Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: I can’t see Goldberg taking the title to be honest. But hopefully we’ll get a strong bout between him and Drew.
Last year of course we saw Edge make a glorious comeback. Wonder if we might see such this year? Wondering we might see Paige return to ring work.
I'm hoping that Goldberg doesn't win. But then I remember this is the WWE and they had him beat The Fiend. And then I feel sad
Spoilers: Drew vs Goldberg
Spoiler:
Thank feth! Drew retains. Not really much to say, typical finisher spam Goldberg match.
Women's Rumble
Spoiler:
Jesus, they missed Bayley's elimination because apparently Torrie Wilson getting thrown out was more important. Okay, that Naomi and Bianca Belair spot was pretty good. Bianca and Rhea have a good little bit at the end as the final 2. Belair wins, no problem with that though personally would have preferred Ripley. NXT UK represent!
Roman vs Owens
Spoiler:
Pretty good. Liked Owens use of the handcuffs and the golf cart spot was great.
Men's Rumble
Spoiler:
Randy runs off to the back after Edge smacks his leg with a chair, but not eliminated so he'll be back later I expect. YES! Christian! Big E eliminated by someone not even in the match, hate that spot. And Rey too. So why don't the refs remove that person from ringside? Great spot with Edge dragging Braun over the top a la Benoit, getting some help from Christian before Seth comes in and eliminates Braun and Christian. Edge gets rid of Seth by reversing a stomp attempt. Randy hits RKO out of nowhere after coming back after hiding in the back for pretty much the whole Rumble but Edge counters the whip and eliminates Orton. Edge wins from the number 1 spot. Kinda hoped they'd pull off a massive swerve and have Christian win instead
Looking forward to the Rumble tonight. I'm hoping Cesaro wins for the guys (long shot, but I'm always cheering for the Swiss Cyborg), and I think Rhea Ripley might win for the women.
Spoiler:
Automatically Appended Next Post: Edge... meh.
Gives Retribution something to complain about I guess.
Late to the party. Thanks for the spoiler tags folks!
Goldberg vs McIntyre
Spoiler:
Happy with the outcome, but a bit flaccid as a bout. And whilst he’s still far fitter than I’ve ever been or ever will be, Goldberg is looking super tired in the ring. Nice bit of post match camaraderie though.
Carmella vs Sascha Banks
Spoiler:
Solid match overall. Carmella seems far less annoying than she used to be
Interlude. So, who is Bad Bunny? Is he normally that awful? But nice to see Booker T back.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Women’s Rumble
Spoiler:
Cracking bout overall. I think I’m slightly in love with Shotzi and her little tank.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Reigns vs Owens
Spoiler:
Really good fun. Both renowned as never giver uppers. The bout felt hefty, with lots interesting stuff going on. The win didn’t feel cheap, either.
Last person in the world to see Royal Rumble 2021 reporting!
Goldberg vs McIntyre
Spoiler:
Perfectly okay for what it is. Good spot in the card.
Carmella vs Sasha Banks
Spoiler:
Okay as well. Tieing hair around a rope is good in my book. And I'm not a Carmella fan.
Women's Rumble
Spoiler:
Not showing Bayley's elimination was criminal. She carries that whole division! Either way, good winner, nothing wrong there what so ever.
Bad Bunny
Nobody wants to see these acts. All the music WWE choose is always awful.
Reigns vs Owens
Spoiler:
Better than I thought. HOWEVER. Strangely reminiscent of the AEW match in which Hardy/Omega ran over Sammy Guevara in a golf cart and the "raise lift-y thing, jump off", but I'm aware that stuff like that will always happen. It was really good. The thing with the handcuffs was fun. Very interesting how they kept it in. I really like Kevin Owens, and at a few tiny points it looked like he might even win.
Men's Royal Rumble
Spoiler:
Yay, go Sami! Oh well. That was rather fun, wasn't it. Kane, eh? The whole Omos thing was really annoying. Me, I didn't watch back when Edge and Christian were a thing. I liked their podcast. And somehow the hug in the ring got to kinda happy. Still, I don't quite neeed Edge to win a RR in 2021. Although the Orton return in the very end was a bit fun for a bit. Well, at first it was scary as heck, but in hindsight it was fun.
Nobody wants to see these acts. All the music WWE choose is always awful.
As much as I didn't understand the appeal of the Bad Bunny segment, WWE is doing it to bring in new eyes. On YouTube that segment has 3.1 million views so far. For other videos from the rumble: Royal Rumble highlights has 2.1 million. Goldberg spearing Drew has 1.5 million, but Bad Bunny splashing onto Miz and Morrison also has 1.5 million views. So those are the only highlights from the Rumble with over a million views so far.
Whatever it takes to get eyes on, even if the music sucks.
Though I don’t like hip-hop stuff in general, and I’m also into my lyrics. So a song in a language I don’t know is always gonna be an uphill struggle, let alone one from a genre I have no taste for for.
Overall, one of their better PPV’s of recent months. I know some find the canned cheering offputting. But I’d rather have that than a silent arena. And at least they’re now skilled enough where it’s being applied appropriately.
Nobody wants to see these acts. All the music WWE choose is always awful.
As much as I didn't understand the appeal of the Bad Bunny segment, WWE is doing it to bring in new eyes. On YouTube that segment has 3.1 million views so far. For other videos from the rumble: Royal Rumble highlights has 2.1 million. Goldberg spearing Drew has 1.5 million, but Bad Bunny splashing onto Miz and Morrison also has 1.5 million views. So those are the only highlights from the Rumble with over a million views so far.
Yea AEW have been doing it lately with Snoop Dog and Shaq Fu, it might well get extra eyes on the product but it never translates into good wrestling content for me!
Apart from Snooki at WM27 of course, that was absolute gold...
Nobody wants to see these acts. All the music WWE choose is always awful.
As much as I didn't understand the appeal of the Bad Bunny segment, WWE is doing it to bring in new eyes. On YouTube that segment has 3.1 million views so far. For other videos from the rumble: Royal Rumble highlights has 2.1 million. Goldberg spearing Drew has 1.5 million, but Bad Bunny splashing onto Miz and Morrison also has 1.5 million views. So those are the only highlights from the Rumble with over a million views so far.
Yea AEW have been doing it lately with Snoop Dog and Shaq Fu, it might well get extra eyes on the product but it never translates into good wrestling content for me! Apart from Snooki at WM27 of course, that was absolute gold...
Yeah, I'm aware that some people surely must like the music WWE use to generate mass appeal. To me in general mass appealing things are a turn-off. Not only because I'm a precious, unique and complicated snowflake, but also because it's usually to the detriment of what I actually want to see if I watch something weird and niche-y such as professional wrestling. I know why GW are doing obnoxious youtube videos, but I find them off-putting too.
I don't want to see Snoop Dogg in AEW either, and I sure don't want any Snoop Dogg version of any entrance theme, because it ruins them. The thing with Shaq is a bit odd to me (not the least due to how incredibly odd it all started), but the lady he brought along is impressive looking and acting awkwardly, which was enough to get me at least to react. Shaq vs. Cody is something I'm okay with, because it'll happen and it'll be over and we're all good. I can understand wrestling promotions in the US getting things on board which are popular in the US (like the cast of the hit show The Ranch! Now that was a good RAW, wasn't it. ). As long as it doesn't stop the wrestling from happening I'm ok with it.
Btw, I just thought of another very nice thing I saw at Royal Rumble:
Spoiler:
Alicia Fox! I like her. It was good to see her pop up again for a bit.
Haha yea the Snoop Dog version of Cody's entrance doesn't work for me either. I'm sure Snoop Dog is good at rap and all that, but it is kinda quiet and low energy compared to the standard theme.
Jade Cargill looks incredible but everything she does seems so awkward XD I'm hoping she gets in the ring and just blows us all away, fingers crossed!
Kroem wrote: Haha yea the Snoop Dog version of Cody's entrance doesn't work for me either.
I'm sure Snoop Dog is good at rap and all that, but it is kinda quiet and low energy compared to the standard theme.
Jade Cargill looks incredible but everything she does seems so awkward XD
I'm hoping she gets in the ring and just blows us all away, fingers crossed!
Yup, my thoughts exactly. I love Cody's theme. Proper stuff to get you pumped, and then Snoop Dogg comes along. Wasn't a fan of Sasha Banks' new theme already, now this!
I'm sure that once the match is on, Jade Cargill will be perfectly fine. I think one of the problems is that she always gets weird material for her promos and that she's just huge AND walks around in high heels all the time. The match will be fine, and then I guess they'll keep her on to be a big heel in the women's division.
Just for curiosity's sake I have to say that I'd like to see a match between her and Camile from NWA.
Just for curiosity's sake I have to say that I'd like to see a match between her and Camile from NWA.
Wow I hadn't heard of Kamile before, wadda women
Is NWA even still a thing though? I thought that Lasagna guy got fired for being handsy with one of the girls and the other Smashing Pumpkins guy wasn't too involved in the production side? It seems like AEW have poached half their wrestlers too!
Nobody wants to see these acts. All the music WWE choose is always awful.
As much as I didn't understand the appeal of the Bad Bunny segment, WWE is doing it to bring in new eyes. On YouTube that segment has 3.1 million views so far. For other videos from the rumble: Royal Rumble highlights has 2.1 million. Goldberg spearing Drew has 1.5 million, but Bad Bunny splashing onto Miz and Morrison also has 1.5 million views. So those are the only highlights from the Rumble with over a million views so far.
Yea AEW have been doing it lately with Snoop Dog and Shaq Fu, it might well get extra eyes on the product but it never translates into good wrestling content for me!
Apart from Snooki at WM27 of course, that was absolute gold...
The funny thing is that AEW skews to a younger crowd and WWE skews older, so by AEW bringing in Snoop and Shaq (two guys WWE/WCW have brought in before) they're trying to appeal to older fans, and WWE with Bad Bunny is trying to bring in younger fans.
Nobody wants to see these acts. All the music WWE choose is always awful.
As much as I didn't understand the appeal of the Bad Bunny segment, WWE is doing it to bring in new eyes. On YouTube that segment has 3.1 million views so far. For other videos from the rumble: Royal Rumble highlights has 2.1 million. Goldberg spearing Drew has 1.5 million, but Bad Bunny splashing onto Miz and Morrison also has 1.5 million views. So those are the only highlights from the Rumble with over a million views so far.
Yea AEW have been doing it lately with Snoop Dog and Shaq Fu, it might well get extra eyes on the product but it never translates into good wrestling content for me!
Apart from Snooki at WM27 of course, that was absolute gold...
The funny thing is that AEW skews to a younger crowd and WWE skews older, so by AEW bringing in Snoop and Shaq (two guys WWE/WCW have brought in before) they're trying to appeal to older fans, and WWE with Bad Bunny is trying to bring in younger fans.
Good point. Remember the short-lived Matt Jackson segment on BTE, meant for the 50+ demographic? Maybe Snoop Dogg and Shaq are a revival of that.
I didn't pay very much attention to Dynamite this week, I have to admit. Just now I'm remembering the Kip Sabian/Penelope Ford wedding. I don't like wrestling weddings. I have no idea why this idea gets revisited. I'm okay with an 'obnoxious couple', and the two work really well as that, because they're very pretty and can be annoying. But I just don't care for an in-ring wedding. It's lame. Doesn't work for me at all. Speaking of which: Miro in AEW doesn't work for me. I have no idea what he's doing. I don't want to see computer gamer gimmicks and certainly I don't want to see effin twitch streamer gimmicks. It's not a character, it's the broadest (and frankly most boring) past-time possible.
Oh well. Overall things are good and exciting though. AEW, Impact, NJPW, plus the AEW women's championship thing.
Thunder Rosa vs Britt Baker and the main event were really good on AEW this week! The wedding was meh but then I wasn't expecting much... One thing that did make me laugh was how much they objectified Penelope in that segment; she was wearing the sluttiest wedding dress ever, Kip was making jokes about her chest and basically half the commentary team lines were "phwor, I'd give 'er one!". Any women's libbers watching would've been apoplectic XD
That's funny. I got the impression that they just said the usual stuff. 'the bride is glowing' and all of that. Sure, the get-up was ridiculous, but it's a wrestling wedding.
Bit of a mixed bag from Dynamite this week; some goofy promos but some decent matches.
The Acclaimed looked great in their match with MJF and Jericho and Pac vs Ryan Nemeth was a nice hard hitting match too!
I personally thought the main event was a bit of a mess, although Lance Archer did look good in it.
Kenta was a bit of a let down. I've never watched NJPW, but have heard it is really good serious wrestling company with great workers and sensible booking.
Then they send this Kenta guy to AEW and let him be booked in a 6 man tag with no DQ so of course it is full of weapons, run ins, comedy spots, no time in the ring... etc. etc.
How does that get Kenta or the NJPW corporation over?
As far as I understand Kenta is rather beat up and can't work as impressive a match any more? But he's still a big name and he looks pretty mean and does the moves and things. I thought he was OK, as was the main event.
Apparently Lil Bow Wow is training to be a wrestler and is gunning for the WWE. The product is safe once more.
I found a mode what works well for me now: Watch NJPW matches and in between I watch Eddie Kingston promos on youtube.
I think the main event was reviewed pretty well so maybe I'm in the minority not liking it.
I'll add something positive to balance it out :-) I watched the Japanese side of the Women's Eliminator this morning; the match between Veny and Sakura was actually a nice, believable physical contest. Sakura worked it well as a heel with the submission holds, heavy strikes, hair throws, taunts etc. to get the heat on Veny. Veny then had a great athletic comeback for a bit which was was stopped by Sakura pulling the ropes from under her.
Spoiler:
I loved the finish too. Basically after a reversal exchange Sakura gets Veny in a dragon sleeper. She could have held onto it for the win but instead lets go at the last second and does a double underhook powerbomb on the barely conscious Veny for the win just to emphasise who is the best!
Yuka Sakazaki vs. Mei Suruga: Very good. Man, wrestling without an audience is weird. Anyway, good match, Emi Sakura vs. Veny: Yup, I agree with Kroem. Ryo Mizunami vs. Maki Itoh:
Spoiler:
Alright, after news about Maki Itoh participating in the tournament and after the first bits of info on her I got intrigued (naturally) and looked her up. Not since Reigns vs. Owens at the Royal Rumble 2021 I was so sure about the outcome of a match. Shame, I thought, because I really, really liked Mizunami right from her entrance. Imagine her tag teaming with Mojo Rawley. Anyway, I almost fell out of my chair when the match ended. Pretty clever AEW, pretty clever
Aja Kong vs. Rin Kadokura: Perfectly fine "young person vs. Aja Kong match", I'd say.
Yuka Sakazaki is my favourite I have to say.
Here's my entirely subjective predictions for the rest of the tournament:
Spoiler:
US side first round: Serena Deeb defeats Riho
Britt Baker defeats Anna Jay Nyla Rose defeats Tay Conti (...and furthers somehow the Tay Conti-Dark Order-story. Either way, we'll see more of Tay Conti and that's never a bad thing.)
US Semifinals: Thunder Rosa defeats Serena Deeb against all logic and everything I first thought would be a better idea Britt Baker defeats Nyla Rose (meh, I know. But bear with me)
US Finals: Thunder Rosa defeats Britt Baker by being better. Later they can go on about their silly feud about who's got the more stupid butt or the unfit nose or what ever.
JP semifinals: Yuka Sakazaki defeats Emi Sakura by pureness of heart, magic girl magic and solid 'rasslin'. Ryo Mizunami defeats Aja Kong by being well 'ard.
JP Finals: Now here I'm a bit torn. But I'll say Yuka Sakazaki wins after a 3 hour (or how ever long they let them) five and a half star classic.
Finals: Yuka Sakazaki wins vs. Thunder Rosa (because I want it that way and I'm the booker)
Waitaminute, i completely forgot about Hikaru Shida. So the winner of the finals will go up against Shida for the title? Well, anyway. Yuka Sakazaki will win that thing too. AYayayayayayayayayayayayaya
Yeah, I think the character stuff overshadows it a bit. I'm sure she's a sound wrestler, but got more important stuff to do in ring. I looked up some of her fabled tweets a few weeks ago. Yup, very interesting. A very interesting character on the whole, and tackling the whole Idol stuff as I haven't seen anybody do it since Perfect Blue. Just looked her up again on twitter, and The Mob seem to call for her to lead/be/eat/join Dark Order right now.
