Zakk_Sabbath

Beautifully done, Natural! Its funny, I've seen this match a million times (probably my favorite, too) but reading the totality of it in your re-review here really drives home the point Bret talks about in interviews about wanting his matches to feel movie-like. Like, even decades later and filtered through your own words, there's still a very clearly defined arc IMO.

Part of me wonders if it was a conscious, by-design choice to kick some of those down the road a bit in order to use em to beef up numbers later on heading into the TV contract year (obviously, what happened next was unforeseen).

Thank you for circling back to this, because I gave Dolfan the troph for the same reason earlier in the week and forgot to explain! With that said: I'm an "older millennial" (prob ~5 years younger than you, ballparking) and while those two songs are must-haves, I've always been a staunch "Til I Hear It From You" guy. Do we have a Gin-erational divide on our hands?

If by some miracle I somehow ended up hosting or co-hosting said show, I'd open every week with this like it was "It's Wednesday/Friday, and you know what that means" lol. It really WAS difficult to believe with the info available at the time - but with that said: I literally only yesterday read that apparently Santana was dealing with "living a little too fast" and Ortiz moved out of NYC during the early part of COVID, so evidently that's where some of the rift came from, plus the awful timing with injuries (both their own and when Dash had that scary wrist slicing during the FTR feud) but they've since mended fences on a personal level. So yeah, not to turn this whole thread into Uncle Zakk's Feel-Good Daily's Place Reunion Extravaganza, but we may yet get it someday if Santana were to ever get another look and both men were willing to give it a shot. I almost feel like I have to end with a missed opportunity now to keep on-topic, so here's one: how about the Santana/Ortiz "blow-off" match being on a day/time shifted Rampage? Maybe this is bias talking just because I'm a big fan of those guys (can you tell?) but that's a PPV match in my book

Lol I refuse to accept that.. I already backed him on the "black dye job = 1993 Superman resurrection mullet" thing once, I learned my damn lesson!

I fully - and I mean, FULLY - blame that on Twitter users. I don't really engage much on there, but after WD, I noticed kind of a shocking amount of people saying "bUt CoLe wAs tHe hEeL" to the point where I guess evidently they felt it needed to be addressed on TV. It wasn't my cup of tea either, but with the benefit of hindsight, I'm willing to give a little grace on that one only because "mystery person" angles stink 9x out of 10 anyway, and the promotion as a whole was on fucking fire (and not in the 'white hot' sense either, I mean the 'this is fine'-dog sense). Hopefully they've got something up their sleeve that they feel its worth revisiting the devil stuff for.

Hard agree. Man, even if we don't get the reunion, your post here has me thinking that even a singles bout between OC and Mox (or any of the other guys, really) for Yuta's soul would be an f'n awesome, built-in story. Tony S made sure to refer to OC as "The man who trained him!" when Yuta was on him last night, too, so something along those lines may even already be in the works.

FWIW, my pet theory is that we're gonna get a reunion at some point during this hostile BCC takeover story, tying directly into your heart/soul thing (my only 'proof' is a gut feeling that they're saving 'Jane' for it) - I know poor Chuck had to retire because of the ankle, but I think you could do a whole lot worse than having him on the outside managing a trio of OC/Trent/Rocky. Circling back to my comment above, they'd make really nice Trios challengers. ETA: This came up I think either in the TV thread or the monthly thread within the last day or so, but I do find it kinda weird they dropped Trent's angle with the Callis Family so abruptly, too - seems ripe for the retconning Edit 2: Raz with a great point below too - that whole Stat/Stoke split seemed kinda outta nowhere, huh? MANIFESTING.

I was with you on every single letter of this until the last week or so, I'm kinda coming around for two reasons: 1) I'm enthralled with this nü-BCC story and I feel like they'll probably come in handy as a device there, and 2) I'm really excited by the idea of this Jake-led LFI getting a reign at some point. If not for those two things having literally just happened, I'd be with you entirely

Heel Cody Rhodes by a landslide, IMO - we were so ready.

Yea sorry I should've clarified, I'm sure that was confusing as shit once I brought up the other thread lol - you are correct, I was thinking of the O&Os running it in that slot since most of the ones they have left are in NFL cities (or like directly between, like Milwaukee or some of em in FL). Good call on the MNTV aspect as well. As long as we're talking in such specificity: I could also see a potential recap show doing well in a post-local news slot, like the old days of "George Michael's Sports Machine" on NBC stations

I'm not sure I'd personally have any use for it without a "featured bout" or two since I usually catch Dynamite live-ish and Rampage/Collision by Monday, but as with the Prime Time idea above, I think it has potential to work well as a driver to the main Turner shows. Dynamite : Nitro :: Shockwave : Livewire? ETA @Stefanie Sparklefacei love that idea - especially during NFL season when there are markets that don't get a Fox game at 1, that might actually do a decentish number by total accident. I was just talking a couple months back in the ratings/finance thread about whether there was still any value in syndication (based on stuff I'd read about ratings for WOW and Sinclair's ROH) and this is right up the same alley

That's another idea I had for Rampage way back: if the shows formatted for (let's say) three matches, you have one taped with Dynamite, one with Collision, and one with ROH (they were still at Universal then), and you have Tony S and a co-host do wraparounds from the "control center." Depending on if Shockwave ends up on FS1 or regular-ass channel 5, that one might still have some viability if it's still a more "peripheral" cable show meant to drive folks to the bigger two on Weds & Sats

I was thinking the same back when Collision had the Arlington residency, it would've been interesting to see that format done in a more... let's say, lively setting. Either that, or using that building to make Collision or ROH into its own little universe ala the later Jimmy Hart WCW SN years.

