Burgundy LaRue

I was asked for my opinion, and I gave it. Sip or spit.

@Stefanie the Humanhit on some of my biggest gripes. The lack of stories for the women is sad. Their match is often in the death slot of the seventh quarter-hour, to cool down the crowd before the main event. They push no other women beside Britt Baker. Hikaru Shida was champion for over a year, yet she can't get any TV time these days. Nyla Rose isn't in a much better spot. Big Swole and Diamante's feud should have been featured on Dynamite. Hopefully with the arrival of Ruby Soho, we'll see the women's division get more focus. Though Ruby getting her big moment on All Out only because of PAC's travel issues doesn't give me a lot of hope. But at least the women who've been champion have been diverse. That's more than I can say for the men. Save for Scorpio Sky and now the Lucha Bros, no man of color has been in a high spot. It looked like Sky was going to get a solo push, but he's back in a tag team. It reeks of AEW being a private club where only those with big names or who are friends of The Elite. Someone recently put together a list of 500 black wrestlers, many of whom are indie. AEW could have easily signed several of these wrestlers, but are just now getting around to offering Lee Moriarty a contract. The excuse of them still being a young company doesn't fly with me. If anything, that means they can look at decades of wrestling being embarrassingly late to diversify and avoid the same problems. Powerhouse Hobbs and Ricky Starks are being set up to work with Punk, it seems. So maybe things will get better on that front, too. I have some other issues with AEW, but those two are huge. They built their company on a platform of inclusivity, but I'm not seeing it.

Hmm. Admittedly, my TV viewing has greatly decreased over the years, so I could easily be lagging behind on how it's approached by younger audiences. Thinking back to when I got into GoT, I hadn't read a single book. Still haven't and likely never will. I followed the threads here, but mostly because I was in the Movies & TV section, anyway. I wouldn't have actively seeked out anything otherwise. I felt like I understood what I needed to know without going further. I haven't looked at wrestling as prestige television. Interesting idea, though.

Over the years, I've had several here assume that I only watch/follow/recognize WWE when it comes to wrestling. Which is presumptuous and rude. I'm no expert, but I'm not the dumb fuck-bitch some take me for. I follow AEW. I watched All Out. My opinion doesn't exactly correspond with the majority, and I don't need to be told how stupid I am for that. I've done the constant arguments on the board before, and I'm pretty sure I took several years off my life for it. Do I consider myself a huge AEW fan? No. I don't care for the fake-trendsetting frat boy approach from many of their wrestlers and diehard fans alike. They do several things well. But--in my opinion--they stink on other things. Pretty much like every other wrestling or sports entertainment company. Could I eventually become a dyed-in-the-wool fan? Don't know. I'll follow along for now and see. But I'm not looking to be part of online shouting matches anymore. I'm too old and sickly for such.

Most people watching any TV show don't and won't do research to that level. They want to enjoy what's in front of them in that moment as easily as possible. Again, a quick clip would have sufficed, especially for potential new/casual fans. That's all.

That would be great for the thousand or so employees who had nothing to do with this, but would suffer from unemployment during a pandemic. What happened with Zelina is garbage. Rollins-Edge didn't have to go 25 minutes. They could have cut one of Heyman's backstage segments. That would have been the time needed to do a women's match or have Zelina give a speech. How they brought her back under the guise of traveling with Aleister/Malakai again only to release him is super shady. There's no justification for such poor time management. Whoever is running the show has to make sure Zelina makes it on air. And that goes for most of the other women, too. SD's glaring weak spot is they only focus on whoever is in the women's title scene, currently Becky and Bianca. Sonya gets some time as an official, but all the other women are stuck backstage. Zelina's situation makes it worse.

This is beyond condescending. Not every wrestling fan is as deep inside the bubble as we are. They may not honestly know who Suzuki is. AEW didn't have to give a full rundown of his career. But a 30-second video of him in Murder Grandpa mode would have been helpful to someone being introduced to him. And it would have further enhanced Mox's victory over this human buzzsaw. The assumption of diehard wrestling fans that everyone watching is a walking encyclopedia for it is arrogant AF.

As I said, having a different opinion isn't the issue for me. The harassment and name-calling is. If someone can't communicate without doing that, then it's a problem.

It's assumed we're making up these things or are being overly sensitive. Many of us have been on this board for years, and can give as much as we take in arguments. But why go into a show discussion thread when the mass majority in the thread aren't actually interested in talking about said show? It was like that for a long time. And that's not to say anyone should pretend to like something they don't. By all means, say your piece and we can go from there. But don't resort to name-calling when another poster has another viewpoint. Was everyone like that? No, obviously not. But the group who were ran roughshod to where a number of us threw up our hands and stopped participating.

The point is to not verbally abuse someone with an opinion different than yours. I don't think AEW is as good as some here do. Some of Dynamite is enjoyable, some isn't. But you know what I haven't done? Called someone out of their name over it. (not accusing you of that, just reinforcing my issue)

Several of us have flat-out been called stupid sheep for supposedly being pro-WWE. Some folks have been awful in the past and honestly, the rest of you do nothing to call them out for it.