Once again, my favourite male wrestler Drew is front and centre. As is incredibly well deserved. Perhaps if Vince put all his Top Faces through the same wringer it’d be for the best.
As I’ve got work tomorrow, I won’t be staying up. But I will be watching it tomorrow as background noise when I’m all logged in.
My hope? Everyone in the headline match gangs up on Randy “oh god I am so bored of him” Orton and gives him a reet good kicking in the hoop.
Your favourite male wrestler on top of things, and for a good while now? That must be really nice. I like McIntyre too. Hope he retains actually.
Orton is weird. I mean I'm sure he does great work now and all, but I'm not sure I have to see him in every single top feud in the WWE main roster.
Now that Smackdown Elimination match is made for me. Owens, Zayn, Caesaro, Bryan (and two other guys, I forgot ). This is going to be good. Have Sami Zayn win, have him face Reigns.
Anyway, I won't stay up either, because I did that twice so far, and it was never quite worth it I found.
Yup, absolutely. He's great. I attended that one WWE live show in Vienna two years ago and the Caesaro pop was pretty impressive.
I wouldn't say that he feels like a jobber, but there certainly seems to be a very real 'glass ceiling'. His face/heel runs are mainly made by the people he's surrounded by. Oh and of course the stupid "superman"/"cyborg" terminology.
Holy Hell, Paul White (Big Show) has joined AEW as a wrestler, commentator and ambassador.
Gotta admit, that is one of his turns I did not see coming!
Just hope that he gets a better finisher than the awful punch he had for the latter part of his WWE run when/if he gets back in the ring. Not his old chokeslam as his knees are buggered but some big, powerful slam or maybe even a sleeper where he physically lifts his opponent off the ground and you can just watch as they go limp in the air.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: He’s always just somewhat ancillary. He’ll be involved in a Push, but never gets the benefits.
The dude is getting on in age, despite his ridiculous physique and ability. Surely Vince needs to finally give him the nod?
Because ever since I’ve been watching, he’s been Vince’s Favourite Second Fiddle. Almost like he’s an understudy for when others get injured?
Yeah, I guess he's the 'good hand' personified? Wasn't Caesaro IC champ once? (apart from the loads of tag champ titles, but those don't count that much in wwe)
@A Town Called Malus: Whaaa---? Dang. Well, that's interesting to say the least. I don't have to see him wrestle, but he seems to be a good guy and surely can help on a lot of levels. Or he's just getting into AEW to have the Khans finance him another season of The Big Show Show. Well, it's all very interesting. At least he's a wrestler, not a celeb. I know that many people will complain that it's 'yet another old wwe dude', but really AEW really don't have many of those, and....well, at some point or another almost everybody worked at WWE. "Sure, on RAW you groan and roll yer eyes when Big Show appears, but on AEW it's an exciting prospect?" - WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELL, I'm cautiously optmistic, because AEW seem to know how to utilize people.
As for the finished (not that I feel the need to see him in the ring) - i do like a good power slam. Power slams, power bombs.... just always impressive, simple moves.
Why I actually came here - just watching the second bunch of matches in the AEW Women's Eliminator tournament.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Spoiler:
First Match: Interesting how they bigged up Nyla Rose's experience. I didn't know that. Always took her for a young talent who's not all that great at the wrestling. By now I enjoy her matches though. Tay Conti is just good and very, very pretty indeed.
Second Match: Ouchie. Hard-hitting. Emi Sakura heeling it up properly, Yuka Sakazaki being a brave babyface - good stuff. That one time Sakazaki lifted Sakura up and threw her on the ground and Sakura landed knee first on the lower calf of Sakazaki I thought she hurt her leg, but seems like it wasn't that bad. Good.
Oh, speaking of injuries - that sucks for Anna Jay. She can't catch a break, can she?
Third Match: Aja Kong vs. Ryo Mizunami - Just watching it, but I was really impressed with that spot when Mizunami ran against Kong for the shoulder tackle. When Kong actually fell over - that actually got me cheering. It's the little things, I guess. Simple stuff, but it worked for me.
@A Town Called Malus: Whaaa---? Dang. Well, that's interesting to say the least. I don't have to see him wrestle, but he seems to be a good guy and surely can help on a lot of levels. Or he's just getting into AEW to have the Khans finance him another season of The Big Show Show. Well, it's all very interesting. At least he's a wrestler, not a celeb. I know that many people will complain that it's 'yet another old wwe dude', but really AEW really don't have many of those, and....well, at some point or another almost everybody worked at WWE. "Sure, on RAW you groan and roll yer eyes when Big Show appears, but on AEW it's an exciting prospect?" - WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELL, I'm cautiously optmistic, because AEW seem to know how to utilize people.
Seems he's going to start on commentary on a new AEW Dark show they're doing. I imagine his wrestling performances might be limited, bring him out for marquee match style stuff (Shaq vs Show, anyone?) though that is just a guess on my part.
As for the finished (not that I feel the need to see him in the ring) - i do like a good power slam. Power slams, power bombs.... just always impressive, simple moves.
Oooh, good call on a powerbomb. Someone with Paul's height doing a Last Ride style powerbomb (which he could do easily against the smaller dudes on the roster such as Allin or Stunt)? That would look really good. Power Slam would fit too but might be out due to the impact on his knees when delivering it.
Sigur wrote: Yup, the power bomb. That would be my finisher. Or a 450 leg drop. What ever.
Paul Wight busting out the Lance Archer top rope moonsault for the victory...
I mean, when he was younger in WCW I could see it. He was really athletic back then before they told him to wrestle like Andre for his feud with Hogan.
Maybe big guys have to just wrestle differently not to cut their careers short. Earlier today I listened to Don Callis talking about Moose, whom they decidedly told NOT to do the top-rope things and other many athletic things.
Dysartes wrote: Let's be honest - no-one wants to see another Sid-style injury from a big guy coming off the top rope...
It would have cost you nothing to not remind me of that
But you are right. Top rope moves are more risky on average for your big guys due to the greater mass. Bones can only be so strong and a bad landing for someone weighing 200lbs might be able to be walked off with a rolled ankle whereas a 300lb'er gets a fracture.
On the other hand, they look phenomenal when they are done well.
A Town Called Malus wrote: But you are right. Top rope moves are more risky on average for your big guys due to the greater mass. Bones can only be so strong and a bad landing for someone weighing 200lbs might be able to be walked off with a rolled ankle whereas a 300lb'er gets a fracture.
On the other hand, they look phenomenal when they are done well.
See the aforementioned Lance Archer top rope moonsault, or Dominic Dija-can't-spell-it doing a Spanish Fly with Keith Lee...
Lance Archer's rope walk does highlight the wierd attitude to some moves in wrestling though.
A move like that or say a suplex on the apron are a lot more dangerous than a move in the ring and probably hurt a lot more to take.
However in kayfabe terms they aren't presented as a big deal; no one wins a match with an apron suplex, no one is taken to the medical facility or does an injury angle after recieving one... Lance Archer's moonsault doesn't even look like it hurts the opponent that much.
So it's almost like, why risk doing them when they are not going to be presented as a big deal?
Contrast that to putting someone through a table, that probably hurts less than taking the move normally but it has always been presented as a huge deal!
Contrast that to putting someone through a table, that probably hurts less than taking the move normally but it has always been presented as a huge deal!
I think that is just part of the anachronism of wrestling. If something looks cooler or breaks something, then it must hurt the opponent more.
I have a bit of a pet peeve with superhero films which is similar to this. We see Superman, for example, able to literally punch though concrete, knocking chunks out of it. That means his fists are harder than concrete. Same with Zod.
So why do we see them swinging lumps of concrete at each other or swinging each other into buildings? Their body is literally harder than what they are using as a weapon! Just hold their head down and knee them in the face or get them on the ground and start raining fists!
That's a very good point. I think that there's this weird insistance that a wrestler can only win after applying their 'finisher'/signature move/etc. Even outside WWE this is a thing. I think they treat them a little differently in New Japan, but either way, they're very prevalent.
I think that a top-rope maneuvre by someone who usually doesn't do it (and shouldn't, because it helps the impact) helps elevating a big match. Like Kevin Owens' moonsault. Up to about a year ago or so I never recalled him doing that. Then in some big match he did and I was very, very impressed. Because a.) no matter what he does, I'm impressed, because Kevin Owens of course is the coolest and b.) I'd never seen him do it before and he's big lad.
Either way, it shouldn't be used in regular matches or as a minor move. Saves a lot of trouble without sacrificing much. Guys like Lance Archer, Keith Lee, etc. CAN do amazing things, but if not sure they probably shouldn't. For safety and for the smaller/more obviously athletic ("He's athlethic in an obvious way" is a phrase I have to add to my repertoire ) guys to do those things. That was one of the problems with 205 Live, wasn't it? At this point in time the proper big main roster dudes are so insanely atheltic and within the way a WWE match is built the cruiserweights couldn't bring that much new to the table at first (and without breaking their necks).
Sigur wrote: That's a very good point. I think that there's this weird insistance that a wrestler can only win after applying their 'finisher'/signature move/etc. Even outside WWE this is a thing. I think they treat them a little differently in New Japan, but either way, they're very prevalent.
Definitely agree, and this is why WALTER is my favourite wrestler right now. He has finished his big matches with a powerbomb, a top rope splash, a lariat and a sleeper hold so far. He doesn't have a finisher and because he makes every move feel like such a massive impact (and props to his opponents for selling superbly), you never know what move will finally do it but it feels like each one could. So you still get that reaction if the opponent kicks out (such as Tyler Bate at Takeover Cardiff) but you're also paying a lot more attention to the match as you can't just switch off until you notice the finishers start to get used.
I think that a top-rope maneuvre by someone who usually doesn't do it (and shouldn't, because it helps the impact) helps elevating a big match. Like Kevin Owens' moonsault.
Finishing Moves are certainly more about running with a narrative.
They’re meant to be the big gun wheeled out to polish someone off. A sign that the match is about to be decided.
And fair enough. They’re part of the wider pantomime, just as the general changing of the upper hand during a match involves someone going from dazed to Crystal clarity in a couple of seconds.
But I feel in WWE they’ve been of reduced impact, as too many matches have (and sorry to pick on Roman Reigns, I like the dude!) “Superman Punch! That’s it, that has to be it! OH MY GOD KICKED OUT AT TWO AND A HALF! Reigns has to be thinking “what will it take to put this man away!”
Once in a while, used in careful moderation, it works beautifully. I’d point to Owens vs Reigns at Royal Rumble. Absolutely superb match. Having both just keep on going worked.
But you can now more or less guarantee such shenanigans at any filming.
It takes away their impact, defanging what should be a signal the match is about to end.
Which comes back to something even I as someone really not that well informed have been saying for a while - WWE’s problem isn’t with their talent. It’s with their writer’s room. They’re about as original and capable of innovation as Family Guy. Which is to day, not at all original or capable of innovation.
I think that's what they call too much hot shotting though, if you do the special stuff every week then it isn't special any more!
I think the pandemic has encouraged stuff like that though. Without a crowd both companies have been desperately trying to get people hyped about their matches, and they have greater freedom for backstage/ cinematic stuff instead of keeping it as a rare thing.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: Which comes back to something even I as someone really not that well informed have been saying for a while - WWE’s problem isn’t with their talent. It’s with their writer’s room. They’re about as original and capable of innovation as Family Guy. Which is to day, not at all original or capable of innovation.
The key problem with with either the writer's room, Vince/Bruce, and/or a combination of the two. In the case of the writer's room, in the majority of cases, the writers have no experience with wrestling when they join - they're from the wider TV world instead. So they have some understanding of a narrative structure, but no idea how to use matches to explore it.
You get the odd writer who appears to get it - like the woman who was the lead on the Otis/Mandy stuff last year - but WWE don't always seem to recognise talent, given they let her go in the Mid-Pandemic Mass Cull last year. Maybe Stephanie was getting jealous...
Yeah, I think there's the big Vince factor as well, but the point about the writers probably coming from a wrestling fan place at best I think is very valid too.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:...They’re about as original and capable of innovation as Family Guy. Which is to day, not at all original or capable of innovation.
And about as capable of writing humour. (I just couldn't let this one pass )
...but on to nicer things: I watched the third round of the AEW Women's Championship Eliminator Tournament yesterday. A wholly nice experience. Loved the Sakazaki/Mizunami match.
Heyhey, tomorrow we'll have the honour to watch AEW Revolution (if we choose to do so). How about some predictions?
Here's mine:
Riho & Thunder Rosa vs. Dr. Britt Baker & Rebel - hard to care, I'll go for Dr.Britt Baker and Rebel.
Casino Tag Team Royale - a tough one, because they do have a nice tag teams roster, don't they. Btw, where are TH2? I like them too!
Anyway, I think the thing on Dynamite on which they only played the entrance for PAC and Phoenix was ruse. Well, going by the numbers I'd love to see Dark Order work together. It would blow everybody's mind if people who are pals actually worked together in a battle royale for more than 2 seconds, don't you think? I'd like to see Stu Greyson and Evil Uno win this. Would cement the Dark Order as a "family" and further their storyline.
AEW WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (EXPLODING BARBED WIRE DEATHMATCH) - wow. I'll say Kenny Omega wins this. Moxley is the death match dude, but Omega BUILT the bloody thing. He's the one with a plan and he's got Don Callis with him. And possibly the Good Brothers.
Matt Hardy vs. Hangman Page - Hangman Page. It'll be good. What I'd actually like to see is have the Khan family donate the fantasy amount of Hardy's income for Q1 to some charity.
Orange Cassidy and Chuck Taylor vs. Miro and Kip Sabian with Penelope Ford - Jeepers, I do not care much. The person I care most for in this match is Chuck Taylor actually. Don't get me wrong, I really like Orange Cassidy, but I'm not sure where they can go with him. I do hope for Miro to be a dangerous heel again though. The fixation with Charles is a good beginning. Drop the silly video games, drop the stupid outfits. Oh, and I think that Cassidy and Taylor win. Split Sabian and Miro up.
FACE OF THE REVOLUTION LADDER MATCH - This one's tough to call due to the "TBA". I guess it's going to be Shaq? I think it's the first time they're doing a PPV on a Sunday instead of a Saturday, so maybe that's due to his scheduling? Who I'd like to be TBA would be Jade Cardill. Either way, I'm hoping for a Penta win, but I think that Lance Archer will (and should) win this one.
STREET FIGHT between Team Taz and Darby Allin/Sting. Even if it wasn't Sting's first match; simply due to the build-up I can't see Team Taz win this one.
AEW WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP: Yeah, the Young Bucks got that one. Not terribly fond of the build-up, but oh well.
AEW WOMEN’S WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP - I LOVED the Women's Eliminator Tournament. I greatly enjoy Ryu Mizunami and Hikaru Shida is a very good women's champ. Not the most exciting wrestler in the world, but I really like her presence and she carries the belt like a champ. I think Shida will keep the strap, as much as I'd prefer seeing Mizunami (I'll be cheering for her anyway).
Turns out Ayesha Raymond is a friend of a close friend.
We now return you to our usual programming.
That's cool. Closest I got to to being part of wrestling was taking a drunk picture with a local wrestler and touching a ring. Which isn't all that close, I suppose.
@Alpharius: Yeah, seems like he recoded an Oral Sessions podcast with Renée Young. Looking forward to that.
Kroem wrote: ...
Thing is he is famous for TLC matches, and I don't think AEW needs more gimmick matches XD
That's true, at least the PPV was pretty heavy on those.
A few thoughts on Dynamite:
.) Maki Itoh sang her song! At least the first part. In a great, surreal moment. Weirdos like me are happy, people are happy because they got a memorable debut. She isn't that amazing in the ring, is she. But that's okay. She will be. Btw, that finish looked nasty on Itoh's part. I'm pretty sure she didn't quite do as Thunder Rosa wanted there.
.) The Bomb was adressed twice, and the storyline has been advanced. Both in perfectly okay fashions. Moxley and Kingston als dudefriends has a lot of potential.
.) Speaking of dudefriends - the saga of Best Friends and Miro/Sabian goes on. Still with the video games and a gimmick match that doesn't get me excited.
