Belgian_Waffle

Something I've been meaning to ask here just to see what everyone's general read is: do we think Toni Storm actively dislikes her new role or is she just not charismatic at all (or both)? I really like Matt D's above proposed scenario, especially the idea of getting Cargill involved as a way of finally creating some wormholes between her reign and the Hayter/Baker storylines. I will also say that AEW has one huge (I think much huger than they realize) ace up their sleeve in that when Statlander is finally healthy she *needs* to either end Cargill's reign immediately of become the deciding factor on Team AEW vs Saraya/Storm immediately. If she comes back, as over as she was and talented as she is, and isn't treated as being super-special/new women's ace then she'll just become another version of Wardlow and the division won't have another big surprise feel-good return they can bust out. Thunder Rosa can come back and get a pop but I really can't imagine the fans not turning on her if she goes against Hayter.

This to me is the big nagging issue at the moment. I love Danielson just like everyone else does but he's too old to be a guy you build around and he hasn't been protected enough to be a "special attraction" in a singles match so I don't really see any upside to having him main event a ppv at this point, especially when Ricky Starks was so hot coming off his big promo and match with MJF at Winter is Coming. Why not just have kept the feud cooking and run MJF vs Starks again at Revolution? The fact that Starks already lost once would just create less certainty that he's losing again, as opposed to Danielson who everyone knows is losing. Again, I love Danielson and am all for a title program with him and MJF, but not at a ppv. MJF's ppv challengers should all be future pillar-type guys like Starks, Darby, Wardlow, Garcia, Jungle Boy (who I really am not feeling since JE broke up but who deserves a chance), etc. Guys like Hook and Wheeler and Hobbes and Bowens as a single could be at that level soon enough too. They've created all these new guys and about a year ago it felt like at any minute any or all of them could blow up (Sammy even kind of got halfway there before the crowd turned on him and he was booked poorly as a heel). The way they've held back on really pulling the trigger on the next generation of guys at the top level has me worried that nobody is main eventing a ppv with MJF in the next year other than Danielson, Moxley, Hangman, Jericho, Cole, Claudio, or Omega.

Has this been posted here yet? I laughed so hard.

I'm gonna have to seek out/revisit a few things before I make a full list but I'm wondering if people aren't sleeping on Hayter vs Shida or if I'm just overrating it or there have just been so many other great matches (or a combination of all three)? Anyway my top 3 at the moment would probably look like: 1. Danielson vs Rush, just too good to deny, as much as I'd like to come up with a darkhorse contender 2. Darby vs Joe in Seattle 3. Hayter vs Shida Women's title

My suggestion was more a dig at Buddy who I find very bland and deadweight-ish compared to the other two guys. But fair enough.

Not that they need more guys but I would love to see the House of Black kick out Buddy and bring in Jake Lee now that he's a free agent. Imagine Brody King and Jake Lee just murdering babyface tag teams.

I kinda wonder if unfortunately the reverse of this is true in that Darby and Tony have convinced Sting he only lives once so he should jump off of more things.

I'm definitely ready for them to phase out Danielson and Moxley in singles after the March ppv so we can get some exclusively <40y/o main events on the following few ppvs. Darby and a Starks rematch seem like viable MJF ppv mains, or even Jungle Boy (who personally doesn't do much for me in singles but he's really over). I have a suspicion they might keep Starks away from MJF as long as they can just in case they decide they want him to be the guy who ultimately takes the belt from him (although Tony's long road approach to booking would suggest the idea is for him to eventually drop the belt to Wardlow). I don't really want them to ever long-term break up the Acclaimed but I think a year from now we should start having Bowens established as a viable singles top guy (who still frequently competes in tags with Caster). Him and MJF would be a tremendous program, both on the stick and in the ring.

Fwiw I actively disliked Page for the longest time and didn't like their second match at all but the 60 min draw was the match that really opened my eyes to Page's good qualities, especially when he has the right opponent to direct some of the traffic. His Takeshita match was also excellent from a Hangman-skeptical perspective.

I'm surprised to be in the minority of people who don't really get putting the belt back on Joe just to lose it to Wardlow. Wasn't the whole point of having Joe pin Hobbes to win the belt so that they could get the belt off Wardlow without having to beat him since there's not a lot you can do with him as champ? And hotshotting the belt to Darby in Seattle seemed to really reinforce just how over and underutilized Darby is, usually TK picks up on these things and rolls with them like he did when the Acclaimed and Hayter were both way more over than their push. Unless the plan is for Darby to go after MJF after the Danielson program is over, which I would love to see. If he goes back to midcard treadmill feuds I could see the fans resenting Wardlow as the handpicked guy who supplanted the people's champ Darby.

