Leaderboard

75% memes 15% Seinfeld jokes 1% shitting on Cody 22.3% Scott Steiner Math

Eh...the guy tweeted some bootstraps bullshit in response to indy wrestlers asking for help during the pandemic when they couldn't get bookings. Typical "born on third base, acts like he hit a triple" shit you hear from guys like him. He deserves all the goofing he gets and then some.

You know, if you told me Borash and Jarrett were solely booking Raw I would 1000% believe it. Tons of weird angles that make little sense, performed badly. AJ Styles being the only bright spot. Raw has finally completed its transformation into Impact from 5-6 years ago.

THE GOOD: Randy Orton--He continues to put effort into what is fast becoming a self-lampooning story. AJ vs Ricochet--The slingshot Styles Clash will rightfully be played on loop for the rest of the year. Hurt Business--I hope they're not going with a quick break up with them. There's a ton of mileage with Shelton being annoyed with Cedric, while MVP is the coach/manager who tolerates him as long as Cedric keeps winning. Gillberg--It was good seeing him, especially after his heart attack. Nice for him to get a payday. THE BAD: Charlotte and Lacey--What is Ric's motivation for undermining his daughter? What is Lacey getting out of it? They're seemingly going for the Anna Nicole Smith/J. Howard Marshall angle, except Ric's broke. There needs to be an explanation for Ric's behavior, even if it's just him being forever horny. Ricochet--Are they ever going to give him a redemption arc? He got beat up by Hurt Business. Beat down by Retribution. The match with Styles was really good, but the loss likely means he doesn't get into the Royal Rumble this year. Miz and Morrison--Gillberg's presence aside, Miz TV continues to be rough watching. Credit to M and M, whether by design or not, they knew to pivot as Ass CrackInytre sank like the Titanic. THE FLAT-OUT AWFUL: The entire Fiend/Alexa story. If it were a midcard angle, *maybe* it would be OK. But it's the big story for RAW, and it's wretched. I enjoy creepy, goofy, or just plain wacky. This isn't it. The current execution is atrocious. At least do the Dark Alexa cut BEFORE the commercial break, come on! Bray Wyatt is overexposed AGAIN. Someone has to tell him to scale back a notch or ten. Or go make low-budget horror movies, he'll be rich in a few years doing that. Booking plays a part, but Bray has a strong say in his presentation. So he's gotta carry some of this mud. Alexa continues to act like a child. Yuck! What is Fiend and Alexa's weakness? Even Taker had Paul Bearer and the urn. And Taker was more realistic than this, thinking back. Asuka isn't on Rollins' level in terms of looking like a goof. She didn't curl into the fetal position while crying. But yikes, they don't ever do anything with her title reigns. This is going to end with Fiend and Alexa as champs, isn't it? Ugh, no one needs that. Bad enough when Bray no sells everything. But at least he's a big guy. Alexa, all 4'11" and 100 pounds, shrugging off anyone's offense? GTFO. I'm all for trying new stuff while no live fans are there. Cinematic matches, 8K cameras, different kinds of promos. Go for it and see what works. But know when something is dying on you and cut your losses. Thing is, they don't have anything else big enough to take over the RAW main event. Even McIntyre-Goldberg feels second-best, though Drew being quarantined is part of why. I think they're trying with RAW. A few hits and a lot of misses, but there's effort. However, the Fiend is swallowing the show whole.

What's the Patton Oswalt line about just liking the things that I like and not needing to see where they came from?

Check this promo out by Nikki Cross.

Goes without saying but it's beyond stupid WWE breaking up the Hurt Business. One of the few things worth watching in WWE giving every member a much needed direction, a purpose. Stop breaking up tag teams and stables that are worth something, and have something to go for. Dumb fucks.

Watching the Muppet Show is legitimately one of my very first memories. I can’t wait to try to get my daughter to watch it only for her to show zero interest in it!

I'd love if it became part of Miz's gimmick that he uses his Hollywood connections to keep carting out dudes who used to have TV shows for lame segments where he makes a mockery of various people on the roster. Next week, Michael Chiklis is AJ Styles. The following week, Simon Baker is Matt Riddle. All culminating in the big payoff: Dennis Franz as Roman Reigns.

