Leaderboard

I was reppin' NJPW and AEW at the local amusement park. (Anyone here besides @The Natural and I who has one of the "old school" hoodies?! I'm sure there's at least one more in the club on here). There was another dad, a big Japanese dude, wearing a LIJ cap. I made Naito's round-eye gesture at him and his face lit up and he came over and fist-bumped me.

Give me more Konosuke Takeshita, and Jun Akiyama vs Eddie Kingston you cowards. Also, NEO Biishiki-gun, Maki Itoh and Shoko Nakajima.

Two belts at the same time, man.

I like Tetsuyo Endo, Yuki Ueno and Naomi Yoshimura in addition to the best guy they got, Konosuke Takeshita. Yoshimura in AEW would rule. EDIT: HOLY FUCK! THEY CAN SEND OVER MOTHERFUCKING YUJI HINO!

Gee, that's too bad. See ya! ?

What?!

Salient point here. Counterpoint: Douchebag wrestling fans will chant any old shit.

What did you do today? I was in Bucksnort, TN looking for Bunkhouse Buck ?

?

Can I get two hours starting at approx 6:05 on a Saturday night?

Man I haven't been on this forum in a while but AEW reignited my interest. Anybody catch Hey!(EW) with RJ?? It's like the between two ferns of wrestling and just fantastic stuff!

If you can't get the creative freedom that you want, might as well get paid, right?

Yo, that Darby va Butcher match was the shit. Butcher is so freaking good now. Please TK, make that guy into your Sid. Dude has an incredible look and since dropping weight, he’s not gassing out in 5 minutes. That Cloverleaf, powerbomb, cloverleaf spot was awesome. I think I loved everything about that match, including the finish.

That's why it's so weird he's going back to WWE for me. He smashed the throne with a sledgehammer. He used a golden shovel. He was teasing using The Pedigree as a finisher, but would say he's not resorting to using a shitty guy's moves or whatever. His music was all about WWE taking his name but not his legacy and shit. I realllllyyyyyy hope he got a gigantic money deal. Because there's a good chance his future is shit sandwiches, and learning to like the taste of them.

The idea that AEW would keep somebody under contract like Brian Cage to avoid badmouth seems pretty silly. It also seems like an idea from one of his many detractors. The purposed MJF bodyguard idea is perfect. This works to his strengths-his look and ability to pull off neat power/agility spots here and there. Cage as a wrestler needs to better grasp pace/psychology before he has any upward mobility. His mid-match super kill death spots end up making him look weak when they result in a 'shocking' 2 count and quick comeback. The heavier Keith Lee doing a fraction of his stuff but making things matter could be a good pointer/inspiration. Also, there's a lot of great minds backstage in AEW to help him. I for one (maybe I'm the only one), am curious to see the big guy get another chance. I assumed a fresh coat of paint in the new ROH would be his destiny, but... speaking of which... I am very intrigued by this first ROH show. @RIPPApulled quotes from Tony's Busted Open interview that answer some of your questions. But still lots of question marks. Can't wait to see who fills out this roster, the commentary, the set, the new logo, live show and broadcast logistics, etc. etc. I have no doubt this refresh will be exceptional and a great improvement. Not to mention a fantastic opportunity for a lot of rising young guns. And a few deserving vets (can we get Silas Young a job? Chris Hero maybe?). I'm more stoked for FTR v Briscoes than anything on the last fantastic AEW PPV. I really hope this isn't a one and done for Dem Boys. I need this thing to go at least 6 months with a best of 5 or 7, a gimmick blow off, etc. etc. As for where to tune on that Friday night - weekly Rampage is a very enjoyable high end weekend B show, but no question it'll be the honorable Supercard for me. Rampage may end up being like a punt, but will surely be, as always, a terrific Saturday morning broadcast. I'm sure logistics (eg. the ROH show being a PPV) etc etc won't or wouldn't allow for a simulcast, but it would have been neat.

I think there is a sense in which "You sold out!" can be seen as highly complimentary. It kind of means "We cared about you. We identified with you. We considered you 'one of us.' We are sad and even a little angry that, in moving up, you have moved on." in that sense, "You sold out!" chants might actually be a good sign w/r/t Cody Rhodes. I don't think you get those chants if people have stopped caring about you.

Great. That always turns out well among wrestling promoters.

I see where this is heading ... "The kinda belts that'd double-up on a guy like me, would."

The propaganda got another one lol.

Meh. Call it selling out if you want, but the correct term is cashing in. The wrestling business is a... business. Always weird to me when fans turn on a guy for doing what he's supposed to be doing. Making money. I would have preferred if he stayed in AEW because I liked the narrative of him betting on himself and trying to live up to his father by being more than just the wrestler. But that's all just a narrative. None of it's true. He didn't own AEW. Not even a piece of it. He is a businessman trying to make the most money possible. Good on him for cashing in. You sold out is about the dumbest thing anyone could ever chant at a wrestler. EC-dub chants didn't buy Taz a house, but that WWE money sure did. I loved ECW. But this idea that wrestlers are supposed to destroy their bodies for "the love of the game" and not piles and piles of cash is pretttttttty antiquated.