Vince hasn't been in the 'professional wrestling' business since WM I. Max Landis is apparently a predatory creep, but he was right about WWE: it's not wrestling. Not in the way diehard fans tend to label it, anyway. It makes me think about how Martin Scorsese said Marvel movies aren't true cinema. He ruffled feathers, but it's easy to see why someone like Scorsese would feel that way. The same holds true for WWE, on a much smaller scale. Like Marvel, WWE wants to be a continuous line of content. The level to which anyone finds WWE entertaining or successful is a personal choice. But we need to stop acting as if Vince and others haven't said this before. We can agree or disagree with the mindset. But they don't view themselves that as a wrestling company and haven't for nearly four decades. They want to get to talent on the first floor and build them so they fit a certain role. Is that a paint by numbers approach? Of course. But it's easier to mold someone who's new to sports entertainment than to recalibrate a long-time indie darling. And, at least in the beginning, it's also cheaper. Not that they'll completely ignore the indie scene, but they won't rely on it as much going forward. "But that's like creating a line of robots!" Welcome to capitalism. That's always the heart of Vince's thinking, Reaganomics follower that he clearly is. "But that's cold and unemotional!" Becoming a billionaire is. And make no mistake, every billionaire has some of the same qualities as Vince. Commerce over art and ethics. With WWE making more money then ever, Vince's vision is literally paying off for him. If you're looking for top to bottom wrestling artistry in WWE, it's not for you. And that's fine. They have some good stuff going on, but no one is obligated to watch or follow. But again, we have to temper our expectations/fantasy booking with reality.

Considering how Roman has dealt with so much BS himself, this statement is a bit misleading. Besides, what are Roman/Charlotte supposed to do, tell Vince they don't want to be pushed? And based on last night, Charlotte may have nothing on Becky Lynch in cutting off someone's career if we're going down that road and depending on how Bianca is treated like this. Moving to the rest of the show: Kickoff match was solid. Big E's dive will always scare me. Wonder if they'll continue with Corbin trying to steal MITB as a story. RKBro winning was expected, but done pretty well. Can't get excited for Riddle, but the guy is talented. They could have done Alexa-Eva Marie on RAW, but they played it fairly straight and kept it short. Eva Marie isn't completely hopeless in the ring now, still rough going though. Apparently Lilly dolls sold like hot cakes, so don't expect that to go anywhere soon. Take that as you will. Credit to Sheamus, he can turn a crowd around on a match they don't initially care about. Him and Priest started slow, but things picked up when they went to the bomb-throwing. Thought Priest had messed up his back/hip on his dive. Right guy won. Usos-Mysterios just click. We've seen this in several variations, but it was still good stuff. Interested if they'll go full-on with Dominik being a prodigal son. Talked about the SD women's dumpster fire already. McInytre-Mahal was there. RAW women's triple threat was pretty good, though they were throwing and dropping each other in ways that made me jump. Charlotte has to stop with the moonsault. If the SD women's division is a mess, the situation for the RAW women feels like a tire fire. They probably keep going with these three into the fall, provided there's no draft. Edge-Rollins was really good. Loved the Brood entrance and the Dracula/Alucard dynamic. Lashley got cheered for beating up a 15-year-old kid in front of his broken-down dad! That's ice cold. Match was a mess, and looks like Goldberg legit blew out his knee. But the post-match stuff was quality. Enjoyed Reigns-Cena a lot. Cena bumped more than I expected, and Reigns was giving him the business pretty hard in spots. I like that Roman is still doing the in-ring talking, he's great at it. They laid out the story well and for me, it worked. Brock's return as Viking Goro was a surprise for me, though it shouldn't have been, with Saudi around the corner. Heyman's hysterics were fantastic. How they have Roman's opponents come out as he just wraps up a previous contender is neat. If I'm USA, I'm upset. FOX currently nearly all the big names: Roman, Brock, Cena, Edge, Rollins, Becky. It's lopsided and even with a draft, I think USA will still get hosed somehow. They're getting the leftovers.

Hope we find out what happened with Sasha. Because DAMN. There was a pic floating around of Sasha, Bayley and the former Kalisto at a restaurant on Friday. Bayley had on a heavy knee brace, so it's accurate. Sasha was in town and presumably well enough to be in public. Even if you want to cut WWE slack in maybe they were hoping Sasha would get medical clearance (if that's the case): why on Earth would they do that to Bianca? They spent the entire year building her. Rumble win, WM moment, endorsements, appearing on national talk shows, ESPY awards. And the crowds love her. All for her to get beat in 20 seconds by a half-assed Becky Lynch punch? Bianca looked like a goof, Carmella was sent out there to die with the crowd, and Becky's win was met with a collective "WHAT WAS THAT?" Bad scene for everyone involved. Something has to be up. I guess we'll find out soon. I'll talk about rest of the show later, but wanted to get that off my chest.

There's no love lost between Punk and Roman, for reasons that have been killed, buried, and killed again. Roman didn't say Punk wasn't over. He said he wasn't as over as Rock and Cena. That's true. He said he understood Punk's argument against bringing back part-time guys who are taking spots that could be used for younger, full-time talent (Roman has alluded to this in previous interviews where Punk wasn't mentioned, so he seems to actually feel that way). By noting how/why many of the part-time guys get those spots, he's indirectly implying that Punk would have been afforded a similar setup, had he stayed in WWE. Why Punk didn't stay has been exhausted 100 times over, so no need to rehash. Nor did he put himself on Rock/Cena's level. The closest he came to that is by highlighting Cena's Hollywood career and how if Cena took time from his schedule to challenge Roman. Which is self-validation that he's the big catch in WWE today, but not going overboard with it. I think Roman was speaking his truth while being fairly kayfabe. It may line up with Vince's POV, but I suspect it's something Roman feels and not merely because he's drinking the juice. All this also rattles cages. For all the talk about 'new wrestling warz!'--this is red meat. I think Reigns understood that. As for the Moxley quote, that was purely in character. He also mentioned how Seth was doing great but he wasn't the top guy, either.