Just Dave

The new SCREAM was an absolute delight. It felt like the freshest and most biting since the original.

Andrade seems to be having a fantastic time. He almost popped Schiavone when he asked him how he knew that Darby was Sting's friend. That guy oozes star power. Y'all aren't wrong about clean finishes, but I understand the instinct to protect your top stars. DQ's and screwy finishes don't bother me as much as some others. I guess the bigger dilemma is "if I'm giving all this away on free tv, how do I keep my PPV matches fresh and exciting?" It's a good problem to have, but it is a problem.

So, as a kid we had WOMETCO cable out of Fayetteville, Ga. I still remember their office on the square. Every saturday the cable access channel had a 3-5 hour block of pro wrestling. We got WCW Worldwide, WWF Wrestling Challenge, USWA, Smoky Mountain, and another WWE or something. They had the old school hosts and everything. I was enraptured by the "Dirty White Boy" Tony Anthony, Buddy Landell, PG13, and all the people I'd only heard about in the Apter mags to that point. Then WOMETCO got bought up by BellSouth after the FCC ruling stuff. All that cable access stuff became a thing of the past. Sad.

Also, Jungle Boy has turned into a credible babyface promo. Night and day difference from a year or so ago. Good on ya, JB.

I feel like I spend a lot of talking shit about what I don’t like. I really dug the Brody debut, even if that was a convoluted ass way to get there, and I liked all the hossery. Quality stuff.

Uncle Tony helped a brother out and put all the pretentious dweebs in segment 1. Always looking out for me, TK. Love you.

I know I have my quirks, but if I can't laugh at them then what's the point?

Just for clarification, what does "nonsense" cover?

How big were the geese? Did they scare you in a way that doesn't expose the business given their size?

You think? I'm genuinely curious. I'm not always great at estimating that sort of thing. I'm 100% sure Sean Waltman wasn't anywhere near his billed weight of 212 in 1994, but that's about where it ends.

This is a really good, much less confrontational way of saying what goes on in my head. Thank you.

Shawn Michaels is also 6'1, 225. That puts him several inches and at least 20 lbs heavier than most of the guys we're talking about here.

@Craig H, you're generally one of my favorite posters here. Are you genuinely ok with small guys paying absolutely no attention to prohibitive size and weight differentials in regard to their opponents?

Maybe it's just my hang up. That could be. But I don't think it is. I might be in the minority here on this board, but there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of folks who no longer watch wrestling who used to. And to try to hang it all on the proliferation of tiny guys to the main event would be disingenuous, it's worth noting that nxt hemorrhaged viewers while Cole, Fish, O'Reilly et al were on top, and that AEW ratings are creeping back up now that Omega and the Bucks aren't corrupting every show with their pretentious nonsense.

@NoFistsJustFlipsthat's fair, and believe me, I've seen it. I'm well over 6 ft tall and 240+ lbs. I'm a big strong guy who probably grades out at a "B-" in Muay Thai and "C-" in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. My least favorite sparring partner is about 5'4, 130 lbs, but dude is a legit blue belt in BJJ and would be a black belt in Muay Thai if such a thing existed. His hip swing is always perfect on his kicks and they fucking hurt. We always joke that I look like King Kong trying to swat the planes down when I'm chasing him and he's kicking me. My issue is #1; most fans have never had that experience, and #2; As much of an angry fucker as the aforementioned sparring partner is, he'd never just stand there and try to corner me and impose his will on me. At that point he's toast. I'm gonna forearm him out of his shoes and call his wife and tell her she's the main breadwinner now because it's damn near impossible to win bread when you're in a coma. I think that's what bothers me. It doesn't make sense, ever, for a guy like KOR to put himself in harm's way deliberately by getting inside the arm reach of guys like Akam and Rezar. The lack of common sense. As far as Sheamus goes, he's just the first big, rawboned guy I could think of who wrestles a hard hitting, rugged style. Dude got his clock cleaned by Yoshi Tatsu. I'm under no illusion as to what the result would be if KOR and Sheamus got into a real fight. My issue is that wrestling isn't presented like a real fight, and as such perception matters.

@Technico Supporti don’t mind small wrestlers. Danielson, Jungle Boy and Jon Gresham might be my three favorite guys to watch right now. What bothers me, and I think this is my core issue with the Young Bucks, too, is guys not wrestling styles that make sense for their size. I’ve been out on oreilly and fish since they stood toe to toe with AOP and threw hands with guys who could literally huck them into the next solar system if they desired. Not only that, but they expected AOP to sell it like they’d been shot. When you’re the size of Kyle oreilly, you don’t get to wrestle like Sheamus. It’s a major turnoff and is made even worse by guys like Danielson and Punk going on tv and doing exactly what they need to to establish themselves as killers without destroying the suspension of disbelief.

Ruby isn’t on the level of Punk or Bryan, but she’s a huge star compared to most of the women on their roster, which is the point i was trying to make. I could’ve been clearer about that. That’s kind of my point about the UE guys, too. They’re vanilla midgets, and I think TK’s gotta get away from hoarding those type of guys, but they’re far more useful than the Joey Janelas of the world…

They aren’t my cup of tea, and in a perfect they’d go back to apprenticing with the Lollipop Guild where they belong, but they’re hugely popular with the fan base AEW is going for.

That’s fair. And it’s possible that I am what the kids call “on one” today. It is very hard for me to read something like “the young bucks are the best tag team wrestling has to offer” and not want to peel my face off. It’s legitimately baffling to me how anyone watches them and sees that. But maybe I say it too much. If I do, I’ll try to say it less. It’s just hard to let something I see as egregiously false go by without responding.

I mean, this is a discussion board, right? No one needs to treat my opinion as more or less important than anyone else's. If you don't want to discuss the Young Bucks, their lack of psychology or their unwillingness to make their opponents look credible, maybe it's best not to bring them up.

Do you think the Young Bucks are the greatest tag team of all time?

I don't question that there is value in the young Bucks' presence. They're an excellent example of how actively undermining your opponents at every turn can lead to long term credibility issues within the tag team division. I think what frustrates me the most is that they're talented enough to not have to do that. They do it because they're insecure and because they're allowed to. I also admit that they've been a part of some excellent matches. Of course, I would argue that it isn't difficult to do that when you have influence over how the matches are booked and how strong they're allowed to make themselves look. If someone really thinks the Young Bucks are the absolute best tag team wrestling has to offer, more power to them. I would just question whether or not they've actually seen any other tag team.

To each their own I suppose. I like stories in my matches too. But when the story is “I’m going to undermine my opponents offense and damage their credibility for the sake of mugging to the camera,” it gets tiresome. But do you, man.

So what’s it like being damned?

This is where I'm at. I haven't watched regularly in at least a couple years, but I might check out the Rumble because it's the Rumble and I'll circle back if they manage to put something watchable on tv.