A_K

Her premise is erroneous. She criticises the angle execution & MJF as 'spurned employee' reconciliation w/ Khan while presuming that MJF ever had an authentic issue with his treatment in AEW or by Khan to begin with.

Seriously? Given how you were one of those played like an absolute fiddle by the PPV work and completely did not understand where they were going with this, I'd probably steer clear of insults or calling anyone "tedious" at this point in time, but that's just me. My final piece on this one for now, as I said on the previous page, let's see how this now plays out ?

It's all part of the game. Hence Khan "no comment" on MJF at press conference. Every part of the presentation is being brought into a 360-angle of the work. It's pretty clever and innovative, really.

Ask yourself how many times you've known Punk to botch routine manoeuvres in his career. Then look at how many overt botches he has done over the last 2 shows alone - while also looking blown up at times, while also having his old-man appearance commented upon by other talent (e.g. Acclaimed promo), while also coming down the ramp during the MJF promo on "ex-WWE guys" taking AEW spots therefore explicitly inserting himself into that angle too, and ask yourself if all this is just coincidental. Good or bad, this is the big story angle they are going to run.

? I see you're not tired of being worked over yet by professional performance artists? Let's see where this one goes.

Yes - this is where it is going. It is also why they have Punk faking botches all over the shop. RE: Acclaimed - the pop they get is unreal. The demographics of the crowd out there seemed v different in camera pans .. both Coast audiences are going to absolutely adore Acclaimed. Get the belts on them as soon as Bowen is fit.

Everyone got worked by this stuff for the longest time, they're hardly going to about-turn now, are they? The bolded part is key - and this is what they will need to break up out of the current ratings/popularity-channel they are in. They know this.

The contract stuff. The WWE flirtation. The fan fest. The sign-mom. 2024. The plane ticket. The friction with Khan. It’s all a work. It always was a work. Now that’s established - MJF absolutely has no equal in this business of performance art. He had absolutely everyone eating out of the palm of his hand - not last night, since this all began. AEW originals going over the “ex WWE guys” is the ‘big arc’ they need. P.s. — Punk is botching deliberately. Just so you guys know, you know?

I don’t want to go near this point again as it is very boring now, but given you asked for a correction, sure, I can give it. Meltzer hosted an “emergency podcast” in which it was taken as given MJF was not turning up. Title should be put on Wardlow in a 3 way. Maybe try and get Goldberg in on 24 hour notice. Then reiterated MJF was not at building few hours before event .. was “doing a Pillman” etc. Just general juvenile lunacy, you know. They basically got worked like absolute fiddles by a performance artist. No “jealousy”, don’t worry about that, but very happy to give a little info for you on a carny hack who has no genuine insight into any market movements but will try to monetize it regardless under the pretence of being a “journalist” at PW’s absolute carny worst ?

Wyatt offers something a bit different to what they have currently, but they already have more talent than they know what to do with - period. They've done a really good job at easing some of the more mediocre or carny talent out .. they now absolutely have to get a grasp back on what their big 'arcs' are going forward. TNT & arguably World Title scenes have both been something of a shit show .. a lot of great individuals but they've lost the 'big picture' feel and there is no obvious direction for a lot of feuds that have fizzled out or concluded. Something needs to mesh various threads back together again. Both world title scenes have been fragmented for too long with not enough talent visibly being ambitious for the belts (outside of novelty battle royal type bouts with no proper character lead-ins): belt-chasing needs to become more prevalent again and centre of all talents sphere of ambition in one way or another, esp now that the tournys are finished.

Meltzer, who propagated the bullshit to begin with that worked over so many kind unsuspecting souls like fiddles, is now trying to monetize the new narrative of there being no flight after all? ? You could not make it up.

They neutered his character & did him real dirty - he's had very little to work with. He's got the looks & athleticism to be a lone-ranger with principles, who's a little whimsical & eccentric but will get down and fight with a gleam in his eye when it calls for it. They could have delivered that by just slightly tapering back on the excessive drinking from before (a la "top athletic prospect finally reaches potential when he buckles down & works for it"). Instead .. I don't really know what the fuck they were going for with him, and they plainly don't either given the hastiness of trying to turn him semi-heel -- which again could have worked in a frustrated SCSA way w/ Hangman being v self aware of how strong he is and abusing it versus his old portrayal of not really believing in his own strength. Bit of a watershed moment for him unfortunately, as there's no clear way back to the top of the card at the moment.

