Ziggy

I don't think Eric or Cornette is Anti AEW as people think. Playing up that Anti AEW stance is so profitable for 2 people that have name value in the podcasting space. I'm sure the style isn't their cup of tea. I refuse to believe they want to See the demise the only competition to WWE after 2 decades. Hunter has been much more opened to bring in people from Bischoffs era to do cameos or other things lately so its not like he has to try to hard to be so Anti AEW to win them over. Just like it's his gimmick to be so Anti Meltzer when he used to talk with him back in the day. I don't think he's actually bothered by Dynamite outlasted Nitro. It's cool that AEW is still going on national TV but they have yet to get the ratings Nitro did even towards the end. TNA has outlasted WCW but does that make TNA a bigger success. Even with the low ratings and the low attendance for the live shows, they have done great in other areas and done things other companies not named WWE have done. Who knows where they'll be a few years from now. Weren't they out drawing WWE after few years ago. Bischoff probably doesn't want them to draw the same ratings Nitro was at their peek and with the way TV is today, the probably never will

I got more of a kick out of him showing up in AAA. I know he has a history in Mexico but it can out of nowhere but especially with his JBL gimmick it would have been wild to see him in his Prime in Mexico with that gimmick. I never expected him to do anything physical for anyone again at this point. Him being put with Corbin was a bomb and Corbin is able to make almost ananything work. JBL probably doesn't need the money either and he seems to always get work in WWE when they need a Legend to fit a role so it's not like he's doing these appearance to get WWEs attention

That was when Triple H felt like he had to cosplay a 70s and 80s touring world champion by working 30 minutes every PPV. If he lived in an alternate universe where Bret Hart got to be fully able and working at that time the world would be better off lol

I see myself viewing it like when I watched NWA Powerr before the pandemic. I would binge watch several weeks of television a week or two before the PPV. They obviously want to get people to watch every week live but I don’t see people watching it live the same way as when it’s on tv. They are probably going to stop the commercials in between matches. They should but then it would be like the PLEs with the commercials and ads running that’s longer than the matches

Liv vs Rhea, both did headbutts in the SummerSlam match. It didn't bother me but I do notice alot more people doing them. Just like people have shitty Punches or Kicks people are going to have shitty headbutts too in any era. I just feel if you aren't good at a certain strick, just go for something else. Rhea is a more physically imposing wrestler than Liv, so Liv shouldn't be headbutting Rhea. Bret was got at headbutts but he shouldn't be headbutting Vader or Sid but he probably did and it didn't take me out of it because of how he worked but it shouldn't be the case. Most people want to get their shit in no matter what.

His favorite wrestler is Kenta Kobashi, even though I doubt Goldberg is one of his favorites. I could see him being a guilty pleasure like how even some of the most workrate nerds of us love Sid or Ahmed Johnson. When I heard him say Goldberg, I took it as a heel heat line because of Brets obvious feelings for Goldberg. It's also one of those things that run the risk of casual fans not getting it but most of that audience did in Bret Hart country. I don't think anyone believes Goldberg is his favorite wrestler but I think the audience knew it was a burn on Bret. It probably have come off better with Drew but I think Gunther is getting better at delivering promos. He doesn't need to be super emotional or over acting like alot of guys. Vince is gone, just because someone is a foreign born heel doesn't make them a bad talker or even the Vince or Kevin Dunn deciding they don't like their accent and can't get over.

I get why they booked Rhea vs Liv Morgan at Badd Blood but if the plan is Liv vs Rhea at Mania it will have ran it's course as far as booking them in singles.

I know alot of it was hereditary but what happened to Hunter with the health scare a few years ago had to be another reason to cut the muscle down. Both guys have be bodybuilding their entire lives almost so I'm cool with it. And hopefully he'll get other roles considering he's a better acter than about any other wrestler ever

I've been a vegan for over 10 years and I loved it. I felt like he should have did it years earlier during his first heel run after he was brought back. Nowadays you won't get the same type of heel heat as you would have 7 to 10 years ago. That was of the problem with alot of Vince McMahons booking for the last several years. Doing stuff for heat that was outdated in the 90s like middle eastern heels or interracial angles. I'm not the type that would get outraged by any thing he could possibly run but to it showed how senile he was at the end to even believe he could generate heat doing some of the things he did from 2018 to 2022. So in comparison the Vegan thing was cool to me because it was something new in WWE and Vinces beliefs about someone not being as manly for eating meat is something that I can see a small minority of people Vinces age believe. The Vince vs Shawn and God angle was something says alot about Shawn IMO. I know it's an angle but Vince knew Shawn believe and he put him in an angle where Vince booked himself to go over his Creator. Shawn should have went over in the end or atleast Vince should have had something happen to him or Shawn should have shut down the idea.

