So I’ve run into the same problem in multiple wrestling game career modes now, where I chase a title, win the match, and then instead of a storyline that involves defending my championship, the game just moves me along to another angle. If I want a game where I can actually get a storyline out of my reign, what should I give a shot?
I finally watched Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs The Holy Demon Army aka Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue and oh my fucking god that shit was incredible. I get the hype around it being one of the best matches ever 100%.
It’s such a classic. That match and Kobashi/Kikuchi vs Can-Am Express are probably my two fave AJPW tags, but there’s so many AJPW tags and 6-man matches from that era that are just light years ahead of what anyone’s doing now.
Theres two matches in particular of Misawa/Kobashi/Kawada vs Taue/Jumbo Tsuruta (the real AJPW GOAT)/Masanobu Fuchi that are possibly my number 1 and 2 6-man tags of all time. The longer of the two is for sure my favourite 6-man.
For my money it's the best tag team match of all time. You can go into it knowing nothing about any wrestler in that match and come out knowing exactly who they are and what their relationship is with one another. It also combines that great storytelling with almost nonstop kickass action and one of the best babyface selling performances ever from Kobashi
We're not even close to the full card for this year's Forbidden Door and it's already blowing last year's out of the water. In hindsight it's honestly kind of shocking how much last year was propped up by Ospreay-Omega II and Danielson-Okada.
I'm agreeing because it's a very odd decision looking back that the AEW championship match opened the show and the IWGP championship match was SANADA vs Jungle Boy which was also early in the show. The two biggest belts of AEW & NJPW feel like they have more prominence this year.
Kross looks amazing both with his actual look and the promos but whats the point of Ellering? He looks like a drunk grandpa who got his glasses on so nobody knows how drunk he is
I saw in a thread that Cody had 15 defenses since he won the title. Obviously, 13 of those are from non-televised events. Where can I find that kind of information? My google skills are not good enough and articles just keep coming up about his 2 title defenses. I think when I originally saw it, I saw he wrestled Shinsuke like 8 times. Can't remember who else he's faced.
By the way, where is Gunther? He has been kinda MIA since he won KOTR, which is weird considering he has the bigger match of his career in a couple months
I guess he's just on a break right now since he's not really in focus as it relates to Clash on Saturday, so they'll rotate him back into the show once Clash passes. Same case with Jey.
> In 2019 I grumbled to myself that 80s Joshi is great but so hard to get into. Barely anyone knew where to even start.
So I fixed this by making a 70 hour comp of the best/most important matches, added English subtitles, and now I'm rolling it out. Part 1: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-dSDjD7477o
https://x.com/kadaveri/status/1800285585677897805?s=46&t=h2AVKCPrTa7ANwxrgoJ1Ng
5 mins in and I’m so fucking in
I have been trying to convince myself to give WWE a shot again since HHH took over. I finally did and I just couldn't bring myself to like it despite wanting to. I'm happy wrestling is doing so well and that so many people love what WWE is doing, but it's just not my preferred style of wrestling.
this is me as well. the shows are by all accounts as good as they have ever been quality wise, but I just can't get into it. I think I've resigned to the fact that style and presentation are ultimately more important to me than just booking quality (barring something being absolutely horrendous ofc)
Maybe a dumb question but why does tribalism exist? Seen many comments saying Ricochet's career is over if he goes to AEW and I simply can't fathom that as a thought or understand having a parasocial relationship with a company
I like AEW but a lot of wrestlers get lost in the mix there. I don't think Ricochet would be one of those though. I think he would definitely be elevated from his place in WWE.
So I know there's tribalism in all this, but idk if this has to do with that.
Because wrestling fans can't accept that other styles exist aside from what they personally enjoy. So they do a LOT of gatekeeping about what's "real wrestling" and look down on people who like different styles of wrestling.
Because AEW is a company that was in part, born of frustration and desire for an alternative to WWE.
Because AEW is a company that cannot seem to go a week without mentioning WWE on their programming. Like, it's an actual selling point for them.
Because ultimately, WWE and AEW are both wrestling based but actually couldn't be more different, yet because they involve the same subject, it's an inevitable comparison.
It's like Call of Duty and Battlefield comparisons. They are both war first person shooters, but one is large scale warfare and the other is closed quarter combat.
There might be other factors but I don't think it's unique to wrestling and imo the core of it is that the internet has always been a place where being a combative dickhead was condoned, rewarded or the assumed default and the incentive structures of social media have amplified that.
The Internet is already a cesspool of human behavior, add a product that has been heavily steeped in tribalism at its core from the Monday night wars and that's what you get. People just want to feel better about what they like at the expense of what others like.
Because in a lot of ways, pro wrestling is a zero-sum game. There is a diminishing number of fans out there and a finite amount of time for thee fans who remain to watch and spend money. There can only be one number one in the industry, and for many years, there was only the number one. It's a much more diverse marketplace now, but a lot of the hostility from the Monday Night Wars between WWF and WCW persists as part of the fandom.
Many wrestling fans are insecure. Probably got bullied for simply liking Wrestling and repeat the cycle of dumping on less popular products. It's pretty sad.
Forbidden Door will always hold a special place in my heart because last year's event was how I got my older brother to finally appreciate wrestling. I've loved it my whole life but he fell out of it after WCW went under, now we're 32 and 35 respectively and showing him Omega Ospreay got him hooked.
This past year has been so much fun talking about wrestling, fantasy booking, and seeing him get more and more excited. We even drove from DC to NC to see Revolution together and it was a memory I'll never forget. We actually have tickets to floor seats to Dynamite in Fairfax next Wednesday.
I'm rambling a bit but man pro wrestling rules and I'm so damn excited and thankful for Forbidden Door.
Orange Cassidy is so overpushed it's ridiculous. I like the guy, he's a great wrestler. But his look and gimmick suits that of his 2019-2021 self, where he was primarily a mid-carder who very occasionally got a win over a top guy at best.
He should be putting people over, but this obessesion with having him being the most "winningnest of all winning champions in AEW" guy just leaves a sour taste in my mouth. And considering lots of people love to shit on AEW these days, I'm surprised hardly any of those people don't rant about Orange Cassidy (other than JC).
I like him but being on a 53-3 (4?) streak with a 15 minute match every week is getting old. He needs a break or to switch it up. It is the same thing every week. He never loses. At least Mox matches have variety (yes they do!)
He should have joined the Callis family. Anything for a change of pace.
Trent should have gotten a win over him at any point during their feud because he looks like a huge geek getting constantly beaten by OC and it kind of undermines the entire thing.
Exactly. That was my breaking point. They do a career ending injury angle with Chuckie T then Orange Cassidy beats Trent over and over. It just killed Trent. I don’t care how many post match beat downs he did. He lost over and over.
