Gordi the BJW fan

The Hurt Synagogue

I'm honestly trying to walk away but the "discussion" here is out of control This absolute nimrod calling out Curt is like current day Max Caster calling out prime Lou Thesz. I'm dying here.

In a deeply shitty, very selfish way I would honestly feel both gratified and justified if Mad King gave up on AEW at the same time and for the same reasons as me. I really hope this is a work, though.

So what you're saying is, is there's no way you would do it.

Are we using the third person now? Fine, then. I'll make my facetious reply in a similar style: No Fists is a ridiculous nincompoop who obviously misread or misunderstood my post and also can't spell "worlds" or "Comoroto" properly. He quoted me literally talking about "Mercedes Mone speaking in that stinted phony WWE cadence" and his comeback was (again 100% literally) "Mercedes is world's better in the ring." Certainly one of us is comparing apples to office chairs there. Hopefully No Fists still considers me "good people." I'm afraid his opinions on Nicky Boy preclude me from returning the favour. (wink emoji) EDIT: My rambling non-facetious response is: 1):Nick Comoroto and Abadon both could have been developed and then pushed into bigger and better things in the pre-All-Ex-WWE version of AEW but lost that opportunity because of the (in my opinion counterproductive) mania for signing up former WWE Universe Superstars and pushing them to the top instead. (Thus pushing more interesting to me personally indie wrestlers down the card, then into the ROH abyss then off the roster. Which I find dispiriting). 2) Mone is obviously fine in the ring and still capable of working at a very high level with the right opponent. However, her character work and in particular her phony WWE style mic work have been just awful in AEW so far and are the opposite of entertaining, in my opinion. Same goes for "Cope" and a few other Superstars AEW has brought in, though Mone is probably the least natural on the mic of all of them. The in-ring work per se is NOT the point, here. 3) Developing and pushing indie wrestlers with potential (like Comoroto and Abadon) would in my opinion be a far better use of AEW's time and resources than bringing in more and more Sports Entertainment Superstars. Development is how you get your Darbies and Oranges and Hayters and Powerhouses etc etc. Again, their current level of in-ring work is not the point here. The potential is. Point 3 is really where I feel "Why the fuck can't anyone in AEW (i.e. Tony Khan) see that (they were *a million times* better off building their own stars than trying to buy them)?" But they/he can't/won't see that. So, I have really lost interest in AEW. tl/dr: Watching pro wrestlers grow and develop is WAY more my thing than seeing if former sportsentertainmentsuperstars still have it in the ring. Therefore I would have VASTLY preferred that, say, Comoroto and Abadon were given a real chance rather than, say, Edge and Banks being brought in and given the time instead. Sadly, Abadon and Nicky Boy being let go is pretty much rock solid proof that the days of super-indie AEW are well and truly over.

How about NOT making the same mistakes WWE does? Does anyone else think it is maybe a DELIBERATE tribute to WCW to follow a GREAT undercard with an overbooked drag of an old man Main Event? Hilarious pay-off to the cash-in. That was such a great show until the main that I was afraid I would have to roll back my "this PPV is my last ride with AEW for a while" but that overbooked horseshit saved me It you switched Hollywood Ending into the main, the exact same match without another second added, and put lol Mox wins in the midcard, that would have been a legit contender for Greatest Show Ever. What an undercard! What a wet fart of a main event. Anyway: Gordlow out (for now)!

Matt and Dana's Osaka travelogue. That 10 yen coin cheese bread is new to me. I'll have to try that out.

