Niners Fan in CT

I didn't say her support rings hollow. The talks of "burial" or Mercedes somehow holding her down (despite them being friends and training partners for months) rings hollow. As seen here in a post from me just 18 hours ago (and there's more posts from the past couple weeks on this topic), I've said myself that I'd quite enjoy an upset from Harley on Saturday. It's interesting how some of my posts are seen but not all.

I've said several times I love Harley Cameron and would like to see her win. I don't think she will win but I wouldn't mind at all if she did. If she doesn't, is it a burial? No, I can see both sides of the argument. Show me where you arrived at your conclusion... I do think there are a lot of bad faith actors out there especially on social media. What is strange to me is how someone (in this case me) can say they would like to see Harley win and then you come up with a sentence saying the opposite...

Harley has won a single televised match for one and the match itself is taking place at likely 11PM ET on a Saturday on tape delay. I credit Harley for getting herself over to this degree in such a short time and I credit Mercedes as well because they've been training partners since at least November and is partially why I believe this match was penciled in. I said before that I wouldn't blame AEW at all for having Harley go over here but I can also recognize why the decision will likely be a "very close... sooo close..." hard fought defeat, which I don't see anything wrong with... People ready to jump out windows if Harley doesn't win rings hollow to me and there's always a double standard when it comes to Mercedes or Bianca. Bianca held the title for a year and all of sudden she's "boring" but Rhea can hold the title for just as long and none of that sentiment creeps into the IWC Twitter spaces etc.. If that's a reason to block me then don't waste your time, do it.

They just keep going to the same fucking locations.

Harley is 99% not winning that match. It will be a hard fought "she came this close..." type of match. The fake "Harley is buried" tweets all over Twitter will be something to watch.

There are people in the industry who are shitty people and then there are people like Logan Paul who are absolutely disgusting.

I wouldn't mind a huge upset win for Harley Cameron at the Grand Slam event. I don't think it'll happen especially on a tape delay show but it'd be cool if it did. I would expect the match to get some time, Mercedes has been training with Harley, I think they'll have enough confidence in it to get some time.

Harley Cameron doing a double time flow was something that put a huge smile on my face. This woman can do it all. Mercedes is going to give her a great match in Australia. Obviously The Hurt Syndicate were another big highlight. Toughest guys in the company and it's amazing that Triple H couldn't find anything for them to do.

I present to you, Bad Bunny. An actually sneaky athletic guy (though not on the level of Logan Paul) who clearly loves wrestling and clearly knows how to work in front of a crowd with all of his theatrics. That goes a long way into making a match held in front of a hot crowd feel epic. I didn't come here to take away from Logan Paul but Bad Bunny is a guy that shows that this is all capable if you possess those types of character attributes. I still don't think either of them are "great wrestlers" because they aren't calling matches or telling stories or able to cover for mistakes or any of the other hundreds of things that make a great wrestler a great wrestler. Does this shit garner a big reaction? Sure it does! So someone can obviously say to people like me "who fucking cares" and they'd be right but you know what else got a huge reaction? The Jackass crew at WrestleMania.

He's a really good prospect but that's only if I believed he was truly a wrestling prospect and this wasn't just another one of his many ventures to keep his name churning on social media platforms. I don't truly believe he's in wrestling for the long haul or has any desire to become a great pro wrestler. I will give him a ton of credit for working his ass off to put on the best performances he can but that is also because he cannot embarrass himself given how fickle people are about social media personalities. He worked hard and had to given who he is.

I don't think Logan Paul is a great wrestler either. An even worse human being but I'll just discuss his wrestling for the sake of this argument. Can he perform some pretty cool moves? Sure... He's very athletic and it's impressive that he usually lands these moves without botching anything. But can he put together a great match that isn't smoke and mirrors and isn't rehearsed for weeks at a time? I don't think so. I know people are going to say "Macho Man choreographed matches!" no, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm saying if you put Logan Paul on the road and he's wrestling every week, you are going to see the flaws.

I was going to mention this a week or two ago after my rewatch, I've seen the Hogan vs. Sheik title change a bunch of times but this time I just wanted to pay attention to all the little details and beyond how awesome the match was in accomplishing everything you need to do in 5 minutes and a brilliant call from Gorilla, the thing that stands out is the audience. Yes, of course I remembered a huge pop for Hogan's win but I never realized just how unglued the crowd was from the time Hogan came out the entrance way. It was a SUSTAINED roar through MSG for the entire time, pre-match introductions, during the match and well after the match.. I can't think of many examples where a crowd was this loud through an entire 10-15 minute segment.

Also, I notice you skipped right past my post where I was talking to directly to you and you skipped past it because you didn't know that Mercedes has been training with Harley Cameron and it blew apart your entire narrative. L-O-L.

Hmm I seem to remember a certain event in Boston that had 10,000 people giving her a sustained standing ovation. But let's say ok, it's Boston.. then how about when she just received a standing ovation mid-match vs. Kris Statlander at World's End? Again, if you are an AEW fan, these are things that you should have seen so I find your posts to be the definition of disingenuous. One more thing, she's.. wait a minute... a heel! People like Willow and Mina and Harley are supposed to be getting the face reactions and it's Mercedes job to make sure she's booed and they are cheered.

