Kevin Wilson

I sure as hell didn't, it was definitely an odd decision that once I found out really confused me. And the fact he wrestled that gimmick for nine months and then just disappeared. I wasn't an "online fan" until a few years after that, I'm sure it was reported in the Observer and what not but I wasn't in the loop and he looked too different. But even though he was in his mid-30s neither WCW or WWF were interested in him, not sure if both just felt he was too stained by having so many weird gimmicks over the years. I read.... somewhere.... that the WWF felt Tenta had lost too much weight and wouldn't work as "Earthquake" anymore but no idea the source of that or if that was just fan speculation.

Since this is about as B-Level as AEW gets for PPVs, I hope the Toni/Bayne match has a non-ending. It feels too soon for Toni to lose but also feels too soon for Bayne to eat a clean loss. I'm not a fan of non-endings on PPVs but if done right (and towards the beginning/middle of the card) its not a huge deal if they wrestle for 10/15 minutes and then shit breaks down and whatever the ending is leads to Toni keeping the belt but not pinning Bayne either. I feel bad for Swerve getting sacrificed but he's shown he can eat a loss now and then and stay strong/over so he'll be fine.

What's odd is originally they were better about that. They had Tyson, Shaq, and Snoop Dogg all on TV in various roles, mostly through connects but like you said between the Khan's NFL connections and WBD's massive list of stars under contract or doing movies under them you'd think they could put more effort into it. It doesn't even have to be real, just pay someone to look excited (which Tyson failed at but what can ya do). While I personally find it a bit cringe most of the time the fact remains any publicity would help and from what people in Philly have been reporting there has been very little promotion locally for Dynasty. Marketing is definitely an area AEW can improve in and I'm surprised 5+ years in its not something they've put more effort into.

I'm about as casual a Lucha fan as there is so I wouldn't expect any promotion to cater to my preferences, but the new La Parka is too skinny and too young and dances too well. I want some big boned somewhat immobile person in the gimmick, not some kid. I'm sure he's probably a good wrestler, it just didn't match the presentation I'm used to.

Perhaps a hot take: In 2025 I'd rather have Winston than Rodgers. I'm not saying Winston is necessarily a better QB, but a combination of the money saved to get other FAs and the fact Winston isn't a pain to deal with on a personal/media level, he'd be my pick any day of the week.

Just not enough time to build this one up. That's not to say it won't have great matches, AEW delivers in-ring on PPVs 95% of the time, but while Revolution felt like the matches generally had good slow builds this one is going to feel a bit more rushed. I have no doubt Mox is winning but there are only two Dynamites to build his Swerve match and two weeks away we only have three matches. I can see in the long run this being one of the more forgettable PPVs looking back at it later, but I hope it still has bangers because I already paid for it.

Next week, Nintendo is adding the following SNES games to Switch Online: Nobunaga's Ambition Nobunaga's Ambition: Lord of Darkness Romance of the Three Kingdoms 4: Wall of Fire Uncharted Water: New Horizons I'll be honest, I was a SNES guy and both owned games and rented many in my youth. I've never heard of any of these games. Some people online are excited about it but I can't tell if its legit excitement for the games themselves or just happy the library is expanding. Nintendo continuing to not release universally requested games even five years into this service is annoying but also very, very Nintendo. Granted, I know third party gaming rights can be complicated, I just don't know if an effort is being made or if it just isn't worth the hassle.

I stand by my opinion that fans/people as a general group like Mox, and like Cope, but the storyline itself isn't hot or well liked. Neither are doing any damage to themselves in regards to individual popularity and soon as they move on to the next storyline both will still be popular. This isn't a popularity-killing storyline for either, I'm more curious how long it takes Jericho to recover as I think that's a tougher situation. Mox and Cope are/will be fine.

They should have called it on that asshole Tomlin on the kickoff return when he was on the field of play. Cowards. Obviously refs will do absolutely anything in their power not to award points due to the optics of it, don't really blame them.

From looking at Mox's back afterwards, the nail board was clearly gimmicked in some way but I just don't know the science behind it. The wounds weren't even bleeding anymore so they weren't deep cuts like what happened to Darby with the glass. I can understand how they could be made safer but the combination of don't go in deep but still being able to stick in him without coming out is as science I'm not fully able to explain.

The thing with the ratings is now with the Max streaming we'll never know how many people are watching (even if ratings will be over-analyzed anyway). Collison is doing solid numbers on TNT when not against WWE/a major sporting event and that's without the Max streamers. But I don't know if 5,000 are watching on Max or 50,000. I assume its not a super high number or WBD would brag about it more, but its not zero either. If AEW keeps being smart about which arenas they book (aiming for 2.5K to 5K for TV tapings) and the buyrates stay steady, I think the optics would match the reality which is they are doing just fine.

Not sure if it counts as far as your collection goes but he had a handful of cards for Topps UFC from 2016 to 2017. Lowest prices are in the low 100s but no doubt can get them a little cheaper if patient.

RVD has said before that the Legends deal doesn't (and hasn't) stopped him from wrestling for AEW, but that AEW just can't make merch for him. Some wrestlers may not be involved with AEW under a WWE Legends deal just to not make WWE mad but it seems to be a bit fuzzy on what they can and can't do since Luger said WWE advised him and DDP not to be on camera for Sting's retirement match. That's all to say while I don't know if that is a fair trade, I still hope AEW allows Sting to do it if WWE does indeed ask just out of respect for both of them. But after HHH took a shot at AEW when TK allowed Gunn to attend one years ago I can understand the hesitation.

I don't even play the game and my For You is full of that too. "I GOT A PERFECT PERFECT WHY NO HOME RUN" all over my poor timeline.

