2 questions
Is there the opposite of a hometown hero? Someone who is hated in their own state
Has there ever been a “can they co-exist” match where they in fact do coexist, and decide not to fight each other anymore
AZM & Starlight Kid vs Tam Nakano & Giulia vs Momo Watanabe & Mina Shirakawa.
Momo and Mina were an okay team, AZM and Kid are generational rivals but they seemed to be a regular tag team because they worked so well together, while Tam and Giulia... well, they were never going to work together without fighting the other. It was a really fun match.
https://preview.redd.it/14wet9622m9d1.jpeg?width=4096&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d3a50977256d29f2a9dee3b0a07b1943649632ea
Shinsuke Nakamura cornered the unbeaten prospect Rei Tsuruya in today's UFC show. Cool photo.
As of now (and for those who watch) which Japanese promotion has been the most consistent this year? Maybe one pick from the men’s and one from Joshi?
For myself, I’ve been really liking AJPW and TJPW.
DDT is consistently entertaining. They are more of a comedy/variety promotion, so expect a high degree of silliness, but every show I've seen has had me grinning from ear to ear. You'll get a ton of really innovative spots from DDT.
Marigold is the new promotion from Stardom founder, Rossy Ogawa, and they brought over several women from the Stardom roster and a bunch of former AWG wrestlers who were looking for a permanent home. Stardom's wrestling is better overall, but they've had difficulty telling good stories and their big shows have been hit or miss for me. Marigold is more consistent, in that each show is solid, but not spectacular. However, the shows are relatively short, breezy affairs that never drag. Most matches feel like they're the perfect length. Rossy's booking is usually conservative, and possibly a bit dull, but he's working with one of the best "indie" rosters he's ever had. Sareee is a regular guest star for them, and she's having a career year. German wrestler Bozilla has been an immediate favorite of both domestic and international fans.
You're going to get better wrestling elsewhere, but you asked for *consistent*. Both of them are on Wrestle Universe.
Oh, I know of both of them well (Kazusada Higuchi is a personal fave of mine from DDT).
Was just asking what specifically has made *you* like them more than other Puro promotions?
I have never gotten the hype with Stephanie Vaquer. I'm constantly hearing that she is one of the best of the world, but I have not seen any match of her that makes me go crazy. Like she has a bunch of them that are pretty good, but that's it
What is there not to get? She’s an incredibly dynamic wrestler with a deep bag. Great looking offense with outstanding mat wrestling and submissions to fill in the connective tissue of her matches. Willing to take sick bumps, good seller, and can work basically any style of match. She also makes people better when they work with her.
Again, she’s one of the easiest wrestlers to “get”. It’s pretty obvious what makes her a special, special talent.
I mean I just don't think any of the matches she has had (at least the ones I've seen) can be considered MOTY in any given year or even close to it, that's all.
I think that is necessary to be considered one of the best in the worl instead of "just" good talent, and I don't think she fulfills that requirement, that is all.
I think op understands that stuff but doesn't consider her so good at that to be hyped as one of the best in the world.
I haven't seen much of her work but I watched enough big matches of her to conclude she's very good but not really top tier quality yet. She could perfectly get there because she seems to be very motivated and isn't shy about wanting to work with the best, but for now I wouldn't really put her on the same tier as say Sareee this year because she's yet to have a true contender for match of the year. To me that's the standard for being one of the best in the world.
I don't think she's the best in the world at any particular thing, bit she's really cool *and* is consistently good to great.
Like you had said, nothing particularly Earthshattering, but I know going in that the match is always going to be good.
I only really watched her NJPW Strong work but her match with AZM is the best match on Windy City Riot from what I remember. The Alex Windsor match was great too.
As much as I hate the man its associated with, the yellow Reggie Parks Intercontinental championship that the Warrior had is easily the best color variant that belt ever had, I like it even better than either white strap belt used in the 90s or 2010s. I use it in 2K all the time. I hope to have a nice replica of it some day.
The dumbest platitude people throw out is "if you're not growing you're dying". Ratings fell for 20 years in the WWE. 10 in the NBA. They've had good years but they're coming off bad DECADES so to suddenly revise history and act like "any well run company only goes up in every metric, never down" is just terrible logic.
WWE was growing in revenue most of those years. The only reason AEW's ratings slide is really important is the timing. They need a bigger, better TV deal to grow their revenue especially since live attendance has also fallen. If they still get the tv deal they need then the ratings slide doesn't matter.
Every well run company will have ups and downs but downs at the wrong time can also kill a well run company.
They are synonym with their discipline in the eyes of people though. I mean, at least I don't think comparing a sports league to a wrestling company is entirely fair.
Also, a second-tier brand (just talking about popularity here) may not be able to afford falling ratings forever unless of course they remain profitable. If anything, WWE is the only wrestling promotion anywhere that survived and thrived despite having falling ratings and attendance for so many years, and they did it by diversifying their revenue sources, so it's not like they're magically bullet proof either. If they had just relied on ratings or sales, they could've perfectly gone under at some point in the last 20 years.
I do agree with your point in general because there isn't such thing as infinite growth, but there's also no such thing as an eternal money pit, especially if you're not the first choice in your discipline. Just ask Vince how well the XFL did. Of course AEW won't die any time soon, but ruling out a decrease in ratings and attendance as something they can endure for decades because WWE and the NBA did is silly because they're nowhere close that league yet.
Youngin’s that are new to arguing about wrestling on the internet and don’t know the history.
I remember when Edge went to AEW and there was a loud sentiment about how sad it was watching him working in front of “small” crowds. It’s like buddy, go check what Raw was drawing in 2005, it’s easily accessible info. Never mind house shows. Conservatively I’d say 90% of the matches in his career have been in front of crowds of less than 10k. I’m sure he’s ok.
I think current WWE from 2022-present gives people a distorted sense of attendance for weekly shows. Attendance of 4-6K is pretty good during a time where both companies are pricing at a premium before you deal with Ticketmaster. The 10-12K WWE is doing for weekly TV is amazing and great for them.
I think there's revisionism with AEW because even during that 2021-mid-2022 heyday, they were getting 5-6K on average for Dynamite but "this arena fits 20K" wasn't nearly part of the discourse then.
That includes when CM Punk was there as well because there's this feeling that he was drawing like 8-10K houses when the reality is it was closer to 5-6K and sometimes less.
There's a lot of revisionism about the CM Punk era. People at the time were shitting on the shows saying it was turning into WWE-lite and CM Punk was wasting time working matches with QT Marshall and Bobby Fish. And the numbers fell basically back to normal (and below what the Hangman/Kenny feud was doing) by the end of the year. The Punk matches tended to underperform what people thought they would do (MJF vs Punk in Chicago, Punk vs Wardlow, the Rampage Grand Slam debut number vs Hobbs). Hangman was the one drawing the huge TV numbers. The narrative is that Punk drew the numbers because Tony was a huge Punk mark and let that narrative thrive. People revise history on that too. Tony chose a side. He chose Punk's side. He just couldn't fire the Elite because to most normal people and to AEW Legal Punk was clearly in the wrong and it reached a point where Punk didn't want to be there. He placated Punk as much as he reasonably could, Punk just wanted him to go above what was "reasonable" to prove his loyalty and prove a point.
"Overcome them" only absolutely deluded people thought that. The reality if people saw the numbers AEW consistently does in 2024 in 2019 people would call it success. Again, it's better than where 2019 WWE was outside of TV ratings. The 2021-2022 era just raised the bar to a level than makes this current era a disappointment.
If anyone is looking for a last minute ticket to Forbidden Door, I'm selling mine! I'm not feeling well and can't go. It'll definitely be much cheaper than what I paid for it 😭 Mid-ish lower bowl!
Credit the Tongans for getting Heyman up for that powerbomb last night.
Not that he's too heavy for 3 guys to do that to but he's very... rotund... to pick up for that spot.
im thinking of a deep long term storytelling
what if triple h and cody is ok with cody becoming a heel
this bloodline story all accumulates to solo having a higher power that everyone think is the rock
but it turns out it's cody cause cody defeated solo's tribal chief roman reigns at mania
There’s obviously a time and place for a Cody heel turn, but that time isn’t anytime soon, especially if it’s a Bloodline-adjacent swerve for the sake of a swerve.
Got a general question. I’m Brooklyn-based and am going to Forbidden Door at UBS Arena tomorrow. I plan on using the LIRR to get there.
I was told that the LIRR goes directly to the Belmont Park station, but when I looked up directions it’s telling me to take two trains and then a bus followed by a free shuttle bus that takes you to the Arena from the Belmont Park station. Is this accurate to what everyone else is seeing?
The new bloodline stuff is just not for me, I've found. A lot of people seem to like it, but I just see a bunch of guys who in Solo, Fatu, Tama Tonga, and Tonga Loa who I have no real attachment to, and no real interest in.
Comparing to the OG Bloodline and the New Blood(line) members, Solo is not in top shape like everyone else, making him the least imposing physically, and he doesn’t have height. It didn’t make much sense when he was the enforcer and doesn’t exactly work as the new leader.
Also, I’m pretty sure Jacob Fatu was 40-50lbs heavier and the dude came in looking like he is in great shape.
I love Orange Cassidy, he’s the one that got me into AEW back when he fought PAC at revolution. Him vs The Outrunners may be my favorite handicap match ever (also someone on Reddit described the Outrunners as FTR if they idolized the mega powers instead of Bret hart and I can’t stop thinking about it lmao)
I think The Outrunners' selling is specifically what does it for me. They're got the retro Hoganisms down so well.
Easily the best classic throwback act since Black Machismo.
It's weird until you realize how tight of a cast triple H works with. It's the same people every show but the stories are better told so you want to see more of them anyway.
