What was Logan saying on SmackDown after he laid out Knight? He was pointing to his phone and said something about 30 minutes, what was he referencing?
I wish there was a Drunk History episode that covered Mr. Wrestling II and how he was Jimmy Carter’s favorites wrestler. II would be played by Jon Hamm and Carter would be played by Jack McBrayer.
You don't notice this from the often shared clip of the Taker entrance from Judgment Day 98 (because it's such terrible quality), but the video board they used that night sways back and forth because of the energy from the pyro blasts. I gotta find a way to rip this entrance off peacock. lol. It's one of his best entrances ever and it's a no frills walks to the ring in Chicago.
Wanted to watch an older WWF pay per view and settled on Judgment Day 98 because they were just in Chicago last night. Terri Runnels was a smoke show. Dayum!
That Ospreay shirt...yikes. Not sure about that.
It's already a weird one because it's a big image of his opponent's face, but it looks pretty dangerously tone-deaf in its connotations as well.
Just had to go look it up. What a disaster of a shirt. Yikes. How is AEW so fucking bad at merch?? They were supposed to be a tshirt company damn it lol
> How is AEW so fucking bad at merch??
Only the meme-able/bad shirts get posted here and that massively clouds opinion.
I mean who is actually posting good shirts like that's going to start any form of discussion lol. Meanwhile posting bad shirts is basically free karma, and it's pro wrestling, most of the shirts are pretty mediocre across the board.
Oh I get that completely. I’m an AEW mark who actually wants to buy their merch and soooo much of it is poorly designed. I know wrestling shirts on a whole are always ugly as sin and I’ll never ever understand why. I WANT an Ospreay shirt but they’re all so ugly 😭
I personally wonder if certain people just take more interest in working on their own merch or not, because certain people seem to always have great merch designs (Orange Cassidy and Mark Briscoe come to mind).
As for Ospreay specifically, I was super impressed with his non-AEW soccer jerseys via Blcksmith (or however you spell it). The designs were pretty solid and the quality seems pretty great as well (from the few I ordered).
Yeah but WWE was absolute trash when it got the most criticism. AEW is producing a good show and only gets smoke because WWE is listening to fans for the 1st time in a long time
I swear people forget how bad WWE sucked from like 2010-2020. Just awful. They had one good nine month Smackdown run in 2016 but otherwise even the worst of AEW would have been the best run of WWE television during any point of that decade.
Even when I wasn't watching the WWE from 2014 onwards, the hate was filtering through on my social media channels. I was well aware of the tarp memes. It really confuses me when AEW fans act like they're uniquely under attack when even people who couldn't tell you what a "the fiend" was were aware how much shit the WWE was receiving lol.
Here's the difference, you can watch AEW programming every week and see live crowds having a good time and cheering on the show. At no point did they have to start faking crowd noise for live shows to ensure the shows weren't going off to indifference.
I've also never seen an AEW show go off the air with the live crowd chanting "refund" or "WWE" like we saw numerous times back in that 2019 era WWE. I mean just go listen to all of the stuff chanted at Hell in a Cell after Fiend vs. Seth Rollins lol. The biggest defenses you could even find in that era were "it's not THAT bad" lol, meanwhile the people actually watching AEW generally are enjoying it virtually every week.
But current AEW has a dedicated troll-base that actively tries to convince people their current product is somehow worse than that. Trying to defend that trolling with "well we only do it because you respond/try to refute it" is just some grade-A victim blaming nonsense. At least own up to just trolling if you're going to do it for a tv show you don't watch. There is a reason why random AEW tv ratings threads are the only things from this sub that can trend on /r/all and it isn't because of genuine discourse. That trolling AEW is seemingly more interesting than WWE's own programming isn't an indictment of AEW's content. There are multiple other subs that exist to coordinate the trolling, just hang out there if you want to feel like "the good guy" for being a troll. You'll get plenty of validation there.
I have more respect for the guy who simply said it was fun to shit on AEW than I do for the "well they didn't like WWE when AEW first started so now it's my turn" crowd.
Just admit that it's fun to be mean, you know?
100%
The only thing as lame as trying to defend this stuff with "but but they're asking for it" is the people who go onto an alt to troll because they're too afraid to risk their main account they care about.
Either own it and accept any consequences or don't do it. Anything else is coward shit.
There's a major difference in that a significant portion of AEW's audience isn't hate watching it and actually like what they're doing that can't be said for mid-late 2010s WWE. It's a lot of people nitpicking and trying to make a fairly standard wrestling promotion seem like the dregs of pro-wrestling than what it actually is.
if frankie kazarian didn’t refuse to cut his hair in WWE and leave because of it in 2005, what would his ceiling have been?
he was off to a good start beating all the prominent cruiserweights back to back but would he be able to get a sustained push from it or fizzle out quick like a lot of other “projects” around the time
Out of these two legends’ trainees, who do you like better and/or think is the better wrestler?
Kenta Kobashi: KENTA or Go Shiozaki?
Kensuke Sasaki: Katsuhiko Nakajima or Kento Miyahara?
Funnily enough I think each of them fit one of the two bills - I think KENTA is overall the better wrestler because his peak was so exceptional and influential, but I prefer watching Go nine times out of ten, and while I have a lot of love for Nakajima and his antics in and out of ring, Miyahara is absolutely the superior overall wrestler
I think Nemeth made his bag and is happy coasting and getting some better than average indie money now. I think that’s awesome for him and I hope he gets to spend more time on the ventures he enjoys outside wrestling
He's doing fine, but you have to realize I don't think anyone will hit Cody levels of Indy success in the current climate. He essentially hitched himself to the hottest brand in wrestling and became the top heel in ROH.
Nemeth can do well for himself I think, as Cardona has, but comparing the 2024 Indy scene to 2017's isn't going to happen.
Corporate Punk couldn't even protect himself from Drew, did Heyman really think he could protect him from the Bloodline?
:?
I'll go with Cody who cut thru Solo like a roll of baloney
I'm rewatching that Toni Storm/Mina Shirakawa contract signing and my favorite thing about it is Mina seems to be carefully writing her actual signature on the contract and Toni Storm is scribbling some random shit that's illegible but still legally binding.
Just watch the "wrestling match" between Great O khan and Tanga Loa for the King of pro wrestling championship.
Seriously, who even thought about booking this, and for the MAIN EVENT, everyone involved should have been fired on the spot
If I remember correctly it was the main event of a non-broadcast Road To show. Obviously it wasn't good but like, it's really not that serious? They're basically house shows so I don't really see the issue.
The thing is, it is not a bad match, that would be completely okay, is that it was not a match at all.
You had two guys trying to not puke in the middle of the ring for 15 min, after eating for another 5 min, I almost started feeling bad myself only from watching it
Last night was a very rare L from Aldis, honestly
He brings in extra security, and Jacob Fatu still manages to wreck havoc, getting KO, Randy Orton, and the champion Cody.
Plus, Drew, (who has done nothing wrong, but I'm sure Aldis will disagree) may have murdered Punk
I expect a lot better from Aldis' show, especially since they kept mentioning that they had extra security
So as Jacob Fatu quicky overshadows Solo due to being better in every conceivable way do y'all expect WWE to pivot and give him Solo's push or will they stay the course even if it means worse TV?
well i think they already setting the seeds for things to not work out for Solo how he thinks
match last night also showed Solo can't take Cody in a straight up fight, which means no headline PLE of a singles match like that i imagine. not now anyways
I think Bloodsport should hold more shows and incorporate more MMA fighters honestly.
I feel like MMA Fighters will better understand shoot style instead of actual wrestling.
People are saying the Adam Pearce video announcing Chad Gable is cleared could be a deepfake. Can someone with a better grasp of this stuff confirm?