Eddie's said before that his ultimate dream match is against Akiyama... LET'S. FUCKING. GO.

There is absolutely no way that AEW is keeping people to avoid having them speak badly about the company. It belies logic. If you're gonna spend money to have people keep their mouth shut, a little severance package and/or an NDA would be the way to do it. A bunch of people have had or are having their deal expire. Swole is to my knowledge the only person who has said anything negative, and it only blew up into a whole thing because of TK's tweet, which was truthful, but not the right thing to say publicly.

@Gordlow: Looking good my friend. Cheers for the tag, the pictures and bonding with a fellow wrestling fan over LIJ. Great how we've got the original AEW Logo Premium Varsity Zip Hoodie (2019 Colors) and at 50% off when we bought them. I prefer the grey border to the white. My friend @NikoBaltimore's Wife has one. @Jiji as well. Any others want to join the club?

Brian Cage and MJF could do an Incredible Hulk character in a promotion like DDT. If keeping people under contract post Swole is a strategy to avoid them provoking Tony into saying stupid in public maybe there are larger issues that need to be addressed.

I have gifs to come on this one and we'll post the whole match at SC on Tuesday night, but check out the one minute of Mantopolous doing his thing:

Skeletor as well.

I liked how they said that Sheamus, Ridge and Butch grew up together. a 44 year old Irishman, a 33 year old rugby player from Liversedge, and a 28 year old backyard Wrestler from Birmingham. Just hanging out at weekends together, in the past. As children.

William Sadler has the same opinion of it as we all do.

Thunder Rosa's run down of the week build up to the cage match including danhausen at the Alamo, mark Henry explaining dodgeball tactics during community outreach, some stuff with the mariachi band and someone's reaction to it.

Mance Warner is also billed as being out of Bucksnort Tennessee.

Few months old link below, information as to how Tony Khan books https://www.pwinsider.com/ViewArticle.php?id=151495

I was thinking on Wednesday that I hadn’t missed him at all, and that the quality of the shows not only hasn’t declined at all, but has improved in my opinion. He had that great match with Sammy to unite the belts to go out on and that’s perfect.

come to think of it, has Lucha ever had a race car related gimmick. Maybe with the captain driver and two masked pit crew partners who absorb pinfalls

Tetsuyo Endo versus everybody they signed from NXT the last six months.

I share these views. I worry about the long game for Keith without dropping some of the excess. He slid that hilarity in nicely after Starks complaining about new guys trying to take their spots. I was into Jericho's commentary here more than usual. I echo the fun feelings being expressed about this show. I love how the House of Black are able to slowly and kinda quietly build this incredible buzz. Fuego oughtta ask for a rematch. Stoked for Lee/Swerve-Team Taz-Acclaimed. I like that the Acclaimed are becoming so beloved that ppl r starting to get impatient with their W/L. They'll be unbeatable at some point, and the slow build is smart as Caster polishes his game. Also intrigued by Jericho/Garcia v Reynolds/Silver. Jericho's revitalized heel act is such a refreshing coat of paint.

Did they get the ladder?

I personally couldn't stand Cody and his batshit, rambling nonsense promos. Ever since his weird America promo in May 2021, Cody has just he started overstaying his welcome. It got to a point where he was totally oblivious that he had gone from being Captain America to Captain Cringe/US Agent. His storylines and angles, ie Aleister Black, started feeling like big jokes without a punchline. Case in point, you had that whole conflict with Arn Anderson, where Arn was gradually turning on Cody and proclaiming that Cody had gone too Hollywood. That basically went nowhere. Then you had him and Brandy feuding with Men of the Year, and that went nowhere as well. Cody's promos had gotten so cringe that fans started cheering Dan Lambert and Men of the Year over Cody and Brandy. At the same time, I think there's enough evidence to show he was a draw and fairly over for the most part. Just in terms of pure numbers, I don't think AEW is better off without Cody and Brandi. In terms of on-air product...I mean...yeah kind of. Cody building up to a heel turn that was never happening was tiresome.

What the fudge?

Awesome.

