Go2Sleep

Yeah, I know the power couple bit is played out since HHH/Steph, but Cody and Brandi definitely had potential in that role. The only problem is that to be an effective heel, you have to be willing to lose feuds, and that was an issue for Cody in AEW (in fact, probably the main reason fans began to turn on him). Also, yay for Claudio getting out. I think it's too late for him to be a top guy in AEW, but he should definitely go there for the dream matches.

Taker used to do it in the 2000s on smaller guys as part of his "work the arm" routine to set up old school.

What a show for promos. MJF's was an all-timer. I really hope they don't do a "work" and have him say he made it all up to get heat. The fact that I was waiting for him to just obliterate Punk after "Is it true" and it never came was the right kind of swerve. I love the idea of 2 epic dickhead promo guys going at it for weeks, but instead of never ending escalation of dickheadery, one guy actually finally cuts deep. If they managed a double turn out of this feud, it would be the most epic since (and possibly, possibly greater than) Bret/Austin. Jericho was great as the condescending prick too. Definitely one of his finer AEW promos. Dragon and Mox at the end was suitably intense and made me even more pumped about their match. Starks little cut off on Keith Lee followed by the Lee/Hobbs stare-down was easy to overlook, but would stand out as awesome on a lesser show. Only thing I didn't like was the Death Triangle/HoB segment. Penta Oscuro is a million times better name than el Zero Miedo, but what was the point of debuting a "new" gimmick only to get a roll-up win (although Malakai choking on the mist was a cool kayfabe twist on that spot) and then get killed post-match? The whole thing would've made a lot more sense if Penta turned on Pac before the match as the third man, then Buddy showed up to even the odds. Buddy with Pac and Fenix makes more sense than him with HoB, but the 6-mans will be awesome either way, I guess.

Omos has to be the leader currently. Is there any answer to that question that isn't a giant stiff or an attractive woman?

It's kind of overkill at this point, but he's too good not to sign if he's interested. He definitely got screwed by WWE too, so it's good that he's getting another shot on national tv. He'll look good mixing it up with the AEW mainstays, and there might be an angle in there with him getting Acclaimed to the next level a la Christian with Jurassic Express.

It's really only about 6 in his current form (which is still way too long). In Brock's first run, he was presented as a monster, but still occasionally vulnerable. It's why his matches with Benoit, Rey, and Eddie all worked. His insecure heel run in 2003-04 was the best stretch of his career. Most importantly, back then he actually wrestled instead of just doing the same 3 spots every match. His second run, he was much more protected, but still worked a unique enough style and showed enough vulnerability to top guys that he was a bright spot through the first Roman match. Since the Taker program, though, yeah... Nothing inspiring or must-see about him and nobody has come out of a feud looking better, even if they got a win over him. The only interesting moment was him losing to Goldberg in under 2 minutes, and well, that only put over Goldberg in like 2017 or 18 (?) so that wasn't terribly useful.

I think people here are drastically underselling the possibility that Cole wins this match. Does Cole/Omega need the belt as the centerpiece of the looming Elite Civil War? No, but it would make sense and be a huge match. This was a good show, but it felt like they went a little heavy with heel stable beatdowns. Rosa/Mercedes was charming in its dangerous sloppiness. Gotta love that they just said "fuck it we can do this apron-table spot at a 45 degree angle right?" And that top rope elbow drop was one of the ugliest in history, yet looked like more of a killshot than any other top rope elbow I can remember.

If Turner insists on keeping a wrestling-based reality show, they should just do a different person each season. Mox, Miro, Tay/Anna, Jade, Sammy, Cole/Britt. There's no shortage of interesting material without overexposing or putting too much pressure on one person.

This is true, but Jericho and the Bucks are doing exactly what they should be doing: Midcard programs that either elevate other acts or with similarly situated vets who won't be hurt by a loss.