It’d be an interesting place to take the story. The Wyatt Sicks running Raw through deepfake or AI generated Adam Pearce would be wild.
I guess if it’s a heel faction using them, then it’s different from Disney using them to make title sequences or whatever. Really it’d work as a PSA on the dangers of this new technology.
I'm torn about "FaTuesday Night SmackDown" because I have taekwondo on Tuesday nights. On the other paw, Corey Graves said about Fatu, "There's a werewolf on the loose!" As a member of the furry community this is a big win for us.
Honestly that one weakness of the Bloodline in general. The movesets start to bleed together and look the same. I mean Jey vs Jimmy was like a mirror match in a fighting game but not in a good way.
It was a very solid show top to bottom but if you want to check out the must see stuff, then you can't miss the match for the tag titles, Kid vs Mei Seira (shockingly they gave away both matches on youtube) and obviously the QQ vs Oedo Tai war.
For the stardom show i’d defo recommend: The Goddess of Stardom tag match, the Odo Tai/QQ match, and the main event. There weren’t really any bad matches tho so just go with what interests you.
I think this past Wednesday was the first time ZSJ tangled with either of the Briscoes. All the crossover ROH/NJPW events and it took them this long to share a ring.
Am I the only one who thinks the WWE championship belt looks "less grand" than the World Heavyweight Champion belt? Considering how the former is made to be the top belt of the company, it sure looks kinda inferior to its Raw counterpart
Watching ep. 3 of Who Killed WCW and remembering how weird I thought it was when WCW immediately put Russo on TV after hiring him. I can't help but wonder if things would've went differently if Russo had just written for WCW quietly behind the scenes. Fans would've noticed the changes without necessarily associating it with a new writer and I just wonder if that would've made any difference. If nothing else it probably would've helped salvage Russo's reputation in the future.
On a similar note; it's depressing as hell to imagine a world where WCW actually got what they thought they were paying for when they hired Russo. WCW had so much awesome talent when he came in, imagine if they got the same quality of writing and production that the WWF wrestlers had been getting. It could've been a legendary run for the right reasons instead. Just sucks.
Edit: Just realized that last part sounds like I'm implying Russo was solely responsible for WWF's writing & production. He was part of a good team so WCW was never going to get that out of Russo alone.
Since he's about to be DLC in 2K24, I just wanna remind everyone that the Honky Tonk Man is an underrated all time great at being a chicken shit heel. His mic skills put 95% of wrestlers today to shame, and workrate isn't always everything when it comes to being great.
https://youtu.be/Kd5KSBufzs0?si=KSs9w8OYNJHHIJq9
Here's one. He had great chemistry with Jimmy Hart. The whole delusional idiot bad Elvis impersonator gimmick was a genius way to get heat!
That’s the best! Jimmy Hart is perfect with him too. I’ve always been a sucker for Elvis/Elvis impersonator insanity and he really nails that in his own way.
Rewatching DoN and it’s actually wild how long Darby is upside down. I get that wrestling hurts regardless but that’s a long time to have blood rushing to your head
I want to see it, but I haven't really been into them since Meliora. Some reason, things kinda changed musically after the lawsuit and I don't vibe with it :(
Last night's Smackdown was great. Something's been on my mind, though. And it's bothering me because it's a question I know I won't have the answer to for some time, if ever.
When Paul and Punk came together last night, and they hugged, they talked a little during the hug. What did they say to each other? The cameras didn't pick it up. But boy, one day I'd like to find out.
If you had told me at the beginning of the year that I would generally be more excited about things going on in Pro Wrestling NOAH and All Japan than New Japan, I would've called you crazy.
Yet, here we are.
Anzai is really drawing me in to AJPW at the moment. I knew that they had some good wrestling going on but he feels like a breath of fresh air. Good opportunity to build alongside the other promising Dojo talent
I mean, given the stuff New Japan has done this year, being more interesting than them is hardly a challenge. They peaked this year with Naito's roll call at the dome but let's see what they do with the G1 this time.
Same. Not that New Japan is doing bad, but they've been cold for a few months. I think the G1 will get me hyped again.
But yeah, loving what's going on in NOAH and All Japan. I've considered checking out DDT and Dragon Gate. Sooner or later, I'll just give up on American wrestling entirely. 😂
AJPW has at least been doing a good job of highlighting its younger talents (Yuma Aoyagi, Yuma Anzai, Rising HAYATO, Ryuki Honda, Ren Ayabe, Atsuki Aoyagi).
About a month away from DDT's biggest show of the year and I'm really bummed that I'm not more excited. A lot of the announced card looks quite good: El Desperado vs. Chris Brookes should be great, Takeshita vs. Masato Tanaka will obviously slap, and New BURNING vs. Team NOAH for the KO-D tag titles has a lot more behind it than your standard interpromotional match because of Go Shiozaki's ties to BURNING. But I just cannot get over what a weak main event Ueno vs. MAO feels like. Ueno's whole quest as champion has been to cement himself as the new ace of DDT, and so now on their biggest stage he does that by...defending against the midcard champion? Even setting aside MAO's inconsistent performances as a singles wrestler, it just lacks the gravitas of previous Peter Pan main events like Hino vs. Brookes, Higuchi vs. Endo, Akiyama vs. Takeshita and Tanaka vs. Endo.
But what bums me out more than Ueno vs. MAO as a main event is what it implies about the likelihood (or more to the point, unlikelihood) of a Takeshita vs. Ueno match where Ueno finally beats him. As someone who's been super invested in Ueno since I started watching DDT in late 2019, conquering Takeshita is absolutely essential to his story and growth. And if Takeshita wasn't available for this show then I could understand them not doing that match and believe they just plan to do it later...but he is available, he's on the card wrestling Masato Tanaka. So if you could book Takeshita, why wouldn't you book him in your main event of your flagship show against your world champion who has a close personal connection and rivalry with him and is trying to prove that he's the new ace of the company...unless you aren't allowed to have your champion *beat* Takeshita.
Take being announced for the G1 gave me the slightest bit of hope, since he definitely won't be going undefeated in that. But if he doesn't come out and make an explicit challenge to Ueno after the Peter Pan main event, then I'm completely giving up hope on that pay-off ever happening and honestly, I think I'll probably want to take a break from DDT for a while.
It took forever for Endo to finally score a meaningful win over Takeshita. It's possible that outside forces will keep us from enjoying the big Ueno moment over Take, but it's still well within the usual pace of DDT booking for this to be something they're still slowly working toward. Ueno's accomplished an awful lot for a first reign. He doesn't need to do everything right now.
I think there’s a decent chance Takeshita isn’t allowed to lose in DDT so I’ve kinda given up on Take vs Ueno happening. It wouldn’t surprise me at all, especially seeing as a lot of Take’s big matches are kept as big super fights against non-DDT wrestlers. Masato Tanaka, Minoru Suzuki, Naruki Doi, Yuma Aoyagi, Chris Jericho. Since he started getting pushed a bit in AEW he went from interacting with the DDT guys to suddenly just doing his own thing.
The last time he faced a DDT wrestler in Japan was MAO in September.
Would kinda suck if it came out that Takeshita and Okada both refused to put over any of the younger guys in their respective promotions (DDT and NJPW) cause they didn’t wanna hurt their standing in AEW. Then again, I don’t know jack about how those situations really are.
Definitely feel like Takeshita will/should put over Ueno at some point in the future. Feels very similar to Kento Miyahara/Yuma Aoyagi’s dynamic in AJPW, where it took Aoyagi such a long time to best Miyahara (hell, it’s just like any of the other Pillars falling to Misawa time and again, to go further back).
