Godfrey

Last week I thought neither WWE and AEW were putting out a particularly good product and this week both companies showed me why they are utter trash and likely won't get better any time soon. True bottom of the barrel bullshit from Cena and Moxley that combined to kill my interest in wrestling in general. Gonna check out again and watch baseball, nice to talk to some of you for a bit. See ya next time!

The polar opposite of a 30 minute 'great' match that people forget the next day

I have a few misgivings about doing a European tour leading up to Mania with this particular Cena angle happening, people might be too happy he's there to boo him. It would be funny if Cena got booed on his face run and when he finally turns gets cheered as a heel. Maybe he can trash the local sports team, "RSC Anderlecht are vreselijk!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=foDlrFVr2vc&ab_channel=jsg_games A random ep of Crockett's WCW from '87. There is nothing spectacular about it but it struck me watching just how slooooooowwwww paced modern wrestling shows can be in comparison. 7 minutes into this show and they've had promos from Barry Windham, the Road Warriors, and Jim Cornette plus a squash by Ole Anderson and another one getting in the ring for the Midnight Express. A real thrill a minute

I meant more in terms of effect on the overall match. I thought the weapons were superfluous anyway

Jey Uso and Gunther is a real nothing so far, huh? It's a World Title feud and they're slumming it with Alpha Academy. I've been a fan of Otis since he was recruited as an amateur called Dozer but WWE has deliberately cooled him off a few times lately so including that team doesn't exactly scream Main Event. Still got time to juice it up

The 2025 equivalent of Shawn Michaels flashing the Wolfpack hand sign

Cage match was really good! Wild ass slugfest to start that got a bit finisher heavy in the closing stretch before the expected Roman interference. Punk's back got a little fucked up from the cagebombs, even so they could've been a little more imaginative with the violence. The fight on top of the cage got a little scary but overall the sense of danger was relatively low. Some compare and contrast: Both AEW and WWE cage matches had interference which negates the point of the cage, at least Roman's led to the finish while Davis' was completely superfluous. Ospreay had to switch up his game in the cage and honestly that was most of the appeal of the match for me. I wish they hadn't resorted to weapons but that's another matter. I don't feel like Punk or Rollins really needed to adjust their style for the cage even though Seth couldn't use half his offense. Given how both feuds have progressed, Ospreay/Fletcher was closer to living up to the promise of a cage match. More intensity except the strikes. Of course, that match appeared to be a blowoff while Punk/Rollins was only a step towards Mania so the goals were not the same.

This may belong in the Hot Takes thread but I thought The Bar was pretty great for him and Sheamus, one of the few highlights from that time.

Is Ospreay/Fletcher the first one on one cage match to get triple juice?

Punk was in the Cell right after the Page/Swerve cage match, now he's in a cage right after Ospreay/Fletcher? One more time and it's not a coincidence

MJF vs Adam Page was pretty dope. I dug the really good and hard hitting stuff until that Angel's Wings, that looked a little too spicy. MJF's emoting was too much for me personally but I like that they are paying off the characters right the beginning of the company. Commentary let some of this match down, they didn't sell most near falls or submission attempts as anything serious. Considering Max tried to kill Hangman earlier in the week I thought there might be more to this but I guess a brutal face plant is enough. Cage match started as a nice change of pace and got silly by the end. I enjoyed Will discovering the limits of the cage and adjusting on the fly, nice piece of in-ring storytelling there and it leads to Ospreay setting up his highspots with more logic. AEW has a habit of going overly hard in the early stages of a match so the wrestlers can get to the big spots and kick outs, this is the kind of match that deserved that pacing and I didn't think it was too long tbh. All the blood licking and weapons were corny and Mark Davis didn't need to be anywhere near this, aside from that the match had some great moments and I'm excited to see what Kyle can do next.

Stoked to see Ospreay/Fletcher and MJF/Page at some point. They should both be good matches and I'm interested to see how these feuds get blown off without someone being murdered in the ring.