.) Now the Hangman Page thing... especially these days the thing of "someone got a lot of money now and they spend it in fun ways" is NOT a good story to go with, especially for a babyface such as Page. I think he mentioned financing a grant or something like that, but overally, I hope they don't go on with that, because it's a bad look.
Spoiler:
MJF's faction, Inner Circle face turn. Great stuff, I love factions. And they mirror the Inner Circle that well too. Good stuff, great segment.
Right, I just watched the New Japan Cup match Ospreay vs. Zack Sabre Jr., and it was great. Funny thing is that I didn't even root for Ospreay this time, because he's such a nasty heel. Anyway, great match and very good promo afterwards.
One thing I noticed: for a while around the middle of the match there was some trash talking back and forth (which I greatly enjoy, because those two are cheeky boys), and for 90% of the trash talk part the commentators shut up. Reminded me of earlier during the pandemic when clever wrestlers realized that without an audience they could talk a lot in the ring and thus make the whole thing much more entertaining. Bayley did heaps of that, and so did Ospreay and Bea Priestley in their match they did for Wrestletalk(?). With the prior on many occasions commentators would talk over the character-building and entertaining stuff, on the latter the commentator just would not stop blabbering on. That I found very irritating, to the point that I didn't want to finish the Ospreay/Priestley match.
Oh, and apparently Maki Itoh is on her way back to Japan. That's okay. Now we know her, and each time she returns to AEW people will be happy. It's like with Yuka Sakazaki. HER I wanna see back on Dynamite, by the way. Either way, there's a bloody pandemic going on, Japan's been hit badly once more. I'd rather have people be safe and at home with family and whatnot than travelling the world. Also, frankly, I'd like to see Maki Itoh get a bit better at wrestling and THEN return to Dynamite and be a star. But anyway, the cool thing is that this draws eyes on Japanese ladies' wrestling and other promotions in general. No idea where to watch Joshi Pro or Stardom, but I'm sure there's things on youtube.
I didn't much enjoy the women's match on the last Dynamite (including Itoh-chan's wrestling/singing!) but the rest of the episode was really good I thought, some great promos and good matches.
Darby vs Scorpio Sky was great, although I'm not sure how I feel about Sky's heel turn as I thought he made a great babyface.
Darby really impresses me in the ring, I'm just not a fan of all the other dangerous stuff he loves XD
Wtf was the ending of the IC championship match? What's so hard in giving Apollo Crews a bloody win so we can get the new gimmick on the road? They aren't doing anything with Big E. Might as well try to get a "new" talent over. Oh, and drop the bodyguards and the bloody spear. Just give him the accent and a scarf and don't make him default to being a heel just because he's not from "Nancy's Crack, Georgia".
It's just good to have heel Rollins back, isn't it. And he's got the good theme back too (Burn It Down notwithstanding). And he's being horrible and he sells well, and he's just good.
The main event was great. 'member when we wanna cheer the people we SHOULD be cheering and things are proper exciting? That was that. And that was good. And then all the shades of grey. Just good. I want a three-way for Wrestlemania.
The one thing the WWE Network is all about is it being an archive of ALL the things, right? McMahon bought huge libraries of wrestling tv to put them on the network, right? It's a very impressive thing. Selling that is rather annoying.
Sigur wrote: The one thing the WWE Network is all about is it being an archive of ALL the things, right? McMahon bought huge libraries of wrestling tv to put them on the network, right? It's a very impressive thing. Selling that is rather annoying.
They still own all of it. The deal with Peacock is only for USA streaming rights for 5 years, so the WWE Network still exists outside the USA and in 5 years might be back in the USA.
Peacock is making the decisions about what doesn't make it on their network.
As for WWE’s archive? Vince may not be the most popular man in the world, but through intent or accident, he is preserving a huge amount of wrestling history.
Here’s a Factfiend (NSFW due to mild language) video covering it.
The WWE signed a deal with NBC to have their streaming service Peacock be the distributor of WWE Network content in the USA. Doesn't currently affect us here in the UK.
It was. Jeepers, Excalibur even quoted Garth Marenghi and I didn't even pick up on it! Shame on me.
And I love factions.Makes even the most boring of people (QTMarshal) have at least some promise.Everybody should be in a faction. NOT being in one should be the exception (and reserved for Jon Moxley and the likes).
I also love Moxley promos.
A wholesome episode of dynamite.Do no much care for the Young Bucks, but oh well. Really liked the thing. I even like the little dissent thing in Team Taz. I want to see Cage (Machine that is, not Christian. I know the latter one will do cool things as well) do cool things, because he looks just insane.
The way it's going now I think there's a possibility that they'll actually turn Christian and Brian Cage into a tag team of sorts. Taz wants to recruit Christian, he's too much of a babyface and instead nicks Brian Cage (who's on his way of turning face and leaving Team Taz as it seems) away. I wouldn't mind. Brian Cage is a spectacle and the "Swolverine" shirt is the funniest thing I've seen in a while.
SO! Wrestlemania is around the corner, eh? How/when will you watch? I assume it'll be a lonely affair again for me. Let's see.
Also, Sasha Bank’s character from Mando is now available in Black Series.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Lashley v McIntyre.
What. A. Match. For the most part, a good clean match.
I was in Drew’s corner, because he’s a fellow Scot. But at least there was minimal ringside assist for Lashley. Indeed, MVP’s sum total influence was verbally distracting.
Can’t fault Lashley though. He’s impressive physically, and great in the ring.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: Largely enjoyed it, though I completely skipped the Bad Bunny match.
No idea who he is, or why that strand has run so long. Got as far as his stupid “I are on top of truck because” entrance and then skipped.
Roll on night two!
Yup.
Here's my take from night 1:
Spoiler:
weather lol.
Lashley vs McIntyre: Wow, that one bummed us out big time. The one guy I watched with had his night basically ruined by the result, the other two of us were extremely surprised as well. Not my favourite outcome there.
New Day vs. Styles/Omos: Perfectly nice and very strong debut for Omos.
Cesaro vs. Rollins: Probably my favourite match of the night, Good stuff, great for Cesaro.
Shane McMahon vs. Braun Strowman: Phew. It was alright. for some reason I had McMahon put down to win this one.
The Big Womens Tag Team Qualifier Match: Hrm. Not sure why this isn't on the pre-show or Raw.I mean it was alright and I guess for the novelty factor of TAMINA getting a VICTORY at WRESTLEMANIA was worth it.
Bad Bunny/Damien Priest vs. Miz&Morrison: Liked the Miz/Morrisson entrance. I do not care for the big stars, I do not care for Bad Bunny on any level. I feel bad for Damian Priest. I did NOT like that match.
SD Women's Title Banks vs. Belair: It was perfectly nice and I enjoyed seeing both looking so happy at the beginning of the match. Match was good, I detested the sound effect when Belair whipped Banks with the hair. It's a cool spot and it looked nasty. The sound effect cheapened it a lot. I was set on Belair winning, but found it impossible not to root for Banks at several points during the match. I'm not the biggest fan of hers (but Bayley wasn't in any matches, so Sasha Banks is the next best thing), but she IS good, isn't she.
It was alright, wasn't it. Cool to see an audience made of flesh and bones. NOw I want them to be really rowdy, chant, have signs, etc.
Here’s hoping Randy gets his boring arse kicked, and that wraps up the whole Fiend angle.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Erm....what was the point of that match? Flaccid, repetitive nonsense. I swear that every Wyatt v Orton Wrestlemania match is destined to be crap.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Women’s tag team match to the rescue. Really enjoyed that.
Not sure why they’re blowing smoke up Logan Paul’s arse. But KO is looking great. He’s still a chunky guy, but he’s in great shape. Sami has always been a favourite of mine, even if he’s horribly misused.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Riddle v Shamus
Boooooooring. I really like Riddle as both a character and a performer. But Shamus remains dull a dishwater. I’ll never understand why he keeps getting pushes.
Starting to feel like this should’ve just been a one night event. Certainly the Fiend match didn’t feel like it deserved Wrestlemania time.
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: Largely enjoyed it, though I completely skipped the Bad Bunny match.
No idea who he is, or why that strand has run so long. Got as far as his stupid “I are on top of truck because” entrance and then skipped.
Roll on night two!
Yup.
Here's my take from night 1:
Spoiler:
weather lol.
Lashley vs McIntyre: Wow, that one bummed us out big time. The one guy I watched with had his night basically ruined by the result, the other two of us were extremely surprised as well. Not my favourite outcome there.
New Day vs. Styles/Omos: Perfectly nice and very strong debut for Omos.
Cesaro vs. Rollins: Probably my favourite match of the night, Good stuff, great for Cesaro.
Shane McMahon vs. Braun Strowman: Phew. It was alright. for some reason I had McMahon put down to win this one.
The Big Womens Tag Team Qualifier Match: Hrm. Not sure why this isn't on the pre-show or Raw.I mean it was alright and I guess for the novelty factor of TAMINA getting a VICTORY at WRESTLEMANIA was worth it.
Bad Bunny/Damien Priest vs. Miz&Morrison: Liked the Miz/Morrisson entrance. I do not care for the big stars, I do not care for Bad Bunny on any level. I feel bad for Damian Priest. I did NOT like that match.
SD Women's Title Banks vs. Belair: It was perfectly nice and I enjoyed seeing both looking so happy at the beginning of the match. Match was good, I detested the sound effect when Belair whipped Banks with the hair. It's a cool spot and it looked nasty. The sound effect cheapened it a lot. I was set on Belair winning, but found it impossible not to root for Banks at several points during the match. I'm not the biggest fan of hers (but Bayley wasn't in any matches, so Sasha Banks is the next best thing), but she IS good, isn't she.
It was alright, wasn't it. Cool to see an audience made of flesh and bones. NOw I want them to be really rowdy, chant, have signs, etc.
Did you see the welt on Sasha? That might not have been a sound effect.
I saw it. It was impressive. They've done that before in NXT (on Asuka and others if I remember correctly); it's always been impressive welts. However, the "whoo-PAH" sounded fake as heck to me. Like the bouncy bullet they used to add in for a while when Ricochet entered the stage (remember Ricochet? Most capable flippydude in the world?). Maybe I'm wrong there, but I'd by majorly surprised if that was an actual sound.
Gonna watch night two tonight. Looking forward to it.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Okay, I watched night#2 now!
Here's some of my brilliant insights:
Spoiler:
Fiend/Orton: I'm not one of the people who are down on the Fiend. I like the Fiend. I do NOT like seeing Fiend stuff every single damn week. I love Alexa Bliss to bits, but I don't think she helped the Fiend storyline much. It's all just stills and visuals and moments, but there is no story what so ever. I never was a fan of Alexa Bliss being Sister Abigail (heck,I preferred Wyatt with a veil on "being" sister abigail), but apparently they're doing that now. Or her spirit being in Bliss. And I assume she'll try to save Wyatt by exorcising the Fiend. That's too fast though. The burned Fiend should have run wild for a while before that stuff happens. But that's just me. I liked the red light being back, I didn't enjoy the match overall. edit: One thing I did enjoy: Orton making funnies during his entrance. He's a mischievous little imp, isn't he.
Asuka vs. Rhea Ripley: Good match. Okay result. Have Asuka take a bunch of weeks off now; she deserves it. Have Ripley feud with Charlotte.
Big E vs. Apollo Crews: *sigh*. The Nigerian Drum Match is just a lame no-DQ match with some drums they painted green around? Even the gong-spot was a bit underwhelming. Poor Apollo Crews; that gimmick is pretty badly executed (Intense Nigerian dude = cool. Nigerian Foreign Heel with a spear = crap). Who was the guy who helped him out? Was that Babatunde? The outcome was okay by me (because he HAD to win, otherwise he'd be dead)
US Championship Riddle vs. Sheamus: I really liked that match. It was intense, it was fast, it was brutal. I like Sheamus, I have a slight dislike for Matt Riddle to begin with. He's a monster and a great athlete and all, and I like that he's wrestling bare-foot, but I just don't like the guy much. And I find the main roster character just annoying. Loved the match though.
Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens: Have I ever mentioned that I love those two guys? And that I'd like them to fight forever (clap-clap clap-clap-clap), with short instances of them being a tag team in between? And that I'm really, really happy to see WWE letting Zayn wrestle proper again? The match was great. And they used the 'celeb' 100% correctly. Nobody wants to see bloody youtubers play an integral part to anything, right?
Women's Tag Championship Tamina/Natalya vs. Baszler/Jax: I like Nia Jax. There's a place for her in any women's division. But I'd like for this tag team to be split up asap and Baszler should run wild solo. Anyway, I very, very much enjoyed this match as well. Everybody was good, I really like Natalya. A Wrestlemania crowd chanting for Tamina in 2021 was one of the most bizarre moments of the night. (yes, more so than the fiend-in-a-box) or that "that's our thumbnail" make-up they put on Alexa Bliss).
Reigns vs. Edge vs. Bryan: Wooo, what a match. Really enjoyed it. Was very surprised by the no-DQ stipulation, but apparently that's normal in a triple threat match? Weird. Anyway, good stuff. For a few moments I thought Bryan would actually win. Oh well. Reigns is confirmed as THE GUY, which I'm okay with. Only question is who he'll feud with now, but we'll see.
Overall I enjoyed night 2 MUCH more than night 1. It was fun.
Just what was needed - a year after dropping a boatload of people from their roster in the early stages of a global pandemic while making record profits, WWE are at it again.
I'm shocked they dropped Billie Kay. She's had a bunch of screen time and has been so fun. Peyton is a shock too after the promo she cut on Raw Talk got so much buzz.
I'm shocked that Samoa Joe has been let go - even if you just kept him as a commentator, he's gold.
I can see AEW potentially picking up Peyton/Chelsea and maybe Billie (though in her case I'd expect her to need to work on her in-ring skills with Dustin & co). Mickie I think might go to the NWA.
Samoa Joe is a bonus for whoever picks him up, and Kalisto isn't a bad shout. Blake is horrifically unlucky - how the hell is RyKKKer the last Forgotten Son standing? Not sure what the future holds for Bo or Mojo, either.
I think that Mojo can go pretty much anywhere. Make him a free agent and he can go travel the world. He'd work well in Japan, Impact, NWA, anywhere. Big, athletic guy, looks like a proper wrestler. I think that he can do pretty much anything. Maybe not top-of-the-card stuff, but
Samoa Joe and Mickey James are an asset no matter where they go, same with Calisto. If Bo Dallas wants to keep wrestling he could do a great "toxic positivity" sort of gimmick again. More topical than ever.
Chelsea Green will do great in Impact.
The IIconics will stick together and go somewhere. With their banter they can also freely hop between promotions, but really, I think they should be on TV. Off to Impact with you, and make that show amazing. Or something like that.
Tucker can get any tag team friend he likes and be off and do great things. I don't see him as a solo dude; he looks too nice for it. But what do I know, maybe he'll surprise us all with proper good character work.
I don't have to see everybody in AEW. And with their working relationships with Impact and NWA there's loads of crossover potential anyway, so things will be fine. Honestly, with the people fired just yesterday you could almost start a proper good promotion from scratch.
Fed up with Midsomer Murders, for now, I’ve dived back into the WWE Network, with In Your House - Revenge of the Undertaker.
I think this would be just before the Attitide Era, and the proper Monday Night Wars.
It’s....kinda weird. Opening match is Legion of Doom vs Owen Hart and British Bulldog. It was only back in 1997, yet none of the athletes are still with us.
All four were big names when I was a nipper, and WWF first hit British shores. As Dad refused to let us have satellite, I only ever collected the picture cards.
Yet, on the same billing? Stone Cold Steve Austen, who I consider to be a fairly modern wrestler. Also Mankind, who was very much about 6 years later when I had my own Satellite link in my room (cheekily, Dad used to borrow it to watch Scottish Football).
Oooh, one of the matches is Bret Hart vs Austen.
As you might’ve guessed, I’ve not looked it up on the internets, so don’t know the full card. But it’s pretty ace!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Burger Me! It’s a very young Dwayne Johnson! Billed as Rocky Malvia.
I don’t think so? To be fair, I was mostly just blown away. Rocky Malvia vs Nation of Domination.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Now onto NXT Take Over “Stand and Deliver”.