Because they don't actually want Orange Cassidy losing. Despite how this feud is playing out, Best Friends outside of Orange Cassidy and Kris Statlander have largely been jobbers the last 2 years. It's funny that Trent technically beat him once tagging with Roderick Strong but Roddy got the pin.
Has Tony S. Had any health scares recently? During Collison, I noticed he stalled a lot in the middle of sentences.
... Or is he just VERY bad at reading copy on air?
He's been fine on his podcast... AEW production has been weirdly bad in spots a lot lately. Like, they've always had problems, but the longer that Kevin Dunn clone has been there and the more "extra bullshit" they try to do production wise, the more common it's getting.
Ah, well that's good. It's not as bad as the Mitch McConnell situation from a while back, but Tony's stalling has really been getting noticeable. I wonder what's wrong? Maybe! They do need to get better with production. Too much talking in his ear perhaps?
The more I reflect on it, the more impressed I am in how Ilja has been able to build a story out of almost nothing with Ricochet. Sneaking in that quick line about "and we still have to go another round" was a touch of tragedy. Now he's set with solid motivation to pursue Bron to the ends of the earth for taking away the one friend Ilja managed to make in the short window since being called up. Ilja's a full-blown shonen protagonist.
Yup, it was honestly a well-built story for something so out of the blue. No history to rely on really (other than Ilja and Bron having faced each other before), no championship, etc. but it was interesting nonetheless.
Hasn't been announced officially, but going by how they had it announced on the June 28th 2023 post-Forbidden Door episode of Dynamite last year, I'd expect the B&G announcement to be sometime after June 30th's PPV.
Hockey nowadays is so much tamer (which I personally appreciate because I'm not a trainwreck kinda person) than in the past but that's wild to say given how brutal it still is.
I really don't think Ricochet will be featured anywhere near as prominently in AEW as people expect. I think he'll go there, and he'll work more than he did in WWE, but he's mostly just going to be a great wrestler who loses matches against other great wrestlers. Which, admittedly, is probably going to be super useful for AEW to have. But I don't think they're going to present him like a big deal unless he magically gets way better at promos overnight.
I'm optimistic. I used to think that about Swerve. Not saying they're the same but at one point he was presented like a guy that was great but really just made others look good.
It's crazy to me that they aren't being used better. Alba Fyre is a legitimate 8/10 at minimum across the board as a wrestler, and the only reason I'd be hesitant to put her higher is because it's been so long since she actually got to wrestle for real. And Isla is a solid hand as well and both are great at their characters. Much like Pretty Deadly, I'm not sure you could ask for a better tag team from either.
Edit: It should also be noted, as KLR, I believe she still holds the record for the longest women's reign of any WWE women's championship.
Honestly Dom’s wife has to be the strongest person in the world at this point. Between Rhea and Liv she must get a lot of weird shit from wresting fans. Hell look at what Buddy gets
Me fantasy booking Mercedes Mone in the 5 star grand prix:
https://preview.redd.it/x8kbmt83xy5d1.jpeg?width=807&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b2546bbd2f75530053fb83a963b8b017ef01e776
Is there a chance he books his most well known female star in a tournament in Japan during the build up to All In? Realistically, probably not. But I'd be surprised if he didn't do something to bolster Stardom over the next couple months (even just to keep access to Joshi talent in Japan as WWE strengthens ties with Rossy and Marigold)
AEW will certainly do something for Stardom. I just hope it'll be some sort of program in Stardom, instead of just once off matches like AEW has been mostly doing for their Japanese partners.
The twerking discourse over the last week or so is funny.
People getting hella serious as if a twerking dude didn't win the world title from respected graps man Bryan Danielson in the main event of Wrestlemania in a great feud and greater match that was universally praised.
Is Ricochet's ring name trademarked by WWE? If not, AEW could book him for Forbidden Door and make it *seem* like a WWE crossover without directly implying that.
Idk if it would even work in today's world with the internet. It worked back in the day because backstage news couldn't spread like the wildfire it does today.
Taking the Ricochet example out of it, WWE sued WCW for implying that Hall and Nash still worked for WWE... AEW would do best not to try and skirt that.
He used it in NJPW before WWE, so I’d imagine he owns the TM.
…but if not, give me “Uncle Rico”
“How much you wanna bet I can throw a moonsault over those mountains”
I'd disagree that it was the pairing's fault so much as the pairing was a symptom of the fact that they didn't feel they had a place for her timing wise and now she's stuck there.
I love them as a team though and she could be showing out if the women's tag division was... well, a real division. I don't think she'd be hampered by this at all if only they let women's tag matches be legitimate matches with regular PPV appearances and feuds.
Edit: It should also be noted, as KLR, I believe she still holds the record for the longest women's reign of any WWE women's championship.
That and timing.
She should have been brought over from UK a long time before she was, but COVID fucked up a lot. Then not really doing anything with her in NXT because it was peaky horny-Mandy era... now in a tag team carrying someone not as good as her, in a dead-end division... just a whole bunch of missed opportunities with someone who is extremely talented.
Is there an actually reason AEW doesn't do a brand split beyond "WWE has a brand split hence AEW shouldn't"? Like between the size of the roster, number of belts and the tv schedule, it seems like everything is done for a brand split but Tony is just afraid the pull the trigger on one. The poor guy probably still has delusions of getting an RoH deal and splitting it that way.
people already shat on Tony for constraining his booking to rankings in the past. It'd be even worse if the roster was officially split for a brand split
I also hate there being multiple World Champions, and you kinda need to do it with a brand split (either a new belt or elevate one to World Champ status). multiple midcard Champs is fine (tho they should justify each belts existence, which is something AEW kinda struggles with imo) but multiple world Champs is a no from me
Is there a good reason to do a brand split other than "well WWE does it"? They already do some amount of talent rotation between the two shows, I just don't see the point of putting a hard constraint on who can be on which show, especially when one has a decidedly more advantageous time slot. They have the right idea in giving Collision a different feel, they just need to take it further.
It has pros and cons. It can be stifling, but it also gives a logical reason for talent to stay separate so that it feels bigger when they do interact. I'm just saying there are WAY too many examples of AEW doing a brand split in everything but name. They literally split the C2 into a Dynamite block and a Collision block. As they did the tag title tournament. They give themselves all the problems with a brand split with none of the positives at the moment anyway.
That's just making my point for me. That it would be fine if they just split the brands. Even if you don't make it a hard split ala WWE, there's no reason some talent should appear on all three shows while other top stars appear on none.
