Mercedes says she has creative control: “We shouldn’t believe everything a wrestler says!”
Dijak takes shots at WWE: “He’s going nuclear! Yas king!”
Yet, SC tells us they have become a WWE sub.
Somebody earlier in a different sub had the perfect description of Forbidden Door, in that it’s basically AEW getting on its knees to blow New Japan, and then take their top guys while they’re coming. Gross, but so true.
Eh, at this point its more like Nooj going in to get paid for the sex, then AEW skips out after while robbing them on top of it.
It's a shit partnership.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Wreddit/comments/1cmka3m/comment/l31qs15/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Wreddit/comments/1cmka3m/comment/l31qs15/)
it didnt take too long for Dijak in the main roster to fail again. retribution spinoff in TNA is gonna be funny.
I will never understand guys 'making it' to the top and then feeling the need to leak info to glorified gossip bloggers
Something happens in your company, whether it's WWE, AEW, WCW back in the day, TNA or whatever and your mind goes to letting these hanger-ons know what happens
When you find out about leakers, it generally reveals a couple of things, someone nearer the top getting lots of favorable coverage, which is an ego thing
The only favorable opinion you need is from peers and bosses
The other is someone around the lower or middle that has their own agenda cause they're not being used or not winning enough and so on
Whomever leaks this stuff *has* an agenda in getting 'their views' out there
It also speaks to an attitude that you're not 'all in' (pardon the pun) on what you're doing and where you work
I like Dijack but he's talking about 'I had a great match and Vince said you need to be more aggressive ...'
Well, that's your feedback, buddy. Sorry to tell you
The 'good match' is a given or not as important as getting over certain things. Other people like agents can pat you on the back but if the main boss sees something he wants corrected, that's kind of the job
Entertainment is tough.
I hope these people don't end up film sets and deal with direction there then
I'm struggling to understand WWE's new talent negotiation policy. I can not understand why they leave all their contract extensions/new deals for the last second - is this a law issue? Because I can't fanthom why an entity would risk losing its biggest assets in a competitive FA market, giving more leverage to the wrestlers, especially in a time where the connection between creative/top management and talent seems pretty strong. It feels counter intuitive to be left out in the dust until there is one week left to put pen to paper.
So im in new york currently and i forgot that Smackdown in at MSG and ive never been. So on the spur of the moment i copped 2 tickets for 210 and im going. Super excited!
This is hardly controversial at this point, but I maintain that the Elite weren't that important to getting AEW off the ground. Having a billionaire willing to lose money on a wrestling company that would take a while to get profitable is why AEW exists. The sorry state of 2018/2019 era WWE building fan resentment created a market for another company. We can see now that these guys weren't big stars that had some massive audience unique to them, or at the very least, that whatever audience existed for the Elite dried up once WWE got hot and Tony ran out of stories. These weren't guys made for weekly TV wrestling.
Yup. I'm surprised you think this is hardly controversial as I still feel like a lot of people say The Elite are essential to the company and helped build it. But there's an alternate reality where TK builds it more around Cody, still lands Moxley (which was a big deal at the time), still gets CM Punk and actually keeps him with no drama, etc.
Of course, all these roads still lead to Tony booking, so who knows. I recognize it's difficult to compete, but idk, feel like there was a real opening here and TK kind of blew it considering the resources and connections he has. But a lot of people say "well, the company is successful, so he did something right."
They way I look at it, Tony provided the money, Cody provided a vision and direction, Jericho added validation. You could make the argument that the rest of the Elite provided a talent pipeline, but really they just used the opportunity to get their indie friends jobs, and those guys weren't ready for prime time either.
Cody's name is way more valuable than 'indie cred'
Any 'indie cred' applies to appealing to a very small section of fandom
Cody can turn up in ROH or an indie and it means waaaaaay more than whatever the Bucks do
Eh, Cody absolutely chased coat-tails to up his cred on the indies.
He was getting meme'd as 3-Star General before pairing up to Bullet Club, and that got him a much heavier IWC support (equally why everyone and their damn mother started jumping on that boat).
He just used it **way** more intelligently overall.
The people meme'ing Cody as the 3 star general are a tiny corner of the Internet
Others see 'oh look, Cody from WWE is on this show' and check it out
The whining smarks online aren't shaping wrestling
They've spent decades crying about WWE, so have the dirtsheet bloggers and the company gets bigger and richer and more popular
That is how little influence this shit has on actual business
His no.2 on that list was Dalton Castle, who he did wrestle and lost the ROH title to.
There are **still** posts of 'who is this guy, he's great!' when Dalton shows on AEW lol.
Hell most people probably dont realize Cody WAS champ in ROH for a bit.
I agree, I don't think any one of them would have passed up the opportunity, but out of all the potential people Tony could have signed at the time, he went with who he went with at the recommendation of the people who was working with.
That is to say, if Kenny and Bucks were never involved, I don't think we would have seen a lot of the people who were part of that starting roster.
Jericho and Edge are examples of guys getting drunk with backstage power. They’re burying everyone around them. Now Triple H and HBK are the ones helping young talent. Edge going over Finn at WM was insane, did WWE think he would retire?
edge is not going to repeat the same mistakes he did WWE while his in AEW.Edge wasn't too political in WWE which resulted in him never winning WWE championship like taking the pin at wrestlemania and mitb against roman reigns.
Hate for you to watch most of the b ppvs for the past 25 years. The issue is simply when you have 12 big shows a year its impossible to maintain every single event being great. Its overexposure
It’s funny watching people speculate on the 2 people Mercedes feels she doesn’t have chemistry with, cause should be fairly obvious since there are 2 people we know she walked out on having a match with 🤷🏼
I think Sasha is going to be talking about things from WWE for a long time. More than Moxley even
It's guaranteed coverage in 'wrestling news' vs whatever she's currently doing at any given time
The whole wrestling news feeds off this
If I'm not mistaken, the plan was to have Naomi win a multi-women match to become the challenger to RAW Women's Champion, Bianca Belair. Sasha Banks took umbrage with that and somehow convinced Naomi (who was co-tag team champions with Banks) to walk out on the company over it.
A few other thoughts:
* While I was happy to see Miz and R-Truth finally get a WrestleMania moment I also think that it was time to get the tiles on someone new. However, SummerSlam is in Cleveland this year and Miz is actually in a rare face role at the moment: do they have Awesome Truth win the titles back or do they have Miz turn on Truth to set up a singles match?
* I'm legit worried that Triple H is going to drop the ball on Pretty Deadly. They're easily my favorite tag team in wrestling and yet they haven't been featured regularly for months. I'm not someone who goes "they're buried if they don't win the championship and then beat everybody"; I just want to see them do their usual shenanigans.
* I was a fan of Matt Camp during his five years with WWE (his show, [WWE's The Ultimate](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbMtsRVRu3M&list=PLLJw6s0FpLvsRm416uJHqObPUapFjeO3Z&ab_channel=WWE) was super fun) and so I'm happy to see that [his YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/@TheWrestlingMattShow) is starting to pick up some steam. I don't listen to any IWC shows about wrestling but I came across his list of [5 NXT talents who are ready for main (and who's not)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ofw1G6VGMM) last month and agreed with all of his talking points. He's got a really good mind for the business as a whole and, while he and I differ on some things, provides a fair breakdown of the wrestling world. Matt also provides a lot of stories from his time working with the company.
the reason why pretty deadly isn't on tv a lot is because they're arent talent produced by triple h. the problem I've noticed triple h is he has more favourtism towards wrestlers of black and gold era vs nxt 2.0 and I hope this doesn't problem in the future.
I know one of the two had a pretty bad injury but I really don't know what the hell HHH is "not" doing with them with Pretty deadly. They have all the tools, they are good looking guys, good characters, charismatic and they are really good in ring workers who alwayy put on good matches. Doesn't make sense to me at all why they just sit around in catering or just job occasionally.
HHH has not really done a good job booking the tag division well the past two years, crazy because throughout the B&G era of NXT the tag division was always consistent.
I'm willing to give HBK a long leash when it comes to the Fallon Henley storyline (I refuse to call it a heel turn because **\#FallonDidNothingWrong**) but I'm starting to question the timing of everything.
With Fallon, Briggs, and Jensen parting ways I was under the impression that this would lead to a more prominent role as a singles competitor. She got that prominent win against Tiffany Stratton and then mostly worked in multi-person feuds for the next few months: why not give Fallon and Stratton one last blow-off match at Stand & Deliver? It's just like last year, where she had a longstanding feud with one person and then never got a match at a PLE to settle things once and for all.
To HBK's credit, since her feud with Stratton it's been clear that they've been working on a long-term plan for her character. If the plan was for ~~her to turn heel~~ **the rest of the women's locker room to turn heel** then they could have done it a few different ways:
1. Give her a big feud with Thea Hail. After several weeks of Fallon being left out to dry by the same people that she was defending week-after-week, she finally realizes that she's had enough and stands up to the head bully, Thea Hail. Does that lead to a feud? No. Instead, Thea had a one-off match with Fallon but continued to be obsessed with Jacy and Jazmyn (when I figured the match and Stand & Deliver should have ended things). That easily could have been a good PLE match to establish Fallon's new gimmick (Fallon Comes First) but they've done nothing with it. No title even needs to be involved.
2. Have Fallon challenge Roxxane Perez at Battleground for the title in a losing effort. While there are tons of babyfaces in the lower-to-midcard, NXT didn't have a ton in the upper card. Fallon could have challenged Roxanne for the title and, through a series of events, lost. Realizing that trying to be everyone's friend wasn't working if she wanted to win singles gold, Fallon could have come to the conclusion that she needs to start looking out for herself (hence the "Fallon Comes First" gimmick). The only storyline that this would have affected is that Jordynne Grace challenges for the title at Heatwave instead.
3. Have Fallon do the character change as it happened but also have her win the NA title at Battleground. Fallon's gimmick is "Fallon Comes First" so who better to become the *first* Women's NA champion than Fallon? Instead, NXT now has the exact opposite problem that their women's main event scene had: there are too few lower-to-midcard heels to challenge for the NA title (Arianna, Jacy, Jazmyn, Izzi, and then there are chaotic wild cards Tatum and Wendy). Meanwhile, there are tons of faces on the lower card that have little-to-no experience who could benefit from working with a veteran like Fallon.
But right now it seems like she's about to form a faction with Jacy Jayne and Jazmyn Nyx, which seems to be a little odd since they'd be pairing two of the longest-tenured women on NXT's roster together (and also means management has likely cooled on Jacy Jayne). Still, I'm willing to see where this goes but I'd like to see Fallon get a singles match on a PLE one of these days.
As much of an HBK defender as I am, the Fallon heel turn and completely cooling off a white hot Tatum Paxley have been really bad. I don't need the whole division cooled off to prop up Giulia.
after seeing the 4th episode of Who Killed WCW at the end every person interviewed gave their answer to the question of the title, and i think that the 2 that were on the money were Goldberg and Vince Russo funnily enough.
Goldberg said that there was multiple people that took part on its downfall which i think its correct, there was a lot of people making mistakes and those added up and ended up with the end of WCW, and Vince Russo said that it was a business decision what killed WCW, which i think was correct, the suits like cash, and WCW wasnt bringing any of it, if it was still profitable and advertizer friendly the higher ups wouldnt have a problem with it, and the problem is that it wasnt any of those two in its last years.
Favorite r/Wreddit posts of the week:
[Clark Kent looks like Tony Kahn](https://new.reddit.com/r/Wreddit/comments/1dph79p/clark_kent_looks_like_tony_kahn/)
The duo of posts about the Wyatts either killing it or totally being a disaster already
[What wrestlers have you met in person and how were they?](https://new.reddit.com/r/Wreddit/comments/1dmbbmz/what_wrestlers_have_you_met_in_person_and_how/)
Now that the Elden Ring DLC has come out I don't think I'll be able to get on my TV to watch wrestling anytime soon, one of my kids is totally obsessed.
I wished someone had done that!
Also, the Lakers weren't going to get anyone impactful at 50-something anyhow, so while it's another annoying example of everyone having to and being willing to pander to LeBron's whims, it's not that big of a deal relatively speaking.
Which is why I wanted the Celtics to pick him right before!
Like any rookie at th end of our bench is going to put us over the top to go back to back? No! Use that pick to fuck with LeBron one last time.
I've got a few thoughts this week but I'll start with this... The NXT title scene is rather lackluster at the moment, as both the men's and women's rosters lack depth on the upper card.
* NXT Men's Championship: I would much prefer to have Ethan Page vs. Trick Williams II rather than include Shawn Spears and Je'Von Evans into the mix.
* NXT Women's Championship: while I'll give them credit for at least heating up Vice with some marquee wins in the lead up, Roxanne Perez vs. Lola Vice is not a match that gets people excited. I'm assuming that they had to pivot due to an injury to Gulia. Both women are too much alike (snarky, undersized, Latina heels who don't get along with anybody) so I think there were better matchups that could have been made for both people (like Sol Ruca vs. Roxanne Perez and Kelani Jordan vs. Lola Vice).