To me , the only problem with the Swerve/Hangman match and Bryan/Moxley angle is they happened in the same night. I'm not a fan of death matches and ultra violent matches but if it's used in blood feuds I'm all for it. I don't even think wrestlers should be doing ladder matches if there is no story behind it. Most of the time AEW books matches with these insanely violent spot when the feud calls for it and I'm okay with it. If you're going to book these types of matches go all the way. WWE books gimmick matches and they come across so sanitized. Like cage matches where you can't bleed but you can allow every other weapon. Or in the 2010s when they used Pyro as a sound effect in LMS matches and made WWE gimmick matches so hoaky. I don't care. If you have to be so sanitized about grudge matches, then don't book them. That goes for any promotion. I could be have got without seeing any of these sick spots at All in but they all were justified. I don't want anyone to get seriously injured but you can get seriously injured doing a dropkick.

Before they got on FOX WWE was having the worst tv in probably forever. Raw was having so many start overs like Nitro in 2000. The attendance was trending down year by year. I thought going to Network TV would force WWE to take a more serious approach to their onscreen product. I do think they did start producing better tv in the early years of FOX. I think them experimenting with a lot of what the NFL on Fox’s production style helped too. I know people hated the Animation graphics for certain entrances but it was different. They also started to book matches a week or two ahead of time like AEW was doing in the beginning. Remember Vince would book a match for Raw a few days before and not follow through by the night of the show but it seems Smackdown started to stick to promoting matches a week or two ahead and it worked especially when Roman started to not wrestle every week. I just felt they could have used the NFL crossover more with being on FOX. I felt the same way about AEW with the NBA being on TNT and how big a fan Shaq and Barkley is in particular. I wonder if Smackdown will continue to be the A show after RAW is on Netflix. I’m sure we’ll see all the top Smackdown guys integrated on RAW until WrestleMania is over. Before FOX ,Smackdown was always the clear B show. The only time WWE made a honest effort to make Smackdown seem just as important as Raw was in the very beginning of the brand split. Smackdown has still been the A show since Vince has been gone but with the value of the Netflix deal and this being the first time the have a major first run live tv show on a streaming platform that they would want to move their tv audience to watch Raw. I don’t see them keeping 2.5 million viewers on Friday on USA or whatever the same number is for Raw.

What I like most about Jacob Fatu is he is 100% heel. I'm sure he's aware how the internet loves him and thinks he is the best worker in the Bloodline dark and probably the one of the best workers in that company. It's so easy for guys to feed into all that and babyface themselves. I want him to stay heel as long as he can because they'll eventually have no choice to turn him but he does so well at being a heel and showing his loyalty to Solo. Part of the heat is everyone knows Solo is not as good as Fatu but Fatu is so loyal to his family member that has been a WWE Superstar for years now and Fatu is just humbled to be in the crew with his family

I think Bret Hart is going based on his personal experiences in WWF. If we only seen Ric Flair past 40 I'm sure alot of us would still think he was very good but if we never seen him in the NWA , JCP, Mid-Atlantic , touring world champion and before working the territories then we would have missed out on alot of his best work. That would be like judging 90% of 70s and 80s wrestlers based on their WWF run. The TV style , the schedule and Vinces quirks are all things that play a roll in limiting a wrestlers abilities

Love that Bret continues to talk shit about WWE unapologetically and still gets invited back. Even before the Vince stuff, well the latest Vince stuff came to light. He was burying Hunter for years even after he got more and more power and still gets invited back. Good for him. Most of it is probably because they know he'd be just as celebrated in AEW and 2 I don't think with CM Punk around I don't think he would allow any negative Bret Hart talk in any way form or fashion. Unlike all the other legends that are signed with WWE Bret isn't a mark for the company in so much as he's a mark for his legacy and body of work. If he had the same body of work in WCW in the time he was there as his Prime WWF run, he Probably wouldn't care. That's why I didn't intentionally phone it in in WCW. Bret would have wanted nothing more than to continue on putting on his best matches with alot of the workrate guys and also make some of the main event guys step it up and work to his level. Bret says he wasn't opposed to appearing in AEW more. I think him is segments with FTR and Punk would have legitimized FTR more. AEW alot of time use legends better than WWE. Not always but alot of times they do