Here's the joke I thought of last night as I was drifting off to sleep: Idea for Cody's WrestleMania entrance: There's a Jacksonville Jaguar's jersey, a Fulham kit, and an automobile bumper on a.small platform near the entranceway. Cody comes out holding a sledgehammer... And then I came here to post that joke, and found that @For Great Justice (and others) had beaten me to the punch (no pun intended). And I got a huge smile on my face thinking that I am part of a community where I am not the only person who thinks about pro wrestling that way. ***** Skip-able side-ramble about social media I am of two minds about the posters here who paste up tweet after tweet after tweet. On the one hand, I strongly agree with the "we do not need to see every tweet from every wrestler" point of view; and often I cannot see any reason for a particular tweet to have been re-posted here other than "Hey! pro wrestling!" On the other hand, almost every single day there are a handful of genuinely amusing tweets or very cool gifs posted here that I would otherwise miss, since I have never ever been on Twitter myself. I follow a very small number of people on Insta, mostly people I know in real life. Mostly from a single extended social circle here in Japan. But my Insta feed is choked up with dad jokes (one in five of which are even mildly amusing, one in ten actually funny), food porn, obviously manipulated photos of male and female fitness influencers, fitness advice that alternates between terrible and obvious, and worst of all nostalgia posts where there's a picture of, let's say, a bicycle and a caption reading "If you rode one of these as a kid, like this post." Those nostalgia posts make me weep for the human race. Presumably people are that desperate for any sense of connection whatsoever these days. I can only assume Twitter is like that, but worse, and with way more negativity. I occasionally follow a wrestler on Insta that I like but haven't met. But generally only one at a time. At least their muscle/sexy pictures don't appear to have been manipulated! Minoru Suzuki posts lots of pictures of socks! So: What is wrestling twitter like? Is it possible to manipulate/curate a feed that isn't a maddening stream of vitriol and bullshit? Are there (worthwhile) discussions that go on there that don't make their way over here? ***** Second topic: Speaking of Cody, (and of Twitter): Now that he's apparently officially moving to "the other channel" I think it's a good time to gaze into our navels and ask: Is AEW actually better off without Cody (and Brandy) (and Pharoah) Rhodes? I don't think this has been discussed much here, yet. Is it a thing on wrestling Twitter? (Sincere apologies if it has been debated and I somehow missed/forgot it). Anyway, maybe the answer seems too glaringly obvious (on one side of the debate or the other) for most people? I mean, Cody is handsome, talented, has star power... Cody vs Dustin is undoubtedly one of the all-time great AEW matches... He and Brandy have cross-over celebrity appeal... People were always talking about Cody and what he was up to... AEW (probably) wouldn't exist without him.. On the other hand, his stuff really didn't seem to fit in any more, even given the extremely broad range of stuff (from Orange Cassidy through Eddie Kingston, from Abadon through Juventud) that somehow does manage to fit in on AEW's shows. He seemed, at times, pretty tone deaf. He made some baffling creative decisions. And so on. Certainly there are a lot of arguments to be made on both sides. I am only scratching the surface here. There might also be arguments to be made (kindly and unkindly) that Cody will be better off without AEW. Personally, it feels weird to say it, but I think I have been enjoying AEW's shows a bit more since he left. They have certainly had zero difficulty putting on banger after banger even with Cody gone, Kenny and Miro on the shelf, and so on. Its kind of amazing. And it speaks well of the breadth and depth of AEW's roster and their style of booking lots of wrestlers to look strong rather than having a.tiny handful of top wrestlers who dominate the main event and championship scenes. I feel like Bryan, Punk, Kingston, Wardlow, Keith Lee, Thunder Rosa, and others are a better fit on 2022 AEW's (very spacious) upper card/TV main event scene than 2022 Cody Rhodes is. Quite curious if everyone generally feels the same, or not. Also, while we are navel-gazing here: Is there ANY chance whatsoever that this is all (still) part of some massive post-modem Brian Pillman style swerve?

they'll bring Kendrick back as "The Jacksonville Jaguar" and job him to Cody

Khan overseeing and booking both ROH and AEW with all his other responsibilities sounds like a terrible idea.

It's pretty much the same format as The Hardy Boys coming back at WM 34 in Orlando. It's not something that has been promoted but wink wink, the smart fans know it's happening. So Rollins will come out in gear and complain about not having a match. Then Cody's music will hit, gigantic pop. (Which music I wonder. His Downstait music is his, he can use it anywhere. But it also is lyric heavy on fuck WWE stuff lol). But as has already been mentioned, once the bell rings the reactions will be the real interesting part. Rah rah WWE guy Rollins vs the invading guy that started "the new WCW". Plus even in AEW he was getting that mixed Cena reaction. I imagine that's a possibility since it's a smart heavy crowd. Or do they just keep humming Rollins theme the whole match and ignore what's happening? I think a lot of it depends on the placement. You open the show with it people will love it and do the dueling "Let's go Cody, Cody sucks" chants. You put it 4 hours in, you'll get muted reactions and them humming Rollin's music. I think this segment / match is the most interesting thing on Mania for me. It's the only thing that has any real intrigue. Everything else, even if it will be good, will be paint by the numbers in a lot of ways.

Is it just me, or does it seem like Lee while still being awesome, is still working himself back into shape after all of the heart and health issues? He seems a step or two slower in AEW than in NXT.

Just have Tully find some team to send after FTR as revenge. They counter with Bret in their corner. He punches Tully. Tully bumps huge for it. FTR wins, poses with Bret. That’s it. No need for Bret to ever bump.