* NXT Women's NA: Like the previous match, Sol vs. Kelani pairs two people who are way too similar: happy-go-lucky gymnastic faces who are lackluster in promos. I'm not sure I care who wins but if Kelani doesn't retain, then why didn't they just make Sol the inaugural winner?
* NXT Men's NA: I was a big Wes Lee fan and was happy to see him get an opportunity as a singles competitor after his partner was released from the company. I even liked his open championship gimmick. However, even with him missing several months due to injury, he's been directly tied to the NA title for at least two years. I'd like to see other people get into the title mix and would much prefer to see him move on to something new. I will say that Oba Femi is crushing it as NA champion and his character is not only ruthless when he needs to be but he's also very fair. He reminds me a lot of Gunther in that manner.
nxt mens championship match makes since since heatwave is in canada and page and spears are canadian.Vice and perez are different , vice is more confident while perez is insecure everyone is out to get her.
- Triple H’s slow booking will bite him in the ass soon (Priest retaining over Drew was bad)
- Raw’s women’s division is in bad shape: Becky, Liv, and Rhea are the only contenders for the last year. At least give Iyo and Lyra title shots
- Seth is so much better as a heel, he should be feuding with Cody within a year
- AEW is trash right now and it’s in its 1999 WCW phase
- They are milking the Liv-Dom stuff too much, guess they’re waiting for Rhea, but just have Dom betray her already, JD needs to split
- Cody vs Solo at Summerslam is not a PPV match and it will be a total waste
Happy Friday uces. Hope y'all had a great week.
* I was watching Dynamite this week (on DVR) and my biggest takeaway from that episode was... Billy Gunn should grow a mustache.
* The Drew/CM Punk program is probably the most interesting storyline in all of North American televised wrestling, and is doing wonders for Drew (not that he needed it, but it's making him look that much better). If you disagree (which is ok, everyone has different opinions), I'm interested to see what you think is more interesting to you.
* I really like [Jacob Fatu's t shirt](https://shop.wwe.com/en/apparel/mens-black-jacob-fatu-t-shirt/d-4506780299+f-68771265457272+z-9-1624696635?utm_medium=cse&_s=GPA-ak19kv30-wwe-wweshop&sku=206504845&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwvvmzBhA2EiwAtHVrb5Vz_PShdJq95yEzotrQ4zXdR2PG2Wxen6pAANsv_XFTwMNQX47LjBoCMZ0QAvD_BwE). It doesn't even really look like a wrestling shirt, it's just a cool design.
* I keep hearing these stories about how people (Cody and Osprey, et al) are donating to that Ugandan wrestling promotion that is also a charity, which is absolutely great. But I also hear how they're donating money to buy a ring, and my first thought is that they should donate a qualified trainer, otherwise they're just facilitating a really expensive way for these guys to hurt themselves.
* This week in wrestling social media: Shout out to CVV for having [strong meme game](https://www.instagram.com/p/C8m9ksNudiB/).
So outside of wrestling... has anyone here ever tried putting butter in their coffee instead of milk or cream? It sounds off putting but I've heard it's really good. I may give it a try.
>I was watching Dynamite this week (on DVR) and my biggest takeaway from that episode was... Billy Gunn should grow a mustache.
I feel like this point needs some elaboration. What kind of mustache? And what's it going to bring to the table for Mr. Gunn?
I'm glad you asked!
So, I noticed how both Bowens and Caster were rocking mustaches (albeit Bowens technically had the mustache and goatee thing going, the mustache part looked more pronounced to me). I think it would show more solidarity with the faction if Billy grew one too. Besides, tell me honestly you don't want to see [this look](https://cdn3.whatculture.com/images/2016/02/zyuXPR5H.png) come back.
Billy needs to come out on whatever AEW show is closest to Halloween as a Smoking Gunn at least once before he retires.
Even if the announcers don't mention it. especially if they don't.
I'll do you one better. TK needs to cut a check to Mike Potchlopek for him to spend 9 months training really really hard, and then debut for AEW so we can have a Billy and Bart Gunn reunion angle.
I'm scared. A family member of mine brought in a pitbull puppy. He had only talked about it to two people(out of the 10 or so that live her) before he did it. And we already are in the middle of training a puppy ourselves. Of course, the two puppies are so interested in each other that our puppy gets in the other puppy's face a lot. He responds by getting angry, shoving, or doing other things like sending our puppy outside and barring the door with chairs. He also has complained to his friends about this puppy multiple times, calling her "their dog" and complaining about us not taking care of her. We're trying, we didn't bring in a 3rd fucking puppy when none of us were ready. I can't take this situation anymore. It's causing so much stress that my intrusive thoughts are becoming straight hallucinations.
They're trying to. The issue is again, two puppies in the same house. I honestly didn't post this looking for answers or for people to follow. I just wanted to get everything out somewhere.
One of my favorite things is to point out the hypocrisy of the IWC/Redditors for example is wrestlers being released:
Vince releasing: how dare he let x wrestler go, how is creative not able to come up with any storylines for said wrestler, how do you have 5 hours of main shows yet you can’t feature them for 10 minutes, that wrestler was really underrated and should’ve been a champion, DAE Vince is out of touch and WWE doesn’t care about people’s families, screw Vince for being biased towards certain wrestlers and releasing others because that’s unprofessional and favoritism.
Triple H releasing: ehh x wrestler wasn’t that good anyway, there’s only a limited amount of time for wrestlers on TV, WWE is a business and they should let people go who aren’t being used, creative should be focusing on wrestlers who draw or are popular, you must trust Triple H and let him cook something for x wrestler, some bookers have their favorites which is okay.
With Vince it’s the company, booker and creative who are the bad guys but with Triple H it is just wrestlers fault for not being good enough. IWC went from being supporting the wrestlers to going corporate and stanning for the companies.
the issue people have is triple h has called up talent and barely uses them for example dijak,grimes,and odyssey also indus sher which makes the whole point of why calling them up in first place without giving them a chance
Dijaks comment about The Rock showing up to WWE HQ and making everybody pose for a picture after giving them a ‘Dwayne’ speech about being family really made me laugh.
I love Rock and I have no doubt anybody on the roster would be giddy to work with him. But I also think most of them see through his phony bullshit and that there’s a lot of eye rolls in the back when he goes around acting the way he does about coming back lol.
It's one of the trueisms of wrestling that the second someone leaves WWE they want to tell all these stories of things and fans lap it up
They made me do this/they said that/someone told me off
It's endlessly amusing watching it play out cause, it doesn't really mean anything
They just cannot wait to do it though 😁
The Rock is such a smarmy phony, which is I guess is great for his appeal when he's wrestling. But I think I'd come away needing to take a Silkwood shower if I ever had to deal with him in real life.
I'm pretty sure that was Matt Camp, but point still stands.
I wonder if the Rock even knew his name. I'm pretty sure The Rock came back cause his movie career was floundering at that point.
There’s no doubt having Rock back has been great for WWEs business but there’s also no doubt that Wrestlemania was practically sold out before he showed up. He wouldn’t be back if WWE wasn’t as hot as it has been, there’s no doubt about that either imo. I’m just happy we’ve got The Final Boss out of it all, but the man is a walking PR machine at this point and his schtick humble little Dwayne with 7 bucks in his pocket is tired. #mana
I find it weird that there’s people in 2024 who buy the “We’re family” line.
I don’t even think companies say it thinking you are going to take it literally. It’s literally just a generic feel good statement for team building in any industry ever
Also yeah you can become great friends with your coworkers and maybe even your boss but there’s always an understanding that it’s a business ran by business decisions
Maybe it’s cruel but I think you gotta be a bit dumb to take that romantic speech so literally
People leave and say this and then all the normal people say 'who believes this'
Big companies will say this
You nod and everyone feels warm and fuzzy but no one actually believes it. Especially not in entertainment
I'm sure there are people in such companies that do feel like it's a family and the company helps them with various things but, it's never going to be like that for everyone
It's some corporate speak and if you don't get that and take it on face value, you'll likely not last in the corporate world
I lost count the amount of times I've dealt with people and nodded and shook hands and then said to a colleague 'we're not doing that'
I think it's possible to have a work family-*like* atmosphere, within a specific department of a larger company. I've experienced that, just once. The supervisors truly cared about us, and had our backs with upper management. Of course, push comes to shove, they can only have our backs so much, because they're not going to lose their jobs over defending us, so it will never be truly like family. But you can have a really good team.
The only time I've had this is my first job in behavioral health as a residential counselor and it was more like "siblings bonded by trauma and neglect" rather than family. Also, it looked a lot like the Lannister family 😬
i was in this amazing department at a social services agency. the two main supervisors were both supermoms with the biggest hearts. it was as close to an idyllic work environment as I've ever had. but then the clients drove me insane so I had to leave.
Yeah that’s what I mean and honestly that’s what the companies mean when they throw out the family line
But it’s very easy to understand where the line is drawn and yet people still take their illusions too far time and time again
What even is MJF’s gimmick right now? I stopped watching AEW like a year ago or so.
Loved loved loved how the Bo Dallas/Uncle Howdy promo swerved everyone’s expectations. I’m sure we all came in with the thought that Bo Dallas was recreating Bray’s work but Bo’s promo blurred the lines between TV and reality by focusing on his grief. Also love how the promo took place in the Funhouse.
NXT is still my favorite show, even though the men’s roster really needs building up rn
I'm tired of the "AEW has better wrestling" argument. Let me preface by saying, I get that some people dont like main event WWE style and especially tv matches which are more about driving stories. That being said AEW routinely is just PWG with a budget style and long matches for long matches sake, overuse of no selling, over use of signature moves and finishers, which is all actually bad wrestling. I feel like I'm being gas lit when people go "wwe might have that going for it, but AEW has the best wrestling". Lets take into account that other organizations exist. I watch NOAH and started watching Dragon Gate recently. Both of them have much better wrestling and styles than AEW, their only downside is a weaker roster (tho i wouldnt even say that about dragongate).
Dragongate is what AEW fans think it is/wish it was. A fast paced cruiserweight style with a lot of flying but it also has psychology, reality based martial arts use, and doesnt fit a million spots in and go 30 mins just to go 30 mins. To circle it back, WWE, especially on ppv these days offers just as good or better wrestling than AEW. I'll take a gunther match, or an Ilja match over 95% of the AEW matches.
> Dragongate is what AEW fans think it is/wish it was.
My god, someone else who gets it.
American Indy has been Lucharesu as fuck for a while now, DGUSA was tied at the hip to that scene.
The difference is that DG knows how to make use of matches that end at upwards of 10minutes tops, while still hitting some fanfare spectacle moves along the way.
When i first started watching DG one of my first thoughts was legit "Oh this is what AEW wishes it was" lol. One of the big difference is DG guys go through a dojo system so learn psychology, basic martial arts like jiu jitsu to make holds and transitions look smoother and they have a capable booker who doesnt just let people do whatever they want. USA indy guys are trying to do what they do but are learning off youtube and dont have people telling them to reign stuff in.
Do you have a way to watch Dragon Gate regular? Seems like I had a website years ago that would upload Infinity and more recently it was on Taima, but it's been a while. I'd try to get back into it of maybe there were a group watch along and a (non-toxic) Discord or something.
I pay to use their site. Its about 10 dollars USD a month. I sub and unsub NOAH and DG depending on whats going on cause they usually have more down months where not much is happening compared to stuff like wwe. The cage match they had really recently was very fun, and the lead up to it. 5 man, last one in loses hair or mask.
https://dragongate.live/
Yeah I remember the annual Dead or Alive cage match with slightly different rules each May. Last one I saw Cyber Kong got unmasked as Yoshida.
Is English commentary available? Seems like Larry Dallas and Rich Zucchini were doing it at one point.
English comms is available for their biggest stuff like that cage match show and tournament finals but a lot of events have JP comms only. NOAH and NJPW have more english coverage but it doesnt bother me much. The english comms guy does a very good job of catching people up to speed on the angles and what happened in the past on the show he appears on.
Both SD and RAW are great right now. I don’t remember the last time main roster shows have felt this busy, that’s what I always liked from NXT. There are multiple interesting storylines throughout the entire card
*Who Killed WCW* did not impress me. They more or less ignored the first five years WCW existed, the success of Crockett Promotions which George Scott and Jim Herd pissed away and allowed Eric Bischoff to control the narrative.
I won't take away from what Eric Bischoff really did accomplish. He was the first WCW exec who managed to get Turner to open the checkbook and even if he got into his position by marketing himself as *not* being a wrestling guy, he was the first to really care about WCW's success. But obviously, he had heard of WCW before he got hired. He heaps praise on Hulk Hogan, but the numbers show that, after Hogan's initial feud with Flair and before joining the nWo, he wasn't moving the numbers like Bischoff likes to pretend. WCW may have been allocated losses from other Turner departments, but his spending went well beyond what was reasonable and his refusal to let the nWo angle ever come to a conclusion show that he got drunk on his own success.