Seems like the key wrestlers made it (main event, four way, mone/billie, bayne/statlander have been re-announced). They must have seen the situation and flown in early, I don't see Cope or Mone flying into an airport six hours away and driving through a blizzard. Although I'd be impressed if I am wrong.

The problem is you'd almost need two sets of rules for the same penalty and the league stopped doing that (as they should). I think all fans are annoyed when its 3rd and 30 and a LB hits a TE a little too hard ten yards downfield and its a first down for illegal contact, but as you said if its not an automatic first down then CBs would take advantage of that on long situations. So they can't really change it even though its annoying.

I didn't want to drag the Revolution PPV thread too far down this rabbit hole, but reports were it got a pretty solid buyrate (135K to 140K). What surprises me is that so many people are willing to pay $42 to $50 for a wrestling PPV in 2025 (full disclosure: I'm one of said people). We've been spoiled for so long by WWE and New Japan (and every other Japanese promotion) with streaming services, its amazing to me that over 100,000 fans month by month are willing to shell out. I don't believe UFC still releases PPV numbers but they are said to be down, boxing PPVs still do well but aren't as often for the big fights, and yet AEW for its entire existence has consistently been in the 100K to 150K range. Which just shows a very devoted hardcore base which is likely why they've been so hesitant to go strictly streaming as I doubt WBD was willing/able to toss in enough money to make up for their PPV buys. We did the full math many pages back but I think PPVs would have to really drop for TK to be wiling to eat it and I don't see it happening.

I'll be honest, I'm kinda amazed at the occasional take that Mox vs. Cope is a really popular feud to the point it got 20K new PPV buyers, blaming it on just people on message boards and social media. The crowds at events have been noticeably quieter for this feud then other things on the card, including at the PPV. And burnout can't be used as a reason as every AEW PPV is 4+ hours and if the main event is hot its hot either way, I'm sure I can pull up long events that the crowd was red hot for the main event. I think fans still like Mox, and really like Cope as Cope specifically has still been getting loud introduction reactions, its not a knock on either of them individually. And I'm probably one of the few pro-Cope people on this message board haha but the feud itself isn't really exciting the average fan. I wouldn't make an assumption that the match tomorrow will provide a big boost to ratings (as a AEW fan, I hope it does!), although either way it will end the feud and I'm hoping the Mox/Swerve match setup is different then his one. If DR mostly stays in the background and the focus is Crazy Mox vs. Swerve, I think that would show some type of small pivot to de-emphasize the faction itself. I hadn't thought about the Amazon Prime factor, that no doubt helped as well. And even though it was the highest of the last few PPVs, it was just barely higher as PPVs tend to be in the 105K to 115K range and this is estimated as 135K to 140K. If I had to pick one match that helped I'd say it was Toni/Mariah as in the build-up and the match itself the crowd was really into it, I just hope they can hold that momentum with both of them as their feud was A+ stuff. But overall I think it was a combination of factors - the gap, availability, and top to bottom the card was stacked.

Those boxes were almost impossible to buy at retail (I know, as I tried). They had a very limited number and so many people/bots were trying it shut down their entire shop software for over an hour. Still probably mostly went to bots or backdoored to breakers. Disney and Marvel cards still sell really well. Not as well as Pokemon but they are in their own universe.

I don't necessarily disagree with you that that could be a possibility but you know Higgins and his agent wouldn't agree haha if he is happy in his spot I'm not judging, just surprised he didn't try to test the waters to see if a WR1 spot was available elsewhere with mid to upper WR1 money (especially after the cap goes up another 20 mil after next season).

Bengals WR news, with Chase and Higgins both reaching agreements: Ja'Marr Chase agreed to a four-year, $161 million deal that includes $112 million guaranteed, while Tee Higgins agreed to a four-year, $115 million deal that is guaranteed for the first two years. Honestly I am surprised Higgins signed for that low, as "only" 28 million a year puts him near Waddle in AVG and just ahead of D.J. Moore. Who I think he is better than. Not that it isn't a lot of money and I'm not sure what he would have been offered if he was a FA, just with the rising cap I expected him to hold out for more. PFF had Higgins rated as the 6th best WR last year, which I'm not saying their ranking is gospel as they have their own unique system but I think it does show a level of skill that may have netted him more if he played out the tag this year and went into FA next year. But perhaps he just really wanted to stay a Bengal and its still a shit ton of money, nothing wrong with that.

I was talking to my brother about it, my theory is that this is the longest gap all year between AEW PPVs which is what helped the buyrate. These things aren't cheap, especially in a 'meh' economy, so a two+ month gap between PPVs probably helped some people justify the purchase that maybe won't also get the one in April and again in May. He also thinks that Revolution is AEW's second biggest PPV of the year behind All In, which is an interesting theory as normally I would say Double or Nothing or All Out but TK has been really stacking Revolution the last few years. Not sure if internally they have a pecking order under All In or if its just whatever comes up.

You are probably right and I think as the year continues that sales may not be at the pace they want due to the general economy, but I still suspect at launch it will sell more than any other recent console IF they have as many available as they are claiming and have at least one mario-centric launch title. The Switch sold 2.75 million units in the first quarter but that number was lower due to availability, not interest. I think Switch 2 will pass that if they really will have six million plus available on launch day.

I don't think they'd be dumb enough to price if that high, I think it'll be in the 4s. Whether it'll be $429 or $499 I think that'll be the bigger question. And if its a big enough step up to get people to rush out to get it immediately or people will be willing to wait for a Christmas game bundle.

tournaments are great, y'all dumb. more tournaments plz.