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I feel like I literally said this in the post you are responding to, and looking back at my initial post while I named a specific thing I honestly don't get how one would read it as saying it's the only bad one... but fair enough. There was a lot of bad shit around UFC that I stomached for a long time, eventually it became too much for me, but I looked the other way for a while. I do honestly believe it is worse now, I did not consider that a particularly hot take.

So I'm just gonna ask this straight out: what's your endgame here? You seem to have a problem with me deciding to no longer watch UFC due to recent events, so rather than dance around it or basically hint that I'm a hypocrite why don't you come out and say it bluntly as I'm clearly too dumb to get it. There has been a bunch of shit around UFC for years. I was not happy with the stuff about Loretta or Cyborg or Conor etc. There's probably stuff in the MMA folder on this very forum over the years where I have said as much. Did I probably let too much go because I liked watching the shows, cause it gave me something to talk to my dad about? Sure, I justified it by deciding "well I won't buy a show if Conor is on it" and so forth. I don't think I ever stated it here but after Dana hit his wife in public and the decision was "there's no punishment, people knowing is the punishment" I resolved to no longer spend a penny on UFC and only watch the stuff on ESPN (not +). Should have probably just stopped then outright, that's on me. Criticize the heck out of me for it. It is worse now than it has been IMO, closer to the center as opposed to the periphery, harder to ignore. Even if I am wrong on that and it's not... why are you bothered by me going "this has just happened too many times, I can't deal with it anymore?" Did that single sentence metaphor I quickly tossed in there bug you that much? Scrap it then, it wasn't the central point of what I was saying it can be tossed aside no problem (I will say you changing what I said from "the person working there feeling free to toss it off" to "someone who happens to be there saying it once (in bold)" and then acting offended by it does not make it seem like you are engaging in good faith). My central point is very simple : I can't deal with this shit any longer, I can't go "well they're fine with nazi shit, try not to think about it", I have no earthly idea why you find that to be an odd walk away point, feel free to illuminate why you feel so. Regardless, I'm done, sorry it flummoxes you so.

Mea culpa for Revolution >_>

You seem unfamiliar with the last straw metaphor so... yes, that's how it works? Things build up over time, eventually it becomes too much? TBF to be technical the last straw would theoretically be a slight thing that tips things over the edge, while deciding "hitler was a solid guy, the holocaust wasn't real, he just wanted to purify Germany of the jews who were ruining it by making people gay" is an "eh, what're you gonna do?" kinda situation is really more of a last giant branch or heavy rock. That just doesn't roll off the tongue that well and I'm not sure people would get it without explanation though. I will try to be better at metaphors in the future.

I think it possible that both Cope and Mox have enough name value to draw in some people who otherwise wouldn't pay attention to AEW, and that those who normally watch mostly dislike it but not enough to tune out in large numbers. WWE had situations like that for long stretches of time (see: the Cena years) and it worked until it no longer did as once those people start tuning out they generally don't come back. Running with a situation like that for a stretch of time can be fine, but it is a dangerous thing to get in the habit of doing. I normally would assume that isn't likely with AEW but their track record for big top of the card angles for the past 18 months or so (the Devil, the corporate elite, the Death Riders) hasn't exactly been great. I think they just need a big crowd pleasing feel good deal up top ASAP just to be safe.

I mean, I gave up UFC after watching since the first season of TUF (after falling off after seeing the first several shows on VHS years earlier) as I just can't deal with the hateful shit that is deemed acceptable behavior there (yes, Bryce Mitchell was that last straw, fuck that POS), I don't know if it is quote-unquote "political" but the vibe has gotten downright vile there too frequently. I don't care if the food at a place is good, if the guy working the register is free to call people there the n word it ain't a place I'm going back to, etc. etc. Also not to give Matt Riddle much benefit of the doubt but Sami has been wildly acknowledged as a difficult guy to work with until you get used to him by just about everyone who has ever had to deal with him.

You are looking at this backwards: Tito was tossed in because there was an odd number of heels and they absolutely had to avoid letting either Hulk or Warrior get one more elimination than the other. I have not seen the match in decades and perhaps it wasn't an even 2-2 spilt between Hulk and Warrior, I'll take those odds.

If Cena would have just noted that he went to Hollywood and for once got treated with love and respect which made him realize how toxic the WWE Universe is it probably would have fully squared that circle. Would explain why now, why with the Rock, etc. I do wonder if that would perhaps hit a bit too close to home though.

I have a gut feeling that the Cena/Cody segment went rather long and all the matches in the back half of the show had their times cut due to it.

Dijak is a solid hand but like... I feel like his act works online but on an actual show comes off as a good 20% too forced, I feel like I end up rolling my eyes at something he says or does more frequently than I should. He could probably hang around in AEW but they already have such an overstuffed roster, TNA feels about the level he'll end up at.