Not sure who the opening act were, but they gutted Adam & The Ants “Stand & Deliver”. Mostly because they stripped out the Burundi Beat element, and the “huhs” which sucked all the character out the song. Bad cover artist, BAD! DIRTY! In your bed, on your rug!
I also occasionally suffer from the same weird blind spot at times - totally omitting an entire decade when thinking back to the late 90's when calculating time.
Yus, but she called'em out on that, the PR hitsquad (Triple H and Stephanie) swooped in and fixed it now.
WWE seem to have hired a Hollywood ad person again, pledging to turn things around and do all sorts of broad collaborations for the mass market appeal. Which of course fills people like me with dread and general unwell feelings. But let's wait and see.
Three things: .) I enjoy AEW Dynamite very, very much. Makes me laugh. Maybe I would prefer if they were a bit more serious, but anyway. I enjoy the thing, so things are cool. Splitting up Miro and Kip Sabian is a move I welcome most fervently. No go split up Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler! .) Fire Pro Wrestling is on sale on Steam and I bought it. The night after I bought the DLC bundle. What a game. No idea if I'll play it much, but potentially one could spend their life in it. First wrestling video game I ever bought too! The first night i played the training missions which at some point drove me insane (throwing people into turnbuckles and then run after them and do something to them is tough). The other night (now with DLC) I started the single player campaign game as a Junior Heavyweight in New Japan. It's really hokey. But that's okay, because the great teacher you have to deal with is Jushin Thunder Liger, all in ring gear, and creepily-grinning Kushida. That's okay though because Kushida might be my favourite New Japan wrestler. Anyway, playing these missions for a bit got me a bit of a feel for the game and that actual matches might be possible. Mistiming a tope suicida and flying on yer face while the other dude walks away was never that fun. Big downside: You can choose from a ton of places of origin in that game, including hell and so on, but NOT Austria. How am I going to play Walter or Otto Wanz?! .) No English commentars on Wrestling Dontaku 2021 makes me sad.
That's the news.
Just watched the Moxley-Nagata Match. Cool, but I sure hope that Wild Thing is a one-off and doesn't become Moxley's theme. Now for the rest of this week's dynamite:
Spoiler:
Somehow that show made me sad. Which must be a first for Dynamite. Cody's America promo was just that. Do AEW really have to resort to that lame old stuff? It was very, very carefully worded, but still: it's a U-S-A! U-S-A! vs. foreign Heel thing. I generally have a high tolerance for Cody's over the top promos, because usually they're excellent. But all the USA stuff and THEN getting all choked up about himself just because he mentions his yet-to-be-born daughter is just absurd. And to top it all off he's taking on the American Dream name. Yikes. The good thing to be taken from this though is that Anthony Agogo is going to get a high-profile match at a PPV.
The Tag Team match was great. Amazing. It's so easy to detest the young bucks. On several levels, funnily. Of course there's the shoes, and we all know that paying lots of money on sport shoes is douchy to the extreme. Good heel stuff. Playing Shawn Michaels is good heel stuff too, even taking it to the most obvious of levels later on with the "I'm sorry, I love you". Maybe there was a kick-out too many in this match, but either way, it's been great. I did like the Styles Clash.
Pac vs. Orange Cassidy was good, as was to be expected. I'd like for AEW refs to count faster if everybody's outside the ring, but that's just me, and I think it was during commerical break too. Wasn't a fan of the triple threat stipulation at Double or Nothing. WWE is doing that a lot right now, and it doesn't necessarily add much. But it'll be three top dudes in the ring and it'll be good. Geez, Omega is also grating a little. Can we please have some serious and scary baddies too? Thank god Miro won the TNT championship now, so maybe there's a chance for that now.
Did not like the Pinnacle/Inner Circle segment a lot. Heck, it's been a year since Stadium Stampede now? Crazy. Anyway, I'm not sure I'm looking forward to that a whole lot. Let's see. Loved the first Stadium Stampede, not sure if they can redo that as well.
TNT championship match was alrigth (I have to admit that I kinda skipped through it, because I don't care for Darby Allin and I wasn't too happy with Miro's run so far, but it seems to get much better now that the gaming rubbish's dropped.
How can a wrestling show with such good matches leave me so annoyed and exhausted? Oh right, ARMY OF THE DEAD. The zombies were crap. The ads were crap. Also the peacock ads were crap. I'm pretty sure that at this point any NXT person dreads the prospect of getting 'called up'.
The Tag Team Championship match is the wild card for the four title matches, for me - I think I can predict the others, but I'm not sure what story they're going for in the medium term with Mox & Kingston.
Yeah, from how I see it it's very, very unlikely that the Young Bucks lose the championships in this one. They got a strong tag division, and just had a "thrown together" tag team (Page/Omega) hold the titles for quite a long time. And we can garner some more heat for the Elite when the Good Brothers help out (the main event title match I think will work without any interference. Just maybe some Omega solo shennannigans).
I'd actually like to see Brian Cage win against Hangman or have the match end in a double count-out or something. Team Taz helping Cage against his will, leading to Cage splitting off and run against the rest of Team Taz. Nice little midcard feud, helping to promote Hobbs and Hook while Starks is out injured (if I remember correctly).
I don't quite get the appeal of Dr.Britt Baker, but I guess she'll get the title while Serena Deeb keeps hers in the pre-show. But at least we'll see Riho again. Not that I'm a huge fan, but that means maybe that Yuka Sakazaki turns up again as well, of whom I'm a fan. Not that she'll turn up in the pre-show, but having Riho back is good in general.
Just watching the Double or Nothing Buy-In show. Wtf was the Britt Baker /Hikaru Shida video package/promos? Did they turn Baker face the night before the PPV?
Oh, the Cody/Agogo video package is on now. Does ANYBODY except Cody view him as anything but the bad guy in this one?
Riho/Deeb just started. Immediately the crowd start chanting and make a lot of noise. That's very nice.
For those with the right memories, I tried it last year, but found the lack of Heat meant I wasn’t seeing it at its best, so not the right time to give it a whirl.
I know there were around 5k there for Double or Nothing at the weekend, and that Friday's Dynamite had more people there than they have had previously, so... maybe?
@Dysartes: I know, I know, but I really didn't like that promo, punctuated by the part in which he started sobbing because he was so stirred by himself mentioning that his daughter will be born in a few months. It's very easy to love Cody, it's also easy to dislike him. That's what's so great about the guy.
There was a proper, proper crowd at Double or Nothing, and they were mighty good. Made the show, and it was lovely. The way the matches were arranged led to a tiny little slump towards the middle, but it picked right up again. A long, enjoyable show.
It was alright. Kinda boring, really. I enjoyed the Bayley/Belair match, and of course Caesaro/Rollins. The main event was OK (Lashley got a nasty gashley on his shoulder early on). Zayn/Owens will always work for me. I love these two. I think at some point we'll have to have a serious conversation about Alexa Bliss. Without a drop of doubt, she's great. In any role. That being said, this role is pretty darned bad. The whole story seems to soley exist to get clip-able moments for gifs and youtube. Nothing more. Just spooky crap for the sake of it, without much rhyme or reason. En passant it got the Fiend all buggered up.
Funny thing is that I didn't really watch any Dynamite since the move to Fridays. Usually I watch these things the day after, because all the US wrestling takes place from 2am at night for me, but somehow I got better stuff to do on Saturdays. I really should watch though.
What I did watch was these new documentaries about Bret Hart and Chyna. The first heart-warming and ultimately very nice, the latter less so, but still rather heart-warming.
I also just learned that Yuka Sakazaki will return to AEW in July, and that'll be great. Looking forward to it.
Looks like a bunch of people from NXT and 205 Live - as well as the writer who embarrassed them earlier in the week by not knowing what Bobbly Lashley's name was...
Well yeah, those too. And the writer too, that goes without saying. Going on a podcast and behaving like this (whether it was genuine or some sort of joke) is just bad.
There is a definite line of thinking that Vince is trending in that direction at present.
Having said that, this Nick Khan character seems to be saying he's the one to blame for this latest batch of releases.
And then there's Aleister Black, who they released after doing a series of vignettes to reintroduce him on SD - The Tales of the Dark Father - and when he was meant to wrestle Big E to resolve who Black attacked E during a Fatal 4-Way for the IC title...
But why ditch Braun? The Monster Amongst Men was a great draw.
Whilst not the most athletic, he could still be more entertainer than most splungers.
I mean, sure he was always the lone Wolf, and never faced much in the way of a credible feud in my opinion. But I think you need that, someone who isn’t part of any stable.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Perhaps they’re hoping they’ll go to AEW, to be poached back at a later time?
Whilst not the most athletic, he could still be more entertainer than most splungers.
I mean, sure he was always the lone Wolf, and never faced much in the way of a credible feud in my opinion. But I think you need that, someone who isn’t part of any stable.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Perhaps they’re hoping they’ll go to AEW, to be poached back at a later time?
Because WWE is not a well functioning business. You can't write long-term storylines except with a tiny selection of talent because Vince has the final say on all creative decisions and changes his mind on a whim about whether he likes a wrestler or not. He rewrites shows hours before they go live and what he writes is crap (for an example, Jon Moxley/Dean Ambrose's final run).
I could see Braun going to Japan. They like big monster gaijin threats.
Whilst not the most athletic, he could still be more entertainer than most splungers.
I mean, sure he was always the lone Wolf, and never faced much in the way of a credible feud in my opinion. But I think you need that, someone who isn’t part of any stable.
Apparently this wasn't a surprise to the locker room - he'd negotiated pretty well when his contract was last up for renewal (and I think his stock was higher in the company), so I guess they figure that what he brought to the table was no longer worth what they were paying him.
This conveniently ignores that, around 80-90% of the time the reason a wrestler is no longer such a good draw is down to the decisions made by VInce and Creative, not the wrestler themselves.
Braun "I flip vehicles for fun" Strowman was cool, was fun to watch (that double bass, man), and was a legitimate threat to anyone in the ring through sheer size/power. Eliminating five people in Elimination Chamber (before getting pinned by Roman, admittedly) should be a star-making performance.
Giving him the Universal Title at the start of the Empty Arena Era, a good two to three years after his peak, and then not giving him feuds to make him look at least solid as champion was the beginning of the end, in hindsight.
Having him win tag titles for one night with a child, or feeding him to Goldberg, was where the rot set in for this character, but I'm sure Vince thought that it was "such good stuff" at the time...
Just watching AEW Dynamite this week (Road Rage). Great to have fans back, and I'm very happy with all the other going-ons. But the main thing to take away from that show is a.) I'm sure everybody looked up who Brian Cage is married to after Ricky Starks' promo (Cage and his wife look like a lovely couple) and b.) I learned the Brian Cage's birth name is Brian Button. Which is the last name you'd think of looking at The Machine.
Okay, okay, I'm pretty bored with The Inner Circle still bothering The Pinnacle and keeping them from doing more important things. I have no idea how Chris Jericho is able to make such lame promos which at the same time are so fun (Point in case the mother line... *groan* but then he lets it simmer forever and THEN comes the "again", which made it very funny again because it's so silly).
Really liking The Bunny. Really liking the Blade. Love the Butcher, hope he'll be back again soon.
Cody's AMERICA thing....yeah, well. Maybe they'll go smart about it and don't keep him an absolute babyface. Either way, I guess he just wanted the big entrance to be the first thing at Road Rager. Hence the jobber entrance for ....argh, i even forgot his name. QT Marshal. I'm for him leading a jobber faction, but they should be nothing more than a mild nuisance. About on the level of the Hollywood Hunks (who are fun. I like Cesar Bennoni.).
edit: Yeah, Road Rage was good.
edit2: Ooooooooh, I missed that, but Penelope Ford vs. Yuka Sakazaki was announced for next week's Fyter Fest Night1! This is going to be brilliant. The past month or so I was a bit disappointed by a Dynamite or two, but now that feeling of "I'm loving this and I'm looking forward to next week" is back. And it's lovely.
Dysartes wrote: I mean, you missed at least one major thing there, Siggy - who'd've expected such issues with the lighting at a live show?
The announced Moxley/Anderson match for the IWGP US title should be a good one, though I'm hoping it goes down with minimal Elite shenanigans.
Ya, it got me really concerned for the whole production for a while.
oooh yeah, that IWGP US title match is going to be great. I'm a huge fan of the Good Brothers. It may be silly, but I love their podcast. Been listening to the old episodes over and over, now the new version of Talk'n'Shop came along and it's just good fun. Either way, seeing Anderson having a singles title match is great. (absolutely agree about hoping that Elite things will be kept to a minimum; maybe a little spot in which Kingston, Penta and Kazarian counter any attempts of that) I'd love to see him with the title. Can you imagine the return to Japan with that once things open up again over there?
Went to a MLW TV taping at the 2300 Arena (ECW Arena) this weekend. Didnt know any of the wrestlers (apart from Blue Meanie and Savio Vega during the Battle Riot), but 4.5 hours of good wrestling for $20 was money well spent. Not sure when it airs on Vice, but I have to try to catch it so I can see how it translates to TV.
bbb wrote: Went to a MLW TV taping at the 2300 Arena (ECW Arena) this weekend. Didnt know any of the wrestlers (apart from Blue Meanie and Savio Vega during the Battle Riot), but 4.5 hours of good wrestling for $20 was money well spent. Not sure when it airs on Vice, but I have to try to catch it so I can see how it translates to TV.
That's super cool I'd love to attend live wrestling again. Somehow it's really hard to find out about Wrestling events in Austria. Mainly I get the info via posters around the city, because on Social Media they only tend to post about events which just happened.
Nice to see Griff Garrison and Brian Pillman Jr. becoming All Elite earlier in the week, after Pillman Jr's contract with MLW expired.
Now we just need them to sign Julia Hart for the full Varsity Blondes unit - though I expect that to take a little while, given she's definitely still learning at present.
Dysartes wrote: Nice to see Griff Garrison and Brian Pillman Jr. becoming All Elite earlier in the week, after Pillman Jr's contract with MLW expired.
Now we just need them to sign Julia Hart for the full Varsity Blondes unit - though I expect that to take a little while, given she's definitely still learning at present.
True dat. I really liked the Varsity Blonds as a tag team already. Great gimmick, great music, good combination of people. And Julia is a great addition to round it all off. Maybe it's silly, but I like the happy smiley people in wrestling. Along with TH2 they're possibly my favourite tag team on AEW right now.
Very much looking forward to Fyter Fest Night 1 tonight!
Automatically Appended Next Post:
Right, I'm pretty hyped,so I'll write up my match predictions for night1:
Darby Allin vs. Ethan Page (Coffin Match? Can't remember) - meh. I don't particularly care about Allin (I may have mentioned it once or twice before ), and I'm a heretic, so I know very little about Ethan Page. I guess Allin will win that, and the Men of the Year go on to do something else. Jon Moxley (c) vs. Karl Anderson (IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship) - Now THIS I care about. I'd love to see Karl Anderson win. On this week's edition of Talk'n'Shop Anderson laughed and said "I wouldn't bet on me winning", so.... tough. All signs point to Anderson winning (Moxley doesn't need the title, he won't wrestle for NJPW in the US, and he's got a kid now, so he won't wanna travel to Japan much any time soon). Anderson returning to Japan with that title would be great. And would come with such great hooks for a feud with Tama Tonga, EVIL, Jay White, etc. . I'd want Anderson to win. Brian Cage (c) vs. Ricky Starks (FTW championship) - I like Brian Cage and Ricky Starks is a great natural heel. Cage should win this one. Make Team Taz turn on Cage (or vice versa, whichever you prefer) and turn it into a feud. Christian Cage vs. Matt Hardy - Now that's hard to tell, because it doesn't really matter, does it? I expect shennanigans, but in the end Cage wins. I don't have a particular reason why he does, maybe there's more storyline stuff in there, but at some point he should turn on Jungle Boy. Penelope Ford vs. Yuka Sakazaki - oooh yes, we all have been waiting for Sakazaki's return, right? A good match-up which leaves no questions open: Sakazaki for the win and then she gets rocket-strapped and sent off to the moon for a title.
Speaking of Page - if you want some background to listen to, his vlogs on YouTube are pretty cool, even if you just listen to the ones since he joined AEW. Always nice to see the out-of-character side of wrestlers, though it's hard to tell with Eddie Kingston
Hey, thanks for the link! I think I even remember someone mentioning his YT channel before. I'll go have a look, because Mr.Page did good things in that match there.