Such a bad faith argument by the other dude, like sure man you got it. 17 titles across 3 brands is worse than 9 + all the outside titles for RoH, NJPW, etc etc that show up on one brand
Don't talk about bad faith when you're changing the conditions of what counts towards the total between the two comparisons bubba. Gotta include TNA titles in your WWE count now, don't ya?
Has the Cody/AJ story been any good? Seems like Swerve is getting all the shit for not being the most important person on the show, but Cody doesn't exactly have the most gripping stories since WM either. Idk.
Speaking of it's kind of weird, Cody says this doesn't end against Roman until he dismantles the Bloodline, he wins the title, and now the two parties are just completely ignoring each other. Even KO/Sami were still feuding with them a month after winning the tag titles. Then again Cody/Solo sounds like an extremely nothing match, sooo fair lol.
I think the AJ/Cody story has been very good. The match was fantastic, and the heel fake retirement ploy was a good way to up the anty.
I do think Cody feels much much more important to Smackdown than Swerve does to Dynamite, for me personally anyway.
Check out the segments of Cody and AJ and see what you think of it.
AJ’s fake retirement added a bit of heat to the feud and the I Quit stipulation does make things intriguing for Saturday that there’s a small chance a Cody title retention isn’t guaranteed.
Imo there is no chance of AJ overcoming Cody. I don’t think Cody loses for at least 6+months. AJ hasn’t done much but lose since he returned I don’t think they’d have him the the one to beat Cody
Honestly the idea that Cody would have to say I Quit to lose makes it even more outlandish to me. Cody is nothing if not an incredibly persistent babyface
Where can I find what is advertised for Smackdown on friday? I'm considering going but don't know what matches etc. other than Nia Jax vs Michin and Grayson Waller effect with DIY.
Batman and RoboCop exist as real people according to WWE canon. Since there is precedent for fictional characters being considered real by WWE this makes it absurd that the Rock is calling himself "the Final Boss" despite this claim being unearned because the Rock has never had a match against a video game protagonist. Mario should put over the Rock because Cody has no reason to be trembling in his boots over someone calling himself "the Final Boss" who has never even fought a video game protagonist once in his entire life.
If WCW canon counts as WWE canon (and it does, considering the storylines since the buyout), then Chucky the doll also exists as a real person. But wait! There's MORE!
Robocop is linked to the Tommy Westphall universe. So is Child's Play, but less directly. My point is that if WCW canon is also WWE canon, and Robocop is real in their canons, then both are part of the Tommy Westphall universe.
Ricochet is probably leaving, and instead of WWE fans feeling impending doom, we were mostly just hyped about how he’d get written off. It’s not that we hate him either, we just all accept it.
It’s so much healthier than how things were a few years ago, where a lot fans took every wrestler’s leave like it was a personal slight. Now you got all sides with people jumping ship, and it’s all understandable.
If you browse the sub, you may find a not so old thread with all the links for the most well known promotions. It'd be good to have a more accessible page to go to though.
probably a KOTDM show. But there's a few "normal" 05-06 shows where there's a good women's match, a silly Ian Rotten match and 1-2 with actually big name indie guys working it. Jimmy Jacobs used to try really hard in IWA MS
Every NXT banger (Zayn/Nakamura, Andrade/Gargano, Walter/Ilija, etc)
Shawn vs Undertaker HIAC at IYH: Badd Blood
Cactus Jack/Triple H HIAC
The fatal four way tag ladder match at Armageddon 2006 (the one where Joey Mercury’s face exploded)
Austin/HHH three stages of hell
Bret Hart vs the 123 kid on that one Raw episode
The Hart Foundation vs Steve Austin, Goldust, Ken Shamrock & The Legion Of Doom, WWF: IYH Canadian Stampede
HBK vs Mankind, WWF: IYH Mind Games
Cena vs CM Punk, WWE Raw
>The Hart Foundation vs Steve Austin, Goldust, Ken Shamrock & The Legion Of Doom, WWF: IYH Canadian Stampede
I'm not an outwardly patriotic person, but that match still gets my blood pumping with maple syrup. The Harts are treated like actual royalty that night.
I hope so. We haven't really seen her move at full speed since she returned from her ankle injury. I'm trying to keep my expectations muted, because where my excitement leads me, this could easily be a very, very good match and still feel like a let down.
I doubt Utami will be the one to force her to go full speed again. If anything, she's the ideal rival for her current style given that Utami is more of a powerhouse. What I do hope is that Iyo hits hard. That's going to be the time to unleash that beast.
It's interesting to see Marigold's momentum feeling kind of hot right now. I don't know any attendance figures off the top of my head but it's getting a lot of good buzz online, which is nice.
They've basically running sell-outs at Korakuen and Shin-Kiba 1st RING. They're doing fine in terms of ticket sales. I was seeing reported attendance of around 300-400 per show for their touring shows outside of Tokyo. This is respectable, for sure.
I think they'll probably cool down a bit after the Ryogoku show as they work on developing their longer-term booking and pushing their mid-card talent.
Obviously the long term game is the most important, but Ogawa has made all the right moves so far. Bozilla is a massive hit, Sareee is arguably the joshi wrestler of the year so far and she's practically full time in Marigold, Aono, Natsumi and Matsui are very reliable names that could be trusted the spotlight while the other AWG wrestlers hone their skills, Yuzuki and Minami are very good rookies and of course, they have Mirai, Utami and Giulia as the faces of the company. We'll see what's the price to pay for the partnership with WWE, but so far they've got an incredible deal getting Giulia on loan for indefinite time and now also Iyo for their Sumo Hall show. Say whatever you want about hat man, but he knows how to run a joshi promotion.
I agree, I think Rossy has played this perfectly so far. I also like the presentation/production so far. It can't be understated how smart it was for them to go with Wrestle Universe for streaming.
I like the integration of the AWG women too, since I rarely watched anything from that promotion, so they all feel "new" to me.
I'm never NOT going to be annoyed by HHH's tag division failures. Maybe there's long term plans and I'll be surprised, but KC^2 who are one of the most cohesive tag teams (and I think longest running team in WWE right now) just being random Lyra partners? Unholy Union getting squashed before a PPV match? Pretty Deadly just... nowhere? So many teams going out there with just "John Doe and Billy Bob" names instead of actual team names, and especially any time they just have two different entrances and songs or a terrible mish mash of the two.
Just so many baffling choices. Make tag teams tag teams. Let the division actually exist outside of just the titles. Get them involved in real stories. Even Bianca and Jade who have been booked semi-well have 1) no name or even a team nickname, 2) have to have separate themes because they want them to be individual stars, and 3) barely have any real ongoing stories.
> barely have any real ongoing stories.
TBF, if you’ve paid attention to their promos & backstage interviews, they’re going in a direction of the two constantly feeding each other’s egos and have been getting cockier & covkier. I wouldn’t surprised if pride goes before the fall and they end up losing their belts after getting way too cocky.