Via Twitter.

Late but absolutely worth the wait: All 5 seasons of "The Muppet Show" coming to D+ next month. Here's hoping they include the UK-only bits like "To Morrow."

No, I mean I'm sorry for what we all did by taking something funny and just completely overdoing it to the point where people get annoyed.

But hear me out: What about a movie that takes place during Johnny Utah's college football career? It'll be bigger than Solo!

So I'm catching up on AEW Dungeons and Dragons, and towards the end of the last session they meet a Goliath. As Brandon Cutler is describing what the Goliath looks like, he says "He's kind of like, what's his name, the Get These Hands guy", and Trent? says "Brown Strongman?". Which might have been him using the board meme we had when Braun debuted on the main roster and we all got his name wrong for ages. Or a coincidence. Who knows?

Fans have been so mistreated by WWE booking that they just expect bullshit now. Before AEW's last PPV people on this very board were speculating on possible screwy finishes because there was just no way they'd have, for example, the Bucks (who had swore the never team again if they lost) beat FTR for the belts. People were even trying to figure out how AEW would screw us on the Mox/Kingston I Quit Match and Cody/Darby. And we got clean finishes in all three. It's like when someone goes from a bad relationship to a good, healthy one but keeps expecting their new significant other to do something shitty.

*record scratch* *freeze frame* "Yup, that's me. You're probably wondering how I got into this situation…"

This has annoyed me since day one. It's also sort of I think conditioned the audience to expect some kind of contrived beef for no reason. When AEW started last year, a frequent question from my girlfriend was "Why are these two guys fighting?" As though there had to be some silly WWF-ass "it's PERSONAL now!" sentiment behind it, rather than two guys wrestling because they're booked to wrestle on the wrestling show. The Giants didn't need to feed the Steelers laxative filled burritos to hype their game, they just go out and play. It's a great approach.

Exactly. "Surprise main event" style is so stupid from a logic standpoint. What show was booked before the surprise happened? If the opening match promo guys didn't challenge each other to fight in the main event, what was the main going to be? THIS. If this is supposed to be a sport and these wrestlers are competitors in that sport, then why would any company (in kayfabe) hire someone who consistently can't last more than a minute with another wrestler? That would be like a football team keeping a running back, who always runs for negative yardage, on the roster. I'd much rather have a wrestling company whose kayfabe approach is "you have to be good just to get to this level."

Nikki vanishing is the greatest sin of all this shit.

Alexa has her strengths. The word on her when she went to Smackdown in 2016 was if they give her a mic, she'd get herself over. She did that. Promo skills and Becky being out sick for a few weeks allowed Alexa to rise to the top. Plus, she has a look they find attractive in their women. Though that's problematic these days, to say the least. She's improved in the ring. She'll never be great, but she's had enough good matches to where calling her bad seems shortsighted. Surprising it may be to some, but her I think some of her best in-ring work was with Naomi. They clicked really well. Concussion issues slowed down her progress for a while, but they sidestepped that by putting her in the tag division and now with Bray/Fiend. She doesn't have to wrestle as much and focus more on character work. Her biggest obstacle is obviously her size. They shouldn't have made her into a faux world-beater who can knock out other women with one punch. They should have made her more of a cheat on that end. Her no-selling anyone, let alone Asuka, is ridiculous. Not that Asuka is much bigger than Alexa, but she has years of work that back up her being a fighting machine. Alexa benefitted with the roster split and going to Smackdown, which took time to build the six women they had on their roster at the time. IMO, her monster booking happened when she moved to RAW. They went overboard, especially with the Bayley feud. There are clearly better in-ring workers within the division, but she's been built up and moves a lot of merch. And she's still better on the mic than most. No going back now.

Woo.

Am I the only one who picked up on the creepy "For the Children" thing in Episode 2?

Hey speak for yourselves... I was cracking up at the talent show. The physical comedy was off the charts. ?