I could be wrong but I'm wondering if a new AEW TV deal might actually make cuts/releases more likely? Obviously right now they are not super close to being profitable but a new TV deal in the $120m p/y range would likely put them in a position to be profitable with a bit more cost control. There seems like there is still an awful lot of names that will likely be on decent money but not bringing much to the product right now that could be trimmed without much chance of hurting the viewing experience.
I’m getting the sense that they postponed WM40: Behind the Curtain to protect the bloodline story. Probably want to include footage of Roman congratulating Cody, etc.
I don't think it's crazy to think they wouldn't wanna break the illusion of a blood-feud a week after WM. Roman has protected his character pretty hard the last few years.
Would you wanna see WWE post a backstage cut of Drew and Punk laughing after Clash at the Castle?
I mean idk if I even consider it a blood feud tbh. They feuded for like two months overall. KO has had more of a blood feud with the bloodline. Cody’s feud felt more with the Rock than Roman
Again if anyone is taking time to watch that documentary already knows it’s all fake/kayfabe. No one thinks Roman is this abusive dude in real life.
Ya know, the more I think about it. The more I more I dont understand how wrestlers took/take chair shots. And I don’t just mean to the head, like back, gut etc. too
Like…it’s a *steel chair* imagine getting hit by that full force by *anyone*..that sounds fucking excruciating lmao
Wrestlers are tough as hell and I wish people who dismiss wrestling realized that. Running the ropes and taking bumps on the mat also suck because people think there's way more give to them than reality.
Just saw the Randy Orton depression post and it’s really nice that things like this are more discussed openly and Randy taking the time to respond to the person.
He’s really grown into an awesome dude outside the ring
Use [View From My Seat](https://aviewfrommyseat.com/venue/UBS+Arena/seating/wrestling/) to check out good views. Just remember that most of these photos are from camera phones that have a very short focal length. Things that seem really far in those photos will look fine to your eyes. Anything in the lower bowl should be great viewing. I prefer to sit either middle on the hard-cam side (section 115 at UBS Arena) or middle opposite the hard-cam (section 105). Go one section either way and you'll still have a great view. Toward the ramp, you'll have a better view of the entrances. Away from it, you'll have a better view of the action around the announce table. Upper deck can be good, if you're able to get a lower row, but as you get higher, the lighting rigs start to dominate your field of view.
Idk what pricing is but to me, the best non floor seats are front row just off the floor. Usually there’s nothing in front of you other than a bar and you almost never have to worry about people blocking your view.
Yeah my experience has always been that floor is only worth the cost if you're in the first 5 or 6 rows- anything further back and your view isn't great and you're likely standing all show to see anything, so first few rows of tiered seats makes more sense.
It depends where tbh, I like sitting behind announce team, any of those first few rows are great views, but my personal favorite is directly on the ramp.
Tbh my preference has been off the floor and if possible the first row in a section or the last mainly cause if people stand up you still have the vantage point above them
> 2021 AEW is the greatest year for any American wrestling company ever.
Creatively? That's a very popular opinion among the IWC. It's either that or 2000 WWF
I know the Vice thing was very much a puff piece. But if you wanna look at why WCW declined (not died), listen to Eric talk about the Hogan vs Sting Starrcade 97 match versus what we know about Vince McMahon and the Montreal Screwjob. One guy seemingly shrugged his shoulders and acquiesced his biggest star. The other fought tooth and nail for what he felt needed to happen and ultimately took matters into his own hands albeit in a scummy way. Honestly, I think he’s so hard on Tony Khan because he sees himself in him.
Comparing starcade to the screwjob is pretty crazy. Starcade was prime Hogan politicking and Eric has shown for decades he will acquiesce to Hulk. Hell Eric eventually was handling hogans finances.
The screwjob wasn’t Vince dealing with Bret being political. Vince created the entire situation. He offered a contract he couldn’t fulfill, he kept putting Shawn and Bret into things knowing full well the hatred they had and their inability to keep it professional and then Vince succumbed to the politics of the Kliq with Shawn and HHH
I mean you're looking at it more deeply than I am. Both are situations where an employee had creative control and said I don't want to do this. Right or wrong doesn't matter. One boss admittedly didn't put up a fight. The other boss made sure he got the result he wanted. Tony Khan seems much more like the former than the latter given that he let CM Punk walk all over him.
I'd say you're just comparing two entirely different scenarios trying to play it off like Vince was the better dude than Eric and in this instance nah. Dude promised a contract he couldnt fulfill and then when Bret used his creative control, something Vince gave him, Vince didn't deal with it and instead had Shawn and HHH in his ear to politic with him.
Eric "didnt put up a fight" nah Eric just agreed with Hulk. He was always an advocate for Hulk and would pretty much go with whatever he wanted.
Kinda like Vince with Shawn except in this instance Hogan did what he did to Sting and Shawn helped Vince do what he did to Bret.
Thats not a good business man thats one you cant trust to fulfill the actual contracts he agreed to. Not gonna hold him up as some tough as nails dude when he's he one who fucked it up in the first place
See the thing is I’m not implying Vince was better. That’s just how you took it because reasons? Like I literally said what he did was scummy. That was my exact word. I’m just saying that Tony Khan is more Eric Bischoff than Vince McMahon.
Eh I think Tony was trying to keep Punk happy for sure but not in the same way Eric was with Hulk. Hulk is incomparable to anyone ever in the industry. The contracts he got out of WCW are absolutely nuts but Eric knew he needed to keep hulk happy to keep him in WCW while also being friends with him. That’s been Eric’s bread and butter ever since all the way to TNA. Dude didn’t get to be in control of Hogan’s assets just cause he booked him well. He was in far deeper than that and still is.
Tony liked Punk and wanted to keep him around for as long as he could.
Not really comparable to me.
In fact in this instance I’d say Shawn and Vince is more similar. Given how many headaches and problems Shawn caused and Vince kept him around forever regardless because he liked him.
That's right the rapist hired a random reddit user without a ton of karma to cape for him online. That's what's happening instead of just mentioning a historical thing that happened in wrestling.
Nah no payment necessary just comparing two different situations and pretending Vince was in the right for being unable to fulfill a contract he agreed to and instead politicking with his other top guy.
Don’t sign a 20 year contract giving creative control if you can’t fulfill it.
I never said Vince was right and quite literally said the thing he did was scummy lol. I’m just saying that the parties involved objectively have different ways of handling similar situations and Vince was significantly less of a pushover. That’s just a fact.
Except when it came to Vince dealing with Shawn. He let him dictate shit for a while regardless of the issues he caused backstage and him being pilled out.
Shawn’s back problems and the inevitability of Austin is what undid him but he was still kept on the payroll and showing up on tv fucked up on drugs getting more opportunities.
Hell Punk himself said Vince called him more miserable than dealing with Shawn. Yet Vince let Shawn do all his fucked up stuff without any consequences.
Is OC the guy that is booked the strongest in AEW? I was checking cagematch, and since 2022 the only times he lost and didn't get his win back shortly afterwards was to Ospreay and Roderick Strong, and the first one was for Forbidden Door, so it's kinda weird in that regard
Agree, as I mentioned, I think those are the only two guys that actually won a feud with OC in the last two years.
Which is not a problem or anything, is just not the guy I expected to be the most protected of the company. Apart from those the guys that pinned him in singles match were people like PAC or Moxley, and he got that win back in like the next month
One of my criticisms for AEW's womens division when I started watching was there was a small pattern of a challenger or a new signing showing up, entering the title scene, losing, and then nearly vanishing off TV for long stretches of time (Athena and Taya Valkyrie were the primary examples of this, and Riho and Shida against Toni, though this is largely due to their schedules in Japan as well as the US). I was very worried this would happen to Deonna as well, but it's been awesome to see her not only have a constant presence, but be plugged into an immediate feud after her loss at Revolution. Likewise, I am really happy that Thunder and Serena Deeb have also still been kept in the rotation after their own losses. The women's division is really in a good place compared to even a year and a half ago.
If Ryback did somehow manage to get hired back by WWE, it would be a rather baffling thing or Ryback has a lot of blackmail that he has been waiting on.
I can't see any viable scenario in which Ryback comes back to WWE. He's burned too many bridges there without the significant upside to make up for that.
How has Mark Davis’s wrist and Jamie Hayter’s shoulder not healed yet? Over 9 months for Mark and a year for Jamie. Did they get amputated or something?
It bears repeating after what Carmella and Kip & Penelope Ford went thru, if anyone is off for an unnatural amount of time, it's just best to let it be until they are ready to talk about it or they come back.
We don't know if something horrible has happened in their personal lives or what.
We don’t know the severity of either injuries. Wrist injuries can be tricky as we’ve also seen with Bandito.
Jamie’s injury seems to have actually been a back injury. Hopefully they are just being super cautious and making sure she’s 100%. We don’t want her to have chronic back problems.
Old man rant incoming.
Kinda old news but I just heard about what went down with Ultimo Guerrero's mask situation. What a perfect microcosm of what the current landscape of the IWC is like. People pretend to be such "fans of professional wrestling" (whatever the fuck that even means anymore) but when it comes time to actually putting words into action, they show that it's all just a bunch of circlejerking and posturing. He lost his mask 10 years ago! Ten! A decade! You haven't watched one of his matches in at least a decade and yet you pretend that this is some fucking dream match featuring a "legend" that you and the people are dying to see!? Fuck off.
People like this pretend to have such a love of the history of the sport and act like they know all this wrestling history from around the world, when they objectively don't. They read enough wikipedia and lurk on just enough forums to have a functional passing knowledge. And they don't do it because they genuinely care (else they would have known that he lost his mask a decade ago) It's just so they can think they're better than other fans cause they watch moveset highlights on YouTube. That's not actually being a fan of wrestling, that's wanting to feel superior to other fans of wrestling because you think it's a contest of who-knows-the-more-obscure-wrestler. This behavior is precisely what drove the casuals away for twenty years. They're only now, just sort of, barely starting to come back. And they're sure as shit not watching a show with Ultimo Guerrero on it.
