caley

I did catch Liv's promo and I don't know the last time I saw someone so genuinely thrilled to win a title. She looked like she had tears in her eyes standing on the ramp with the belt and then there was the part when she just jumped and down and laughed. It was pretty awesome.

I like them, too! I started to watch this show then they ZOOMED IN!/ZOOMED OUT!, ZOOMED IN!/ZOOMED OUT!, ZOOMED IN!/ZOOMED OUT!, ZOOMED IN!/ZOOMED OUT! on the punching and I went "Ehhhh, I'm out." I kind of wanted to wait for the main event but DEAN's write-up makes me think I might not bother.

You know, Rudd's character basically alienated Ferrell's character from all his friends so he'd depend on him...Cage is kind of doing this, too...

A number of writers across the sports spectrum (Saw a few hockey writers, myself) began referring to it as a "Brain injury" rather a concussion as it would draw more attention to how serious it was and decrease phrasing like "He escaped serious injury, only suffering a concussion" but it never really caught on.

I actually really loved that Storm-Shafir match but didn't see almost anything else so I don't think should vote for it. Shafir's (inexperience? awkwardness? crappiness?) actually makes the match kind of more believable because it feels like a genuine struggle. At one point when she gives Storm one of her weird throws, I swear you can hear Toni (or someone nearby!) yell "JEEE-zus!" which makes it kind of fun and realistic because I know if someone was throwing me around I'd be yelling thing out, too. Also, it looked like Toni almost disconnected Shafir's head from her body on that hip attack. The Roppongi-Aussie match was fun, too. Aussie Open did two moves that I had never really seen before (the spring the guy up by his legs into a piledriver position seated piledriver thingy and the lift the guy into powerbomb position only for the partner to flip him down out of that spot move) and that was cool.

100% this. All these random [NJPW wrestler/faction] shows up and attacks [AEW wrestler/faction] only to helped by [AEW or NJPW wrestler with no real connection] feuds kind of remind me of when WWE would make Survivor Series a brand vs brand show and guys who have no history would randomly team or feud because of "brand supremacy". "Hey remember these two guys who hated each other? Well they're going to team up and wrestle some guys they were previously friends with because they were randomly drafted to Smackdown this year while the others weren't!" See I know Mox has been "after" Tanahashi for however long but his whole promo about wanting to defeat him so he can be called the "Ace" is so counter to his AEW "I just wanna fight" persona, especially since he's in the middle of a vicious blood feud with a faction that his injured his friend. It'd be like if in the middle of John Wick, he stopped chasing the baddies who wronged him and his family, to compete in a car race or something.

This is the best summary of marriage I've head since my college professor compared it to to two people in trenches opposite each other and made machinegun sound effects.

Riddle: "Mind if I do a J?"

He's actually a supernatural-powered spooky cult leader now. I stopped watching NXT for a few months and the guy who was talking about safe spaces was kidnapping HOF dads, appearing on TVs and flickering lights on and off. It was quite a difference.

Hahaha, straight out of 'Seinfeld': "I'm giving you a raise!!!!"

This is causing me some...complicated...feelings This ignores the preceding part where some malevolent combination of WWE writing and Shotzi's SNEERING heel voice created one of the worst promos I've ever heard. Was watching it at my parents' place while my mom was cooking dinner and heard "Jeeeeesus, who is that? It's the worst thing I've ever heard." She was wrong... because a few weeks before this Shotzi called Raquel "you absurd Amazon!" and that was the worst thing ever heard but this was close.

"It's the one time of the year when WWE follows the rules [insert electric guitar riff] TO THE EXTREME!"

Oh that should SO be his new nickname

I thought the Battle Royal was kind of dumb because it's for a shot at the World Title! And then (I imagine!) all the top guys are like "Pfft, if I'm not winning, I don't want to be in it." So you have a Battle Royal for a shot at the title that does not include #4 Adam Page (Previous champ), #3 Adam Cole (just won your big tournament), Scorpio Sky/Sammy Guevara (Two guys trading your secondary title which would put them near the top in a kayfabe sense), #2 Wardlow (at least they explained that), #5 Jay Lethal, Samoa Joe , Christian (former World champ outside AEW), Jeff Hardy (former World Champ outside AEW), Jungle Boy (supposed pillar of AEW), and your biggest, most well-known star Chris Jericho. I mean, you have at least kayfabed it by saying something like having a Battle Royal to take on Jon Moxley (The #1 ranked guy) but only including wrestlers who have never wrestled for a singles title in AEW or something! But this is like having a Battle Royal to determine the opponent for Hulk Hogan and having the Bushwackers in it. It just seemed very silly even if the right guy probably won (In terms of putting on a good, credible main event match for Moxley; Darby would have been good, too; Andrade might not match up well with Moxley style-wise) Shafir-Rosa was kinda ugly and non-cooperative-looking. I thought someone was about to get Sexy Starr-ed or something there. Thunder Rosa getting jumped after the bell, being saved by Toni Storm, hitting one move and celebrating over Shafir was a weird look for a face champ. "I did it all by myself!" I kinda like Shafir because her style is so unorthodox and she gives off kind of a female Rusev-vibe with her theme music but she should have a reverse-Lana manager (Good looking American dude who talks for her). Loved the main event. I knew Moxley was going to win -since he's lost what 2 singles matches in AEW (3? Is it more than 3? Lost to Jericho once or twice and Omega once or twice and Danielson...once? Are there more?)- but still thought there was maybe a chance. I think KOR's wrestling style might be more effective as a face, but he plays such a good dweeb-y MMA jerk that I don't think he should be turned, either.