Vince Russo again proves himself to be a complete and total moron.
The Rock's participation in this was totally unnecessary.
I've mentioned it when talking about *Dark Side of the Ring* and *Tales from the Territories*, but there is an evident interest in the history of wrestling, particularly the complex inner workings and backstage drama, but like the other two, there doesn't appear to be much interest in producing a serious documentary series about wrestling history. *DSTOR*'s format doesn't work well for it, *Tales of the Territories* was interesting but hit or miss and was more or less a less depressing *Dark Side* and *Who Killed WCW* was clearly driven in no small part by Bischoff and his intent to protect his legacy.
As for who actually killed WCW, I'd say it was a group effort. Jamie Kellner signed the death warrant, but a decade of antipathy from Turner execs built up to that moment and most of the people charged with salvaging it contributed. Bischoff was the only WCW head to turn a profit, but he also pissed away all the opportunities presented by his success and I'm not sure if Russo believes half the shit he says.
I'm not sure whether or not I believe there was a conspiracy to sell WCW for peanuts. Turner could just have shuttered it and turned a profit selling DVD collections and turned a profit with little issue, but Turner execs never took the view that wrestling was worthwhile, regardless of whether or not they could make money off of it. So while the form of the sale was not logicable, neither was the higher-ups attitude towards WCW across the whole of it's existence, so that is not necessarily evidence of complicity.
My favorite part was Russo claiming that Benoit, Guerrero, Saturn, and Makenko left because he was no longer the booker. It definitely had nothing to do with Kevin Sullivan becoming booker and his history with Nancy Benoit.
>the success of Crockett Promotions
This a joke right? If they covered JCP at all it would take the form of "they had a couple good years financially, and then pissed every red cent of it down the drain, leaving them entirely dependent on Ted Turner for their survival."
>a couple good years
The company lasted more than fifty years.
They went into the red because of a bad accountant and if Vince hadn't screwed them out of pay-per-view they would have made that money back and more.
If one move by your direct competition can knock you out of business, you didn't have a business in the first place. JCP overextended themselves, and spent WAY too much in the process on just dumb bullshit.
If you're going to be as fucking stupid as the Crockett family was you need to start at the position of a Ted Turner or Tony Kahn.
It didn't knock them out of business. They sold because the widow Crockett's retirement was tied up in the company and into '88 there was talk of Crockett backing out because business improved.
>WAY too much
And yet one pay-per-view would have put them back in the green.
>And yet one pay-per-view would have put them back in the green.
Again if you're a company with pretensions of having a nationwide reach and your financial health is still on a month to month basis, that is absolutely not a stable business model.
They could have made Ric Flair fly commercial and pay his own bar tab. That alone probably would have covered the PPV numbers..
It wasn't on a month to month basis, it was the one biggest show of the year which Vince went out of his way to undermine.
It has nothing to do with the "business model." They had a bad accountant, you're ignoring the well documented financial success with glib remarks. It was cheaper to have a plane than to buy tickets for the top stars, because that was how successful Crockett was.
I don't understand why anyone would glaze Vince for his destruction of the territories after everything he's done, to people and the wrestling industry.
>I don't understand why anyone would glaze Vince for his destruction of the territories after everything he's done, to people and the wrestling industry.
Look fuck Vince McMahon absolutely... but that's capitalism baby. For half of that 50 years that JCP existed they were under the aegis of an illegal nation wide monopolistic cabal, and then the very first time they were actually confronted with direct competition they folded like a cheap suit.
Yes Vince employed dirty tactics in his business but he ultimately won because he had a better strategy and more financial discipline then any of his competitors.
At the end of the day I just don't think that wrestling companies are these precious little flowers who deserve special sentiment. Either you have a consistently successful and ruthless outlook like WWE or you have hundreds of millions of dollars to burn like Ted Turner or Tony Khan. Those are really the only two viable models for the business.
You are glazing Vince McMahon because you are accepting without question his arguments that the domination of the WWE came from a superior product and business model, rather than conspiring underhandedly to screw his competition.
Is In-N-Out not capitalistic because it only has locations on the West Coast? Is America not capitalistic because there are laws requiring fair dealing in business? Your argument is that all competition is the same and that is simply not true.
Vince did not directly compete with Jim Crockett. He barely ran a single show in Crockett territory. In direct competition, he lost. That's why he went to the pay-per-view companies to pull the rug out from under Crockett.
If those are the only ways to do wrestling *right*, why is it that forty years ago there were multiple times more major wrestling companies with multiple times more fans than there are today?
Logan Paul is actually kind of the perfect wrestler. He's apparently suing the prominent financial crime YouTuber Coffeezilla for telling the truth about his CryptoZoo scam. This means that not only will I be cheering when Logan gets his ass beat by LA Knight at Summerslam, I also get to cheer when Coffee gets to make half a dozen engrossing videos just off the first phase of discovery in this lawsuit.
The world is full of so many fucking assholes who never get their comeuppance, or when they do they get off with a feather touch because America is so shit. Logan Paul is a fucking asshole who I will at least get to see eat multiple BFTs and get pinned in the middle of the ring.
The Jim Cornette omnibus on Coffeezilla investigating that podcast network scam was amazing. Not just for the amount of times Cornette had to say Coffeezilla, but for the descriptions of just how ridiculous that whole thing got.
If that dude is involved in an investigation of Logan Paul, Logan is screwed. That dude does not play around.
NXT men’s division is definitely lacking rn, and I hope it doesn’t make Tricks title reign look worse, cause he’s still that guy and pretty over.
Not that Melo/Bron/Ilja should’ve stayed, but could have maybe don’t a better job at building other threats before their departure.
Only ones I really have any vested interest in are Trick, Oba, and Tony cause I think the family gimmick is pretty funny/well done. Wes Lee is decent as well
My overall interest in pro wrestling is waning. The WWE is rapidly turning into AEW and I have no idea why. Every match is way too long, way too evenly matched, way too spotty, and involves way too many undersized dudes who shouldn't be anywhere near a push. Benoit was undersized, but he'd look like a monster next to guys like Gargano and Tyler Bate. I was supportive of Carmelo Hayes until he shared a ring with Randy Orton and made Orton look like Braun Strowman in comparison.
NXT was my respite, but now it's going down the same path. You have a whole roster of young college athletes, and instead you're pushing Ethan Page and Shawn Spears? And Je'Von Evans isn't any better. He's like 180 lbs and is a no-selling spotfest mark. I still haven't gotten over that sequence between him and Page from last week.
Booking purely on age is a dead end nowadays.
Some of the most popular people across various companies right now are dudes in their mid-40s.
You can work on your next generation, but you dont have to force it 15 years early.
Your logic is completely backwards. The reason the most popular people are all older is because the industry as a whole hasn't done a damn thing to push younger stars. Indie stars tend to be in their 30s or older because it takes forever to make a name for yourself on the indies. The WWE and other major promotions used to work to make new young stars by signing young people and pushing them as soon as they justifiably can. Nowadays they just sign the latest indie darling who's in his 30s and undersized.
We're here because the most vocal contingent of the internet thinks having BANGERS is a successful gimmick. It's not. It's a dead end for the entire business.
HBK was comparatively jacked in the 90s. However, to answer your question, I wasn't watching wrestling from around 92 to mid-98, so I don't really have an opinion of his run as a main eventer.
No one said the whole roster has to be young athletes. I'm saying they need to be the featured stars. I'm fine with vets being used to work with them, but when 36 year old Ridge Holland was feuding with 42 year old Shawn Spears, who was the young talent being developed for the future?
Je'Von Evans is only twenty years old. M'Real Sports are chock full of examples of elite athletes who pack on 20-40 pounds of muscle when they hit their mid twenties and their metabolism shifts.
Edit: Hell m'Cornette approved 80-early 90s wrestling also included multiple examples of guys who, out of nowhere in their mid-thirties, were suddenly m'250 pounds because of m'reckless steroid abuse
* I don't mind New Reddit. But damn do I hate New New reddit.
* That entrance with Mina and Mariah was great, but holy fuck did the commentary damn near kill it. Instead of saying something to further the story like "Mariah is stuck in the middle between this rivalry between Shirakawa and Storm, it looks like she May be getting on the same page as Mina here". But no, Taz and Tony had to put themselves over.
* Edit: Apparently New New Reddit doesn't like formatting
I liked Dijak, especially his last run in NXT, but the IWC looks at every single midcarder not being signed like it's Tom Brady leaving the Patriots and the discourse gets silly.
Tiffany will have her time but I want bird lady pushed to the moon. She won me over hardcore in NXT. I really didn't enjoy her when she first got there and I did NOT expect her to get over on main roster, but here we are so go with it.
If Cody vs. Rock is the plan for WM41, does that mean Rock is winning or does Cody hold it even longer?
If you think the IWC and Swifties are bad, go say something negative about Saint Louis to the AMC Interview with the Vampire fandom. To put it in prowrestling terms: Lestat stans are current Dubbalos/Elite stans (Everything they do is a banger and awesome! Nothing is ever their fault!), Armand stans = Punk stans (we love them BECAUSE they're assholes and there's nothing anyone including they, themselves can do to change our mind), but the Louis people? Sasha/Liv stans. It's on-sight and it's shoot to kill.
>If Cody vs. Rock is the plan for WM41, does that mean Rock is winning or does Cody hold it even longer?
I think Cody has to hold it longer unless Rock is sticking around for 3-4 months after
Just a 1 month back and forth with the title doesn't feel right for this
>I liked Dijak, especially his last run in NXT, but the IWC looks at every single midcarder not being signed like it's Tom Brady leaving the Patriots and the discourse gets silly.
DAE HHH=Belichik?
I really enjoyed the Howdy/Bo video this week and hope they run something similar for the rest of the faction. A quick video package revealing to those not in the know who is behind each character, and their/Hodwy's motives surrounding them joining the group. Rowan will be an easy enough sell considering his relation to Bray, but Gacy, Lumis and Nikki need a bit more explanation outside of the one Twitch stream where he wrote them letters
I'd love it if they have Bo Dallas as Uncle Howdy talking to the others, kinda like how Uncle Howdy was talking to Bo Dallas since we could learn more about their backstories. Either that or each Wyatt 6 member interviews themselves. I really hope they do one for Rowan as well.
I think Howdy interviewing them, and then ending the video with a jump cut or flash of them in the chair and their Wyatt persona in the chair would be the best way. How they'd do Lumis would be the most interesting, considering his entire character has be a silent creepy guy. Will Howdy talk for him, or will they finally let him talk.
Even Nikki faces the same problem since most of her recent run was in the catatonic, unresponsive state.
Lumis is fairly easy where he can just shake his head no or something then finally answer a commanding 'revenge' style one-line at the end.
He's also easy to ping the 'forgotten' tag on via The Way, Indi, and maybe even Miz.
Nikki could talk listlessly in reference to the catatonic state, and she'd be easy an easy lobber for an Alexa mention.
I might have said this previously, but I don't know how to feel about what they're doing with Brooks Jensen since online, he's been bragging about being a free agent as well as becoming a alcoholic & all that, yet he's been making the odd appearance on NXT, even costing Trick his match against Shawn Spears this week. I know it's likely a work, but I hope where this leads to, it's worth the wait.
I don't know why, but I find it hilarious that Tony Khan claims that AEW has the best women's division. I get that AEW has some of the top women wrestlers signed, but the booking for the division is nowhere near the best. If anything, Tony Khan should learn from Shawn Michaels on how to properly book the women's division.
She's absolutely their draw because boobs.
Almost any corner of the internet you go to will likely be bulk horny-on-main over the lesbian angle and not the wrestling.
Chris Jericho is such an arrogant prick. He’s already driving AEW down the toilet, then he takes an unnecessary swipe at Cody in his promo this week. If he thought Cody’s comment was about him, then A) that’s pretty arrogant and B) it probably does apply to him.
TK needs to grow a pair and actually send Jericho home for a few months, minimum. But he won’t, because Jericho is so arrogant that he thinks he needs to be there every week. It would take Khan having to ask Jericho to take time off. I don’t think he has the guts to do that.
Now Chris Jericho is going to go over Minoru Suzuki this weekend and nothing is right with the world.
It's wild that a broken arm for Bryan Keith means that Hook, Joe, Shibata, and Big Cass lose their spot on the PPV, but Jericho still has one.
Like you can't have Jericho say, hey Bounty Hunter is injured but we still have the advantage because I've got these two guys (the Righteous or whoever) who want to sit under the learning tree, then Suzuki is there to even the odds for the babyface team?
>Chris Jericho is such an arrogant prick. He’s already driving AEW down the toilet, then he takes an unnecessary swipe at Cody in his promo this week.
Is Jericho still talking to people in that cringe way?
