schotzi, but to each their own.
@Ghaz: Yeah, I heard that as well. Andrade at Raw, Mercedes Moné at Dynamite this week. I'm not entirely convinced that happens. I mean the Andrade thing did not, that we know so far. But maybe eventually.
Just heard on Cultaholic news that WWE's commentary is getting shaken up a little again for the new year: It's going to be all 2-men commentary booths. I thought that that was the case with WWE for a good while now? Anyway, I'm all for 2-men commentary teams. I like AEW, but 4 men on commentary - no matter how amazing they are (and AEW commentary is very good) - is too much. 2 commentators work fine for me. Especially when watching with others, all the babble can get quite distracting. I also really, really like no commentary at all at times. Just love the soundtrack of bumping, shouting, grunting and running on the mat and so on.
Sigur wrote: @Ghaz: Yeah, I heard that as well. Andrade at Raw, Mercedes Moné at Dynamite this week. I'm not entirely convinced that happens. I mean the Andrade thing did not, that we know so far. But maybe eventually.
"This video can not be played in your country" is what I get. But yeah, I think I know what you're referring to.
Spoiler:
To be honest i'm not completely fussed, because The Rock was a thing before I started watching wrestling, and I'm not sure how this is going to work in terms of the titles and so on. Does Cody take the titles on night#1, and then The Rock destroys the Bloodline on night#2 or something?
Paul Ellering and the Authors of Pain returned tonight, aligning with Karrion Kross and Scarlett in taking out Bobby Lashley and the Street Profits.
Spoiler:
Aw, cool that Ellering with back with them. Makes the AoP much cooler.
Watched the first half of Wrestle Kingdom, got most of the match results spoilered, but I'll watch the rest none the less. I mean Danielson - Okada or Moxley - Ospreay - Finlay is somthing one has to see, no matter the results.
Yeeeaaaah, Wrestle Kingdom was cool. Once in a while it's nice to watch a New Japan show, just for the 'rasslin' and the FIGHTING SPIRIT stuff and Westerners acting over the top and so on.
Considering the above especially - Jon Moxley should never, ever, ever dress up as some comicbook superhero. I do not want to see that sort of stuff again. It pains me. :p
I'm also massively for WK being a one-day event rather than two days. I'm not overly fond of Wrestlemania going 2 days. I find it more exhausting than one big 7 hour show. So I view WK going back to one day as the first good sign about the Tanahashi Era.
Sigur wrote: Considering the above especially - Jon Moxley should never, ever, ever dress up as some comicbook superhero. I do not want to see that sort of stuff again. It pains me. :p
I never took Mox as a comic book fan. I'll have to find out if he's a regular at any of the local comic shops...
Yeah, I think he read "the 'mics" (which I'm sure is something some comic book reader once said ), it said so in his very readable, but not extremely memorable book. It does contain some Claudio jokes though, and it makes Mr.Moxley look like a somewhat goofy, but very lovely man. So basically no news really.He's super. Which is one of the reasons I don't want him to dress up as a comicbook figure in public.
Anway, since I'm kinda back into the NJPW for a quick dip, I'm watching Wrestle Kingdom 12 again; the best Wrestle Kingdom, mostly because I think it was the first one I watched, and it was back when NJPW was really, really hot. It's got one of my favourite matches evar on it, the 4-way between Ospreay, Scurll, Takahashi (Hiromu, that is) and KUSHIDA. It's quick, it's fun, it's insane.
Oh yes. I mean this is concerning his New Japan entrance, but with that I'm sure we can assume it was his idea as well. Or somebody he likes talked him into it.
Usually I really, really don't care about online things, but the whole Tony Khan tweet stuff which now puts JINDER MAHAL into the limelight as a total babyface and Hook being dragged into this whole mess is amusing. That Tony Khan. Sometimes it feels like this would be happening a lot if I was put in the captain's seat of a big on-TV wrestling promotion (I'd be a worse booker though. Say what you will, he's not a bad booker. Not the best, but certainly not the worst.).
By accident I saw a bit of RAW last night on the television set; the bit where a former WWE champ is announced and Jinder comes out. I felt bad for Jinder, but also good, because he does what he does well. It's not an easy role, but he's doing fine I think. All the best to him. And Hook. And WWE. And AEW. And you.