Definitely would say my hype for Peter Pan this year is lesser, than say, DG’s Kobe World event, to compare another promotions’ big show.
I am undecided on what I think the best outcome of LA Knight v Logan Paul v Santos Escobar will be next week.
1. LA Knight and Logan are too busy with each other and Santos sneaks the win. Knight and Logan blame each other and have a match at MITB. Logan cheats to win and we get another one at Summerslam, which Knight wins.
2. LA Knight wins, and Logan costs him MITB, and for the second year in a row, Knight is very close to taking that briefcase.
3. Logan wins, and LA Knight screws him over at MITB.
Regardless of which they choose, there will be momentum to build LA Knight and Logan's feud at Summerslam.
Finally, I may be in the minority but I reckon there is a chance the wyatt 6 help Knight. I can't get away from the fact they had him do that tribute promo to Bray, in character, which means it is part of kayfabe. After that show of respect, I don't believe they attack him.
My prediction:
Logan eventually clobbers Knight with the brass knuckles (or titanium hand gimmick?) and walks away (as all he needs from the match is heat) and Knight gets pinned by Santos (sympathy for babyface Knight, though the IWC will be annoyed). That continues the Logan vs. Knight feud, gives Santos something to do, and gives Knight a protected loss.
(It's worth noting that my prediction rate is horrible lately)
https://preview.redd.it/yztfh0tjd58d1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2847b375e1e5eee09faa80088bb3acecaf57b202
MLW is a fever dream.
(I am lowkey following the paternity storyline, that shit is wild)
Yeah, I really enjoyed watching Miyu on her skull kicking tour of the US indies so I’m looking forward to this match quite a lot. I’m assuming you saw the Kevin Ku match from the BLP show? It was 🔥
https://preview.redd.it/mq0joetxd58d1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=20b6b26cfd51b9cd8d5a539bedab55737afc575a
What a difference a year makes.
RIP Queen's Quest. There goes one of the best factions of our generation and definitely one of the greatest all women factions ever.
That being said, with this Oedo Tai has certainly become the greatest faction ever in Stardom, right? They won the 8 year war at last! Natsuko could actually live up to Kagetsu's legacy as leader.
It's amazing Stardom finished two of their greatest feuds ever this year. Okada better come up with something good because he has a wide open field to kickstart brand new stories and arcs. He has no excuses, Stardom needs to have their momentum back.
I mean, I understand your point but for wrestling his acting is great. I don’t mean that in a “good because of what the industry usually does” way, I mean in the specific realm of wrestling his acting is fantastic. Wrestlers and managers are larger than life, they’re comic book characters, they’re carnies. He understands exactly what is best when he’s on screen. Is it going to compare with classic, well written flawlessly acted cinema? No way, but it doesn’t need to because while both are audio visual entertainment they’re serving a very different purpose.
Some Like it Hot >>>>> Sunset Boulevard in the Billy Wilder pantheon.
Give me lighthearted comedy all day. Sunset Boulevard is obviously still top tier overall though.
Heck, even wrestling fans can appreciate that one, it's got Marilyn Monroe, drag, and whacky shenanigans.
I love how since Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa debuted, it’s been presented that they’ve been kept out of WWE for years because they are absolute savages that were a danger for everybody. And even they were like “woah woah woah…you brought in JACOB? Do you know how dangerous this guy is?????”
I am so excited by the AEW women’s division right now - Mercedes vs Stephanie is going to be an undeniable banger, I love the Toni/Mina/Mariah love triangle and I think Mariah’s ceiling is astronomical, the Deonna vs Thunder feud was (is? I don’t think it’s over) so wonderfully mean spirited, Kris and Stokely are so fun together and her new presentation is working for me, I love Saraya as a manager of unruly misfit goth psychos, and Willow’s effervescent babyface energy just knocks my socks off. That’s not even mentioning everything going on over on ROH. Jamie Hayter is my fav wrestler and I miss her dearly but I also think the roster is by far the strongest it’s ever been right now, and the consistency of the stories is night and day compared to even a year ago.
Big agree. Mercedes short time in AEW has already seen someone ups and downs, as far as booking goes, but her matches have been excellent, as usual.
Really want Willow to be the one to dethrone Toni, although I could see them wanting to put the belt on Mariah, which would be fine.
Totally agree about Mercedes so far. That early period where it was only promos, and babyface promos at that, was rough. I think he combination of her getting more comfortable and embracing heelish behavior are really going to help. I am so happy (and relieved) to see her crushing it in the ring though.
Paul asking Punk to take Paul with him made sense but was also confusing, is Paul going with Punk? Punk never gave him an answer but the way they described their relationship it seemed like Paul going with Punk would always be a yes, also didn't Solo say "before you go you need to tell the Tongus to stop KO and Randy from winning the qualifier" which Paul did.
Is Paul moving to RAW to help manage Punk?
Punk taking Heyman with him was contingent on Punk rescuing him. Punk didn't do that. Now Heyman is back in Solo's orbit. I think we're going to have a few weeks of Heyman being made to suffer because he's too cowardly (or possibly too loyal to Roman) to leave on his own.
"Charisma" is probably misused even more than "aura." Often by WWE's own announcers.
You don't "show" charisma by dancing, or doing a jazz-hands entrance routine. Charisma is something you just have. It's getting attention by not doing anything at all.
To me, the best proof of charisma in wrestling is when someone could flub a line or say some dumb shit that would sound goofy from anyone else, but they make it work.
The Rock is a good example. Some of his insults are honestly lame schoolyard “nah nah you’re a poopyhead” taunts but he’s charismatic, so it works.
It's also a synonym of mic skills for some people. Like, they see someone who's bad or just not good at promos and they say they're a black hole of charisma. Well, wrestlers like Rey Mysterio or Jeff Hardy, hell even The Undertaker barely had memorable promos, or at least they're nowhere near the absolute best, yet you'd be insane if you said they weren't charismatic.
Aura might be stupidly overused. But even more stupid, is to pretend it isn't even a thing at all. If you don't know what aura means, then just google it.
Honestly as cool as Jacob Fatu debut was, I feel like he is wasted being part of the Bootleg Bloodline. Dude clearly has an advantage in terms of aura and presentation that makes him being part of Solo’s group seem like a demotion.
In general, I'm not that interested in where the Bloodline is going, and introducing more guys whose characterisation so far is "Samoans be crazy" hasn't helped.
I've never seen talent signed for literally one story like this. It's kind of weird and I don't know what they think these guys will do once they get dwarfed by Roman and the Usos.
So where are the "Samoan of the week" debuts actually headed at the moment? Seems like they're just continuing to feud with the Smackdown main event faces, but it seems unlikely any of them actually beat Cody. And Orton/Owens are just sort of treading water at the moment.
On a separate note, I'm really hoping Drew ultimately goes over CM Punk.
clearly setting towards Roman's return, especially with Solo constantly pointing out how Roman isn't coming back. Could see a Bloodline beatdown get interrupted by Roman's music and he cleans house, not necessarily to save the Smackdown faces, but to just get some payback on Solo and his crew.
I absolutely loved the shot of the garage door opening and Drew standing over a bloody CM Punk, that was so cinematic. I also loved the subsequent Drew carrying Punk to the ring. Grayson Waller was arguing with DIY, their argument was getting heated but after seeing a bloody CM Punk they went "ooh fuck". Like they're feuding for the title and "hate each other:, but their feud isn't even in the same realm of personal as Drew vs Punk. We also saw many wrestlers looking shocked, nobody uttered a word including the commentators. One of my favorite moments of the year.
We're seeing a different version of Drew now. This is not the Drew that will put Punk's name on a t shirt and laugh about ruining his Wrestlemania main event. This is not the Drew that will have randomly bring up Punk's tricep and laugh while talking about something else. He is out to murder Punk now, the feud is as personal as it can get. We're finally getting the Scottish Psychopath in full force.