So: Top of the men's division is Dean Ambrose vs Cope with extremely likely Christian involvement being the most likely "big surprise" to spice that up. Which, uh... Is that really what ANYONE is asking for atop the men's division? Anyone? Meanwhile: You bring in Sasha Banks obviously planning to immediately build your shows around her on top. Finally! A REAL superduperstar to build around. Only, her grating WWE promo style IMMEDIATELY turns the crowd against her But you're still gonna hammer away with her on top? I know there's one guy posting here who actually wants that. But I can't think of anyone else who does? The undercard still has amazing action every week. How could it not, with that insanely stacked roster? And the Toni/Mariah story has been an absolute success. So we were at a balance point. Horseshit on top but excellent wrestling underneath. My personal first "last straw" tipping point was Ishii vs Okada ending with nut shot/bird flip/ "...bitch!" because it felt like proof that EVERYTHING was going to be forced into a " heels always cheat to win" template and visiting Japanese wrestlers were no longer going to be booked as anything special. My personal current "last straw" is Nicky Boy and Abadon's contracts being allowed to expire because it is absolute rock solid proof that the general vibe of AEW has shifted entirely away from "giant indie with tons of Japanese and Mexican wrestlers" which was my absolute dream come true, hard into "WWE Lite with pre-established Vince-approved superstars on top" which is a fucking nightmare for me and the absolute LAST thing I wanted. And an utterly BAFFLING shift to make, from both a business and artistic sense, when actual WWE is white hot right now and anyone craving sports entertainment is just going to watch their "product" now anyway. AEW needs to rediscover their identity. We'll see what happens on Revolution... But my strong sense is that this PPV is likely my last ride with AEW as a serious fan. Which is fine. Presumably everyone has had enough of my near-constant bitching anyway. I'll still pop in from time to time if I have something positive to say or if something particularly chat-worthy happens (Eddie Kingston returning, Danielson dropping by, Jeff Cobb showing up, ROH getting TV, Kyusei Ninja Ranmaru or Fuminori Abe getting a contract...) I'll also post in other threads and do road reports from here in Japan. And lurk. But there's no sense in continuing to beg for a return to the AEW I loved so much or continuing to rail against the sportsentertainmentification of All Ex WWE. Everybody knows that the war is over. Everybody knows that the good guys lost. Sincerely, thanks to everyone who has posted here and in the Artistic Freedom and Personal Expression thread. I've enjoyed the discussion tremendously. Edit: If you scroll up to the previous post, it's me one month ago talking about the same shit, and I SPECIFICALLY mention Nicky Boy and Abadon

Like cold pizza. Don't care for cold pasta. More to the point I was trying to make, though: I don't see the need to try and heat up ice cream or beer. In fact, I am pretty sure that desperately trying to heat up EVERYTHING is generally going to end up being counterproductive.

Man. Fuck All Ex WWE era AEW. Nicky Boy is a million times more entertaining in the ring than fucking Edge and Abandon is INFINITELY more entertaining than Mercedes Mone speaking in that stinted phony WWE cadence. How the fuck can nobody at AEW see that? This shit just ain't for me at all any more.

Eternal Champion Pretend-Asshole Former Sports Entertainment Superstar With Star Power Dean Ambrose vs Former Sports Entertainment Superstar With Star Power Edge has to main event because Star Power and also apparently AEW's new business model is "Let's send the fans home disappointed because, hey, it worked pretty well for that other massive international Sports Entertainment behemoth for years and years. People kept complaining but also kept buying tickets. Maybe that's the secret to being A Successful Challenge Brand." Hollywood Ending will Main Event in the hearts of everyone posting here, and REALLY, isn't that what's most important? (No, it isn't. Our opinions don't mean shit any more). For me, personally, you just need to announce Ospreay vs Fletcher, Omega vs Takeshita, Okada vs King and I am 100% like "Yep. Sold!" and you don't really need to overexplain WHY they are fighting. Just shut up and take my money. Being all "Hey, see, now that match that would 100% tear down any house in the world even if presented 100% cold is now, get this: PERSONAL because of they used to be friends and betrayal and SHOCKING surprise beatdowns by the heels and etc etc etc" makes me personally ZERO percent more interested but possibly that's because I am already 100% interested in watching those pro wrestlers pro wrestle and it's not possible to make me 110% interested or whatever. I was very close to being excited for Hangman vs MJF but that bullshit with the lighter fluid and the burning and the "LET ME PROVE MY POINT!" has actively put me right off the match. I probably wasn't clear enough about my reasoning when I was disagreeing with, like, Stephanie and HarryArchieGus on these boards in years past about whether AEW would be better if they'd just explain WHY everyone was fighting, World Wrestling Entertainment style. My fear was (and is) that, in trying to have a story behind almost every PPV match for almost every PPV, you'd inevitably wind up with a LOT of repetitive overdone betrayal and run-in and NOW IT'S (get this)! ... PERSONAL!!! storylines for matches that ABSOLUTELY don't require that to sell tickets and pop the crowd, and that that overkill would end up detracting and taking away from the big, well-executed stories that SHOULD be the focus. Like, for example, Mariah vs Toni, where the storyline obviously worked and is being superbly executed and in fact doesn't seem to be harmed by having a dozen other Friendship/Betrayal storylines being less superbly executed all around it. So, what the fuck do I know? Or you end up going overboard with violence and murder, which... Maybe Death Riders might work better if there wasn't so much additional attempted murder mass beatdown stuff going on all over almost every show almost every week? I'm legit curious how many people legit feel like the extra storytelling is indeed improving AEW's quality and enjoyability or whatever. So, with all my snark and all my bitching and all my (entirely justified and super-intelligent) complaints am I not really interested in AEW Revolution 2025? Nah, despite all my rage, I can't f'n wait for Ospreay vs Fletcher in a cage. And I am still FULLY stoked for: Omega vs Takeshita. Okada vs King. Hollywood Ending! etc etc etc Dear AEW: Shut up and take my money!! (EDIT: Oops. FUCK! Meant to post this rant in the PPV thread. Thread title probably confused my old brain. Sorry).

