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Thunder Down Under

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Posts posted by Thunder Down Under

  1. 21 minutes ago, Dog said:

    Vince actually kind of liked Punk. HHH hated him.

    And what better chance for HHH to prove he has one of the better qualities the old man still had in willing to put aside whatever personal feelings he has if it can make him and the company money? I couldn’t imagine a bigger blow to AEW’s momentum (which Punk in part helped with his debut in Chicago) than having Punk show up in the WWE after his last appearance in AEW was winning their World title.

    • Like 1
  2. 1 minute ago, EVA said:

    Did we finally find CM Punk’s DVDVR account?

    DEAN gonna be so disappointed when he finds out who really hooked him up with some WSX ep’s back in the day.

    But seriously, it’s just hard not to think those involved would’ve been told to keep those discussions quiet, and process of elimination tends to point strongly in Bucks/Omega’s direction (and if bot directly to the media, where the source that eventually went to the media got the info from). If it was TK or people close to him, they would likely already known his triggers on what to do with Punk/Steele. The fact that it has somewhat solid details on punishment for one side and a vague deadline for a decision for the other side is also pretty telling. If it was from Punk/Steele’s side, it likely would’ve included whatever conditions would need to be met for them to return.

    • Like 1
  3. 17 minutes ago, TimLivingston said:

    The diction in that SI line is hilarious: You tie Punk and Ace together because they’re boys and imply that because the more likely of the two (Steel) would be let go, you get to assume Punk would back up his friend. 
     

    It’s an incredibly speculative sentence and people run with it because you see “Punk” and “gone” a few words apart. Then you get to project Punk’s pettiness, the drama behind a top guy leaving, etc. An amazing piece of SEO aggregation writing, honestly. 

    Reading between the lines it’s hard not to assume that came from the Omega/Bucks camp. Logically TK most likely has more important things to worry about atm so unlikely to have come from him. The uncertainty around what will happen to Punk/Steele seems to indicate it didn’t come from that camp either. So it seems most likely someone from Omega/Bucks side fed the writer that and they’ve run with it hoping to shape public opinion because no one will really care if it ends up being completely off base. I suspect Kenny & the Bucks have offered to accept a suspension on the proviso that Punk/Steel are fired, and this new leak (which is what the entire thing has started from), is another attempt to pressure TK into choosing them over him.

     

    From a business perspective, I find it hard to think TK will go down any path that results in him losing Punk and giving him every motivation in the world to go “Well now Vince is gone it might be different”…. If Kenny or the Bucks showed up there, it wouldn’t have anywhere near the same impact as Punk would. Considering Punk’s drawing power both within AEW, and his potential drawing power with the WWE (the heat and interest in Punk/Reigns would dwarf anything WWE have done in the last 5+ years), it seems like in a them or me situation, Tony would have no choice but to chose Punk. Given the HR implications of the confrontation, it also seems like it would be way easier to get rid of The Elite over Punk, by virtue of their executive positions. Regardless if someone calls you a MF’er to your face, you cannot physically confront a subordinate (especially if you outnumber them 3-1) and expect to keep that position.

    • Like 5
  4. 3 hours ago, Elsalvajeloco said:

    Besides being public now, I don't think what you're saying is any different than what people were saying in 1991-1994 when you had the Zahorian trial, the enhancement talent lawsuits from guys getting hurt working with contracted talent, the Jesse Ventura lawsuit, the ring boy scandal, the steroid trial, etc. And all that was happening when WWF could least afford it business wise. Now, Vince could be removed tomorrow and it would not have as great an impact to the WWE as it would have 25-30 years had it happened. The only thing in my mind that would or should have changed is Vince's mindset of operating on plausible deniability and also the notion of we'll let our enemies take their pound of flesh and it will all be soothed cause we have McDevitt in our back pocket. Neither works anymore especially the former in a public traded company. As for the latter, I don't expect Jerry McDevitt to be pulling miracles out of his ass at the point. In the 90s (and 2000s), the blowback was brutal but Vince was willing to deal with that as long as he skated. Now? If there is any substantial ramifications from this, he is gone with the quickness. It's no longer enough to be found not guilty in a court of law.