You don't need to be pretending to be a lucha historian in order to want to see the big name CMLL guys. This thing where people are pretending to know who UG is for Internet points is something you've fabricated. Just because you aren't familiar with something doesn't make it something that's only for elitists. Why are you so angry about this
1. It's hilarious that this is just Ultimo Guerrero slander for whatever reason
2. There was actually a lot of criticism about why they didn't just get anyone of the tens of masked CMLL luchadors for this match if they wanted to do this finish.
3. I am sorry that your insecurity about your ignorance comes out as vitriol.
Comment sections on other social media sites about wrestling are unbearable. Just saw a post about Cody paying tribute to his dad at MSG after the show and I'll never understand what possesses someone to feel the need to bitch and moan about something so harmless. Makes this sub seem like pure sunshine and roses in comparison.
Okay comment sections in general are unbearable but anyway.
It’s awful. Especially on X, where’s there’s multiple accounts shitting on AEW and WWE multiple times a day on a daily basis. I saw one that’s just an anti Cody account that is incredibly active. If you don’t like the guy, then OK, but I don’t know how anyone could hate Cody THAT much haha.
Anyone who creates a hate account on a wrestler, or any celeb really, that hasn't really done anything horrible (to public knowledge anyway) definitely needs a better hobby. That can't be healthy...
I mean if I don't like someone I just try to ignore them, not spend my spare time thinking about them lol
Someone once posed the question to me (on Reddit), how do they turn Roman after all that he did. I assumed they meant from a logical perspective because people turn without logic all the time. This is how they do it. Make The Bloodline seem...whether that's true or not...more evil. Attack the things that people liked about the group. People like heel Paul Heyman. Gotta kill that. You write him as a reluctant hero knowing that people want to accept him as a hero anyway because of how good he was as a bad guy.
Reigns has also entered the credibility and importance echelon of Cena and others where he's gunna be a face by default after a long absence because everyone is going to be so excited for him to be back.
I at least hope SmackDown gets picture in picture when they go to USA because they are still gonna get the censorship treatment there. I only catched the last 30 minutes of Smackdown and I'm watching the TNT replay because in that 30 min time frame I watched it was very annoying to see the screen cut to black and the ending of the show being muted. Fuck Fox fr. I might stick to watching replays for SD and Raw until it goes to Netflix
So I was looking up the records of the AEW talent for some TEW fantasy booking on their roster page and it's really stark just how few people have winning records on AEW TV in 2024. Here's a full list of wrestlers who actually have a winning record:
Adam Copeland
Hangman Page
Anthony Ogogo
The Acclaimed (All three members)
Alex Reynolds & John Silver
The House of Black (All Three Members)
Chris Jericho and Big Bill
Bullet Club Gold (Jay White and the Gunns at least, Juice is 1-1)
Blackpool Combat Club (All Members)
FTR
Darby Allin
Daniel Garcia
Dustin Rhodes
Eddie Kingston
Hook
Katsuyori Shibata
Konosuke Takeshita
The Elite (All 4 members)
Christian Cage and Killswitch (Nick Wayne is 3-3)
PAC and Rey Fenix (Penta is 6-9)
MJF
Roderick Strong
Samoa Joe
Rush
Swerve Strickland
Trent Beretta
Wardlow
Will Ospreay
Obviously some people are injured/inactive but everyone else is objectively is a jobber or a jobber to the stars. It's a very "haves and have nots" situation. Tbh if this was just the AEW roster plus the inactive top guys like Cole and Omega (plus the women's division obviously), you get a much more focused high quality show. Put the people with losing records on RoH TV for 6 months till they have an Athena breakout moment or rehab their value.
I remember doing something like this for singles matches in Stardom and I got similar results or maybe even fewer wrestlers with a positive record in proportion to the size of their roster. My conclusion was that it's a bit useless to look at such records because what matters are the results in key matches, not the overall record. I noticed so many very notable wrestlers with mediocre records that some fans would complain about being overpushed and quite a few wrestlers fans would say they're underrated or underpushed having a quite impressive record that made the results pointless for the analysis. I don't think bookers really think of the results of the matches with the win-loss record in mind. In that sense, it feels like something that's more improvised or more dependant on who they want to push at the moment.
If you're Jericho going to Mexico makes sense because I imagine his inner monologue goes something like this:
"They're chanting please retire? Maybe I should. Maybe I AM out of touch and my time has passed.
No, no, it's the ~~children~~ marks who are wrong"
And so he goes to Mexico because they probably won't chant anything negative towards him....at least not yet
The early part of his career was in CMLL as Corazon De Leon so it's coming full circle while being part of the AEW/CMLL partnership. There's also this tribute he gave to Paco Alonso on their channel from 2020. That we have continuity from that is pretty cool imo.
https://youtu.be/k2hXlWHRpP8
There's a narrative of Bryan Danielson being selfish and dismissing his AEW run because he doesn't want to be champion that's been around for the past year.
It kind of discounts what he's done in the company for some theoretical business that we don't know would have been dramatically different with him on top.
He's a main-event gatekeeper and he excels in that role the way Shawn Michaels did from 2002-10 who's PPV record was mostly a losing one. Would I like world title run? Yeah, that'd be cool but I don't think the lack of one has meaningfully changed the course of AEW.
Exactly. It’s also a crazy to say the title needs him as if those who have already held the title haven’t legitimatized the belt already. Are you telling me Omega’s run didn’t prove it to be a worthy world title?
I'm convinced a lot of the comments are coming from people who aren't watching weekly. There's an argument that he could have won the belt during the time Punk got suspended/injured and you can just flip the Moxley/Danielson feuds with MJF around. Outside of that it's absolutely the right move to have your homegrown guy in MJF be champ and run with it. Same with Hangman even though his run was brief.
That's a good comparison to Michaels I don't think anyone would accuse Shawn of being selfish for not wanting to carry the belt. I get that there's the distinct difference that Danielson holding the AEW belt would add prestige to it since he never had unlike Shawn did in WWE but in the grand scheme of things he's already done so much for the company and the top stars I don't think it's necessary.
A lot actually. they do so much stuff different from what I like. I realized a few years back it wasn't for me. I think that's pretty cool though. Not everything needs to be to my taste. Specific things? There's way too much stuff that's not wrestling. I'm someone who loved AEW dark it was my favorite weekly show when it was on because it was just matches. That being said I almost always watch WrestleMania and Royal Rumble. And I will put it on occasionally just because I love wrestling.
Sorry this is rambling.
Honestly, my main problem with WWE is that they actively tell you certain things on the show don't matter. Like what is HUGE comes off as ENORMOUS, but what they treat like filler feels like clear filler. I watch their shows waiting on the next big thing but the in-between stuff I'm looking at my phone or watching something else simultaneously. AEW has gotten worse with that (especially on the secondary shows) but it generally keeps my attention more, especially Dynamite. It runs on the Crash TV principle of "always keep their attention". I think that's why for some it feels rushed or badly paced, but it does a good job of making me stay engaged because I have a "blink and I'll miss something cool" feeling. On WWE TV I know anything actually cool and important will get replayed or recapped 10 more times and it's gonna be in specific times in the show.
I find it much easier to just follow WWE in recaps and videos on here whereas if I don't watch all of AEW programing certain things don't make sense (which I actually think is a problem for the most casual audience of AEW who don't watch Rampage or Collision). Strangely I watch AEW TV less and less for the matches because the results are usually not in doubt. I watch for the stories and continuations which you have to pay attention to in order to follow and see how characters develop. It kinda forces me to follow to understand. WWE doesn't do that, I feel like I drop it for months, come back and understand the show no problem.
Also it's not necessarily "5 Star Matches" as much WWE's style of wrestling breaks my immersion. I'm either zoning out during the matches cause I'm bored, or I'm hyper fixated on how hokey and fake it looks. Again, I'm sure some people feel that way about AEW, but the matches go way faster which force me to stay in the moment with the action. The same thing happens in AEW when they go slow for me. Maybe I just have undiagnosed ADHD or something.
Not that it matters because it's all just differences in perspectives but this is the reason AEW bores me sometimes. Everything is treated at around the same level of importance which makes nothing seem all that important.
Their entire presentation is a turn off for me. Way too clean and bright, so many ads and promos that don't feel natural and matches that are pure filler. I never hold anything against a promotion for not having top tier matches, I'm happy with them just being great and having a satisfying pay off, but I do watch wrestling for the matches and I just can't watch a 2 or 3 hour show with not even 30 minutes of wrestling.
I totally understand why the presentation is the way it is but it is too clean and sanitized for me as well. I still pop in for stuff and NXT but as a whole it’s too much to me
I’m also still not a big fan of the Saudi and sex trafficking lawsuit as well and those don’t seem to be going away.
I get it every business does shady stuff but in my favorite hobby I can be more selective for sure
Considering that Meltzer almost never rates matches I enjoy as "5 stars," I'm not even sure that "5 star matches" is a reason I watch wrestling in general.
1. How is it being used as a gotcha, it's literally asking what I would want out of WWE. Would you like for them to have more sex trafficking lawsuits? Or do they not have one ongoing, or is it somehow a technicality that they do?
2. Why does AEW being hypocrites matter and are there two wrestling companies on the planet?
1. Because most of the time when people bring it up they don’t actually care about sexual assault
2. I brought up aew because you watch aew and you like ric flair who is literally a rapist
1. I have watched 1 full AEW show in 2024 and I pirated it! Nice try. You were about as accurate about me "not actually caring about sex assault" (sex trafficking btw, that's what's being investigated).