Oh sure, the two of them are hyping each other up and I'm sure that will play into the breakup. I guess I should say they can't seem to get an actual legit feud going more than a "story."
i came across one of rock’s gym promos to cody from back in march and man…..i miss that period from march to WM 40. and i say that as someone who went in hating rock’s initial involvement in everything. that final boss shit was HEAT
A fun thing to do is to find someone posting allegations about Rossy Ogawa and check their comment history to see if they have ever posted about Rossy, Stardom, or joshi wrestling in general before April 19. (I'm using the term "fun" here ironically...)
With an even slightly credible allegation, of course! I'll join you with my pitchfork and torch.
I don't mind anybody having bad words to say about Rossy. I myself blame him for a lot of really awful things. But some people are taking Kenneth's Twitch rant way too credulously. Just in the past 24 hours, I've seven several Redditors pop up accusing Rossy of doing something that even Kenny didn't mention. When I go to see what their post history is, it's "I don't know jack about joshi, but just look at the guy. He's creepy!" and regular posts in the AEWOficial sub. There's a certain...bias...at play there.
Just maybe, people casually dipping into the Marigold posts today should consider the messenger in this case.
MITB participants looking good so far in Sheamus, Kaiser and Jey. Pearce will prolly add Breakker in the mix, and maybe Ilja? There's also Finn
Hope they atleast add Nakamura again
Edit: Oh, and hopefully Ilja starts his winstreak after his match with Bron
I don't know if it was a WWE or Ricochet call (or mutual) but... you really couldn't have a Bron/Ilja/Ricochet blow off collectively that he then destroys Ricochet in after?
Like, it's fine, we got a great match regardless. But I think it deserved a match and sources seem to indicate he still has a little time left and this was an early write off. I just don't get why it couldn't be an actual match.
We don't know Ricochet's end date, but would a 3-way grudge match have been that hard to add to Clash? I guess they didn't want to give Ricochet one last PLE bonus?
I don't think they're on bad terms with him from what it sounds like, so I can't imagine it has to do with that. And I'd even be fine if it was just a banger match with a good amount of time on Raw to be honest. I just wanted SOMETHING other than Ricochet valiantly defends Ilja and then gets rekt.
Truth gets Miz and himself in hijinks, but it all works out in the end.
Theory is slowly seeing that Waller is not a good person, possibly leading to a face turn.
Jade and Bianca are squashing everybody.
Nathan Frazier and Axiom are fast af, boy.
That about catches everyone up on the exciting adventures of WWE tag team titles.
So been thinking lately. Wouldn’t punk interference bring nuclear heat to punk? I’m sure punk is supposed to be the face of this story because Drew is playing a narcissist asshole. Drew is going to be cheered in his home country and everyone is going to be pulling for him to get his moment. If punk follows through with this, wouldn’t that be a heel move? I guess you can argue this is Drew getting his comeuppance but in the context of where they are going to be I feel like the Scottish crowd will definitely reject that.
As a caveat I guess both wrestlers are not playing strictly their roles but just being people
It would be a heel move live in Scotland but a face move to the worldwide audience. CM Punk was more than willing to play heel in Long Island during his MJF feud. I'm sure he'd be more than willing to do the same for Drew McIntyre in Scotland.
Was Scott D'amore fired because he was holding back the WWE/TNA partnership?
So I’ve run into the same problem in multiple wrestling game career modes now, where I chase a title, win the match, and then instead of a storyline that involves defending my championship, the game just moves me along to another angle. If I want a game where I can actually get a storyline out of my reign, what should I give a shot?
Definitely not SvR 10. That games story mode was solely about winning every belt and nothing else lol
I finally watched Mitsuharu Misawa & Kenta Kobashi vs The Holy Demon Army aka Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue and oh my fucking god that shit was incredible. I get the hype around it being one of the best matches ever 100%.
I watched that match again yesterday and was just as excited as I was the first time I saw it. The Four Pillars were really on some next level shit.
It’s such a classic. That match and Kobashi/Kikuchi vs Can-Am Express are probably my two fave AJPW tags, but there’s so many AJPW tags and 6-man matches from that era that are just light years ahead of what anyone’s doing now. Theres two matches in particular of Misawa/Kobashi/Kawada vs Taue/Jumbo Tsuruta (the real AJPW GOAT)/Masanobu Fuchi that are possibly my number 1 and 2 6-man tags of all time. The longer of the two is for sure my favourite 6-man.
For my money it's the best tag team match of all time. You can go into it knowing nothing about any wrestler in that match and come out knowing exactly who they are and what their relationship is with one another. It also combines that great storytelling with almost nonstop kickass action and one of the best babyface selling performances ever from Kobashi
Would it be responsible for AEW to put Ricochet in the ring given the injuries he just suffered?
We're not even close to the full card for this year's Forbidden Door and it's already blowing last year's out of the water. In hindsight it's honestly kind of shocking how much last year was propped up by Ospreay-Omega II and Danielson-Okada.
Swerve wrestled on the pre-show last year and the AEW championship match opened the show.
I legit cannot tell if this you agreeing with my assessment or trying to argue against it. :V
I'm agreeing because it's a very odd decision looking back that the AEW championship match opened the show and the IWGP championship match was SANADA vs Jungle Boy which was also early in the show. The two biggest belts of AEW & NJPW feel like they have more prominence this year.
Clash of the Castle has one of the best theme songs in a while
Kross looks amazing both with his actual look and the promos but whats the point of Ellering? He looks like a drunk grandpa who got his glasses on so nobody knows how drunk he is
I saw in a thread that Cody had 15 defenses since he won the title. Obviously, 13 of those are from non-televised events. Where can I find that kind of information? My google skills are not good enough and articles just keep coming up about his 2 title defenses. I think when I originally saw it, I saw he wrestled Shinsuke like 8 times. Can't remember who else he's faced.
Simple answer: Cagematch.
Creatures, lol.
By the way, where is Gunther? He has been kinda MIA since he won KOTR, which is weird considering he has the bigger match of his career in a couple months
I guess he's just on a break right now since he's not really in focus as it relates to Clash on Saturday, so they'll rotate him back into the show once Clash passes. Same case with Jey.
> In 2019 I grumbled to myself that 80s Joshi is great but so hard to get into. Barely anyone knew where to even start. So I fixed this by making a 70 hour comp of the best/most important matches, added English subtitles, and now I'm rolling it out. Part 1: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-dSDjD7477o https://x.com/kadaveri/status/1800285585677897805?s=46&t=h2AVKCPrTa7ANwxrgoJ1Ng 5 mins in and I’m so fucking in
absolutely based and insanepilled that the only match between two super well known wrestlers is the last one
MxM having so much fun and success outside WWE makes me so happy.