Get rid of a few of those ECW originals. TNA haven't been as bad about getting former WWE guys as most other places. If they were to out bid AEW for Okada , Mercedes or Ospreay it probably would be worth it, especially considering they do seem to be drawing good crowds lately. I don't know if there are too many top people that would be worth spending money on. Lashley maybe but I'm sure he would want to come in with MVP which would be a good thing to have them together. I was thinking the MLP thing could turn into an All Japan/ NOAH type deal except TNA actually is doing well right now and guys probably wouldn't want to leave and probably shouldn't unless they have AEW or WWE after them. Then again too, with TNA working with WWE I don't imagine anyone other than Dolph or AJ Francis or someone who was recently released would want to leave TNA knowing people in WWE are probably watching what they are doing and even letting people on PLEs and weekly NXT tv. Aren't they drawing better audiences than AEW on average too? If it wasn't for that and the NXT crossover people would probably be ready to go with D'Amore

Really good show overall. That opener was great. Ridge Holland is much better than he was on the main roster. Axium and Frazier is always fun to watch. I forgot they lost the titles. That gimmick really brings down Wendy Choo. She was much better on the indies and the fact that she already has to slow herself down for these less experienced women on the roster. Jaida Parker vs Roxy was my favorite match. Parker looked very impressive for her experience level. I was more impressed with the power spots she did. I've watched very few of her matches so I don't know if she normally works like a power wrestler. I'm not a big of a Roxy fan as a heel but she's done a good job making me think she's going lose. I wasn't expecting for Jaida to win but her match back in June with Lola Vice had me thinking she'd lose. Watching the main event made me think how much of a missed opportunity for TNA not putting the belt on Hendry. I understand he's over enough that he doesn't need the belt but it would benefit TNA. I also don't see why they took the belt off Trick. It's been 2 months now and I don't understand. Ethan Page is a good heel for Trick to chase but Trick should have had the title longer. Maybe he'll win it back after they move to CW. Wes Lee vs Wentz was good. I wasn't expecting the Rascals in NXT and it's probably my favorite part of this crossover. I'd like to see Wentz back in NXT and I hope this leads to getting him resigned. The last few TakeOvers or PLEs have been really good and I expect we will probably get some more main roster guys in NXT as they gear up for CW.

I saw a number of fans didn't like during the presser Jade being asked about AEW and making the change to WWE. She answered it very well. She spoke about how much more often she working matches. Just this recent tour alone. When she first signed , I knew that would be the biggest benefit to her coming in to WWE. I see she has been getting better since she actually started really going on the road in March. She's not Kurt Angle or Bianca Belair where she just takes to in a quick as they did and I think everyone including people involved in developmental expect everyone to just take to wrestling so quick if you're already a world class athlete. I don't know who said it but I've heard more than one person say basketball players have a harder time picking up the business compared to other athletes. AEW isn't yet built for wrestlers with no prior experience for wrestling. She would have took forever for her to improve in AEW and they would have had to continue to have her opponents make he look good and hide her inexperience and she wouldn't have the chance to get better on her own.

I'm usually playing catch up as the PLEs are going on but I tried not to get behind during the show. The commercials and ad breaks are long enough to really get you out of it. The matches were solid overall. Owens vs Rhodes was really good as was the Main Event. It started out slow but they made up for the KotR final. The mix tag was good. I'd like for Rhea to get her belt back but then that would end the angle with Rhea and Liv. Rhea will probably continue to beat Liv except for when it actually counts ( belt on the line). I was actually more excited for this as far as the actual match quality expectations than SummerSlam. Punk vs Drew was better than the SummerSlam match. I expected more blood when I saw Punk came out in White tights. If they are going to do a 3rd match at Badd Blood, Drew is probably going to do something like cost Punk the WHC on Raw in the next few weeks. Punk is Gunther on Raw would be sick.