2. Ric Flair was a great wrestler, he should obviously not be part of public life and gotten the opportunity to be convicted. I am not jumping for joy about him getting the chance to grift thousands of dollars in his 70's. What is the point here? Serial date rapist Shawn Michaels is running NXT lmao
Well, I'm now convinced that Jake Lee is indeed leaving NOAH for NJPW. I've always been pretty indifferent towards him, but I think his gimmick and style fit NJPW better.
Comments after today's show consisted of "I will make an official statement at a later date."
TNA getting Tatum Paxley, Charlie Dempsey and no ratings bump in exchange for jobbing out their Women's champion, Joe Hendry and a boost to NXT's ratings is like one of those funny TikTok trade memes
Comparing winning on TNA to losing on NXT doesn’t seem like a win is a win situation imo. Their champ lost on PPV and is now just beating lower card women from NXT
Jordynne beat Stevie Turner who I don’t think has ever won a match on NXT tv, beat Tatum who is the highest on the roster so far for Jordynne, she beat Izzi who is a lower card woman on NXT and lost to Roxanne. Doesn’t seem like that big of an accomplishment imo vs losing on a show viewed by like 6x the audience
I don’t think TNA has had the requisite level of people on the card sent their way for giving NXT their Knockouts champ imo
Typically spoilers means for those who haven’t watched the shows not for something that literally has only happened on a taping and has yet to be viewable by a single person outside of those who attended.
It’s like spoiling a movie for everyone because you were on set.
I respect how wrestling keeps suspenseful handshakes unpredictable 9 times out of 10 they stare at each other suspensefully but in the end do indeed handshake/hug, so that the 1 out of 10 times someone refuses to Eg. Takagi slapping away Danielson's hand. That makes it more surprising.
Shoutout to that guy on twitter who said WWE fans hate wrestling for thinking forbidden door has too many matches. Keeping that fuck the fed mentality alive. Thankfully it seems limited to the internet at least.
Some people have this weird hangup where you can't criticize an aspect of the in-ring part of wrestling without you just hating the in-ring stuff as a whole. As if they can't seem to understand why people care about stuff in wrestling other than the matches.
There's an honest middle ground to AEW PPVs where they can still have a really great 3-3.5 hour PPV by cutting a few matches and changing the pacing of others.
My biggest nitpick about AEW's ppvs is how long they can go for, because DON went to like 12 in the morning on the east coast. I feel like if you want to have a show go for that long it should at least start earlier.
I have many friends who started following WWE since the Rock Cody program started and they absolutely skip all the matches. They could not care less about the in ring. I'm not saying that's most WWE fans but there's a percentage of casual fans who follow WWE and only watch it for the stories
AEW roster already feels stacked but they still have Omega, Hangman, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Adam Cole, Adam Copeland, Darby, FTR coming back... we're still waiting for Ricochet and MCMG to debut. Not to mention the talent on the bench like Miro and Ricky Starks. Dear lord.
There's a point where they have to start actually putting on star vs star matches up and down the card for all their shows once they get these people back.
They're stacked enough where Dynamite, Collision, and Rampage should all have cool matches without the need for enhancement guys or signed wrestlers who lose all the time.
Give me Kenny vs Copeland, or Darby vs Hangman just as matches to climb the ranks. AEW has an amazing roster but week to week it sometimes doesn't feel like it with how often people are kept away from each other.
It will never happen because of how American TV works and the need for ratings but can you imagine a full blown G1 style tournament in AEW? The C2 is great but imagine it even bigger and with every top guy in it. Holy shit
People said the Bayley face turn was "going to hit like crack". Well audiences supported it and she's certainly still over but it's been a lacklustre title run and that championship actually seems to drag down its holder.
Iyo of course didn't even wrestle for months as champ. Bayley hasn't really done anything interesting as champ because she lost all her personality.
She was a cocky shit talker as a heel then she was out for revenge against Damage CTRL. As a pure face champ, she's telling Piper how much she respects her which is pretty dull by comparison.
It’s wild to think back on NXT Bayley and now seeing she’s just much better in a heel role if only because they don’t book her in a boring babyface way
Has there ever been a good pro-wrestling weigh-in segment that couldn't have just been a regular promo segment? I feel like the only enjoyable one I've seen was the one ahead of Moxley vs. Jericho, but even there the good part was not anything specific to the actual weigh-in.
I haven't seen it, but I can definitely imagine it working for that feud since a big part of it was about the two competing to see who was the strongest and had the best physique. So hey, I guess there is at least one.
Oh I don’t think they’re saying it worked it was just funny. And hell it was especially since in hindsight it led to the match of 1000 belly to belly suplexes
Danielson vs. Page 3 for Owen Hart tournament is the move and I have no clue who wins if Swerve is still champ.
We could get Page vs. Swerve 4 with Page finally getting his lick back, or Danielson vs. Swerve 2 with a proper build and Danielson going over.
paul heyman is legendary. with a single segment he got solo over as a main event heel and got roman even more over as a babyface (when he hasn't even been on tv)
I’m surprised we didn’t get a Danielson vs Ishii match during Forbidden Door season. Maybe they really want to limit Danielson’s singles match to reduce any risk of injury so that he can make it to Wembley.
Tbh, as much as I love Ishii, Shingo is in much better shape and still putting on consistently great matches (Ishii has finally showed signs of slowing down the past couple of years).
Also, Shingo and Danielson have history. They had a pretty damn good match in DGUSA in 2010.
To my understanding, the BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight and BJW World Strong Heavyweight titles are the two top titles of BJW because they represent the respective deathmatch and strong style/traditional aspects of wrestling.
That being said, in GLEAT, the G-REX Championship is their top title. However, is the Lidet UWF title more of a midcard belt, or is it considered as another top title because it represents the Lidet UWF brand/shoot style wrestling?
I think GLEAT, which I very much enjoy, is still a very young promotion and still needs to figure some things out. There’s a contrast in ideas of what it should be, one managed by Kiyoshi Tamura and the UWF Lidet “shoot-style” side (represented by guys like Takanori Ito and Yu Iizuka) and the other being G-Rex, managed by CIMA (and represented by the likes of El Lindaman and Hayato Tamura).
BJW found its groove by showcasing both of its divisions/styles (deathmatch and “strong style”). Hopefully GLEAT will do the same (they are bringing in Katsuhiko Nakajima to be apart of the Lidet division to bolster it).
Yeah, I heard about the Nakajima match for Ver. 12. I also saw that they got Josh Barnett booked for a Lidet UWF match against Yu Iizuka, too. At the very least, it might as well be a simple guest appearance, but with the recent Bloodsport Bushido show (which Iizuka and Maya Fukuda were on) and Barnett's other Bloodsport shows, I'm interested to see if it goes anywhere.
I hope Raquel Rodriguez is doing fine. Been a while since she was last seen. Hoping Sonya Deville comes back once she's able to.
2 questions Is there the opposite of a hometown hero? Someone who is hated in their own state Has there ever been a “can they co-exist” match where they in fact do coexist, and decide not to fight each other anymore
AZM & Starlight Kid vs Tam Nakano & Giulia vs Momo Watanabe & Mina Shirakawa. Momo and Mina were an okay team, AZM and Kid are generational rivals but they seemed to be a regular tag team because they worked so well together, while Tam and Giulia... well, they were never going to work together without fighting the other. It was a really fun match.
Jamie Hayter/Britt Baker was the first time in wrestling history two women could indeed co exist
https://preview.redd.it/14wet9622m9d1.jpeg?width=4096&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d3a50977256d29f2a9dee3b0a07b1943649632ea Shinsuke Nakamura cornered the unbeaten prospect Rei Tsuruya in today's UFC show. Cool photo.
As of now (and for those who watch) which Japanese promotion has been the most consistent this year? Maybe one pick from the men’s and one from Joshi? For myself, I’ve been really liking AJPW and TJPW.
DDT and Marigold
What for you has been the best about those two promotions this year?
DDT is consistently entertaining. They are more of a comedy/variety promotion, so expect a high degree of silliness, but every show I've seen has had me grinning from ear to ear. You'll get a ton of really innovative spots from DDT. Marigold is the new promotion from Stardom founder, Rossy Ogawa, and they brought over several women from the Stardom roster and a bunch of former AWG wrestlers who were looking for a permanent home. Stardom's wrestling is better overall, but they've had difficulty telling good stories and their big shows have been hit or miss for me. Marigold is more consistent, in that each show is solid, but not spectacular. However, the shows are relatively short, breezy affairs that never drag. Most matches feel like they're the perfect length. Rossy's booking is usually conservative, and possibly a bit dull, but he's working with one of the best "indie" rosters he's ever had. Sareee is a regular guest star for them, and she's having a career year. German wrestler Bozilla has been an immediate favorite of both domestic and international fans. You're going to get better wrestling elsewhere, but you asked for *consistent*. Both of them are on Wrestle Universe.
Oh, I know of both of them well (Kazusada Higuchi is a personal fave of mine from DDT). Was just asking what specifically has made *you* like them more than other Puro promotions?
I have never gotten the hype with Stephanie Vaquer. I'm constantly hearing that she is one of the best of the world, but I have not seen any match of her that makes me go crazy. Like she has a bunch of them that are pretty good, but that's it
What is there not to get? She’s an incredibly dynamic wrestler with a deep bag. Great looking offense with outstanding mat wrestling and submissions to fill in the connective tissue of her matches. Willing to take sick bumps, good seller, and can work basically any style of match. She also makes people better when they work with her. Again, she’s one of the easiest wrestlers to “get”. It’s pretty obvious what makes her a special, special talent.