Very stale card that didn't interest me through I did watch the Omega/Ospreay match and will say it was good (I was expecting to hate it, or at least convince myself I hated it because Ospreay was in it). That said, this was 100% Kenny/Bret carrying clown show Ospreay/Shawn, right up to the crowd getting tricked into popping for Osprey's dumb cartoon facials and acting. Jake Lee made the right move. If he had gone with this dump instead of NOAH he'd be getting pushed about as hard as Dragon Lee would have in AEW these days.

Exactly. I think for a certain demographic of the manly men who post here Sammy represents "obnoxious young guy" while some of the rest of us have much less trouble recognizing Andrade as "bully who picks a fight with the guy in the room he knows he can smack around".

https://images.app.goo.gl/QWWepD9PLJqXGQcFA Turns out it was Unforgiven 2002, not the Rumble. Either way I have absolutely zero recall of watching this show beyond his cameo.

He was backstage during a video segment romancing Dawn Marie (I think). I just remember he gives D'Lo and someone else some tight-lipped advice about a gentleman never giving away his secrets and as he walks away D'Lo goes "Damn, some guys have ALL THE LUCK!!". I've been trying to find it on YouTube for ages but nobody ever seems to upload it. Holy crap I did find this tho: https://youtu.be/FZdsOOW1mjE

Remember when Eric Braeden showed up at the Royal Rumble the one year? I know he's a pretty grouchy guy but if you could get Victor Newman as an on-screen wrestling character even just long enough to build to some kind of ppv payoff...that would be the ultimate "male soap opera" or whatever.

https://www.out.com/sports/2022/10/05/wrestler-anthony-bowens-wants-you-celebrate-national-scissoring-day Out wrote a nice piece about NSD. They should give Bowens an eliminator match against Moxley just to gauge exactly how over he is.

Yeah when I saw how small the Coca Cola building was I figured getting affordable decent seats (let alone three together) would be a dogfight and sure enough it was so I bailed out early. Glad it didn't work out now that the lineup is out, not that it wouldn't have been fun night if good seats weren't nutty $$.

If you could somehow align Swerve with Cargill so that Swerve tries to interfere at Battle of the Belts but gets thwarted by the Acclaimed and then Willow wins with the Doctor Bomb and the Acclaimed and Willow all have belts and celebrate as the show goes off the air you'd have a real moment on your hands.

I wonder where Dustin's head is at these days between Cody leaving and all the chaos backstage. As an older guy who worked for WCW during nearly all its worst eras plus Vince at his looniest I could see him being somewhere between "oh god not this again" and "ehh I've seen worse".

Thought it was a hell of a show tonight. Main event had weird energy in that Garcia didn't turn and the crowd clearly had access to their phones re: hating on Sammy even more than usual but it was a fun enough match. They might be overestimating the appeal of Danielson vs Jericho...if you count tonight's tag they'll be having their fourth match since All Out next week. I take it Rush was cool with losing clean so long as he got to dominate offense the whole match. Confrontation at the end ruled. I'm not a big Hangman fan but he really needs to look strong after his wonky trajectory since losing the belt. Kind of wish they were saving him and Moxley for a ppv. Hayter love was tremendous but I was even more heartened by the deafening DEEB chants. Willow getting the win was good too. Battle of the Belts should...maybe be the title change? It would feel like an anticlimactic end to Cargill's reign but with Statlander out there's no obvious person to take the belt. If it's done right and the crowd is hot it could make Willow in one night.

He balanced on the top of a ring post to complete a flip.

They are both idiots are now because of them I have to watch PAC twice in one night and I hate PAC.

I lol'd. This place is too much.

One of the many reasons I think Starks should be world champ within the next two years is he's the only guy in a country filled with guys doing dumb poses who actually seems to have understood the purpose and value of a signature pose and how to get it over.

I agree with much of the above in theory but let's also keep in mind that NXT is no guarantee you'll learn how to navigate acting and promos. Kyle O'Reilly (to go with an extreme example) has great looking offence but his acting and facials are from planet x and his promos are some of the worst in the business (with the lowpoint being his "falling over drunk on champagne" bit when him, Cole and Fish were celebrating after stealing all the belts).