HumanChessgame

I'll almost always watch AEW over WWE and the former definitely has more guys on the roster I'm interested in seeing, but AEW's booking has been pretty rank for a while now. Sure a lot of it has to do with injuries or other things beyond their control, but so many of the storylines have been inconsistent or directionless if not outright stupid. The writing in WWE isn't any great shakes either and I was in full on "fuck this company" mode for a while last year, but things have been a lot better in recent months. For the first time in I don't know how long I'm actually looking forward to Wrestlemania. As bland as WWE often is, I will say their overall product comes off a lot tighter and more well produced than AEW even if I generally prefer the wrestling in AEW.

The wrestlers formerly known as Bear Country.

I don't know about Dragon, but Great Sasuke is still around and working US indies with some regularity so I hope we see him at some point. I can only imagine he and Darby Allin seeing who can die first. Edit: turns out this happened in 2019 Didn't Mabel/Big Daddy Viscera use that at some point?

Someone mentioned in the other AEW thread that Moxley/Dax should be two guys going full territories tribute brawl and that was more or less what we got here. I'm not a fan of Moxley but figured this would play to his strengths, though I thought he got in way too much offense and the post match bit made FTR look like wieners. I don't know if the time calls in the match were meant to tease a draw or what but seemed kind of out of nowhere, especially when Dax tapped at the last minute. I like Stokley but am not sure how he fits in with Willow and Kris as he's clearly a heel and the two of them are such natural faces. The distraction spot seemed out of place, but I get that it protected Skye a bit and I assume it's leading somewhere in whatever story they're doing with the three of them. The Bucks current act works so well on account of the borderline shooty nature of the presentation and it's honestly the best gimmick for them. Taven has always been just a guy to me and I'm kind of over OC's schtick so I wasn't too invested in the main event but then it totally over-delivered. The gusher OC tapped showed why there was a surprising lack of blood in the opening match and Taven seemed determined to emerge on the other side of that table the way he lawn darted into it.

A madcap comedy around a race featuring wrestlers you say?

Rock has also hosted SNL five times. I haven't seen every episode, but he was pretty funny in the material I did catch.

I was wondering if they might try and build a Mania match with Nia after the Rumble elimination. Jade doing an Ultimate Warrior squash on her would get her a showcase match on the card without taking up too much time.

At some point I thought that if I ever ran an indy, there would be two guys whose gimmick was they had a never-ending match. They'd fight out to the ring, go for a couple minutes, then brawl back behind the curtain. Repeat on every show. Now that I think about it, that's basically what the 24/7 title was. It just occurred to me that it's Wrestlemania season and I can't think of any mention of the Hall of Fame yet. Haven't they usually announced a name or two by now? Maybe with all the unscrupulous shit going on with the company they decided to table it this year?

He covered his face with his wrists as they cut away and was leaking when the camera went back to him, so it was pretty clear he gigged himself.

I'm assuming they wait until the PPV for FTR/BCC which should be top notch. In the meantime I hope they give us Dax vs Moxley in the meantime. Briscoe vs Brody was terrific and Mark tapped a gusher after the Kevin Sullivan spot at the end. I hope this isn't the last we see of Chicken vs HOB. Toni Storm's promos continue to be the gift that keeps on giving. I agree with the sign in the crowd saying to give Aminata the graphic.

It's mainly the guitar hook in Hchicero's theme that starts around 0:11 that made me think of the comparison to the main riff in the other song that kicks in around 0:40.

This fucking slaps (do kids still say that?) and I'm going to have to check out the artists other stuff. I almost thought this was a remix of Eminence Front by The Who, kind of like DDP's WCW theme was basically a Smells Like Teen Spirit cover.

Rock getting what-ed pretty much cemented what the crowd is going to think of him. I wonder if they do Seth/Cody vs Roman/Rock on night one with some kind of stipulation, like if The Bloodline wins then Cody never gets another shot as long as Roman has the belt, but if they lose then Roman's entourage is banned from ringside? Cody gets the deck stacked against him even more and who knows, maybe they even try and turn Roman face when Rock's interference backfires? I'm assuming Seth is facing the winner of the EC which Drew looks to be the front runner. As far as Walter goes, you can have him drop the title to a debuting Bron Breaker or Ilya. Sami is another possibility after his recent hype video, and he'd be great working from underneath Walter.

