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SturmCRF

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Everything posted by SturmCRF

  1. I'd fucking love Goto to win the title. Tsuji will have his time, but Goto deserves to finally have his moment after getting geeked out by Okada and joining Chaos.
  2. I really hope you're wrong about Naito. I'm so bored by him, I can feel myself turning into a David Finlay cheerleader if that's the only shot at getting the title off him in the next 10 months.
  3. I love most things AEW do, but those tournament brackets are disgracefully bad. They couldn't even stretch to 16 teams?! If you bring in maybe two NJPW teams (don't need to be Japan based either, why not West Coast Wrecking Crew?), two CMLL and two indy teams, you can easily make a 32 team bracket. Not this bullshit procession to Bucks getting a win back over FTR in the final. Where are Moxley and Claudio? Gates Of Agony? You gave Lionhook their silly team name, sling them in the mix to progress their storyline a bit. The Gunns, The Acclaimed, does having a six man tag title make them allergic to normal tag matches? AEW is so great when it ignores all the silly unwritten rules that WWE falls back on, I wish they could have ignored the one that says wrestling fans are too dim to understand large and complex tournaments, you know, like they have in nearly every other sport.
  4. Yeah, I'm fine with the Jack Perry thing, I've been enjoying HOT a bit more since Kanemaru and Narita joined, but Chase over Ishii is bullshit. I know he's a tag champ (why, though?!) and Ishii isn't pushed, but they know what they have in Ishii, he always seems to be one of the first names in demand for Rev Pro and AEW shows, and I don't get why they wouldn't want to maximise him when two of the best wrestlers in the world have left the company. If he's going to lose in the first round, at least let him have a 15 minute banger with one of the young guys, but nope, they're losing in the first round too for some fucking reason. Bastards had better put the big boy belt on ZSJ soon.
  5. I guess they didn't specify who those prayers should be to.
  6. AEW are really missing out on our £30 by not having a 'This is Rampage Baby' baby onesie. Also, not a Saturday morning goes by when I don't sing 'This is make or break, my balls are made of stone' during the looping theme song ad break on Fite.
  7. On the long title reigns issue, there's nothing inherently wrong with them, they can be great if they're done well, but they're absolute death to my interest as soon as it's telegraphed that they're going to be long. Almost as soon as MJF won the AEW title, he was out there bragging about how long he was going to hold it, he had his custom belt, and you knew he wasn't dropping it for the best part of a year. Most of the drama got sucked out of everything he did from then on. Hiromu's recent Jr Title run became largely boring as soon as he started talking about beating the record for defences. WWE is barely watchable because they have five hours of TV a week that can hardly even bother to pretend there's any chance you'll see anything noteworthy happen, cos Gunther or Roman or even Seth are unlikely to be dethroned on a lesser PPV, let alone Raw or Smackdown. There's a delicate balancing act where you can book an epic title reign to only reveal itself as such gradually, but I can't remember the last time I saw anyone manage it.
  8. Maybe with Wardlow, it's just that people really respond to the Virgil/Alex Riley/Damien Mizdow disrespected henchman storyline, and it doesn't give an accurate reading of a wrestler's default level of overness without some dickhead bullying them or treating them like a lackey. Every time it goes wrong like this, I appreciate Batista a little more.
  9. Do the mods have a secret administrator function that will highlight certain posts next time a particular user, let's say Coach Tony, visits the board?
  10. Yeah, I've gone from hoping he survives climbing Mount Everest because it's dangerous to climb Mount Everest, to hoping he survives whatever things he might be planning to do there. Absolute loon, and also one of the best wrestlers in the world who looks totally credible against basically anyone, even when they're twice his size.
  11. I reflexively favourited that on principle even though we ended the Honor Club subscription when it drifted too Dark and squashy. ROH right now is mainly not what I want from ROH, but that match does sound delightful.
  12. Looking forward to everything on this show except for Hardy vs Moxley. Although I usually don't look forward to Moxley matches that much until they happen - he's too protected for many of them to have any intrigue results wise, but he tends to go above and beyond to make them fun. But Jeff Hardy being on Dynamite several weeks in a row is a rough one when they're still rationing our helpings of Hobbs, Takeshita and several of the other lesser used meat lads. Could do with some sort of clusterfuck tag match, it'd get more guys on the show and provide a change of pace from all the singles.
