Zakk_Sabbath

I thought we were going to get it at the first one and kept waiting for that moment on Collision where Nigel's just finally had enough and finally stands up from the desk. It's gonna be awesome when that goes down. Side tangent: It's like the one thing they could do that would completely redeem moving the booth to ringside IMO, as I'm a bigger fan of the old setup (I grew up a WCW guy and think it's a nice piece of visual variety to have a third "location" in addition to the ring/ringside, and the back).

I was actually considering the idea that Danielson goes over here with a rematch later at Wembley, but I'll say, @Just Adam Bay Bay's idea of putting the title on Ospreay there kind of intrigues me more now (much to your chagrin ). Its a not-so-fun conversation (maybe better suited for another thread) but if live gates are going to continue to drop stateside, it might behoove TK & Co to take a page out of the mid '90s Vince playbook and start doing more frequent European tours (the upcoming Canada run may have even been plotted with something similar in mind, who knows). Having a Brit on top with the title certainly wouldn't hurt attendance should they go that route.

After a day of simmering, this is where I am sort of landing. I didn't love it, but I don't think it was this big 'fingerpoke of doom' thing folks are making it out to be. If anything, I think it was kind of more out of the 'Billionaire Ted' playbook, or as mentioned earlier today, the little people dressed as Bret after Montreal. I think in large part, the negative reaction is probably amplified by the airing of the Wembley footage having seemingly negated Copeland's promo from the week before about moving on, and also Ospreay taking aim at HHH minutes later - the totality of those things had a greater effect than any one on their own, IMO.

We're on to Dynasty.

"Team: Just a reminder that the pizza party in the break room is for Smackdown employees only."

Sad for everyone but Shannon Moore, that poor guy's been sitting next to the phone flipping through the book of DILLIGAF for 15 years waiting for this

Bold prediction (and I must stress, this is not necessarily something I'm clamoring for): this segment somehow ends with Mercedes coming out to tell the Bucks that 'CEO' isn't just a clever nickname, and she's their new boss. And so that leads us to some too- cute, petty bullshit segments where she's saying stuff about glass, calling Collision 'her' show, etc. - you see where I'm heading.

For real. I figured he was gonna be a long term prospect/project like a Nick Wayne/Billie Starkz/Top Flight/etc.

I tried to make the sojourn happen but real life got in the way, so I'm bummed to say I have to join you all on IWTV. Hope you all have a fantastic time, and even if I can't be in the house, I'm still looking forward to putting faces to some of the names in the crowd. Cheers again to those who put this card together - incredibly special.

Yeah, so like Tech said, he's a young man ... right...?

This one is the biggest WTF for me - she couldn't have cost *that* much. I guess in the end, Bobby Cruise just had better hips?

Completely agree on the second point re: the title, and I *also* think a blood feud between the two would be great! I just think it's not gonna be as good as it could've been if their alignments were swapped - it's nothing against MJF at all, I think he did the best he could with what he was given during his reign (cue a second Hangman comparison) - I just simply grew tired of him as a babyface. Doing Hogan's shit at Wembley was the shark jumper for me with that, I think. Similarly, while I enjoy Cole as a heel more than I enjoy MJF as a babyface, I'm a little tired of him as a heel too, I think because so much of his current act is already-treaded-ground from NXT. And really, the Devil stuff sucked. It just did. The quicker they can move on from that, the better IMO. But dude, if they could find a way to make it happen in the inverse - like If MJF gets the Kingdom to fuck on Cole, and says 'they were working for me all along' or some other Russo-retcon-type shit? Hell yeah, I'm in.

That's a great point. I was thinking of like, Undertaker going down to OVW in '02 to beat up David Flair in the lead-up to Mania that year, but forgetting that he was already a heel - that's my bad. You may very well be correct that it could garner a babyface anti-hero reaction (in which case, I suppose mission accomplished if they wanna keep him babyface and stay the course?) In re-framing my post through your lens I do kinda now realize that some of the 'heel terrorizing' I was referring to could have just as easily been rebellious-babyface-stuff ripped from something like the Austin/Vince story in the '90s - so you're on the money.

Honestly, dude, I was gonna say similar, but didn't want to hurt the feelings of anyone still holding out for a blowoff - that's why I opened my last thing with "If this *has* to be done..." Yes, they sold some shirts, and held down the fort at a very tumultuous time for the upper card/main scene, but I have zero desire to go back to it. I'd posit that if TUK didn't have such a heavy TV presence currently, most of the rest of us probably would've forgotten about it too.