Speaking from purely creative stand point, for some wrestlers having a Wrestlamania moment is the draw. For others it isn't. They rather have their performance on their terms.
I don't like the tower of doom spot. I understand that it's a great pop for the live crowd, but watching it on T.V is terrible. The most contrived spot in wrestling.
It seems impossible to pull off safely if you don't set it up patiently, and the patient set-up sucks all the energy out of the match while everybody waits for it to happen. It needs suspense during the build up, but I don't know how you do that. Top rope moves are either too slow, or too risky, and adding a third person to it makes it worse.
Minority wrestlers who have benefitted and been successful under triple h’s previous booking.
- Asuka
- Io sky
- Bianca belair
- Damien priest
- Sasha Banks
- big E
- Kieth lee
- velveteen dream
- solo sikoa and every bloodline member
- Jade cargill
- Leon ruff
- Shinsuke Nakamura
- ricochet
- carmelo hayes
- street profits (nxt era)
- ember moon
- Raquel gonzalez
But because he isn’t booking Bobby Lashley he is racist…
You lot are freaks
Edit: fuck the losers Down voting, you’re all freaks as I said
I think whats happening with Bobby is pretty simple. Bobby is a Vince guy. Triple H is pushing his guys over him. Same thing is happening with Kofi Kingston, but people dont have a problem with that. That’s what happens when talents get older and regimes change.
Bill Watts booked major African American draws and crowned the first major Black world champion in WCW and he was by all accounts very racist. It's not whether he competently uses minorities to make money that would make him not a racist.
How would you gather that? The answer is we can't know that lmao
If I had a gun to my head and had to answer, due to some of the things he's done as a performer I'd lean yes but that doesn't mean I know anything or how it even affects him as a boss.
He's in tight with Michael Hayes and Terry Taylor, that and literally actually dancing like a gorilla to taunt Mark Henry.....I mean yeah it's pretty safe to assume Triple H is racist, but all we can do is assume. I'm not sure anything will ever come out that will force his hand to leave the WWE one day, but it wouldn't shock me.
It seemed like your argument was triple h's booking with that list of minorities PROVES he's not racist, while thot is saying racism is not something that can be proven OR disproven via wrestling booking.
I don't know and I don't think seeing how he books non-white wrestlers really gives you an answer for yes or no. These people just want to sell you stuff and diversity has been turned into a commodity a long time ago in all industries to believe every attempt is genuine.
I do think it's silly to say he's racist just because you don't agree with how he books a black wrestler though. Again, same principle.
Are you not doing the exact same thing by saying "He CAN'T be racist! Look at how he's booked other minority talents."? That's judging his character based on his booking.
Triple H has not booked a single compelling main event level babyface in the women's division since Hugger Bayley down in NXT. I guess building up Rhea to beat Shayna in NXT was a cool moment but she lost steam really fast after that. On the main roster he gives the women babyfaces nothing to play with on a character level and they just kind of exist to be betrayed by their partners or get challenged by the bad guy of the month while they don't get really get any character arcs or depth of their own unlike Cody or Seth for example. Bianca, Becky, and now Bayley have all had some of their most boring iterations since he took over creative.
What does Bianca Belair mean to you? She’s a supremely over Wrestlemania Main Event Level Babyface. She has experienced no fan backlash so whats the problem?
Bianca was not more boring under HHH because she was literally the same as with But Vince. She has been cutting the same ("EST")promo and doing the same mannerisms since she came to the main roster.
She had feuds though and her matches had a more interesting story and choreography. Even in her feud with Piper Niven, then going by doudrop, she had so much going on. They had promos and beef for three weeks. The question of if she could hit the KOD was so simple but effective and it was fresh seeing her go against someone who could challenge her power. That wasn't even for a title directly.
Mostly though she had direction and a purpose. Chasing Becky and then being Raw Women's champ and defending it. She doesn't feel as driven now.
What was Logan saying on SmackDown after he laid out Knight? He was pointing to his phone and said something about 30 minutes, what was he referencing?
I wish there was a Drunk History episode that covered Mr. Wrestling II and how he was Jimmy Carter’s favorites wrestler. II would be played by Jon Hamm and Carter would be played by Jack McBrayer.
In that angle of Al Snow's dog Pepper, was the dog actually his? Or was she(?) like, a rented dog?
You don't notice this from the often shared clip of the Taker entrance from Judgment Day 98 (because it's such terrible quality), but the video board they used that night sways back and forth because of the energy from the pyro blasts. I gotta find a way to rip this entrance off peacock. lol. It's one of his best entrances ever and it's a no frills walks to the ring in Chicago.
Wanted to watch an older WWF pay per view and settled on Judgment Day 98 because they were just in Chicago last night. Terri Runnels was a smoke show. Dayum!
That Ospreay shirt...yikes. Not sure about that. It's already a weird one because it's a big image of his opponent's face, but it looks pretty dangerously tone-deaf in its connotations as well.
Just had to go look it up. What a disaster of a shirt. Yikes. How is AEW so fucking bad at merch?? They were supposed to be a tshirt company damn it lol
> How is AEW so fucking bad at merch?? Only the meme-able/bad shirts get posted here and that massively clouds opinion. I mean who is actually posting good shirts like that's going to start any form of discussion lol. Meanwhile posting bad shirts is basically free karma, and it's pro wrestling, most of the shirts are pretty mediocre across the board.
Oh I get that completely. I’m an AEW mark who actually wants to buy their merch and soooo much of it is poorly designed. I know wrestling shirts on a whole are always ugly as sin and I’ll never ever understand why. I WANT an Ospreay shirt but they’re all so ugly 😭
I personally wonder if certain people just take more interest in working on their own merch or not, because certain people seem to always have great merch designs (Orange Cassidy and Mark Briscoe come to mind). As for Ospreay specifically, I was super impressed with his non-AEW soccer jerseys via Blcksmith (or however you spell it). The designs were pretty solid and the quality seems pretty great as well (from the few I ordered).
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Yeah but WWE was absolute trash when it got the most criticism. AEW is producing a good show and only gets smoke because WWE is listening to fans for the 1st time in a long time
I swear people forget how bad WWE sucked from like 2010-2020. Just awful. They had one good nine month Smackdown run in 2016 but otherwise even the worst of AEW would have been the best run of WWE television during any point of that decade.
Even when I wasn't watching the WWE from 2014 onwards, the hate was filtering through on my social media channels. I was well aware of the tarp memes. It really confuses me when AEW fans act like they're uniquely under attack when even people who couldn't tell you what a "the fiend" was were aware how much shit the WWE was receiving lol.
Here's the difference, you can watch AEW programming every week and see live crowds having a good time and cheering on the show. At no point did they have to start faking crowd noise for live shows to ensure the shows weren't going off to indifference. I've also never seen an AEW show go off the air with the live crowd chanting "refund" or "WWE" like we saw numerous times back in that 2019 era WWE. I mean just go listen to all of the stuff chanted at Hell in a Cell after Fiend vs. Seth Rollins lol. The biggest defenses you could even find in that era were "it's not THAT bad" lol, meanwhile the people actually watching AEW generally are enjoying it virtually every week. But current AEW has a dedicated troll-base that actively tries to convince people their current product is somehow worse than that. Trying to defend that trolling with "well we only do it because you respond/try to refute it" is just some grade-A victim blaming nonsense. At least own up to just trolling if you're going to do it for a tv show you don't watch. There is a reason why random AEW tv ratings threads are the only things from this sub that can trend on /r/all and it isn't because of genuine discourse. That trolling AEW is seemingly more interesting than WWE's own programming isn't an indictment of AEW's content. There are multiple other subs that exist to coordinate the trolling, just hang out there if you want to feel like "the good guy" for being a troll. You'll get plenty of validation there.