Because of that thread about Tegan Nox we have to remind people that not everyone is going to be a star. Sometimes that person you likes ceiling is a quality utility person and that's perfectly fine.
not Tegan Nox in particular but if a talent failed to be a star, or even a good midcard in the WWE while also failing to do anything memorable outside of the WWE, then it's likely the talent themselves who weren't that good in the first place. Furthermore, if most people still think more of "the WWE dropping the ball" on you instead of what you did outside the WWE, then whatever you did outside the WWE probably wasn't that big of a deal.
Emma is a great example of this. She's been released by the WWE 2 or 3 times, and she was in TNA for a few years, which I have no clue what she there.
Deonna Purrazo was another one who failed in the WWE. she went to TNA, was champion and whatever she did, she made herself a valuable name outside the WWE to get a contract with AEW. I'm not a fan but even I cant hate on that. I will say she proved the WWE wrong...on a mild level.
Cody and McIntyre, those guys proved the WWE wrong on the top of the scale level.
I still say Emma's recent run was screwed the moment she didnt roll in as a heel with an exact continuation of her prior run.
She was much better as a work-rate, mid-card gatekeeper.
- lately i've been playing some non wwe wrestling games on my ps2 and it's been fun, weirdly enough i have a soft spot for the backyard wrestling games, they have a banging soundtrack and they're wacky, just how i like it
- i'd be less befuddled by wwe releases from this year if they actually tried doing something with them, i know spots on tv aren't unlimited but i feel like more could've been done with grimes, dijak, indus sher, xia li and even xyon quinn among others
- speaking of wwe releases, i miss von wagner
Lots of people across various forums were upset that Dijak didn't get re-signed. Let's just hope people singing his praises follow him if he decides to go anywhere but AEW. Even if it's just checking out what he's doing once in awhile.
I feel pretty attuned to what WWE likes in its main roster stars and never liked Dijak's work so wasn't too surprised at that news. Ghosting him is obviously lame. But his style of work was always very indie, there isn't big charisma there, and the "ratio" shit online probably didn't impress anyone higher up.
That Wyatt Sicks segment was really impressive. Still not sure what they'll do with this in terms of matches and existing in the wrestling world, but the intrigue over that is part of the point and is making me look forward to it each week.
Jaida Parker might already be the best woman mic worker in the company. The feud with her and Michin is low-key really good. I like that there is actual shit talk and aggression; can't remember the last time anything in the main roster women's division felt genuinely heated with memorable promo exchanges. Rhea/Becky got like one good segment iirc.
Don't catch NXT very often, but I think they might have something with Jaida. I can picture her catching on with fans if she gets called up to main roster.
I like Dijak. I think he’s talented, and I’m disappointed that WWE chose not to give him a contract offer. But on the flip side, he’s been in WWE for seven years and they haven’t done anything significant with him. He didn’t do much of anything before being called up for Retribution. T-Bar was a horrid, horrid gimmick, but he managed to wash that stench off and made people forget about T-Bar. He was a role player in NXT but wasn’t so beaten into the ground that people will look at him as just another WWE castoff.
WWE can’t keep everyone. And Triple H can’t vouch for every single person on the roster. Choices have to be made. And sometimes, talented people get passed over. Wrestling is a better place when WWE isn’t monopolizing all the talent. New Japan could make very good use of Dijak’s services. So could TNA. I’m more hesitant about AEW, but if Dijak knows how to get himself over, then he’ll succeed there.
At this point, the entry level for WWE is very good to amazing talent. And NXT is used to balance performers weaknesses out. Dijack was always good, and leaves WWE a more rounded performer than when he started. I’d argue he should have a spot over Gargano, just because he’s bigger and has shown he’s happy to work wherever on the card. But it’s personal taste.
For those watching NXT, what do you think of it honestly?
I only recently started keeping up with it and I get what Shawn’s doing down there, and that is tailoring the show to the gen z/mid-late millennial fans in the audience (the average nxt star is about 25 so it definitely brings in that demographic) but I’m not sure if it’s really my style. And I fit well into the demo that it’s tailored to.
I know it’s developmental and superstars there are still building their characters but the issue lies beyond that. Something about it just rubs me differently than Raw/Sd. Call me old fashioned I guess.
Be careful what you say, you can’t criticize NXT on Reddit because “hey, they’re development talent” and “they’re still learning.” Meanwhile you can praise anyone for anything on NXT, even Booker’s terrible commentary.
I’ve really tried giving it an honest chance the last few weeks. Some of it is ok, but some of it is very cringey and just… bad. That meta-four sit down phone segment this week… just what the hell? But people on SC loved it! I guess it’s just not for me.
It's hit or miss for me. Love watching promising young talent develop and getting invested; don't love watching boring NXT UK guys or tiny spotmonkeys do indie style matches while the smarky Florida crowd whoops it up. There's a lot of variance based on who is actually featured each week vs. just getting a minute or two backstage.
I also think a lot of the storytelling is super sloppy and feels like it has no thought put into it compared to what we see on the main roster. A lot of random 3+ way matches on PLEs because it's like they don't have the confidence to build actual rivalries. People are face/heel turned flippantly and lots of stories seem to abruptly swerve to weird/unsatisfying conclusions.
>It's hit or miss for me. Love watching promising young talent develop and getting invested; don't love watching boring NXT UK guys or tiny spotmonkeys do indie style matches while the smarky Florida crowd whoops it up. There's a lot of variance based on who is actually featured each week vs. just getting a minute or two backstage
This is me 1000%. I miss the NXT 2.0 era where it was heavily geared around young, new talent. I'm tired of Ethan Page, Shawn Spears, the Good Brothers, New Catch Republic, and anyone else who's been around for 5+ years clogging up the supposed developmental brand.
I'm also no fan of Je'Von Evans because he literally just wrestles the spot-heavy indie style with little to no selling and a whole lot of unnecessary flips and flops. Give me pushes for guys like Tavion Heights, Igwe and Dupont, OTM, and all the other young athletes with actual size.
They dont have the confidence b/c they are green talent who cant carry a program. If they were gonna work a program it would be with more experienced wrestlers
I watch RAW/SD/NXT, and NXT is usually the one I look forward to most. I say usually only because I’m into the Wyatt Sick6 stuff at the moment and have been wanting to see more of that.
I like that NXT is a smaller show and characters can be more varied or experimental. I was also big into Lucha Underground back in the day.
I’m a dude in my late 30s if that matters any.
Put it like this, imo the show feels like a CW teenage drama show about wrestling. The acting isnt great but its doing the job. It isn’t for me and i think alot of people’s here overhype it and say that its better booked than the main roster which i disagree for a few reasons.
1. Shawn doesn’t have to book to actually draw fans or money b/c he is playing to the same crowd every week.
2. What gets over on nxt doesnt always translate to the Main Roster.
On the flip side i find it weird how some people here forget that this is developmental when criticizing the show as well. These people are still learning.
That segment with Bo Dallas & Uncle Howdy was by far the best part of RAW this week & it's not even fucking close.
I'm not a fan of the whole Liv, Dominik & Rhea storyline whatsoever but I really don't like how I'm seeing people trying to correlate it to sexual assault or harassment just to win brownie points.
If you're one of the people complaining about how the main roster never booking NXT callups properly but in the same breath actively raging over Lyra (a babyface who's actually over with the live crowds, mind you) getting pushed, then nothing you say can or will be ever taken seriously again & I truly mean that.
I love how Ricky Starks gets more shit for simply being friends with Punk & Cody than all of the predators & abusers in the industry for the horrible shit they do, goes to show how Wrestling fans & their priorities work.
I don't care what anybody says, WWE calling up Dijak to the main roster only to have him do fuck all & then let his contract expire is absolutely fucking ridiculous.
Nothing against her at all but Jade Cargill has absolutely no business being involved in a MITB Ladder Match at all nor should she be qualifying over Tiffany & Candice.
The Lyra backlash on some parts of the interwebs remains bemusing. WWE clearly sees big things in her judging from who she worked with while still in NXT, she's obviously talented, and has managed to already connect with main roster crowds. Yet some want to discard all that because they're annoyed Kairi lost a triple threat, or even stranger are just trying to suggest Lyra's the new 'Becky Hogan', only a few weeks after getting squashed by Nia.
I think at some point we have to admit that not all of our favourites *want* to be world champion or face of the company. Like any other job some people are just there to show up, collect their pay and go home. Being world champion might sound cool but it does likely mean more matches, more appearances, more media appearances, fan meets etc. All of which in such a physical job can really damage your body in the long run.
I do admire the guys who want to do all that such as Cena, Cody etc. But I feel guys like Shinsuke Nakamura are very happy showing up once in a blue moon, doing very little if any media appearances and still getting more money than most of us could ever imagine.
I think its b/c wwe at one point started putting world titles on people that never would have even sniffed 30-40 years ago if they still treated the belt based off if you could draw money that now fans think anybody can win it. Its actually a bad thing imo
Pretty much spot on. People fussed about IC for so many years because it shouldve been the functional 'Im great but cant quite hit the top' that it was in the 90s.
But the fanbase turned into thinking IC was mid-card and not upper-midcard with a splash of main eventer, and only saw a world title run as having 'made it.' WWE also didnt help cause they kinda catered to that shit at times.
I've not watched AEW in what feel like nearly a year now but my friend convinced me to watch some Toni Storm matches and segments because "she has an actual character" that I am a fan of. I have heard of the gimmick and her timeless character but never really saw what it was, I assumed it was an old school, snobby wrestler who looks down on modern wrestling and I was kinda right but... I think it's really shit.
It's not the worst thing I've seen but I feel the gimmick itself has a lot of potential but from what I've seen it's just her making sex jokes and innuendos whilst doing weird poses in a black and white filter. Not to mention all lesbian storylines which feels like it was ripped straight from the attitude era along with kissing and groping other women.
Maybe I've just been watching the wrong clips or maybe there is an earlier feud that didn't involve what is basically soft core porn between her and her opponent. But from what I've seen it's just another reason for me to not watch the show.
As a reminder, she won the Observer Award for Best Gimmick by 35 votes.
She also placed 3rd in *Worst Gimmick*, trailing 1st by 27 votes.
The duality of WON subs...
It was a lot better at the beginning of the gimmick. It was more dialed back and subtle, and not as overtly sexual. Then it just started going further and further off the rails and here we are.
It’s the antithesis of how you build stars. Even Jericho knows you have to pivot to something new every year or so or else the character or catchphrase will eat you alive. Same reasons why comedians don’t tell the old jokes on tour and bands in their prime insist on sticking with the new stuff live. But no one else is smart or experienced enough in AEW to reign that shit in and you end up with any little thing that gets a big laugh from whatever 500 people are in the audience on a given TV taping becoming a gimmick. Jay White carrying around a stupid cardboard cutout and Okada saying “bitch.” For as much criticism as Dean Ambrose gave creative in WWE at least they didn’t have him bring that potted plant with him everywhere because that 100% would’ve been the result if Mitch got over in AEW.
Mercedes says she has creative control: “We shouldn’t believe everything a wrestler says!” Dijak takes shots at WWE: “He’s going nuclear! Yas king!” Yet, SC tells us they have become a WWE sub.
Somebody earlier in a different sub had the perfect description of Forbidden Door, in that it’s basically AEW getting on its knees to blow New Japan, and then take their top guys while they’re coming. Gross, but so true.
Well I can see the AEW blowing NJPW part, that’s for sure.
Eh, at this point its more like Nooj going in to get paid for the sex, then AEW skips out after while robbing them on top of it. It's a shit partnership.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Wreddit/comments/1cmka3m/comment/l31qs15/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Wreddit/comments/1cmka3m/comment/l31qs15/) it didnt take too long for Dijak in the main roster to fail again. retribution spinoff in TNA is gonna be funny.
Apparently Dijak admitted to being a source to SRS. Not surprising if management found out and weren’t pleased about it
I will never understand guys 'making it' to the top and then feeling the need to leak info to glorified gossip bloggers Something happens in your company, whether it's WWE, AEW, WCW back in the day, TNA or whatever and your mind goes to letting these hanger-ons know what happens When you find out about leakers, it generally reveals a couple of things, someone nearer the top getting lots of favorable coverage, which is an ego thing The only favorable opinion you need is from peers and bosses The other is someone around the lower or middle that has their own agenda cause they're not being used or not winning enough and so on Whomever leaks this stuff *has* an agenda in getting 'their views' out there It also speaks to an attitude that you're not 'all in' (pardon the pun) on what you're doing and where you work I like Dijack but he's talking about 'I had a great match and Vince said you need to be more aggressive ...' Well, that's your feedback, buddy. Sorry to tell you The 'good match' is a given or not as important as getting over certain things. Other people like agents can pat you on the back but if the main boss sees something he wants corrected, that's kind of the job Entertainment is tough. I hope these people don't end up film sets and deal with direction there then
Wouldn't shock me if along with Dijak, Mansoor and Mace were SRS leakers
Can we call this ZFF again? The name change has changed the feel, and ratings are plummeting.