    Yeah I don’t really believe there is any difference, either across entertainment or society in general, compared to the late 80’s/90’s. If anything, I’d say predators have gotten more effective at being able to pick out targets for abuse and concealing it compared to “the bad old days”. 

    Given their corporate structure, nobody within the company seems like they’d really have the power to force him out, especially if only personal funds were used. If he has used company funds then it’s a different story. But assuming it was only personal funds, it will need to be a choice by him to step aside. I would not bet on that happening anytime soon. Even if NBC were able to walk away from their contract,  it’s hard not to think they still wouldn’t get picked up by another cable network. 

    • Like 2
  5.  

    10 hours ago, Tarheel Moneghetti said:

    At this point, maybe Australia should deport everyone involved in this mess.  There's really no one to root for or feel sorry for.

    Aussie Open officials are supposedly campaigning for Djokovic privately, while fending off questions about how blind their exemption review process really was.

    Australian government is probably only drawing a line in the sand on this because they need to score a political win and thought Djokovic would be an easy target.

    Djokovic is probably getting treated poorly, but he's such an asshat that it's hard to be too sympathetic.  Apparently he didn't let a positive COVID test affect his public appearance schedule.  He also lied on his visa application about international travel in the two weeks prior to arriving in Australia.

    For good measure, maybe somebody should deport his dad somewhere, as well as the Serbian officials who keep comparing Joker to Jesus Christ and concentration camp survivors.  I think he's being treated shoddily, but dialing down the rhetoric wouldn't hurt.   I'm assuming someone working for Djokovic understands current immigration policies and COVID rules and bothered to explain them to him.  This mess was entirely foreseeable.  Djokovic apparently thought no one would try to apply the rules to him.  He's that dude that gets wasted on New Years' Eve, then is surprised when he gets stopped at the sobriety checkpoint that was announced in the local media every day since Christmas.

    Djokovic really may get banned from at least three of the four majors, possibly for multiple years.  Lol, if only there were some way to avoid this......  Maybe some day, they'll invent a COVID vaccine.

    The problem is the minister accepted that he has entered on a valid medical exemption, but this his presence now poses a risk to public order. Had they relied on his inconsistencies misleading them into that view that would’ve been a point they could argue, but by conceding the valid exemption, his public appearance after testing positive has no real bearing on the decision. Unless the argument is going to be made that his flouting of Covid rules rises to the level of posing that risk, which is patently absurd. While he clearly gives the impression that he is skeptical of the vaccines, there is little public commentary from him on the subject and certainly no sustained call to the public to avoid them/break all Covid restrictions. There have been countless examples worldwide of high profile celebrities and politicians beaching mask/distancing regulations (such as the minor breaches with the Indian cricket team last summer), with little to no formal punishment (at least where the acts would’ve given rise to the possibility of charges/fines being imposed). So to argue that it is fine to boot him, when we have taken no action against those who had previously breached those same rules here, seems relatively unjust.


    But really the key argument as I understand it on Djokovic’s side is that by not considering what the alternative to their decision was, they couldn’t possibly arrived at the decision they made because their decision invites the same reaction it purports to avoid, whereas the alternative decision would’ve ameliorated the reaction they were concerned about. In a state where there are high levels of vaccinations, it is hard to argue that his presence would have any great effect either way on vaccination rates. In the alternative, it is very easy to see this decision leading to further civil unrest and pushing anti vaxxers further in their demonstration. In simpler terms, really the main threat to public order is over enthusiastic Serbs over celebrating a win for him and will be all over and done in 3 weeks max. By not letting him in, it would seem to provide more fuel to the conspiracy theorists/tin foil hat brigades fire. The case will basically rest on if the court thinks that level of unreasonableness rises to level requiring judicial intervention or not.
     

