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Joe, Goldberg, Roman, all World Champions having well-received reigns. This was for a midcard belt with people sick of the reign, and those are huge distinctions. Jade went Double or Nothing at Double or Nothing and paid for it. Thematic relevance trumps all.

Alexa's partner looks like he makes Youtube reaction videos

One thing that is somewhat undeniable is that they've brought in a ton of ex-WWE backstage talents over the last few years. Some of this is due to WWE downsizing. Some of it is because the guys at the top of the WWE chain refuse to retire. Some of it is a cascading effort. I do think there's been a noticeable shift from Keith Mitchell leaving to there being a void for a bit to Michael Mansury taking over. Yes, we don't see it in quick camera cuts or WWE style buzzwords, but there are things like the talking heads before the PPV on Sunday that feel a little bit unquestionable. Some of it is good. Some is bad. I personally miss having a few extra pre-show matches but I like wrestling. Even Renee coming in gives it a certain feel. Jarrett as Director of Business Development. Etc. They just brought in a new Social Media/Communications guy (Adam Hopkins) who had been with WWE for 25 years. I know from my job, we bring in a lot of people from another agency a lot because we have to hire local and if we do, this is one of the only places where there was comparable work being done and we have to spend the first six months shaking them of their former corporate culture. On the one hand, it's good to bring in people with tons of expertise, but there's a difference between wrestling and between people who have only ever known WWE as what defines wrestling.

The link to the twitter thread translating Tajiri's autobiography was already posted last year, but I think it's worth linking again because it has been semi-regularly updated since and I doubt many others have been refreshing it for the last six months like I have. Last update was in April.

For fuck's sake how can they end Honky Tonk's historic IC Title reign with NO BUILD? Ugh what an utter disgrace of a booking decision!!11!!!! They should have had Warrior calling him out with Honky Tonk dodging him for weeks with different excuses! Lol just a little exaggerated but food for thought. Sometimes fans get stuck too deep in the conventional wisdom bubble. Just because things happen a certain way more often than not doesn't mean when something different happens it's bad. Jade's loss was actually one of the best bits of booking they've done. She didn't get destroyed. She didn't get ruined. She doesn't have the stink of failure on her for losing. Ryback was dead when he lost to Punk. Goldberg was mostly dead when he lost to Nash. Jade is still protected and can easily say it was a fluke and still move up the ladder due to the manor she lost. Stat also gets a giant shot in the arm right out of the return gate. Wrestling needs surprises. This was a perfectly done one. It almost had the buzz of a surprise MITB cash in. It was just a great piece of business and a creative way to past Jade's streak and not turn her into just another person.

Also, KO is so ridiculously funny here ranting about Imperium breaking the unwritten rules of interrupting promos. So many people on the roster just seem to be having a lot of fun right now. It is really refreshing.

Let's wait and see what kind of heat they get for the eventual Dynamite gender reveal.

I’m midway through the 4-way (just got through the tandem submissions) and my god is it ever terrible. The least organic thing imaginable.

That might be fun for us, but I think a large portion of the live crowd would hate it. Someone did a thread on Twitter a couple weeks ago asking what British wrestlers they’d like to see make appearances and 90% of the responses where “I didn’t buy a ticket to see wrestlers I can watch anytime, I bought a ticket to see AEW wrestlers.”