In NO way putting RJ down, just the opposite, but I'm surprised this is such great quality only because there's an ad for his old vlog that constantly plays on Fight Network where he talks about sort of not getting the idea of someone wanting to be a booker, and it's usually someone who doesn't/can't wrestle kind of "playing with toys" and that sort of thing - so in the end, I'm super thankful he was able to find the right headspace to contribute this story to TV because I've really, really enjoyed it so far. We often talk about the idea of the "buffet" but this is probably my favorite flavor of dish if I had to pick one (in a tonal sense)

Hard seconded, other than hiding it on Honor Club - if Rampage is gonna go out, this is the most Rampagey way to do it IMO: sneaky good matches no one knew they wanted

I gotta respectfully disagree on that only because Bryan himself leveraged those qualities into great babyface reigns in WWE and AEW - Darby could definitely do the same (especially with the built-in story of having been 'prepared' by Sting over the last ~5 years on his side). FWIW, I also never thought the proposed Darby/Bryan match at Grand Slam would be BD's last - I figured we'd get a non-finish in Queens with an all-WA state three way main at WD between Darby/Swerve/Bryan, with Hangman costing Swerve (obviously this was prior to MVP's debut at the show and Swerve taking a bit of a detour from the title scene).

Far be it from me to talk you guys out of your opinion, but I think it's worth mentioning a couple asterisky type things: 1) as Casey already said, the interim situation - that whole period, and everything surrounding it kinda marred it. I watched every week, attended multiple shows w him on top, and I can probably legit tell you more about the "Rocky III" pod with Renee than I can that particular reign 2) the subsequent attempt at an International title reign was kinda derailed because he got concussed at Grand Slam and did the audible to Fenix right in the middle of it, so that one could've def gone better too 3) Good God, Mox vs. Swerve is gonna be so, SO gross, and I can't wait.

Good point, and to expand upon that: even if it's a drop in the bucket compared to the TV deals, there is still ad money to be made there (either through monetizing the channel, or in-show stuff like when Dark was sponsored by Wish for a bit). On another note: We were joking about something in the omnibus, and '80s promos came up which got me to thinking - is Daddy Magic hurt, or did they just feel commentary was a better use of him while Cool Hand Ang is out on paternity leave? IMO there's some ready-made stuff there for those guys to get involved with the FTR/Outrunners angle were 2.0 to hypothetically make a return any time soon. With some of the criticism of the tag division as of late, you've also got the added bonus of having them a relatively established team to give a little bit of cred to shit. I know we're all kinda guilty of playing "What I'd Do With The TV Money" lately, but shit, I'd throw some of it at the guy from the Metallica movie and lock him in a room with Santana and Ortiz. It can't be that hard to get out of a TNA deal, right?

@zendragonGod dammit I can't believe I'm taking this bait less than 24 hours after agreeing w Tech that no one wants to re-litigate this man's perceived hypocrisy among a lot of us... But boy, that seems a lot like "wasting time on dumb Internet shit," doesn't it?

I saw a bunch of crap yesterday on Twitter from some interview he gave, so he's got "new" sound bytes making the rounds (I agree with you a billion percent, naturally, but just saying I see the 'fresh in the brain-ness')

I'm sure Madison Rayne is a lovely human being, and I must emphasize that I appreciate her hard work in helping build that kick ass TNA KO division way back when... but my God I would sooner trust Helen Keller to put matches together for these women

I'm bummed to hear that, if only because that segment was actually pretty damn well-received in the building* despite it's sports-entertaininess (especially surprising to me considering how deep into the evening it was taped, but that segment legit woke us up a bit for Okada/Sammy). * Full disclosure: me and four fellow drunks a row over were convinced Gunn was Chris Masters; this may have enhanced the proceedings. -- Great episode this week! I saw someone say on Twitter that it felt almost like a reboot or a season premiere type episode with all the different goings on, and I have to agree. And man, I gotta say, there is probably no better use for that Turner money than locking up Garcia, and sneaking in a couple last "Final Countdown" plays. On a personal note, we have a wedding to go to this weekend so we can't watch until Sunday and I am fucking g u t t e d about it, because as a go-home show I thought this definitely achieved its goal. If I've got one criticism, it's that I thought the thing with Penelope taking Hayter out of the four-way was just a little bit too similar to Mox and Danielson fighting their way to the back in order to set up the Yuta beatdown (which, btw, I thought was shot wonderfully, but may as well have included a "Watch Yuta Turn on Saturday Because of This Right Here" on-screen graphic. Hopefully just a really well-done red herring, but we shall see).

Really well said - 100% agree with this, and to take it a step further, I think every word of this probably applies to Lance Archer and Brian Cage in the men's singles division, except probably even more challenging since they've never been an AEW champion unlike Nyla (though Archer did win the IWGP US title on AEW TV and Cage is a former FTW Champ, if you wanna really stretch). The other day I saw an alternate angle of the Perry Ferrell/Dave Navarro onstage attack, and Ferrell's face looked *exactly* like this lol