just drew

You could do a real big one with the bucks & Okada on the DR side and Hanger and Swerve with the Opps. Maybe Kenny too.

If you disregard the hardcore title, the list gets slightly longer, but it still isn't long.

According to Bret Hart, the ropes broke early in a 2 out of 3 falls match and the teams struggled through it as best they could. The refs and officials didn't want to stop the show to fix the ropes. Because the change was supposed to be on SNME, the decision was made that the footage was unairable and the title change scrapped.

The only guy I can think of who did anything of note is Jim Neidhart, and he was gone before the Attitude Era REALLY kicked off. Dan Severn comes to mind.

While we're on the subject of titles, it's crazy to me how differently titles are viewed now than they were in the 80's and 90's. i'm always astounded by how many dudes were over as fuck who never won a singles title in WWF/E. Lex Luger, Tatanka, Doink, Crush, Adam Bomb, Jake Roberts, Vader, IRS, Bam Bam Bigelow, Savio Vega, Earthquake, Dusty Rhodes, Big Bossman, etc. People never dropped titles back then. I guess it's not so much a "hot take" as it is an observation on how the business has changed.

I agree, and there haven’t been enough women cross over to WWE for Mariah to have much indication of how she’d be treated. The grass is not always greener.

Holy Shit. Not an ounce of fat on that TV show. That was fucking spectacular. The Alexander debut, Ospreay and Takeshita having the match of the week on fucking Wednesday (no one's touching that, don't kid yourselves), I thought Mercedes and Athena were really, really good. The Hurt Syndicate was tops, as always, but I thought the "hoes" segment dragged a bit. Shelton popped me a couple times, though. Then that main. Holy. Shit. That main was AWESOME. I'm probably the biggest Death Rider Rider on this board, but even my balls were tingling when Hobbs showed up. good to get the trios titles on a team that can focus on them more. And that crowd. My God. There's been a lot of talk about "restoring the feeling." THAT was the feeling. The roster TK is building is truly breathtaking. Adding Alexander and potentially Michael Oku is, as the kids would say, diabolical work. I love that Tony Khan didn't respond to Nick Khan's absolute nonsense by tweeting or doing a press conference. Instead, he put THAT on free fucking TV. Congrats to TK on defying the odds and officially having the longest running wrestling show in the history of Time Warner. Suck a turd, Bischoff.

This is a fantastic idea. She can bring out the Mercedes puppet wearing the stereotypical local garb of every city she's in.

Not everything needs build. I’ll have more in-depth thoughts on this show later, but for now I’ll just reiterate that I find it both hypocritical and hilarious that so many of yall are bitching about the Death Riders doing what they’re doing when yall are the same folks who tried to convince me that it was fine when Kenny & the Jacksons did this same exact shit 4 years ago. Only Mox isn’t hemorrhaging viewers like the Elite did.

Boy, it’s like that ending was designed specifically to piss me off. Like TK sat there and thought “what’s the one thing I could do to get Drew to hate this Death Riders angle?” And voila, there it is. Still really enjoyed the show, though. Other than Adam Cole. I don’t understand that decision at all. FTR fucking murdered Cope. Like, Wheeler should probably catch his second strike on that beating.

They’re gonna keep making $ because their marketing & PR is next level, but they’ve pissed off a LOT of long time fans with the increase in ticket prices.

AEW being between 850k and 1.1 mil per week would be serious improvement. Ticket sales appear to be up. The product is measurably better. I think TK has really done well to alter his approach to WWE over the last 9 months or so. He’s focused on making his product the best possible and stopped letting his jimmy get rustled by WWE. I wonder if that’s why the Fed has gotten so aggressive: they aren’t getting a response anymore.

AEW certainly got paid like a successful content creator. It’s not hard for me to believe at all that wbd believes AEW is a popular, sought after property. To me, the biggest sign that AEW is on the upswing and gaining popularity is how aggressive WWE has gotten in their counter programming. They schedule specials on the same weekend as AEW PPV’s. They have those deals with arenas where if they book a WWE event they can’t run any other wrestling company for a certain period of time. And does anyone believe it’s coincidence that after weeks of rumors that AEW Shockwave was going to be on Tubi, that a WWE affiliated product just happens to show up there? WWE is playing hardball, which they never did with tna or Ring of honor.

Also, there's a Sugar Tit, South Carolina.

I'm picturing one of those beer dispensing plastic helmets, but with a nyquil bottle on one side and a dayquil on the other.

I feel like I owe you an apology. Yesterday I dealt with the double whammy of having to restrain an 8 year old student screaming about how he wanted to die and then my son asking me why I couldn't be at his t-ball game last night when I FaceTimed him. I sought out relief from some substances I don't know enough about to use properly. I think this summer I might seek out some inpatient treatment. I am sincerely sorry. I love this board and I appreciate everyone's patience with me,.

It feels like it REALLY rattled Trips and Nick Khan to find out how many folks are watching AEW on Max. The only AEW alum who’s a bigger deal in WWE is Penta, and I predict that by Summerslam he’ll be jerking curtains. This whole things reeks of “come to nXt! We’ll push you! Tony Khan is mean!”

So we’re pretending the WWE tag titles matter now? Cool. I mean, there’s only one poster on this board who would legitimately accuse me of trolling, and that dude has the worst wrestler of the last two decades as his SN, so he doesn’t matter. I check out the highlights on YouTube. I’m happy for Ricky. As misguided and short-sighted as he appears to be, this was a big moment for him. If you want to pretend triple h is doing right by black male talent, that’s on you. I’m not gonna change your mind. I just figured that as a fellow member of the lgbtqia+ community, you’d judge wwe with a slightly more critical eye.

Yeah, but look at how Montez Ford & Carmelo Hayes are treated on the main roster and then tell me how Oba Femi is gonna be received. Page & Saints couldn’t get on a show that WWE continues to insist is not competition. What message does that send guys like Tony d’Angelo & Andre Chase?

So like, I’m happy for Ricky Starks. I didn’t watch the show, but I saw some highlights and he looked good. My question is; what message are you sending your homegrown developmental talent when your show increasingly revolves around Oba Femi and then a bunch of mid-carders from a company you can’t stop insisting isn’t on your level? Also, the audacity of nXt fans chanting “Tony fumbled” while Swerve Strickland and Toni Storm are doing what they’re doing is truly stunning.

I really thought he was on track to join Death Riders. Also, there's no way Phil would acquiesce to that. It would detract from the legend he's built in his own mind of his infallibility regarding his AEW tenure.

FTR, I’ve never fully believed that only 575k people were watching AEW. I think those numbers are less reliable than people realize. It’s not hard for me to buy that 300k or so people are also watching on Max. I know I cut cable 2 years ago but have been faithfully watching AEW programming on Max since 1/1. I guess my only reason to question the report it; if they are doing numbers like that, where is the additional programming? The ROH deal? The Max original shows about the women wrestlers & luchadores & whatever else? It feels like WBD would be moving to capitalize.

Yeah, but where? A few redditors who already weren’t watching the show?

That's like College Football kickoff weekend in Atlanta being the same weekend as Black Gay Pride and Dragoncon. It's top tier people-watching seeing all these flyover-state ass college football fans just completely out of their element.

I don't remember exactly when, but Callis did say on commentary that he still owns Mark Davis's contract. It's a flimsy explanation, but it's something.