    The problem I personally have with “He’s a dickhead so get rid of him however we can” argument is that the arguments used to support it lead to a very slippery slope, where it is not difficult to foresee certain political parties in desperation using the same ones used to boot Djokovic to target certain classes of people/religion. It is hard to argue that letting Djokovic in will fuel anti vax sentiment, without also acknowledging, that the next time a Bourke St (The Sisto murder and not Gargosoulas) or Lindt Cafe situation occurs, the Islamaphobes would be emboldened to try and use that same tool to restrict migration from Muslim countries. Personally, the unintended consequences from much of the restrictions during Covid (especially the normalisation of restrictions), would seem to pose a much greater risk to our way of life once the pandemic ends than the benefit they provide during the pandemic. It is not difficult to see migration from poorer countries with high Covid rates restricted long into the future, which at its core is a message of “ Keep away you dirty poor stupid sick people and don’t you dare try infect us with you presence”, which is the antithesis of everything this Country has claimed to stand for. If anything, the last 24 months have shown how stupid, selfish and vain Australia really is.

    • Thanks 1
  6. Absolute mess and indicative of the state of politics in Australia. Absolutely zero leadership on any issue, just hoping public sentiment chooses the direction for them, with no regard as to if it is lawful or not. Tin pot dictatorship stuff on all levels. The Lawyer X scandal (for non Australians, the Victorian cops and DA equivalent conspired with a high profile defence lawyer to snitch on her clients in secret and went all the way to our High Court to keep it suppressed, which was rightfully denied as a shocking miscarriage of justice and as a result thrown 100’s of convictions based on that info in doubt, including some of Oz’s most notorious drug traffickers) makes me think this isn’t the last of this matter though. Our politicians (regardless of state or fed, Libs or ALP/Greens) have shown very little worry about wasting taxpayer funds on matters doomed to fail, and I don’t see why they would start now.

    • Like 1
  7. I have not watched any AEW and decided to order the show on a whim about 2/3rds thru and was thoroughly unimpressed, apart from the unintentional humour at the end. Hyping a major signing and delivering Christian in 2021 is right out of the TNA playbook (or maybe even WCW 1998 when hyping Rick  Martel as a former World Champ). Live commentary during cinematic matches just makes the commentators sound like fools. Cena, Hardy and Takers (and to a lesser extent Wyatt) cinematic matches worked because they are larger than life characters/performers. Sting fits into that mold, but his character being a silent avenger of justice takes a hit when he actually takes a bunch of punishment. He really shouldn’t have been involved until right at the end, but even then only after saving Darby but then after momentarily falling to the numbers having Darby save him which would actually help elevate Darby (and the heels) to Sting’s level instead of the 4 man brawl with plunder in a warehouse that they had. The main was sloppy with the pyro going off noticeably before the ropes being touched, a fight in the corner with Omega and Moxley both touching the ropes with no explosions only for those same ropes to explode when touched a minute later, the pyro on the outside board being nowhere near the landing spot,  the pointless logic of the Good Brother's interference (why would they wait until the end of the match before getting involved in the finish when they could’ve saved their buddy a whole lot of punishment by coming out at the start) and Omega cutting a promo into one of the handheld cameras after the match that was pretty much missed. They would be better off just not mentioning the end explosion instead of hurting their credibility any more by trying to make it part of the story.


    More than anything, I just can’t see how that ending (even if it went off in a better manner) would make someone who wasn’t already a diehard AEW fan want to care about the next show (especially the type of person who was curious about the exploding death match concept, as it both failed to live up to expectations and is not likely to be a regular part of the show going forward so can’t be used to draw them in next time). There is clearly a sustainable fan base for AEW, but shows like this seem like they would be more likely to erode that support for the company than grow it. And eventually the lure of not being WWE will wear off, especially when the major surprises are talent that never even sniffed the tippy top level of WWE, when that is caliber of name expected/hyped by claiming they are HoF worthy (but still obviously an active competitor). None of this is meant as a criticism of Christian, or even the decision to use him as he still seems like he can be a valuable asset. But saying it was a letdown because people knew he signed with the company is missing the point, because nobody would be making that particular complaint if it was Brock Lesnar that signed and everybody still knew beforehand, because his reputation would’ve lived up to the hype. 

