ExcellenceofAirPollution
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Posts posted by ExcellenceofAirPollution
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favorite moments from the show:
- Danielson's dripping with sarcasm double bicep pose to the camera, talking smack with a shit eating grin on his face
- Darby's insane pinball suicide dive into Billy Gunn. "bounced like a Spalding off the concrete" I believe Taz said. If you didn't catch this watch it over, and over and over, and over.....incredible.
I was trying to figure out what the fuck was up with Cody's back after they were brawling in the crowd. I thought peeling sunburn, then briefly thought powdered tiny bits of broken glass from a smashed bottle or something stuck all over him, but I quickly ruled that out when he was completely no selling it like he didn't even notice what I, the announcers and surely everyone else did. I settled into his flame retardant spray/gel likely mixing with liquid/sweat long before it actually came into play in the match, because I'd ruled the other logical possibilities out, and once I realized it was going to be a setup for a fire spot it really kinda took me out of the match a bit.
When it comes to things like elaborate fire spots, I'm of the mindset that if you can't make it look good and seamless, don't do it at all. I love AEW but this is one of my biggest complaints. JUST DON'T DO SHIT. You don't have to do a thumbtacks in the mouth spot where the dude never bleeds from the mouth, you don't need to do a big fire spot that's telegraphed because the dude is wrestling with burn gel for 20 minutes prior and it's hella obvious....and countless other examples of AEW trying to do overbooked stuff and it looking like shit
That main event was a total cluster. Memorable, but not exactly in a good way IMO. Andrade deserves better than this shit. And where was Malakai? FTR? I didn't even see anybody mentioning AA falling off the fucking ramp before Jose even got to him, and Jose having to help him up so they could brawl to the back as the match got started. That's twice now that AA has fallen of his own accord during big matches he's on the outside of, maybe he shouldn't be getting involved physically anymore? I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt though because I noticed Danielson almost step off the ramp but catch himself after his confrontation with Page. Maybe the ramp/stage was setup slightly differently than usual due to the venue? bad lighting?
I'm a big Kris Statlander fan. Disappointing finish in that sense, but Ruby winning seemed like a foregone conclusion. I was a much bigger fan of Ruby than her push in WWE, now she's getting a much bigger push and I'm less of a fan. Hate to say it but she hasn't impressed me much in-ring in AEW. She's lacking in explosiveness, the timing is off, whatever it is I can't get into her matches. At least this tourny has got me more interested in the women, but nothing much has changed for me in getting people over because the two I liked the most in the division (Stat and Rosa) are being used as stepping stones for people I'm not as high on. The one thing it's been successful at I guess is getting me to care about Jade Cargill a heck of a lot more than I did when she was feuding with Brandi and Codi
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4 hours ago, For Great Justice said:
I don’t know where “John Cena with a wink” (by both the performer and the fans) goes or how you make money with it, but an entertaining Codyverse is an improvement.
THIS
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Gunn Club have one of the best themes in AEW
The spot with Darby hitting the flying tackle out of nowhere totally felt like a reference to what happened to Seth the other night, on a night full of shots at WWE.....
The Dante booking is super interesting.....
I loved Rosa and Hayter starting with what felt like a minute of a dueling lockup/headlocks that went down and up and back again without either letting go the entire time. That immediately got me into the match and kept me interested
Main event was loaded with star power. Whoever said they love this version of the Codyverse more than the one they didn't care about earlier (I'm gonna quote you after I post this) read my mind. The heat is off the charts for this, so keep running with it
I do have to say tho, much like I felt it was unsafe for Montez Ford to be backhanding razor sharp slices of Pizza into the unwashed masses on Sunday night, Cody might want to lay off the weight belt tossing. That thing could really poke an eye out!
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Reports that a lot of the people in the building expected Rock at the end of the show and were mega bummed when he didn't show. And based on all the 25th anniversary promotion, tie in with his movie etc. etc. why wouldn't they?
They never explicitly advertised him, but neither did AEW with Punk. They did heavily push the 25th anniversary stuff as a selling point. I can't blame people for feeling bait and switched if they are one of the casual fans in the area who bought tickets last minute (they apparently had a late surge to make it a "sellout") and that was part of the appeal.
