Zakk_Sabbath

Hey, it's a wrestling board - if anyone is qualified to speak on various clowns running around in red-and-yellow, it's probably us, brother. Take your pick!

I haven't heard it yet myself, but I was hoping J.J. had enough sense that it was something along those lines - given your read on it, I'm getting a vibe that he's the type of guy who would likely say similar if he were speaking with, for example, a death row inmate or something like that. With that said, while I obviously want to respect J.J. and other folks' religious beliefs as much as possible, thinking a bit more 'secularly' I also 100% understand why many would find ANY talk of forgiveness or redemption of any kind to be wildly inappropriate at the moment (which is where I'm at right now, full disclosure - not out of opposition to forgiveness as a virtue or anything, but more out of holy shit did you read that thing???)

I'm into a lot of the same old dad metal as Jericho (relevant username!) and I have no earthly idea what this fit is supposed to be. It's like Bowie fucked the Wendy's logo

@Dolfan in NYCi had a premonition that f'n gif was coming for Mariah May, and cried when i got to the bottom and it actually *was*. Well f'n done

George Kittle El Cero Miedo (my dynasty league TE, I may add) must have got him watching, that's cool as shit.

Hangman cracked a joke about Nana stealing his weed a couple months ago, so naturally he had to be taken out before RVD was brought in. Long term storytelling!

Though I certainly enjoyed it, the CMLL stuff took me a bit by surprise. I wonder if they are trying to gauge interest for a Forbidden Door-style event with them. On that note: someone with more lucha knowledge than I can probably fill this blank in for me, but it felt like somewhat of a big deal to have those guys on the same show as Kommander while he's an AAA title holder - are relations thawing?

Agreed - I hate to make this observation again because I just said it re: Lady Frost on Collision (were she to be seriously pushed), but that's gonna sell a lot of f'n t-shirts. Edit: @Curt McGirt I see your point for sure, but I have to respectfully disagree. That crowd was feeling 'em huge. The '90s comparison IS spot-on, but I feel like that was always Bullet Club's thing anyway, so it doesn't really bother me - plus it's being done in service of the BC and Acclaimed guys, it's not like they're building the whole thing around Billy. I get what you're saying though. Re: the rest of the show - I agree Jeff Hardy/Mox never got going (and I'm reeeeeally hoping the Jeff flipping the bird thing isn't the start of some worked shoot horseshit where he starts leaving through the crowd, or whatever). Taya/Deonna was awesome, though, and I second all the Toni love per usual. This wasn't the one, but it'd sure be nice for Taya to win a meaningful match once in a while. I liked Hanger/Liona! Liona tossing him to the floor was bruuuutal, I clenched a bit thinking Hangman hurt his arm (and there was another part after where I could've sworn it looked like Toa went to grab it but Hangman pulled away, so Toa did another Banzai drop off the ropes instead, unless I was just seeing shit). On that note: hopefully Mr. Wardlow is cool. Did not sound good at all when he yelled, but hopefully just a tweak. Also: I honest to goodness loved the shit out of that main event. I made a joke earlier about Batista, but on the real, with Sting hanging it up, I wouldn't hate RVD becoming a new resident vet. Shit, if you're not gonna do anything with that FTW title Hook's got, put it on RVD and have him work like, super-safe, 7 minute WWF-Hardcore-division style matches every couple weeks, why not Overall, I thought it was a fine program. I super wanted to believe it would move and shake a little more coming off of a killer Collision, but it was a perfectly serviceable setup episode

I agree a little variety would be nice in that regard, but I could also see the idea of holding back on something like that after just having similar in the cage on Collision - I guess it makes sense to let that breathe a little bit.

This is the last time I ever try to be optimistic with you people, god dammit. I hope you all end up watching basketball, and the rest of us get Sasha Banks, Batista, a MAX deal, an MJF return, Sting saying "nevermind" to retirement, and an announcement unifying at least 5 belts.

You know what, those guys can be real jerks at times, but fair play to 'em here. They got new info, and reacted accordingly - kinda can't ask for more than that, really. (I mean, other than, oh idk, reading the fucking thing before you go on the air to goof around about it - but I digress)

Years ago when I learned that the original "Impact Zone" was the same soundstage where they shot GUTS, I always secretly hoped they'd run an angle where Abyss or someone finds the Aggro Crag piece in a closet and starts trying to defend it like a title, or they find Mo wandering around the back like Scott Hall in that Flair insane asylum segment.