Seriously. I get it, it's a bummer AEW isn't catering to the most niche tastes anymore but let's not go nuts

The ladies are out here farting it up, dude's just trying to work. I don't want to poke too much fun because this person may be legitimately in need of help like Rhaka Khan but damn that got me

New lawsuit just dropped https://pwinsider.com/article/193611/lawsuit-accusing-wwe-tko-ufc-of-unauthorized-medical-experimentation-corruption-and-lots-more-insanity-filed-in-new-york.html?p=1

Pitch: Add Trish Stratus to the Charlotte/Tiffany match, she can still go and then it would be three generations of WWE women's wrestling in one match.

It's mostly clips of himself

Thoughts from the first two hours live: My wife thinks it's hilarious that the announcers sit at ringside when their table gets trashed every time. Tonight the table lasted about 7 minutes into the show but at least it wasn't broken. Hell of a promo to open! Wouldn't be surprised if there's some legit heat behind some of that and what's great about Punk is you never know, although it's going up on YouTube uncensored so it was okayed (maybe only after the fact). Really great pull apart too, can't believe it got a 'Holy shit' AND a 'This is awesome' chant. Huge match for next week, could be when Roman comes back too. I think Lyra Valkyria is not very good and Ivy Nile shouldn't be on the main roster yet but there was some stink on some of those throws tonight. Penta and Kaiser are having a nice little midcard feud. Sorry, tag titles, I have to wash dishes sometime. Good suplexes, sick ssp! I hope John Cena Heel Face becomes a meme someday. Thoughts catching up the next day: Just the main event left, I could've toughed it out last night. Solid match between Rhea and Iyo, they made up for a couple of early missteps in the later portion. Sky breaking out holds she learned from being in DMG CTRL was a nice touch and that belly-to-back off the top was a doozy. The sunset flip bomb was incredible too, that deserved a bigger reaction. From a booking perspective, I'm not sure I'm in. I was looking forward to Bianca/Rhea straight up, a triple threat is okay I guess but I'll care less.

The one-two of Cody and Punk leaving and doing big business for WWE shook TK a bit but he doesn't have anyone like that left so I agree, let people leave. The only guys I'd play hardball with at this point are Ospreay and Takeshita and I hope Khan isn't dumb enough to piss either guy off so bad they want to go

One thing I hope gets sown up tonight: Yeah Cena didn't have to qualify for the Chamber but he did kind of win it on his own, right? He wasn't the last entrant and unless Seth was a useful idiot for the Rock then Cena just won the way anyone else would. So again, why did Cena have to sell his soul? (Real answer: because people might have booed Cody, you can't tell me nothing)

Heel Cena can get his bald spot filled in and then lie that his hair was ever thinning, billion stars

Could only really catch the second half. Unsanctioned Match I thought they'd built up Owens/Zayn well enough this time around that they'd have more heat but this crowd only seemed to be interested in carnage. Overall, I didn't think it was one of either guy's better outings. There were some wild bumps to be sure and shit looked like it hurt but there was no real flow to anything. A bit of a waste imo. Charles Robinson took a great bump too and sold forever on the floor. Orton got into gear for a run in, a consummate pro. It would be a bummer if Zayn is fed to Owens so Owens can be fed to Orton at Mania. Men's Chamber I dug the seven sins intro clip, it set up that anyone might sell their soul especially Cena's "best for business" crack. Decent move salad action to start. Priest just ain't at that level yet, is he? Him and Drew at Mania could be good, Priest needs to redeem himself from having a few too many botches during his world title run. Match gets going after Cena enters and really locks in for the final three. (Cole: "CM Punk has not had a world title shot in 12 years." Shots fired.) Cena with a classic too-loose STFU early on. Punk got some huge kick outs late in the match which tipped me off he wasn't going to take it. Great closing angle. Stoked to see what Hollywood Cena and CEO Rock can do as a power couple.

I like the sound of Corporate Punk. I think Corporate Drew would be intriguing too. After all the Bloodline stuff it would be weird if Rock picked someone outside the family to be his champion, although it seems like Dwayne's making this shit up as he goes anyway. Maybe Roman turns? It would be funny if after all this time very part-time Rock is bumping Punk out of the main event again, it would suck but it would be funny

Update: some of the tickets are now listed for $80,000. I know it's Canadian dollars but someone has high hopes