  13. I enjoyed the men's Rumble much more than it merited, as my parents came round to hang out with their grandson, and my Mum was so high on baby endorphins that she got properly into the wrestling. Lots of 'Ow! That looked like it really hurt!', she got very invested in someone being able to stop Gunther (who was mainly the one hurting people, of course), and was well behind Kofi and Drew. My Dad was less into it but still moreso than at any point since we watched Rumble 91 together. Just as his glee at the absurd size of the Natural Disasters was part of what got me into it then, he was impressed by Bronson Reed and Omos this time. Both parents were also entertained and appalled by Bron Breakker charging around like an enraged steroid elemental. Neither really got CM Punk. So, below average show, but nice to know it's never too late for some new treasured Royal Rumble memories. The baby mainly just listened to it, there was milk to drink.
  14. So close to being able to cancel TNT Sports, between this and UFC being so riddled with bastards that I no longer want to watch it. It's not really worth it for a quarter of each weekend's football matches, but fuck, I still need the ability to watch Bournemouth vs Sheffield United at 12:30 on a Saturday.
  15. He's great, I hope they start using him more often and mix him in with some of the non-lucha talent, I can see he's great at playing off of flippy dudes, but I'd love to see him vs a Moxley or a Christian or a Keith Lee, or anyone really.
  16. I'm with you on Nigel, for sure, I think you've nailed my problem with him. He's actually very good at what he does, I just don't think it helps to have anyone doing it. Reading the rest of what you wrote, here and elsewhere, does make me question what I like and don't like about AEW, and wrestling in general. I got into it from the start because it seemed like a promising alternate major league wrestling company, with a bunch of wrestlers I already liked, and The Young Bucks, who I didn't like but at least indicated that tag wrestling would be treated seriously. A lot of their earlier signings to fill out the roster seem very indie in retrospect, probably because they were, but I fucking loved that they'd have Kip Sabian almost take Hangman to the time limit, or Kenny and Janela have a mad brawl on Dark. The Cody challenge made every week exciting. 'Warhorse, oh, I've heard of him, that will be interesting.' Then he gets a shot, doesn't really convince, but hey, maybe Eddie Kingston will. Oh look, Eddie Kingston rules, signed. The looseness to it, and the sense that anyone could get pushed if they got over, that no one was being punished for obscure reasons or treated as a non-entity because they weren't an established star, was great. Then there were all the pandemic releases, and loads of my favourite WWE wrestlers who were being wasted got signed, and most of them seemed like upgrades on anyone outside the main event. When Hager debuted on the first Dynamite I was encouraged that they'd signed another credible main eventer, now they have about 25 of those and the idea of giving him any sort of push seems absurd. Meanwhile, I finally stopped watching Raw and Smackdown a couple of years ago, partly because of the dominant, part time champion hellscape, partly because of unwatchable Vince garbage, and probably mainly because my girlfriend got into wrestling through me and she can't stand most of their presentation, so why would I inflict it on her when we can enjoy most other wrestling together? The idea that WWE is good now under HHH confuses the shit out of me. There are really good wrestlers there, and I watch the PLEs and NXT, but you still have Akira Tozawa being a comedy jobber, and a fake tertiary world title, and corporate new-speak, and 20 minute scripted promos starting a show. And I will always love pro wrestling and AEW still seems leagues ahead of the alternative, so they have quite a lot of rope before I'd consider even missing a Rampage, let alone giving up altogether. I guess, in conclusion, my philosophy on wrestling is pretty flexible. Pure, sports based NJPW main event kinda stuff is my favourite, but I love an elaborate storyline if it sticks the landing, I love a heel turn, it doesn't take long for me to get nostalgic about total Wrestlecrap gimmickry as long as it's swept under the carpet quickly enough to become an obscure shared reference and doesn't eat up too much TV time. I love that Edge and Christian can treat the last two decades of their careers as canon and have a feud in AEW, even if match wise I'd prefer a 40 minute Danielson vs Garcia technical classic taking up half the show, or Hook vs Swerve, or Buddy Matthews vs anyone. Ultimately I want a variety show, I want to feel like any style of wrestling could break out from segment to segment, and I want talented performers who are floundering in one company to be able to go and realise their potential in another. I never got into comics because I found the idea of all those years of interconnected lore overwhelming, but they also lose their appeal to me the second they become too self contained. Wrestling is like a lifelong, real life comic where I do know most of the story threads and character histories like the back of my hand, so as long wrestling as a whole continues to satisfy that need, I don't care too much about the minutiae, even if I'll discuss and think about it ad nauseam. Still couldn't care less about The Bloodline, though.