MJF working everyone right down to Carny Dave, who is so old-in-the-tooth he really should know better, was gorgeous. Chefs kiss (is that the phrase?) to the airplane motions to open the card off. Ratings are stagnant so Punk needed to take the belt headed into network negotiations, that much was always obvious. Hangman is stale, they completely botched his run with all manner of weird uneven interactions, but ironically heel-Hangman actually hinted at salvaging it at-the-last so it would have been interesting to keep it on him .. but c'est la vie. With the title on Punk, they've kind of played all their cards now though. Feud with Danielson presumably? That's the one that makes most sense in context of where they're at. Booking wise, they've otherwise put themselves into a bit of a quagmire. This UD/Elite stuff is all very messy. They're going to find that Wardlow isn't as over as people think when he isn't in a feud with MJF. As mentioned by others, they're way past the point of having needed to take the titles off JE now. The NXT "set" who the AEW originals legitimately beat in their little 'ratings war' now seem to have taken booking precedence. Yeah - tricky one to find a logical and balanced way forward for a lot of this stuff.

It's hilarious that people believe Khan & MJF are genuinely in dispute with each other, as if there were genuinely financial disputes (for example) Khan & team would ever let MJF go out and speak about that on live scripted network TV each week. Khan is absolutely all in on the MJF character: the levels by which people get worked by this guy are gorgeous. Tonight will be fun.

A disdain for people who try to financially profiteer by creating fantastical scenarios that in no way shape or form are rooted in any semblance of fact (with the occasional sporadic self-admitting lines of "well, actually we don't know a thing that's going on here") is all. Anyway, let's see what happens tonight.

Its drumming up interest for what has been, even by the accounts of the most devoted AEW fans here, one of the more underwhelming PPV lead-ins. People will be intrigued to see whether he turns up, and how the angle plays out Cool - final word on it then until PPV plays out. We'll see what outcome is shown to have been more "believable" after the fact - the Carny Dave route of "OMG Chaos! Quick, give Wardlow the title! Quick, get Bill Goldberg here NOW!", or that the guy who works the industry the most of any of these guys with his 24/7 in-character representation is - shock horror - working everyone again (with AEW's endorsement, of course).

It's a work.

Carny Dave in his absolute carny element. Run "emergency" podcasts where you admit you know absolutely nothing about the situation, but come up with fantastical hypotheses like Wardlow winning the world title in a 3 way dance (??) or Bill Goldberg being hired at 24 hours notice to job to Wardlow (??!!) with less-than-nothing to them. Who pays for this stuff. Its also comically a work, but this feud as I mentioned at the outset always created a difficult path forward for Max as he'd have had 0 gold, and have lost consecutive major feuds -- the latter of which he's been physically over-awed in. Also its worth saying that there is absolutely no knowledge of how over Wardlow will be outside of this feud -- its been pretty unique circumstances, and there is no doubt whatsoever that MJF creates the most venom-fuelled feuds that best get over faces on the roster (Cody, Punk now this).

Work.

Robertson and Trent are both absolutely fucked, Trent admittedly less so. The Madrid goal today was carbon copy of the Tottenham goal vs Liverpool mentioned on the thread a few pages back. Liverpool neutered forward & back when the full backs are both gone.

Hmm .. I think neither can win clean over the other. Hangman certainly can’t eat a clean pin. Punk probably can’t either - given he’s already gone through the indecisive “old man Punk” arc with MJF and come out the other side, reconciling his old/new selves. Originally thought Punk would go over here but now expecting to see Hangman win with a turn .. let’s see.

?

Such is Gus' obsession with Lalo's threat that Lalo must die in between BCS & BB .. and Jimmy doesn't witness it. I'll go out on a limb that Lalo defeats Gus but is killed by Mike, that would feel a rather fitting end and befit the closeness of Mike & Gus relationship in BB.

To be honest more events could do from having the alternative titles headline. Raises the stakes when the Heavyweight title is actually defended, and build more legitimacy around the secondary-star players on the upward trajectory. Make the secondary titles more important in their own right (just as in UFC/Boxing headline shows aren't associated with the Heavyweight-title only).

Yeah .. I'd heartily recommend you listen back to Mark Henry/Bubba Ray Dudley podcast where they merrily discuss their antics about "educating someone in the physical manner because they're not getting it verbally .. there is nothing wrong with that, if you can't understand verbally, you need to be educated in a physical way", and castigate any talent (or rather - as Mark elegantly puts it - "soft ass people") who would report assault to management or the agents ("which ha ha .. is really fucking dumb .. because the agents are just one of the boys anyway"). Ironically one story is where one of the La Resistance guys asks Bubba why he is 'shooting' on him in the ring, so Bubba of course smacks him around the face until Laurinaitis (of all people) had to step in to stop Bubba from - in his own words - "beating on the young boys". These are company men, full of shit nasty pieces of work who will take whichever side of the argument enriches them most in the moment they are in. Complete and utter hypocrites on this subject.