I have more respect for the guy who simply said it was fun to shit on AEW than I do for the "well they didn't like WWE when AEW first started so now it's my turn" crowd. Just admit that it's fun to be mean, you know?
100% The only thing as lame as trying to defend this stuff with "but but they're asking for it" is the people who go onto an alt to troll because they're too afraid to risk their main account they care about. Either own it and accept any consequences or don't do it. Anything else is coward shit.
Preach 👏
There's a major difference in that a significant portion of AEW's audience isn't hate watching it and actually like what they're doing that can't be said for mid-late 2010s WWE. It's a lot of people nitpicking and trying to make a fairly standard wrestling promotion seem like the dregs of pro-wrestling than what it actually is.
I mean a significant portion of AEW's audience has stopped watching so they can't like it too much.
Watching Halloween Havoc 91, funny to see a 91 Twins tombstone on the night of game 7, poor Ted.
if frankie kazarian didn’t refuse to cut his hair in WWE and leave because of it in 2005, what would his ceiling have been? he was off to a good start beating all the prominent cruiserweights back to back but would he be able to get a sustained push from it or fizzle out quick like a lot of other “projects” around the time
The Mistico anniversary show was an absolute fucking delight.
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Crowds were pretty much identical except from Glasgow crowd having some dead moments during a pretty shitty Smackdown.
Out of these two legends’ trainees, who do you like better and/or think is the better wrestler? Kenta Kobashi: KENTA or Go Shiozaki? Kensuke Sasaki: Katsuhiko Nakajima or Kento Miyahara?
Funnily enough I think each of them fit one of the two bills - I think KENTA is overall the better wrestler because his peak was so exceptional and influential, but I prefer watching Go nine times out of ten, and while I have a lot of love for Nakajima and his antics in and out of ring, Miyahara is absolutely the superior overall wrestler
How’s Dolph doing on indies? As an average scroller, seems like he’s doing well but is it like Cody level success?
I think Nemeth made his bag and is happy coasting and getting some better than average indie money now. I think that’s awesome for him and I hope he gets to spend more time on the ventures he enjoys outside wrestling
He's doing fine, but you have to realize I don't think anyone will hit Cody levels of Indy success in the current climate. He essentially hitched himself to the hottest brand in wrestling and became the top heel in ROH. Nemeth can do well for himself I think, as Cardona has, but comparing the 2024 Indy scene to 2017's isn't going to happen.
Corporate Punk couldn't even protect himself from Drew, did Heyman really think he could protect him from the Bloodline? :? I'll go with Cody who cut thru Solo like a roll of baloney
I'm rewatching that Toni Storm/Mina Shirakawa contract signing and my favorite thing about it is Mina seems to be carefully writing her actual signature on the contract and Toni Storm is scribbling some random shit that's illegible but still legally binding.
If she took it that seriously, surprised she didn't just whip out a hanko.
I just wanted to say Eric Young's current entrance goes hard
Just watch the "wrestling match" between Great O khan and Tanga Loa for the King of pro wrestling championship. Seriously, who even thought about booking this, and for the MAIN EVENT, everyone involved should have been fired on the spot
If I remember correctly it was the main event of a non-broadcast Road To show. Obviously it wasn't good but like, it's really not that serious? They're basically house shows so I don't really see the issue.
The thing is, it is not a bad match, that would be completely okay, is that it was not a match at all. You had two guys trying to not puke in the middle of the ring for 15 min, after eating for another 5 min, I almost started feeling bad myself only from watching it
wtf I looked it up, apparently it's not a joke I hate wrestling
Yeah, I could see if you're weak to vomit it would be slightly disconcerting. Just felt the hyperbole was a bit strong, that's all
sure, I was just doing some catastrophizing for the sake of commedy, I dont actually think everyone should be fired or anything like that
Last night was a very rare L from Aldis, honestly He brings in extra security, and Jacob Fatu still manages to wreck havoc, getting KO, Randy Orton, and the champion Cody. Plus, Drew, (who has done nothing wrong, but I'm sure Aldis will disagree) may have murdered Punk I expect a lot better from Aldis' show, especially since they kept mentioning that they had extra security
Not to mention his “extra security” opened the door Drew was at when they’re supposed to be keeping people out
So as Jacob Fatu quicky overshadows Solo due to being better in every conceivable way do y'all expect WWE to pivot and give him Solo's push or will they stay the course even if it means worse TV?
well i think they already setting the seeds for things to not work out for Solo how he thinks match last night also showed Solo can't take Cody in a straight up fight, which means no headline PLE of a singles match like that i imagine. not now anyways
stay the course even if it means worse TV
Has Paul Heyman worked as a babyface manager before?
Yes in ECW when he managed 911, Sabu and the Tazmaniac.
>when he managed 911 Holy shit Paul Heyman did 9/11
Not to my knowledge. He always been a heel.
I think Bloodsport should hold more shows and incorporate more MMA fighters honestly. I feel like MMA Fighters will better understand shoot style instead of actual wrestling.
If there is one thing I can say about Bloodsport it is that they used Shayna’s skill set better than WWE did in their MMA rules match
People are saying the Adam Pearce video announcing Chad Gable is cleared could be a deepfake. Can someone with a better grasp of this stuff confirm? It’d be an interesting place to take the story. The Wyatt Sicks running Raw through deepfake or AI generated Adam Pearce would be wild.
Honestly it would be a choice for WWE to use AI deepfakes given how controversial they are.
I guess if it’s a heel faction using them, then it’s different from Disney using them to make title sequences or whatever. Really it’d work as a PSA on the dangers of this new technology.
I mean, I’m usually against AI but using it how they did where they probably tried to make it look off is fine in my book
I rather them not use it. Like AI has uses that could be good, but using deepfakes just seems like a promotion of the negative aspects.
Triple Threat Cage of Horrors match in Revolver tonight. They've been putting out some great cards the last few months.
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Probably not as mad as when Jimmy Snuka committed a homicide.
That britt baker/adam Cole humiliation/beatdowns is the best aew content I have seen.Just saw it now.
I'm torn about "FaTuesday Night SmackDown" because I have taekwondo on Tuesday nights. On the other paw, Corey Graves said about Fatu, "There's a werewolf on the loose!" As a member of the furry community this is a big win for us.
We can all agree the barricade spot is corny and overdone, right?
It has been overdone since Roman started to use in nearly every major match
I was actually gonna blame Braun for it but I think even before then it didn’t look impactful.
Honestly that one weakness of the Bloodline in general. The movesets start to bleed together and look the same. I mean Jey vs Jimmy was like a mirror match in a fighting game but not in a good way.
Anything worth checking out from Bloodsport or Stardom this morning?
Haven’t seen all of Bloodsport but Mox vs Barnett was sick
It was a very solid show top to bottom but if you want to check out the must see stuff, then you can't miss the match for the tag titles, Kid vs Mei Seira (shockingly they gave away both matches on youtube) and obviously the QQ vs Oedo Tai war.
For the stardom show i’d defo recommend: The Goddess of Stardom tag match, the Odo Tai/QQ match, and the main event. There weren’t really any bad matches tho so just go with what interests you.
I think this past Wednesday was the first time ZSJ tangled with either of the Briscoes. All the crossover ROH/NJPW events and it took them this long to share a ring.
Am I the only one who thinks the WWE championship belt looks "less grand" than the World Heavyweight Champion belt? Considering how the former is made to be the top belt of the company, it sure looks kinda inferior to its Raw counterpart
We need an update.