They think it builds intrigue for when he does show, but it also pissed a lot of paying customers off
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I had it on on mute in the background. Can't say I paid a whole lot of attention. The crowd didn't look to be super into the show, and didn't sound it the times I unmuted. I feel bad for the wrestlers.
Survivor Series was a childhood favorite but nostalgia can only get me so far
My theory is Vince stopped caring as soon as stopped screaming SURVIIIIIVOR SERIIIIIES every year.
Maybe the golden egg is like his Survivor Series urn and someone stole it to harness the power to book a better show next year
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1 minute ago, Jiji said:
Jerry Lynn is a prominent agent in AEW.
yeah, that was a total brainfart on my part, lol. He's been seen on TV a bunch and used in a few angles. But he's another refugee from WWE
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59 minutes ago, Zakk_Sabbath said:
A bit off topic, but I'd love to hear his (or any vet's) expanded thoughts on that. I imagine it's tough to dispense advice or criticism when the younger talent is trying to follow whatever management or agent directive they've been given without "coloring outside the lines" so to speak. It's probably not that interesting of a thought right now, but I could see something like that becoming more problematic/important in 5-7 years as more seasoned talents continue to retire or leave.
people who leave always talk about the too many cooks element of WWE, and that it's Vince's show etc. etc. and I think for guys like Christian that's discouraging because at the end of the day it probably doesn't matter what he does because the culture there isn't going to change. The fact that him, Henry and Show who were seemingly lifers but felt like they weren't going to be able to contribute much says a lot
I think I'm more interested to know how TK balances all the voices in the room. He's said several times that after that really awful Dark Order angle he took the reigns more creatively, but that when it comes to the nuts and bolts stuff of matches being put together he leaves it to the pros
Another thing is.....who's even agenting in WWE these days? Is Jerry Lynn still there? Fit? Noble? I've been watching less/paying less attention to WWE the last few years, the product is just really bad to my tastes other than the occasional match or character here and there, but there's just so much about their product I actively dislike. Patterson has been gone for a while, but it does feel like they have lesser experienced minds involved. Remember when they brought in a bunch of TNA people to be agents? What was that? 80's Vince never would have done something like that, but I can't chalk up the awful booking to Vince alone
anyway, this is the AEW thread......I'm also curious to know what Randy Orton and Roman Reigns thought of the show!
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I guess they don't hammer it, but Christian has been paired with JB in a mentor role pretty much since he started in AEW and they even had little touches like Jungle Boy initially in "trust/verify" mode and there was definitely an on-screen progression with the relationship in various different backstage segments. And one would assume that's because JB is a lifelong fan who's seen Christian's entire career he knows what a creepy little bastard the guy is
Christian also pretty explicitly talked about it in the press, how a big part of jumping was a chance to be a difference maker backstage with the younger talent, and he didn't necessarily see that happening in WWE. He specifically mentioned Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus, adding layers to his story
I initially thought the angle with them was going to happen much sooner, but I've enjoyed the slow burn. They haven't teased any sort of conflict other than Christian pushing him to have more of a killer instinct.
I'm a huge Christian fan and it's amazing to me how he more or less is able to look/work the same as he did a decade ago after the injuries he had. He's lost a half step or two, but don't tell him I said that
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Jericho's spot calling was super noticable, but that match actually held together amazingly well. It was definitely clunky at times, and I'm definitely over the IC at this point and would rather see Jericho on vacation clips on Dynamite, but it is what it is. The crowd seemed exhausted and it was put in a cool down spot but they actually put on a good show. I enjoyed it.