5/25 was in my estimation one of the best broadcasts of the 2023 campaign. Terrific JD Drake v Briscoe opener to get things rolling. Briscoe let Drake shine more his usual Dark fare. Hard hits a plenty, but I do kinda wish Mark would save the nastier stuff, like back bumps to the floor for bigger bouts. To be clear, that’s not a complaint. Mark’s putting it all out there in every match ‘tude is fucking awesome. Daniels-Sydal promo nicely breaks up the matches, thank you ROH, and it provides a bit more fuel for the already attractive main event. Claudio v Serpentico was even better than I expected. Okay, no sense holding back any longer, heel Claudio is on a really fun run, and probably my favorite wrestler under the Khan umbrella. His work with all these Juniors should be studied by all. That's how you look strong while still telling a story! Vertvixen v Kiera was solid and a good showcase for Hogan. I like seeing a little booking team effort behind the deserving Kiera. She’s a good hand. Kyle Fletcher v AR Fox was fantastic. A much stronger pairing than the slightly disappointing (tho I love them both) OC v Fletcher Dynamite bout. Funny seeing the Aussies with the double straps and post commentary explaining that they're allowed to showcase them one more time. Haha, nice one Riccaboni. BTW the post commentary sounded really good, and live (that hasn't always been the case). Willow v Hyan was a good showcase for the rising star. The Kingdom v The Mack Attack was a real highlight on this show, and clearly underrated by the lack of talk surrounding it (as are all things ROH). Great debut from the Macks. Ninja looked a lot better here than the one on one with Willie. I hope this team has some legs. The Kingdom were terrific as well. I dug this more than the plunder-filled (tho pretty good) main event against Darius/Action. Mercedes v Ellie was solid. Let’s get Mercedes full on heeling again, yeah? I love that Ninja Mack and Willie Mack promo. Not like it was an all time classic, but it was good, and I’ve always loved the simple (but beautiful) concept of losing wrestlers getting some mic time following their loss. They should do it more across the Khan brands. D’Amboise v Kamela was a bit clumsy at points, but alright. D’Amboise is good, but needs to get more comfortable out there. Rocky Romero v Titus Alexander made me wanna see more of this Titus character. Romero wasn’t somebody I looked forward to seeing in New Japan a few years ago, but he’s been fun in ROH/AEDub. The Righteous/Stu v Enahancers was good. This was the best the Righteous have looked. Stu was solid as a rock here. If Dutch and Vincent can tighten things up and find some consistency, well, they might have something here. Yeah, I think I could get behind this trio. Always great to see Marcus Kross eat some offense. Love him. Nice Zach Sabre JR/Samoa Joe promo. Sabre’s a fun promo. I hope to see Sabre more consistently in the future. Shane Taylor v Tracy Williams was good. Not Williams best match, but good. I love what Williams has done thus far, and Taylor’s making good on the opportunity. He’s got some really nice offense, and a pretty strong all around game. But for fuck sake, get him a pair of loose shorts to accentuate the presentation. Please! The Workhorsemen and Taylor are a nice trio. I’d love to see them get the straps. It’s about time they moved the titles from Cage and Nana’s green machines. I dig Cage, but dying for Kaun and Toa to go away on some Japanese tours. Athena v Braxton was fun. I always dig Athena’s more competitive matches, but I sorta maybe kinda prefer the squashes. Dralistico v Tony Deppen was fun. Deppen is another great hand who has fun matches every time out. Get well soon Tony Deppen! Fucking Nick Comoroto promo! Let that guy speak more. Miranda Alize v Skye Blue was solid. Alize has been consistent and it’s neat seeing Blue progress. Athena promo nicely breaks things up. Very grateful for all the promos. Not trying to be greedy, but these promos help and would be great to see even MORE of. Athena is bonkers enough that her promos always seem to work even if they are sometimes kinda, well, shitty (but in sort of a good way). Karter/Clayton v Action/Darius was solid fun. Man, I think Andretti is quietly getting better and better. He looked really good here. He's gonna be a fun heel at some point. Tho not as flashy as his bro, Darius is consistently really good. I think Karter is getting better too. I’m not sure Clayton has it, but I’m fine with watching him work as enhancement. Blake Christian v Commoroto was fun. Glad to see Christian getting some build up, he’s been great throughout this ROH run. I like the role Commoroto provides as a fun big man enhancement guy. I kinda skimmed Diamante v Adora. Looked solid. Penta v Slim J met the excitement I felt seeing it on paper. Slim J fucking rules. Penta/Rey need some more title defenses already. Sabre/Joe v Daniels/Sydal was a nice TV main event. I liked the tensions between Sabre and Joe and how they didn’t boil over. A little restraint goes a long way. Man, Joe has kinda quietly been fucking great in ROH. Everything he’s done has been fun. Looking forward to seeing Joe kill Sydal, and the inevitable Joe v Zach TV v TV title bout. Book that shit for the Forbidden door please!

