Eivion

So they either course corrected or fucked up the already planned angle with how things went down last Friday. Whatever the case at least its Cody/Roman at Wrestlemania and we are getting heel Rock along the way.

Was there any actual controversy about that? I don't recall any

Before it was no AAA and CMLL wrestlers could appear on the same show. Presumably AEW or Rocky talked CMLL into letting it slide a bit for those who are technically AEW wrestlers like Penta. Huh? What's the story here? I was under the impression Dragon Lee signed on his own.

The weapons refresh update in March is presumably bringing the new weapons we would have gotten in Final Shape's original release date to Nightfalls, Trials, Iron Banner. No update for armor and world loot. New weapons include strand wave frame GL, Stasis vortex sword, Tex Mechanica SR (stasis) & GL (solar). Summoner and Multmach are returning. No weapons are leaving until TFS update. Do to Episodes being longer the pools for Iron Banner and Nightfalls will remain at 8. Trials will return to 6 due to less chances to obtain Adepts with it switching out with Iron Banner. Armor Synthesis bounties will refresh with the weapons update. Free Bright Dust weekly will be available. Iron Banner returns twice for the beginning and end of April.

I never realized how few of these chests I picked up until this week.

Stardom and TJPW were the only joshi groups announced as a part of that. Wouldn't be odd to leave it out a new group in general, let alone when so few others are involved.

I'm not. I'm sure Rossy liked her, but it seemed obvious he never saw her as being above white belt territory. BR were clearly the ones who backed her, and even then that may have only been due to Hana's death.

Watched all of this while a bit sick so I could be off on some of it save the first match. Axiom/Frazer vs. Blade/Enofe was fucking awesome. Everyone just went for broke and looked amazing. King/Riley was solid. Dug Hayes's promo. The content was predictable, but he stated it all pretty well and was so easy to hate for it. Roxanne/Lola was pretty nice, probably the best Lola has looked so far. I'm continuing to dig this far more aggressive Roxanne. It feels like she finally has caught the missing piece she needed. Tatum's interruption was surprising. Curious what the aim there is as she has been Lyra focused for months now until this. Lash/Jakara vs. Fallon/Wren was solid. If the Women's Dusty Cup happens I hope it goes to Lash and Jakara. They feel like a real team and work well together in and out of the ring. Was nice to see them finally moving forward a bit with Jensen via that wakeup call from Briggs. The setup for Dijak/Ilja was decent though Dijak maybe went a bit far with that punch. The actual match was pretty good as expected though that finish was strange. The post match beatdown was another nice heek move from Melo. Matches and segments were both solid-good. Axiom/Frazer vs. Blade/Enofe tag is must see and elevates an already pretty solid episode into a good one.

Opening segment did little to settle what directions things are going in with the World/Universal titles, but I enjoyed the hell out of Drew continuing to be tremendous asshole. The 4-way tag was good chaotic fun. Becky/Shayna was damn good and definitely felt like the two trying to make up for their Wrestlemania match from 2020. Hopefully we get more of that Shayna. Miz/JD was solid with Truth's late match antics delivering the expected fun. Kind of like Miz arguing Truth is really just a genius playing the long con. Tozawa/Maxxine vs. Ivar/Valhalla was short but fun despite the messiness from the women's side. Maxxine is not good as she was rushed out of NXT, but I still find myself baffled by how Logan never seems anywhere close to as just solid as she should given her experience. The Rhea/Nia segment/brawl was neat and drew some good heat to Nia. Curious to see what main events Elimination Chamber. Now feels like a good time to give it to the women either with the chamber match itself or Rhea/Nia. KC Squared vs. Kabuki Warriors built into something solid though you can still tell by the crowd reaction just how little momentum there is in the division beyond those at the highest like Becky and Rhea. Dug the Gunther/Jey segment. Glad to see it tie back into New Day's feud with Imperium. Jey/Gunther is going to be good whenever it goes down. Sami's interview was good stuff and really makes me hope he at least gets a PLE title shot later in the year. Cody/Nakamura was pretty nice by the end. Really dug the finishing stretch. Post match attack by Dre was expected and fine. Pretty fun show with some solid-good matches and segments. Will always be too long at 3 hours, but the power of DVR always helps. Was interesting to seeing how they pushed Roman/Rock as the main event less and less as the night went on. Its clear they know they fucked up to some degree. Hopefully they just go with Cody/Roman, but I guess we shall see.