When they do book PPV quality matches on tv they book 2 - 3 weeks ahead of time. WWE started that trend afterwards, probably around 2020 which really helped them especially with Vince always changing things. Luger beating Hogan was a big moment for me. I would remember that more than Foley winning on Raw if it was for WWE making it a big benchmark for the MNW. I remember Nitro did a 5th anniversary and they played it up as a big moment. Hulk never lost clean but they didn’t follow up though but I’m sure that’s no coincidence.It’s crazy to think Luger would be in the NWO a few months later but obviously Nash learned from Hogan because he picked 2 of the top babyfaces to have in his faction. That says a lot about Lex but it ended up hurting him when the Wolfpac was done. I think one of these Grand Slam shows or themed Dynamites they need to do a world title change and not one of those title changes that person drops the title right back or used to quickly transition to another person

I was 10 or 11 at the time. I thought it was cool moment. I wasn't smart to the business and I was probably more surprised we got a clean finish and was happy Goldberg won the belt. I hindsight it got a good rating too which is another justification. If showing the footage of Punk and Jack Perry drew large increased ratings, no matter how cringe or reactionary a decision is may have been to air it then it would have been justified. If they book Ricochet vs Pac or Ricochet vs Ospreay on a random Dynamite or Collison and they get the same 6k views or whatever Collision averages every week, it might not add anything business wise as it would on PPV because it would probably add more buy. I like the idea of them instead booking Ricochet against lower level guys every week and showcasing his skills against guys then put him against Cesaro , Pac and those guys. People are already calling him a flop because he didn't do to overused trope of wrestler debuts and ends the show facing over against another top guy. Or even because his first singles match wasn't an NXT TakeOver level match. I'm not delusional, hot free agents have gotten lost in the shuffle really quick in AEW but I don't think TK will let that happen with Ricochet who is still relatively fresh off WWE TV. The fact that Will Ospreay has been open with wanting to work with Ricochet on a big stage again even while Ricochet was still under contract with WWE. I think Ospreay will make sure that first match really means something. AEW has alot going on coming out of All in and going into All Out , that Ricochet doesn't need to be in an elaborate angle. Just let him cook. Let him get consistent wins , which is watch he wasn't getting in WWE

Who wouldn’t want to see theses on free tv? For one thing, we wouldn’t hear the end of it about TK leaving money on the table but not saving their first matches for PPV. Especially since people are like to bring up tv ratings. If these matches happen and they do a low number then we won’t hear the end about AEW going out of business. I could care less about the ratings right now and I don’t expect ratings to go up till about a year or two. They are turning things around creatively and what we’ve been seeing on television overall has me hyped going forward

I can't wait until we get Ricochet vs Ospreay and Ricochet vs Pac. I just hope TK doesn't just put it on free TV. Before MJF won the title. I was hoping Ospreay just had a long reign with that tite and built it up like Gunther with the IC title to where it's main eventing TV and PPVs. Plus AEW has so many titles that I feel they need to make a conscious effort to make their secondary male singles title as meaningful as the world title. They've done it with the TBS title for the women. Guys like Pac, Ricochet, Claudio are all guys that you can build that division around without having much of a story or angle driven just based around workrate.

I'd much rather see Danielson face someone more qualified on PPV than Jack Perry but if Danielson is one of the greatest ever , he should be able to have a great match with him. I've always been for giving guys and girls chances to get experience wrestling guys at Bryan's level. I wasn't expecting Moxley back so soon. I rejuvenated Mox is a game changer for AEW and is obviously leading to something big.

About a week ago someone posted a clip of Sid yelling Henry Godwins name the same way in '95

If you listen to any of the kliq members talk today especially as theyve becomes even further away from their inring career ,they talk as if they liked everyone and never really politiced against anyone. You heard stories over the years of how difficult Austin was and paranoid of lossing his spot despite eclipsing everyone else on the roster and him not wanting to work with this guy and that guy but now that he's long retired and done podcasting he's never refused to work against anyone. I read a tweet a few weeks ago of a excerpt from Madusas book where Xpac came up to here calling her one of the boys because she never sold any of their ribs. She spoke about how 2 faced the kliq is and I guess because they are all older and careers are done they can make everyone forget about their past. I got a kick out of Nash apologizing publicly to Rock for being an asshole to him when he came back to WWF in '02. He had to humble himself to get biggest star in Hollywood. Same with Road Dogg apologizing for being such a prick to him. Because of the power Hunter holds and to a degree Shawn holds alot of guys in hindsight will probably downplay alot of the Kliqs antics especially if they want to get there son or Daughter a job or get a legends deal in the same way guys wouldn't talk negative about Vince McMahon before he left. I'm a fan of most the Kliq members, a few of them are my personal all time favorites but I know these guys were pricks to most of that lockerroom and had the game on lock for better or for worst