There were multiple reasons the WW(W)F ran the main event before intermission. The building curfew, OT for arena workers kicked in after a certain time. At MSG and a few other arenas it gave fans time to catch the last train or bus out of the city. Ticket sales for the next show started before the last match on the card, whatever angle happened in the main event would hopefully entice fans to buy tickets for next month that night. Crowd was less drunk, so less inclined to riot before intermission. Allowed the main eventers to avoid cheering or blood thirsty fans after the show. I grew up in Pittsburgh and they also did the main event before intermission, but for most of 1983 the "main event" went on last with Backlund defending the belt against second tier challengers, Don Muraco defending the IC strap got the slot before intermission since those matches set-up the draw for the next month, more than half the crowd would be gone when Backlund hit the ring.

How about Sad Portnoy?

Rhea's half break is what sells this.

Thank you. In return, trying to teach you across the pond that day/month/year is the right format .

This doesn’t undermine the afterthoughtness of it all, but Taya was actually at ringside for the whole Stat/Jade thing. In one of the hardcam shots, you can see her in the far right corner while Stat is celebrating in the confetti. AWKWARD.

I know it's been a few weeks now but I just wanted to say RIP DEAN and send some love to his family and friends I've been a lurker here since the early 00's, posted under a different account in the green board days. Found this place thanks to DEAN's relentless pimping of THE MIGHTY DEATH VALLEY DRIVER across the internet, I even remember seeing him in the AOL Grandstand in my earliest exposure to the IWC. An absolute legend, right down to continuing to recap AEW from his hospital bed

Was there one match on Double or Nothing 2023 that was a really good straight-up pro wrestling match with a clean, satisfying finish and without a bunch of (unnecessary) bells and whistles? I'd argue that there wasn't. MAYBE the preshow match? "Really" good is a bit of a stretch... Ethan Page did some really good wrestling. I'd, personally, argue that at this point Jeff Hardy qualifies as an unnecessary bell and whistle. I very much enjoyed the Blackjack Battle Royale, but in my opinion that was not a straight-up pro wrestling match. I'm not trying to be controversial,but in my opinion Wizard vs Bay Bay was neither straight-up nor really good. There was, of course, some good wrestling in the FTR match but it was a Jarrett match and as such it was non-stop prowrestling bullshit and there was virtually zero chance of a clean satisfying finish and we all knew that going in. It's not for me, but that's fine. I'm not arguing that there should be ZERO matches of this type on a PPV, just that it would be very nice to also get one clean straight-up pro wrestling match in addition. Again, not trying to be controversial but ladder matches with biting are not straight up pro wrestling, as far as I'm concerned. POSSIBLY if Hayter had been healthy her match would have been straightforward and hard-hitting... But probably it still would have been built around Saraya interfering. Regardless of circumstances, we didn't get our straight-up very good match here. House Rules came pretty close, certainly there was really good wrestling going on. but probably you noticed some wildly unnecessary bells and whistles in the background of this one. If you consider Jade vs Taya and Jade vs Stat to be two separate things... MAYBE Jade vs Taya? But as a whole it seems to have left a significant number of people unsatisfied. Good wrestling, nice surprise, somewhat unsatisfying booking, in my opinion. The Pillar Fight was, like the Jarrett match, never intended or expected to finish clean. It's the current champ's deal, and that's fine. Certainly a very enjoyable match. Anarchy was never meant to be straight-up, obviously. The Takeshita thing does not, in my book, qualify as a clean finish. Still enjoyed the hell out of it. Again: Not asking for zero bells, zero whistles, zero bullshit, zero fuck finishes. Just wishing we could get ONE match where the wrestling was allowed to stand on its own and the finish was determined by actual wrestling. People used to complain that AEW gave us TOO MUCH of that! Possibly they are overreacting in the opposite direction now. DoN 2019 had Cody vs Dustin. Bloody, but straight-up. Clean finish. Great story. 2020 had Mox vs Brodie Lee, 2021 had Bucks vs Mox & Kingston and Shida vs Baker. Last Year we got Punk vs Hangman. Hopefully I am not misremembering and all of those had relatively clean finishes. Probably I'm misremembering, but... You get the idea.