They also started a tier list for shows. Definitely ask Cubfan.

Sounds like the new company is only happening because people were already planning to leave.

I always got the feeling that Bethesda games at the very least were always planned to timed exclusives only. There was an annoyance in Spencer's eyes when they were talking about this kind of stuff when Bethesda/Zenimax got bought a few years back. It felt like Microsoft didn't get everything they wanted despite the purchase. I have a feeling pure exclusivity was one of those things.

The NXT expansion plan has seemingly been dead for a while now so I don't really buy any rumors of NXT Japan being a potential thing. The Europe expansion that was supposed to happen last year never did after Vince came back and the merger was pushed through. Expansion might be one of the last things on TKO/WWE's minds with the current scandal and lawsuit.

All of this news feels like it might be the actual beginning of the end though I suppose its still wait and see for how much of the roster leaves.

Wolfdogs vs. TrickMelo was solid though pretty damn rough with bad luck for Trick and Bron. Still not sure how that rope moment happened. Bron somehow waving it off like nothing is insane. Gacy/Dijak was good and got a decent bit of interest from the crowd by the end. Gacy smiling and ready for more throughout the whole match was neat and a good cementing of the craziness and toughness of his current character. D'Angelo Family vs. OTM built into a pretty nice match. Crowd actually had decent interest by the end though this felt like something that should have been on NXT tv opposed to PLE. Not enough familiarity with OTM or the family's Rizzo for the crowd to be fully invested. Roxanne/Lyra was going well but was nothing amazing until Lola cashing her Breakout contract. Felt like everything kicked into next gear from that point with the audience getting a lot more interested. Saying that it was interesting and kind of neat to see Roxanne be the only one they were really behind. They were especially pissed when Tatum screwed Roxanne at the very end. Will be interesting to see where things go since Roxanne had the match won twice over Lyra. Lyra has been good, but her personality leaves much to desire a lot of the time. The CWC crowd may be into her, but the bigger audiences are usually either against her or a bit apathetic outside of the occasional neat move. Will be interesting to see where they take things with Tatum obsessed with her. Now might be the time for subtle heel turn. Oba/Dragon was Femi's first real test in NXT, and he did surprisingly well. He bumped around just enough to make most of what Lee did look good while still being dominant force for most of the match. I dug how Lee had to break Femi down at times. Finish was a nice strong win for Femi. Good match. WIll be interesting to see how much other people can get out Femi right now. Trick/Ilja felt like a bit of war with both guys bleeding and how physical Ilja is in general. They did quite the job dragging the crowd in and made them think it was over at least 2-3 times before it actually was. Melo was actually pretty good as Trick's cheerleader while getting hot and making some mistakes that may have ultimately cost Trick the match. The obvious turn finally happened, but it hit well with the crowd getting super pissed and booing the crap out of Melo after he destroyed Trick's leg. Not sure what the title match for Stand & Deliver will be but Trick vs. Melo will be the actual main event regardless after this. Undercard was pretty solid and enjoyable while all the title matches delivered. Oba/Dragon was a nice surprise, but I have to give MOTN to the women's title match or Trick/Ilja. both were so damn good and well done.

I'm curious about the poaching news and hope we get more details because feels off. Rossy sold Stardom in the first place because he was getting up in age and felt he took it as far as he could go so it would be odd for him to plan a new promotion. He was also pretty well beloved by the roster. I'm curious how they react. Feels weird for the promotion's biggest founder to be gone and not from death or retirement.

It won't happen, but I hope they pivot to Rock bsing to keep Cody away from the belt for the sake of the Bloodline.

HHH wanted to retire a good 5-7 years before his heart forced the issue. He only kept doing it because of Vince.