    • Like 4
  8. 36 minutes ago, RolandTHTG said:

    I think Reigns/Fiend depends on how quickly you're prepared to dispense the Fiend as the guy 

    Built him up as an unbeatable monster only to drop a fall 8 months later? On the other hand Roman cant afford another high profile choke.

    I think a four way involving Corbin and Bryan makes more sense if you look past the need for Mania to be one vs one title matches. Adds a dynamic of vulnerability to the Fiend losing without being pinned. 

    Interested to see who the fourth guy would be for AoP/Rollins/Murphy vs Joe/Owens/Black. Viking Raiders makes the most sense but Black seems to be added to the mix and has history with Buddy. I'll say Ricochet. On the other hand I expect there's an OC vs Rated RKO match in there too, so seems unlikely you go with two big multiman matches. Joe and Owens vs Rollins and Buddy for the tag straps seems doable. 

    Could you do a hair and title vs career and mask match for Rey and Andrade?

    I can't see Bayley making it to Mania as champion. It's just a matter of who takes her title beforehand and faces Charlotte. But where does that leave Becky? Time might be right for another winner take all four way between the Horsewomen and then have Shayna/Rousey/etc attack them the night after and force them to put their differences aside.

     

    Jesus the thought of that 4-way with Corbin sounds horrible. That man needs to go away for along time, if not for good. 

    i understand your point with blowing off The Fiend after 8 months, but is the reaction going to be that much bigger at 12/-8/24 months away compared to now? And that’s without worrying about the possible reaction Bryan would get for beating The Fiend being way greater than Reigns. And the reaction Reigns would get for beating him would be weaker 12 months from now imo, altho tbh I doubt there is much of a difference in reactions for Bryan be it now or later. I just think if it’s not those two now, I don’t think the gimmick that beats The Fiend for the first is currently on the roster.

  9. While watching and with how long it took for him to leave, I figured Brock was going to come back and somehow factor into Drew’s elimination, with Reigns winning to set him up with Bray at Mania. I guess they could still go with that direction, but with Bryan really being the only one built as the cause of The Fiend, it tells a better story to have him be the one to banish him after failing a couple times. The ending of their match kind of felt like a blow off tho, so that may not be the plan and the plan is for Roman to win the SD shot at EC.

    • Like 1
  10. Knowing this company’s history with bait and switches I would only be half surprised if it’s a pre taped match just inserted into the show.

     

    But seriously, the timing of the announcement makes me think they hoped to announce it late enough so the conservatives locals don’t have enough tine to try and stop it from happening. Not passing judgment either way on that decision, but hard to not have that thought.

    • Thanks 1
  11. Not a surprise ratings for this show are down 25 percent from last week.  Starting the show with the corny Rollins/Fiend angle (complete with one of the lighting guys being shown clearly in shot when the house lights came back on), a non finish in a match to determine who picks first in the draft, Stephanie just reading out the picks, corny War Rooms and King Corban all in the first 30 mins is not a recipe for ratings success I wouldn’t have thought.

    • Like 1
  12. 6 hours ago, The Natural said:

    I think Seth Rollins vs. The Fiend Bray Wyatt inside Hell in a Cell has replaced The Undertaker vs. Goldberg at Super Showdown as the worst match this year. I thought that wouldn't be topped. Undertaker/Goldberg was both sad and dangerous. Goldberg getting concussed, dropped on his head taking the Tombstone Piledriver, Goldberg spiking Undertaker while attempting the Jackhammer and the terrible match ending Chokeslam.

    Seth Rollins vs. The Fiend in the Hell in a Cell kept the WWE Universal Championship on somebody who shouldn't have it, the Fiend needed to run through Rollins but didn't and damaged the Hell in a Cell match itself with THAT finish. Said finish led to loud boos, chants of bullshit, restart the match and AEW. That level of ineptitude takes some doing.