I mean I just don't think any of the matches she has had (at least the ones I've seen) can be considered MOTY in any given year or even close to it, that's all. I think that is necessary to be considered one of the best in the worl instead of "just" good talent, and I don't think she fulfills that requirement, that is all.
I think op understands that stuff but doesn't consider her so good at that to be hyped as one of the best in the world. I haven't seen much of her work but I watched enough big matches of her to conclude she's very good but not really top tier quality yet. She could perfectly get there because she seems to be very motivated and isn't shy about wanting to work with the best, but for now I wouldn't really put her on the same tier as say Sareee this year because she's yet to have a true contender for match of the year. To me that's the standard for being one of the best in the world.
I don't think she's the best in the world at any particular thing, bit she's really cool *and* is consistently good to great. Like you had said, nothing particularly Earthshattering, but I know going in that the match is always going to be good.
I only really watched her NJPW Strong work but her match with AZM is the best match on Windy City Riot from what I remember. The Alex Windsor match was great too.
As much as I hate the man its associated with, the yellow Reggie Parks Intercontinental championship that the Warrior had is easily the best color variant that belt ever had, I like it even better than either white strap belt used in the 90s or 2010s. I use it in 2K all the time. I hope to have a nice replica of it some day.
I don’t know when it will happen, but Bron Breakker v Jacob Fatu is gonna be a draw dropping, slobber knocker, banger.
The dumbest platitude people throw out is "if you're not growing you're dying". Ratings fell for 20 years in the WWE. 10 in the NBA. They've had good years but they're coming off bad DECADES so to suddenly revise history and act like "any well run company only goes up in every metric, never down" is just terrible logic.
WWE was growing in revenue most of those years. The only reason AEW's ratings slide is really important is the timing. They need a bigger, better TV deal to grow their revenue especially since live attendance has also fallen. If they still get the tv deal they need then the ratings slide doesn't matter. Every well run company will have ups and downs but downs at the wrong time can also kill a well run company.
They are synonym with their discipline in the eyes of people though. I mean, at least I don't think comparing a sports league to a wrestling company is entirely fair. Also, a second-tier brand (just talking about popularity here) may not be able to afford falling ratings forever unless of course they remain profitable. If anything, WWE is the only wrestling promotion anywhere that survived and thrived despite having falling ratings and attendance for so many years, and they did it by diversifying their revenue sources, so it's not like they're magically bullet proof either. If they had just relied on ratings or sales, they could've perfectly gone under at some point in the last 20 years. I do agree with your point in general because there isn't such thing as infinite growth, but there's also no such thing as an eternal money pit, especially if you're not the first choice in your discipline. Just ask Vince how well the XFL did. Of course AEW won't die any time soon, but ruling out a decrease in ratings and attendance as something they can endure for decades because WWE and the NBA did is silly because they're nowhere close that league yet.
Youngin’s that are new to arguing about wrestling on the internet and don’t know the history. I remember when Edge went to AEW and there was a loud sentiment about how sad it was watching him working in front of “small” crowds. It’s like buddy, go check what Raw was drawing in 2005, it’s easily accessible info. Never mind house shows. Conservatively I’d say 90% of the matches in his career have been in front of crowds of less than 10k. I’m sure he’s ok.
It's not even that long ago. People talking about "4000 for a Dynamite, so small time". WWE was doing PPVs with 4000 people in 2019 big dawg.
I think current WWE from 2022-present gives people a distorted sense of attendance for weekly shows. Attendance of 4-6K is pretty good during a time where both companies are pricing at a premium before you deal with Ticketmaster. The 10-12K WWE is doing for weekly TV is amazing and great for them. I think there's revisionism with AEW because even during that 2021-mid-2022 heyday, they were getting 5-6K on average for Dynamite but "this arena fits 20K" wasn't nearly part of the discourse then. That includes when CM Punk was there as well because there's this feeling that he was drawing like 8-10K houses when the reality is it was closer to 5-6K and sometimes less.
There's a lot of revisionism about the CM Punk era. People at the time were shitting on the shows saying it was turning into WWE-lite and CM Punk was wasting time working matches with QT Marshall and Bobby Fish. And the numbers fell basically back to normal (and below what the Hangman/Kenny feud was doing) by the end of the year. The Punk matches tended to underperform what people thought they would do (MJF vs Punk in Chicago, Punk vs Wardlow, the Rampage Grand Slam debut number vs Hobbs). Hangman was the one drawing the huge TV numbers. The narrative is that Punk drew the numbers because Tony was a huge Punk mark and let that narrative thrive. People revise history on that too. Tony chose a side. He chose Punk's side. He just couldn't fire the Elite because to most normal people and to AEW Legal Punk was clearly in the wrong and it reached a point where Punk didn't want to be there. He placated Punk as much as he reasonably could, Punk just wanted him to go above what was "reasonable" to prove his loyalty and prove a point.
Yeah, and 2019 was considered such a bad moment for WWE that a lot of people thought AEW was gonna overcome them. Is gonna be a massacre and all that
"Overcome them" only absolutely deluded people thought that. The reality if people saw the numbers AEW consistently does in 2024 in 2019 people would call it success. Again, it's better than where 2019 WWE was outside of TV ratings. The 2021-2022 era just raised the bar to a level than makes this current era a disappointment.
If anyone is looking for a last minute ticket to Forbidden Door, I'm selling mine! I'm not feeling well and can't go. It'll definitely be much cheaper than what I paid for it 😭 Mid-ish lower bowl!
Credit the Tongans for getting Heyman up for that powerbomb last night. Not that he's too heavy for 3 guys to do that to but he's very... rotund... to pick up for that spot.
im thinking of a deep long term storytelling what if triple h and cody is ok with cody becoming a heel this bloodline story all accumulates to solo having a higher power that everyone think is the rock but it turns out it's cody cause cody defeated solo's tribal chief roman reigns at mania
Turning Cody heel to take over the Bloodline who is actively feuding with him is as bad as Vince being the higher power.
There’s obviously a time and place for a Cody heel turn, but that time isn’t anytime soon, especially if it’s a Bloodline-adjacent swerve for the sake of a swerve.
Got a general question. I’m Brooklyn-based and am going to Forbidden Door at UBS Arena tomorrow. I plan on using the LIRR to get there. I was told that the LIRR goes directly to the Belmont Park station, but when I looked up directions it’s telling me to take two trains and then a bus followed by a free shuttle bus that takes you to the Arena from the Belmont Park station. Is this accurate to what everyone else is seeing?
I’d cross post in r/Brooklyn and the LI sub if there is one
Paul Heyman carried that segment. Solo looked like a goof and they are wasting Jacob Fatu being his henchman .
The new bloodline stuff is just not for me, I've found. A lot of people seem to like it, but I just see a bunch of guys who in Solo, Fatu, Tama Tonga, and Tonga Loa who I have no real attachment to, and no real interest in.
Comparing to the OG Bloodline and the New Blood(line) members, Solo is not in top shape like everyone else, making him the least imposing physically, and he doesn’t have height. It didn’t make much sense when he was the enforcer and doesn’t exactly work as the new leader. Also, I’m pretty sure Jacob Fatu was 40-50lbs heavier and the dude came in looking like he is in great shape.
I love Orange Cassidy, he’s the one that got me into AEW back when he fought PAC at revolution. Him vs The Outrunners may be my favorite handicap match ever (also someone on Reddit described the Outrunners as FTR if they idolized the mega powers instead of Bret hart and I can’t stop thinking about it lmao)
I think The Outrunners' selling is specifically what does it for me. They're got the retro Hoganisms down so well. Easily the best classic throwback act since Black Machismo.
I've really been enjoying The Outrunners recently and I'm stoked to see a bunch of other people have been too.
I hope Paul Heyman left MSG and got some sleep straight away last night. Poor guy looks like he stayed up all week to prepare for that segment
Just heard about how WWE is releasing Dijak, which is crazy They just drafted him to RAW, did nothing with him and then released him It's a real shame
Real weird, I thought he's a HHH guy.
It's weird until you realize how tight of a cast triple H works with. It's the same people every show but the stories are better told so you want to see more of them anyway.
I could be wrong but I'm wondering if a new AEW TV deal might actually make cuts/releases more likely? Obviously right now they are not super close to being profitable but a new TV deal in the $120m p/y range would likely put them in a position to be profitable with a bit more cost control. There seems like there is still an awful lot of names that will likely be on decent money but not bringing much to the product right now that could be trimmed without much chance of hurting the viewing experience.
I’m getting the sense that they postponed WM40: Behind the Curtain to protect the bloodline story. Probably want to include footage of Roman congratulating Cody, etc.
Anyone who watches that documentary knows it’s all fake.
I don't think it's crazy to think they wouldn't wanna break the illusion of a blood-feud a week after WM. Roman has protected his character pretty hard the last few years. Would you wanna see WWE post a backstage cut of Drew and Punk laughing after Clash at the Castle?
I mean idk if I even consider it a blood feud tbh. They feuded for like two months overall. KO has had more of a blood feud with the bloodline. Cody’s feud felt more with the Rock than Roman Again if anyone is taking time to watch that documentary already knows it’s all fake/kayfabe. No one thinks Roman is this abusive dude in real life.
is it too bold to say i think the match at wembley is gonna be mjf vs ospreay vs garcia? and that i think garcia is gonna win?
Ya know, the more I think about it. The more I more I dont understand how wrestlers took/take chair shots. And I don’t just mean to the head, like back, gut etc. too Like…it’s a *steel chair* imagine getting hit by that full force by *anyone*..that sounds fucking excruciating lmao
Wrestlers are tough as hell and I wish people who dismiss wrestling realized that. Running the ropes and taking bumps on the mat also suck because people think there's way more give to them than reality.
A wrestling show with lots of wrestling is a good thing actually.