All Elite Wrestling becoming All Mustache Wrestling. Nick Jackson: Good. Matt Jackson: bad. Roddy Strong: the good kind of bad, but unnecessary, especially now. Hangman Page: S tier.
As if we needed even more reasons to find Hangman Page great.
edit: Holy moly. Okada actually left NJPW. To me he was locked in to be the next (and for decades to come) Ace of New Japan. Never thought we'd see the day. Okada is amazing of cours, and he did well in earlier AEW matches, but I'm not sure if he'll be an appropriately big deal in AEW. I Mean it probably will coincide with Danielson retiring, and Okada could fill that spot nicely.
Ghaz wrote: It's been a long time but Butch is now...
Spoiler:
... Pete Dunne again (what did you expect ).
About time.
Why they ever decided to call him Butch I'll never know.
They explained it when they first changed it to Butch that it was the nickname that his mates Sheamus and Ridge had given him (but apparently they didn’t have nicknames of their own for some reason).
Holy moly, I completely missed that Tama Tonga is leaving New Japan as well?
Let's see, Ospreay is out now, OKADA is out, Kushida is out, Tama Tonga is out... that's almost all my favourites out of New Japan. Only Hirooki Goto is left now. :/ Tama Tonga will be a great get for any company though. Where ever he goes, he won't be a huge deal (as in NJPW), but an incredibly reliable wrestler who works as a heel as much as a babyface. I hold Tama Tonga in very, very high regards.
Dysartes wrote: Not a fan of Minoru Suzuki or Tomohiro Ishii?
Actually, Murder Grandpa vs. Edge on Dynamite this week has the potential to be a fun match.
Oh, how can one not love Minoru Suzuki! I'll Kaze ni Nare at the drop of a hat. But isn't he also semi-retired at this point? He does seem to have a ton of fun at these overseas tours. Feels like he spent since the end of the pandemic in the US, clobbering people or doing funny poses with Jericho. Oh, just the other day I watched a match of his with Maki Itoh. She's a brave lady (on every level). And it showed that Suzuki doesn't seem to be a big fan of idol wrestling or Itoh's super-powered head. Either way, Suzuki - Edge sounds like a good time. Certainly hope for Suzuki to win.
With Ishii (whom I appreciate greatly of course) I think I missed out on his glory days. He does seem to age gracefully though, still showing these young'uns what's what in 8-man tags and so on. I'll have to check out his earlier stuff I think.
I way prefer it over the Amazon or the D+ options which were in talks recently. Netflix is about as crap as other internet platforms (and produce a looooooooooooot of crap), but at least there isn't an even larger uncool company attached to it.
For us outside of the US this might be huge. Apparently outside the US they not only move RAW to Netflix, but if they actually also carry Smackdown, NXT, PPVs, documentaries and so on (hoping for the full library of course, including WCW and ECW)... that's bombastic. Of course the death of the WWE Network.
The thing about the Rock a.) becoming member of the board of TKO and b.) attaining FULL RIGHTS for the name "the rock" and all that's part of that is also massive. Wow.
Dysartes wrote: Potential downside to RAW on Netflix? No need to cap it at three hours...
Good point. Maybe they'll start experimenting heavily with the format in general. A rather insane approach (but maybe Netflix metrics friendly?) would be doing one hour on monday, tuesday, wednesday each or something like that. :O
Throws an annoying shade over the most fun PPV weekend in the WWE calendar. Remember when Kevin Owens power-bombed Machinegun Kelley? I want the Kevin Owens match on this card to be that bit, just with Logan Paul. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. Then Paul can win with some stupid stunt for all I care and carry the US title on to Wrestlemania.
Four-Way Match: Roman Wins lol. Looking forward to that one though because it will break the mold of the Roman matches we saw the past 2 years (and which for the first 10 months or so really grew to like, but it's gotten old.). Who takes the pin though? I'd almost be inclined to have Roman pin AJ Styles and then have them have a little program? And have Orton and L.A. Knight have a feud.
Rumbles!
Women's: No idea. Somehow I think that maybe this finally is Bayley's year? I'd rather love that, because Bayley is tippedytop. IF Mercedes Moné returns (recent rumours make that sounds very unlikely, which to the wrestling fan's mind makes it SUPER-LIKELY ) she might take the thing, but it would be rather lame. I just watched the 2015 and 2016 Royal Rumbles back to back the other day and Sasha had her debut at Royal Rumble 2016 I think, so it might be slightly fitting? Oh well. I expect Liv Morgan to make a welcome return as well. Bianca Belair will do really well (she's fine again, right?). Will we see Camille and/or Jade Cargill? No idea. Both, especially combined, will be a great addition to the roster either way.