You'd think after what happened to Dante Martin that Tony would have pumped the brakes on all these ladder matches, even if it was just in a reactionary way.

I wouldn't be upset if we get a Taya/Stat series based around "I wore her down and you vultured the barely breathing carcass" idea

Not enough* Sad Bill Simmons pictures in this thread. *trick question, since you can't have too many.

This moment and match need talking up more. Dr. Britt Baker vs. Kris Statlander at AEW All Out 2021.

First Carmella and Tay, now Alexa. It must be wrestling baby season.

I apologize for my insensitivity toward our neighbours across the pond

Ring of Honour? (

I liked the Jade loss. Makes sense to me (having the confetti on stand by for the impromptu match not so much). Doing Taya that dirty not so much. You build to the match on the basis that she got cheated in the previous match as her finish was banned. It's legal here, and Jade kicks out of it at 2 anyway, pops up, hits the same move for a clean three. Meanwhile, she's gone by the time Stat has come out and beaten Jade. Total afterthought. I liked the ladder match. That Swanton was nuts. Tony Khan has stopped responding to my tweets wanting him to run with an ArnlyFans gimmick where Arn dresses like a total thot, and if we're not getting CM Punk, we should get Arn's cornhole instead. But if we're going to get Walking Dead Arn instead, I'm pretty cool with that instead. Billy Gunn refusing to sell for guys is really tiresome for a guy that's supposed to be a coach.

I will go the other way and say that you basically waste a multi-year win streak not by having them lose to a surprise, but have it happen after they already wrestled a match. Can you imagine if Joe's win streak, or Goldberg's, or whoever's ended after they already wrestled a match and had to unexpectedly wrestle another with no preparation? Can you imagine if that was how Roman's reign were to end? I'll also note there's a reason most of the MITB winners got a pop when they won but weren't particularly successful as champs afterwards. That said Jade's streak had gotten to the rare point that it was actively hurting her in the eyes of people, and it is now seemingly clear that it got extended a year simply because it was written in Tony's notebook that Stat was the next champ and he would not deviate from that at all, so I am fine with a poor idea that just rips that band-aid off than a good one that would have taken another few months. I also don't think it is the level of good/bad idea that'll likely dramatically alter where either of them will be say two years from now.

Thoughts on Cyber Slam 96 Brian Pillman's performance defined the Attitude Era. Showing up unexpectedly and insulting the last company he worked for was one thing, but when he threatened to use the ring as a porta-potty, ECW officials and wrestlers rushed to the ring to stop him. It's too bad that Pillman's body failed him just when he found a money-making character. For being too extreme for ECW, Pillman is the MVP. Tommy Dreamer brought in the Bruise Brothers as his backup for his feud with Raven, but they immediately stabbed him in the back and joined Raven. Later, they helped Raven beat Sandman to retain the ECW title. ECW was like an alternate reality in which 2 Cold Scorpio is a major singles star. He successfully defended the ECW TV title (his fourth!) in a 30-minute draw with Sabu in a match that was almost wall-to-wall action. In WWF and WCW, Scorpio was typecast as "that guy who does flips." Mr. Hughes should not have antagonized Big Dick Dudley, who walloped him with a crutch and caused him to lose in less than a minute to Buh-Buh Ray Dudley. Stevie Richards was paired up with Francine in a 6-person dog collar match involving the Pitbulls and Eliminators. This was like Stevie getting put in a steel cage with Luna Vachon. But by the time ECW made it to pay-per-view, Stevie had become a World title contender. Brian Hildebrand served as referee for the Shane Douglas-Cactus Jack match, which was appropriate since they were all trainees of Dominic DeNucci. I didn't expect him to give Douglas a foreign object and allow the Franchise to handcuff Cactus and blast him with chairshots like The Rock did three years later. Cactus called for help from Vince McMahon (no answer) and then Mikey Whipwreck (who gave him another chairshot and caused him to lose).