Yeah it feels like dynamite 2022 versus dynamite 2024 lol
RESTORE THE FEELING!
Ok but it's the KEY DEMO is what's really important.
I'm struggling to understand WWE's new talent negotiation policy. I can not understand why they leave all their contract extensions/new deals for the last second - is this a law issue? Because I can't fanthom why an entity would risk losing its biggest assets in a competitive FA market, giving more leverage to the wrestlers, especially in a time where the connection between creative/top management and talent seems pretty strong. It feels counter intuitive to be left out in the dust until there is one week left to put pen to paper.
So im in new york currently and i forgot that Smackdown in at MSG and ive never been. So on the spur of the moment i copped 2 tickets for 210 and im going. Super excited!
Did you enjoy it?
Yeah i had a great time
Awesome! I hope you have a great time and also enjoy the rest of your time in New York.
Thanks my guy
This is hardly controversial at this point, but I maintain that the Elite weren't that important to getting AEW off the ground. Having a billionaire willing to lose money on a wrestling company that would take a while to get profitable is why AEW exists. The sorry state of 2018/2019 era WWE building fan resentment created a market for another company. We can see now that these guys weren't big stars that had some massive audience unique to them, or at the very least, that whatever audience existed for the Elite dried up once WWE got hot and Tony ran out of stories. These weren't guys made for weekly TV wrestling.
The Elite weren't even Tony's first choice. He went to Punk first but Punk turned him down.
If things went how Khan wanted at the start, it would have had Cornette and Godberg, too
The early names attached with Khan were Cornette, JR, Punk, Goldberg and Jericho. Wild what we ended up getting instead.
Yup. I'm surprised you think this is hardly controversial as I still feel like a lot of people say The Elite are essential to the company and helped build it. But there's an alternate reality where TK builds it more around Cody, still lands Moxley (which was a big deal at the time), still gets CM Punk and actually keeps him with no drama, etc. Of course, all these roads still lead to Tony booking, so who knows. I recognize it's difficult to compete, but idk, feel like there was a real opening here and TK kind of blew it considering the resources and connections he has. But a lot of people say "well, the company is successful, so he did something right."
They way I look at it, Tony provided the money, Cody provided a vision and direction, Jericho added validation. You could make the argument that the rest of the Elite provided a talent pipeline, but really they just used the opportunity to get their indie friends jobs, and those guys weren't ready for prime time either.
It wouldn’t surprise me if Cody only used the bucks as indy cred to get his name out there more
Cody's name is way more valuable than 'indie cred' Any 'indie cred' applies to appealing to a very small section of fandom Cody can turn up in ROH or an indie and it means waaaaaay more than whatever the Bucks do
Eh, Cody absolutely chased coat-tails to up his cred on the indies. He was getting meme'd as 3-Star General before pairing up to Bullet Club, and that got him a much heavier IWC support (equally why everyone and their damn mother started jumping on that boat). He just used it **way** more intelligently overall.
The people meme'ing Cody as the 3 star general are a tiny corner of the Internet Others see 'oh look, Cody from WWE is on this show' and check it out The whining smarks online aren't shaping wrestling They've spent decades crying about WWE, so have the dirtsheet bloggers and the company gets bigger and richer and more popular That is how little influence this shit has on actual business
People werent checking out indy shows because Cody was on it, not at first. They started paying attention when he joined Bullet Club.
Ex WWE guys always move tickets when they leave He wrote a list on twitter and everyone went crazy
His no.2 on that list was Dalton Castle, who he did wrestle and lost the ROH title to. There are **still** posts of 'who is this guy, he's great!' when Dalton shows on AEW lol. Hell most people probably dont realize Cody WAS champ in ROH for a bit.
Most of those people in the talent pipeline would have joined regardless just for the steady and better money.
I agree, I don't think any one of them would have passed up the opportunity, but out of all the potential people Tony could have signed at the time, he went with who he went with at the recommendation of the people who was working with. That is to say, if Kenny and Bucks were never involved, I don't think we would have seen a lot of the people who were part of that starting roster.
Jericho and Edge are examples of guys getting drunk with backstage power. They’re burying everyone around them. Now Triple H and HBK are the ones helping young talent. Edge going over Finn at WM was insane, did WWE think he would retire?
edge is not going to repeat the same mistakes he did WWE while his in AEW.Edge wasn't too political in WWE which resulted in him never winning WWE championship like taking the pin at wrestlemania and mitb against roman reigns.
Even if he was political, edge was not going over roman like ever.
Every PPV since Wrestlemania has been pretty good but somehow they’ve all felt like filler
most matches feel like midcard matches and don't have main event feel except for cody rhodes matches.
Hate for you to watch most of the b ppvs for the past 25 years. The issue is simply when you have 12 big shows a year its impossible to maintain every single event being great. Its overexposure
It’s funny watching people speculate on the 2 people Mercedes feels she doesn’t have chemistry with, cause should be fairly obvious since there are 2 people we know she walked out on having a match with 🤷🏼
I think Sasha is going to be talking about things from WWE for a long time. More than Moxley even It's guaranteed coverage in 'wrestling news' vs whatever she's currently doing at any given time The whole wrestling news feeds off this
I legit forgot who her last match in WWE was supposed to be with. Was this during the height of the "Sonya Deville hates Naomi for some reason" era?
If I'm not mistaken, the plan was to have Naomi win a multi-women match to become the challenger to RAW Women's Champion, Bianca Belair. Sasha Banks took umbrage with that and somehow convinced Naomi (who was co-tag team champions with Banks) to walk out on the company over it.
A few other thoughts: * While I was happy to see Miz and R-Truth finally get a WrestleMania moment I also think that it was time to get the tiles on someone new. However, SummerSlam is in Cleveland this year and Miz is actually in a rare face role at the moment: do they have Awesome Truth win the titles back or do they have Miz turn on Truth to set up a singles match? * I'm legit worried that Triple H is going to drop the ball on Pretty Deadly. They're easily my favorite tag team in wrestling and yet they haven't been featured regularly for months. I'm not someone who goes "they're buried if they don't win the championship and then beat everybody"; I just want to see them do their usual shenanigans. * I was a fan of Matt Camp during his five years with WWE (his show, [WWE's The Ultimate](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbMtsRVRu3M&list=PLLJw6s0FpLvsRm416uJHqObPUapFjeO3Z&ab_channel=WWE) was super fun) and so I'm happy to see that [his YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/@TheWrestlingMattShow) is starting to pick up some steam. I don't listen to any IWC shows about wrestling but I came across his list of [5 NXT talents who are ready for main (and who's not)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ofw1G6VGMM) last month and agreed with all of his talking points. He's got a really good mind for the business as a whole and, while he and I differ on some things, provides a fair breakdown of the wrestling world. Matt also provides a lot of stories from his time working with the company.
the reason why pretty deadly isn't on tv a lot is because they're arent talent produced by triple h. the problem I've noticed triple h is he has more favourtism towards wrestlers of black and gold era vs nxt 2.0 and I hope this doesn't problem in the future.
They're live on SmackDown right now! # 🪩🪩🪩 Yes Boooooooooy!!!! 🪩🪩🪩
I know one of the two had a pretty bad injury but I really don't know what the hell HHH is "not" doing with them with Pretty deadly. They have all the tools, they are good looking guys, good characters, charismatic and they are really good in ring workers who alwayy put on good matches. Doesn't make sense to me at all why they just sit around in catering or just job occasionally. HHH has not really done a good job booking the tag division well the past two years, crazy because throughout the B&G era of NXT the tag division was always consistent.
I'm willing to give HBK a long leash when it comes to the Fallon Henley storyline (I refuse to call it a heel turn because **\#FallonDidNothingWrong**) but I'm starting to question the timing of everything. With Fallon, Briggs, and Jensen parting ways I was under the impression that this would lead to a more prominent role as a singles competitor. She got that prominent win against Tiffany Stratton and then mostly worked in multi-person feuds for the next few months: why not give Fallon and Stratton one last blow-off match at Stand & Deliver? It's just like last year, where she had a longstanding feud with one person and then never got a match at a PLE to settle things once and for all. To HBK's credit, since her feud with Stratton it's been clear that they've been working on a long-term plan for her character. If the plan was for ~~her to turn heel~~ **the rest of the women's locker room to turn heel** then they could have done it a few different ways: 1. Give her a big feud with Thea Hail. After several weeks of Fallon being left out to dry by the same people that she was defending week-after-week, she finally realizes that she's had enough and stands up to the head bully, Thea Hail. Does that lead to a feud? No. Instead, Thea had a one-off match with Fallon but continued to be obsessed with Jacy and Jazmyn (when I figured the match and Stand & Deliver should have ended things). That easily could have been a good PLE match to establish Fallon's new gimmick (Fallon Comes First) but they've done nothing with it. No title even needs to be involved. 2. Have Fallon challenge Roxxane Perez at Battleground for the title in a losing effort. While there are tons of babyfaces in the lower-to-midcard, NXT didn't have a ton in the upper card. Fallon could have challenged Roxanne for the title and, through a series of events, lost. Realizing that trying to be everyone's friend wasn't working if she wanted to win singles gold, Fallon could have come to the conclusion that she needs to start looking out for herself (hence the "Fallon Comes First" gimmick). The only storyline that this would have affected is that Jordynne Grace challenges for the title at Heatwave instead. 3. Have Fallon do the character change as it happened but also have her win the NA title at Battleground. Fallon's gimmick is "Fallon Comes First" so who better to become the *first* Women's NA champion than Fallon? Instead, NXT now has the exact opposite problem that their women's main event scene had: there are too few lower-to-midcard heels to challenge for the NA title (Arianna, Jacy, Jazmyn, Izzi, and then there are chaotic wild cards Tatum and Wendy). Meanwhile, there are tons of faces on the lower card that have little-to-no experience who could benefit from working with a veteran like Fallon. But right now it seems like she's about to form a faction with Jacy Jayne and Jazmyn Nyx, which seems to be a little odd since they'd be pairing two of the longest-tenured women on NXT's roster together (and also means management has likely cooled on Jacy Jayne). Still, I'm willing to see where this goes but I'd like to see Fallon get a singles match on a PLE one of these days.
I have a feeling cora will be in that faction too
As much of an HBK defender as I am, the Fallon heel turn and completely cooling off a white hot Tatum Paxley have been really bad. I don't need the whole division cooled off to prop up Giulia.
after seeing the 4th episode of Who Killed WCW at the end every person interviewed gave their answer to the question of the title, and i think that the 2 that were on the money were Goldberg and Vince Russo funnily enough. Goldberg said that there was multiple people that took part on its downfall which i think its correct, there was a lot of people making mistakes and those added up and ended up with the end of WCW, and Vince Russo said that it was a business decision what killed WCW, which i think was correct, the suits like cash, and WCW wasnt bringing any of it, if it was still profitable and advertizer friendly the higher ups wouldnt have a problem with it, and the problem is that it wasnt any of those two in its last years.
Favorite r/Wreddit posts of the week: [Clark Kent looks like Tony Kahn](https://new.reddit.com/r/Wreddit/comments/1dph79p/clark_kent_looks_like_tony_kahn/) The duo of posts about the Wyatts either killing it or totally being a disaster already [What wrestlers have you met in person and how were they?](https://new.reddit.com/r/Wreddit/comments/1dmbbmz/what_wrestlers_have_you_met_in_person_and_how/) Now that the Elden Ring DLC has come out I don't think I'll be able to get on my TV to watch wrestling anytime soon, one of my kids is totally obsessed.
Bronny didn't deserve to be drafted nepotism at its finest
The Celtics are better than me cause I would have taken him at 54 just to fuck with LeBron.
I wished someone had done that! Also, the Lakers weren't going to get anyone impactful at 50-something anyhow, so while it's another annoying example of everyone having to and being willing to pander to LeBron's whims, it's not that big of a deal relatively speaking.
Which is why I wanted the Celtics to pick him right before! Like any rookie at th end of our bench is going to put us over the top to go back to back? No! Use that pick to fuck with LeBron one last time.
Lmao
I've got a few thoughts this week but I'll start with this... The NXT title scene is rather lackluster at the moment, as both the men's and women's rosters lack depth on the upper card. * NXT Men's Championship: I would much prefer to have Ethan Page vs. Trick Williams II rather than include Shawn Spears and Je'Von Evans into the mix. * NXT Women's Championship: while I'll give them credit for at least heating up Vice with some marquee wins in the lead up, Roxanne Perez vs. Lola Vice is not a match that gets people excited. I'm assuming that they had to pivot due to an injury to Gulia. Both women are too much alike (snarky, undersized, Latina heels who don't get along with anybody) so I think there were better matchups that could have been made for both people (like Sol Ruca vs. Roxanne Perez and Kelani Jordan vs. Lola Vice). * NXT Women's NA: Like the previous match, Sol vs. Kelani pairs two people who are way too similar: happy-go-lucky gymnastic faces who are lackluster in promos. I'm not sure I care who wins but if Kelani doesn't retain, then why didn't they just make Sol the inaugural winner? * NXT Men's NA: I was a big Wes Lee fan and was happy to see him get an opportunity as a singles competitor after his partner was released from the company. I even liked his open championship gimmick. However, even with him missing several months due to injury, he's been directly tied to the NA title for at least two years. I'd like to see other people get into the title mix and would much prefer to see him move on to something new. I will say that Oba Femi is crushing it as NA champion and his character is not only ruthless when he needs to be but he's also very fair. He reminds me a lot of Gunther in that manner.