Overall it was a lovely episode of Dynamite. Stuff happened, and it seems like Lance Archer's got something to do, which is always nice. I constantly fear a bit for him to get put by the wayside, but then they always end up doing something with him. Which is nice.
Well done there. I watched it last night. It was really good. And was followed up by the most insane RAW I've seen in a while (not the least because RAW was insufferable as of the past months).
Just watching AEW Dark. Diamante comes out...why is she dressed like an idiot? Just because the Elite dress like that to garner heat do all the heels have to dress like tourists in Florida?
There was just something pure and very different about it. Tactical and strategic, and certainly better than everyone knocking seven bells for however minutes.
And chuffed for Big E as well. Nice to see New Day getting some spotlight time each.
Yeah, each time I see her in that superhero gear I get a bit sad. I just don't get the appeal of comicbook superheroes. Her winning the MitB contract was good. Raw....maybe a bit too hasty? Not sure, but I guess even the WWE aren't sure what to do with the women's championship.
It's impossible to dislike Big E. I think he'll go up against Lashley eventually once Goldberg's gone again. I don't dislike the guy, but I don't have to see him in a wrestling ring.
Other MitB matches were good too. Lashley showed that he's big and mean, Ripley-Flair was really good, the Tag Team match was .....well, it was okay I guess, but a bit too long and seeing the Viking Raiders makes me sad. Anyway, good stuff, great ending, good main event too.
Just watching AEW Fyter Fest Night2. Very nice. Bit of a surprise in there too.
I always thought there was a story to be told there, that he had to essentially 'summon' the Demon, and that he didn't like doing it, that there was a cost to it...that he was worried about said cost...
And yes, no Babyface Grin anymore - go with his recent NXT persona - it'll work, he'll be cheered and we'll all win!
I always thought there was a story to be told there, that he had to essentially 'summon' the Demon, and that he didn't like doing it, that there was a cost to it...that he was worried about said cost...
And yes, no Babyface Grin anymore - go with his recent NXT persona - it'll work, he'll be cheered and we'll all win!
Hear, hear!
Yeah, the daemon was used weirdly on the main roster. Honestly, I'd be okay if we didn't see him for a while until he's got someone really scary to deal with. Finn Balor is good enough on his own, I'd say. But until then, have Seth Rollings looking for "the demon king" for a few months. That was a weirdly memorable few segments, wasn't it?
By the way: 1.) Does anybody else think that Seth Rollins is overdoing it a bit now? We all love the "evil witch" laugh and all, but he's being a bit too meme-tastic right now, it feels like. 2.) Does anybody else feel that currently between WWE and even AEW's roster there's a few too many dorky people around compared to the number of people who are just scary and will tear yer arm out? I realized that between watching the Elite and the guitar dude who's with Elias on WWE. Something's off with that ratio, it feels like.
I think it was a view I read in this very thread that The Demon Balor wasn’t really used in the main roster, because of The Fiend.
Which….kind of makes sense, though taking it from Finn is beyond excuse.
I think I’d still be up for The Demon wrecking The Fiend’s poop good and hard in a match. It would free up Bray Wyatt for more interesting things without it just being “oh yeah the fiend isn’t a thing anymore we hoped you wouldn’t notice”.
And that would mean more screen time for the frankly delightful Alexa Bliss, who is an excellent wrassler as well as being [Dragged away by the Inquisition]
I have no idea what's going on with Bray Wyatt, but what became of the fiend is really sad. Maybe he can turn it around, but Alexa Bliss bascially killed the thing (possibly quite literally). Of course she's amazing at every single role she got so far, but I do NOT like Fiendish Alexa Bliss. Sure, in terms of presentation, acting and all of that she's great, but I think that character very much embodies the WWE looking for giffable moments rather than any stories. I like Alexa Bliss as much as the next weirdo on the internet, but I think that she certainly does NOT need more screen time.
As for the demon: as much as I could do without the demon - Mr.Cena got out of the Funhouse as well, sooo....
Just because somebody just mentioned it on a podcast and because I very much shared that sentiment while watching AEW Dynamite this week: I laughed a lot when Chris Jericho made this big reveal about becoming The Painmaker again for the match against Nick Gage. I think Jericho really overestimates the effect of that persona. Ties in nicely with Balor's Demon - Jericho seems to think that the Painmaker is his demon. His fiend. It's just clown make-up and a tiny hat, isn't it. Jericho in New Japan was a big deal because he's Jericho and just came over from the WWE, not because of how much the Painmaker rocks.
I don't know. Have so many left recently? A whole lot of people have been fired, but the only one who left (as far as I remember) was Bryan Danielson/Daniel Bryan. Maybe the Colons left? I'm not sure.
Which is even weirder: WWE firing people and then hiring them back at a worse contract. Interesting stuff.
Either way - yeah, wrestling's exciting right now.
I just feel they’re holding onto folks I can’t stand.
Well. They’re holding on to Brock Sodding Lesnar and Randy Boring Orton anyway.
Perhaps it’s time for Vince to retire, and let HHH literally run the show. He spun gold out of NXT, only for Vince to squander the new talent on the main roster.
Hey, Lesnar isn't under any sort of contract that we know of right now. He'll come in if the price is right, but to my knowledge won't get tied down with contracts. Which is a part of what makes him so great. He's doesn't need a character, he's Brock Lesnar. Big, strong, scary, and doesn't care as long as he gets paid (and wining a big belt gets him better pay). I'm not a particular fan of Randy Orton either, but many people like him. Over the past 8 months or so I started watching WWE PPVs with two friends who just got into wrestling, and one of them loves Randy Orton to bits. I can see Orton being a huge asset to the WWE in most roles really.
But yeah, I don't follow NXT much any more (no time!), but it seems like the main roster higher-ups (meaning the people in charge, not the wrestlers) really don't like NXT.
Problem is that WWE mostly look into getting a broader audience right now (HHH said so in a recent interview and the whole Khan thing seems to heavily imply that too). Which is laudable in a way, but they do it via production and marketing moments. Which is a thing I've been banging on about loads of times, I know. But I just prefer a story to play out over stuff being changed week to week with the sole goal of producing thumbnails for the internet. Over the pandemic time - funnily - some characters emerged (Asuka, Bayley, Shaemus to an extent, ...) who carried the company without flashy surprise turns, spooky crap, or anything like that. WWE got that in droves, they just could make use of that sort of character. Just think of Sami Zayn. Heck, I even kinda enjoy the Baron Corbin thing right now. I'd say WWE is slightly on the up now again. If they manage to fix their weird relationship with NXT things might get a whole lot better in the future.
AEW is good, Impact seems to work nicely right now, I hope RoH make a return to former glory, NJPW got a permanent foothold in the US now, and once Japan opens up again... just think how exciting and fun wrestling's going to be.
Dysartes wrote: And in our latest batch of wrestling WTF-ery, WWE have released Bray Wyatt...
Insane. In a podcast Karl Anderson told a fun little story when he met Matt Hardy after they both were released by WWE and they talked about how WWE managed to acquire and kill the two hottest things in wrestling (Bullet Club, Broken Matt Hardy) within a year. Seems like they did the same thing with the Fiend now?
Now let's speculate wildly! I'd love to see Wyatt (if he stays in wrestling) at Ring of Honour. Give him free reign over the character, see him do wonderful things. Hedge, if he gets creative freedom, he can do that anywhere. I don't have to see him at AEW. They got enough old stars, they got enough of their own peeps. Now I want RoH to get another surge. Or have him in Impact. A Wyatt faction vs. Decay.
Either way, I'm sure we'll all follow the buzzards with keen interest.
Well, with both Bray and Braun out of WWE I have to wonder if they could be added to The Dark Order. I kept hearing reports about how Brodie's death wrecked Bray, so maybe they'll try to honor his legacy on AEW?
If there's one thing I don't want to happen, it's Bray coming in as a new leader of the Dark Order - I prefer the idea of them following Hangman for now as the Magnificent Nine (once Anna Jay returns, anyway).
Yeah, the Dark Order are purest babyfaces now, and I don't see the need for a DO split. Also, I feel that Mr. Brodie Lee's legacy is proper honoured in AEW. I don't have to see everybody in AEW either. As I said - I'd like to see him in Ring of Honour. Have him heat up Danhausen for a bit (for being a broadly popular face of evil), then move on to bigger things. Heck, I'd be okay with him being some sort of interpromotional boogieman, popping up everywhere, wrecking people who are naughty (nor nice). The options are endless, because we know what that man's mind is capable of. The world of wrestling just got even a few more percentages more interesting.
The crazy thing is that maybe WWE even hire him back. I don't quite see him wanting that, but who knows. He's got a host of kids and whatnot.
edit: With the ongoing Adam Cole situation I'm really not sure if he'll resign with WWE. With almost every single WWE release I said that I don't have to see them in AEW and that I'd almost rather see them elsewhere, so more companies are put on the map. But with Adam Cole I'd love to see him have a little run in AEW. Just for the moment when he confronts the Young Bucks, who will grimace and fall all over the place seeing their dead friend suddenly reappearing. Have him do a program with Adam Page once he got the title from Omega. And then something with Omega or something, and then it's off to RoH and take RoH to the moon.
I must admit I hadn't watched AEW in a couple months, it had just got so bad that I couldn't sit through it. However I was convinced to watch this last episode by a mate at work since Cody was in the main event...and WOW it was fantastic! What changed whilst I was away!?
First off Rusev, what a transformation. I genuinely didn't see it before, this guy was a complete goofball and a joke. However this new Rusev is freaking incredible! The entrance music, the look, the attitude... I hope they build him up like this for the rest of the year!
And the Cody main event just got me, I completely forgot how much I love Cody. The Nightmare Factory stuff was such a waste, but within the space of one match he got 100% back over with me haha!
Spoiler:
God only knows if the promo at the end was an angle, but that shows how good it was!
Just general stuff too, every match had a heel and a babyface (apart from no-one telling that juice guy he was the heel), they were actually following the rules and not every match ended in a sloppy brawl.
Just a really good show, if you can't tell I'm All In once again XD
That's good to hear. While I enjoyed Dynamite throughout (except for 2 weeks or so), I wholeheartedly agree about Miro/Rusev. Video gamer gimmicks are silly, streamers/youtubers as heels I can understand to an extent, but on Miro that was such a waste. Same as the 'best man' thing. Getting all obsessed over "Charles" was a step in the right direction, but now it's all well
Right now Miro is where he should be: Holding a big title, being scary, yet funny. But mostly scary. I also love the religious aspect. It's a thing we see way too rarely in wrestling, but when we do it's pretty good. Like the two or three weeks Kevin Owens was a bit crazy and kept saying that he's a good person and he's going to go to heaven because he's a good person. That's such a great angle for a delusional heel. Doesn't need to go any further, just the heel saying "I'm chosen by god to be superstrong, so that's why I'm a good person". It's such a simple and effective thing. (Like some evangelical sects believing that being rich was god's reward for good people and all that stuff).
I also enjoy that the Pinnacle/Inner Circle thing is reduced to one match per evening. Just the labours of Jericho. Which so far have been better than I thought they would be. Personally, I could do with Jericho taking some time off (He'll get his match and I hope he loses). They can still have an ongoing rivalry between the Pinnacle and the Inner Circle, but let them do other things as well. I love me some factions and overlapping storylines.
Wyatt is a weird one. The character, especially in the early days,was an interesting one although the Fiend stuff just turned me cold. But with the exception of wrestling Bryan, Reigns and Cena (not whatever they did at Wrestlemania last year) his matches to me were terrible and usually when put in a big match situation he failed.
It seems clear that WWE is preparing for a sale, I just wonder if HHH and Steph will stick around for it or sell up their stock and go independent before it happens. I am not sure if US business law would allow that.
Anyway with Punk and Bryan seemingly on the horizon it is certainly an interesting time in Wrestling.
@Mad Doc Grotsnik: It's really hard to tell. I mean over the past months/year neither Braun nor Wyatt really had too much of a place at the top in terms of booking. Braun was just around as a spectactle and because he cost them money I think. And with Wyatt they just didn't know what to do after the weird booking (Goldberg, etc). In theory the Fiend was prime material for the WWE and the way they like to do things. I guess it was a tug-of-war for creative freedom on the Fiend, and the mid-way they found just didn't work that well or something like that? I don't know.
@ListenToMeWarriors: Originally I was inclined not to consider the sale being an option, but the way they're slimming down, maybe it is? Or they just 'cut the fat', after they hired everybody over the past few years, just so they wouldn't work anywhere else. Either way, I absolutely agree with you about how things will be very, very interesting.
.) Daunte Martin is a jumpy freak. I was never too sold on top flight (they're so young. They're going to get better), but wow. This match on Dynamite he delivered big. It's like being 1.7m above the ground is his default mode.
.) Kenny Omega may be beaten up, but still can deliver (and take damage). He's good, isn't he.
.) Holy crap, did Jamie Hayter look like Becky Lynch when she showed up. For a short moment there I got really excited.
I'll never remember when AEW Dark and when Dark Elevation show. All I hear is "Dark's up tonight", and then I hope for the best. Either "yay, it's Taz!" or "aw, it's just Big Show".
Either way - what a fun show. I have no idea why they make Julia Hart look so strong vs. Diamanté, but oh well. Love me some TH2, love me the Lucha Bros. The beginning of the main event between Rey Fenix and Angelico was really, really good. Who knew That Rey Fenix can do all these mat wrestling things? Your friend Sigur sure did not.
Either way, I looked at what Fite's got to offer in terms of Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling, because I want to see what a show of theirs looks like beyond what I saw on youtube, and I want to seem smart and down with the cool kids by knowing what's going on in Joshi Pro.First I went to DDT's website, got scared of the thing not being that easy to oversee, so I went back to Fite. They only got one PPV from 2019, but oh well. English commentary, yay! And what commentary it is. Made me start to appreciate Michael Cole (in a way). Also, some technical hitches halfway through. Yikes. Either way, the wrestling and presentation's good stuff. Made me feel a tiny bit dirty, but that's what wrestling should always do, because it's silly. Either way, i really enjoyed it so far. Saving the main event for a big screen.
I read that they're doing one-match shows with English commentary for us filthy casual Westerners, but I think those are on the DDT network as well, right? (Wrestling World or what it's called?).
The Rampage show on Friday should lay to rest the CM Punk discussion, while All Out may cover Ruby Soho and possibly Bryan - unless he's a lock for their NY show later in September.
I'm honestly not sure, off-hand, when BD was said to show up, but I think Ruby is likely to turn up as the Joker in the Women's Casino Battle Royale at All Out.
Yeah, Kenny Omega wore a Cookie Monster and a Chick Magnet shirt on tv in subsequent weeks. At this point it would be an AMAZING upset not having CM punk debut at Rampage.
@Dysartes: As you mentioned above, they're doing a special AEW Dark Elevation tonight. No wonder I get confused! It's not that I dislike Paul Wight's commentary, but Excalibur and Taz are just very, very good fun. I feel like lately Taz has been overdoing it a little bit, but oh well. It's good for a few laughs. And I really enjoy the Dark shows in general. Lots of quick, good matches.
Ruby Soho on the Jomen's Casino Battle Royal is an excellent call actually. No idea where they'll squeeze in Brian Danielson, but it will be wonderful.
I just watched AEW Dynamite earlier, and I have to say that it's insane how much I've come around on Sammy Guevara, even as a face. All the best to him and his normal looking lady.
Oh, and I love the idea of "angry dad" Moxley. They should keep him a tweener, fighting for a top spot all the time.
The ending to MJF/Jericho was great too. And I was impressed with how good Jericho looked in the promo before the match. He looked 10 years younger!
2.0 are a good addition in general. The one with the rounder face tends to grimace a bit much. I Mean he's really funny and a good promo and all, but somehow I'm getting a bit oversaturated with funny ironic heels. Everybody knows that it's not actual fighting and that people play roles. That should mean that we actually could get rid of all the winks and nudges and play it straight, because that tickle of playing with the taboo of telling people that it's actually not real is just not a factor any more. Die Hard works better than Deadpool.
