Leaderboard

Ill quote you so that you see it, but I truly hope everyone does. Yesterday was a shitty day. my 5 year old son went back to his mom's house, and bawled his eyes out when it was time to go. He hadn't cried like that in a long time. I don't know if you have kids or not, but it's a very special type of pain when something like that happens. It doesn't excuse the things I said. I am sorry for that. Truth be told, yesterday afternoon is kind of a blur. That's not an excuse. I just want y'all to know that there was an extenuating circumstance. @Casey, if I'm not on ignore, I'm sorry. I'd like to think I'm a better person than that, but there appears to be a least a bit of evidence to the contrary. I like it here. I like the community this place provides. I like the outlet to discuss something I love. But I also understand that people don't log on here to be berated. Y'all are good people. I might stay away a few days. Shout out to @Log for reaching out. You're good people, man. Y'all take care.

I don't know why some of you think that Thekla going 50-50 with Aminata is bad, it's a very hard hitting 50-50 right now and I really think they'll stick with it til we get a plunder match between the two of them where Thekla should be the one going over there.

Not for a while cause he could easily be slotted into a world title program and have a ppv main event anytime. Heck have Hangman be the first to pin him at full gear or something I bet it would be a banger.

God no. It's Jericho. Jericho's should shift into becoming Paul Jones up against Mark Briscoe. It's the only role for him.

Should note, Google is saying that there was an over 500% increase in searches "adopting dogs near me"

that is a pretty glorious rant and i enjoyed it a lot. I don't know how somebody could miss the entire point of every character and scene, but i did enjoy his exasperation of how much this movie was "bad". he doesn't use the word "woke", but expresses all of the hallmarks. Some highlights of his rant: But his biggest complaint is that Superman gets beat up. He thinks Superman should dominate every fight and flirt with Lois and be coy about it, and that's pretty much it. No other superheroes, either. He wants the 1955 Superman TV show back.

i think (hope?) that the thought process was that this will raise Aminata's stock, not diminish Thekla's. I'd like to see Aminata get a higher profile, and if this feud is a way to accomplish it, i'm on board. I think she has a higher ceiling than Thekla, but admittedly i'm not familiar with Thekla's pre-AEW work.

The crowds are already getting up for them to do battle, so I'd say the feud is working. It's already one of the better undercard Women's Division feuds we've ever had. I do get that the perception of Aminata as (credible) enhancement talent, but she's also young and clearly somebody they have stock in. Despite some hiccups here and there, she's looked consistently strong for a long time now. I'd love to see her get a serious push - I think she's due. Thekla has unique physical charisma and I wouldn't be opposed to seeing her jettisoned into a top program very quickly. Winning a hard fought feud with the Queen sounds like a good way to get her there.

I also think Stat needs a real "day in the sun" reign with the big belt way more than Mercedes (who shouldn't win it until she's a face again).

This is the role Mark Sterling was born to play.

I liked this a lot but didn't love it. It felt like the film had a lot of (I don't know if this is the right term or not) "motion smoothing" look to it, like it was shot digitally the whole way with 60 fps in mind and was something you'd see on a TV show, not a projected film. It was incredibly distracting to me and I've had an issue with it elsewhere. If anyone sees it in standard and in IMAX and can tell me that IMAX looks different and more film-like, I'd be interested to know that. This also just didn't really spend enough time at the Daily Planet; it could have been grounded more in Clark actually being Clark, rather than a blip of a scene and then the Big Stated Out Loud Plot being that he has to Choose Clark. And it needed more Lois. Granted, I'm an unabashed Rachel Brosnahan fan, but their two real scenes together didn't feel like enough. And most of the side folks besides Jimmy Olsen, Pussy Magnet didn't really work because there wasn't a sufficient investment in even getting a sense of who they were or what their power dynamics were like. Wendell Pierce chomping a cigar in no-smoking zones doesn't cut it. And can we just be FUCKING DONE with Superman and plots involving black holes? JUST FUCKING DONE??? But I liked that the message here is just as unsubtle as the message in X-Men '97 was. The people who have a problem with it seem to forget that "the American Way" is the third thing mentioned in the catchphrase, because it's less fucking important than the Truth and the Justice. among all the other things they've forgotten. I dug all the other JL members, and yeah, Edi Gathegi really does steal the show. I didn't know where they were going with the Engineer from the trailers but that was actually a pretty good villain. I'm also eagerly awaiting Good setup for the future. But they're going to have to nail whatever they do with Batman.

Let us not forget that the pizza cutter was used during a picture-in-picture ad break for Domino's Pizza (or was it Papa John's?). Hilarious.