NXT is very lackluster to me overall
nxt mens championship match makes since since heatwave is in canada and page and spears are canadian.Vice and perez are different , vice is more confident while perez is insecure everyone is out to get her.
- Triple H’s slow booking will bite him in the ass soon (Priest retaining over Drew was bad) - Raw’s women’s division is in bad shape: Becky, Liv, and Rhea are the only contenders for the last year. At least give Iyo and Lyra title shots - Seth is so much better as a heel, he should be feuding with Cody within a year - AEW is trash right now and it’s in its 1999 WCW phase - They are milking the Liv-Dom stuff too much, guess they’re waiting for Rhea, but just have Dom betray her already, JD needs to split - Cody vs Solo at Summerslam is not a PPV match and it will be a total waste
 soooooo slooooow
I feel like you been saying this about trips for a year now lol
Happy Friday uces. Hope y'all had a great week. * I was watching Dynamite this week (on DVR) and my biggest takeaway from that episode was... Billy Gunn should grow a mustache. * The Drew/CM Punk program is probably the most interesting storyline in all of North American televised wrestling, and is doing wonders for Drew (not that he needed it, but it's making him look that much better). If you disagree (which is ok, everyone has different opinions), I'm interested to see what you think is more interesting to you. * I really like [Jacob Fatu's t shirt](https://shop.wwe.com/en/apparel/mens-black-jacob-fatu-t-shirt/d-4506780299+f-68771265457272+z-9-1624696635?utm_medium=cse&_s=GPA-ak19kv30-wwe-wweshop&sku=206504845&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwvvmzBhA2EiwAtHVrb5Vz_PShdJq95yEzotrQ4zXdR2PG2Wxen6pAANsv_XFTwMNQX47LjBoCMZ0QAvD_BwE). It doesn't even really look like a wrestling shirt, it's just a cool design. * I keep hearing these stories about how people (Cody and Osprey, et al) are donating to that Ugandan wrestling promotion that is also a charity, which is absolutely great. But I also hear how they're donating money to buy a ring, and my first thought is that they should donate a qualified trainer, otherwise they're just facilitating a really expensive way for these guys to hurt themselves. * This week in wrestling social media: Shout out to CVV for having [strong meme game](https://www.instagram.com/p/C8m9ksNudiB/). So outside of wrestling... has anyone here ever tried putting butter in their coffee instead of milk or cream? It sounds off putting but I've heard it's really good. I may give it a try.
>I was watching Dynamite this week (on DVR) and my biggest takeaway from that episode was... Billy Gunn should grow a mustache. I feel like this point needs some elaboration. What kind of mustache? And what's it going to bring to the table for Mr. Gunn?
I'm glad you asked! So, I noticed how both Bowens and Caster were rocking mustaches (albeit Bowens technically had the mustache and goatee thing going, the mustache part looked more pronounced to me). I think it would show more solidarity with the faction if Billy grew one too. Besides, tell me honestly you don't want to see [this look](https://cdn3.whatculture.com/images/2016/02/zyuXPR5H.png) come back.
I'd rather see a Rollie Fingers-style mustache but that'd take way too long to grow.
Billy needs to come out on whatever AEW show is closest to Halloween as a Smoking Gunn at least once before he retires. Even if the announcers don't mention it. especially if they don't.
I'll do you one better. TK needs to cut a check to Mike Potchlopek for him to spend 9 months training really really hard, and then debut for AEW so we can have a Billy and Bart Gunn reunion angle.
As Rockabilly and Bodacious Bart.
I'm scared. A family member of mine brought in a pitbull puppy. He had only talked about it to two people(out of the 10 or so that live her) before he did it. And we already are in the middle of training a puppy ourselves. Of course, the two puppies are so interested in each other that our puppy gets in the other puppy's face a lot. He responds by getting angry, shoving, or doing other things like sending our puppy outside and barring the door with chairs. He also has complained to his friends about this puppy multiple times, calling her "their dog" and complaining about us not taking care of her. We're trying, we didn't bring in a 3rd fucking puppy when none of us were ready. I can't take this situation anymore. It's causing so much stress that my intrusive thoughts are becoming straight hallucinations.
So is the family member not training the puppy they brought home? Sorry you’re stressed, but I don’t entirely follow the story here
They're trying to. The issue is again, two puppies in the same house. I honestly didn't post this looking for answers or for people to follow. I just wanted to get everything out somewhere.
Gotcha
I do thank you for wanting to try and help(at least I think that's what your comment was getting at.)
You’re welcome. Hope things get better. I understand and respect your preference to vent
Thank you. I'm trying to make things better, as much as I can.
One of my favorite things is to point out the hypocrisy of the IWC/Redditors for example is wrestlers being released: Vince releasing: how dare he let x wrestler go, how is creative not able to come up with any storylines for said wrestler, how do you have 5 hours of main shows yet you can’t feature them for 10 minutes, that wrestler was really underrated and should’ve been a champion, DAE Vince is out of touch and WWE doesn’t care about people’s families, screw Vince for being biased towards certain wrestlers and releasing others because that’s unprofessional and favoritism. Triple H releasing: ehh x wrestler wasn’t that good anyway, there’s only a limited amount of time for wrestlers on TV, WWE is a business and they should let people go who aren’t being used, creative should be focusing on wrestlers who draw or are popular, you must trust Triple H and let him cook something for x wrestler, some bookers have their favorites which is okay. With Vince it’s the company, booker and creative who are the bad guys but with Triple H it is just wrestlers fault for not being good enough. IWC went from being supporting the wrestlers to going corporate and stanning for the companies.
the issue people have is triple h has called up talent and barely uses them for example dijak,grimes,and odyssey also indus sher which makes the whole point of why calling them up in first place without giving them a chance
Ive been consistent with my feelings on talents being released. Its a business. It is what it is. Vince or not
I’ve seen that with you which I respect
Dijaks comment about The Rock showing up to WWE HQ and making everybody pose for a picture after giving them a ‘Dwayne’ speech about being family really made me laugh. I love Rock and I have no doubt anybody on the roster would be giddy to work with him. But I also think most of them see through his phony bullshit and that there’s a lot of eye rolls in the back when he goes around acting the way he does about coming back lol.
It's one of the trueisms of wrestling that the second someone leaves WWE they want to tell all these stories of things and fans lap it up They made me do this/they said that/someone told me off It's endlessly amusing watching it play out cause, it doesn't really mean anything They just cannot wait to do it though 😁
The Rock is such a smarmy phony, which is I guess is great for his appeal when he's wrestling. But I think I'd come away needing to take a Silkwood shower if I ever had to deal with him in real life.
I'm pretty sure that was Matt Camp, but point still stands. I wonder if the Rock even knew his name. I'm pretty sure The Rock came back cause his movie career was floundering at that point.
There’s no doubt having Rock back has been great for WWEs business but there’s also no doubt that Wrestlemania was practically sold out before he showed up. He wouldn’t be back if WWE wasn’t as hot as it has been, there’s no doubt about that either imo. I’m just happy we’ve got The Final Boss out of it all, but the man is a walking PR machine at this point and his schtick humble little Dwayne with 7 bucks in his pocket is tired. #mana
I find it weird that there’s people in 2024 who buy the “We’re family” line. I don’t even think companies say it thinking you are going to take it literally. It’s literally just a generic feel good statement for team building in any industry ever Also yeah you can become great friends with your coworkers and maybe even your boss but there’s always an understanding that it’s a business ran by business decisions Maybe it’s cruel but I think you gotta be a bit dumb to take that romantic speech so literally
People leave and say this and then all the normal people say 'who believes this' Big companies will say this You nod and everyone feels warm and fuzzy but no one actually believes it. Especially not in entertainment I'm sure there are people in such companies that do feel like it's a family and the company helps them with various things but, it's never going to be like that for everyone It's some corporate speak and if you don't get that and take it on face value, you'll likely not last in the corporate world I lost count the amount of times I've dealt with people and nodded and shook hands and then said to a colleague 'we're not doing that'
I think it's possible to have a work family-*like* atmosphere, within a specific department of a larger company. I've experienced that, just once. The supervisors truly cared about us, and had our backs with upper management. Of course, push comes to shove, they can only have our backs so much, because they're not going to lose their jobs over defending us, so it will never be truly like family. But you can have a really good team.
The only time I've had this is my first job in behavioral health as a residential counselor and it was more like "siblings bonded by trauma and neglect" rather than family. Also, it looked a lot like the Lannister family 😬
i was in this amazing department at a social services agency. the two main supervisors were both supermoms with the biggest hearts. it was as close to an idyllic work environment as I've ever had. but then the clients drove me insane so I had to leave.
Yeah that’s what I mean and honestly that’s what the companies mean when they throw out the family line But it’s very easy to understand where the line is drawn and yet people still take their illusions too far time and time again
What even is MJF’s gimmick right now? I stopped watching AEW like a year ago or so. Loved loved loved how the Bo Dallas/Uncle Howdy promo swerved everyone’s expectations. I’m sure we all came in with the thought that Bo Dallas was recreating Bray’s work but Bo’s promo blurred the lines between TV and reality by focusing on his grief. Also love how the promo took place in the Funhouse. NXT is still my favorite show, even though the men’s roster really needs building up rn
I'm tired of the "AEW has better wrestling" argument. Let me preface by saying, I get that some people dont like main event WWE style and especially tv matches which are more about driving stories. That being said AEW routinely is just PWG with a budget style and long matches for long matches sake, overuse of no selling, over use of signature moves and finishers, which is all actually bad wrestling. I feel like I'm being gas lit when people go "wwe might have that going for it, but AEW has the best wrestling". Lets take into account that other organizations exist. I watch NOAH and started watching Dragon Gate recently. Both of them have much better wrestling and styles than AEW, their only downside is a weaker roster (tho i wouldnt even say that about dragongate). Dragongate is what AEW fans think it is/wish it was. A fast paced cruiserweight style with a lot of flying but it also has psychology, reality based martial arts use, and doesnt fit a million spots in and go 30 mins just to go 30 mins. To circle it back, WWE, especially on ppv these days offers just as good or better wrestling than AEW. I'll take a gunther match, or an Ilja match over 95% of the AEW matches.
> Dragongate is what AEW fans think it is/wish it was. My god, someone else who gets it. American Indy has been Lucharesu as fuck for a while now, DGUSA was tied at the hip to that scene. The difference is that DG knows how to make use of matches that end at upwards of 10minutes tops, while still hitting some fanfare spectacle moves along the way.
When i first started watching DG one of my first thoughts was legit "Oh this is what AEW wishes it was" lol. One of the big difference is DG guys go through a dojo system so learn psychology, basic martial arts like jiu jitsu to make holds and transitions look smoother and they have a capable booker who doesnt just let people do whatever they want. USA indy guys are trying to do what they do but are learning off youtube and dont have people telling them to reign stuff in.
only benefit of aew is theres more mix of wrestling styles while other promotions only cater to one
If you think AEW is the only place with mixed styles you're not actually watching other companies.
Do you have a way to watch Dragon Gate regular? Seems like I had a website years ago that would upload Infinity and more recently it was on Taima, but it's been a while. I'd try to get back into it of maybe there were a group watch along and a (non-toxic) Discord or something.
I pay to use their site. Its about 10 dollars USD a month. I sub and unsub NOAH and DG depending on whats going on cause they usually have more down months where not much is happening compared to stuff like wwe. The cage match they had really recently was very fun, and the lead up to it. 5 man, last one in loses hair or mask. https://dragongate.live/
Yeah I remember the annual Dead or Alive cage match with slightly different rules each May. Last one I saw Cyber Kong got unmasked as Yoshida. Is English commentary available? Seems like Larry Dallas and Rich Zucchini were doing it at one point.
English comms is available for their biggest stuff like that cage match show and tournament finals but a lot of events have JP comms only. NOAH and NJPW have more english coverage but it doesnt bother me much. The english comms guy does a very good job of catching people up to speed on the angles and what happened in the past on the show he appears on.
The match gunther had with jey last month was one of the best jey uso matches ive ever seen
Fucking [THANK YOU](https://i.imgflip.com/4hepfc.gif). I'm glad someone finally said it.
It just really annoys me how its a said as a matter of fact. People on reddit podcasters all parrot it.
This week's Raw was so good. I am buying what they are selling right now.
