Belgian_Waffle

Question about Bray irl: is that his real voice or just an extremely problematic fake accent like Seagal in the Glimmer Man?

I think Cole already said he's returning on Dynamite the same week the reality show debuts rather than at the ppv. Also doing returning guy vs outsider/debuting guy makes for a weird build between two guys who haven't been on your tv in like a year, regardless of their history together (not that that's stopped TK from booking similar scenarios in the past).

I just keep wanting PAC to lose his hair and essentially revamp his character as Don Logan from Sexy Beast. He should lose a title vs hair match to MJF and then come back as MJF's mentally shattered bodyguard and Max has him all spiffed up in the slacks and white short-sleeved buttondown and everything.

Does anyone think there's even the slightest chance MJF isn't retaining? I don't mean that contemptuously or rhetorically, I just think it's way too early in his reign for him to drop it and I assume they went with Danielson as the opponent so they could have an established guy in the main event and sell the ppv around the idea of seeing a great match since nobody would think the title was changing hands so soon. Probably also why they should have just put Hangman vs Danielson on a ppv last year instead of Hangman vs Cole (who also nobody thought was winning and who didn't have a prayer of following the two Hangman/Danielson matches).

I agree 100% except/also now I want this to actually be the storyline

Is ZSJ potentially a signee in the nearish future? Is Jay White still rumoured to be signing with AEW? Im hoping the answer to the first question is hell yes and to the second hell no but logic says probably the other way around. Also ROH cards look awesome. Takeshita/Woods!!

Uno has been holding it down since he did the Socko spot in that one trios match a couple years ago

This is the more tolerant framework I needed for perspective, thank you.

I think I will be alone on this one but sort of adjacent to the MJF discussion, am I the only one who knows way too many guys like Daddy Magic irl to find his character and promos (even just facial expressions) amusing at this point? He's over way beyond his push so I'm not even suggesting I'm justified in my being so put off by him but he's definitely reached that Enzo-level of "go away" unpleasantness for me personally (and maybe exclusively).

Like a lot of wrestling fans I get nostalgic for things from my childhood that actually kind of sucked so I'm sort of into the idea of the Gunna cheating their way through a title reign way longer than what anyone anticipates and becoming the AEW version of the Quebecers during their 93/94 tag title run. Although more objectively the Acclaimed should win the belts back sometime this summer.

Uno spotlight was everything I hoped it would be. Battle royale was real bad even by battle royale standards but at least Aussie Open got dumped quick. Feel kinda like Jarrett and Lethal has no business winning since we've already seen them against the Acclaimed a bunch. I absolutely loved Orange vs Wheeler. They should do it again at the ppv with Yuta going over. This is the kind of program I wish they did more of where it's two relatively young guys with not much WWE or NJPW connection working their asses off. It's not the "homegrown" aspect for me, it's the "I don't watch PWG so this is essentially news to me" aspect. I have complained multiple times about how as much as I love Danielson I don't see him (on paper) as an exciting ppv opponent for MJF but the promos and pull apart tonight were great and got me into this feud. Very good long build with this one. Ricky Starks tricking a heel he's already pinned clean once into agreeing to wrestle him again is a weird move for a babyface. Hopefully Jericho isn't "getting his win back" at the ppv. Eddie beating Jericho at the ppv last year then losing to him in the barbed wire match really took the steam out of Eddie's push, and you definitely don't want to hurt Starks when he's this hot and for all intents and purposes one of the very very few guys they should be considering putting the belt on after MJF. I thought tonight's show was great. Putting a lot of the big names in talking segments instead of matches probably hurt ratings but it meant I got to see some fresher matches, and now that they're running house shows it probably doesn't hurt to have underlings like Yuta, Moriarty and Uno get featured more on Dynamite since they're more likely to be on house show cards than a lot of the top guys.

I think it's better without Dustin because you can have Terri Runnels and Heyman become a couple and it's like Dustin's version of Liz dating Flair

What about Cody winning at Mania with Heyman's help and he turns heel immediately and starts his own Bloodline and we just reuse this storyline for another 2+ years so we can all argue about this again in 2026 Edit: Cody's Bloodline would be Heyman, HHH, Shawn, Flair, Randy Orton, Taker and Goldberg

Of all the available ECW nostalgia guys AEW could bring in, I gotta think: Biggest Pop/Best Short-Term: RVD "You Still Got It"/Best Long-Term: Masato Tanaka Ace Steel/Nobody Asked For This But He's Old So We're Gonna Pretend He's a Legend: Lance Storm cutting a promo in Canada then getting beat up by MJF

That's super weird, I had a dream last night about Sabu too!! I think he has signed to New Japan (maybe NJ Strong?) in my dream though. I almost want to derail this thread now into a petition to get Sabu into the WON hall of fame.