I also really liked the Cody/PAC v Black/Andrade match. Those guys all come off as mega stars to me for their own reasons, and there's something I've always loved about thrown together singles stars in a tag situation. This played to my bias as a fan, so I was all in for it. And I definitely had a moment in the middle of this match where I thought "WWE had all 4 of these great motherfuckers and totally missed the boat on all of em. whiffff"
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I might be getting sleepy but I missed the 4 pillows joke when I first saw it in this thread. I actually did hear it in the moment and was very glad that X and Tony ignored it
Look, I like JR a lot, but he's an old curmudgen with cancer, give him a F'n break. i think he adds a lot to the commentary and I'm not even close to not wanting him around
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I'm in the MJF camp where I think he's a pretty great wrestler for his age and experience, a total natural, but not into the character/presentation at all and generally skip his tv segments. The never ending Jericho feud didn't do him any favours
And calling back to people earlier in this thread asking what the deal is with Pinnacle and FTR.....what's the deal with MJF? Is he Ted DiBiase? Why are FTR letting Andrade pay him for their services? They're supposed to be smart and shrewd Tully led heels, what's in it for them? Why wouldn't they cut out the middle man who's clearly a scumbag and doesn't appear to do a whole lot for them? I hope there's a bigger picture here that makes sense, but ever since they threw Pinnacle together it's been a bit of a cluster
Great F'n show, all the stars etc. I hadn't put a lot of thought into what the match order was going to be, was semi-surprised that Darby and MJF was the opener, and holy shit did they set the bar high. This show was so loaded with great rasslin and great moments that I definitely need to watch it again because fatigue set in over the course of the show.
The only match I skipped was the women's title. I'm just not that into Britt Baker the wrestler as the top woman in AEW, because compared to other top female wrestlers out there she's just not at that level. Sorry, hope she gets there, but her matches just don't do it for me.
I have a couple complaints about the Jungle Boy booking. The Conchairto is a fucking heel move. It just is. I don't want to see my whitemeat babyface doing something like that. When they did the angle where Christian did it to Cole I was booing X-Tian, because it's a shitty thing for an old dude with a concussion history to do to a younger dude. I've expected the whole thing with the kid to lead to a Christian heel turn and given the fact that Christian is basically a wrestling god I expect him to channel WWECW and make Jungle Boy look like the world's greatest Yoshi Tatsu
the other one is the thumbtacks in the mouth spot. why wasn't he bleeding out of the mouth like a mofo after that? don't do it if you can't make it seem at least semi-realistic, use a blood capsule if you have to, but on a show where dudes are yellow with bruises from their last battles and legit beating the shit out of each other it comes off fake as fuck
Oh, and WAR JDS!!!! I want to see more of him!!!!!
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9 hours ago, Technico Support said:
The ghost of Gorilla Monsoon told me it was Baba the Giant.
you don't say.....
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Pretty much. Eric is open to talk about anything, but I always end up taking everything he says with a grain of salt. This Part II with Flair has several moments where my bullshit-meter went off, even at the very beginning regarding the Ray Traylor PPV bonuses. Kevin Sullivan has stated that's why you saw Big Bubba/Guardian Angel/The Boss during 1994/1995 as when he signed, he asked for some ridiculous bonus if PPV buys ever got over a certain level. In 1993, WCW wasn't killing it but by the time Hogan was in, Boss Man was making a shit-ton of $$$ on shows he wasn't even on. Even if Bischoff tries to debunk the story, I still want to believe that Boss Man got one over on Eric with this deal.
Great show, wrote a detailed recap about it over on the main site. Too much text for it to be posted here.
Just listened to the Flair/Bischoff podcasts the other day.
Bischoff didn't give Ray Traylor his first contract. Traylor was signed in late 1993 by the Bill Shaw/Bill Dhue regime. Bischoff became executive producer of television in 93 when Watts left, but wasn't in charge of hiring/firing talent at that point. He was promoted to EVP in 94, essentially putting him in charge of the entire company and only answering to Turner execs above him.
I can believe him not remembering Bossman having a PPV bonus in his contract, since he didn't sign him to it and it was over 20 years ago. Sullivan remembers because he was friends with Traylor and Traylor went to him and said, "hey, I get more money if I'm on PPV" so Sullivan put him on PPVs, lol!
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So Hacksaw Jim Duggan is on the roster. Does this mean he's wrestling? I'm halfway interested if so. The WWE won't give Duggan a serious last run so why the hell not Jarrett. Duggan countering some indy guy's flippy moves with a big haymaker would be so awesome.