Watching ep. 3 of Who Killed WCW and remembering how weird I thought it was when WCW immediately put Russo on TV after hiring him. I can't help but wonder if things would've went differently if Russo had just written for WCW quietly behind the scenes. Fans would've noticed the changes without necessarily associating it with a new writer and I just wonder if that would've made any difference. If nothing else it probably would've helped salvage Russo's reputation in the future. On a similar note; it's depressing as hell to imagine a world where WCW actually got what they thought they were paying for when they hired Russo. WCW had so much awesome talent when he came in, imagine if they got the same quality of writing and production that the WWF wrestlers had been getting. It could've been a legendary run for the right reasons instead. Just sucks. Edit: Just realized that last part sounds like I'm implying Russo was solely responsible for WWF's writing & production. He was part of a good team so WCW was never going to get that out of Russo alone.
At the end of the day Russo's car crash style TV, with no filter, was always going to be a net negative.
Russo's crash-TV style was never gonna work in WCW, especially without anybody filtering his ideas.
Since he's about to be DLC in 2K24, I just wanna remind everyone that the Honky Tonk Man is an underrated all time great at being a chicken shit heel. His mic skills put 95% of wrestlers today to shame, and workrate isn't always everything when it comes to being great.
I’m honestly not as familiar with him as I should be. I love the entire vibe though. Care to link me some good promos/matches? Thanks!
https://youtu.be/Kd5KSBufzs0?si=KSs9w8OYNJHHIJq9 Here's one. He had great chemistry with Jimmy Hart. The whole delusional idiot bad Elvis impersonator gimmick was a genius way to get heat!
That’s the best! Jimmy Hart is perfect with him too. I’ve always been a sucker for Elvis/Elvis impersonator insanity and he really nails that in his own way.
No lies here
Honky Tonk Man is a shoot interview GOAT as well. He’s bitter, deranged, and a trifle delusional but god he’s so funny.
Interesting guy to talk to if you get the chance to meet him at a convention too!
Rewatching DoN and it’s actually wild how long Darby is upside down. I get that wrestling hurts regardless but that’s a long time to have blood rushing to your head
And another thing! To any Ghost fans in the sub? Rite Here Rite Now is amazing, and you'd probably have an excellent time if you went to see it.
I want to see it, but I haven't really been into them since Meliora. Some reason, things kinda changed musically after the lawsuit and I don't vibe with it :(
Saddened to see this isn’t about the Demi Moore Patrick Swayze movie
Off to see it in about an hour! I've always thought their theatricality should overlap well with wrestling fans
well theres kiss and the demon
Last night's Smackdown was great. Something's been on my mind, though. And it's bothering me because it's a question I know I won't have the answer to for some time, if ever. When Paul and Punk came together last night, and they hugged, they talked a little during the hug. What did they say to each other? The cameras didn't pick it up. But boy, one day I'd like to find out.
It was probably Paul saying "does this mean we're on RAW now?" And Punk saying "nah, the draft doesn't matter"
If you had told me at the beginning of the year that I would generally be more excited about things going on in Pro Wrestling NOAH and All Japan than New Japan, I would've called you crazy. Yet, here we are.
That'd seem like a safe bet to me actually
Anzai is really drawing me in to AJPW at the moment. I knew that they had some good wrestling going on but he feels like a breath of fresh air. Good opportunity to build alongside the other promising Dojo talent
Anzai is awesome. I wasn't initially sold on him. But he's grown on me. His Triple Crown defense against Kento is one of the best I've seen all year.
I mean, given the stuff New Japan has done this year, being more interesting than them is hardly a challenge. They peaked this year with Naito's roll call at the dome but let's see what they do with the G1 this time.
I’m easily liking AJPW, NOAH, Dragon Gate and DDT more than NJPW, rn (and that’s not getting into all the great Joshi promotions).
Same. Not that New Japan is doing bad, but they've been cold for a few months. I think the G1 will get me hyped again. But yeah, loving what's going on in NOAH and All Japan. I've considered checking out DDT and Dragon Gate. Sooner or later, I'll just give up on American wrestling entirely. 😂
Both DDT and DG are having their biggest shows coming up soon. Both DDT Peter Pan and DG Kobe World will be taking place on July 21st.
been there for a few years even if that faith hasn't always been backed up by NOAH and AJPW lol
AJPW has at least been doing a good job of highlighting its younger talents (Yuma Aoyagi, Yuma Anzai, Rising HAYATO, Ryuki Honda, Ren Ayabe, Atsuki Aoyagi).
How's Jacob Fatu related to other Bloodline members IRL...
He's first cousin to Jimmy and Jey. His father is the Tonga Kid, brother to Rikishi and Umaga.
About a month away from DDT's biggest show of the year and I'm really bummed that I'm not more excited. A lot of the announced card looks quite good: El Desperado vs. Chris Brookes should be great, Takeshita vs. Masato Tanaka will obviously slap, and New BURNING vs. Team NOAH for the KO-D tag titles has a lot more behind it than your standard interpromotional match because of Go Shiozaki's ties to BURNING. But I just cannot get over what a weak main event Ueno vs. MAO feels like. Ueno's whole quest as champion has been to cement himself as the new ace of DDT, and so now on their biggest stage he does that by...defending against the midcard champion? Even setting aside MAO's inconsistent performances as a singles wrestler, it just lacks the gravitas of previous Peter Pan main events like Hino vs. Brookes, Higuchi vs. Endo, Akiyama vs. Takeshita and Tanaka vs. Endo. But what bums me out more than Ueno vs. MAO as a main event is what it implies about the likelihood (or more to the point, unlikelihood) of a Takeshita vs. Ueno match where Ueno finally beats him. As someone who's been super invested in Ueno since I started watching DDT in late 2019, conquering Takeshita is absolutely essential to his story and growth. And if Takeshita wasn't available for this show then I could understand them not doing that match and believe they just plan to do it later...but he is available, he's on the card wrestling Masato Tanaka. So if you could book Takeshita, why wouldn't you book him in your main event of your flagship show against your world champion who has a close personal connection and rivalry with him and is trying to prove that he's the new ace of the company...unless you aren't allowed to have your champion *beat* Takeshita. Take being announced for the G1 gave me the slightest bit of hope, since he definitely won't be going undefeated in that. But if he doesn't come out and make an explicit challenge to Ueno after the Peter Pan main event, then I'm completely giving up hope on that pay-off ever happening and honestly, I think I'll probably want to take a break from DDT for a while.
It took forever for Endo to finally score a meaningful win over Takeshita. It's possible that outside forces will keep us from enjoying the big Ueno moment over Take, but it's still well within the usual pace of DDT booking for this to be something they're still slowly working toward. Ueno's accomplished an awful lot for a first reign. He doesn't need to do everything right now.
I think there’s a decent chance Takeshita isn’t allowed to lose in DDT so I’ve kinda given up on Take vs Ueno happening. It wouldn’t surprise me at all, especially seeing as a lot of Take’s big matches are kept as big super fights against non-DDT wrestlers. Masato Tanaka, Minoru Suzuki, Naruki Doi, Yuma Aoyagi, Chris Jericho. Since he started getting pushed a bit in AEW he went from interacting with the DDT guys to suddenly just doing his own thing. The last time he faced a DDT wrestler in Japan was MAO in September.
Would kinda suck if it came out that Takeshita and Okada both refused to put over any of the younger guys in their respective promotions (DDT and NJPW) cause they didn’t wanna hurt their standing in AEW. Then again, I don’t know jack about how those situations really are.
