Belgian_Waffle

I just saw Shanky is 32. Damn if I didn't always assume he was like 19 or something. Surely there's a place somewhere in this business for a giant with a baby face.

I like that breakdown of the roster from Mace and Monsoor. Is Rollins generally known as antisocial backstage? He always seemed like a weird annoying dude even before the dumb Jared Leto character but I've never really heard of anyone within the company having issues with him.

Do we know if they are likely done with office cuts? Maybe I'm naive or maybe it's just wishful thinking (or both) but I keep waiting to hear that Bruce Pritchard is finally out for good. Just seems like a guy who's a threat to anyone with more seniority than him and an out-of-touch nuisance to everyone else.

It's also not like there is no very recent precedent for handling these incidents well. Moxley himself just backed away from Hangman when he got knocked out, and Jay White couldn't cover Adam Cole fast enough and end the match without any further bumps when he realized he was KO'd. What's doubly frustrating is that logic would dictate these are intuitive reactions -- something's broken so I better not touch it/something's on fire so I better put it out and then we can assess the damage. Not "the pile of burning family photos just told me to add some more gasoline before putting them out because the fire looks cooler that way so I guess I better do what it says."

There's no money in it for him but for years now I've wanted to see Ziggler go to AJPW. Just seems like his meat & potatoes style would mesh well with Miyahara, Aoyagi and Suwama, and he'd probably get a TC run or two out of it, not that I think that means something to him.

I feel like a concussed guy isn't necessarily the best judge of his own ability to continue or not. To me there's two egregious things that happened: 1) Knox didn't call for the bell after realizing Moxley wasn't kicking out. 2) Fenix picking him up, giving him the move again, and leaning back deep into the cover. I get that Moxley is a big protected star and seemingly a good guy irl and you want to defer to him but shy of him being like "Knox I will literally murder you if you don't standby and watch this happen. Fenix, ditto goes for you if you don't drop me on my skull again", I don't really see a conceivable excuse for just following his orders when they're clearly not safe or responsible orders to carry out. And it's a moot point in Knox's case anyway since he DIDN'T listen to Moxley and called for a 2 count at what should have been the audible.

The next few hours may determine whether I can ever realistically expect to see an AEW ppv headlined by MJF vs the Miz

Yeah he tweeted ominously an hour ago that he's gone. I think most of what he complained about was racist gimmicks and I assume as a Muslim he was uncomfortable to some extent with them doing huge shows in India, although publicly he expressed that he wished he'd been booked on that card so that's just speculation on my part. Which is all just to say I feel like he'd encounter much less of that kind of sentiment in AEW but who knows. I didn't realize there were more cuts! Somehow Riddle not gone yet...

Lmao my cancelled Honor Club membership reveals itself. They don't exist in ROH anymore either?

Yeah Dave's take this morning (and you know Fenix is one of those personal favs of his he's always going to defend) was that Knox was at fault but Fenix did nothing wrong because he was just following Moxley's instructions to take it home early. Leave it to Right to Censor to go step by step through all the moronic decisions Fenix made AFTER being advised by Moxley to change the finish. Like dude is looking cool while you pin a concussed guy really your #1 priority in that moment?

Companion action to my post in the WWE TV thread: am I the only one excited about the potential of Mustafa Ali being #AllElite in the near future? He'll probably end up in the Trustbusters or something but hopefully there's a spot somewhere for him. Always thought he had some untapped potential.

Apologies if this was posted elsewhere as it doesn't really pertain to TV but I don't see a "WWE General Discussion" thread but Mustafa Ali just announced he's gone from WWE. I always liked him and would love to see AEW pick him up but I'm not really sure he's someone they'd jump at. He's older than I thought (37!) but has that youthful babyface energy. Anyway given all the issues he's had with the company over the years I gotta think this is for the best, whatever the reasons are.

Couple WWE related things 1) has anyone else mentioned the potential in pairing Toni Storm with Dustin and giving him whatever the AEW legally abiding version of the Goldust gimmick would be? 2) the fact that Shawn and Jericho's overwrought and at times quite crappy WM 19 match has apparently been misremembered as a classic by some speaks to some of the more grating problems with the "style - substance + bad acting/selling" AEW house style formula.

Yeah for me the three incidents that immediately came to mind were three of the most extreme cases of bewildering negligence, so I'm glad Moxley's injuries are very much minor by comparison, but my brain went to 1) Mammoth Sasaki working down Hayabusa after he was paralyzed; 2) Takaiwa delivering another powerbomb to Hoshikawa while he lay unconscious and snoring; 3) Juvi continuing to stomp down and perform spots on a deceased Silver King.

A casual before-bed sweep of social media is informing me that most people are criticizing Knox for what happened but defending Fenix. This is incorrect, no? Even if Mox against everyone else's better judgment muttered "piledrive me again, boss" or whatever people want to insist on, I gotta think anyone with half a brain and any experience knows you can't pick a guy up and drop him on his head a second time when he already shoot can't continue working from the previous head drop.