I loved how Mercedes went over and danced right in front of that guy without a care in the world. One of the best parts of the segment along with Puppet Mercedes and everything Harley did on that guitar. Plus, her KO shot to Mercedes was lovely. Can't wait until Saturday

For the first year, I think you can argue that Cody Rhodes became a pretty big deal. I saw he was selling a lot of merch and I saw that the house shows he was on were doing very well. But lately? I don't know if you can say he's much more than another star in a brand full of stars. You look at SD! right now and the viewership numbers have been cratering. I understand a big part of that is moving from broadcast TV on FOX to cable with USA but even still, when I see numbers like 1.4 million regularly it is what it is. It doesn't help that he's gone around the world with AJ twice, a super long Kevin Owens feud and now back to Solo again after he had already feuded with him for months. Meltzer made a good point a while back when discussing Triple H's booking. He said there's been a lot of bookers who can have a great year or even a really good 2-3 year run but when you're doing this 52 weeks a year and it never stops, you are going to run into some issues eventually and I think that's where Hunter and where some of Cody's booking is right now. It's in a bit of a lull.

Everyone is important in their own way. Ospreay was probably important for the UK as well. He was probably important to ALL IN and he's probably important to the UK viewership, I heard they are doing well over there on whatever channel that is. Mercedes is out there doing the Breakfast Club and things like that, she's important to promoting AEW on platforms that otherwise would not be discussing AEW at all. She's also important to the women's division whether it's having great matches and elevating the perception of that division or doing like what she's doing now, training with Harley Cameron. I also saw her training with Leila Grey a lot recently. She's also going everywhere to NJPW shows to Rev Pro in the future, she's even doing a show at H.O.G. soon. Okada is likely important to Japan or people who fell in love with NJPW off the backs of him and Tanahashi. These are all things that make up what AEW is as a brand.

It was reported months ago from several outlets that Darby was going to be the guy to take the title off Mox and that was certainly how it was playing out on TV. Now Darby is gone, nobody knows when he'll be back and everyone hates the whole Death Riders thing. Khan hasn't pivoted at all, only doubled down. I don't see him pivoting on that and I don't see him giving Harley the win on a tape delay show.

I believe that's the era we live in. I'd say 80% of the WWE roster are "just dudes" and that seems to work out fine. They might have a nice match on a PPV or they might sell of few t-shirts but what does any of it really mean. What's the difference between current day Miz or current day Nakamura or whoever. They are just guys having matches and once in a while they do some cool shit to remind us they can.. I wasn't knocking Ricky Starks, I just find it interesting how many people think Tony Khan just fumbled the future face of his company.

It's ridiculous because if the point people like Drew are trying to make is that "x wrestlers aren't worth what they are paid" then you are essentially calling for Tony Khan to push no-name wrestlers and hope it works out....just because? The brand is the draw but the brand is dependent on having a quality collection of talent. That's why I said it's about the collective. Does Swerve or Okada or Mercedes or Ospreay make or break the company on their own? No but together they are important for the current and potential future of the brand. Cody Rhodes could leave WWE tomorrow and that machine isn't stopping. That's the point.

None of these are significant to the main event scene. Why hasn't he pivoted off the Death Riders is what I asked you...

I didn't say anything about booking. It's clear that Mercedes and Tony Khan share ideas but Mercedes (and Khan himself) have said that he's the guy making ALL of the booking decisions. AEW wrestlers receive a lot of creative freedom but they aren't deciding who is winning what matches or where they are being placed on the card. So no, Mercedes is not booking herself. Here's the point you missed: Mercedes has been actively training WITH HARLEY CAMERON for weeks now.. there's several pictures and video of this. It's not something made up to hurt you. Is it out of the realm of possibility that while Mercedes has been training with Harley that she put a word in with Khan? No, it makes perfect sense because Harley is now getting a lot of TV time and she's going to be wrestling Mercedes who has been her training partner. Why does everything need to be spelled out for you on here ?

Looking forward to the next batch of "Ricky Starks is being misused" tweets. People really think he should be a top guy somewhere and while I like him, I've never thought oh yeah here's the face of the company.

I've been seeing a lot of people agreeing in these threads that the shows have been "good" or getting better lately. There's one pretty obvious reason why that is and it's because the "stars" have been on the shows. The Hangmans, Swerve, Hurt Syndicate, Ricochet, Omega, Ospreay, Mercedes, Toni Storm, Mariah etc. group of talent has been present on most of these shows and that alone has made them feel more important. They are running stories that people want to get invested in. Does that show in the "ratings"? Who knows, they are on Max as well and we don't have those numbers, all I've read is that they've been solid on there. Does that show in attendance? Not yet but you'd think it would if they stay consistently good. That goes back to my point about star signings. They are important to the brand. I'm sorry but AEW is not turning the corner on business with some dudes that nobody knows. You could have an Okada type guy sign to WWE and AEW would be fine but you need an x-number of stars to put out there if you are serious about making the product must-see television.