I said this to Matt yesterday in last week's thread, but I think it's worth a repost: these weird-on-paper Dynamites are often the sneaky good ones. Jericho/Fletcher will have a bunch of Callis stuff (maybe we get an Ospreay appearance?) but the match itself should be good - I liked what they did before Forbidden Door together, and I thought Jericho's Rampage match with the similarly-built Matt Sydal the other week was some damn fine TV. Taya/Deonna should be good, they've had a lot of matches together at TNA from what I understand, so they ought to be pretty comfortable with each other in there. I like Taya's act and look a whole ton, and I thought she had good matches with Stat and probably Jade Cargill's best matches, but in a blanket sense, I don't think she's hit that next gear yet on AEW TV that I've seen from her in the handful of her TNA and AAA matches I've caught - hopefully that comfort/familiarity I mentioned earlier will bring a bit of that out. Looking forward to it. Page/Toa - bombfest, no notes. Will be Luger-grunting from the couch with each punch sold, much to the chagrin of my better half. Thanks, omnibus thread! RVD/Swerve... This could be the weirdest match ever, or this could be the best ECW on TNN main event that never was. RVD's in awesome shape, but I think this one's largely going to depend on how deep they go. IDK if I see it going a full segment length but I'm sure we'll get the hits at least. Mox/Hardy... I mean, look. It'll be fun. I ain't looking for anything out of Jeff here that I wasn't looking for from 55 year old Hulk Hogan as WWF Champion in 2002. This is a "two big name stars to get eyeballs on the show" match, and I have absolutely zero qualms with it. Edit: you know how I referred to RVD/Swerve as a TNN main event above? This one ought to be the New Jack match that goes around the building (in spirit, not card placement).

Thirded - you and @Johnny Sorroware on the money. I had very similar feelings after the TK hat thing - just too much of a potential minefield. And as sorta mentioned by others: I legitimately had no idea WWE did shoot media scrums after PPVs - the last one I saw was years ago now, and it was just a bunch of PAs pretending to record on their iPhone while they asked The Wyatts why they want to fight for the tag titles or whatever.

This would be a good way to repurpose the Punjabi Prison as the Shrine of the Silver Monkey for blowoff matches

This was a good item on which to end your post, because it really does sum up everything else you said: HHH is a pro-wrestler, thinking like a pro-wrestler. I mean, how many times have we heard "Accentuate the positive, hide the negative" as a booking philosophy from everyone from Dusty to Heyman?

Your buddy's line of questioning saved me from going Elvis on my TV having to hear "Hey, Papa... Hey, Peyton" 500x every Sunday. On behalf of NFL viewers everywhere: we thank him.

I do wonder how much about that is a bit of a generational gap. I've heard Dutch say on his pod that Tully mentioned something about the younger guys rarely coming to him and Arn for advice, but the counterpoint to that was Taz tweeting a reply that he gives advice to the newer kids every single day. Is it simply a matter of having a roster of younger guys in their 20s/30s/early 40s, who grew up watching ECW and ROH as opposed to Crockett? Not putting down the older vets whatsoever, but I could see the idea of wanting to seek advice from those one personally revered as a fan before breaking in - so if you're a guy my age / the Bucks age/ Ricky's age give or take, a tip might "mean more" coming from a guy like Taz or Danielson whom we got to watch the runs of live, as opposed to maybe some Brainbusters stuff that got thrown in the VCR or YouTubed a bit later on once they committed themselves to the path. I could be way off, but I can't fathom any other reason Ricky and others wouldn't utilize those resources. Not saying it's the move I would personally make, or that that later stuff is necessarily better in any way, I'm just struggling to get why this would be happening.

Its probably part of a much broader conversation we shouldn't have here/now, but I'm of the belief that we've reached the point of advancement as a tribe/society/species (however you want to phrase it) where media literacy needs to become a mandatory, standardized subject in public schools and universities in the US just the same as math, history, or anything else. The amount of otherwise perfectly rational adults I encounter on a daily basis who can't even identify an obvious phishing attempt, let alone misinformation or opinions-as-newz (both in and out of wrestling) is far, far too high.

Obligatory "I didn't even know he was sick!"

I haven't seen any of him in the ring because I don't watch the show, obviously, but months ago someone here posted a recap of the Dom/Ripley story (including a hilarious 'Christmas dinner' scene and another in a restaurant where Rey is EATING DINNER IN THE MASK in both, which is tremendous) and Dom seemed like a total natural on-camera, with some really great lines. Great chemistry with Ripley, too (who has come super far since I last saw her, probably early in her NXT run if not prior)

First paragraph sums up my feelings well, this one was right up my alley too for all the reasons you noted - where I'll diverge from you a bit is the second; I hard agree it's not a 'look forward to' card on paper, but sometimes those end up being the sneaky good ones. Full disclosure: I'm also probably being a bit 'glass half full' about it because I'm the right age to have spent some time as a teenager thinking RVD/Jerry Lynn's matches were the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Silly question - does the Continental title 'include' the ROH title lineage? Wondering if there would be some kind of record in play here of longest time between title reigns should Danielson win it (I had a false memory of Claudio having held the title under the old regime but I must be thinking of when he lost to Morishima or something, it's Monday morning and I'm not alive/alert/awake) - the only other semi-recent example I could think of is where Bret beat the Miz for the US title for a hot second, making it something like 12 or 13 years between then and when he beat DDP on Thunder

If AEW ever gets its merch game together, I think Lady Frost is a no-brainer for some really cool shit people (especially kids) would eat up. Maybe Sting will bequeath her the Night King snow entrance in March