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HOLY CRAP!

Personally, I don’t think things in AEW are as dire as some folks here make them out to be. I do, however, think things have gone down some as far as the booking. We’re still getting amazing matches week in and week out, but the stories aren’t there like they used to be. That said, I think TK’s true test as to whether or not he’s a great booker will be how he handles the next few months.

That is awesome. I had no idea that was him. I got to meet Bret's other Japanese teacher at an Osaka Pro show years ago, shortly before he passed away. Mr. Hito loved pro wrestling so much. It was an honour to be introduced to him.

Just my take on it, but I think it has less to do with the product / lack of a main event / cooling off than it does with them just absolutely burning the Chicago market to the ground. They had what 16k for a PPV there just 2 months ago? Now they are running 3 live events in a week there? Plus they've had at least one other live TV there this year. It's too much in too short of a period. The PPVs always deliver, but who knows what you're getting for a live Rampage ya know. 4 events in 2 months all with very high ticket prices, Forbidden Door especially, is just a bad call. I get the desire to have destination PPVs that are in the same city annually. But Forbidden Door being in The United Center should have caused a pivot. They should have went with Toronto for this weekend.

Don't think anybody has ever criticized the consistency of the in-ring quality. Most of us who are critical consistently point to it as a reason to stick around. No matter the bad decisions Khan makes, he is still letting some of the best wrestlers on the planet do their thing in an environment conducive to great wrestling.

I wasn't really feeling Rampage after not enjoying Dynamite much at all this week but had to watch Dustin/Claudio. How can I put this... Dustin is so good at fucking up in matches that I'm really not sure if he does it on purpose or not. When he hit his head on the bottom rope early on I didn't know if it was a mistake and either that's really high level work because he totally fooled me or I am a dummy for not seeing that as a total botch. Maybe he is just legit getting old. It's strange to watch in real time after coming into guys that are beat down and still cagey like Tenryu or Fujiwara in their old age without growing up watching them. Caprice Coleman is the best commentator in pro wrestling right now without question. That guy deserves a position forever.

AEW Films needs to get on with it with the Garcia / Danhausen buddy cop movie. Where, much like The Other Guys, Garcia is the one doing the comedic tour de force the entire time and you don’t realize how genius it is until the 3rd time you watch the movie. Eddie Kingston is the police chief Movie starts with Mox and Sting aiming for the bushes

I had a dream that I somehow bumped into Brock Lesnar in the supermarket, and it turned out he had absolutely no understanding of maths, so I felt obliged to try and explain it to him. It was a bit of a minefield, because what I didn't want to do was make him feel like an idiot and get F5'd through the organic foods cabinet. There was a lot of trying to explain things in terms of how many hours a day he spends watching American Football.

Hayter is already overdue for a belt and for getting away from Britt. She’s way too good to just be her muscle. Storm is the other choice, as long as it leads to the Britt-Hayter breakup. Shida I guess could work as a placeholder, nothing against her but she hasn’t done shit in AEW in 2022. Fuck Britt Baker.

It’s not just that the roster is way too overloaded, they’ve had a bad habit of just continuing to introduce new people, some who aren’t even under contract, after they debut new people the week prior and then they disappear. It doesn’t even make sense. Add to that the new japan crossover, which everyone wanted from the very beginning but it still ended up getting shoe horned in, then the roh crossover which literally no one was asking for. Super odd way to make people lose a connection to a show with supposedly continuing storylines. Brand new person this week, please forget the brand new person we introduced last week. And you’ll never guess what we have planned for next week.

This nails it. The week to week is still great but it doesn't feel like it's building stuff PPV worthy. Those first few years about Hangman's chase and the rise of MJF as the company's biggest dirtbag were fantastic but there there was a little "okay, now what" after. I have faith they'll get back on track. Every great company has their lulls and "not as good as it used to be" AEW is still better than most other stuff out there (for me at least).

I'd much rather watch Zack Sabre Jr and PAC than Will Ospreay. ZSJ gets my vote as the best of the three.

@SirSmellingtonofCascadia. Pre-1980 preferred, eh? How 'bout 1950? That pre-1980 enough for ya? Two out of three falls, for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. This is really excellent stuff. I'd recommend everyone give it a watch when they have the time. Also: I never drew DEAN or Porksweats, so here are hand-picked fully optional bonus matches for the two of yous: @DEAN I give you your handsome cinnamon boy vs my erstwhile drinking buddy: @porksweats You don't like EVOLVE, eh? I don't even know EVOLVE but according to Wikipedia their alumni list includes awesome wrestlers like Eddie Kingston, WALTER, Daniel Garcia, The Workhorsemen, Jeff Cobb... but also a ton of maximalist guys which I assume is what you meant. So: I'm gonna assume, possibly incorrectly, that what you dislike is a kind of self-consciously epic overdone too many finishers multiple 2.999 kickouts unnecessarily fancy style? Feel free to let me know if I am close or not. In any case, I offer you this: i already posted it on the general discussion thread. I described it as possibly the most minimalist, least flashy pro wrestling match filmed in my lifetime. It's the opposite of what I (possibly incorrectly) assume is the EVOLVE style you do not dig. It may in fact go too far in the other direction, but I honestly found this fascinating. A typical mid-card late-60s Japanese "indie" match? Maybe! I really don't know. I'm dying to get someone else's thoughts on this.I Oh! Hey! @SirSmellingtonofCascadia. Just struck me that I should have offered you up some Choshu! This is a great one. Feel free to choose either match.