Obviously, this makes perfectly logical sense from a booking perspective - no argument from me there - but I'll be entirely honest: babyface MJF kinda ran its course in our house. The crowd is definitely gonna cheer him on return, so it makes sense from that perspective as well - I'm just not necessarily looking forward to it (not at all 'cause it's 'wrong' but just entirely as a matter of personal taste). In a perfect world, if this MJF/Cole thing *absolutely* has to be paid off, I would have MJF terrorize Cole and TUK to the point that the audience actually begins to feel a bit badly for Cole, and there's a de-facto double-turn. Like, ruin the dude's life. Home invasion during a Chugs stream, show up at the dentist's office and beat up DMD's boss, the whole nine. "You think you're the devil? I am evil itself." Idk

This is one of those "Why the hell wasn't that on TV?!" items: there was a BTE segment in the very early days that revealed they were paying off Rick Knox in this fashion

You definitely aren't wrong, but by the same token, I think there's still something to be said for the conventional wisdom of holding back her first AEW bout for PPV - Id imagine the roadmap looks something like Punk's when he came in (individualized hype for "First Rampage Appearance!!", "First Dynamite Match!!", etc.) ETA: taking the Japan injury into consideration, it's also entirely possible it's a shake off the rust/light duty situation with her for a bit

Hard agree. It's interesting, if you asked me yesterday at this time, I would have guessed (based on nothing) that we would eventually be heading toward Takeshita turning babyface, leaving the family, and challenging Okada for the Continental title - but I went back up to a couple posts I missed, and now you and @John E. Dynamitehave me convinced he's gonna be the one to eventually dethrone Copeland for the TNT. Indulging my fantasy pencil for a moment, Takeshita beating Copeland for that TNT title, and then pivoting over to defending against Hook (maybe even with one of them unifying the FTW?) to further the Jericho/Callis issue could be a fun path, and is probably a little easier to book for given it doesn't involve fucking with anyone's alignments Edit: Another reason the 2nd idea works better with keeping Take heel and going for the TNT is that we are probably only a handful of shows away from the crowd turning Swerve full-blown babyface - so this would also keep the heel locker room from being a man down

I'm a fan of hers overall, but I can fully vibe with that criticism. Going a step further: was there not some newz recently that they hired a woman from WWE creative specifically for her (like a Rock/Gerwitz situation)? I mention this only to say that you (and others) may be getting that vibe because it's, you know, fully accurate...

Total coincidence I'm dying at: I was just talking about Ernest Miller last night to/at my better half because we were discussing the Diddy filings, and I had to repeat the "I taught Usher Raymond karate. What, you don't believe me, bitch?" line from some shoot I saw with him a million years ago

I'm not 100% certain on this so don't quote me, but at least one major insurer I know of designates their marine pool as workers comp (I think it's a similar idea to, for example, something fire-specific or flood-specific under an umbrella homeowner policy). I wish I had more info on that for you, but I'm on the review/audit side of things, so the liability stuff is well finished by the time I ever see it.

Did you actually type this or do we have a framistan for 'power twink'

I agree with you overall, but one thing I wanted to note about the 'not actually participating in': I think we're heading to Mercedes/Willow for the TBS title at some point following Dynasty, with Mercedes taking it - I'm envisioning sort of a women's division analogue to having Copeland as TNT champion: big, ex-WWE name, super easily recognizable in advertising. I'm probably thinking way too deeply about this, but I could see it being a bit of attempted psychological chicanery on TK's part to put the titles named after the TV partners on two 'names' during rights negotiations. Its also a really nice way to avoid some of the criticism TNA got way back about rocketing ex-WWE talent right to the world title, while still acknowledging said signees are a big deal by belting em up with the TV titles. Also, while we're on Mercedes: I didn't love her in the booth necessarily either, but credit where it's due (and Taz took the words right out of my mouth, in a story sense): loved her calling the code blue. The whole idea of Mercedes scouting that move did a lot for Skye IMO

Glad to hear you're ok Niko - you and the rest of the guys in that area were my first thoughts when I saw the news/video

To this point: they're also guys who haven't appeared regularly on any TV outside of TNA, so their 'TV age' is a lot lower than one would assume, given their longevity. You're 100% correct on everything, but I want MCMG themselves to have a nice run before settling into that opener/vet role kind of currently filled by guys like Sydal and Daniels In a perfect world, MCMG is presented in AEW similarly to AJ Styles when he first arrived on WWE TV