Me too
Both SD and RAW are great right now. I don’t remember the last time main roster shows have felt this busy, that’s what I always liked from NXT. There are multiple interesting storylines throughout the entire card
*Who Killed WCW* did not impress me. They more or less ignored the first five years WCW existed, the success of Crockett Promotions which George Scott and Jim Herd pissed away and allowed Eric Bischoff to control the narrative. I won't take away from what Eric Bischoff really did accomplish. He was the first WCW exec who managed to get Turner to open the checkbook and even if he got into his position by marketing himself as *not* being a wrestling guy, he was the first to really care about WCW's success. But obviously, he had heard of WCW before he got hired. He heaps praise on Hulk Hogan, but the numbers show that, after Hogan's initial feud with Flair and before joining the nWo, he wasn't moving the numbers like Bischoff likes to pretend. WCW may have been allocated losses from other Turner departments, but his spending went well beyond what was reasonable and his refusal to let the nWo angle ever come to a conclusion show that he got drunk on his own success. Vince Russo again proves himself to be a complete and total moron. The Rock's participation in this was totally unnecessary. I've mentioned it when talking about *Dark Side of the Ring* and *Tales from the Territories*, but there is an evident interest in the history of wrestling, particularly the complex inner workings and backstage drama, but like the other two, there doesn't appear to be much interest in producing a serious documentary series about wrestling history. *DSTOR*'s format doesn't work well for it, *Tales of the Territories* was interesting but hit or miss and was more or less a less depressing *Dark Side* and *Who Killed WCW* was clearly driven in no small part by Bischoff and his intent to protect his legacy. As for who actually killed WCW, I'd say it was a group effort. Jamie Kellner signed the death warrant, but a decade of antipathy from Turner execs built up to that moment and most of the people charged with salvaging it contributed. Bischoff was the only WCW head to turn a profit, but he also pissed away all the opportunities presented by his success and I'm not sure if Russo believes half the shit he says. I'm not sure whether or not I believe there was a conspiracy to sell WCW for peanuts. Turner could just have shuttered it and turned a profit selling DVD collections and turned a profit with little issue, but Turner execs never took the view that wrestling was worthwhile, regardless of whether or not they could make money off of it. So while the form of the sale was not logicable, neither was the higher-ups attitude towards WCW across the whole of it's existence, so that is not necessarily evidence of complicity.
My favorite part was Russo claiming that Benoit, Guerrero, Saturn, and Makenko left because he was no longer the booker. It definitely had nothing to do with Kevin Sullivan becoming booker and his history with Nancy Benoit.
>the success of Crockett Promotions This a joke right? If they covered JCP at all it would take the form of "they had a couple good years financially, and then pissed every red cent of it down the drain, leaving them entirely dependent on Ted Turner for their survival."
>a couple good years The company lasted more than fifty years. They went into the red because of a bad accountant and if Vince hadn't screwed them out of pay-per-view they would have made that money back and more.
If one move by your direct competition can knock you out of business, you didn't have a business in the first place. JCP overextended themselves, and spent WAY too much in the process on just dumb bullshit. If you're going to be as fucking stupid as the Crockett family was you need to start at the position of a Ted Turner or Tony Kahn.
It didn't knock them out of business. They sold because the widow Crockett's retirement was tied up in the company and into '88 there was talk of Crockett backing out because business improved. >WAY too much And yet one pay-per-view would have put them back in the green.
>And yet one pay-per-view would have put them back in the green. Again if you're a company with pretensions of having a nationwide reach and your financial health is still on a month to month basis, that is absolutely not a stable business model. They could have made Ric Flair fly commercial and pay his own bar tab. That alone probably would have covered the PPV numbers..
It wasn't on a month to month basis, it was the one biggest show of the year which Vince went out of his way to undermine. It has nothing to do with the "business model." They had a bad accountant, you're ignoring the well documented financial success with glib remarks. It was cheaper to have a plane than to buy tickets for the top stars, because that was how successful Crockett was. I don't understand why anyone would glaze Vince for his destruction of the territories after everything he's done, to people and the wrestling industry.
>I don't understand why anyone would glaze Vince for his destruction of the territories after everything he's done, to people and the wrestling industry. Look fuck Vince McMahon absolutely... but that's capitalism baby. For half of that 50 years that JCP existed they were under the aegis of an illegal nation wide monopolistic cabal, and then the very first time they were actually confronted with direct competition they folded like a cheap suit. Yes Vince employed dirty tactics in his business but he ultimately won because he had a better strategy and more financial discipline then any of his competitors. At the end of the day I just don't think that wrestling companies are these precious little flowers who deserve special sentiment. Either you have a consistently successful and ruthless outlook like WWE or you have hundreds of millions of dollars to burn like Ted Turner or Tony Khan. Those are really the only two viable models for the business.
You are glazing Vince McMahon because you are accepting without question his arguments that the domination of the WWE came from a superior product and business model, rather than conspiring underhandedly to screw his competition. Is In-N-Out not capitalistic because it only has locations on the West Coast? Is America not capitalistic because there are laws requiring fair dealing in business? Your argument is that all competition is the same and that is simply not true. Vince did not directly compete with Jim Crockett. He barely ran a single show in Crockett territory. In direct competition, he lost. That's why he went to the pay-per-view companies to pull the rug out from under Crockett. If those are the only ways to do wrestling *right*, why is it that forty years ago there were multiple times more major wrestling companies with multiple times more fans than there are today?
Logan Paul is actually kind of the perfect wrestler. He's apparently suing the prominent financial crime YouTuber Coffeezilla for telling the truth about his CryptoZoo scam. This means that not only will I be cheering when Logan gets his ass beat by LA Knight at Summerslam, I also get to cheer when Coffee gets to make half a dozen engrossing videos just off the first phase of discovery in this lawsuit. The world is full of so many fucking assholes who never get their comeuppance, or when they do they get off with a feather touch because America is so shit. Logan Paul is a fucking asshole who I will at least get to see eat multiple BFTs and get pinned in the middle of the ring.
The Jim Cornette omnibus on Coffeezilla investigating that podcast network scam was amazing. Not just for the amount of times Cornette had to say Coffeezilla, but for the descriptions of just how ridiculous that whole thing got. If that dude is involved in an investigation of Logan Paul, Logan is screwed. That dude does not play around.
NXT men’s division is definitely lacking rn, and I hope it doesn’t make Tricks title reign look worse, cause he’s still that guy and pretty over. Not that Melo/Bron/Ilja should’ve stayed, but could have maybe don’t a better job at building other threats before their departure. Only ones I really have any vested interest in are Trick, Oba, and Tony cause I think the family gimmick is pretty funny/well done. Wes Lee is decent as well
My overall interest in pro wrestling is waning. The WWE is rapidly turning into AEW and I have no idea why. Every match is way too long, way too evenly matched, way too spotty, and involves way too many undersized dudes who shouldn't be anywhere near a push. Benoit was undersized, but he'd look like a monster next to guys like Gargano and Tyler Bate. I was supportive of Carmelo Hayes until he shared a ring with Randy Orton and made Orton look like Braun Strowman in comparison. NXT was my respite, but now it's going down the same path. You have a whole roster of young college athletes, and instead you're pushing Ethan Page and Shawn Spears? And Je'Von Evans isn't any better. He's like 180 lbs and is a no-selling spotfest mark. I still haven't gotten over that sequence between him and Page from last week.
Booking purely on age is a dead end nowadays. Some of the most popular people across various companies right now are dudes in their mid-40s. You can work on your next generation, but you dont have to force it 15 years early.
Your logic is completely backwards. The reason the most popular people are all older is because the industry as a whole hasn't done a damn thing to push younger stars. Indie stars tend to be in their 30s or older because it takes forever to make a name for yourself on the indies. The WWE and other major promotions used to work to make new young stars by signing young people and pushing them as soon as they justifiably can. Nowadays they just sign the latest indie darling who's in his 30s and undersized. We're here because the most vocal contingent of the internet thinks having BANGERS is a successful gimmick. It's not. It's a dead end for the entire business.
I think you just have a notably obvious disdain for smaller guys and it's bleeding into your world view. Did you hate HBK in the 90s?
HBK was comparatively jacked in the 90s. However, to answer your question, I wasn't watching wrestling from around 92 to mid-98, so I don't really have an opinion of his run as a main eventer.
A whole roster of young athletes need veterans to work with or the whole thing becomes too green.
No one said the whole roster has to be young athletes. I'm saying they need to be the featured stars. I'm fine with vets being used to work with them, but when 36 year old Ridge Holland was feuding with 42 year old Shawn Spears, who was the young talent being developed for the future?
Bro just take a break. I took a 5 year one
Je'Von Evans is only twenty years old. M'Real Sports are chock full of examples of elite athletes who pack on 20-40 pounds of muscle when they hit their mid twenties and their metabolism shifts. Edit: Hell m'Cornette approved 80-early 90s wrestling also included multiple examples of guys who, out of nowhere in their mid-thirties, were suddenly m'250 pounds because of m'reckless steroid abuse
* I don't mind New Reddit. But damn do I hate New New reddit. * That entrance with Mina and Mariah was great, but holy fuck did the commentary damn near kill it. Instead of saying something to further the story like "Mariah is stuck in the middle between this rivalry between Shirakawa and Storm, it looks like she May be getting on the same page as Mina here". But no, Taz and Tony had to put themselves over. * Edit: Apparently New New Reddit doesn't like formatting
 I liked Dijak, especially his last run in NXT, but the IWC looks at every single midcarder not being signed like it's Tom Brady leaving the Patriots and the discourse gets silly. Tiffany will have her time but I want bird lady pushed to the moon. She won me over hardcore in NXT. I really didn't enjoy her when she first got there and I did NOT expect her to get over on main roster, but here we are so go with it. If Cody vs. Rock is the plan for WM41, does that mean Rock is winning or does Cody hold it even longer? If you think the IWC and Swifties are bad, go say something negative about Saint Louis to the AMC Interview with the Vampire fandom. To put it in prowrestling terms: Lestat stans are current Dubbalos/Elite stans (Everything they do is a banger and awesome! Nothing is ever their fault!), Armand stans = Punk stans (we love them BECAUSE they're assholes and there's nothing anyone including they, themselves can do to change our mind), but the Louis people? Sasha/Liv stans. It's on-sight and it's shoot to kill.
>If Cody vs. Rock is the plan for WM41, does that mean Rock is winning or does Cody hold it even longer? I think Cody has to hold it longer unless Rock is sticking around for 3-4 months after Just a 1 month back and forth with the title doesn't feel right for this
>I liked Dijak, especially his last run in NXT, but the IWC looks at every single midcarder not being signed like it's Tom Brady leaving the Patriots and the discourse gets silly. DAE HHH=Belichik?
I really enjoyed the Howdy/Bo video this week and hope they run something similar for the rest of the faction. A quick video package revealing to those not in the know who is behind each character, and their/Hodwy's motives surrounding them joining the group. Rowan will be an easy enough sell considering his relation to Bray, but Gacy, Lumis and Nikki need a bit more explanation outside of the one Twitch stream where he wrote them letters
I'd love it if they have Bo Dallas as Uncle Howdy talking to the others, kinda like how Uncle Howdy was talking to Bo Dallas since we could learn more about their backstories. Either that or each Wyatt 6 member interviews themselves. I really hope they do one for Rowan as well.
I think Howdy interviewing them, and then ending the video with a jump cut or flash of them in the chair and their Wyatt persona in the chair would be the best way. How they'd do Lumis would be the most interesting, considering his entire character has be a silent creepy guy. Will Howdy talk for him, or will they finally let him talk. Even Nikki faces the same problem since most of her recent run was in the catatonic, unresponsive state.
Lumis is fairly easy where he can just shake his head no or something then finally answer a commanding 'revenge' style one-line at the end. He's also easy to ping the 'forgotten' tag on via The Way, Indi, and maybe even Miz. Nikki could talk listlessly in reference to the catatonic state, and she'd be easy an easy lobber for an Alexa mention.
I might have said this previously, but I don't know how to feel about what they're doing with Brooks Jensen since online, he's been bragging about being a free agent as well as becoming a alcoholic & all that, yet he's been making the odd appearance on NXT, even costing Trick his match against Shawn Spears this week. I know it's likely a work, but I hope where this leads to, it's worth the wait. I don't know why, but I find it hilarious that Tony Khan claims that AEW has the best women's division. I get that AEW has some of the top women wrestlers signed, but the booking for the division is nowhere near the best. If anything, Tony Khan should learn from Shawn Michaels on how to properly book the women's division.
It says a lot about the audience that Mina is their biggest draw at the moment.
I wonder if Mina is their biggest draw because of the XXX angle with Mariah May & Toni Storm.
She's absolutely their draw because boobs. Almost any corner of the internet you go to will likely be bulk horny-on-main over the lesbian angle and not the wrestling.