Of course there's a place for everything in wrestling, but I could do with a few more straight-up nasty or scary characters in AEW. But maybe I'm just looking for things to critizise, because I enjoy it so much that i'm getting suspicious.
Btw, Jurassic Express vs. Young Bucks was really good as well.
Excellent choice to bring him back right at the start of the show. The chants would have completely dominated everything else if they tried to hold it back for later in the show. Mind you, they still might but I guess I'll find out
What a moment. I had to go back and rewatch it immediately. It was pulled off perfectly. Mr.Punk is one crazy charismatic dude, and with that mythos built around his person. Even Darby Allin looked good in that segment! The trees thing is way better than the skull. He looked like a saucy anime boy. Lateron in the ring he was just back to normal, and ...yeah, well. Punk's gonna win that match. (just look at that phrase! CM Punk is a wrestler again! with matches!)
Another noteworthy thing is Moxley's promo and the line "Daniel Garcia's got a better chance of getting my pregnant than to submit me in that ring.". I laughed pretty hard. Pretty sure I hadn't heard that line before. Especially with that delivery. Jon Moxley is such a good talker, and I really like his character right now. He's angry about his hair, he seems like he's got a perpetual headache, he isn't sleeping due to the baby, and he's just really grumpy. I love grumpy Moxley.
Also: Jade Cardill is an asset. Always impressive. I don't care much for the catchphrases, but she's cool. And Keira Hogan will be a great addition as well. She looks a little like Alicia Fox in the face, and I like being reminded of Alicia Fox.
No. FITE for us UK peeps. There's a 7-day free trial of AEW+ on there which includes it.
Will check it out!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Signed up. LEEEEETTSSSS GET READY TO RRRRUUUUUUUMMMMBLE!!!
(No, not rhumble. I’m not a Geordie)
Automatically Appended Next Post: First proper AEW match I’ve seen…
Sting & Darby Allen vs 2.0.
Initial impressions. This is more reminiscent in scale and feel as earlier WWE.
Everything is a bit more stripped back. Less pomp and ceremony, more “let’s just knock seven bells out of each other”
The temptation is to be lazy and say “amateur”. But that’s not at all accurate. It’s just not as consciously corporate. I don’t want to be trite and say it’s “purer” either.
It’s just sticking to the basics, and doing it well. Let your talent do what they do well, don’t overwrite it.
On reflection, AEW does have a certain advantage, in that rather than finding new talent and developing them, they’re hoovering up existing and proven wrasslers. Do that judiciously, and you’re gonna have a decent stable.
Great to see Sting back in action. I entirely missed his glory days as a kid - but saw his very last marches with WWE. Given he’s of very advanced years, especially for a Pro Wrestler, I expect a squash match. But instead we got something more satisfying. And that double Scorpion Deathlock was amusing.
I am enthused!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Though, to properly temper my enthusiasm….
Other than Sting and John Moxley, I don’t think I’ve seen any of the other Wrestlers before. And I’ve no idea what the current heel/face dynamic is, including who may or may not be due for a turn.
As such, I don’t have the contempt of familiarity I had with WWE, instead seeing everything as fresh and interesting.
My minimum requirements in terms of production is that there should be a ring present and a commentator who speaks a language I can understand (and if it's a TV thing I'd like to see what happens too ). I love me some New Japan, etc., but I'll have to be pretty familiar with the wrestlers in the ring so I can follow the action properly and keep engaged.
Apart from that.. pyro is nice, entrance music is a must. WWE's presentation I find wildly overproduced.
I suggest watching AEW's youtube shows as well. Tons of wrestling, pretty pure and simple.
It’s very pleasing to see the colour segments taking more of a back seat to the actual performance.
Jungle Express might well become a favourite. Mostly because unlike WWE, The Wee Man isn’t just there to be squashed and squished until the tag is made, letting The Splunger do the damage.
Automatically Appended Next Post: My first John Moxley promo.
God he was wasted in the WWE.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Favourite thing about FITE?
One, the price.
But mainly? When the show would normally break for ads? They don’t fill it with ads. SING HOASANNAS!
Don't think that the Punk return could have gone better for the company, now to see if he has any ring rust at All Out/in/Shake it all about vs Darby.
At this point AEW's main issues seem to be a lackluster ladies division beyond Britt and Thunder Rosa, and some of the smaller and less professional looking talent they have on roster (hello Janela et al). But if (when really) the likes of Danielson and Rotunda turn up the lesser will be further relegated to Dark and Elevation.
Summerslam setup wise looked great, big time stuff with 45k (Meltzer report) to 52k (WWE's figure) there. Great to see Becky and Lesnar return, no idea why they did Bianca Belair dirty though. Reigns continues to be the megastar most thought he could be, arguably the best heel in the business right now. Thought that Edge vs Rollins was the best match on the card for me followed just by the main event.
ListenToMeWarriors wrote: At this point AEW's main issues seem to be a lackluster ladies division beyond Britt and Thunder Rosa
I think we'll have to disagree on that, though I'd agree the booking could be better.
Off the top of my head, the following can hardly be called lackluster: Hikaru Shida, Kris Statlander, Nyla Rose, Red Velvet, Serena Deeb & Tay Conti
Then you've got the secondary tier of: Bunny, Big Swole, Jade Cargill, Leyla Hirsch & Penelope Ford - I've either not seen enough of them to comment on them, or they need a bit more seasoning.
And that's before you factor in the Joshi talent where I'm not 100% sure of their status at present, so Emi Sakura, Riho & Yuka Sakazaki.
Frankly, with some better booking and more TV time, that's a better Women's Division (on paper) than Raw or SmackDown, though I'd probably still give the edge to NXT.
...and some of the smaller and less professional looking talent they have on roster (hello Janela et al). But if (when really) the likes of Danielson and Rotunda turn up the lesser will be further relegated to Dark and Elevation.
What makes you describe Janela as "less professional", out of interest? Smaller doesn't seem to be an issue for AEW - and given you're highlighting DB (or BD) coming in as a positive, it doesn't sound like it really is for you either.
Summer Slam certainly seems to have been... interesting - especially if they knew for a week or more (as has been reported) that Sasha wouldn't be available. Even outside that match - where, as you acknowledged, they really did Bianca dirty - Bliss/Eva was weird, Drew/Jinder was weird, Nikki ASH got done dirty as well, and the ending of Bobby/Goldberg was also strange.
Big Swole is possibly the worst wrestler I have seen make TV in two decades. Admittedly I had forgotten about Deeb (injured) and Conti but apart from that the roster reeks of inexperience and future lawsuits from injuries suffered in the ring.
Janela...his physique mainly but he is just a gimmick match wrestler who really seems to lack fundamentals. Just see his super kick on Sonny Kiss, missed by a lot. A lot of it just comes with having so many wrestlers come from the independent scene where they wrestle maybe 6-8 times a month (pre covid anyway). And now in AEW with no house show loop yet they are getting even less in ring time so are making more mistakes and just do not get enough in ring time to improve and develop their in ring skills, characters and promos and just seem like part time rather than professional talent.
But it's wrestling innit, different strokes for different folks and all that.
Hilariously, that promo could almost be done word for word against Roman due to his "Head of the Table" gimmick.
Not every promo needs to be long, especially when it is being delivered by a character who lets their actions do the talking. For instance, when Roman was in The Shield he didn't speak much, he was the quiet muscle. But when he did speak, it was that much more impactful because of that. When you are a person of few words, the few words you say carry more weight and say a lot more.
Just remember "I don't give a gak about your kids". Didn't have to say any more, made a moment. Or the way he handled Royal Rumble 2020 mostly by himself and was very entertaining (the look at Keith Lee and so on).
I'm all for Lesnar. He's always a spectacle, there's always a special feel about a Lesnar match, and especially by now he's willing to sell for people. And when Lesnar sells, it's impressive. Also: Who else would take the title off Roman anyway? Not that I dislike the run, or that I think he should drop the title any time soon, but Lesnar seems like the only viable candidate since the WWE don't seem to have any younger people to push to that level.
Yes, I think that it's much more fitting for Big E to go after Lashley due to the build and simply because Roman is SO much on top of things. I mean it would make for a nice story having the New Day reunite and go after Roman and the Usos together. But the way they built it Lashley's more likely.
Either way, I'm pretty concerned that Goldberg might grab Lashley's title in Saudi Arabia...
It does make for an interesting question, though - assuming no promotions from NXT for now (and no releases), who on SD is in danger of beating Roman?
I appreciate that there's a draft coming soon - IIRC - so we could stretch things to include the RAW roster, I guess, but there seems to be a dearth of viable babyface contenders for the world championship as things stand.
Everyone I see on the SD roster that I'd consider babyface or tweener has already had a shot and failed, though some have maybe had long enough for another go around to be an option. Or they're in a tag team, I guess, in the cases of the Street Profits and Mysterios.
EDIT - OK, face Manbun Brock is the exception, but it is also a match we've seen quite a few times before over recent years. The reversal of the face/heel dynamic, as well as how Heyman is used, are elements that could make things interesting, though.
Yus, I watched Takeover (well, most of it, but mostly for Dragunov vs. my HOME BOY Walter ). It was good. That Dragunov guy too. He seems pretty genuine.
@Dysartes: Yeah, that's the thing, isn't it. Hence Lesnar. And I think the new dynamic is what makes the match-up rather interesting. Not just because of the reversed roles (although Lesnar never really is a babyface or a heel, is he. He's just Lesnar.), but also because Reigns wrestles really slowly right now, which I enjoy. But the draft should help things indeed. I just hope WWE don't throw too many people under the bus with that.
Also: Adam Cole to AEW? Heck yeah. Usually I'd like for WWE releases/walkaways to go to RoH (I want RoH to bloody do great again! Having ONE alternative in the US is nice, but what's even nicer is having 100 alternatives.) or other places too, but imagine Adam Cole showing up on Dynamite. He's so pretty and good and got all that history with the Elite gang.
At this point you have to wonder how many high level talents AEW have room for if they get Cole (and why would he not want to join the same company as his Missus and old Elite friends?).
There is talk of Wyatt maybe going to Impact as AEW seem happy with how Malakai Black is doing on the evil/ part supernatural spectrum.
Thought that last night was a middling Dynamite with some fun bits but a few shoddy matches and botches...Red Velvet vs Jamie Hayter was rough especially the missed standing moonsault from Velvet. Don't run before you can walk!
I too watched last night's Dynamite, and it made me very happy. I love how they made Moxley's ranty promos pretty much a fixture of the show. The MMA man being old and cranky worries me a bit, because I think that sooner or later I'll start agreeing with him on points.
Punk is the biggest babyface in the world. I hope he beats Darby Allin good and proper.
I'm not a huge fan of Red Velvet myself. I'm not sure what she's about, but I'm not overly keen on the charakter.
The Dark Order stuff looks promising. Although i'm not a fan of using the word "family". "Friends" > "family" when it comes to groups.
I enjoyed the little backstage segment between the Bunny and Tay Conti. The Bunny manages to turn everything she's in into a "divas" type affair I'm okay with that as long as it's no more than this. And I'm all for a Tay Conti - Bunny feud. The dancing they added toTay Conti's entrance since a few months I found interesting in that I realized that I don't like ladywrestlers dancing to the ring. Maybe i'M just old and boring.
Either way, AEW makes me happy. Watching WWE things with friends makes me happy. Watching all sorts of other wrestling makes me happy. All's well.
Exactly Sigur, I just dont get those that are totally pro one company and anti the other and still seemingly hate watch. I have been watching wrestling on and off for 30 years. The past product was not perfect, and neither is the current but what we do have is a hell of a lot of talented wrestlers out there, give them enough time and they will eventually shine.
ListenToMeWarriors wrote: At this point you have to wonder how many high level talents AEW have room for if they get Cole (and why would he not want to join the same company as his Missus and old Elite friends?).
There is talk of Wyatt maybe going to Impact as AEW seem happy with how Malakai Black is doing on the evil/ part supernatural spectrum.
Thought that last night was a middling Dynamite with some fun bits but a few shoddy matches and botches...Red Velvet vs Jamie Hayter was rough especially the missed standing moonsault from Velvet. Don't run before you can walk!
Impact would work well for Bray. They'd trust him to do his thing and develop his character how he felt, like they did with Matt Hardy when he created the Broken gimmick.
I think TK is on record as saying he's not a fan of supernatural stuff in wrestling, and that he regrets the Broken Matt Hardy teleporting thing from his first appearance.
While Bray is really creative, I'm not sure whether trying to keep him at least vaguely realistic would work - while Impact has an Undead Realm, in canon.
On the missed moonsault? I can’t comment on that as I’ve not watched that episode yet (that’s for tonight!).
But from what I have seen, the colour commentators really don’t push their luck on things.
Their job of course is to help with the sell and encourage the heat. On the sell, they need to make us disbelieve our eyes - that perhaps that boot did connect solidly with the jaw, and not breeze past millimetres short.
But on WWE, they do have a knack for overselling and taking us background to “yeah, that missed/fluffed”.
AEW? At least they acknowledge when something went a bit Pete Tong - and as a result still manage to sell an obvious glancing blow as one a bit more powerful.
Two things: .) Rampage was good. .) Just read that Jim Ross is stepping down as a full-time announcer at AEW. Shame. Over the past few years I really started to like the guy. Started listening to his podcast, and I love listening to him talk. Amazing announcer too. That's not to say that I don't think that 4-men announcement booths (as it's on Rampage right now) isn't silly as heck. Me, I think that two announcers is enough. But then again, I really like listening to all these guys. Oh well. The podcast will go on.
...but maybe point#2 is also just a load of rubbish. JR just denied it on twitski.
And full-time for JR is normally only Dynamite + PPVs - though I'd be shocked if he wasn't training/mentoring Excalibur, Paul Wight and Mark Henry at the very least, outside of broadcasts.
Still, if he says it isn't true, I'm thinking we should believe him.
Pivoting slightly, here's a question for the group - which wrestling podcasts do you listen to?
I'm currently listening to Renee Paquette's Oral Sessions, as well as WhatCulture Wrestling - which others are worth looking out for?
I got off Whatculture when the main presenters started Cultaholic. Been listening to their podcast (and pretty much everything else) since that started. I often find Maffoo (or however you spell that) irritating and talking too much, but the podcast's fun. Surely not to everybody's taste I'm sure. But I've been following these people for a bunch of years, so yeah. And yes, it makes me feel very stupid for doing so, because they're almost 10 years younger than I am.
Used to listen to Jericho's podcast, stopped doing so about two years ago. Not that it's bad, and he usually gets some interesting people (and also some utter rubbish, but he's an eclectic person, isn't he).
JR's podcast I listen to almost every week now, just because I like listening to him. Sitting in front of the computer, owning or renting a home. Sure I do! Also getting my daily dosage of blue-chew for free. Those ads will burn into your brain. But I like the podcast.
Talk'n Shop I listen to religiously. I'm sure that's telling pretty bad things about me, but I enjoy the atmosphere and the banter and I have to admit that I think that Doc Gallows is one of the funniest people to listen to.
Renee Paquette's Oral Sessions has been a great addition to the landscape. The mix and sort of people she gets is just stunning. She must have some sort of special deal with WWE, or they just love her (and why wouldn't they, because I can't imagine anybody not loving her). Just think about it - one week she's got CM Punk, the next week Sami Zayn (who's the best. There's no two ways about it. Just sit him in front of a microphone, don't interrupt, and good and correct things will come out of his mouth), then it's Danhausen and "All Ethan" Egon Page, ... last week she had Charlotte Flair on her podcast! Good stuff, and a delightful lady, that Mrs.Mox.
Chris van Vliet is nice to listen to for really in-depth interviews.
I mentioned it before, but when Cornette is talking about things he likes (rather than having to cater to this "baaaah, everything sucks, [catchphrase] [catchphrase]" persona he created) he's good to listen to.
Something to Wrestle With Bruce Prichard I listened to for a while (old episodes), but ...yeah, meh. Not so sure.
So yeah, out of these the ones I currently listen to regularly are Talk'n Shop, the Cultaholic Wrestling podcast, Oral Sessions and Grilling JR.
I'm okay with a one hour show. If they feel the need for two hours - yeah, maybe. Who knows. But between the four bloody weekly shows they do I think there's enough time for everybody to do things.
