TheVileOne

If the show continues into Season 3, they should consider Larry Houston or the Lewalds to take over. Either that or give Josh Fine a call. Fine was the co-creator and co-showrunner of Avengers: EMH.

So weird as I'm supposed to be going to the world premiere tomorrow.

I thought the last stretch of the Gauntlet Match was incredible, but once Gable started going crazy and screaming "I NEED THIS" it became obvious he was going to lose. I'm a little disappointed because Zayn vs. Gunther, while I'm sure it will be a fine match, does nothing for me at Mania. WWE did a great job of making me care about Gable and wanting him to be the one to finally take down Gunther, which really could've made Gable's career and cemented his legacy. Sami has already cooled down significantly from his Bloodline feud and challenging Roman. Doing a big schmoz ladder match at Mania for the tag titles makes no sense to me. Judgment Day has been feuding with R-Truth for months now. They've basically turned it into just a big spotfest so everyone gets on the card. Good promo by Cody. But if Cody somehow doesn't win at Mania, all of this is going to be for nothing. Cody can cut a good promo when he's not talking stupid nonsense.

Nick Khan's comments basically cheerleading Vince McMahon coming back to the company early last year look even more embarrassing now.

I think Gunther vs. Sami Zayn is a fine match and all, but it really does nothing for me. That match really could've made and cemented Chad Gable. I think Sami and Gunther will have a good match though. Considering they just forgot about Gable for a while after his loss to Gunther, they actually did a pretty brilliant job building him back up again for the Gauntlet only to have him lose. Like if Sami Zayn wins and ends Gunther's streak, who does that really elevate? Even Sami Zayn has cooled significantly from his days when he turned on The Bloodline. I'm not really enthusiastic about him ending Gunther's streak. Making a six-team tag team title ladder match for this show is stupid. They've been building this R-Truth feud with Judgment Day for months, and it feels like they are throwing it away just so they can shove as many teams on the card as possible. The right outcome here is a win for Awesome Truth, and it should've just been Judgment Day vs. Awesome Truth.

Miro beat him at Worlds End, and CJ turned on Andrade, helping Miro win. Tony announced Andrade was leaving right after that. And then there was this:

https://www.crunchyroll.com/news/latest/2023/9/12/new-fist-of-the-north-star-hokuto-no-ken-anime I am shock! https://youtu.be/tqdvTcLdx7M

Those are very much AEW problems.

Toriyama is probably one of the best and most influential creators of the last 50 years. Returned to Dragon Ball long after it was finished and I think told even better stories for the franchise. And he was still working constantly until the end when he could've easily coasted and rested on his past success.

It didn't feel right because they were struggling to figure out what his niche was post-WWE when he couldn't do Rusev Day anymore and there were no fans in the arena. Then they pivoted to the Redeemer and that worked much better for a while. At first, they tried to make him the Best Man and be a cool big guy who likes anime and video games and stuff.

Here you all go. Some new footage.

Same for CM Punk, and look how that turned out. Did the short-term gains with CM Punk outweigh the long-term damage? I think you can make an argument they did. I mean I think with the proper promotion and support Miro could've been a phenomenal asset for AEW, and he does when he was operating on full cylinders as the Redeemer. But he had no idea what to do with Miro after he lost the TNT title. I think a lot of guys have that potential. But they also need that sustained creative push.

IMHO Rampage was a solid B-show last night. B-shows can be good too, and we need B-shows. I hope they continue going somewhere with Saraya and Ruby Soho's feud. Saraya's segment was one of her more effective heel promos, and I got a kick out of setting her feral brother on hapless bystanders. I also had a drink going up my nostrils moment when Ruby said, "You and your inbred family are going to get what's coming to you!" Ideally, this should lead to some sort of mixed tag match with Saraya and Zak Knight vs. Ruby and Ang on PPV or some such.