He's just there for the house shows/meet+greet/autograph stuff.......but now I really want to see Jim Duggan and Scott Steiner vs. The Young Bucks
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Who says it's a world champion wrestler? Maybe it's that japanese guy who always wins the hot dog eating competitions.
he'd eat half the catering spread
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WO/F4W
TNA tease for Friday's show about the return of a former world championWednesday, 06 May 2015 15:29
TNA is teasing that a former world champion will return on Friday night's show as the special referee of the Kurt Angle vs. Eric Young title match.
This is always hilarious. Maybe it's Test.......errrr not Test again. Maybe it's Chyna Doll. Wasn't it Honky Tonk Man one time?
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Now I'm even more confused than I already was
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The Usos have been off TV since Mania because Jey is hurt, and Jimmy is getting some deserved time off. So while they're gone, why not give Naomi a personality other than "Jimmy's girl and The Usos' cheerleader'? And her promo and explanation for what she did were perfect. Tossing off her cut off Usos shirt after the beatdown was a nice touch
Well, why couldn't she do it as a face? Nikki could do with another opponent instead of Paige for what seems like the 50th time. Hell, I like Paige well enough, but it's not like she can't afford to be the main focus of the Divas for a couple of months.
Because this is more interesting? Now you've got 3 women who all have issues with each other. And what Naomi did was heelish, but her promo afterwards made her justified and you couldn't disagree with anything she said, which is the best kind of heel
Also on the Diva battle royale, I was glad to see Emma look good and get some cool shine spots out there. They're rebuilding her on NXT with a gradual heel turn....hope that carries over to the main roster because she's a talented wrestler
I thought the show as a whole was really really good. Lots of wrestling, and the angles were good, and for the most part everything made sense. The Orton/Seth/Kane stuff was one of those Attitude Era show long builds with various twists and turns in a good way. The Kane/Seth 'match' was compelling. Reigns had one of his best promos, and a great beatdown angle by Show. Also a great setup for the Russian Chain match with Rusev and Cena. Everything on the show had purpose and direction. I wish RAW could be more like this every week.
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The Usos have been off TV since Mania because Jey is hurt, and Jimmy is getting some deserved time off. So while they're gone, why not give Naomi a personality other than "Jimmy's girl and The Usos' cheerleader'? And her promo and explanation for what she did were perfect. Tossing off her cut off Usos shirt after the beatdown was a nice touch
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You gotta be kidding....Are you seeing something I'm not? Not being a dick but I've seen far more careless stuff than that. Its not like he missed the table completely or something.
The spot didn't look particularly bad or careless, the table probably should have been positioned parallel to them though.I was dubious about the claims that the Big Guy was hurting him on purpose but that table spot is pretty damning.
It would be better if he completely missed the table, because then he could spread the impact across his back. As is, all the impact went to one spot on his hip ON THE CONCRETE.
I'm not trying to say that it was safe and executed perfectly or anything, but if that is supposed to be evidence of Ryback intentionally trying to hurt Punk that is pretty flimsy evidence. The table breaking means he hit with enough force to break it, thereby absorbing the majority of his momentum, missing completely would've been far worse.
You know that those tables are pre-cut, right? barely grazing it at the velocity he was moving was going to break it. In no way did it "absorb the majority of his momentum"
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On the Sting "not being a draw when he was on top" argument circa 90-92 I posit that NOBODY was going to be a big draw or turn WCW's business around at that point. Wrestling as a whole was on a rapid downswing and WCW was horribly mismanaged at that point with constant management/booking changes that sent their business into the toilet. WCW in 1990 with Ole Anderson booking and the Turner Entertainment spin on it was TERRIBLE and was actively turning away their fanbase, and that didn't have anything to do with Sting. Then there was the Jim Herd era in 91. This is the time period where even the almighty Hulk Hogan is starting to tank as a draw and fans are turning away in droves.