Not sure if JR is scaling back. Maybe at some point, doesn't seem like he's doing it now. I enjoy Jericho on commentary. I'm rather sure that he'll lose to MJF. That isn't to say that he really really wouldn't wrestle any more on AEW, but MJF's got to be put over and that feud is to be laid to rest.
Yesterday's Dynamite: Ty Conti comes down the ramp, very happy (as she's been the past months), but once she sees Penelope Ford and the Bunny in the ring, she gets serious and angry all the way down to the ring. Breaks into smile for a little moment when she waves to a fan, but when she looks back at the ring she gets all business again. This is what I'd like to see more of. The entrance should fit the occasion, and despite this being a minor angle, it should be enough for Tay Conti to be angry towards the ladies in the ring. Well done. The whole match was really good.
Absolutely gutted at the passing of Daffney at only 46. She was unique in her pairing with David Flair and Crowbar in WCW and had a great run in TNA. Just sad that ultimately wrestling took more of a toll on her mental health than it benefited her.
Yeah, absolutely heartbreaking to watch the worry last night and then get it confirmed this afternoon (Uk time) from the stories shared by others since the news sadly broke, it is so sad her illness stopped her seeing the love many truly had for her.
It hurts a little for me as she has been one of my fave wrestlers for a long time. I had a gif of her entrance here as my avatar for quite a while here back during her Impact days.
edit - might go see if I still have it to mark her passing for a little while.
Indeed. That's way too early. I only knew her by name, but it's sad.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Heyhey, how about some fun predictions for All Out?
2021 AEW All Out match card
AEW World Championship — Kenny Omega (c) vs. Christian Cage - Must be Kenny Omega, right? CM Punk vs. Darby Allin - CM Punk. Having him lose would be very ballsy, but a.) they've been so good with this return and it would kinda ruin it and b.) I don't have to see Darby Allin win. Chris Jericho vs. MJF - MJF. It's the right thing. Jericho even toned down the screaming on commentary last night's Rampage. I think he's easing into that job. AEW Women's Championship — Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. (c) vs. Kris Statlander - Britt Baker. I'm not a huge fan of hers compared to other women on the roster, but I see to be the only one who thinks so. Which is okay. AEW Tag Team Championship — The Young Bucks (c) vs. Lucha Brothers (Steel Cage Match) - Oooooooooh, if CMPunk/Allin don't open the night, this one will. This'll be majorly good, eh? I got a feeling that the Young Bucks will win this via shenannigans. AEW TNT Championship — Miro (c) vs. Eddie Kingston - Miro. I love the pairing and I looooove that they talk about their views on religion and whatnot. Have them cut 30 minutes promos on the nature of the supernatural and higher powers. But Miro's in a good spot right now and he should stay there. Jon Moxley vs. Satoshi Kojima - Moxley. But it'll be good. Paul Wight vs. QT Marshall - Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeellllllllllllllllll, Paul Whight. 21-woman Casino Battle Royal for a future title shot (Buy-In pre-show match) - Tricky. First off, there's the surprise contender. Who may be Ruby Riott under her new name (forgot it). Somehow I think it'll be somebody else. Maybe it's Camille? Now that would be cool. Imagine her facing off with Jade Cargill. Somehow I think that Thunder Rosa could win this one. Or the TBA. But anyway, I'll go with my initial favourite, Tay Conti. She won't win the title, but it'll be a nice title match, and then she can go on to have some nice story stuff with Anna Jay, either as tag team pals or as bitter enemies after a Dark Order split into the good guys (Tay Conti, John Silver, and the other guy and the other guy) and the evil guys (Evil Uno et al).
I will never forgive all these despicable young people for not knowing the lyrics to "thank you for being a friend".
I'm catching up on dynamite and rampage which I missed before I watch All Out. Seen some spoilers on reddit, mostly about who turned up, but managed to avoid match result spoilers so far.
Okay, the rumours and things are just some attention ploy and so on, run by someone who's very good at this sort of thing (and all the other things), BUT Kevin Owens just very slightly hinting at going AEW-wards makes me think that AEW is soley based on pleasing me personally. Yes please, put Owens in AEW. Take Sami Sayn with you. Things will be wonderful.
One does wonder if WWE is in a period of denial that whilst a good deal smaller, AEW is stiff competition, and Wrestlers actively want to work for them.
So talent is no longer tied to WWE for decent money and that. Before, if you got a stupid angle? Just think of the paycheque. Now? You’ve got an alternative employer option.
I mean, look at the contrast between the Hardys. Matt is the leader of a faction and has been in a feud with one of the popular teams in AEW in Jungle Express, with Christian involved as well.
Meanwhile what has Jeff been up to? He ended the undefeated streak of the NXT champion for no story payoff (and said champion has now been repackaged in a gimp outfit like a Demolition knockoff) and is now in the 24/7 title trash heap.
From my point of view both of the Hardy's are faltering. Their style just created so many injuries and previous substance dependence that they are shells of their former selves. Just watching Matt move is painful, and he just seems in charge of a joke faction. He is arguably one of the only current AEW low points. At least Jeff can still go...the question is for how long?
But with Punk, Danielson and Cole (and maybe Rotunda and Strowman in the future?) AEW certainly have the momentum. Ruby Soho is their best female investment since Thunder Rosa and Deeb came onboard...the only difficulty is they are booking Britt Baker as a heel when she is universally loved. That said 200k plus ppv buys is stupendous, and better than a lot of WWE buyrates from their time before the Network became their main platform.
I kind of hope that there is some legitimate WWE/AEW invasion feud...but we know that will probably never happen.
I am getting worried about WWE. I know Vince is the man we love to hate, but the show is bigger than him - he just needs to realise it.
But hey, AEW is what the industry needed. Something with the oomph to give WWE a run for its money, and options for the top tier talent. Competition is only bad for complacency after all.
Apparently they're really making ready to sell off the company. Shame. But let's wait and see. Either way, we don't have to worry about WWE. They'll be around for a loooooooooooooooooooong time to come.
I'm having a great time with AEW. At some point maybe I won't and then I'll watch something else. New Japan. Or old New Japan stuff. Or maybe GCW will be something I'll watch then. Who knows. Great loyalty to friends and family is good, great loyalty to companies is as silly as the notion of a company owing anything to their customers.
Sigur wrote: Apparently they're really making ready to sell off the company. Shame. But let's wait and see. Either way, we don't have to worry about WWE. They'll be around for a loooooooooooooooooooong time to come.
I'm having a great time with AEW. At some point maybe I won't and then I'll watch something else. New Japan. Or old New Japan stuff. Or maybe GCW will be something I'll watch then. Who knows. Great loyalty to friends and family is good, great loyalty to companies is as silly as the notion of a company owing anything to their customers.
Sell it to whom? I’m genuinely interested because I’ve not a clue who might buy it.
NXT 2.0 tonight. My expectations are LOW so we'll see how bad they screw up.
I only loosely followed NXT, but I liked it. While I get that WWE wants to generate more characters (there have been a lot of talented folks who all blend together in my mind there), I hope they can keep some of the good storytelling that was going on at least.
There HAS to be some sort of issue between Vince and HHH - just about every NXT call up gets trashed when they show up on the "main roster".
Kieth Lee, Karion Kross - just two of the more recent ones to get wrecked.
As for *if* WWE is for sale - and many point towards all of the "cost cutting" they've been doing lately as 'proof' of this - well, it would probably be one of the big deep pocket networks, maybe?
There HAS to be some sort of issue between Vince and HHH - just about every NXT call up gets trashed when they show up on the "main roster".
Kieth Lee, Karion Kross - just two of the more recent ones to get wrecked.
As for *if* WWE is for sale - and many point towards all of the "cost cutting" they've been doing lately as 'proof' of this - well, it would probably be one of the big deep pocket networks, maybe?
I don't think that completely holds true. It seems they're trying to push Damien Priest and they've called up some NXT women who they haven't trashed at all. Underutilized, yes. Trashed, no.
Sigur wrote: Apparently they're really making ready to sell off the company. Shame. But let's wait and see. Either way, we don't have to worry about WWE. They'll be around for a loooooooooooooooooooong time to come.
I'm having a great time with AEW. At some point maybe I won't and then I'll watch something else. New Japan. Or old New Japan stuff. Or maybe GCW will be something I'll watch then. Who knows. Great loyalty to friends and family is good, great loyalty to companies is as silly as the notion of a company owing anything to their customers.
Sell it to whom? I’m genuinely interested because I’ve not a clue who might buy it.
As far as I hear NBC and Disney are potential buyers, but who knows. But there's rumours of them making WWE ready to sell within the next two years. That would go along with the changes they've been making over the past months.
I was always of the idea that WWE wouldn't hold any value for Disney, but with D+ around, it would get the streaming service a whole lotta more customers. I of course would have them (IF it was to happen at all) to be bought by anybody but Disney, but I don't know.
@Alpharius: Was the Demon ever a big deal on the main roster anyway? Just for one evening when Seth Rollins famously was looking for "the demon king". But since then.... I don't know. I'm not a huge fan of the Demon anyway, so I'm okay with Reigns beating him, but that's just my subjective idea on the situation. I wholeheartedly agree with you on Aew.
@bbb: The Keith Lee situation is/has been an interesting (and I'd say extraordinary) one due to the health scares about him. Either way, I'm sure WWE will figure out some way of utilizing him well. I can't think there's a way of messing up Keith Lee, not even on WWE's main roster. And indeed, they've been pushing Damien Priest lately. Let's hope the women's roster infusion helps.
bbb wrote: I don't think that completely holds true. It seems they're trying to push Damien Priest and they've called up some NXT women who they haven't trashed at all. Underutilized, yes. Trashed, no.
Whatever happened to the Nox/Blackheart women's tag title shot, that's what I want to know...
@Sigur - Want to know how they can mess up Keith Lee? They're talking about turning him heel - and there was also talk about giving him Adam Cole as a mouthpiece, before the latter walked away...
I think Vince just doesn't like NXT because it was something he didn't think would work, but did work, and at times was more highly regarded than his flagship programs.
Maybe.
I can't see how they don't screw up Finn's Demon character but maybe they'll surprise me.
Then again, look how they handled Kross' main roster debut...
Alpharius wrote: I think Vince just doesn't like NXT because it was something he didn't think would work, but did work, and at times was more highly regarded than his flagship programs.
Maybe.
I can't see how they don't screw up Finn's Demon character but maybe they'll surprise me.
Then again, look how they handled Kross' main roster debut...
I’m not sure I can put into words why I really like NXT. It’s not just the talent on show, which is considerable. I think it might be the smaller, more intimate venues. The crowd reactions just feel more authentic, and the talent need to work the room that little bit harder to get the heat going. I think some of that is lost once you start filling sports arenas, as the crowd noise becomes a general hubub.
The gimmicks are also less…forced, I guess? NXT it seems more like the talent’s idea than someone in the writer’s room who hasn’t moved on since the Attitude Era.
Soon as they cross the Rubicon Vincemaris though? Starts to fall apart.
@Sigur - Want to know how they can mess up Keith Lee? They're talking about turning him heel - and there was also talk about giving him Adam Cole as a mouthpiece, before the latter walked away...
Aye, I heard so too. But really, Lee could work as a heel, right? Not as a monster, but as a laid back, legit heel, like Samoa Joe. Of course nobody in the world is as legit as Joe, but I think they could do that with Keith Lee.
Adam Cole as a mouthpiece on the WWE main roster of course would have been a travesty. I'm so happy he's in AEW now and can be over like rover.
Dynamite was fun. I have to admit that Jericho is the king of putting himself over, and I was groaning a bit when his music hit (and at some of the catchphrases he tried to get going), but he's putting people over along with him, so that's good, right?
Rosario Dawson, eh? I like her, I remember her from 25th Hour. But I do hate cross-promotion in wrestling. It was over quickly though, and I'm fairly positive that Malakai Black will beat Cody Rhodes again.
Couple of interesting developments from Impact's Victory road show yesterday...
Spoiler:
- Awesome Kong going into the Impact! Hall of Fame
- Christian Cage retained, and is going to face the current X Division Champion, Josh Alexander, at the next PPV in October. Instant Classic vs. Walking Weapon...
Do you watch Impact? I'd like to, but I just don't have the time. Haven't watched WWE since Summer Slam either to be honest. All AEW, because there's so much of it. :/ (what a thing to complain about )
Inspired by my own question (and the fact that it's G1 season) I'm watching some New Japan today. Lovely, lovely, lovely. Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Naito was really cool. I also enjoyed Tama Tonga vs. Sanada (I don't really get Sanada, but people who know a whole lot more than I do like him a lot. At least a few years ago. Me, I really like Tama Tonga. He puts so much effort into everything [wrestling, talking, outfits, twitter, podcasting, but he still seems like he doesn't have 'it'. He's got a lot of something, but he isn't quite a star. It's weird. But I really like the guy.). Right now: Hirooki Goto vs. Taichi. First off, it's so good to see Miho Abe (and Pieter with Takahashi) again. They just make these entrances. Apart from that, I think that this match-up to me is the perfect face vs. the perfect heel. They are such polar opposites, but I like them both a whole lot. Not the least because I really like their entrances.
Okay, this is really cool. Annual Owen Hart memorial tournament to win "The Owen" trophy, Owen Hart merchanddise and even Owen in the upcoming AEW video game. Never thought I'd see the day when Owen was in a wrestling video game and on wrestling merch again.
Can see the Owen tournament becoming like AEW's version of the G1, or should we say the O1? His style was so ahead of its time in the WWF and his death snuffed out the chance of so many dream matches which could have been possible just a couple of years later, such as Chris Jericho, Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Kurt Angle.
Yes, pretty cool. I got the result spoilered, because I'm a dink and went on twitter before watching. Oh well. Still was good.
Two things: .) I'll go watch some live wrestling tomorrow! First event-y event I've been to in two years or something like that. .) Fire Pro Wrestling World is on sale on steam right now. I don't play any other wrestling video games, so I don't know how it compares to (good) wwe games or others, but I enjoy it.
Oh, and Ryo Mizunami is going to be back in action soon, which makes me happy. Have a nice weekend, everybody!
And that one "extreme rules" stipulation for Extreme Rules was added in almost at the last minute, as an afterthought.
The only thing I can think of here is it they're setting up some way to have Roman win *and* protect the Demon too?
Like, it took 3 guys + Brock Lesnar to put him down - no DQs in 'extreme rules' matches - and...that's why Roman was able to win?
Sounds like they didn't learn the lesson from Bray and Seth. If you don't want your champion to lose their title, don't put them in a match with what should be an unstoppable monster character and especially don't do it in a match stipulation which cuts off your ability to have a non-decisive finish.
Was at Smackdown last night in Philly. It was a good time. Annoying that we don't know everything that the audience at home knows since we don't get commentators audio. Who was the dude with Happy Corbin? What did they say about the announcer's table falling apart when Montez Ford stepped on it?
Crowd was really into the IC title match.
I was shocked at how big of a pop Rhea Ripley got.
It was cool to see the whole audience do Finn's hand motions for his song as he was leaving.
Not sure if we made it on tv since we were in the 2nd level, but we were in the first row with a large sign that said, "KING NAKAMURA RULES SMACKDOWN"
Well, I went to see the Wrestling. Had beers (bought a shirt), booed and cheered, learned that we got a John Cena knock-off 'round here and that sadly he's 2015 Cena knock-off. Got a bit cold towards the end because it took place in a tent, but oh well. Live wrestling is good. There was one very weird bit of booking though on the EWA heavyweight bigtitle match: Big babyface (Bambikiller. He's THE guy 'round here) vs ripped Welsh heel dude. It ended on Bambikiller being counted out. Welsh heel got on the mic, said he didn't get into the best shape of his life to get the belt this way and demanded for the match to be restarted. Instant babyface move, right? But he's been working the match as a heel, attacking the ref and so on. The match is restarted, Bambikiller gets back in , hits his finisher, done. After the match Welsh dude kills the ref with a spear. That was odd. Oh well.
Also: I watched Rampage. TV wrestling's also good.
15, I think, not 20 - and with Cena it was only really perceived as a problem once the Doctor of Thuganomics gimmick was dropped, after he won his first world title in 2005..