Yep! It's like a state of disorder or confusion now. A complete absence of control. A complex system where the behaviour is so devoid of order as to seem random. Not sure what a good word for that would be, though.

When I went to bed last night this week's Dynamite felt pretty skippable. I really like watching Wheeler wrestle and I love the whole idea of Momo fighting in AEW. BUT. Both of those are foregone conclusion matches in a major way. AND I personally could not give less of a fuck about Edge or Banks in AEW. Right atop my list of "quit trying to bring in Sports Entertainment Superstars with Star Power and go back to building your own stars by pushing goofy indie wrestlers, pretty please" list. I went to bed just wishing AEW could go back to the glorious days of just giving us random cool tag matches. (And fucking hoss style). Then I woke up to THIS: And I was, like, "That'll do, AEW. That'll do." And I was excited for Dynamite again. Then... THIS: And, really?!?! All my favourite guys on one team against a line-up of ideal opponents? Is it my birthday again already?!?! (It's our buddy's birthday! Happy birthday Natural Paul! Look what Uncle Tony gave us)!!!! WHAT A GLORIOUS DAY! HAPPY THURSDAY, EVERYONE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PAUL! EDIT: f'n hell! It just will not stop getting better and better Another f'n EDIT: Yet ANOTHER edit: apparently I got mixed up about when Momo and Mercedes are fighting. Anyway. Loved the perfect AEW clusterfuck of an opener. Switchblade vs Caster was an easy MOTN. Very succinct!

If we're doing a Pantera theme: Here's hoping AEW keeps giving us big meaty men slapping meat. That's right. I am once again asking for some

Jon Stewart just drew a perfect metaphor between Cody/Cena/Rock and Zelenskyy/Trump/Putin Hopefully this is pro wrestling centric enough to balance out the political content. If not, I won't be all pissy if a mod removes this (Hopefully you don't need to ban me for posting it, though).

I'm almost as intrigued by how Dynamite will be booked (particularly w/r/t interference and clean finishes) as I am excited to watch the action. In particular: We've got two big matches with Don Callis Family heel angles. Both *could* be great. I think Orange vs Takeshita will main event and get a ton of time, and hopefully (hopefully) they will save the run in beat down save extracurricular stuff for after the finish. But with Bruv vs Bountyquickerpickerupper I think there's a stronger chance they just use it as angle advancement. HOWEVER, if they go to the ground and do some mat work it could be an excellent chance to.show off an underrated part of Ospreay's game. Also, I am happy that The Bounty Hunter will be hunting an actual bounty here. Probably, I'll edit in my thoughts in this post after the show, but hopefully (hopefully) it makes sense that I am really interested to see how they run those two matches (particularly after Collision last week was all clean finishes with a very refreshing minimum of horseshit booking). EDIT: YEAH BABY! ALL CLEAN FINISHES AGAIN! I'M LOVING IT!! We didn't get a lot of mat work in the Bruv match, but it was nice and stiff and I dug the Misawa colours and one black elbow pad. The main was GREAT maximallist wrestling, and Orange even did some classic comedy wrestling. I thoroughly enjoyed Outrunners vs Monsters, too. And the outside sequence in the trios match. etc etc etc... AEW is well on the way to winning me back, now! I'll maybe save my thoughts on "now it's personal" and friends "shockingly" turning on friends (which is where Nana/Swervs/Ricochet seems to be heading) for a potential future navel gazing post. Keep this post positive, because that's definitely how I am feeling now. Hats off to Orange for keeping The Giving Spirit of Brian alive in AEW! What a match. LOVED that.