Boy I thought half of this movie was pretty awful and the other half was really cool. Honestly it wasn't until Jimmy Olsen's part was unleashed that I started to enjoy myself. I haven't read any online discourse about it until coming to this thread. Loved the cast though. I think this may be one of my favorite characterizations of Superman/Clark. It felt a little like Clark from Smallville but he went to college and got cooler. I think it felt more akin to the 60's Batman show in terms of tone and I'm not really against that - I just wish it was smarter in executing some of its gimmicky moments.

I would say just like Mariah, Thekla is more suited for this side of the Pacific. She was fairly decent in Japan but never pushed above faction lieutenant/occasional pin eater once she got to Stardom. I think that's why over the last couple years, she worked extremely hard on her presentation and look. IMO By the end of her run in Japan, it became very apparent what her end goal was. Her winding up in AEW was probably a surprise to very few.

That was a phenomenal joke to bring the whole thing to a close, my man. Truly. Kudos to you.

For my fellow UK posters, ITV4 are showing AEW All In 2025 free to air tomorrow at 9pm!

I read they were thinking about recasting Kang for the sole purpose of quickly and briefly tying up his loose ends. IMO the cleanest and easiest handwaving for them to do is have Doom show up right after the Ant-Man post-credit Council of Kangs scene and wreck all of them at once since they made a point to say every Kang had been summoned. It’d even be somewhat similar to starting Infinity War off with the Nova Corps being wiped out.

That would actually be pretty good and not something I've seen before!

Well, they do call the smuggled MacGuffin in S1 an "Imperial" Starpath unit, but there's also the fact that whatever faction won was going to repurpose equipment en masse, so it could have been a "Republic" unit prior to that. I blame Lucas a little bit for not giving them a long enough runway. Made all the worse by the fact that even as a kid, I could tell Mark Hamill was old as dirt compared to what he should have been (he was 29 when ep 4 debuted, 35 for 6). Or you could just handwave it as "long ago far away", meaning accurate records didn't survive.

The booking of the HS has been one of things that makes the most sense in AEW. Look at them! Jesus Christ. They should be beating the shit out of everybody. They're like if the Road Warriors were also amateur champions. Who cares if they're "old" or are "WWE" guys? I loved the tag match at the PPV purely because the HS were having no part of all the flippy shit and just wrecking house.

I’m just glad the apology was as loud and as public as the disrespect

If it's true that Rusev and Black didn't want to lose, that's fine because Tony Khan shelved them. Rusev wasn't used much at all and Black was mostly in tag matches. Tony Khan is the one doing the booking, none of these people have creative control. If they are difficult? They don't get used. It's seems fair to me. There's no signs whatsoever that Mox, Mone, or The Hurt Syndicate have been difficult to work with. No signs at all. They've all done jobs. Shelton has done jobs. I think only Lashley hasn't been pinned but should Lashley be pinned?

Except that's what multiple indie promoters have said about ex-WWE workers - that they'll come in and not want to lose or give their opponent that much as if it's hurting their stock. Rusev/Miro preferred to stay at home in LA and work out and then move to Bulgaria instead of doing business in AEW. I honestly don't know if that's the same for Black, but where there's smoke there's fire. I don't think that's the case at all for Mone. She's a huge star, one of the biggest stars in wrestling/women's wrestling. She shouldn't be losing that much. It would be like if John Cena, or CM Punk, made the jump. Those people shouldn't be losing.

I don't know if it would have made a difference or not but if Warrior's feud with The Undertaker played out on TV more or if the feud with Jake Roberts actually happened (I believe this was neutered because of Warrior getting fired again) maybe he'd have had a lot more juice out of a big babyface run.

Note to self: give family members in Okinawa the razz for not letting me know about the international reach of Oikos.

We have to stop this "Ex-WWE wrestlers don't want to lose!" nonsense. Unless your name is Bryan Alvarez, there's no place for it here. First of all, almost all of the wrestlers have spent time in WWE at one point or another. Secondly, everyone out there is trying their hardest to put in the best possible work they can put in. Nobody has "creative control". All of the booking goes through Tony Khan. He literally just said this the other day. The Hurt Syndicate will lose when it makes sense for them to lose. Shelton has already dropped falls in singles matches. This is complete nonsense.

Any time I hear an announcer in AEW say "This HAS to be it," before a nearfall, I think that's their way of saying "This shit is getting out of hand and that would be a prefectly good place to end this match please don't kick out."