I found the "Balor getting an extra life", including effin red light (because that always bode well for WWE) and his MUSIC PLAYING way more hilarious than the rope snapping. I'm not huge on the demon (and this one certainly was a weird version of the demon. Weird paintjob, just half a demon entrance.), but this time I was of the thought that they'd have Balor win this time. And I was on a roll too; all my predictions up to that point were correct.
Oh well. I'd love to get the head of the table thing get a religious aspect to it. As I said with Miro - I love a big heel going religious-nutso. The greatness of Kevin Owens doing the "I'm a good person and I'll go to heaven" thing for about two weeks will always resonate with me. Never ever is a baddie more convincing than if they think they're doing the right thing and are justified in their deeds by a higher power, be it superiors, a system, or religion. Of course that won't happen. But I'm interested in how WWE spin it. Maybe the bloodline get another member? (Naomi?).
That aside, I enjoyed most matches on there. Alexa Bliss is confusing me. I hate the ongoing spooky storyline. I hate the puppet. But what ever she does, she's bloody good at it. Apart from the huge foam tablet in her mouth. What the heck was that all about.
I found the "Balor getting an extra life", including effin red light (because that always bode well for WWE) and his MUSIC PLAYING way more hilarious than the rope snapping. I'm not huge on the demon (and this one certainly was a weird version of the demon. Weird paintjob, just half a demon entrance.), but this time I was of the thought that they'd have Balor win this time. And I was on a roll too; all my predictions up to that point were correct.
Oh well. I'd love to get the head of the table thing get a religious aspect to it. As I said with Miro - I love a big heel going religious-nutso. The greatness of Kevin Owens doing the "I'm a good person and I'll go to heaven" thing for about two weeks will always resonate with me. Never ever is a baddie more convincing than if they think they're doing the right thing and are justified in their deeds by a higher power, be it superiors, a system, or religion. Of course that won't happen. But I'm interested in how WWE spin it. Maybe the bloodline get another member? (Naomi?).
That aside, I enjoyed most matches on there. Alexa Bliss is confusing me. I hate the ongoing spooky storyline. I hate the puppet. But what ever she does, she's bloody good at it. Apart from the huge foam tablet in her mouth. What the heck was that all about.
I really want Roman to expand his (s)table. Naomi makes sense and would be able to bring the Head of the Table into the Women's division. From there he should seek to expand the Roman empire by forcing his way onto Raw regularly ("The Island of Relevance was starting to feel too cramped just being on Smackdown so it's time to expand" or something like that), so . Something to shake things up and grow his heel status so that whenever he's defeated at a Wrestlemania it would have more significance than just a title change. It would probably be good to keep him off TV for a significant period of time after a loss too.
Here's the news: Dynamite was fun. Some things I didn't like, most things I liked.
In other news: All of a sudden my 3 year old niece wants to fight me all the time. Not just that, but she also started cutting vicious promos on me. "You think you can win, but you can not win. [insert name of My Little Pony character or Gabby from Gabby's dollhouse] will win!"
I'm watching Dynamite right now. All is well, I like things. Well, Jericho's promo was rather bad. JR said 'catfight' and almost called Brian Danielson Bryan Daniels. A handful of people on twitter will complain, I don't give a hoot and I hope that Mr.Ross doesn't beat himself up about it.
However, Miro's promo. That was lovely. I have no idea what it was about, but it was cool. Almost wyattesque in how engaging it was and yet it didn't say much. But I really like how he's bascially Jesus AND he can't go home to his flexible wife, because he lost. So he's in a cave now or a hermitage or something. I bet he went into the desert to fast for 40 days and now satan is tempting him. Btw, does he still have Fuego del Sol's car at least?
So WWE Sports Wash 2021 has finished - sounds like a couple of good results in there, but, equally, it's unclear how much of actual consequence has actually happened.
I haven't watched it yet, but the Saudi shows (while being a BAD idea on the part of WWE of course) are in a weird place. They're kinda like BL novels before ~2005: "It's not really canon, but some bits are".
Automatically Appended Next Post: And whilst I thoroughly appreciate the lack of ads, I wish they’d use different or just perhaps longer music for filling the gap the ads would be in.
I didn't know anything about OC before he joined AEW, but he and the Best Friends are definitely up there as one of my favourite stables in the promotion.
Even the episode of "A Shot of Brandi" he did on YouTube was good fun - though I think it is edged out by the Moxley one.
I've fallen down the Danhausen hole on youtube after seeing his Oral Session with Renée Paquette. Haven't seen him wrestle but I love his character workhausen. Very Nice, Very Evil.
Orange Cassidy is an interesting one. After he showed up at the first Casino Royale Rumble I looked him up, watched a bunch of matches, and had no idea how they would make that gimmick work on a 'proper big tv product'. Somehow they did! And most of all, still do. The look after the Wheeler Yuta - Moxley match may indicate some sort of heel-turn. Which would be very interesting to see indeed.
A Town Called Malus wrote: I've fallen down the Danhausen hole on youtube after seeing his Oral Session with Renée Paquette. Haven't seen him wrestle but I love his character workhausen. Very Nice, Very Evil.
He may be the first wrestler I somehow can't quite get on board with due to him being too marketing-savvy. I generally have very little patience for marketing people, so far it hasn't impacted my enjoyment of wrestling, but the guy's everywhere and the whole character is very, very well thought out and promoted. Probably more so due to "right place, right face, right time" and then a lot of energy into networking and so on, and that's impressive, but ...I don't know. I can't quite get behind him. Maybe I should see a few more of his matches. He is fun though.
I watched GCW's big PPV last week, and it was impressive. First time I enjoyed watching Marco Stunt in that tag team match!
Anyway, AEW is fun, isn't it. (haven't watched Crown Jewel yet, but I will!)
Pac-Andrade was really cool. Danielson - Rhodes was surprisingly cool. It's just amazing what Mr.Dustin Rhodes can still do in the ring. On the accursed interwebs I read that some people call for Rampage to be a bit longer and maybe a roster split. I think that things are well as they are, and that a roster split would be a very daft idea, because it's needlessly limiting. What's your take on this idea?
Sigur wrote: Orange Cassidy is an interesting one. After he showed up at the first Casino Royale Rumble I looked him up, watched a bunch of matches, and had no idea how they would make that gimmick work on a 'proper big tv product'. Somehow they did! And most of all, still do. The look after the Wheeler Yuta - Moxley match may indicate some sort of heel-turn. Which would be very interesting to see indeed.
You might be right about a heel turn, but I think you've identified the wrong person as making it *cough*Moxley*cough*
A Town Called Malus wrote: I've fallen down the Danhausen hole on youtube after seeing his Oral Session with Renée Paquette. Haven't seen him wrestle but I love his character workhausen. Very Nice, Very Evil.
He may be the first wrestler I somehow can't quite get on board with due to him being too marketing-savvy. I generally have very little patience for marketing people, so far it hasn't impacted my enjoyment of wrestling, but the guy's everywhere and the whole character is very, very well thought out and promoted. Probably more so due to "right place, right face, right time" and then a lot of energy into networking and so on, and that's impressive, but ...I don't know. I can't quite get behind him. Maybe I should see a few more of his matches. He is fun though.
My only exposure to Danhausen to date is seeing him on a couple of Ethan Page's v-logs and toy hunt videos, and he's fun enough in those. Not sure how I'd feel about that gimmick in a promotion, though.
Sigur wrote: Pac-Andrade was really cool. Danielson - Rhodes was surprisingly cool. It's just amazing what Mr.Dustin Rhodes can still do in the ring. On the accursed interwebs I read that some people call for Rampage to be a bit longer and maybe a roster split. I think that things are well as they are, and that a roster split would be a very daft idea, because it's needlessly limiting. What's your take on this idea?
Keep Rampage at an hour, keep the roster unified.
Honestly, I'd rather they stop pre-taping Rampage, and shuffle how they do their tapings a little. I like the idea of Dark (I think it is) being recorded at Universal Studios, though I need to watch some of that output to see if it has worked. What I'd do is then have Dynamite run live on a Wednesday (most weeks, anyway), and then have Dark Elevation recorded and Ramapge live on the same ticket. We've definitely had some matches on Rampage negatively impacted by Dark Elevation into Dynamite into Rampage being quite draining for an audience, so some matches that should get more of a reaction haven't been. Assuming Elevation goes for about an hour, that gives you two tapings that run for about the same time. I can't comment on the economics of that, admittedly, but it heads off leaks of the results, and would keep the crowd energy up.
I'd also say they might want to look at the Rampage booking a bit - in terms of which matches make it on there - but we'll see about that one.
Yeah, I like Moxley way too much in his current role for them to turn him all-out heel (gasmask, injections and all ). I think the way he's now (angry man who's overwhelmed with these annoying kids, the annoying internet, the baby, the lovely wife, and a slight headache) he'll work well as a face or heel, depending on what's required. Funnily enough, he's basically Kevin Owens when he got called up to the main roster. Angry family man prize fighter. Which is all fine by me.
Danhausen is fun indeed, and I'm not sure how they'd make him work in a promotion. On the other hand, I thought that was even less possible with Orange Cassidy, so I have all the faith in the world in Mr. Khan when it comes to that sort of stuff. Btw, maybe it was you who suggested to watch the Ethan Page vlogs months ago. Finally got around to it, and he seems like a lovely man. As great as to the point Mr.Old-MMA-Man's promos are, I'm having a hard time seeing Ethan Page (or Scorpio Sky for that matter) as heels.
I agree with you concerning Rampage and the roster. Things work as they are. The way AEW put out stuff is actually very neat. You can get your dose as required. If Rampage is too short I'll watch Dark as well. I actually might enjoy Dark a little more than Rampage at times.
Still haven't watched Crown Jewel, but I watched some GCW, because I desperately try to keep up with the cool kids. Ninja Mac is a national treasure, and it's just nice seeing how much people adore Effy. And how could one not. And it's funny how much the same people adore Nick Gage. I watched the Dark Side of the Ring, I even listened to Jericho's podcast with him (used to listen to his podcast every week, haven't done so much in the past two or three years), and that was pretty impressive. The guy is scary, but he's also really inspiring and Eddie Kingston levels of real. It's funny how in the entertainment medium which out of all of them is most labelled "fake" it's the "real" people which grasp us the most. If someone asked me to describe pro wrestling (which nobody ever does, because a.) I don't tell people unless they ask directly and b.) why the heck would anybody ask me what pro wrestling was ) I'd say that it's "like an action drama, but real" (Or, alternatively, "like Game of Thrones/Dragonball, but it's real"). Because it is more real than these things, isn't it. It's such a unique thing.
Indeedly. I didn't look at the screen for Punk/Fish, but from listening to it I thought "I really should pay attention, this really sounds like I'm missing out on a great match". The main event was something else. I don't enjoy dressing up, so the whole Ghostbusters thing made me feel uneasy and a bit embarassed. TWO wacky dressy-uppy groups in the same match was too much for me. And I didn't even mind the Dark Order's costumes. I'm aware that it's Halloween and thus required a wacky fun match like that, but it was a bit too much for me.
Watching last night's Dynamite. I'm getting the impression that this Brian Danielson bloke enjoys that pro wrestling thing. He's on an insane run right now.
Ooh, goodie. I really liked it. Very evil strikes against Shida's knee in the end. I assume she'll be out for a while? If so - will Rebel become her physical therapist?
I'm expecting the Shida Situation to get covered in some way on Dynamite this week - either confirming that she's out (and covering who'll then face Nyla Rose (I think?)), or maybe shuffling when that match occurs to give her time to recover.
Looks like the last two matches of round 1 cover Dynamite and Rampage next week, and there'd be Ruby's QF match to be scheduled before Shida's comes up, at least, giving her effectively a fortnight to recover?
It'll be interesting to see which way it goes, though.
Yeah, at first I thought that they'd use Shida's injured knee/leg to justify her losing the next match and to get her out of the tournament, but the way Deeb kept on wailing on her I think it's more likely that she's out entirely? Or Nyla Rose will just destroy her. The thing is that the tournament is set to finish on January 5th, so there's plenty of time.
Who do you think will win the thing? I think Ruby Soho, Thunder Rosa and Jade Cargill are all strong candidates. I'd probably like for Cargill to hold it, but I think that it'll probably be Thunder Rosa? Who knows.
I think I'd lean towards Ruby winning it - once the tournament is out of the way, I want to see Thunder Rosa's journey to the main Women's title, and I think Jade is still too green, if I'm honest, though she has a good manager in Mark Sterling.
Put it on Ruby, give her an initial reign of 3-6 months, with a TV title defense every couple of weeks - think Cody's initial run with the belt - and then have a mid-card heel take it off her. With that, you've given Ruby a good number of wins to boost her rankings towards mid-2022, you've solidified the title as something people want to win, and you've gotten 6-12 (hopefully) good women's matches out of it.
By the time you need Ruby to drop the belt, some of the greener elements of the roster have some more seasoning under their belts, and it'd only take another couple of wins after the loss for Ruby's record to be good enough to challenge whoever holds the Women's title for it.
Sigur wrote: Yeah, that sounds sensible. They really strapped a rocket to Ruby Soho, didn't they. The TBS title would fit that.
My understanding is that Ruby had a good rep as Heidi Lovelace before she joined WWE, then got stuck with the general issue of not being one of the Four Horsewomen (or Alexa Bliss) when it came to main roster booking. She was rated by everyone as a positive presence in the locker room, though.
As someone a little closer to being a veteran - given she has 10+ years in the business - she should be a solid hand as champion, and given how her debut went, she's a big enough name to make the belt matter.
I do think there's a touch of rust which might still need shaking off, or a couple of her moves need tweaking to be a touch more impactful, but sometimes that's as much on the opponent as it is on the performer.
And I think it'll be interesting to see if she does return the favour Red Velvet performed, and help make sure that Penelope Ford doesn't interfere in the Red Velvet/Bunny first round match.
Really enjoyed it (all the obvious factors aside). The matches were all well, the audience seemed to be REALLY into it. Loved the King of the Ring match and the women's three-way. And you know what? Bobby Lashley really grew on me over the past months I haven't seem him. I really like his outfits and the glasses. Fits his character perfectly.
Some notable mentions are Karrion Kross and Keith Lee. Both of them open goals for the main roster that WWE somehow managed to convert into an overhead volley into their own net with their feth awful creative. Ember Moon as well, a great wrestler (with an awesome finisher) but unfortunately she isn't one of the Four Horsewomen or Alexa Bliss so the main roster didn't know what to do with her and being on NXT seems to have negative job security.
Also Nia Jax, who should have been let go, or sent back to developmental, a long time ago. She was sloppy, booked to do power spots she didn't actually have the strength to pull off and often dangerous.
According to Cultaholic, here's the full list of releases:
WWE Main Roster
Karrion Kross (Raw)
Keith Lee (Raw)
Nia Jax (Raw)
B-Fab (Smackdown)
Gran Metalik (Raw)
Lince Dorado (Raw)
Mia Yim (SmackDown)
Harry Smith (Unassigned)
Eva Marie (Raw)
NXT
Scarlett Bordeaux
Ember Moon
Franky Monet
Oney Lorcan
Jessi Kamea
Zayda Ramier
Trey Baxter
Katrina Cortez
Jeet Rama
Given there were stories circulating that Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado had requested their releases a few weeks back, I'm OK with them.
I feel really sorry for B-Fab - sure, she needed time/training, but if you recognise that fact don't move her to the main roster (or do so purely as a valet who can take a bump if required, then let her continue training in the PC).
Harry Smith didn't even make it to TV this time, Keith Lee was in the early stages of his repackaging as a heel, and who knows what the main roster writing room and/or management had against Karrion Kross.
Of the NXT releases, Ember, Franky Monet & Oney deserved better, and could easily have added value in the "veteran gatekeeper" sort of role for upcoming talent. I'm also curious as to why Danny Burch wasn't let go if Oney was, but that's Vince and tag team wrestling, I guess...
I've only seen Scarlett as Kross' valet, so I don't know how good she is as a wrestler herself - but she shouldn't've been split from Kross in the first place.
There are several NXT names I'm vague on - was Trey Baxter the one who seemed to be in a relationship with Cora Jade, at least on-screen? And with Jessi Kamea gone, does that leave Shayna as the last of the Four Hoursewomen of MMA still active in WWE?
I enjoyed it-
Seconded. I also demand for the stupid babyface grin not to return. 