Men's: Loads of good candidates there, it's just very hard to see how they'd turn that into a 'mania match. Seth is out for Wrestlemania, right? Roman is paired with The Rock. Even with him doing double duty on both days it's hard to tell who should challenge him. Will we see Andrade? Pretty likely. Hope he'll do well in WWE now.
Looking forward to all the Vince stuff being sorted out and behind us at some point. My heart goes out to his family and victims.
No idea what the Rumble outcomes will be. Unfortunately my family has tickets to see the Dancing With the Stars tour tonight, so we have to try to avoid spoilers and catch it tomorrow.
Cody/Punk/Rock make the most sense for men's winner.
No idea what the women's outcome will be.
We hope Kofi can break his streak of bad luck and add to his highlight reel.
Glad LA Knight has another title shot, but I can't get excited for any Roman match anymore.
I'd like to see LA Knight take down Logan Paul at WM for the US title. That would be a nice moment.
bbb wrote: ...
No idea what the Rumble outcomes will be. Unfortunately my family has tickets to see the Dancing With the Stars tour tonight, so we have to try to avoid spoilers and catch it tomorrow.
...
you do live the good life, it seems.
Royal Rumble!
Good show, I very much enjoyed it. I mean how can one not enjoy a rumble.
Spoiler:
Women's rumble: lots of NXT ladies. Jordynne Grace seems really cool. I went in hoping Bayley would win and she did! She's class. I'm also a big fan of Liv Morgan, but it's Bayley's time. Also: Jade Cargill! Her face looks different, but she'll have a glorious future in the WWE. I still kinda like Nia Jax. She got really, really good at her role. Chelsea Green is funny. Kairi Sane is GREAT when she's not a pirate, but there's a bit too much going on. She's cool though. Never been a big fan of her pirate stuff (maybe I'd be more forgiving of that in a Japanese context). I also like Zoey Stark. And decided to learn the name of Katana Chance and ....the other one. And I decieded that I like The Witches now.
4-way match: as good as it may have gotten. AJ Styles is huge. All in black too. Ooh-ooh-ooh.
Logan Paul vs. Kevin Owens: The people who book that know exactly what we want to see. Well done. Hate Logan Paul and everything he stands for.
Men's Royal Rumble: Didn't know who would win, so I went "Cee Em Punk! Cee Em Punk!", because when in doubt, chant that, right? The result of the match was perfectly fine by me though. Would have loved to see Sami Zayn win, but having Bayley AND Zayn win the royal rumble matches would have been eerily too close to my dream timeline, so better it didn't happen.
I hope they play the Bayley win out well and can generate fan momentum for her face turn.
Enjoyed the Women's match more than the Men's.
Shocked to see Jordyn Grace, but she handled herself well. Jade made a great impression. Chelsea Green had good comedy spots. R Truth is a treasure.
Was very disapointed that it didn't seem like they tried for one of the classic Kofi spots. I know he's botched them the last few years, but not even an attempt this year. I really wanted to see Chad Gable get a chance to look good in the match for 40+ minutes. He's a machine and really earned a chance to shine.
I do not care about Roman matches anymore, but the "everybody kicks out" line got a chuckle from me.
As for the Dancing With the Stars show, I lucked out and my sister-in-law took my ticket, so I drove them all up and just sat in the car playing Zelda Breath of the Wild during the show. I'm late the party, but it's a fun game.
Well, that was a short return for CM Punk. Rumors are saying that he suffered a torn triceps (the same injury he suffered against Jon Moxley at All Out 2022) during the Royal Rumble and will miss WrestleMania.
How do you handle wrestling with your kids? Last week I had Jay Lethal vs. Orange Cassidy on whilst cooking and my niece (4) came in. She looked at the TV and asked "What are they doing?" - "They're fighting to see who's the stronger of the two." - "Are they fighting for real?". This put me at a moral crossroads. 
Being a weenie, I murmued something like "half-way". 
We watched for a few seconds, I tried to hype up the moves a bit, but she wasn't too impressed (because all those youngsters want to see is SPOTS and FLIPS and don't appreciate a man pretend-jumping on another man's ankle for a while, right? 