I was having some driving thoughts about what completely absurd outcomes this whole situation could have earlier today and thought about what if they ultimately decide to lean into the negative feedback Rock is getting? The main event ends up Cody/Roman with Rock as guest ref. After a bunch of dog and pony show interference, Cody hits several finishers on Roman and has him pinned clean. Rock counts 1, 2, then stops and Rock Bottoms Cody, throws Roman on top, counts the pin, and gloats about what an idiot Cody is for thinking he'd actually betray his family. That someone has willingly had sex and reproduced with Meltzer is one of the more surprising pieces of news I've heard today.

I thought they would save the trios match for the ppv, but either way it should be a banger.

Drew's shirt in the opening segment was hilarious and looks like it's up in the WWE store. I'm assuming Punk/Drew was the original plan before Punk's injury so now my prediction is that Drew wins the EC. Do they stretch out figuring out who Cody is going to challenge until then though? Drew/Rollins will be fine, but just like with any other potential challenger, it's a foregone conclusion that Rollins is going to lose given his injury status. Maybe he ends up not being cleared and they decide to make the EC for the vacant title? As messy as the men's WM title picture is, the women's is the opposite. Every once in a while they gas Shayna up and she comes off looking legit dangerous and puts on a great spectacle. Tonight's match was one of those times. I was worried they were going to stretch the Nia/Rhea program to Mania, but it looks like that gets done with at the EC and Becky wins to set up their match. For the other title we got the setup of Bayley and Io who have the whole partner turning on stablemate storyline to add intrigue to the match. The women's tag match was good but not as good as last week's. I guess Uso ends up being Gunther's Mania opponent? He wouldn't be my first choice but it'll be something fresh.

Another thing to keep in mind is they've been telling the story of Nick Aldis not taking any of Roman's shit. That might progress into Aldis telling Roman he's pulling double duty at WM or wrestling a three way or whatever else shoehorns both Cody and Rock in whether he likes it or not.

This was my first exposure to Hechicero and he didn't disappoint. It seemed like he had a counter to anything Danielson tried to throw at him on the mat and really made it look like Amdrag was in over his head. Team CMLL vs BCC trios match at the next PPV? It also made me wish they used Angelico more as I really want to see him and Danielson just tie eachother up for 10 minutes. It's good Keith finally got signed. He's been a great workhorse over the past several weeks. Speaking of people who need to get signed, Aminata put in the work once again. I wasn't expecting as competitive a match as that for Serena's comeback but it was good stuff. The main event was fine but kind of by the numbers.

Does the gear most of the female wrestlers wear really leave that much less to the imagination than most of the men's gear?

I don't have much to add about how stupid and nonsensical this booking decision is. With Punk being injured they naturally have to re-book some stuff and I can also totally believe that Rock's involvement also has something to do with his new board position (and possibly to take some heat away from the Vince situation). Cody even bringing Rock into his corner makes sense in his desire to one-up Roman, but all you have to do there is have Cody say he arranged to have Rock as the guest ref to make sure none of their other family members are going to try anything funny. You can even have some intrigue about whether Rock is going to just double-cross Cody and side with his family. Then after Cody wins you can have Roman get in Rock's face to set up a Summerslam match if you really have to do that. Or hell, maybe they're just going to do what Christian and Adam Cole have been claiming they're going to do and Cody says Rock is going to beat Roman for the belt and hand it over to him.

Toni Storm's commentary was probably my favorite part of the show. Was there any point to the Acclaimed/BC segment other than to make sure the show ran over by five minutes?

I wonder if Jarrett doesn't want to say anything against Vince/the WWE in general to potentially keep the door open in case he needs a job again.

If this is true, it's some Maven eliminates The Undertaker type shit.