I mean Mortos is one of my faves so he hit both the losing and frat boy humor. I assume Cope will lose next week via someone betraying him (I put a nickel on Jay White) which will make this the second time since his return just over five years ago where a deal with anyone he has wrestled hasn't ended with him going over. The other was to Roman, both will have likely involved heavy interference only to lose to people where it doesn't really benefit them but hurts Cope the least. At a certain point it isn't coincidence...

Let's see what I missed tonight... Mortos is still the company's designated job guy. Mox /Cope again next week because someone is grumpy about the response the ppv match got. ...Good week to miss, with the bonus of not having to worry about next week either. Save us Collision?

The Bar was the one time Claudio was just positioned perfectly: go be the protected enough workhorse heel team with a partner with enough personality, floating between working with various tag teams and top of the card figures on the weekly shows. Got to wrestle a ton, was involved most shows, wasn't tasked with having to do much non-wrestling stuff, just great for him. Now he is stomping numerous top guys' necks putting them out of business and struggling to get half as much heat as most of the actual hot heel acts do

Yeah add me to the hard no camp, the ship has hit the iceberg it ain't gonna get better.

Really they should just run Swerve/Mox on Dynamite and switch the belt then, screw build and everything it's time to admit it ain't working and move on to the next thing ASAP.

I had a thought along these lines last week, and I'm gonna be honest I haven't thought it all the way through so I reserve the right to eventually decide otherwise or have a bunch of people call it dumb... but I think back to where AEW was when it started and despite whatever issues it had it was something different, and as intriguing as it was then the potential future was even more so. You had Mox and Jericho as the big name established in the US guys and the Elite as the top of the indie food chain/big in Japan guys, but ultimately that was just gonna be a bridge for what could come down the line for wrestlers who wouldn't have gotten that big chance elsewhere but maybe could now. Darby and Orange were the two immediate standouts in that regard but there were others. We're now 5 or so years removed from there and... it almost feels like ground has been lost, that rather than be closer to that future we're farther away. Mox and Jericho are still all over the place to diminished results, 50-ish year olds Edge and Lashley are among the most pushed acts in the company, heck to be honest one can even toss in Okada working most of his AEW run at 2/3 speed while his younger opponents go out of their way to pick up the slack. Sting was there and was cool but also just ate everyone up. This isn't to say that no younger/AEW "homegrown" talent isn't doing stuff of note or that all the older/established elsewhere guys are worthless/should be run out... but I think it'd be a lie to say that this was the future that was envisioned. At the very least the balance feels very wrong and hence why I totally get why one can look at what's given and feel that AEW has lost its identity.

Yeah but even the failure state in this situation still works: John Cena getting back at the world for all the times he was booed as the good guy by giving a whole new generation of faces that experience by getting cheered over them would be rather meta for wrestling but still tracks!

Telling Rock to go fuck himself is the best thing Cody has ever done and is my current pick for wrestling moment of the year. I know it was ppv but living in a world where WWE let it go uncensored while AEW bleeped it out is wild.

Lost in all the general Death Riders grumbling is that they had something really interesting going on with Yuta and they've either dropped it or backburnered it so severely that they may as well have. One of the oldest TK criticisms is that he thinks going back to something done several months before without doing much of anything in between is long-term storytelling when it isn't, and I worry poor Yuta is possibly falling victim to this right now.

What irks me a bit is that for the past year or so WWE has been much more experimental with their production and while yes, some of that is due to simply having a lot more money to play around with... if you are the self-described "challenger brand" you really can't let this be the case. Every kooky idea they have for how to possibly shoot a wrestling match/promo/whatever should be done on ROH every week with the good ones filtering up to AEW proper.

It could have been anyone under that mask... >_>

Yeah, I am team "Brody King rose from the depth of the sea" is the better origin.

With them seeming to heat up Owens & Sami for Elimination Chamber and what feels like an eventual Mania match... I'm growing a bit concerned about Orton. The attack seemed timed well to lead to a return and marque Mania match with either Owens or Cody but looking back the last few months before said angle he was working a lot of tag matches, his advertised match with Owens right before just became a big brawl, maybe he'll pop up at the Chamber and be good to go but I worry it's his back again and it just can't take that much abuse any more.

Screw this luke warm take, I got an actual hot one: Kayfabe isn't dead, they know they can't make you believe 100% in their in-ring characters anymore but the smart ones have adapted to get you to believe in the "this is who I really am" personality they portray off the shows/on social media. People only think they know them so much better than they used to, but I'd wager it is the usual "the best wrestling character is a portion of yourself turned up to 10" deal way more often than people would like to think.

So... Miro got booked for a show and wrestled within two weeks of getting released. Check that, wrestled and lost, seemingly without issue. Could mean nothing... but that sure sounds a lot like the Rusev we all saw for years with our own eyes before a whole lot of whispers got put out there about him that made us question things. Maybe... just maybe we should have just questioned the whispers instead. Something to keep an eye on I guess.