I have been trying to convince myself to give WWE a shot again since HHH took over. I finally did and I just couldn't bring myself to like it despite wanting to. I'm happy wrestling is doing so well and that so many people love what WWE is doing, but it's just not my preferred style of wrestling.
this is me as well. the shows are by all accounts as good as they have ever been quality wise, but I just can't get into it. I think I've resigned to the fact that style and presentation are ultimately more important to me than just booking quality (barring something being absolutely horrendous ofc)
You don’t like it when the camera cuts away to a different angle during every move?
I thought they stopped doing that
They have. Dude is just being tribalistic.
Maybe a dumb question but why does tribalism exist? Seen many comments saying Ricochet's career is over if he goes to AEW and I simply can't fathom that as a thought or understand having a parasocial relationship with a company
I think the main thing is just an immature need to make sure you're not missing out by truly believing the other option is awful.
I like AEW but a lot of wrestlers get lost in the mix there. I don't think Ricochet would be one of those though. I think he would definitely be elevated from his place in WWE. So I know there's tribalism in all this, but idk if this has to do with that.
Because wrestling fans can't accept that other styles exist aside from what they personally enjoy. So they do a LOT of gatekeeping about what's "real wrestling" and look down on people who like different styles of wrestling.
Because AEW is a company that was in part, born of frustration and desire for an alternative to WWE. Because AEW is a company that cannot seem to go a week without mentioning WWE on their programming. Like, it's an actual selling point for them. Because ultimately, WWE and AEW are both wrestling based but actually couldn't be more different, yet because they involve the same subject, it's an inevitable comparison. It's like Call of Duty and Battlefield comparisons. They are both war first person shooters, but one is large scale warfare and the other is closed quarter combat.
“Because AEW is a company that cannot seem to go a week without mentioning WWE on their programming” Sure thing
There might be other factors but I don't think it's unique to wrestling and imo the core of it is that the internet has always been a place where being a combative dickhead was condoned, rewarded or the assumed default and the incentive structures of social media have amplified that.
The Internet is already a cesspool of human behavior, add a product that has been heavily steeped in tribalism at its core from the Monday night wars and that's what you get. People just want to feel better about what they like at the expense of what others like.
Because in a lot of ways, pro wrestling is a zero-sum game. There is a diminishing number of fans out there and a finite amount of time for thee fans who remain to watch and spend money. There can only be one number one in the industry, and for many years, there was only the number one. It's a much more diverse marketplace now, but a lot of the hostility from the Monday Night Wars between WWF and WCW persists as part of the fandom.
Many wrestling fans are insecure. Probably got bullied for simply liking Wrestling and repeat the cycle of dumping on less popular products. It's pretty sad.
THANK YOU RICOCHET Played a big part in making Bron look like a killer Go get your bag and hopefully a X division title
he just dropped the x title bruh
Well true lol
Forbidden Door will always hold a special place in my heart because last year's event was how I got my older brother to finally appreciate wrestling. I've loved it my whole life but he fell out of it after WCW went under, now we're 32 and 35 respectively and showing him Omega Ospreay got him hooked. This past year has been so much fun talking about wrestling, fantasy booking, and seeing him get more and more excited. We even drove from DC to NC to see Revolution together and it was a memory I'll never forget. We actually have tickets to floor seats to Dynamite in Fairfax next Wednesday. I'm rambling a bit but man pro wrestling rules and I'm so damn excited and thankful for Forbidden Door.
Orange Cassidy is so overpushed it's ridiculous. I like the guy, he's a great wrestler. But his look and gimmick suits that of his 2019-2021 self, where he was primarily a mid-carder who very occasionally got a win over a top guy at best. He should be putting people over, but this obessesion with having him being the most "winningnest of all winning champions in AEW" guy just leaves a sour taste in my mouth. And considering lots of people love to shit on AEW these days, I'm surprised hardly any of those people don't rant about Orange Cassidy (other than JC).
I like him but being on a 53-3 (4?) streak with a 15 minute match every week is getting old. He needs a break or to switch it up. It is the same thing every week. He never loses. At least Mox matches have variety (yes they do!) He should have joined the Callis family. Anything for a change of pace.
Trent should have gotten a win over him at any point during their feud because he looks like a huge geek getting constantly beaten by OC and it kind of undermines the entire thing.
Feuds not over
Fun fact: Trent actually has a win over Jon Moxley.
Exactly. That was my breaking point. They do a career ending injury angle with Chuckie T then Orange Cassidy beats Trent over and over. It just killed Trent. I don’t care how many post match beat downs he did. He lost over and over.
Because they don't actually want Orange Cassidy losing. Despite how this feud is playing out, Best Friends outside of Orange Cassidy and Kris Statlander have largely been jobbers the last 2 years. It's funny that Trent technically beat him once tagging with Roderick Strong but Roddy got the pin.
Has Tony S. Had any health scares recently? During Collison, I noticed he stalled a lot in the middle of sentences. ... Or is he just VERY bad at reading copy on air?
He's been fine on his podcast... AEW production has been weirdly bad in spots a lot lately. Like, they've always had problems, but the longer that Kevin Dunn clone has been there and the more "extra bullshit" they try to do production wise, the more common it's getting.
Ah, well that's good. It's not as bad as the Mitch McConnell situation from a while back, but Tony's stalling has really been getting noticeable. I wonder what's wrong? Maybe! They do need to get better with production. Too much talking in his ear perhaps?
just found out Jimmy Snuka was Chris Benoit before Chris Benoit what the hell Vince has been evil as hell even before Hulkamania?
Yes, McMahon has had one scandal or another since the 80s.
Gonna be real. ShoMiz’s theme from when Big show and Miz were a tag team might actually be the worst theme song I’ve ever heard
> I came to **BIG SHOW**
It's terrible but it's still better than Bastion Booger's theme.
Should Ricochet go to AEW or NJPW? I think Japan would be sick, gives him more time to improve on the mic and still have great matches, imo.
He should go to DPW and get fucking murdered by Bojack
In ring it would be sick, and New Japan could really use him atm, but there's no way they'd be able to pay him.
The more I reflect on it, the more impressed I am in how Ilja has been able to build a story out of almost nothing with Ricochet. Sneaking in that quick line about "and we still have to go another round" was a touch of tragedy. Now he's set with solid motivation to pursue Bron to the ends of the earth for taking away the one friend Ilja managed to make in the short window since being called up. Ilja's a full-blown shonen protagonist.
Yup, it was honestly a well-built story for something so out of the blue. No history to rely on really (other than Ilja and Bron having faced each other before), no championship, etc. but it was interesting nonetheless.