You'll love him. He's a monster who works like a monster. Very reminiscent of my old friend John Tenta, in my opinion. Also seems to be a genuinely good dude. I told him he reminded me of John in the ring, and he seemed genuinely pleased and humbled to hear that. My "insider" friends in Tokyo like him, too.

. Fucking hell. My hopes for this: 1) It's just some bullshit with zero basis in fact. 2) It's true, but less comes out of it than the also-true Shane/Khan "discussion." 3) It happens but it's an absolute miserable catastrophic failure along the lines of CYN. Goes without saying but I automatically despise anyone who would choose to work for or work with Vince at this point. I suppose there's a possibility that MAGA choads would choose to support Vince BECAUSE he's been "cancelled." If this is true, and happens, and succeeds at any level it would utterly break my heart.

My friend, if a few months of Death Riders has almost killed AEW for me, just try to imagine what FIVE F'N YEARS of House of Torture has done to my love of New Japan. And to make it worse, they keep teasing that the nightmare is going to finally be over before... Nope! Here's EVIL running in AGAIN. I used to know dozens of people over here who loved New Japan. That number is down to three, now. I literally couldn't convince anyone to go to New Beginning with me. Kenny vs Gabe at Wrestle Dynasty was totally great, though.

Dang! All clean finishes! Hoss guys doing hoss guy things! Creative athletic guys doing VERY creative athletic things. The good guys standing up to the (Ratings) Death Riders! A whole lot of actual wrestling and only a little blahblahblah to keep the stories moving. Yet another hawt crowd. JR remembering that time he went over to Shelbyville because he needed a new heel for his shoe. Is anyone but DreamBroken still watching ROH? ROH sounds great but if I were paying for it I'd be mad about the title match being on AEW TV. But I'm not, so it made me happy Seriously, THAT was so much more of what I personally want out of two hours of pro wrestling TV (i.e. as close as reasonably possible to two hours of WRESTLING). Enjoyed Collision this week SO MUCH MORE than the all blahblahblah all the time Dynamite that a lot of other people seemed to really enjoy. (Not that I begrudge anyone enjoying that crap. You do you). Thank you, Coach Tony and AEW; THAT WAS A GREAT SHOW! MORE OF THAT, PLEASE! I sincerely appreciate every match having a clean finish, in particular. What an enormous breath of clean fresh air that was. Everyone putting their egos aside. So good to see. I NEEDED that.

I am sorry to say it, but an episode of a pro wrestling show where we had to wait a full 30 minutes before the first fight started was NOT the way to win me back There was SO MUCH talking in this episode. (Though I 100% agree that Toni Storm's promo brought the goods). I'm pretty sure we only got 4 matches. Trios, Men's Hoss Street fight (great, but with an embarrassingly executed "he's stuck in the wire!" ending. That bump looked like it sucked to take, too), Woman's Hoss Fight (100% agree it was great... until the Penelope interference killed the crowd and then that ridiculous embarrassment with the run in and the chair), and the main (an actual pro wrestling match with a clean pinfall finish! If only they had ended there, with the crowd happy and satisfied). As always, recently, everyone did their best in the ring but they are (in my opinion) swimming upstream against a monster current of unnecessary and counterproductive over-booking. To be frank, I am honestly surprised that today's Dynamite was ANYONE'S idea of what they want from a pro wrestling TV show. It didn't stink or anything but... The in ring action is, and always has been, the big strength of AEW. I really wish they'd lean very very heavily into that and quit laying on the blahblahblah segments and angle advancement stuff at the expense of the action. I'm (sincerely) glad you (and others here) enjoyed it, though.

Yeah! That's more like it!

That crowd was amazing. Hawt as fk for everything, funny, and spot on with their chants. Really enjoyed the show in HUGE part because of that hawt Aussie crowd. Good on ya, mates!

George Orwell and Aldous Huxley were optimists.

Between this post and the following, from the TV thread: Lulu' is an interesting album and highly underrated. It's commercial appeal leads to a negative discourse. To my taste, it's both Reed's and Metallica's most compelling latter day work (sure, competition isn't all that strong). While many critics panned the album, adventurous UK experimental magazine Wire ranked it in their 2011 top 10. I need to ask a serious question, and make a request: Serious question: Are you using Chat GPT or something similar to.write/make posts now? Request: If so, please stop. If not: Are you OK? Honestly: Neither of those posts come across to me as a human being legitimately trying to communicate with other human beings, or express an honest opinion. They read very much like Wikipedia summaries.