I've always found the "Sting flopped on top" argument really disingenuous when looked at in context. A while back I looked at the #'s for PPVs and big house shows he was headlining in that era vs. ones he wasn't and he stood out as the best draw in the company at the time. I also know he was their best merch mover. Lately Meltzer has taken a revisionist standpoint on Michaels as a draw on top in context whereas for years he said he was a flop on top. I'd like to see him really analyze the numbers in context and do the same with Sting, but he probably won't, because in his eyes Michaels was a great worker and Sting wasn't, and he has an inherent bias towards work
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I was dubious about the claims that the Big Guy was hurting him on purpose but that table spot is pretty damning.
The spot didn't look particularly bad or careless, the table probably should have been positioned parallel to them though.
They shouldn't have done that spot at all. The worst part was the upturned table which Punk whacks the back of his head on before he barely grazes the table he's supposed to go thru and hits the concrete.
Punk has to accept some blame for agreeing to do that spot when he's already banged up and he doesn't trust the big green steroid guy to do it safely. And the agents/producers whoever are to blame to. I remember seeing that happen live and was just like, "wtf are they thinking?!?!" It was so unnecessary.
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Some type of NDA was almost certainly included in the settlement.
There was. Punk said he couldn't discuss the exact terms of the settlement, but that's it. He did say they tried to put in a clause where neither party could disparage the other in public, but citing the fact that WWE executives (Hunter and Steph) had gone on TV and disparaged him for quitting while Punk had said nothing publicly, they didn't have a leg to stand on there.
The OBVIOUS reason why Punk didn't get to have sponsors on his gear and Lesnar did is because they were going with a "former MMA badass" thing for Lesnar and MMA guys have sponsors on their gear. Punk, as much as he'd like to think he is, isn't a MMA badass like Lesnar. Lettting Lesnar wear the sponsorships makes sense given his background, while it makes no sense if Punk does it.
I believe it was also due to the fact that Lesnar had the pre-existing sponsorship and was still obligated to represent them.
Definitely, and because they wanted Brock so badly they made a concession there that they would make for very few other people. I know when Warrior came back in 96 they gave him "commercial time" on TV to promote his comic book and One Warrior Nation stuff. Whatever deal they have with Austin now has them promoting his podcast on TV. Jericho has had Fozzy and other outside the WWE umbrella projects promoted. I can't think of any others off the top of my head.
Essentially, WWE wants sponsorships and outside projects to run through them and to get a cut of the action. The lack of co-operation and control was one of the things that led to Rock being out of the fold for so long.
I think in the future WWE might go down the UFC route to an extent. MMA sponsorships used to be the wild west, then when UFC decided they wanted more control and a cut of the action they restricted it to "UFC approved sponsors" and changed the language in contracts to where guys had to go through UFC, which pissed a lot of people off and hurt fighters financially. But like WWE, when they're the biggest/only game in town (not so much now with Bellator coming on) they had all the leverage
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I like Punk and all but here are the facts:
The dude breached his contract
Not all the way through the thread, but wanted to respond to this:
He didn't.
He is an INDEPENDENT CONTRACTOR contracted for a certain # of dates. He had fulfilled that # of dates, thus was free to walk without "breaching contract"
Was it unprofessional? Yes. Is WWE the most professional, trustworthy, reputable company? No.
Are WWE wrestlers independent contractors or employees? WWE tries to have it both ways. If Punk was really in breach of contract, how did he "get everything I wanted and more" and beat them (and 2K) in litigation when it came to past/future royalties and being free and clear of the company without any hangups? Because legally he didn't break his contract, and WWE was trying to punish him for leaving by withholding agreed upon royalties and imposing their bullshit "no compete" clause even after THEY fired him
EDIT* I see that this has mostly been covered in the ensuing pages
Dynamite - 12/1/21
in ALL ELITE WRESTLING
Posted
Punk last week threw in a line about Baker replacing him as one of the 4 pillars, so he came back with a shot about Punk trying to get in her pants. Seems par for the course with MJF
I'm not a fan of it because they're already doing the inside baseball stuff with Cole, and Tony, and it's all completely disconnected from this, or anything actually involving Britt
Much bigger heel heat for me when he said he'd be bigger than Piper in Portland, and then threatened to kill Punk's dog if he kept bringing it backstage. DEMS FIGHTING WORDS