His in-ring work is the least of his problems fitting in. It's the tone of all his (presumably) self-written angles being incongruous with everything else on the show. Too much worked-shooting, no clear direction for any of his programs, going over in feuds that he shouldn't. Pretty much everything he's been involved with since he went over Brodie has felt off and hurt the flow of the overall show.

This is super fun palace intrigue, but I doubt this moves the needle for either company. Are WWE fans really clamoring for Cody Rhodes? He was a pretty generic midcarder for most of his time there. Ironically, I think the only reason the needle might move for a week or two is AEW fans checking out his debut before the ensuing segments remind them why they stopped watching WWE years ago. He'll be booked well enough, probably along the lines of Drew McIntyre who had a similar career arc on a smaller scale. He'll have his moment in the spotlight, then go back to the upper midcard rotation. While he was a founding father for AEW, the company has outgrown him creatively. Jericho does the role Cody should be doing way better than Cody ever could. What AEW fans wanted is a big-budget alternative to WWE, and they have that now. It's possible be respectful of Cody's legacy within the company, while understanding that he just doesn't really fit in anymore as a top guy. The only program I feel like was left on the table was with Punk. Otherwise, freeing up the tv time he was getting for his meandering programs for other talent will probably only improve the average show quality.

Keith Lee should be the favorite because he has AEW World Champ written all over him. Everything about him screams top guy. I like Kross more than most, but I don't see him as top singles guy in AEW. Kross and Scarlett could round out the House of Black nicely, but I'd rather see Julia Hart get that opportunity to see what she can really do in a non-jobber setting. Gargano is a guy who would get lost in the fold very quickly, but I wouldn't mind Andrade bringing him in as a "business partner" where he could use his comedic talents to take over Matt Hardy's role, while Matt goes on his nostalgia trip with Jeff.

In 1997, they literally had a PPV called "Final Four" the month after the Rumble. It became more of a trope during the 2000s, especially as WWE started doing their counting stats hype videos for the Rumble every year.

I'm very ready for Mox to turn down Bryan leading to their postponed ppv match, then having Garcia take Bryan up on his offer. Not sure what the point of the Brandi/Lambert worked shoot stuff was. They're very good at being catty to each other, but it doesn't seem to actually accomplishing anything. Yes, I know PVZ came out, but to a muted reaction since she was in the middle of two mega-heels, and let's be real, a match with Brandi is gonna do her no favors. Tag match was good as expected. The main was good, but could've stood to be a little shorter with MJF going over clean. If MJF won with that Serenity Lock or just the SOTE after Punk's leg gave out on the G2S, I would've been on the 5* train. From the overkill stretch, though, I did like Punk using the poison rana, showing that he's still learning how to adapt wrestling in 2022, and the Wardlow swerve was pretty sleek. I like how they aren't rushing the turn, even though it's obviously coming. Reminds me of MJF and Cody.

WWE and The Simpsons is probably the most apt comparison. Just a hollow husk of a once great concept that offers nothing new artistically but generates so much money off pure inertia that it will lumber on until one of the irreplaceable parts (Vince or one of the core 5 voice actors) is physically unable to continue working. At least WCW had a proper flame-out. I'd watch every hour of WCW from the finger poke to the end before I watched every hour of any given year of WWE since 2016. Anyway, I did check out the Rumble with some friends. Not sure if it was the worst ever (95, 99, 11, and 15 are serious contenders for that honor), but it is the first Rumble that makes me want to actively avoid Mania.

I think here, she got a little shaken because she forgot/realized she messed up the football reference. I think she was trying to reference the game against the Steelers where Baker Mayfield was sacked 9 times (which is a lot, and bad) instead of throwing 9 incompletions (which is normal, and would probably be quite good for a whole game given the average number of passing attempts in the NFL today). Either way, I didn't find it that terrible, I just had to think for a minute about what she was saying and I watch a lot of NFL games. Britt is very marketable and AEW should keep putting her in the spotlight. Her promo work now is significantly above where it was 2 years ago.