I would say two things: 1. In ANY feud, especially during the Macho King era, Randy was doing a lot of the heavy lifting. I think because you had enough solid to excellent heels, you didn't need the babyfaces to do much. 2. I don't think you wanted Warrior to do more than he had to. The general problem with the Warrior is so much of the excitement with him was during the chase (or during his ascent at least). Whereas Windham or Luger never got to run with the ball while they were at their hottest during their NWA/WCW runs because Flair was right there, they did go with Warrior. However, where do you go with Warrior after beating Hogan? Hulk Hogan is the biggest final boss you're going to get. There was no other worlds to conquer.

Put all the belts on Willow.

when i was a kid, our car broke down. something minor like a flat tire, maybe? i don't remember. But i think my mom was driving. also in the car were me, my brother, and our two cousins. All younger than 10. Anyway, a kind-hearted stranger stopped to help. the ONLY thing i remember about him was that i was CONVINCED he was wearing a fake glasses/nose/moustache disguise. no idea why, but that has always stuck with me. I was 50/50 on if i just imagined it, but i recently brought it up to these cousins, and they both confirmed that they remembered that.

maybe give Rico the Shock G/Humpty Hump spot and have him insist that wrestler Ricochet and manager Ricochet are different people

Opening with Naomi, Rhea, and Io to set up the triple threat was nothing special but still nice to see. This version of Naomi carries herself so well despite being a cackling villain. Kabuki Warriors vs. Raquel/Roxanne was solid. Would have preferred Kairi and Asuka won, but I'm good with Judgement Day cheating here. They also probably need it more wit Raquel and Roxanne as a new team. Hopefully they pop up in NXT and Smackdown to create some decent rivalries. Bayley/Lyra was great. Dug the action. Dug the tension. And I dug how each of the falls played out a bit more exciting than the last. Its been good seeing Lyra come more and more into her own since this story started post Mania. Hopefully she get s a stip like this against Becky and wins the belt back at Summerslam. Becky/Bayley can still happen afterward. The backstage segment with Dom and AJ had me chucking. These interactions the past few weeks have been dumb in the best of ways. Nikki/Chelsea was solid aside from Nikki trying her old spine destroying finish at the end. Guessing old habits kicked in. Was nice to see Stephanie make the save post match. Bron vs. Penta vs. Knight vs. Jey vs. Punk was good. WWE tends to gauntlet matches well so I was happy with how this one played out, particularly with them waiting for Bronson to pounce. Bron/Knight was probably the best of rounds here though I still dug Bron/Jey and Bron/Punk. The post match beatdown that led to the save by Roman was an awesome surprise. Not sure if the crowd knew he was there already or just felt like making the call, but I loved how it played out. That pop was massive. Normally I would complain about only 4 matches, but when one of them is longer gauntlet match I feel some leeway is allowed. Beyond that the wrestling here was just pretty solid-good. Bayle/Lyra was MOTN for me and really delivered though the gauntlet wasn't super far behind. Beyond that I'm digging where the stories are going and how the card for Summerslam is building. Rollins's injury got a quick and solid address that will make his return and cash in a decent surprise whenever I happens, legit hurt or not. Good show and follow up to this past weekends events.

Lyra/Bayley ruled so much. God damn that match told such a great story. Bayley really is the GOAT. So many of the other top women in the company need the title or to be in the mix for the title to be compelling and have great matches. Bayley is almost the exact opposite at this point of her career. That was just a special performance from one of the best to ever do it. And maybe “one of” should just be taken from the sentence.

Prepare for a screenshot from me of Bull being the holder of every title in the game.

Just wanted to point out that, despite the online narrative that AEW PPV are too long, as they are getting longer, the buy rates keep going up. So, maybe people are looking at it as they are going to be worth the $50, and because of the VOD nature of all the streaming platforms, they can watch them at their leisure?

The stadium looked great. Anyone talking about attendance as a slam against at this point is likely doing so in bad faith.

TFA completely undoing the Rebellion’s struggle and victory, THE ENTIRE POINT OF THE ORIGINAL SERIES, all because that hack JJ Abrams had no other ideas outside of “let’s just remake New Hope,” was the dirt worst. If I was Luke and all my efforts meant nothing in the end, I’d fuck off to some shithole planet myself. I really appreciated Johnson trying to at least do something different, even if aspects of it were flawed. The less said about Rise of Skywalker, the better. One of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. I appreciate all the heavy lifting retcon work subsequent TV shows have done to explain the post episode 6 New Republic’s inadequacy, their human failings, and the rise of the First Order, thus softening the blow of TFA resetting everything in the grand scheme of things.