just drew

Man, my bad. Am I thinking of a regular gauntlet match?

Or, OR, piggybacking off my Megan Bayne idea from earlier, have a Casino Gauntlet match. The #1 entrance is someone like Queen Aminata. Megan jumps her on the entrance way and takes the #1 spot. She could then go on to eliminate the entire field. For the first time they get all the way through a lineup in a Casino Gauntlet match. Then as she's celenbrating Thekla comes out and confronts her.

I think it'd be an interesting character trait for MJF if we were to find out through his actions that he has a blind spot for people he thinks are like him. Like, to him, MVP and his guys are all about business. Why wouldn't they get along? He sees them as a shortcut to an end. "Why compete in the Owen when I can BE Owen?" Meanwhile, the Syndicate guys have a code. A clear, violent ethos. Championships and prestige, and by proxy, money and fame, are earned by being the best at inflicting pain and imposing your will on other worthy competitors. It goes back to that Ernie Ladd quote; "the best heels don't cheat because they have to. They cheat because they like it." The Syndicate hurts people because they can. They like it. MJF the character is fundamentally incapable of understanding that, and I think that's what's going to lead to his being dealt with by the Hurt Syndicate.

I think there's two different schools of thought on this, and I'd be okay with either one. Mercedes and Toni are miles ahead of every other female on the roster in terms of star power. I personally subscribe to the theory that you should spread that out over two women's matches. Athena is from Texas and I think she and Mercedes have a much better match in them than the admittedly very good one they've already had. Then you can get Toni/Hayter in the other match. I'd personally also book a women's Casino Battle Royal, have Megan Bayne enter in the first batch and eliminate almost the entire field, win, and then have Thekla debut and face off with her. AEW's women's division has come a million miles (or 2.37 million km). I'd showcase the shit out of it. OTOH, Storm/Mone is a marquee match and sometimes the simplest answer is the right one.

I fucking loved this show. That opener was gas. An absolute barn burner. I'd love for Takeshita and Alexander to win something sometime, but I get why HangSpray won here. This Hurt Business stuff has been fun. MJF is either getting murked next week or revealing some sort of master plan. No way he's in The Hurt Syndicate this time a week from now. Also, TK immediately selling out MJF popped me. Ricochet/Gowen was fun. Exactly what it needed to be. Gowen is a natural babyface, and it's crazy how long ago it's been since he was getting murdered on Smackdown. SRS said on his post-show that Zach Gowen wouldn't be in the top 20 oldest wrestlers in WWE right now. Mark Briscoe/Ricochet will be a fun DON match. I dug the shit out of the FTR/Garcia-McGuinness thing. Stokely adds so much to FTR's presentation. I love it. Nigel is gonna get his hands on Stoke and it's gonna be beautiful. Or maybe Tony Schiavone stops Stoke from interfering and we get a fun moment. The women's stuff was there. Mina Shirakawa is... let's just say I'm happy she's in AEW. I think Athena or someone will cost Mercedes the match against Hayter. Mone doesn't need the Owen cup. I thought it was telling that with all the high-level babyfaces making saves & appearances tonight, Adam Cole was nowhere to be found. I loved this main event. It was stiff, intense, overbooked, and full of story beats. I LOVE the Gabe Kidd addition to the Death Riders. Okada punching Hobbs in the dick popped me. That's a match I would've never envisioned but now I needs it. I love how blatantly the Jacksons use their EVP jobs to give themselves the advantage. I still think they're homeschool wussbags pretending to be tough guys, but them joining up with the DR makes sense. I also like that AEW books their steel cage matches as regular matches but with a cage. You should be able to pin a dude in the cage. I hate "escape the cage" rules. Mox is the fucking man. Joe is the shit too. I love Wheeler Yuta being willing to die for our sins. Anarchy in the Arena is gonna fuck hard. AEW rules the motherfucking world!!!!

Oh, I don’t think it should’ve been Dean in Seth’s place in the Authority. That should’ve been Roman. They just should’ve gone all the way with Ambrose as the anti-hero.

I will always be baffled by the WWE office's insistence that Seth Rollins was a better choice than Dean Ambrose to build around after the Shield broke up.

I'm walking a delicate tightrope of trying to watch enough of this dogshit product to have a valid opinion but also not giving wwe a single penny of my money. This month, i borrowed my parents Peacock sub and watched this show. Holy hell has the product placement and sponsorship gotten out of control. It's BAD. Every wwe show I check out I'm reminded more and more that this product just isn't for me. I didn't vote Trump, I don't drink PRIME and I don't listen to Joe Rogan. That seems to be their target audience these days. I thought Lyra worked hard and she looked like she belonged. The four way was fun but it feels like they're right on the verge of turning Jacob Fatu into just another guy. WWE specializes in killing aura. Speaking of dead aura, I actually thought Gunther/McAfee was really good for what it was. As a football fan, I am guilty of forgetting how athletic you have to be to play the least athletic position in the sport. McAfee is a big, athletic guy, and the story they told of Gunther playing with his food and McAfee being just dumb and strong enough to not know when to quit was pretty compelling. It makes sense that a big, reasonably trained athlete like McAfee would be able to hit Gunther hard enough for it to register, but not so hard that Gunther would be in any real danger. I'm not sure what the point of this match was. I thought maybe someone would come out to save McAfee from a postmatch beating to set up a confrontation w Gunther. As it is it was just a reason to hold out a midcarder who could've used a high-profile match with Gunther to potentially appeal to the podcast bro crowd. Again; not for me. Cena/Orton was fine. Cena is WASHED. Like Patrick Ewing as an Orlando Magic washed. This whole run is going to have to be smoke and mirrors, but I'm not sure thats a bad thing.