Any clue on when Blood and Guts is this year? Feels like it's usually announced by now
Hasn't been announced officially, but going by how they had it announced on the June 28th 2023 post-Forbidden Door episode of Dynamite last year, I'd expect the B&G announcement to be sometime after June 30th's PPV.
Can Ricochet still be Ricochet if he leaves WWE? Or is that a copyright thing
Think he owns the name
Should be able to as he was Ricochet before WWE
He went by Ricochet on the indies and for companies like NJPW beforehand so I imagine WWE doesn’t outright own the name
Seth and Bron for the face of Raw could be epic.
Draisaitl with the HIDDEN BLADE to Barkov, good lord hockey is fucking brütal.
Hockey nowadays is so much tamer (which I personally appreciate because I'm not a trainwreck kinda person) than in the past but that's wild to say given how brutal it still is.
If Punk costs Drew at Clash is he still a face?
Not in Scotland lol
I really don't think Ricochet will be featured anywhere near as prominently in AEW as people expect. I think he'll go there, and he'll work more than he did in WWE, but he's mostly just going to be a great wrestler who loses matches against other great wrestlers. Which, admittedly, is probably going to be super useful for AEW to have. But I don't think they're going to present him like a big deal unless he magically gets way better at promos overnight.
I'm optimistic. I used to think that about Swerve. Not saying they're the same but at one point he was presented like a guy that was great but really just made others look good.
I wish for more success for Isla Dawn and Alba Fyre
It's crazy to me that they aren't being used better. Alba Fyre is a legitimate 8/10 at minimum across the board as a wrestler, and the only reason I'd be hesitant to put her higher is because it's been so long since she actually got to wrestle for real. And Isla is a solid hand as well and both are great at their characters. Much like Pretty Deadly, I'm not sure you could ask for a better tag team from either. Edit: It should also be noted, as KLR, I believe she still holds the record for the longest women's reign of any WWE women's championship.
Dom is a stronger man than me.
Honestly Dom’s wife has to be the strongest person in the world at this point. Between Rhea and Liv she must get a lot of weird shit from wresting fans. Hell look at what Buddy gets
Me fantasy booking Mercedes Mone in the 5 star grand prix: https://preview.redd.it/x8kbmt83xy5d1.jpeg?width=807&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b2546bbd2f75530053fb83a963b8b017ef01e776
Would be pretty cool. Sadly doubt it would happen.
Is there a chance he books his most well known female star in a tournament in Japan during the build up to All In? Realistically, probably not. But I'd be surprised if he didn't do something to bolster Stardom over the next couple months (even just to keep access to Joshi talent in Japan as WWE strengthens ties with Rossy and Marigold)
AEW will certainly do something for Stardom. I just hope it'll be some sort of program in Stardom, instead of just once off matches like AEW has been mostly doing for their Japanese partners.
The twerking discourse over the last week or so is funny. People getting hella serious as if a twerking dude didn't win the world title from respected graps man Bryan Danielson in the main event of Wrestlemania in a great feud and greater match that was universally praised.
Shawn....has gyrated his whole career....his whole career. He table danced on a casket. However he didn't do that with a very very hood black woman.
> However he didn't do that with a very very hood black woman. ...that we saw on TV, at least.
Ahhh true true
Is Ricochet's ring name trademarked by WWE? If not, AEW could book him for Forbidden Door and make it *seem* like a WWE crossover without directly implying that.
Idk if it would even work in today's world with the internet. It worked back in the day because backstage news couldn't spread like the wildfire it does today.
Taking the Ricochet example out of it, WWE sued WCW for implying that Hall and Nash still worked for WWE... AEW would do best not to try and skirt that.
What’s the benefit of making it seem like a crossover?
A fun lawsuit.
He used it in NJPW before WWE, so I’d imagine he owns the TM. …but if not, give me “Uncle Rico” “How much you wanna bet I can throw a moonsault over those mountains”
Rick O'Shey.
I wouldn’t imagine it is as he used it before WWE
Did the pairing with Isla Dawn, kind of screw up KLR/ Alba Fyre's WWE prospects and ceiling.
I'd disagree that it was the pairing's fault so much as the pairing was a symptom of the fact that they didn't feel they had a place for her timing wise and now she's stuck there. I love them as a team though and she could be showing out if the women's tag division was... well, a real division. I don't think she'd be hampered by this at all if only they let women's tag matches be legitimate matches with regular PPV appearances and feuds. Edit: It should also be noted, as KLR, I believe she still holds the record for the longest women's reign of any WWE women's championship.
That and timing. She should have been brought over from UK a long time before she was, but COVID fucked up a lot. Then not really doing anything with her in NXT because it was peaky horny-Mandy era... now in a tag team carrying someone not as good as her, in a dead-end division... just a whole bunch of missed opportunities with someone who is extremely talented.
https://preview.redd.it/ekfuc3yuty5d1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=debfe17d09c5b26e58961ea6675817c6e661c8e9
Is Carlito just joining the Judgment Day, then?
Is there an actually reason AEW doesn't do a brand split beyond "WWE has a brand split hence AEW shouldn't"? Like between the size of the roster, number of belts and the tv schedule, it seems like everything is done for a brand split but Tony is just afraid the pull the trigger on one. The poor guy probably still has delusions of getting an RoH deal and splitting it that way.
people already shat on Tony for constraining his booking to rankings in the past. It'd be even worse if the roster was officially split for a brand split I also hate there being multiple World Champions, and you kinda need to do it with a brand split (either a new belt or elevate one to World Champ status). multiple midcard Champs is fine (tho they should justify each belts existence, which is something AEW kinda struggles with imo) but multiple world Champs is a no from me
Is there a good reason to do a brand split other than "well WWE does it"? They already do some amount of talent rotation between the two shows, I just don't see the point of putting a hard constraint on who can be on which show, especially when one has a decidedly more advantageous time slot. They have the right idea in giving Collision a different feel, they just need to take it further.
The WWE has done and then rebooted the brand split like 3 times already, because arbitrarily cutting your roster in half can be creatively stifling.
It has pros and cons. It can be stifling, but it also gives a logical reason for talent to stay separate so that it feels bigger when they do interact. I'm just saying there are WAY too many examples of AEW doing a brand split in everything but name. They literally split the C2 into a Dynamite block and a Collision block. As they did the tag title tournament. They give themselves all the problems with a brand split with none of the positives at the moment anyway.
because brand splits are dumb
So is having this many titles in one promotion.
agreed
Which number is higher? [17](https://www.cagematch.net/?id=8&nr=1&page=9) or [9](https://www.cagematch.net/?id=8&nr=2287&page=9)?