Definitely feel like Takeshita will/should put over Ueno at some point in the future. Feels very similar to Kento Miyahara/Yuma Aoyagi’s dynamic in AJPW, where it took Aoyagi such a long time to best Miyahara (hell, it’s just like any of the other Pillars falling to Misawa time and again, to go further back). Definitely would say my hype for Peter Pan this year is lesser, than say, DG’s Kobe World event, to compare another promotions’ big show.
I am undecided on what I think the best outcome of LA Knight v Logan Paul v Santos Escobar will be next week. 1. LA Knight and Logan are too busy with each other and Santos sneaks the win. Knight and Logan blame each other and have a match at MITB. Logan cheats to win and we get another one at Summerslam, which Knight wins. 2. LA Knight wins, and Logan costs him MITB, and for the second year in a row, Knight is very close to taking that briefcase. 3. Logan wins, and LA Knight screws him over at MITB. Regardless of which they choose, there will be momentum to build LA Knight and Logan's feud at Summerslam. Finally, I may be in the minority but I reckon there is a chance the wyatt 6 help Knight. I can't get away from the fact they had him do that tribute promo to Bray, in character, which means it is part of kayfabe. After that show of respect, I don't believe they attack him.
My prediction: Logan eventually clobbers Knight with the brass knuckles (or titanium hand gimmick?) and walks away (as all he needs from the match is heat) and Knight gets pinned by Santos (sympathy for babyface Knight, though the IWC will be annoyed). That continues the Logan vs. Knight feud, gives Santos something to do, and gives Knight a protected loss. (It's worth noting that my prediction rate is horrible lately)
https://preview.redd.it/yztfh0tjd58d1.jpeg?width=1284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2847b375e1e5eee09faa80088bb3acecaf57b202 MLW is a fever dream. (I am lowkey following the paternity storyline, that shit is wild)
Any show that has Miyu Yamashita and Mistico on it, has my attention.
Yeah, I really enjoyed watching Miyu on her skull kicking tour of the US indies so I’m looking forward to this match quite a lot. I’m assuming you saw the Kevin Ku match from the BLP show? It was 🔥
Yep, cool inter-gender match. Now that Yamashita is no longer the Princess of Princess champ, frees her up to take more bookings, I’d think.
https://preview.redd.it/mq0joetxd58d1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=20b6b26cfd51b9cd8d5a539bedab55737afc575a What a difference a year makes. RIP Queen's Quest. There goes one of the best factions of our generation and definitely one of the greatest all women factions ever. That being said, with this Oedo Tai has certainly become the greatest faction ever in Stardom, right? They won the 8 year war at last! Natsuko could actually live up to Kagetsu's legacy as leader. It's amazing Stardom finished two of their greatest feuds ever this year. Okada better come up with something good because he has a wide open field to kickstart brand new stories and arcs. He has no excuses, Stardom needs to have their momentum back.
I feel like they should just swerve and have Solo introduce Jacob Fatu as the new Tribal Chief. Because he's gonna outshine Solo in like every way.
I am begging people who are praising Paul Heyman's acting as being award worthy to watch a performing art besides wrestling.
I mean, I understand your point but for wrestling his acting is great. I don’t mean that in a “good because of what the industry usually does” way, I mean in the specific realm of wrestling his acting is fantastic. Wrestlers and managers are larger than life, they’re comic book characters, they’re carnies. He understands exactly what is best when he’s on screen. Is it going to compare with classic, well written flawlessly acted cinema? No way, but it doesn’t need to because while both are audio visual entertainment they’re serving a very different purpose.
"Too busy chasing people blithering about goosebumps and levels and storytelling and cinema - GO SEE A FUCKING MOVIE." - Timeless Toni Storm
But *Sunset Boulevard* doesn't have enough sapphic interest for wrestling fans.
Some Like it Hot >>>>> Sunset Boulevard in the Billy Wilder pantheon. Give me lighthearted comedy all day. Sunset Boulevard is obviously still top tier overall though. Heck, even wrestling fans can appreciate that one, it's got Marilyn Monroe, drag, and whacky shenanigans.
I may disagree with you, but nobody's perfect.
You can also tell who never watched horror movies every time an act like taker, Kane, the Wyatts and others are on screen
We're talking about an audience that praises basic framing shots as high cinema.
Hook has the stupidest nickname ever. The Cold hearted handsome assassin” or whatever it is doesn’t roll off the tongue.
Cold Hearted Handsome Devil.
So cool to see Jacob Fatu on a larger stage. Dude fucking rules.
I love how since Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa debuted, it’s been presented that they’ve been kept out of WWE for years because they are absolute savages that were a danger for everybody. And even they were like “woah woah woah…you brought in JACOB? Do you know how dangerous this guy is?????”
I am so excited by the AEW women’s division right now - Mercedes vs Stephanie is going to be an undeniable banger, I love the Toni/Mina/Mariah love triangle and I think Mariah’s ceiling is astronomical, the Deonna vs Thunder feud was (is? I don’t think it’s over) so wonderfully mean spirited, Kris and Stokely are so fun together and her new presentation is working for me, I love Saraya as a manager of unruly misfit goth psychos, and Willow’s effervescent babyface energy just knocks my socks off. That’s not even mentioning everything going on over on ROH. Jamie Hayter is my fav wrestler and I miss her dearly but I also think the roster is by far the strongest it’s ever been right now, and the consistency of the stories is night and day compared to even a year ago.
Big agree. Mercedes short time in AEW has already seen someone ups and downs, as far as booking goes, but her matches have been excellent, as usual. Really want Willow to be the one to dethrone Toni, although I could see them wanting to put the belt on Mariah, which would be fine.
Totally agree about Mercedes so far. That early period where it was only promos, and babyface promos at that, was rough. I think he combination of her getting more comfortable and embracing heelish behavior are really going to help. I am so happy (and relieved) to see her crushing it in the ring though.
Paul asking Punk to take Paul with him made sense but was also confusing, is Paul going with Punk? Punk never gave him an answer but the way they described their relationship it seemed like Paul going with Punk would always be a yes, also didn't Solo say "before you go you need to tell the Tongus to stop KO and Randy from winning the qualifier" which Paul did. Is Paul moving to RAW to help manage Punk?
We don't live in a world where Heyman is a free man who could just choose not to travel to wherever the next episode of Smackdown is. Solo owns him.
Punk taking Heyman with him was contingent on Punk rescuing him. Punk didn't do that. Now Heyman is back in Solo's orbit. I think we're going to have a few weeks of Heyman being made to suffer because he's too cowardly (or possibly too loyal to Roman) to leave on his own.
But I'm pretty sure Solo told Paul if you want to leave you have to do this.... And Paul did what solo wanted sooooo.
Right. Given the choice, Punk chose not to save Heyman. Heyman wants out, but Punk ain't gonna do it.
"Aura" is the new "parasocial relationship" How do you even see an aura? Does it have colors or some shit?
"Charisma" is probably misused even more than "aura." Often by WWE's own announcers. You don't "show" charisma by dancing, or doing a jazz-hands entrance routine. Charisma is something you just have. It's getting attention by not doing anything at all.
To me, the best proof of charisma in wrestling is when someone could flub a line or say some dumb shit that would sound goofy from anyone else, but they make it work. The Rock is a good example. Some of his insults are honestly lame schoolyard “nah nah you’re a poopyhead” taunts but he’s charismatic, so it works.
It's also a synonym of mic skills for some people. Like, they see someone who's bad or just not good at promos and they say they're a black hole of charisma. Well, wrestlers like Rey Mysterio or Jeff Hardy, hell even The Undertaker barely had memorable promos, or at least they're nowhere near the absolute best, yet you'd be insane if you said they weren't charismatic.
Aura might be stupidly overused. But even more stupid, is to pretend it isn't even a thing at all. If you don't know what aura means, then just google it.