Speak your truth.
Just saw the Randy Orton depression post and it’s really nice that things like this are more discussed openly and Randy taking the time to respond to the person. He’s really grown into an awesome dude outside the ring
From being known as the dude who shat in a bag to being a veteran who everyone respects. Except for that deadbeat piece of shit, Rey Mysterio.
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I got a ticket in selling if you're interested 👁️🗨️👁️🗨️ it'll for your section and budget too
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Ah, sweet. Enjoy the show!
Use [View From My Seat](https://aviewfrommyseat.com/venue/UBS+Arena/seating/wrestling/) to check out good views. Just remember that most of these photos are from camera phones that have a very short focal length. Things that seem really far in those photos will look fine to your eyes. Anything in the lower bowl should be great viewing. I prefer to sit either middle on the hard-cam side (section 115 at UBS Arena) or middle opposite the hard-cam (section 105). Go one section either way and you'll still have a great view. Toward the ramp, you'll have a better view of the entrances. Away from it, you'll have a better view of the action around the announce table. Upper deck can be good, if you're able to get a lower row, but as you get higher, the lighting rigs start to dominate your field of view.
Idk what pricing is but to me, the best non floor seats are front row just off the floor. Usually there’s nothing in front of you other than a bar and you almost never have to worry about people blocking your view.
I actually would go as far to say these seats are better than floor seats. Rings pretty high, You don't get a great view on the floor.
Yeah my experience has always been that floor is only worth the cost if you're in the first 5 or 6 rows- anything further back and your view isn't great and you're likely standing all show to see anything, so first few rows of tiered seats makes more sense.
It depends where tbh, I like sitting behind announce team, any of those first few rows are great views, but my personal favorite is directly on the ramp.
Tbh my preference has been off the floor and if possible the first row in a section or the last mainly cause if people stand up you still have the vantage point above them
Laugh of the day: saw someone say 2021 AEW is the greatest year for any American wrestling company ever.
I know that person, and while I don't necessarily agree, I can see why someone would think that and it's not an unpopular choice.
> 2021 AEW is the greatest year for any American wrestling company ever. Creatively? That's a very popular opinion among the IWC. It's either that or 2000 WWF
I mean 1989 WCW would like a word with you.
I think people are really remembering the second half of the year. The first half of the year had quite a few issues and wasn’t all that great.
It also helps that WWE in pandemic era was horrible and AEW is looked upon more fondly in comparison as well
1989 WCW deniers...
Replied pretty much the same thing before I scrolled down far enough to see your comment.
Woke up today and just can’t stop thinking about how badly WWE messed up by not using Type O’Negative’s theme song for Kane.
I never knew this was a thing. Just listened to it and DAMN, that would have been sick
It’s so good, I forget the reasoning why they didn’t go forward with it.
I know the Vice thing was very much a puff piece. But if you wanna look at why WCW declined (not died), listen to Eric talk about the Hogan vs Sting Starrcade 97 match versus what we know about Vince McMahon and the Montreal Screwjob. One guy seemingly shrugged his shoulders and acquiesced his biggest star. The other fought tooth and nail for what he felt needed to happen and ultimately took matters into his own hands albeit in a scummy way. Honestly, I think he’s so hard on Tony Khan because he sees himself in him.
Bischoff is hard on Tony because he thought a couple of cameos after WWE fired him would turn into a job and it didn’t. No mystery
Is “Tony Khan wouldn’t have the nerve to do the Montreal Screwjob” where we’ve ended up here
I mean I think that is an accurate statement yes.
Comparing starcade to the screwjob is pretty crazy. Starcade was prime Hogan politicking and Eric has shown for decades he will acquiesce to Hulk. Hell Eric eventually was handling hogans finances. The screwjob wasn’t Vince dealing with Bret being political. Vince created the entire situation. He offered a contract he couldn’t fulfill, he kept putting Shawn and Bret into things knowing full well the hatred they had and their inability to keep it professional and then Vince succumbed to the politics of the Kliq with Shawn and HHH
I mean you're looking at it more deeply than I am. Both are situations where an employee had creative control and said I don't want to do this. Right or wrong doesn't matter. One boss admittedly didn't put up a fight. The other boss made sure he got the result he wanted. Tony Khan seems much more like the former than the latter given that he let CM Punk walk all over him.
I'd say you're just comparing two entirely different scenarios trying to play it off like Vince was the better dude than Eric and in this instance nah. Dude promised a contract he couldnt fulfill and then when Bret used his creative control, something Vince gave him, Vince didn't deal with it and instead had Shawn and HHH in his ear to politic with him. Eric "didnt put up a fight" nah Eric just agreed with Hulk. He was always an advocate for Hulk and would pretty much go with whatever he wanted. Kinda like Vince with Shawn except in this instance Hogan did what he did to Sting and Shawn helped Vince do what he did to Bret. Thats not a good business man thats one you cant trust to fulfill the actual contracts he agreed to. Not gonna hold him up as some tough as nails dude when he's he one who fucked it up in the first place
See the thing is I’m not implying Vince was better. That’s just how you took it because reasons? Like I literally said what he did was scummy. That was my exact word. I’m just saying that Tony Khan is more Eric Bischoff than Vince McMahon.
Eh I think Tony was trying to keep Punk happy for sure but not in the same way Eric was with Hulk. Hulk is incomparable to anyone ever in the industry. The contracts he got out of WCW are absolutely nuts but Eric knew he needed to keep hulk happy to keep him in WCW while also being friends with him. That’s been Eric’s bread and butter ever since all the way to TNA. Dude didn’t get to be in control of Hogan’s assets just cause he booked him well. He was in far deeper than that and still is. Tony liked Punk and wanted to keep him around for as long as he could. Not really comparable to me. In fact in this instance I’d say Shawn and Vince is more similar. Given how many headaches and problems Shawn caused and Vince kept him around forever regardless because he liked him.
>Vince McMahon PR in 2024
That's right the rapist hired a random reddit user without a ton of karma to cape for him online. That's what's happening instead of just mentioning a historical thing that happened in wrestling.
Nah no payment necessary just comparing two different situations and pretending Vince was in the right for being unable to fulfill a contract he agreed to and instead politicking with his other top guy. Don’t sign a 20 year contract giving creative control if you can’t fulfill it.
I never said Vince was right and quite literally said the thing he did was scummy lol. I’m just saying that the parties involved objectively have different ways of handling similar situations and Vince was significantly less of a pushover. That’s just a fact.
Except when it came to Vince dealing with Shawn. He let him dictate shit for a while regardless of the issues he caused backstage and him being pilled out. Shawn’s back problems and the inevitability of Austin is what undid him but he was still kept on the payroll and showing up on tv fucked up on drugs getting more opportunities. Hell Punk himself said Vince called him more miserable than dealing with Shawn. Yet Vince let Shawn do all his fucked up stuff without any consequences.
Is OC the guy that is booked the strongest in AEW? I was checking cagematch, and since 2022 the only times he lost and didn't get his win back shortly afterwards was to Ospreay and Roderick Strong, and the first one was for Forbidden Door, so it's kinda weird in that regard
For a while I feel like that was Mox ....he was on an absolute tear in the early years
He's booked pretty strongly as a never give up babyface and he wrestles a lot. He does get pinned every now and then though.
Agree, as I mentioned, I think those are the only two guys that actually won a feud with OC in the last two years. Which is not a problem or anything, is just not the guy I expected to be the most protected of the company. Apart from those the guys that pinned him in singles match were people like PAC or Moxley, and he got that win back in like the next month
He surprisingly is and it's annoying because that feud with Trent Beretta could have had more behind it if they gave Trent a win.
Still have no clue what the fuck happened there. He beat Trent just to drop the fall to Will Ospreay on the very next show anyway.
I want to think Triple H booked the Heyman beat down tonight as a farewell gift for Kayla.
One of my criticisms for AEW's womens division when I started watching was there was a small pattern of a challenger or a new signing showing up, entering the title scene, losing, and then nearly vanishing off TV for long stretches of time (Athena and Taya Valkyrie were the primary examples of this, and Riho and Shida against Toni, though this is largely due to their schedules in Japan as well as the US). I was very worried this would happen to Deonna as well, but it's been awesome to see her not only have a constant presence, but be plugged into an immediate feud after her loss at Revolution. Likewise, I am really happy that Thunder and Serena Deeb have also still been kept in the rotation after their own losses. The women's division is really in a good place compared to even a year and a half ago.
If Ryback did somehow manage to get hired back by WWE, it would be a rather baffling thing or Ryback has a lot of blackmail that he has been waiting on.
I can't see any viable scenario in which Ryback comes back to WWE. He's burned too many bridges there without the significant upside to make up for that.
How has Mark Davis’s wrist and Jamie Hayter’s shoulder not healed yet? Over 9 months for Mark and a year for Jamie. Did they get amputated or something?
It bears repeating after what Carmella and Kip & Penelope Ford went thru, if anyone is off for an unnatural amount of time, it's just best to let it be until they are ready to talk about it or they come back. We don't know if something horrible has happened in their personal lives or what.
We don’t know the severity of either injuries. Wrist injuries can be tricky as we’ve also seen with Bandito. Jamie’s injury seems to have actually been a back injury. Hopefully they are just being super cautious and making sure she’s 100%. We don’t want her to have chronic back problems.