    I think there is a big difference between sloppy in ring work that puts people’s health/safety in danger, and being dissatisfied with the booking/theatrics.

    • Like 1
  13. As ridiculous as the match was, would it come anywhere near close to the top 5 dumbest Undertaker (and I guess also Kane) moments? He kidnapped the boss’s daughter to marry her in a satanic wedding (which ended up being revealed to be a plot his boss was in on),  hung someone from Hell in a Cell, embalmed Mideon on air (those three all happening within 6 months or so and then not long after disappeared and returned 6 months later as a Biker without any of those powers for the next 3 or so years) has been buried alive and almost killed his manager/possible father by encasing him in a cement crypt in the middle of an arena. How about his early involvement in the Warrior/Roberts angle. So the reaction about this being company killing seems just a little hyperbolic. 

     

    My personal problem with the match was they had so many moments where it killed the suspension of disbelief. If it was just the cartoonishly large mallet and the over the top cartoon violence, with the match/show ending when the ref called the “no contest”, with the post match antics moved to Raw tomorrow, the angle as a whole probably wouldn’t have come across so badly and still serves all the same purposes (keeps title on Seth while still allowing Bray to no sell the beat down as he was never pinned and fresh enough 24 hours later after the most violent in ring beating in however long to get his vengeance). As it was, it was just too much to pack into 30 minutes. If people are mentally checking out 4/5 times because they find the stuff so over the top (personally the red light, the mallet, the violence, the eventual no selling of the violence and then the fake blood at the end we’re the main bits where I just chuckled at how fake/ridiculous it was), you’re going to get the reaction that was seen tonight. 

    • Like 2
  14. 5 hours ago, Rick said:

    did someone insinuate she was?

    Brock being money in the bank winner is quite a fresh option for him in theory. In execution we all know it's simply a catapult to get him and Rollins to Saudi. I'm hoping for something different though. He looked massive, clearly back on the gear and ready to commit to wrestling for the long haul. I think some of the bad energy towards Brock is self-inflicted on WWE's part, the booking of him being this lazy mercenary has completely killed him in the eyes of the viewer. They murdered their biggest star in order to get Roman over, and it backfired massively. No-one cares. 

     

    I agree, but I think the reaction to him coming out showed he can be rehabbed as his legit credentials won’t ever get less impressive. I understand people like Ali and all, but for all of his bumps during that match, the crowd was dead for his ascent to the ladder and never once reacted like they thought he was a serious chance of winning even though it was clearly building to the end spot (which tbh I figured was going to be a Bray Wyatt run in). They then exploded for Lesnar, who got a much bigger pop and reaction than anybody else in that match simply by pushing someone off and climbing a ladder. I’ve never really had a problem with crazy bumps/spots in a match, but this one really just highlighted to me how pointless so many of them seemed to be, and how the crowd reaction to those spots seemed to get less and less the more of them they were, with the immediate contrast of the reaction of someone who took no bumps in that same match.

  15. I really was expecting HHH to say “Now you’re dealing with Paul”.

    But seriously that is probably the best use of Rousey since she’s been in, except she pretty much killed Becky dead with that beat down (and maybe not her heat, but certainly credibility, especially with the casuals or people they are hoping to stay on when Rhonda goes), and really should’ve been Charlotte instead. Because of her UFC background, Rousey comes across as way more credible than any normal pro wrestling promo could when she says she’d beat the piss out of them IRL, so by having her then do so right after saying it just re-enforces she’s on another level to them. If it was Charlotte that got it in that last segment (without Becky present), and have Becky cop a beating from Rhonda later on down the line in a more heel-ish manner (like a proper sneak attack, not an attack where she was hit second and was also armed with a weapon that she’s used before at the start of the attack), then it could elevate Becky as the person that can hang on Rhonda’s level by beating her. As it is though, the ex UFC champ just told everybody they are legit tougher than everybody else and can beat everybody up, and then went and did it. It’s like how well would’ve Austin’s image gone if Tyson had just knocked him out cold during the Raw angle in Fresno?