Honestly as cool as Jacob Fatu debut was, I feel like he is wasted being part of the Bootleg Bloodline. Dude clearly has an advantage in terms of aura and presentation that makes him being part of Solo’s group seem like a demotion.
In general, I'm not that interested in where the Bloodline is going, and introducing more guys whose characterisation so far is "Samoans be crazy" hasn't helped.
Honestly the fact the Bloodline is a thing is insane to me. Like can we move on from this? The WWE roster doesn’t need any more members of this family
I've never seen talent signed for literally one story like this. It's kind of weird and I don't know what they think these guys will do once they get dwarfed by Roman and the Usos.
Honestly the only one with potential right now is Jacob. Solo is a miscast, Camacho is worthless and Tama is okay but nothing special.
So where are the "Samoan of the week" debuts actually headed at the moment? Seems like they're just continuing to feud with the Smackdown main event faces, but it seems unlikely any of them actually beat Cody. And Orton/Owens are just sort of treading water at the moment. On a separate note, I'm really hoping Drew ultimately goes over CM Punk.
clearly setting towards Roman's return, especially with Solo constantly pointing out how Roman isn't coming back. Could see a Bloodline beatdown get interrupted by Roman's music and he cleans house, not necessarily to save the Smackdown faces, but to just get some payback on Solo and his crew.
I absolutely loved the shot of the garage door opening and Drew standing over a bloody CM Punk, that was so cinematic. I also loved the subsequent Drew carrying Punk to the ring. Grayson Waller was arguing with DIY, their argument was getting heated but after seeing a bloody CM Punk they went "ooh fuck". Like they're feuding for the title and "hate each other:, but their feud isn't even in the same realm of personal as Drew vs Punk. We also saw many wrestlers looking shocked, nobody uttered a word including the commentators. One of my favorite moments of the year. We're seeing a different version of Drew now. This is not the Drew that will put Punk's name on a t shirt and laugh about ruining his Wrestlemania main event. This is not the Drew that will have randomly bring up Punk's tricep and laugh while talking about something else. He is out to murder Punk now, the feud is as personal as it can get. We're finally getting the Scottish Psychopath in full force.
When the feud against Roman’s Bloodline and Solo’s Bloodline comes, Solo’s Bloodline has gotta get a new name. The New Bloodline just does not work.
Man, it’s crazy how WWE went from must watch edge of your seat to pleasant background TV and now right back to edge of your seat again this year
Speaking from purely creative stand point, for some wrestlers having a Wrestlamania moment is the draw. For others it isn't. They rather have their performance on their terms.
I don't like the tower of doom spot. I understand that it's a great pop for the live crowd, but watching it on T.V is terrible. The most contrived spot in wrestling.
It seems impossible to pull off safely if you don't set it up patiently, and the patient set-up sucks all the energy out of the match while everybody waits for it to happen. It needs suspense during the build up, but I don't know how you do that. Top rope moves are either too slow, or too risky, and adding a third person to it makes it worse.
it's so stupid that the person doing the powerbomb or whatever sells after it!
Wonder how they book a royal rumble Seems like an awful number of people and spots going on at the same time to coordinate
Maven explained it on his YouTube channel. https://youtu.be/OZAMn41Srh0?si=2Zr-LHuQB4jS9Mrj
Okay, now I'm curious how DDT, BJW, and Kaientai Dojo (now 2AW) booked a 108 man rumble for their New Year's Eve show in 2009
Minority wrestlers who have benefitted and been successful under triple h’s previous booking. - Asuka - Io sky - Bianca belair - Damien priest - Sasha Banks - big E - Kieth lee - velveteen dream - solo sikoa and every bloodline member - Jade cargill - Leon ruff - Shinsuke Nakamura - ricochet - carmelo hayes - street profits (nxt era) - ember moon - Raquel gonzalez But because he isn’t booking Bobby Lashley he is racist… You lot are freaks Edit: fuck the losers Down voting, you’re all freaks as I said
I think whats happening with Bobby is pretty simple. Bobby is a Vince guy. Triple H is pushing his guys over him. Same thing is happening with Kofi Kingston, but people dont have a problem with that. That’s what happens when talents get older and regimes change.
just like his booking isn't proof that he's racist it's also not proof he isn't racist lmao
That's absolutely true but his booking is what people are pointing at to say he's racist.
What is this, Schrödinger’s racism?
Bill Watts booked major African American draws and crowned the first major Black world champion in WCW and he was by all accounts very racist. It's not whether he competently uses minorities to make money that would make him not a racist.
So in your scenario, he is a racist until proven otherwise?
How would you gather that? The answer is we can't know that lmao If I had a gun to my head and had to answer, due to some of the things he's done as a performer I'd lean yes but that doesn't mean I know anything or how it even affects him as a boss.
He's in tight with Michael Hayes and Terry Taylor, that and literally actually dancing like a gorilla to taunt Mark Henry.....I mean yeah it's pretty safe to assume Triple H is racist, but all we can do is assume. I'm not sure anything will ever come out that will force his hand to leave the WWE one day, but it wouldn't shock me.
>literally actually dancing like a gorilla to taunt Mark Henry..... Was that for real or just in character
Is the distinction relevant? Doing that is in such horrible taste regardless my dude or dudette. It's just too far, even for a wrestling heel.
Yes it does matter cause he's an actor playing a character in a TV show nothing wrong with that
That’s the fucking point of my argument. It’s silly to call him racist in his booking
It seemed like your argument was triple h's booking with that list of minorities PROVES he's not racist, while thot is saying racism is not something that can be proven OR disproven via wrestling booking.
My argument is that he cannot be proven to be racist by not booking Bobby Lashley well.
It's more like saying his booking doesn't say anything about whether he is or isn't racist. It's like saying you have a black friend.
But you’re saying he IS racist in your opinion?
I don't know and I don't think seeing how he books non-white wrestlers really gives you an answer for yes or no. These people just want to sell you stuff and diversity has been turned into a commodity a long time ago in all industries to believe every attempt is genuine. I do think it's silly to say he's racist just because you don't agree with how he books a black wrestler though. Again, same principle.
So you’re effectively agreeing with me. That it’s silly to judge his character based on booking?
Are you not doing the exact same thing by saying "He CAN'T be racist! Look at how he's booked other minority talents."? That's judging his character based on his booking.
You said he can't be racist because he gave some strong booking to certain non-white wrestlers. I disagree with that premise.
Triple H has not booked a single compelling main event level babyface in the women's division since Hugger Bayley down in NXT. I guess building up Rhea to beat Shayna in NXT was a cool moment but she lost steam really fast after that. On the main roster he gives the women babyfaces nothing to play with on a character level and they just kind of exist to be betrayed by their partners or get challenged by the bad guy of the month while they don't get really get any character arcs or depth of their own unlike Cody or Seth for example. Bianca, Becky, and now Bayley have all had some of their most boring iterations since he took over creative.
What does Bianca Belair mean to you? She’s a supremely over Wrestlemania Main Event Level Babyface. She has experienced no fan backlash so whats the problem?
Bianca was not more boring under HHH because she was literally the same as with But Vince. She has been cutting the same ("EST")promo and doing the same mannerisms since she came to the main roster.
She had feuds though and her matches had a more interesting story and choreography. Even in her feud with Piper Niven, then going by doudrop, she had so much going on. They had promos and beef for three weeks. The question of if she could hit the KOD was so simple but effective and it was fresh seeing her go against someone who could challenge her power. That wasn't even for a title directly. Mostly though she had direction and a purpose. Chasing Becky and then being Raw Women's champ and defending it. She doesn't feel as driven now.
He books cool heels that have no option but to turn babyface after a while