If I had better (any) photoshop skills, I'd photoshop Cole's face on there with the "But I'm a hero!" quote

I voted for Adam Cole because I felt sorry for him and think he gets a bit of a bad rap.

I LOVE his theme song and get the "I will not allow" part stuck in my head for hours. Actually his whole AEW presentation IS pretty great.

I was watching the 2020 Royal Rumble match the other day and if there isn't a greater display of how WWE fans view Cesaro vs. how WWE views Cesaro, then I haven't seen it. This one was the one where Lesnar comes in as world champ at #1 and just destroys and eliminates everyone. Lesnar is all alone in the ring having eliminated everyone that comes in (including a re-pushed Erick Rowan with mysterious spider cage, recently re-debuted John Morrison, and a 3 on 1 disadvantage against 2/3 of the New Day and Rey Mysterio) rather easily and Cesaro's music hits and the crowd pops big for him and everyone is expecting a big Cesaro-Lesnar showdown and...he eliminates him in literally 18 seconds. And the crowd just completely turns on the match. Someone should show that part to Cesaro before he re-signs.

As I mentioned in the WWE TV thread, Fox ran an episode of Masterchef with Gordon Ramsay this week with WWE Superstars and the wrestlers involved were Miz/Maryse, Dolph Ziggler, Natalya and...Ember Moon. Nice timing for AEW, for the episode to run this week after her debut with them. (Apparently it was taped all the way back in 2019 but just aired this week, hence why they would have someone so long gone from WWE on the show!)

Did he have a hatchet in his jacket?

Bizarrely, there was a Masterchef Jr. episode this week with WWE Superstars tag-teaming with kids to make finger food! The superstars? The Miz (wth a very pregnant Maryse which means this was taped in...2019?!), Dolph Ziggler, Natalya and...Ember Moon?! Boy was the timing on that last one pretty bad.

I was trying to find the clip from when Mysterio used to hit Bronco Buster and Stevie Ray called it the "Faceful of stuff" and then Tygress hit it and he yelled "Faceful of yak! Faceful of yak! Don't strike back!" but alas...

Sasha Banks. No one else is using that one right now, right?

Stacks and 2 Dimes. They also have first and last names but you know WWE will dump one or both eventually. At first I thought the guy was nicknamed '2 Times" and I thought they'd borrowed the gimmick from 'Goodfellas' and thought that would be a very amusing gimmick: have him say everything two times. But I think it's 2 Dimes. If you wanna rename him Johnny 2 Times, WWE, I approve. I love WWE's I've-only-seen-the-Godfather-once-twenty-years-ago-on-a-plane-but-that's-all-the-mafia-knowledge-I-need approach to Tony D ("We'll make him an offer he can't refuse!") but credit to Tony for going ALL-IN on it. Also, as an aside it's really bizarre that WWE named him Tony D'Angelo when there is an NHL hockey player named Tony DeAngelo. Now, it being WWE, I'm sure nobody really knew there was mid-level hockey player with the same name, but it's funny if you know about DeAngelo because he's Trump-promoting, Covid-denying, Capital riot-backing online presence whose tenure with his last team ended when the backup goalie punched him out and the team just sent him home and paid him not to play before buying ot his contract at the end of the year. Mandy Rose has gotten really good. I wonder how long before they bring the whole Toxic Attraction group up and put them on one of the main shows. Rose-Bel Air would probably be pretty good. It's nice of Gacey to employ two of the Undertaker's out-of-work druids. I was hoping they would unmask as the Steiner Brothers and have that Gacey had brainwashed them into being his followers because I REALLY want to see Scott Steiner try to read WWE scripted promos in a monotonos brain-washed voice. I like the random Diamond Mine guy (who is he?!) telling them off-handed about Roderick Strong's injury ("We were just rolling around on the mat together!"). I wonder if we ever see Strong again, actually. I think Vic Joseph should have a long future in WWE. I'm not sure I've ever heard a guy so convincingly try to explain WWE goings-on without actually explaining him. Him talking about Indi Hartwell's tough year (That WWE fired her "husband" and tag partner) without actually saying something was a masterclassa in navigating the Vince-ism minefieldand coming through with flying colours. Wade Barrett is a little out there, him off-handedly saying that his sources told him that one of those bro-country guys was a virgin and his injury to his right hand had ruined his sex life to absolutely no response from Vic was a moment to behold.