    • Haha 1
  16. They may as well just have Rollins step aside to give Reigns his shot at Lesnar if he is going to be back full time from here on in given there is still 5-6 weeks until Mania. If they are going to basically forget about the Shield breakup, just go the next step and pretend Summerslam didn’t happen either. They tried so long to try and manufacture a favourable reaction to him beating Lesnar at Mania, and now they have the perfect opportunity to do so which requires no manufacturing at all. I doubt even the smarkiest if smarks would boo and would genuinely feel happy for the guy after what’s he’s been through. And if they are going to exploit it, they may as well exploit it to the point that the payoff for the exploitation is 60-70k fans cheering (and doing so loudly) for him beating Lesnar at Mania, which none of us would’ve considered possible 12 months ago

  17. 2 hours ago, FlaeBlazer said:

    I’m assuming all that huge space on the floor was from unsold seats?

    How well did this show actually draw? WWE claimed 70,000 which means that it was legit probably 60,000 which definitely isn’t close to a sellout in a building this humongous. It looked great on TV and I didn’t really see any empty seats from the TV broadcast. WWE claimed it was a capacity crowd which is obviously bullshit. 

    About how much of the building was actually full?

    It would’ve drawn  over a legit 50k easy. About a 6th of the seating capacity was tarped off (so from maybe 100k down to around 60-70k in the grandstands), yet the only patchy spots in any of the grandstands where from the middle/back of the top deck and the last 5-10 rows of the bottom grandstand level. 

  18. Paid $300 for what I thought were pretty decent seas on level 2 only to have the centre of the ring obstructed due to the stupid marquee. A raised or more defined entrance way (or at least showing the entrances on one of the video boards) would’ve also added to the experience, but that is probably to be expected in a stadium that big. Apart from that the experience of going to a big show was pretty good. The crowd around me weren’t that vocal (and neither was I) but again I figure that is more due to the distance because the crowd on the ground seemed pretty enthusiastic, although as the show went on (and the drunker the crowd got) there was a bit more atmosphere in my area. Even after having been to hundreds of football games there, it still struck me just how big the place was seeing the wide open expanses of that ground with a legit 10-15k or so on the ground, but still having massive pockets of space around them.

     

    • Like 3
  19. On 9/19/2018 at 8:15 PM, Matt D said:

    Of course they would, but we knew that and so does everyone working there. Look at the Hogan thing and how that was handled. Most massive, publicly traded companies are going to make similar profit calculations if they can get away with them though.

    Most massively traded public companies do not broadcast their core product live and direct from there, whilst at the same time professing to be such an inclusive and progressive company. By continuing to put themselves in situations where this can be an issue, they risk losing their new found credibility in the wider media world.

    Sami Zyan’s injury really bailed them out of what could’ve been an extremely uncomfortable situation 

    • Like 1
  20. 19 hours ago, Matt D said:

    It's not like it'd be a particularly hard corporate speech from Hunter.

    "So in order for the company to make X amount of money, which impacts our bottom line and everyone who works here, we need to do Y. We don't like it. It's not about you as a talent. It's a cultural thing. Different cultures feel differently about things and we have to respect that. We think you're doing great, but you'll have to sit this one out. Go get ready for the next one. Again, you're doing great." 

    If your boss tells you that. what do you say? Maybe that it's hypocritical or that it sucks. And your boss will nod his head and agree, but just chalk it off to business and that'll be the end of it. At least he praised the hell out of you in the process, right? 

    I'm fairly certain neither of them would lose any sleep in the process. 

    Maybe it sucks that we're in a world where that's the case, but there you go.

    The problem with that logic is would the same opinion be had if it was financially prudent for them to avoid using black wrestlers in certain areas? If they had an openly gay male wrestler, would they leave him off this show for the same reasons?

    If anything, all these Saudi shows are doing is making it quite clear the women’s “revolution” and related marketing with Rousey etc are just a cynical attempt to cash in on equality branding and nothing else.

    • Like 4
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