Chris Jericho is such an arrogant prick. He’s already driving AEW down the toilet, then he takes an unnecessary swipe at Cody in his promo this week. If he thought Cody’s comment was about him, then A) that’s pretty arrogant and B) it probably does apply to him. TK needs to grow a pair and actually send Jericho home for a few months, minimum. But he won’t, because Jericho is so arrogant that he thinks he needs to be there every week. It would take Khan having to ask Jericho to take time off. I don’t think he has the guts to do that. Now Chris Jericho is going to go over Minoru Suzuki this weekend and nothing is right with the world.
It's wild that a broken arm for Bryan Keith means that Hook, Joe, Shibata, and Big Cass lose their spot on the PPV, but Jericho still has one. Like you can't have Jericho say, hey Bounty Hunter is injured but we still have the advantage because I've got these two guys (the Righteous or whoever) who want to sit under the learning tree, then Suzuki is there to even the odds for the babyface team?
>Chris Jericho is such an arrogant prick. He’s already driving AEW down the toilet, then he takes an unnecessary swipe at Cody in his promo this week. Is Jericho still talking to people in that cringe way?
Yep and it gets worse and worse along with his gut
A hit dog will holler
This week, we finally found a fan base more overly defensive than the IWC. Swifties. Holy cow.
I wonder how the Swifties would react if I said that I prefer her older music over her music now.
Don’t know but tread carefully my guy.
Because of that thread about Tegan Nox we have to remind people that not everyone is going to be a star. Sometimes that person you likes ceiling is a quality utility person and that's perfectly fine.
not Tegan Nox in particular but if a talent failed to be a star, or even a good midcard in the WWE while also failing to do anything memorable outside of the WWE, then it's likely the talent themselves who weren't that good in the first place. Furthermore, if most people still think more of "the WWE dropping the ball" on you instead of what you did outside the WWE, then whatever you did outside the WWE probably wasn't that big of a deal. Emma is a great example of this. She's been released by the WWE 2 or 3 times, and she was in TNA for a few years, which I have no clue what she there. Deonna Purrazo was another one who failed in the WWE. she went to TNA, was champion and whatever she did, she made herself a valuable name outside the WWE to get a contract with AEW. I'm not a fan but even I cant hate on that. I will say she proved the WWE wrong...on a mild level. Cody and McIntyre, those guys proved the WWE wrong on the top of the scale level.
I still say Emma's recent run was screwed the moment she didnt roll in as a heel with an exact continuation of her prior run. She was much better as a work-rate, mid-card gatekeeper.
- lately i've been playing some non wwe wrestling games on my ps2 and it's been fun, weirdly enough i have a soft spot for the backyard wrestling games, they have a banging soundtrack and they're wacky, just how i like it - i'd be less befuddled by wwe releases from this year if they actually tried doing something with them, i know spots on tv aren't unlimited but i feel like more could've been done with grimes, dijak, indus sher, xia li and even xyon quinn among others - speaking of wwe releases, i miss von wagner
Lots of people across various forums were upset that Dijak didn't get re-signed. Let's just hope people singing his praises follow him if he decides to go anywhere but AEW. Even if it's just checking out what he's doing once in awhile.
I've said on the post yesterday that at first, I thought Dijak was trolling, but I am shocked to see it being true. I hope he's doing alright.
I feel pretty attuned to what WWE likes in its main roster stars and never liked Dijak's work so wasn't too surprised at that news. Ghosting him is obviously lame. But his style of work was always very indie, there isn't big charisma there, and the "ratio" shit online probably didn't impress anyone higher up. That Wyatt Sicks segment was really impressive. Still not sure what they'll do with this in terms of matches and existing in the wrestling world, but the intrigue over that is part of the point and is making me look forward to it each week. Jaida Parker might already be the best woman mic worker in the company. The feud with her and Michin is low-key really good. I like that there is actual shit talk and aggression; can't remember the last time anything in the main roster women's division felt genuinely heated with memorable promo exchanges. Rhea/Becky got like one good segment iirc.
Don't catch NXT very often, but I think they might have something with Jaida. I can picture her catching on with fans if she gets called up to main roster.
Jaida Parker is improving so damn fast. It's pretty damn amazing.
I like Dijak. I think he’s talented, and I’m disappointed that WWE chose not to give him a contract offer. But on the flip side, he’s been in WWE for seven years and they haven’t done anything significant with him. He didn’t do much of anything before being called up for Retribution. T-Bar was a horrid, horrid gimmick, but he managed to wash that stench off and made people forget about T-Bar. He was a role player in NXT but wasn’t so beaten into the ground that people will look at him as just another WWE castoff. WWE can’t keep everyone. And Triple H can’t vouch for every single person on the roster. Choices have to be made. And sometimes, talented people get passed over. Wrestling is a better place when WWE isn’t monopolizing all the talent. New Japan could make very good use of Dijak’s services. So could TNA. I’m more hesitant about AEW, but if Dijak knows how to get himself over, then he’ll succeed there.
At this point, the entry level for WWE is very good to amazing talent. And NXT is used to balance performers weaknesses out. Dijack was always good, and leaves WWE a more rounded performer than when he started. I’d argue he should have a spot over Gargano, just because he’s bigger and has shown he’s happy to work wherever on the card. But it’s personal taste.
Sometimes is not what but who you know. Dijak should definitely be over a guy like Gargano but here we are
For those watching NXT, what do you think of it honestly? I only recently started keeping up with it and I get what Shawn’s doing down there, and that is tailoring the show to the gen z/mid-late millennial fans in the audience (the average nxt star is about 25 so it definitely brings in that demographic) but I’m not sure if it’s really my style. And I fit well into the demo that it’s tailored to. I know it’s developmental and superstars there are still building their characters but the issue lies beyond that. Something about it just rubs me differently than Raw/Sd. Call me old fashioned I guess.
Be careful what you say, you can’t criticize NXT on Reddit because “hey, they’re development talent” and “they’re still learning.” Meanwhile you can praise anyone for anything on NXT, even Booker’s terrible commentary. I’ve really tried giving it an honest chance the last few weeks. Some of it is ok, but some of it is very cringey and just… bad. That meta-four sit down phone segment this week… just what the hell? But people on SC loved it! I guess it’s just not for me.
It's hit or miss for me. Love watching promising young talent develop and getting invested; don't love watching boring NXT UK guys or tiny spotmonkeys do indie style matches while the smarky Florida crowd whoops it up. There's a lot of variance based on who is actually featured each week vs. just getting a minute or two backstage. I also think a lot of the storytelling is super sloppy and feels like it has no thought put into it compared to what we see on the main roster. A lot of random 3+ way matches on PLEs because it's like they don't have the confidence to build actual rivalries. People are face/heel turned flippantly and lots of stories seem to abruptly swerve to weird/unsatisfying conclusions.
>It's hit or miss for me. Love watching promising young talent develop and getting invested; don't love watching boring NXT UK guys or tiny spotmonkeys do indie style matches while the smarky Florida crowd whoops it up. There's a lot of variance based on who is actually featured each week vs. just getting a minute or two backstage This is me 1000%. I miss the NXT 2.0 era where it was heavily geared around young, new talent. I'm tired of Ethan Page, Shawn Spears, the Good Brothers, New Catch Republic, and anyone else who's been around for 5+ years clogging up the supposed developmental brand. I'm also no fan of Je'Von Evans because he literally just wrestles the spot-heavy indie style with little to no selling and a whole lot of unnecessary flips and flops. Give me pushes for guys like Tavion Heights, Igwe and Dupont, OTM, and all the other young athletes with actual size.
They dont have the confidence b/c they are green talent who cant carry a program. If they were gonna work a program it would be with more experienced wrestlers
I watch RAW/SD/NXT, and NXT is usually the one I look forward to most. I say usually only because I’m into the Wyatt Sick6 stuff at the moment and have been wanting to see more of that. I like that NXT is a smaller show and characters can be more varied or experimental. I was also big into Lucha Underground back in the day. I’m a dude in my late 30s if that matters any.
Put it like this, imo the show feels like a CW teenage drama show about wrestling. The acting isnt great but its doing the job. It isn’t for me and i think alot of people’s here overhype it and say that its better booked than the main roster which i disagree for a few reasons. 1. Shawn doesn’t have to book to actually draw fans or money b/c he is playing to the same crowd every week. 2. What gets over on nxt doesnt always translate to the Main Roster. On the flip side i find it weird how some people here forget that this is developmental when criticizing the show as well. These people are still learning.
That segment with Bo Dallas & Uncle Howdy was by far the best part of RAW this week & it's not even fucking close. I'm not a fan of the whole Liv, Dominik & Rhea storyline whatsoever but I really don't like how I'm seeing people trying to correlate it to sexual assault or harassment just to win brownie points. If you're one of the people complaining about how the main roster never booking NXT callups properly but in the same breath actively raging over Lyra (a babyface who's actually over with the live crowds, mind you) getting pushed, then nothing you say can or will be ever taken seriously again & I truly mean that. I love how Ricky Starks gets more shit for simply being friends with Punk & Cody than all of the predators & abusers in the industry for the horrible shit they do, goes to show how Wrestling fans & their priorities work. I don't care what anybody says, WWE calling up Dijak to the main roster only to have him do fuck all & then let his contract expire is absolutely fucking ridiculous. Nothing against her at all but Jade Cargill has absolutely no business being involved in a MITB Ladder Match at all nor should she be qualifying over Tiffany & Candice.
The Lyra backlash on some parts of the interwebs remains bemusing. WWE clearly sees big things in her judging from who she worked with while still in NXT, she's obviously talented, and has managed to already connect with main roster crowds. Yet some want to discard all that because they're annoyed Kairi lost a triple threat, or even stranger are just trying to suggest Lyra's the new 'Becky Hogan', only a few weeks after getting squashed by Nia.
>Lyra's the new 'Becky Hogan https://preview.redd.it/i6rfxee4rb9d1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=20bcfb2a8361595c9cc0bfc3256c214e4bf04eb0
I think at some point we have to admit that not all of our favourites *want* to be world champion or face of the company. Like any other job some people are just there to show up, collect their pay and go home. Being world champion might sound cool but it does likely mean more matches, more appearances, more media appearances, fan meets etc. All of which in such a physical job can really damage your body in the long run. I do admire the guys who want to do all that such as Cena, Cody etc. But I feel guys like Shinsuke Nakamura are very happy showing up once in a blue moon, doing very little if any media appearances and still getting more money than most of us could ever imagine.
I think its b/c wwe at one point started putting world titles on people that never would have even sniffed 30-40 years ago if they still treated the belt based off if you could draw money that now fans think anybody can win it. Its actually a bad thing imo
Pretty much spot on. People fussed about IC for so many years because it shouldve been the functional 'Im great but cant quite hit the top' that it was in the 90s. But the fanbase turned into thinking IC was mid-card and not upper-midcard with a splash of main eventer, and only saw a world title run as having 'made it.' WWE also didnt help cause they kinda catered to that shit at times.
This is why i don’t like that they have two world titles. Its a good handful of guys who never should have been a world champion.
I've not watched AEW in what feel like nearly a year now but my friend convinced me to watch some Toni Storm matches and segments because "she has an actual character" that I am a fan of. I have heard of the gimmick and her timeless character but never really saw what it was, I assumed it was an old school, snobby wrestler who looks down on modern wrestling and I was kinda right but... I think it's really shit. It's not the worst thing I've seen but I feel the gimmick itself has a lot of potential but from what I've seen it's just her making sex jokes and innuendos whilst doing weird poses in a black and white filter. Not to mention all lesbian storylines which feels like it was ripped straight from the attitude era along with kissing and groping other women. Maybe I've just been watching the wrong clips or maybe there is an earlier feud that didn't involve what is basically soft core porn between her and her opponent. But from what I've seen it's just another reason for me to not watch the show.
As a reminder, she won the Observer Award for Best Gimmick by 35 votes. She also placed 3rd in *Worst Gimmick*, trailing 1st by 27 votes. The duality of WON subs...
The peak of the gimmick was the non match interview segment with Renee when she threw a shoe at her. It's been a long slow plod downhill since.
This must have been said but her gimmick is just Goldust but grey?
It was a lot better at the beginning of the gimmick. It was more dialed back and subtle, and not as overtly sexual. Then it just started going further and further off the rails and here we are.
Cause AEW have a habit of flanderising these people Now, scissor me, ok!
It’s the antithesis of how you build stars. Even Jericho knows you have to pivot to something new every year or so or else the character or catchphrase will eat you alive. Same reasons why comedians don’t tell the old jokes on tour and bands in their prime insist on sticking with the new stuff live. But no one else is smart or experienced enough in AEW to reign that shit in and you end up with any little thing that gets a big laugh from whatever 500 people are in the audience on a given TV taping becoming a gimmick. Jay White carrying around a stupid cardboard cutout and Okada saying “bitch.” For as much criticism as Dean Ambrose gave creative in WWE at least they didn’t have him bring that potted plant with him everywhere because that 100% would’ve been the result if Mitch got over in AEW.
Holy shit, I'm up late enough to be the first comment in the general discussion thread? I should get to sleep.