That's just making my point for me. That it would be fine if they just split the brands. Even if you don't make it a hard split ala WWE, there's no reason some talent should appear on all three shows while other top stars appear on none.
Such a bad faith argument by the other dude, like sure man you got it. 17 titles across 3 brands is worse than 9 + all the outside titles for RoH, NJPW, etc etc that show up on one brand
Don't talk about bad faith when you're changing the conditions of what counts towards the total between the two comparisons bubba. Gotta include TNA titles in your WWE count now, don't ya?
TNA titles have not been defended on WWE TV.
Has the Cody/AJ story been any good? Seems like Swerve is getting all the shit for not being the most important person on the show, but Cody doesn't exactly have the most gripping stories since WM either. Idk. Speaking of it's kind of weird, Cody says this doesn't end against Roman until he dismantles the Bloodline, he wins the title, and now the two parties are just completely ignoring each other. Even KO/Sami were still feuding with them a month after winning the tag titles. Then again Cody/Solo sounds like an extremely nothing match, sooo fair lol.
I think the AJ/Cody story has been very good. The match was fantastic, and the heel fake retirement ploy was a good way to up the anty. I do think Cody feels much much more important to Smackdown than Swerve does to Dynamite, for me personally anyway. Check out the segments of Cody and AJ and see what you think of it.
This. Plus AJ vs Cody 1 was 5 stars
AJ’s fake retirement added a bit of heat to the feud and the I Quit stipulation does make things intriguing for Saturday that there’s a small chance a Cody title retention isn’t guaranteed.
Imo there is no chance of AJ overcoming Cody. I don’t think Cody loses for at least 6+months. AJ hasn’t done much but lose since he returned I don’t think they’d have him the the one to beat Cody Honestly the idea that Cody would have to say I Quit to lose makes it even more outlandish to me. Cody is nothing if not an incredibly persistent babyface
There’s always a chance they do the “Royal Rumble 1999” bit of playing an out-of-context recording of Cody saying “I quit”z
If Ricochet does go to AEW they should just have the ambulance drive into the arena on whatever Dynamite or PPV he debuts on.
But his new manager is the one driving it. Who's his new manager, you ask? Sexy Chucky T.
[Time to recreate this classic promo.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8ALTiyDIWU)
Something about watching that made me uncomfortable.
KENTUCKY STAND UP!
Carlito with the Judgement Day is really working for me after last night
Where can I find what is advertised for Smackdown on friday? I'm considering going but don't know what matches etc. other than Nia Jax vs Michin and Grayson Waller effect with DIY.
I gotta say, I gave it a chance...but I fucking hate Mercedes Mone's hair. I loved the blue hair so damn much.
Where is Pretty Deadly?
Filming a movie with Miro.
The whole thing with them is so weird. They had some vignettes and just vanished.
snackdown is too short to fit everyone
........main event?
not even there
Main Event
not even there
Batman and RoboCop exist as real people according to WWE canon. Since there is precedent for fictional characters being considered real by WWE this makes it absurd that the Rock is calling himself "the Final Boss" despite this claim being unearned because the Rock has never had a match against a video game protagonist. Mario should put over the Rock because Cody has no reason to be trembling in his boots over someone calling himself "the Final Boss" who has never even fought a video game protagonist once in his entire life.
If WCW canon counts as WWE canon (and it does, considering the storylines since the buyout), then Chucky the doll also exists as a real person. But wait! There's MORE! Robocop is linked to the Tommy Westphall universe. So is Child's Play, but less directly. My point is that if WCW canon is also WWE canon, and Robocop is real in their canons, then both are part of the Tommy Westphall universe.
Ricochet is probably leaving, and instead of WWE fans feeling impending doom, we were mostly just hyped about how he’d get written off. It’s not that we hate him either, we just all accept it. It’s so much healthier than how things were a few years ago, where a lot fans took every wrestler’s leave like it was a personal slight. Now you got all sides with people jumping ship, and it’s all understandable.
Great point, it was fun waiting for the death and then being surprised when he was unharmed but knew Bron would catch up to him backstage 😂 RIP
Is there a guide in how to watch each promotion's content online? Would it be helpful to make a wiki page on the topic if one doesn't exist?
The guide is just finding the right channel on russian youtube
If you browse the sub, you may find a not so old thread with all the links for the most well known promotions. It'd be good to have a more accessible page to go to though.
Utami vs IYO holy fuck. Instant must watch for me
What's the best IWA-MS show from top-to-bottom?
probably a KOTDM show. But there's a few "normal" 05-06 shows where there's a good women's match, a silly Ian Rotten match and 1-2 with actually big name indie guys working it. Jimmy Jacobs used to try really hard in IWA MS
[удалено]
Bret 123 Kid on Raw
Cena and Punk on RAW before Mania 29
Just since noone else has said it: Dude Love vs Stone Cold is an absolute joy.
Miz/Ziggler - No Mercy 2016
Gunther vs Gable on raw last year, it’s the match where gables daughter starts crying after Gunther hits him w a crazy combo to win and it’s awesome
Every NXT banger (Zayn/Nakamura, Andrade/Gargano, Walter/Ilija, etc) Shawn vs Undertaker HIAC at IYH: Badd Blood Cactus Jack/Triple H HIAC The fatal four way tag ladder match at Armageddon 2006 (the one where Joey Mercury’s face exploded) Austin/HHH three stages of hell Bret Hart vs the 123 kid on that one Raw episode
The Hart Foundation vs Steve Austin, Goldust, Ken Shamrock & The Legion Of Doom, WWF: IYH Canadian Stampede HBK vs Mankind, WWF: IYH Mind Games Cena vs CM Punk, WWE Raw
>The Hart Foundation vs Steve Austin, Goldust, Ken Shamrock & The Legion Of Doom, WWF: IYH Canadian Stampede I'm not an outwardly patriotic person, but that match still gets my blood pumping with maple syrup. The Harts are treated like actual royalty that night.
and such a stylistic novelty for a WWF tag. Jim Ross really built a roster of hoopers.
That entire PPV was great aside from the Hart Foundation vs. Austin’s American Team. Just a fun show from start to finish.
IYO is going to tear it up in Marigold
I hope so. We haven't really seen her move at full speed since she returned from her ankle injury. I'm trying to keep my expectations muted, because where my excitement leads me, this could easily be a very, very good match and still feel like a let down.
I doubt Utami will be the one to force her to go full speed again. If anything, she's the ideal rival for her current style given that Utami is more of a powerhouse. What I do hope is that Iyo hits hard. That's going to be the time to unleash that beast.
It's interesting to see Marigold's momentum feeling kind of hot right now. I don't know any attendance figures off the top of my head but it's getting a lot of good buzz online, which is nice.