I think it’s okay to not have the world title last if you have a cage match that necessitates it being last due to logistics. Or maybe a lights out grudge match, again where the stipulations mean it has to be last. I might be in the minority, but I think it’s okay to headline with the world tag team titles, if you have a hot feud (RnR vs MX, for example).

Dinosaurs, with world turned into a blizzard and the family waiting to die(though that's implied).

This might be the most I've ever agreed with you about a show. I also loved the ladder match! I don't inherently hate spotfests, or cutesy contrived sequences. I said on Twitter that I kept hearing "well the build's been bad, but these 4 will probably still have a great match." I might have enjoyed it more if people had been saying "they'll probably still have a great spotfest." Or like, maybe if this match hadn't been for the title, and it was the opener. My brain just can't process that they did THAT as the ppv world title match.

As someone who attended a lot of WWF house shows in Baltimore in the 80s, I can definitely attest to this one. Aside from the times where they'd announce a new challenger, sometimes they'd do a screwjob in the (middle of the card) main event match, then announce a gimmick return match right at intermission. For example, Bundy would be DQ'd against Hogan, and they'd announce a cage match next month with tickets ON SALE NOW AT THE ARENA BOX OFFICE! Jesus, what a fun time to be a fan. Or sometimes Hogan wanted to get out and just leave early before the traffic, mobs of fans outside the arena, etc., maybe before the restaurants closed or whatever. Or get out in time to cross the international date line so he could work that mythical "372 days a year, brother!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_jEicE6KyQ Hidden Strike Latest Jackie Chan "buddy cop" movie which I am glad the trailer didn't embed so you can be surprised by who the other star is

Back in early April, Jimmy Butler offered tennis star and Heat fan Coco Gauff tickets to their April 9 finale with Orlando and playoff tickets.

I'm astonished he didn't jump in at the end, but I'm also half convinced Kendall's security guard is also there to protect him from himself. EDIT -- ALSO.... I'd pay good money to see how Willa decorates Logan's apartment. I'll bet you within 3 months, she'd have it listed on AirBnB.

Go to Account _> Ignored Users. Note: if you have the weird board involving hyperlinks and the next/back page buttons, it might not work for you.

1. Texas Death Match - Page/Mox 2. Winter is Coming - Page/Danielson 3. Double or Nothing - Cody/Dustin 4. Omega/Danielson 5. Bucks v Omega/Hangman The TDM was just absolute glorious, glorious unbridled violence. I'm also counting it into basically "breaking" Mox and pushing the BCC into full blown heel mode

Oh yeah, I realize that ship has sailed. It just would've been a neat one-off that generated a ton of buzz under the circumstances.

I'm just sad the Jamie Hayter injury I saw in Pittsburgh that I worried was legit at the time actually was.