I love Dave and I will always pre-empt my criticism of Dave by saying "I love Dave" because the people who pathologically hate him are so insufferable. That said, his casual throwing around of "second-best-match-of-the-year-contender" because he already knows nothing will top Omega vs Ospreay is really juvenile and petulant. His quote this morning was like "I've heard Miyahsra vs Nagata was a second best match of the year contender" as if the people recommending it to him to that degree are also routinely already relegating everything to sub-Ospreay status.

For what it's worth, I don't watch enough WWE to say one way or the other but 1) this is definitely an extremely apt description of his 1/2 of last night's match, and 2) this actually perfectly describes everything I hated about post-back injury HBK matches full of emoting and bad acting and overselling and audible talking and not very much compelling wrestling (including the Taker stuff it's everyone's job to drool over -- speaking of "am I the only one").

Baba insisted that Kawada couldn't beat Misawa until they could do it at the Tokyo Dome and so the greatest story ever told ended with a *** match in 1998 instead of an absolute barn burner in 95 when both guys were at the top of their game. Sometimes you just don't wanna fuck around with this stuff for too many years or insist that a thing can only be pulled off properly if it happens at Mania.

I like Cody and I'm fine with him being the new guy but I also think it's funny that the arguments in favor of "sticking to the plan" and not changing the plan by having Roman lose to Drew in the UK or Sami in MTL are essentially arguing that "the plan" is a 2+ year storyline ending with the coronation of a guy who signed with the company -1 year ago.

I was thinking they could keep things going with the Elite vs Too Flight but let AR Fox walk off into the sunset by having Fox step back and cut like a "I'm holding you boys back, you gotta do it without me" kind of promo. Then you keep doing variations of the Martins vs the Elite in singles and tag matches while Elite feuds with HoB. Then finally by the summer ppv Too Flight are like "we found a new trios partner. This guy's from ROH too but he knows more about tag team wrestling, and more about fighting the Young Bucks, then just about anybody" and you have Too Flight and Mark Briscoe win the trios titles.

Not to get too off topic but did Foley's title win in 99 even mean anything and/or is it even remembered that fondly? He basically gets the belt handed to him by Austin and by WM Austin is winning the belt and Foley is in a nothing program with a bullshit finish vs Big Show. Even in the 8th grade I was pretty meh on the way that played out.

I can't get the search function to work and I'm wondering what the general vibe around here is so far on the Action Andretti experiment. Obviously he's a super promising guy, I just kind of wonder what you do with him when you already have so many high flying spunky underdog dudes on the roster. Also kind of a weird choice having him pin Jericho then immediately feud Jericho with Starks so that now Jericho is feuding with two guys who have both already pinned him clean.

I'm responding to this thread (and catching up and liking posts) very late but I wanted to chime in that as a huge mark for Evil Uno's character work I think it's really fun that he's getting a brief little spotlight match with Mox. Remember ages ago when Noah ran Tenryu & Koshinaka vs Kobashi & Izumida as like a lil' acknowledgement of service for all of IZU's masterful comedy work? And Izumida could actually GO when he had to, despite what our collective misremembering might lead the world to believe. I think Mox vs Uno is gonna be a fun beating. That said I mostly agree that this show was fun but not great. Briscoe vs Woods was the clear highlight for me, both guys looked awesome and I'd love to see Woods move up the roster as a top heel. Him and Darby having a feud where Darby takes lots of suplexes would be a sight. And as much as I'm on about de-pushing Mox, Jericho and Danielson ASAP to make space for the 30 & under guys, I would be totally onboard for an emotional MJF vs Briscoe program.

I think her winning it would destigmatize the belt is the thing tho. But that would also necessitate her feuding with, say, Baker and Soho for the TBS belt instead of the Baddies.

You don't wanna bowl with me cuz I cheat. You bowl a 7-10 split, I bowl 7-11. You bowl a strike, I got two of those too.