Lmao now I just want them to remake the French Connection with Kingston as Hackman and Danielson as Roy Scheider

Tito and Orndorff were so great together. Each guy really brought out the best in the other.

Hasn't everything still been built around Baker? She had more promo time than Rosa when Rosa made her injury announcement. Something that hasn't been brought up is that Penelope Ford was suspended for making a comment to Tony Khan. Not exactly sure what was said but it had to be bad for Khan to suspend her especially right when Kip is on his way back. Garcia isn't seen as a ratings sacrifice to me, especially as he's being used with Danielson and Jericho both guys known to pop ratings. Both of his arguments are wrong. Look at the time they spend on Starks, Hook, Hobbs, all can be considered new guys and all get considerable TV time.

I also like how Dave argued that if the women's segments aren't pulling good ratings you need to build everything around Britt Baker again and then several breaths later went on and on about the necessity of sacrificing ratings in order to give time to new guys like Garcia.

I am a big fan of fancams of just about anything so a big thumbs up from me. Their first ever singles match, believe it or not. Saved that one quick in case WWE isn't amused and gets it removed.

When I was 6, the Tidewater Tides were the AAA affiliate to the Mets and the Mets were playing the Tides and Willie Mays was playing. My older brother and older cousin got to go. I didn't. I am still pissed off. I am 56.

Just another instance of maybe me being happier with the booking philosophy of a different era here? But A.K. picked 98/99 WWE. That's a good choice to cherry pick what point he'd like to demonstrate. I'll do the same and cherry pick 1996 WCW. They had about 200 wrestlers under contract. They were super commercially successful during this run. Business was booming. You'd get the important people mostly every week or two. You'd get get your regulars that get in the rotation once a month or so. And you'd get these wacky dudes showing up you had no idea WCW even had under contract. It was the best. At least to me. AEW could keep the exact same roster and utilize it more effectively if TK just quit using his rigid formula. Nitro would hit 8-12 matches a week in the 2 hour era. AEW has 6 matches every single Dynamite. There is no deviating from that number. It is 6 and it will always be 6. Only one of those 6 a week is a women's match. Literally go back and check results. It always has been 6 and it's always going to be 6. And that is farrrrrrr more at blame than the roster size. TK is beholden to every match needing to be an epic. Throwing in a 5 minute sprint, or a 2 minute squash, or a story related indecisive finish once and awhile would make things far more unpredictable. You'd see more of the roster each week. Women could have 2 or 3 matches a week depending on that week's format. Everyone complaining about the roster size is missing the actual culprit. That stupid rigid format that has been run into the ground. Mix. It. Up. ETA: Leaving my post unedited but did want to add in my year and number were off a bit. 1997 had 125 wrestlers under contract and is basically a 1:1 comparison for AEW. 200 was wrong and exaggerated. But still a valid point.

I fully admit this is one of those moments where it seems like what I like out of wrestling is a bygone era and maybe it's passed me by. But I think extending Rampage would be a bad idea, brand split or not. I actually think Rampage & battle of the Belts are both bad moves, at least as far as my enjoyment goes. I get that they're making more money off of more programing. But I wish we went back to the days of just a single 2 hour Dynamite in a week. Less is more. My enjoyment in wrestling was at it's peak when WWE only had a 2 hour Raw. WCW only had a 2 hour Nitro. ECW just had their one hour of Hardcore TV. You would look forward to it all week. You never got burned out because it was just one show a week. Every company just produces too much content. WWE has 7 first run prime time TV hours. As well as the supplementary network shows. AEW has 3 first run hours, Battle of the Belts thrown in a couple times a year, plus like 3 hours of supplementary youtube stuff. Everything gets burned through so quick. There's no room to breathe and anticipate the shows all week anymore. That's a long answer to a short question, but my enjoyment meter would not enjoy adding an hour to Rampage at all. For whatever that is worth.

I really hope Ricky Starks gets a nice push over the course of the next year up into the main event scene, because I would like to see some "AEW originals" if you will push their way into the top. It's nice to have CM Punk, Bryan Danielson, Adam Cole, etc. on your roster, but do not let it stunt the growth of the performers who could be the stars of tomorrow. I just don't want them to wait too long while someone's hand is hot by trying to appease to the other big names they've brought in. A main event scene with MJF, Ricky Starks, Darby Allin, Jungle Boy, etc excites me more than the current one we're at. I'm not bashing it, but I'm ready for some of these guys to really get a push up into superstardom if you will.

settle down, Execnetico.