Its less of a she should be with a main eventer thing and more likely some creepy motherfuckers on the creative team getting jealous because they had a crush on the women involved. Its seemingly what happened with Rusev/Lana and Miz/Maryse.

Mio Shirai is still retired so its not getting any closer.

Surprised Awesome Truth isn't in there.

They gave themselves a great out on Monday with Seth's promo only for what we got last night. That is probably what annoys me the most in terms of writing/booking.

Opening segment with Paul and Owens was good. As was the subsequent Owens/Theory match though its again nothing we haven't seen before. Did enjoy the finish with Owens turning the tables on everyone. The 4-way tag was fun. Glad Dunne & Bate won. Bayley's segment with Damage Ctrl was done well. I like Bayley knowing the fix was in and getting the surprise turn around in. Was a nice moment. Still not sure how well it all works out long term. Feels like they made a mistake not letting DC murder Bayley and kick her out months ago for a face turn. They need to do more to push Io, Asuka, and Kairi as credible and hateable heels. Its been the issue with Damage Ctrl from the getgo. The Final Testament vs. Lashley/Profits brawl was short but fun while it lasted. Wish it went longer. Dug Tiffany 's debut with her slapping Mia and running off. Their later match was decent and worked well as a showcase for Stratton. The final segment started off great with Roman's trash talk about Seth. Cody's rebuttal was going fine until they used it as segway to push Rock/Roman instead. The crowd loved it and treated it as a big moment, but I'm of the opinion were 2-3 years late for this match. Don't think Cody looks like an idiot, but I also don't think the explanation was strong enough to sell beyond a live crowd lost in the moment of Rock/Roman. Beyond that the match doesn't quite make sense with Rock just stepping in front of everyone else for a title shot. It may still be a big match, but whoever pushed for it clearly wasn't thinking of the long term. I'm also in agreement the match will likely get shat on hard unless the Rock magically becomes the athlete he was 20 years ago. The city itself doesn't really matter. The reality is its Wrestlemania which draws in just as many serious wrestling fans as it does casual. The Rock just isn't in the shape to deliver at that level and failed miserably the last few times he tried. It will take a miracle to make Rock/Roman deliver what people actually would want of it, especially give all the likely good matches that will occur before it. The matches were generally solid-good though as I mentioned before I don't like getting jipped out of match on a show that typically only has four matches in the first place. The segments were good as well though I've long past the point where I really care for a Rock/Roman match. I think they treated it well as a big moment, but it doesn't feel like they are considering the future beyond it by going that route. You would hope with Vince gone they wouldn't make a mistake like this, but maybe the current creative regime still has too much of his mindset when it comes to building to moments instead of a consistently solid-good future.

So Shawn did a media thing just a day or two ago for Vengeance Day and had little issue answering questions. Around half of them were related to the Vince stuff and just general questions into how NXT protects the people there from such situations. Someone even asked about the Brutus allegation which apparently Brutus had recanted long ago. Shawn might be better off than HHH at the very least.

Success of The Final Shape will mostly be dependent on the quality of the main campaign & raid. As long as those two hit strong TFS itself will probably be well regarded. Originally, I was going to mention the post campaign as well, but I think most of that will be within Episode 1. Ideally whatever epilogue content we have between TFS and Echoes should be good, but I don't think its a make or break with only a week or two between the expansion and Episode. As for what would bring people back. I think we are at a point where there will be plenty jumping off regardless of what happens next due to a lack of trust in Bungie and/or some players just wanting something they can call an endpoint story wise for Destiny. With that said, I think the most important thing Bungie needs to do is create a new starting point that excites and/or interests players, new and old. They need a new story for newer players to latch onto and engross themselves in instead of the Light and Darkness Saga which had a rough start in D1 and many missing pieces in D2 due to the Content Vault. A Destiny 3 would be the easiest and possibly best thing in that regard, but I also think there is little they can do to advance the game from a technical and gameplay point to make a 3 worthwhile. Hopefully Echoes brings that new beginning, but we will have to wait and see.