I have never understood the Ryder burial. He was never going to be Hulk Hogan, but he could've been Tito Santana; an over babyface who wrestles midcard champions on opening PPV matches. He was selling an ass of merch, and WWE left money on the table just to dick over a kid who did exactly what they claimed they want teir talent to do.

Man, you know what you could do? Have MJF either a) turn on Hurt Syndicate and join Don Callis, or b) Hurt Syndicate rejects MJF, and Don Callis is there to be the devil on the devil's shoulder. MJF finally finds a family, and it's full of the worst people on earth. You could spin the Takeshita face turn off from there, too.

He looks like a buff Chris d'Elia. Whether that's in his favor or to his detriment isn't for me to say...

There was a theory put forth by SRS that the only reason that match took place is because the decision was made far enough before 'Mania that revival/HawkRyde was listed as a match in the official program. They'd sort of killed the angle, or neglected it, then had to heat it up quick because someone in the office was like "oh shit, we printed this."

This is why I'd love to see AEW add a studio show. Similar to Dark. Small, enthusiastic audience. Basically old nxt but not necessarily developmental. Although they probably need one of those, too. I'd love for AEW to start using their streaming partnership more advantageously. "Hey, let us run another hour a week of matches you can stream on MAX." Work out a revenue share that works for everyone. It'd have to be cheaper than another 90 Day Fiance spinoff...

Ah, gotcha. I can't always keep this stuff straight. One of the news aggregators implied that Elayna might've no-showed an AEW Dark booking around the time WWE signed her. If true, that could be an issue, but TK seems less petty than some other CEO types...

Priscilla has a pretty dark past with Darby Allin, right? I could see that being an issue, but if it isn't I wholeheartedly agree. I also re-iterate what I said earlier; women's tag titles. Have them be true "World" Tag Titles where the champs defend them in TJPW, CMLL, ROH, wherever there are women's tag teams. Then you can reunite Tegan Nox and Dakota Kai and bring in the Chance & Carter. I think Kacy Catanzaro has something unique, with her size and athletic ability. I'm not smart enough to fully flesh out how you could incorporate what she brings to the table into a weekly wrestling character, but RJ City might be. OTOH, there's some dark history with her and Ricochet, so I don't know how that would work...

SRS has said multiple times that AEW hated losing her during the pandemic and would love to have her come back. Even said one official that he communicates with has said “you know, I wish we still had Bea Priestly.” To me, this is another reason why I’d have some hesitation signing with WWE. It’s clear that TKO has some level of influence over payroll, and unless you’re ex-AEW or now a luchador with a unique look, it’s gonna be hard to stand out. Some of these folks were just on tv and now they’re looking for a job. If I were TK, now would be a good time to launch my women’s tag division. Reunite Dakota Kai and Tegan Nox & bring in Carter & Chance. Put it on YouTube’s if needed. Diversity of programming is never bad.

9:50. I'm losing my touch.

The James Franco one was good because they all knew each other. And Bill Hader being a genius. Once Greg Giraldo and Patrice O'Neal passed on, they should've retired the concept. In WWE's case, I guarantee someone saw the clips circulating social media of the Tom Brady roast and decided "we'd like some of that, please." Be careful what you ask for. In a semi-related note- is anyone else hearing like, peripheral whispers of there being some kind of power struggle within WWE right now? Like, I believe what the Rock said on Pat McAfee about Ari Emmanuel calling Rock in for ELimination Chamber because ticket sales were slow was 100% intentional. I don't buy for a second that everything is as rosy within the WWE power structure as Rock and HHH would have everyone believe. I think Rock knew that Mania main event was gonna tank without him. It made no sense for him not to be there. Also, I think it's no coincidence that Rock's cousin, Nia Jax, was the one to bring up Triple H's ego during the roast. Maybe my tinfoil hat is too tight again. I've been getting back into JFK assassination conspiracy podcasts. Sometimes I just have a real strong feel for context and subtext. Something is off.

This is the last I'll say about it. For now. Today. I love Bayley as a performer. I think she does everything right. She's safe and fluid in the ring, she sells, she's a passionate if not entirely believable promo. It bugs me that she carried the WWE on her back during Covid and her reward has been getting jerked around at every turn. If what I said originally came off as toxic or weird or whatever, my bad. I know my admirer was in here calling for me to be run off again, but I hope folks understood the sentiment behind it. Bayley's a great performer who deserves better.

Boy, I guess I don't have a leg to stand on when it comes to thinking Adam Cole & the Bucks expose the business...

I mean, she’s 35. Not exactly “slow down” age.

Blows my mind.

I probably did word that poorly. FWIW, I don't dislike you or anything. One of my many character flaws is that I get frustrated when other people don't see things the same way I do. To me, it seems obvious that Bayley is never going to be seen by WWE as the same level star as Charlotte or Becky. I have no idea why, because she's far beyond them as a worker and a good enough promo to be at the highest level. I think the other thing that mystifies me is why a guy like Rusev would rather do low-card stuff in WWE than be much higher up the card and compensated just as well in AEW. That's all intertwined to me. Like, is the prestige of being in WWE worth that much?

IDK who needs to hear this but a: I'm sober and at work. b: if I chose my words poorly I apologize. What I meant was that it's hard for me, as someone who isn't in her situation, to understand why she continues to stay in a situation where she is clearly not valued as highly as she should be by her superiors. Wrestling is a weird business. To me, Bayley continuing to stick around when she could be in a higher profile situation elsewhere, where she'd also be compensated just as well, is baffling. I don't understand why what I said is a big deal.

I mean, why would she continue to allow herself to be shoved aside?