Take THAT Wrestling Banana?!

Sure, it's nothing to do with the quality of booking the past 9 months.

I'm cracking up at how Vandy had been in Hawaii since last Sunday, practiced and enjoyed the hell out of themselves for a full week, then absolutely ethered the Bows. Clark Lea is a genius of the highest level.

There were about 800-ish tickets left for All Out, but they were combo Dynamite/PPV tickets. Yesterday, those tickets were made single event tickets in hopes of moving the remainder. Which they most assuredly will, between a main event being announced and the walk-up crowd. EDIT: I see we’re all on top of this, first thing on a Sunday morning. Great job, DVDVR.

Ever, I'd say. For, @Greggulator.

I was lucky to see WALTER vs. Cesaro in a true dream match live last November on a Smackdown house show. I found the match on YouTube and looked today, it's still there: WALTER rarely did house show matches at the time so it was a real treat. Also got to see Ciampa and Bron Breakker live. I was lucky to see the show as I was right ill the day before and day of. Those who had RAW tickets were understandably pissed off.

They're keeping O'Reilly off tv because his insistence on cupping to speed up his recovery has rendered him into a basically unrecognizable polka dot man

The issue is that they want Young Bucks/Omega to have a big match on the PPV to help sell it, Aussie Open isn't as well known or popular in the US (which is an understatement). Dark Order/Aussie Open would fall flat to many as a PPV-quality match, especially if they want the Trios titles to begin with a bang. I'd bet anything that Omega isn't pinning Ospreay, more likely Omega pins one of his buddies to just set up the future match. No one will see The Elite beating Aussie Open as Omega beating Ospreay so it won't really impact their future singles match either way. If the Finals wasn't at the PPV they would have more flexibility but with the schedule I can't imagine them keeping The Elite out of the title match.

I would have Hayter win it because it's interesting. It would shake up the division and cause tension between Baker and Hayter. Hayter wasn't supposed to win. She was supposed to prop up Britt.

I’ve run low on my Dall-E tokens, and like most things this has run its natural course, so I will bow out with one final absurdity: “1850s Currier & Ives lithograph depicting The Undertaker throwing Mick Foley off the top of Hell in the Cell.”

Ichiro’s been running around in his uniform all weekend and still looks like he could go 3 for 4.

If we're starting a thread about dreams where wrestlers randomly show up, I could be here a while...

Wait I didn't get a @DEAN pick? Is my counting really that bad? Mr. Rasmussen if you're willing I'll shoot you something after work. @Matt D I'll also try and do those depending how bad my ass gets kicked at the job today. Took a day off the internet and I'm playing catch-up.

The umlat is a tiara and the new logo was made to catch the interest of foreigners. And the rise of the letters for sporty feel. Honestly most companies out of wrestling also want to make their logos more simple and eligible to read. Anyway there is a graphic list of unused logos out there.

I realise there's a risk that this won't make anyone else laugh, but oh boy did it bust me up good. I have been keeping myself amused by typing in stuff like "Stan Hansen painted in the style of Vermeer." Results were never quite as bang-on as the Danielson one. Then I tried, "Jaguar Yokota painted in the style of Ogata Korin"

EC3 seemed to break more of a sweat cutting his crappy promo as opposed to wrestling his crappy match.

This was the first time I didn't go AEW. But it was really close. It's a good time to be a wrestling fan. Hell, the Impact trios match was like 4 1/2 stars and it hasn't gotten a vote.

Are we that sure that The Elite go over here? It seems like a terrible booking move. We've made it very clear that Kenny is back too soon and isn't at 100%. Kenny vs Ospreay is a money match, which becomes a nothing match if a shell of his former self Kenny goes over Ospreay. Ospreay beating the still injured Omega, and crowing about it as if it was at his prime, and then not coming back to AEW for months after adds to the build to that one in a big way. Even more so if Callis turns on Omega and sides with Ospreay, or you have Undisputed Elite come out and cost them the match. I mean for that very reason, I'm sure it'll be one of the Bucks getting the pin on Aussie Open, which feels very underwhelming in the scheme of things. Aussie Open/Ospreay vs Dark Order/Hangman finals with the Bucks or Omega helping Hangman get the win creates far more stories and intrigue.

I thought and still do Jamie Hayter should have beat Thunder Rosa for the AEW Women's World Championship at AEW Battle of the Belts III. You can do tensions/breakup Hayter/Dr. Britt Baker as Hayter did what Baker could never do vs. Rosa.

Have we done Val Venis yet? "Salutations, women!"

Art literally imitating life lol

I hear he's just incredible. . For a backup anyway. .

90210 Steve Sanders would have been a perfect douch heel. Way better than Miz and MJF. His finish could be the Legacy Key lock

Nah, see, Sting's got immunity because Muta hit him with the yellow mist in '89. He's sayin "Fuck you and your crew, Tommy."

Daniel Garcia reminds me of Wahlberg in “the Other Guys.” Macho to the point of being incapable of rational thought…