Godfrey

Please provide examples of me saying this. You can’t

For the record, I do think AEW has a lot of good stuff on it and it sounds like they're putting people in the right place to improve things overall. I'm excited about that prospect because when the WWE isn't hot it's some of the worst shit on earth

Haha, I don't know how you interpret my posts but I haven't given any ultimatums. I could keep explaining perspective and opinion to you but at this point we're just talking past each other so time to call it a day. Enjoy your wrestling, bud!

Hard disagree that AEW is anything close to disciplined. Wrestlers come and go, pushes start and stop, angles go nowhere and get dropped all the time. In the ring, matches do not progress logically and often bop between spots that sometimes are killers and other times are shrugged off as nothing. AEW didn't have anything BUT dream matches for a long time and now they're struggling to find an identity, that's not on me or the 'lowest common denominators' out there (Editing to add: this is an exaggeration for effect, I have seen the other stuff too) I kept watching after Forbidden Door, it was the combo of the ridiculous Devil angle and Joe throwing away his ROH belt that led me to stop watching regularly. Even after that I try to give it a shot every now and then. And as much as I love being told I'm watching wrestling wrong, you're just going to have to accept that as a longtime wrestling fan I have a different standard for my wrestling than you

Oh I gotcha, thanks. (RIP Carl Weathers) My point is more that win or lose doesn't really affect the angle, such as it is. I don't think they need to do a Flair style 'if I lose I retire' thing but I would appreciate another layer

So the angle is he doesn't get to wrestle someone he really wants to?

Maybe, but it's not one that will be settled in the ring. As soon as the match is booked he's already won

I hear everyone about the backstory to Danielson/Akiyama, maybe the issue is that I only checked out the YouTube clip but that's part of the problem for them too. As a casual viewer of AEW, Kingston and Danielson wrestling Akiyama doesn't feel like an angle to me it feels like performers checking things off their bucket list To be honest, I now know I was mostly transposing my disappointment with Danielson/Okada at Forbidden Door 2 onto a more recent match. I bought a ticket to see that because it was the last true dream match for me, the best of their generation in their styles, two of the best to ever do it. And the build was minimal and the event was endless and by the time I finally got to see this dream match live all my enthusiasm was sucked out of me. That's not every fans experience but it was mine and it's why I have a hard time getting hyped for anything AEW anymore I also view a wrestling show as a TV show more than a wrestling event, that may be where part of the disconnect with other viewers is. To me, a wrestling show needs to maintain a consistent internal logic and presentation to support its narratives and that requires a certain amount of discipline with your booking and in ring work. I can watch wrestling for wrestling's sake anytime and I have been since tape trading started, when I'm watching a wrestling show I want to be taken on a ride so I can get that emotional catharsis that is ultimately what we're all looking for out of our entertainment

I get that totally. For me, a match like Danielson/Akiyama is just a waste. It could be so much more if you added any kind of build but instead it's just there. It wouldn't matter if Akiyama won, he basically doesn't count for the rankings. So why not give it something, ANYTHING, to make it matter just a little more? Audiences are way more forgiving if there is a compelling storyline to get the match over, then wrestlers don't have to kill themselves just to get a reaction It's not a binary, if you don't like the WWE angles that doesn't mean having no angles is better. Also the shampoo angle was over 20 years ago so maybe let that one go

Ripley/Lynch was a solid Opening Raw Promo. I'm not into Becky's hat Zayn/Nakamura was better than the last go around and longer than I thought it would be. I like how everyone sold Sami breaking his losing streak afterward The package for New Day/Imperium was dope. The stand off with the Judgement Day was a twist and it looks like it'll be more of a multiman shitshow match for the IC title at Mania. Although I would love to see a straight up Gunther/Mysterio match at some point too. The street fight was okay, there was some sloppiness but it ended well Drew is killing it. "We did it", sitting cross legged, the whole thing. Seth is on fire too. This week's outfit was wild and while it's not exactly representation it's cool that a serious babyface can dress a little gender fluid and it's not his defining personality trait Heyman bringing crooked New York cops as security is a real heel move, like too real

Then I've got the guy for them!

For all y'all Punk haters out there, the voiceless have a voice https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/seth-rollins-cm-punk-fragile-mind-fragile-body-fragile-ego I mean, I don't want to say I told you so. But me and a lot of other people told you so. What's the line? Fragile mind. Fragile body. Fragile ego. I think somebody that I know said something like that about him and it rings true .

I know, they built Brock for years, had him end the Streak and squash Cena so that they could make the next big babyface against him and between Drew's huge Rumble win and that Mania the whole world changed

Love that Gannosuke/Shinzaki match. Pretty sure it was on a Schneider comp back in the day, however I got it I watched the hell out of it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8oRqmUh9dk&ab_channel=WWE WWE reposted Becky vs Rhea from NXT 5 years ago. I prefer this presentation of both women tbh, Becks definitely works tighter in this than recently

It is totally fine to watch wrestlers wrestle but every match is better with stakes and let's hope the ranking system gives AEW that feeling. For a long time the impression was that they were trotting out random guys to have random matches that don't really matter because there was no storyline for them

I’d argue facial expressions are a big part of wrestling but I get your point, it’s not your style

I think that post qualifies me as a wrestling journalist

Via 411 via Fightful via Inside the Ropes Becky Lynch on the allegations against Vince McMahon: “I’ve been fortunate in my career that I’ve always felt supported by the company. These allegations are horrible. It’s hard to reconcile, as a talent and as a woman, but my experience in WWE has only ever been amazing.” On the allegations being hard to reconcile: Yes, in the beginning, there were some restrictions put on things. We couldn’t punch, we had to hair pull, there were weird things there. Being able to push us forward, push women forward, I’m very grateful for that and the opportunity to even have my family. This company…some of these things are hard to reconcile.”

I’d argue that 2023 AEW attendance average is a little skewed but good stats all around for them I’ve been wondering with ratings meaning less and less these days if live attendance should be more of a barometer again

Maybe it's just my search history that it's going off of but that link has very NSFW ads

Huh, me neither. I think so?

The fitness model comment is totally fair, one of Vince's lasting contributions to wrestling is giving everyone in the company body dysmorphia. There's Otis, Ivar, Bronson Reed as you mentioned, Nia Jax as well but the overall body shape and presentation is pretty generic Edit to add: And that's reflected in the generic entrance themes that not even Seth Rollins could identify with any certainty

I’d be down for that, I feel like they’ll have to do some heavy lifting (har har) to get Gable to that level again. He’s been Shooshing so long audiences may have forgotten he can be intense too

There's an outside possibility they go with Rollins vs McIntyre vs Zayn too. Not my preference but sometimes Mania matches are more about crowding people in