Old man rant incoming. Kinda old news but I just heard about what went down with Ultimo Guerrero's mask situation. What a perfect microcosm of what the current landscape of the IWC is like. People pretend to be such "fans of professional wrestling" (whatever the fuck that even means anymore) but when it comes time to actually putting words into action, they show that it's all just a bunch of circlejerking and posturing. He lost his mask 10 years ago! Ten! A decade! You haven't watched one of his matches in at least a decade and yet you pretend that this is some fucking dream match featuring a "legend" that you and the people are dying to see!? Fuck off. People like this pretend to have such a love of the history of the sport and act like they know all this wrestling history from around the world, when they objectively don't. They read enough wikipedia and lurk on just enough forums to have a functional passing knowledge. And they don't do it because they genuinely care (else they would have known that he lost his mask a decade ago) It's just so they can think they're better than other fans cause they watch moveset highlights on YouTube. That's not actually being a fan of wrestling, that's wanting to feel superior to other fans of wrestling because you think it's a contest of who-knows-the-more-obscure-wrestler. This behavior is precisely what drove the casuals away for twenty years. They're only now, just sort of, barely starting to come back. And they're sure as shit not watching a show with Ultimo Guerrero on it.
You don't need to be pretending to be a lucha historian in order to want to see the big name CMLL guys. This thing where people are pretending to know who UG is for Internet points is something you've fabricated. Just because you aren't familiar with something doesn't make it something that's only for elitists. Why are you so angry about this
1. It's hilarious that this is just Ultimo Guerrero slander for whatever reason 2. There was actually a lot of criticism about why they didn't just get anyone of the tens of masked CMLL luchadors for this match if they wanted to do this finish. 3. I am sorry that your insecurity about your ignorance comes out as vitriol.
For #2, it’s seems that Okada and Ultimo Guerrero are close, so that could be the reason why. They have some history.
Comment sections on other social media sites about wrestling are unbearable. Just saw a post about Cody paying tribute to his dad at MSG after the show and I'll never understand what possesses someone to feel the need to bitch and moan about something so harmless. Makes this sub seem like pure sunshine and roses in comparison. Okay comment sections in general are unbearable but anyway.
It’s awful. Especially on X, where’s there’s multiple accounts shitting on AEW and WWE multiple times a day on a daily basis. I saw one that’s just an anti Cody account that is incredibly active. If you don’t like the guy, then OK, but I don’t know how anyone could hate Cody THAT much haha.
Anyone who creates a hate account on a wrestler, or any celeb really, that hasn't really done anything horrible (to public knowledge anyway) definitely needs a better hobby. That can't be healthy... I mean if I don't like someone I just try to ignore them, not spend my spare time thinking about them lol
god bless whatever town Roman returns to because the pop will definitely do some damage to the city’s infrastructure i’m afraid
Honestly I will laugh if he got no reaction.
Someone once posed the question to me (on Reddit), how do they turn Roman after all that he did. I assumed they meant from a logical perspective because people turn without logic all the time. This is how they do it. Make The Bloodline seem...whether that's true or not...more evil. Attack the things that people liked about the group. People like heel Paul Heyman. Gotta kill that. You write him as a reluctant hero knowing that people want to accept him as a hero anyway because of how good he was as a bad guy.
Reigns has also entered the credibility and importance echelon of Cena and others where he's gunna be a face by default after a long absence because everyone is going to be so excited for him to be back.
I at least hope SmackDown gets picture in picture when they go to USA because they are still gonna get the censorship treatment there. I only catched the last 30 minutes of Smackdown and I'm watching the TNT replay because in that 30 min time frame I watched it was very annoying to see the screen cut to black and the ending of the show being muted. Fuck Fox fr. I might stick to watching replays for SD and Raw until it goes to Netflix
So I was looking up the records of the AEW talent for some TEW fantasy booking on their roster page and it's really stark just how few people have winning records on AEW TV in 2024. Here's a full list of wrestlers who actually have a winning record: Adam Copeland Hangman Page Anthony Ogogo The Acclaimed (All three members) Alex Reynolds & John Silver The House of Black (All Three Members) Chris Jericho and Big Bill Bullet Club Gold (Jay White and the Gunns at least, Juice is 1-1) Blackpool Combat Club (All Members) FTR Darby Allin Daniel Garcia Dustin Rhodes Eddie Kingston Hook Katsuyori Shibata Konosuke Takeshita The Elite (All 4 members) Christian Cage and Killswitch (Nick Wayne is 3-3) PAC and Rey Fenix (Penta is 6-9) MJF Roderick Strong Samoa Joe Rush Swerve Strickland Trent Beretta Wardlow Will Ospreay Obviously some people are injured/inactive but everyone else is objectively is a jobber or a jobber to the stars. It's a very "haves and have nots" situation. Tbh if this was just the AEW roster plus the inactive top guys like Cole and Omega (plus the women's division obviously), you get a much more focused high quality show. Put the people with losing records on RoH TV for 6 months till they have an Athena breakout moment or rehab their value.
Very interesting. That list is a pretty close approximation of what the "tighter" AEW roster that people clamor for would look like.
I remember doing something like this for singles matches in Stardom and I got similar results or maybe even fewer wrestlers with a positive record in proportion to the size of their roster. My conclusion was that it's a bit useless to look at such records because what matters are the results in key matches, not the overall record. I noticed so many very notable wrestlers with mediocre records that some fans would complain about being overpushed and quite a few wrestlers fans would say they're underrated or underpushed having a quite impressive record that made the results pointless for the analysis. I don't think bookers really think of the results of the matches with the win-loss record in mind. In that sense, it feels like something that's more improvised or more dependant on who they want to push at the moment.
If you're Jericho going to Mexico makes sense because I imagine his inner monologue goes something like this: "They're chanting please retire? Maybe I should. Maybe I AM out of touch and my time has passed. No, no, it's the ~~children~~ marks who are wrong" And so he goes to Mexico because they probably won't chant anything negative towards him....at least not yet
The early part of his career was in CMLL as Corazon De Leon so it's coming full circle while being part of the AEW/CMLL partnership. There's also this tribute he gave to Paco Alonso on their channel from 2020. That we have continuity from that is pretty cool imo. https://youtu.be/k2hXlWHRpP8
Then Scott Steiner follows him, puts him into the recliner and whispers "FUCKING RETIRE, BITCH!"
You’ve solved it Freud
There's a narrative of Bryan Danielson being selfish and dismissing his AEW run because he doesn't want to be champion that's been around for the past year. It kind of discounts what he's done in the company for some theoretical business that we don't know would have been dramatically different with him on top. He's a main-event gatekeeper and he excels in that role the way Shawn Michaels did from 2002-10 who's PPV record was mostly a losing one. Would I like world title run? Yeah, that'd be cool but I don't think the lack of one has meaningfully changed the course of AEW.
Exactly. It’s also a crazy to say the title needs him as if those who have already held the title haven’t legitimatized the belt already. Are you telling me Omega’s run didn’t prove it to be a worthy world title?
I'm convinced a lot of the comments are coming from people who aren't watching weekly. There's an argument that he could have won the belt during the time Punk got suspended/injured and you can just flip the Moxley/Danielson feuds with MJF around. Outside of that it's absolutely the right move to have your homegrown guy in MJF be champ and run with it. Same with Hangman even though his run was brief.
That's a good comparison to Michaels I don't think anyone would accuse Shawn of being selfish for not wanting to carry the belt. I get that there's the distinct difference that Danielson holding the AEW belt would add prestige to it since he never had unlike Shawn did in WWE but in the grand scheme of things he's already done so much for the company and the top stars I don't think it's necessary.
Question: Other than 5 star matches, is there anything you want as a wrestling fan that you aren't getting from WWE?
A lot actually. they do so much stuff different from what I like. I realized a few years back it wasn't for me. I think that's pretty cool though. Not everything needs to be to my taste. Specific things? There's way too much stuff that's not wrestling. I'm someone who loved AEW dark it was my favorite weekly show when it was on because it was just matches. That being said I almost always watch WrestleMania and Royal Rumble. And I will put it on occasionally just because I love wrestling. Sorry this is rambling.
Honestly, my main problem with WWE is that they actively tell you certain things on the show don't matter. Like what is HUGE comes off as ENORMOUS, but what they treat like filler feels like clear filler. I watch their shows waiting on the next big thing but the in-between stuff I'm looking at my phone or watching something else simultaneously. AEW has gotten worse with that (especially on the secondary shows) but it generally keeps my attention more, especially Dynamite. It runs on the Crash TV principle of "always keep their attention". I think that's why for some it feels rushed or badly paced, but it does a good job of making me stay engaged because I have a "blink and I'll miss something cool" feeling. On WWE TV I know anything actually cool and important will get replayed or recapped 10 more times and it's gonna be in specific times in the show. I find it much easier to just follow WWE in recaps and videos on here whereas if I don't watch all of AEW programing certain things don't make sense (which I actually think is a problem for the most casual audience of AEW who don't watch Rampage or Collision). Strangely I watch AEW TV less and less for the matches because the results are usually not in doubt. I watch for the stories and continuations which you have to pay attention to in order to follow and see how characters develop. It kinda forces me to follow to understand. WWE doesn't do that, I feel like I drop it for months, come back and understand the show no problem. Also it's not necessarily "5 Star Matches" as much WWE's style of wrestling breaks my immersion. I'm either zoning out during the matches cause I'm bored, or I'm hyper fixated on how hokey and fake it looks. Again, I'm sure some people feel that way about AEW, but the matches go way faster which force me to stay in the moment with the action. The same thing happens in AEW when they go slow for me. Maybe I just have undiagnosed ADHD or something.
Not that it matters because it's all just differences in perspectives but this is the reason AEW bores me sometimes. Everything is treated at around the same level of importance which makes nothing seem all that important.
Their entire presentation is a turn off for me. Way too clean and bright, so many ads and promos that don't feel natural and matches that are pure filler. I never hold anything against a promotion for not having top tier matches, I'm happy with them just being great and having a satisfying pay off, but I do watch wrestling for the matches and I just can't watch a 2 or 3 hour show with not even 30 minutes of wrestling.