Tbh my first thought when Fenix crawled over to do the hand squeeze was that Mox's blade had gotten stuck in Fenix's mask tassels and that he was doing a quick handoff so Moxley could juice later. In hindsight that would have been a much happier scenario. Also I thought it was legit very sweet that Sammy did the sign of the cross before that extremely wonky moonsault to the floor in (what I have to assume was) tribute to Tay Melo infamously crossing herself before she moonsaulted onto Britt Baker on whatever ppv that match was on.

I would like it if this angle culminates with Max striding in backstage where Cole has been working craft services since he can't wrestle and carrying him to safety in his arms while the theme from An Officer and a Gentleman plays.

Actually if they do decide to hotshot the title off of Fenix, Kingston would be the perfect guy. Then you build to him having a showdown with Moxley when he returns (assuming Moxley is going to be out).

I really hope the progression/payoff of that whole program is Sammy beats Jericho to get more heat on Sammy then Garcia beats Sammy to transition Garcia into the main event picture.

I loved this show but all I really want to talk about is how fucking useless and incompetent [RICK KNOX] and Rey Fenix are--[KNOX] for not counting three when the guy stays down, Fenix for whom "thinking on your feet" is picking up the guy you just rendered unconscious for real and dropping him on his fucking head again. Hopefully, at the very least, he drops the title next week (maybe back to Orange!!).

I think they already found their Whole F'n Matt Riddle type anyway

The Grim Reefer didn't even look horrible last time I saw him pop up in a HOG ppv.

I don't even necessarily mind the endless strike exchanges, they feel rote enough at this point that it's like complaining about too many collar and elbow tie ups. It's the super contrived stuff like the aforementioned Destroyer sequences or tribute spots where the guy getting hurt is cooperating by then doing a thing that the guy who got hurt in the original match they're paying tribute to did that really turn me off of what we could broadly call the AEW house style. I think they just have too many guys working that crazy athletic style and more particularly too many guys working that crazy athletic style and also feuding with one another. Claudio vs Fenix was a fun, interesting big guy vs lucha guy match that one time; the endless Elite vs Death Triangle wankfests (or even HOB vs Death Triangle wankfests) were exhausting. AEW has enough diverse big men like Brody King and Miro and Big Bill (plus a one of a kind guy like Kingston) that we shouldn't get stuck watching a mirror match between two daredevils every week. Even a big man vs big man program like Miro vs Hobbs feels like a missed opportunity to expand everyone's horizons by "feuding against type". For instance, Omega vs Hobbs and Miro vs Takeshita would be two much more intriguing matchups than the programs all four guy are currently in with one another.

Thnx. I knew there had to be something to it. I think HOG has already stopped using him since he dropped the belt to Cordona so I took that as a bad sign. [Edit after Googling for 20 seconds:] Yikes this is a recent story too!! I'm surprised I hadn't heard about it. Wonder who from the family reached out. I'm thinking Rikishi given that he trained him... ( for context: "Harper [of the nonprofit Fatu ripped off] also said that a "major name" from Fatu's family reached out to her regarding the incident and promised to attend the nonprofit's event next year. ... However, Harper did not reveal who from Fatu's family contacted her.")

Re: who's beating MJF for the title eventually. I've always been under the impression they're going to make this a Hogan run and stretch (not drag!) it out for another year or so. I certainly don't see him losing it to Joe, or Joe ever holding the belt; given his age and how over he is without the belt he doesn't need it and AEW has too many mid-level guys in need of elevation to give it to Joe. I wouldn't want to see Cole win it for the same reason. Given that Max has pinned Darby twice with the side headlock I would like to see the story culminate with Darby finally getting his revenge, pinning Max clean and getting a title run before he retires young. It's a moment you'd rather have gotten than not gotten, and it's a much more feel-good end to MJF's reign then giving it to someone who was already a top guy somewhere else (I'm very negative on how much they're protecting Jay White for this reason as well. White can take (lots of) losses and still be at the level he's at. Starks really came out of that feud as very much damaged goods when he'd had a lot of momentum going in). Re: Lee Moriarty. Remember when Moriarty was one of the three names Danielson singled out (along with Yuta and Garcia) as someone young he'd like to work with and bring into the BCC? It's interesting how quickly they followed up on Yuta and Garcia but not Moriarty. I like Moriarty a lot so hopefully this program with Taylor has some legs. Last thing is I just wanted to mention how funny and sad it was listening to Meltzer devote like 5 minutes of his show earlier this week to going off on an unhinged rant because his creepy pal Ospreay was ranked below Masha Slamovich in the PWI 500 (and listening to whoever the other guy is but who thankfully wasn't Alvarez and so instead of agreeing and egging Dave on just got quiet and seemed vaguely amused).