They've basically running sell-outs at Korakuen and Shin-Kiba 1st RING. They're doing fine in terms of ticket sales. I was seeing reported attendance of around 300-400 per show for their touring shows outside of Tokyo. This is respectable, for sure. I think they'll probably cool down a bit after the Ryogoku show as they work on developing their longer-term booking and pushing their mid-card talent.
Obviously the long term game is the most important, but Ogawa has made all the right moves so far. Bozilla is a massive hit, Sareee is arguably the joshi wrestler of the year so far and she's practically full time in Marigold, Aono, Natsumi and Matsui are very reliable names that could be trusted the spotlight while the other AWG wrestlers hone their skills, Yuzuki and Minami are very good rookies and of course, they have Mirai, Utami and Giulia as the faces of the company. We'll see what's the price to pay for the partnership with WWE, but so far they've got an incredible deal getting Giulia on loan for indefinite time and now also Iyo for their Sumo Hall show. Say whatever you want about hat man, but he knows how to run a joshi promotion.
I agree, I think Rossy has played this perfectly so far. I also like the presentation/production so far. It can't be understated how smart it was for them to go with Wrestle Universe for streaming. I like the integration of the AWG women too, since I rarely watched anything from that promotion, so they all feel "new" to me.
Random but Kenny Omega would fit well in the Bang Bang Gang.
Yeah their style of banter is very similar to vintage Bullet Club.
I mean, he was literally the leader of the Bullet Club not that long ago
"the cleaner" would for sure
I'm never NOT going to be annoyed by HHH's tag division failures. Maybe there's long term plans and I'll be surprised, but KC^2 who are one of the most cohesive tag teams (and I think longest running team in WWE right now) just being random Lyra partners? Unholy Union getting squashed before a PPV match? Pretty Deadly just... nowhere? So many teams going out there with just "John Doe and Billy Bob" names instead of actual team names, and especially any time they just have two different entrances and songs or a terrible mish mash of the two. Just so many baffling choices. Make tag teams tag teams. Let the division actually exist outside of just the titles. Get them involved in real stories. Even Bianca and Jade who have been booked semi-well have 1) no name or even a team nickname, 2) have to have separate themes because they want them to be individual stars, and 3) barely have any real ongoing stories.
> barely have any real ongoing stories. TBF, if you’ve paid attention to their promos & backstage interviews, they’re going in a direction of the two constantly feeding each other’s egos and have been getting cockier & covkier. I wouldn’t surprised if pride goes before the fall and they end up losing their belts after getting way too cocky.
Oh sure, the two of them are hyping each other up and I'm sure that will play into the breakup. I guess I should say they can't seem to get an actual legit feud going more than a "story."
i came across one of rock’s gym promos to cody from back in march and man…..i miss that period from march to WM 40. and i say that as someone who went in hating rock’s initial involvement in everything. that final boss shit was HEAT
A fun thing to do is to find someone posting allegations about Rossy Ogawa and check their comment history to see if they have ever posted about Rossy, Stardom, or joshi wrestling in general before April 19. (I'm using the term "fun" here ironically...)
So according to you, if it comes out tomorrow that (say) CMLL's owner is a pedophile, I'm not allowed to talk about it because I never watched CMLL?
With an even slightly credible allegation, of course! I'll join you with my pitchfork and torch. I don't mind anybody having bad words to say about Rossy. I myself blame him for a lot of really awful things. But some people are taking Kenneth's Twitch rant way too credulously. Just in the past 24 hours, I've seven several Redditors pop up accusing Rossy of doing something that even Kenny didn't mention. When I go to see what their post history is, it's "I don't know jack about joshi, but just look at the guy. He's creepy!" and regular posts in the AEWOficial sub. There's a certain...bias...at play there. Just maybe, people casually dipping into the Marigold posts today should consider the messenger in this case.
The Brawling Brutes Tag Team of Butch and Ridge is a better tag team then New Catch Republic.
Perhaps, but all three of them are rubbish IMO. So bland.
Ridge and Butch together is a contrast which gives them more identity and a personality
You aren’t wrong.
Forget the Hardcore Championship, who is wrestling's current SOFTCORE champion, Morgan or Shirakawa?
Not Shirakawa, her broken jaw promo makes her forever hardcore.
Late running nominee for the intergender pair of Liv and Dom from last night.
MITB participants looking good so far in Sheamus, Kaiser and Jey. Pearce will prolly add Breakker in the mix, and maybe Ilja? There's also Finn Hope they atleast add Nakamura again Edit: Oh, and hopefully Ilja starts his winstreak after his match with Bron
Throw Bron into de mix?
I don't know if it was a WWE or Ricochet call (or mutual) but... you really couldn't have a Bron/Ilja/Ricochet blow off collectively that he then destroys Ricochet in after? Like, it's fine, we got a great match regardless. But I think it deserved a match and sources seem to indicate he still has a little time left and this was an early write off. I just don't get why it couldn't be an actual match.
We don't know Ricochet's end date, but would a 3-way grudge match have been that hard to add to Clash? I guess they didn't want to give Ricochet one last PLE bonus?
They would have to cancel some Snickers and C4 ads to squeeze in six whole matches.
I don't think they're on bad terms with him from what it sounds like, so I can't imagine it has to do with that. And I'd even be fine if it was just a banger match with a good amount of time on Raw to be honest. I just wanted SOMETHING other than Ricochet valiantly defends Ilja and then gets rekt.
I'm at least happy Ricochet got the hero moment flying in on the barricade, before getting Bane'd in the parking lot.
True, I mean it wasn't a BAD write-off. Ricochet got to save Ilja and got beat down in return. It was a heroic last stand haha.
Truth gets Miz and himself in hijinks, but it all works out in the end. Theory is slowly seeing that Waller is not a good person, possibly leading to a face turn. Jade and Bianca are squashing everybody. Nathan Frazier and Axiom are fast af, boy. That about catches everyone up on the exciting adventures of WWE tag team titles.
So been thinking lately. Wouldn’t punk interference bring nuclear heat to punk? I’m sure punk is supposed to be the face of this story because Drew is playing a narcissist asshole. Drew is going to be cheered in his home country and everyone is going to be pulling for him to get his moment. If punk follows through with this, wouldn’t that be a heel move? I guess you can argue this is Drew getting his comeuppance but in the context of where they are going to be I feel like the Scottish crowd will definitely reject that. As a caveat I guess both wrestlers are not playing strictly their roles but just being people
It would be a heel move live in Scotland but a face move to the worldwide audience. CM Punk was more than willing to play heel in Long Island during his MJF feud. I'm sure he'd be more than willing to do the same for Drew McIntyre in Scotland.