  17. I'm a Dad! My girlfriend is a fucking superhero. Her waters broke at 4:30 yesterday morning, about seven weeks early, the plan had been a Caesarean in mid January but she had to do it the hard way without any painkillers stronger than gas and air as she's had a blood clotting issue. Robin, my son (fuck it feels surreal to type that) is doing really well in the premature baby unit, his Mum insisted I go home for the night as I'm a terrible sleeper and I was never going to get any at the hospital, but going back to see them in a couple of hours. Having had maybe three and a half hours sleep, but hey, owt is better than nowt, as I think they say up North. Just thought I'd let my internet home know, this definitely qualifies as really swell. Between my lifelong obsession with wrestling and my girlfriend becoming an AEW and New Japan and Stardom maniac since meeting me a week before the great 2020 pandemic lockdown fast tracked everything, I am hopeful that this little guy will also love big, meaty men and insane, bendy women performing absurd acts of semi-scripted violence for his entertainment. But if he's just into Tik Toks and Blippi and haircuts, we'll love him anyway. FATHERHOOD~!!!
  18. I'm fine with it if they then call Ilja up to the main roster to beat Gunther for the IC Title at Wrestlemania.
  19. Please don't give them any ideas! It's bad enough having one company trying to distract their fans from an absentee World Champion by pretending their secondary titles or magic briefcases are just as important.
  20. I'll always find it impossible not to like Punk for the secret best bit of meta weirdness in internet history. I just love the idea of him researching the history of Liverpool FC and spending hours posting in the footballsoccer thread just so he can go undercover as an Englishman living in Canada to troll himself on a wrestling forum for months on end. If Tony Khan was a real DVDVR guy he'd pay Rafa Benitez to unveil himself as The Devil and cost himself millions driving away confused fans just for the sake of the world's greatest possible, multi layered in-joke.
  21. I do remember watching that and thinking, Mick Foley talked about what a bad idea it was doing that from the apron, and said the only reason it wasn't worse was that he had a big, flat ass. MJF's top rope version was a brave bit of improvisation, possibly or possibly not fuelled by fear that Swerve and Hangman had just upstaged him, but it was definitely very stupid.
  22. Great article Matt, I don't think you're reading too much into things and you were spot on with most of what you wrote. That being said, I loved Swerve vs Hangman and hated MJF vs Jay White (the shape of the angle as a whole rather than the match itself) with a passion. Ultimately, I will always hate a Hogan, a Rock or a Cena as a character and plot device, even when I can appreciate the performer. I just can't buy an underdog story when the people telling it have failed to convince me that Earthquake/Wade Barrett/Jay White have the slightest shadow of a chance to win. Every element of this feud, from the belt hijacking, to the Samoa Joe and other challengers waiting in the wings, to the insulting ambulance angle on the pre show, guaranteed that Jay White could not win the title without going deep into the kind of Russo territory that they always avoid, so I found it impossible to get into. MJF has done a great job of making the crowd pandering touches work in the context of the match and his character, even the Kangaroo Kick is always hit at a logical point in the match and looks like a solidly connecting dropkick variant that hurts. But he's still playing a variant of the dominant WWE Champion, I still spend every title defence waiting for the run ins, and I really hoped AEW could be a refuge from that, especially in the main events.
  23. The Best Live Experiences thread reminded me of maybe the most baffling wrestling related experience of my life, which doesn't quite fit in there. I'd gone to New Orleans for Wrestlemania 34 in 2018, not a good Wrestlemania, but the one that I get to say I have physically attended. When I was emptying my pockets for the security pat down/scan, I take out my Kindle to put in the little tray. The security guard looks at it with total astonishment and says, 'Y'all READ?!' At the time and for years afterwards, I assumed she was just confused and disgusted that anybody might read for pleasure, and maybe that seeing this Kindle had affirmed everything she had ever believed about the effete, intellectual degenerates that they produce over in England. On more recent reflection though, I've begun to wonder whether I was being uncharitable to Americans, and the thing that really blew a fuse in her brain was the very idea of a non-illiterate fan of professional wrestling.
  24. I'm down for Jungle Boy as The Devil, assuming he can rise to the role. He needs some sort of faction if he's going to be any sort of main event heel, and there'll never be a better time to capitalise on the Wembley thing making him vaguely controversial. I've seen a fair bit of Mariah May from watching Stardom over the last year or so, she's really good. Not on a par with the best wrestlers in Stardom, but more than fit to share a ring with a Natsupoi or a Mayu and have an excellent match. She should immediately slot in as one of the better wrestlers in the AEW womens division, hopefully they keep adding to it.
  25. I think that's the worst possible thing they could do, they shouldn't be finding another major thing to copy from modern WWE. If anything, they should move their one World Title around a lot more. Distinguish themselves from the endless title runs that the competition has comitted themselves to, give those guys you mentioned a shot. Move back towards a more sport like presentation where the belt can change hands without months of storyline foreshadowing, and the focus is on the actual match, not who's friends with who and who might or might not run in. It's not what they will do, but it'd be great if they did.
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