Is anyone here really sticking up for the most outlandish WWE nonsense when they're extolling the virtues of rivalries and stories? I don't think anyone's calling for Cody to climb in a casket and hump a mannequin (but it would be pretty funny ngl).

I try not to bash Raw or much of WWE especially considering they're killing it on Smackdown and NXT has some good stuff. But I've always had the belief that while he has his hands in other shows the dumb shit in charge puts most of his focus on Raw. So it's no surprise to me just how fucking awful Raw has been. There's still some things that shine through like AJ's slingshot Styles Clash or Hurt Business when they're not on the verge of breaking up. But on the whole Raw is just so fucking awful though it makes it incredibly easy to skip through all the crap anymore.

Echoing a few comments but for me AEW has done well to achieve a different feel around the product, which I think was really important as a new company. I remember @El Gran Gordimaking a point recently about a community type of feeling (probably butchering what he actually said), which is definitely part of it. But mainly for me, it’s just that they’ve created a mostly believable ‘universe’ - meaningful matches, logical show structures, friendships/alliances which aren’t established purely for specific storylines, etc. This should be obvious stuff but it’s refreshing to actually see it done well (mostly) and not feel like your intelligence is being insulted. They’re maybe getting a bit more ambitious now with another show and the inter-promotional stuff, which will be a different challenge but I think getting some of these basics right early on gives them a good foundation to build on.

Orton should have worn an MF Doom mask to pay his respects and to look cool.

His defense for sending dick pics is, "I didn't send pics of my dick, those are community dicks so I thought it was fair game."

Yup.

...ish I've seen Shane McMahon punches with less distance.

Here's the climactic knee drop that won it for Koloff

For those playing along with "what's the Arsenal stadium announcer playing at half time today" the answer is RVD's entrance theme. Fittingly the Arsenal score 5 minutes later courtesy of PEA, but he missed a great opportunity not to utilise the double thumb point at self on celebration.

Absolutely on both counts! I just feel like AEW is well served so far avoiding anything that could be similar to WWE Bullshit so they can establish their own style. I don't think I said anywhere that it shouldn't be done. It's just that I can absolutely understand why they don't at this time.

Jesus I think some of your heads really would explode if there was a DQ finish. It's all in how you do it: Cheating win into restart from Tony. Brawl out to a countout and a pull-apart and then run the revancha at the next show or the PPV. Absolutely nothing wrong with rollups. Just because WWE uses it doesn't mean you CAN'T use it as long as you do it right.

Rippa would literally murder me if I did it for all 32 teams. Enjoy your new title.

yes, every time it happens to a new team I get salty all over again especially when it's as egregious a case as The Hurt Business, for all the reasons you just mentioned

Sure, but when the worldwide leader and standard bearer for all that is pro wrestling has prostituted the DQ as a storytelling device to the point where it means nothing except as a crutch and a cheap way to get wrestlers in a program on TV this week, any company striving to be "not WWE" would be well served to avoid them. To put it another way...WWE does a lot of really dumb shit with regard to how their product is booked and how their stories are told. If you want to be an alternative, you avoid the stuff they do. You just avoid the everlovin' shit out of it. ? Also, maybe not doing DQs except in very rare cases is a way to modernize wrestling. For a large section of the audience, especially smarter fans that AEW caters to, DQs put the heat on the booker, not the heel. People know this isn't real and getting a shit finish to a good match doesn't add the right kind of heat anymore. This is true, but rivalries in real sports are usually either "these teams have always been divisional rivals" or "this guy or team really wants to prove something by beating this guy or team." Wrestling, on the other hand, typically has convoluted bullshit for their rivalries. I never saw the Ravens burn down the Browns' haunted shack before the game, nor did the Red Sox ever steal the Yankees' Japanese shampoo commercial.

I can't tell you how happy I would be if AEW never had a DQ outside of the Kenny/Pac ironman match. DQs and countouts fucking sucked. They sucked to see as a kid, they sucked to see as a teen, they sucked to see as a young adult, and they still suck to see. The only time I don't hate a countout is when Yano is involved. Although, I wouldn't mind a rare DQ when one wrestler is so frustrated they can't win that they resort to just beating the shit out of their opponent with a weapon or illegal move until they're DQed.