We will see how Mercedes does in AEW. The key is not the debut. The key is the follow-up. Tony Khan got way too comfortable signing as many former WWE guys as he could so he could say, "Look who we have now!" Only to promptly forget about them or stop booking them for weeks if not months, or guys will fuck off to ROH after a notable win or loss. Not bringing in any of the guys cut by WWE last year was smart, even though the rumor was that people were pushing for AEW to sign Nic Nemeth. Nic Nemeth brings nothing of actual value to AEW right now that they don't have with a dozen other people. Not to mention he's 43. Meanwhile, Nemeth is someone New Japan and TNA can actually use at the moment. Same with Mustafa Ali. AEW's roster is bloated enough as it is and could stand to lose more guys.

"I f'n told them to fire me! They refused!" https://youtu.be/cPnXvt7PceQ

IMHO if you are running with Roman vs. Cody again, I genuinely don't think you can have Roman retain or do shenanigans again. I think you could get away with it last year because many people were shocked by it and were just automatically assuming Cody would get the win. But a part of me still believes Triple H won't be able to resist Roman surpassing Hogan's title reign. The only way Roman retaining would make sense at this point is if he beats The Rock. Secondly, what else can you really do with The Bloodline anymore? You already did Sami Zayn rebelling and breaking away. You did the Usos breaking away. Roman has beaten everyone else. The last challenge was really The Rock, and the fans rejected it and they pivoted back to Cody. At some point, you have to pull the trigger. Cody isn't getting any younger either. If you want him to have his title run it pretty much has to happen now.

The Benoit story was done in two parts. So they could do two-parters if they deem it necessary.

Meltzer is reporting that it's Cody and Seth vs. Rock and Roman on Night 1.

But why would you do that? Whoever beats Gunther can become a made man. I don't think you can have him end his epic title run like this without an emphatic victory.

Collision was a solid show overall last Saturday. The main event angle between Danielson, Akiyama, and Kingston I thought was executed perfectly. You can't watch a segment like that and say there was no storytelling or character work.

I'm assuming all these challengers for the IC title popping up tonight means there's either going to be some big scramble or cluster to produce a contender for Gunther, there's going to be a multi-man ladder match at WrestleMania 40. Something of that sort. I liked Rhea and Becky's segment tonight. It definitely gives me hope that their match will get the build this year that Charlotte/Rhea last year did not. Frankly, got to give it up to Drew McIntyre. The way he's evolved and just made slight tweaks to his character have been utterly fantastic. As a babyface he was OK, but as a heel who speaks the truth and rationally, he's doing the best work of his career. Now, if there's any likelihood of Priest cashing in on someone, it's in the outcome of McIntyre/Rollins. McIntyre seems like the logical choice to win this one, but then you have all this business with Seth and the Bloodline. Is this meant to be a tag team match at WrestleMania? Are you going to have the Bloodline tag team match on Night 1 and Night 2? That basically eliminates anyone else from getting the main event slot on Night 1. But if you have the opportunity for The Rock to wrestle at WrestleMania you have to take it for box office and the PR alone. Raw is far too long, and my hope is that when they transition to Netflix they return to a two-hour format. There's no reason they need to be three hours every week. I don't really feel like three hours showcases more talent. It just kills the show's pacing. What they should do is add a secondary show to SmackDown. Make Main Event the B show for Raw and something like Superstars or some other unused name the B show for SmackDown.

Matt Taven, Dalton Castle, Cody Rhodes. Pre-AEW, they did a lot of crossover between New Japan and the Bullet Club, which played out a lot over NJPW and ROH. And they did basically produce the original All In event. The formation of AEW and then the pandemic were huge blows to any type of chance of ROH had of becoming a challenger brand.

I'm not gutted because this was for an animated feature. Which is fine and all, but I see no point to that, especially not with Bruce Timm and Paul Dini involved. If it was live action, that's another matter, but that's not what they were going for here.

Here's what he wrote:

https://twitter.com/davidbix/status/1757229608452145274