Good thing Orange countered, because if my calculations are right, he would've gotten about 8 feet of height on the piledriver.

Well, with HHH being unceremoniously cast aside for run-of-the-mill corporate grifter, it will be even more interesting to see what happens when Vince dies/is otherwise incapacitated now.

I really felt like OC/Stat should've won. OC is supposed to be the non-jobber in Best Friends and even he's getting dominated in this feud. The finish with Adam raging over Britt going through the table was ripe for an overzealous mistake leading to a flash pin. I guess the other option is maybe OC goes over in the unsanctioned match so Cole can take a loss and not have his title push derailed much like Britt with Rosa. I liked the way Hangman was booked in the post-match with Archer. Lance is obviously a filler program, so don't have him beat up Page every week to pretend he has a chance. Book it as a big man taking his shot, but the champ is the champ for a reason. AEW needs women's tag titles, because a Serena/Leyla team would rule. Caster's line about Starrcade 97 was great. Sting/Darby team continues to deliver.

I only meant to compare the aspect of Bate/Ilya being able to get high-impact offense on Walter. Overall quality wise, I would look at Walter's matches vs. Ciampa and Kushida that were more sprint-y. The quality of the Kushida match in particular would be about what I expected from this one, but it fell short imo, largely because they didn't let Roddy do much.

The best NXT match from last year imo was the Dunne/Dragunov match that was just build-up to Dragunov/Walter. Dunne vs. Melo and The Way vs. Bronson/Dexter/Shotzi/Ember were two of my other favorite NXT matches from last year. The Thatcher/Ciampa fight pit and Finn/KoR rematch happened on weekly shows. They had build in the sense that they were longer feuds, but I don't think either match was hyped for more than a couple weeks and weren't on "Halloween Havoc" type shows.

Because that happened frequently over the last 6 years?

I think he's mostly just leaning into the "stoic German (Austrian) professional" stereotype. I think a good question to ask here is what would a non-comedic German heel have to do to not draw nazi comparisons from an American audience? Also, all this Imperium talk has reminded me of another question I've been pondering: Is "Dresden Hatchetman" Alexander Wolfe the coolest nickname ever wasted on a jobber?

So I went out of my way to see Walter/Roddy and ended up watching the second hour. Tony D'Angelo is a really bad gimmick. Totally dated stereotype that seems like a trick question for the game "Is this gimmick from 1992 or 2022?" And the guy playing it totally lacks the presence to make anything out of it. Melo, on the other hand, comes across as a real star. Took me a while to realize KLR is a face now. Despite not being super-imposing, she has a naturally surly aura that makes it hard to be a face without a lot of work. Kind of like Randy Orton or Kyle O'Reilly. Ivy came across as lot more babyface here, although I guess Diamond Mine is kind of tweener now. Kinda feel for Mendoza/Wilde. That's a team that deserves a run, but just keeps on jobbing. At least Santos is getting a title shot I guess? Kacy/Kayden as mid 20s party girls instead of the pure babyface work ethic team feels pretty wrong, but at least they're still around. Walter/Roddy was ok, but exposed the big flaw with bringing NXT into full WWE style. It's not the new people not being able to work up (they seem mostly ok despite some awful gimmicks), it's the elite wrestlers having to work down. Roddy and Walter are capable of a match 10x better than this, but neither guy really got to show their best stuff. Roddy not being able lift Walter when Bate and Dragunov could suplex him made no sense. There was way more to be done building around the two best choppers in the company. Walter's mid-match control is usually way more intriguing than a chinlock. Just felt like a lot was left on the table because ultimately, these two aren't gonna be that important in NXT. And Gunther reminded me of the talking monkey in Futurama, which I guess is at least a couple steps up from a literal nazi.

Given WWE's aversion to people with the same name, I can only assume Gunther Stark will be Zoe's dad or brother.