I don't think I'd like it if the episodes were actually funny. To me, they actually feel like the sitcoms they're spoofing, because I never found those funny anyway. I can't say I ever laughed watching Bewitched or anything when I was a kid.

Started with Wrestling Challenge episodes. Funny to see baby Shane Douglas (as Troy Martin) against Paul Orndorff. Was this before or after Douglas was known as Troy Orndorff somewhere? Anyway, you could already see Mr Wonderful's left arm starting to atrophy this early on, even though at this point it still looked almost normal. Well, better than "normal" but in comparison to his right arm. Later on, you could see The British Bulldogs facing The Moondogs and Dynamite Kid could be seen losing plenty of mass even before his back injury. He must have been a physical wreck already at this point, but the steroids and pain pills kept him from realizing how close he was to collapsing. I have seen the Haku, Duggan and Savage coronations, but this may very well be the first time I have seen the Harley Race one. Also, in the second episode, Hart Foundation cut a promo and Bret used "the best there is..." catch phrase already at this point. And he hadn't even won a title yet in WWF and he already knew! Furthermore, Rougeaus cutting a face promo was weird, eventhough I very clearly remember them being faces early on.

Misawa's post-2000 run was somewhat tragic besides his death: he always was trying to push himself away from the spotlight but business necessity brought him back again and again. Another angle to tackle Japan would be to look at the brutality of the dojos. You have three deaths (Hiromitsu Gompei in NJPW 95, the fallout (or lack therefore) lead to Hiroshi Hase leaving NJPW, Giant Ochai in WJPW 03 and apparently there was a death in one of the UWF promotions as well) to start with, along with lots and lots of horrible stories.

Vince at some point convinced himself that to build to an Undertaker match, you did not need a program or even a reason to have him fight someone. John Cena called him out for a match after the awful debacle that was the Roman Reigns match and there was no response. So he kept doing it for week after annoying week... Never a response. Well here we are and despite some great action in the first half of Mania (and the pre-show) the announcers kept focusing on John Cena and his quest for a Streak match. Well, here he is again. Supposedly Undertaker is here. Cena calls him out... And it's Elias that responds. Cute. Cena destroys the new guy, because that's what happens at WrestleMania. He's ready to leave, but.... the lights go down, steam fills the entrance way, and a lone bell sounds. What happens next is best summarized by this one frame of a famous cartoon series... End of Day 112, Ride 1.

50 years ago today, Bruno thought he had gone deaf.

If you asked me what the single worst piece of career advice I could give him was "Signing with WWE" would be my instantaneous response.

Yeah, various members of the board would be looking like this if that happened:

Beating Brodie Lee was special because only Moxley and Cody did. Beating Chris Jericho is special because only Moxley, Orange and MJF did. Beating Cody is special because only Jericho, MJF, Brodie and Darby did. Beating Darby is special because only Jericho, Cody, Brodie and PAC did. Beating Kenny is special because only Jericho, PAC and Moxley did. Beating Lance is special because only Cody and Moxley did. Beating PAC is special because only Hangman, Moxley and Kenny did. Beating Moxley is special because only Kenny did. Beating MJF is special because only Moxley did. AEW is clearly building up an upper class of wrestlers you have to beat to be meaningful (I only looked up singles matches). Sure, Archer and Jericho will probably fall in these standings in the future, but Cody, Darby, Kenny, PAC and especially Moxley and MJF are tough to beat. I will second though that AEW often is to giving to the loosing side and could use a few more emphatic squashes on Dynamite here and there. Kinda takes the impact away of a hard fought loss against the upper echelon of star when everyone gets ten plus minutes. But a Jungle Boy beating Cody, Kenny or Moxley would be nothing less of a shock to me than Jericho beating Hall in the late 90s. And I will always accept Kenny going toe to toe with a jobber since his whole deal is beeing the best bout machine. Even in kayfabe, Kenny isn't just looking to win, he's looking to entertain, show-off and win.