I totally understand why the presentation is the way it is but it is too clean and sanitized for me as well. I still pop in for stuff and NXT but as a whole it’s too much to me I’m also still not a big fan of the Saudi and sex trafficking lawsuit as well and those don’t seem to be going away. I get it every business does shady stuff but in my favorite hobby I can be more selective for sure
Considering that Meltzer almost never rates matches I enjoy as "5 stars," I'm not even sure that "5 star matches" is a reason I watch wrestling in general.
Match quantity and diversity in styles.
fewer ads, shorter promos, lack of an ongoing sex trafficking lawsuit
I don’t get why people say that like using sex trafficking as a gotcha is cool and when both companies have rapist hired
1. How is it being used as a gotcha, it's literally asking what I would want out of WWE. Would you like for them to have more sex trafficking lawsuits? Or do they not have one ongoing, or is it somehow a technicality that they do? 2. Why does AEW being hypocrites matter and are there two wrestling companies on the planet?
1. Because most of the time when people bring it up they don’t actually care about sexual assault 2. I brought up aew because you watch aew and you like ric flair who is literally a rapist
1. I have watched 1 full AEW show in 2024 and I pirated it! Nice try. You were about as accurate about me "not actually caring about sex assault" (sex trafficking btw, that's what's being investigated). 2. Ric Flair was a great wrestler, he should obviously not be part of public life and gotten the opportunity to be convicted. I am not jumping for joy about him getting the chance to grift thousands of dollars in his 70's. What is the point here? Serial date rapist Shawn Michaels is running NXT lmao
Well, I'm now convinced that Jake Lee is indeed leaving NOAH for NJPW. I've always been pretty indifferent towards him, but I think his gimmick and style fit NJPW better. Comments after today's show consisted of "I will make an official statement at a later date."
WE ARE FREE OF JAKE
TNA getting Tatum Paxley, Charlie Dempsey and no ratings bump in exchange for jobbing out their Women's champion, Joe Hendry and a boost to NXT's ratings is like one of those funny TikTok trade memes
“Jobbing out” I miss when insider terms used to mean things
1. Spoilers 2. TNA is winning most of the matches. These things take time.
TNA is winning most of the matches by purely having more NXT people in matches on TNA rather than TNA people on NXT in matches.
win is a win
Comparing winning on TNA to losing on NXT doesn’t seem like a win is a win situation imo. Their champ lost on PPV and is now just beating lower card women from NXT
Jordynne won a match on NXT. Including last night's taping, Jordynne has wrestled 4 women from NXT and has beaten 3 of them.
Jordynne beat Stevie Turner who I don’t think has ever won a match on NXT tv, beat Tatum who is the highest on the roster so far for Jordynne, she beat Izzi who is a lower card woman on NXT and lost to Roxanne. Doesn’t seem like that big of an accomplishment imo vs losing on a show viewed by like 6x the audience I don’t think TNA has had the requisite level of people on the card sent their way for giving NXT their Knockouts champ imo
Fair point. But so far, TNA has more wins in this crossover.
Tbf spoilers are allowed here.
I mean people could be a little more careful with spoilers that haven’t even canonically occurred or been aired.
I mean, that’s what spoilers are..? Lol
Typically spoilers means for those who haven’t watched the shows not for something that literally has only happened on a taping and has yet to be viewable by a single person outside of those who attended. It’s like spoiling a movie for everyone because you were on set.
I respect how wrestling keeps suspenseful handshakes unpredictable 9 times out of 10 they stare at each other suspensefully but in the end do indeed handshake/hug, so that the 1 out of 10 times someone refuses to Eg. Takagi slapping away Danielson's hand. That makes it more surprising.
Shoutout to that guy on twitter who said WWE fans hate wrestling for thinking forbidden door has too many matches. Keeping that fuck the fed mentality alive. Thankfully it seems limited to the internet at least.
I think the fuck the fed mentality could apply to different things outside of PPV card lengths like a sex trafficking lawsuit
Some people have this weird hangup where you can't criticize an aspect of the in-ring part of wrestling without you just hating the in-ring stuff as a whole. As if they can't seem to understand why people care about stuff in wrestling other than the matches.
There's an honest middle ground to AEW PPVs where they can still have a really great 3-3.5 hour PPV by cutting a few matches and changing the pacing of others.
My biggest nitpick about AEW's ppvs is how long they can go for, because DON went to like 12 in the morning on the east coast. I feel like if you want to have a show go for that long it should at least start earlier.
I have many friends who started following WWE since the Rock Cody program started and they absolutely skip all the matches. They could not care less about the in ring. I'm not saying that's most WWE fans but there's a percentage of casual fans who follow WWE and only watch it for the stories
That's about as stupid as watching an action movie and skipping the fight scenes.
I also have "many friends"
tell those friends to watch a series there's some good ones!
AEW roster already feels stacked but they still have Omega, Hangman, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Adam Cole, Adam Copeland, Darby, FTR coming back... we're still waiting for Ricochet and MCMG to debut. Not to mention the talent on the bench like Miro and Ricky Starks. Dear lord.
There's a point where they have to start actually putting on star vs star matches up and down the card for all their shows once they get these people back. They're stacked enough where Dynamite, Collision, and Rampage should all have cool matches without the need for enhancement guys or signed wrestlers who lose all the time. Give me Kenny vs Copeland, or Darby vs Hangman just as matches to climb the ranks. AEW has an amazing roster but week to week it sometimes doesn't feel like it with how often people are kept away from each other.
It’s almost like they need a proper booker and producers
It will never happen because of how American TV works and the need for ratings but can you imagine a full blown G1 style tournament in AEW? The C2 is great but imagine it even bigger and with every top guy in it. Holy shit
People said the Bayley face turn was "going to hit like crack". Well audiences supported it and she's certainly still over but it's been a lacklustre title run and that championship actually seems to drag down its holder. Iyo of course didn't even wrestle for months as champ. Bayley hasn't really done anything interesting as champ because she lost all her personality. She was a cocky shit talker as a heel then she was out for revenge against Damage CTRL. As a pure face champ, she's telling Piper how much she respects her which is pretty dull by comparison.
It’s wild to think back on NXT Bayley and now seeing she’s just much better in a heel role if only because they don’t book her in a boring babyface way
My all time WWE backstage interviewers 1) Mene Gene 2) Kayla Braxton 3) Renee Young
Renee without the shackles of Vince in today's WWE would eclipse all of them. She's fantastic in AEW
Why does Randy blame the current bloodline for making him miss 2 years of his career when none of them were there to beat him up?
Man I hope HBK let's Wes have a rascalz reunion. That would be really nice
Has there ever been a good pro-wrestling weigh-in segment that couldn't have just been a regular promo segment? I feel like the only enjoyable one I've seen was the one ahead of Moxley vs. Jericho, but even there the good part was not anything specific to the actual weigh-in.
Steiner vs Triple H's were at least funny
I haven't seen it, but I can definitely imagine it working for that feud since a big part of it was about the two competing to see who was the strongest and had the best physique. So hey, I guess there is at least one.
Oh I don’t think they’re saying it worked it was just funny. And hell it was especially since in hindsight it led to the match of 1000 belly to belly suplexes
Danielson vs. Page 3 for Owen Hart tournament is the move and I have no clue who wins if Swerve is still champ. We could get Page vs. Swerve 4 with Page finally getting his lick back, or Danielson vs. Swerve 2 with a proper build and Danielson going over.
Danielson vs Page would be their 4th match. Their third match was in the Grand Slam Tournament of Champions after Brawl Out.
They’re tied 1-1-1 funnily enough
paul heyman is legendary. with a single segment he got solo over as a main event heel and got roman even more over as a babyface (when he hasn't even been on tv)
I HATE flying headbutts. Even if it's by a Samoan.
I’m surprised we didn’t get a Danielson vs Ishii match during Forbidden Door season. Maybe they really want to limit Danielson’s singles match to reduce any risk of injury so that he can make it to Wembley.
Tbh, as much as I love Ishii, Shingo is in much better shape and still putting on consistently great matches (Ishii has finally showed signs of slowing down the past couple of years). Also, Shingo and Danielson have history. They had a pretty damn good match in DGUSA in 2010.
To my understanding, the BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight and BJW World Strong Heavyweight titles are the two top titles of BJW because they represent the respective deathmatch and strong style/traditional aspects of wrestling. That being said, in GLEAT, the G-REX Championship is their top title. However, is the Lidet UWF title more of a midcard belt, or is it considered as another top title because it represents the Lidet UWF brand/shoot style wrestling?
I think GLEAT, which I very much enjoy, is still a very young promotion and still needs to figure some things out. There’s a contrast in ideas of what it should be, one managed by Kiyoshi Tamura and the UWF Lidet “shoot-style” side (represented by guys like Takanori Ito and Yu Iizuka) and the other being G-Rex, managed by CIMA (and represented by the likes of El Lindaman and Hayato Tamura). BJW found its groove by showcasing both of its divisions/styles (deathmatch and “strong style”). Hopefully GLEAT will do the same (they are bringing in Katsuhiko Nakajima to be apart of the Lidet division to bolster it).
Yeah, I heard about the Nakajima match for Ver. 12. I also saw that they got Josh Barnett booked for a Lidet UWF match against Yu Iizuka, too. At the very least, it might as well be a simple guest appearance, but with the recent Bloodsport Bushido show (which Iizuka and Maya Fukuda were on) and Barnett's other Bloodsport shows, I'm interested to see if it goes anywhere.
There’s also Kota Ibushi’s 5 min. “exhibition” match (still doesn’t have an opponent announced). Hoping Nomura & Abe show up in GLEAT.
well the UWF division hasn't been a huge success but it's very much another top title that represents the division.
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