Lord knows I don't want to tell you how to do your job-hobby as you do it as well as any of us, but the reason Wardlow/Cage isn't getting more love probably has something to do with Cole/Jericho. There were live viewers noticing the crowd being off during the opening matches (some reports of the crowd filling in late fwiw), but Cole/Jericho was a straight up ice bath. It's simultaneously the closest thing an AEW PPV has had to a momentum killing late-stage Vince McMahon booking disaster, while also being a workrate failure due simultaneous issues with Jericho's up-and-down old-man physical state + dramatic excesses & Adam Cole's worst-of-the-worst physical believability + indie proclivities. You can equally dog Jericho because he's booking his own stuff as you can Cole for like, NOT BEING ABLE TO UNDO A CHAIN AROUND HIS ANKLE and making the bad planned finish exponentially worse? There's a palpable sense of betrayal from the crowd when two established stars drop a turd like this on an AEW PPV. And then you've got the fact that so much of the other matches were based around shenanigans and run ins and plunder, even though Sabu and Britt were the high points of the match. The first two-thirds of the show can't really be understood unless you know how bad this was. It's legitimately interesting how many ways it failed both itself and the card as a whole. I understand modern wrestling better for having seen it. Even more interesting when you think Jericho vs. Roderick Strong from a couple of weeks ago was a similar match that was a thousand times better. I'm not telling you to put this on immediately, but if you're ever in the mood for an academic hate-watch this one contains multitudes of things to ponder. And it still isn't worse than what Matt Hardy did to All Out 2020.

I'm midway through the PPV. Quick, quick thoughts: I liked the Buy-in Match. I know people complain about the Hardys but Matt is still very good in there. A little slow but everything is measured and looks credible and matters. He stands out on the roster; to some people, it's in a bad way and to me it's in a good way. It's only if he gives in on the criticism that he does stupid stuff. Jeff's a hot mess but that means he can play with people's perceptions like with the ankle. Very Sabu-ish and fitting I guess. Battle Royal was excellently laid out. Spot after spot. Character bit after character bit. I'll write it up tonight for SC. I didn't love Swerve vs OC actually. I thought they brought out the worst in one another. I know you guys were into it, but I'm not looking forward to that match, even if I liked Swerve overall in the match. I skipped Cole vs Jericho. I'm not even going to joke about it. FTR vs Triple J had a good finishing stretch but maybe went a bit long before that. I wasn't feeling the drama. Also, Dax in opening stretches is problematic. He's just not hitting stuff like he did a couple of years ago and hopefully they end up as heels soon where he can let Dash do a lot of that and just grind down on people. Can't wait for the follow up to the guitar shot on Aubrey. I kind of feel like you guys are sleeping on Christian vs Wardlow. It was better than I was expecting given your talking and the gimmick. I would have rather seen a straight up match but they had some clever spots and it rationalized Christian staying in it. I though the finish with Wardlow catching Christian off the ladder right into the power bomb was tremendous. Just an all time ladder match finish and I'm not sure why it's not getting more love. Wardlow's dive should be in the opening of everything but then I feel like Jungle Boy's cage dive is forgotten so who knows.

One interesting part of Tajiri's autobiography where he transcribed his diaries from working with WWE was that one of the roles of WWE agents was to make sure matches on the card weren't similar, and that one Vince-ism was "only every-other match on a card can have chops" Seems like a lost art, and there's clearly some shows where agents don't talk to each other and the same spots get repeated in multiple matches

We're rewatching Everything Everywhere All At Once and goddamn, this movie is just wonderfully bonkers and had us wondering - was there ever a year before where The Academy actually got it so right? I mean, yeah there's the pressure to be a little less stodgy, a little more woke, but seeing a man jump ass-first unlubricated onto a buttplug-shaped item to gain fighting abilities and this won BEST PICTURE?! It's like the voters all had their own Raconcoonies...

That’s because there’s no way to make adam Cole look like a badass. It can’t be done. There’s no shame in him being what he is, he just isn’t that.

I love that we’re less than 2 weeks removed from the really good FCA match with Roddy, and we’re already back to the “Jericho should retire” discourse. This man gets zero leeway lol. Absolutely no benefit of the doubt.

We talked about Bill Mercer in regards to JFK/Oswald news coverage before. Here's a clip of it. https://www.cbs.com/shows/video/E6Gs90e6A8lPrXSSYw_2eoW8Z8Xz7dTR/

Funny how things change. Back in 2008, screaming YOU-MAGA was referring to a mindless savage. These days... wait a fucking minute, nevermind.

I miss DEAN.