Octopus

Pillars talk - it’s just fun branding of young people on the first show, taken from a promo that lead to a shirt and more references. It stuck, so it’s a fun thing. You can point to Brit Baker and OC as non-WWE talent that got over outside of the Pillar branding. Starks brought up how he doesn’t like the term (and maybe it’s him hinting at a storyline and I’m a mark) but no one actually believes that Jungle Boy is the second coming of Taue. Starks has It and with the right storylines and build could really be something. He doesn’t A) need to be a part of referred to grouping, or B) need to say the term is dumb. If we do want to make more cute little four person categories to be cute and have cute fun, I believe it was @AxB that once said the 4 Killahz (he probably didn’t use a Z but it’s cute and let’s be cute and have cute fun). But that stuck with me. Let’s make four cute groups so no one feels left out and the have the four groups have a tournament to see who the cutest is. Four Pillars - MJF, Darby Allin, Sammy Guevara, and Jungle Boy Four Killahz - Wheeler Yuta, Daniel Garcia, Hobbs, Lee Moriarty Four Thrillas - Ricky Starks, Swerve Strickland, Peacock guy, Komander Four Kidz of Wrestlahz - Hook, Brock Anderson, Brian Pillman Jr, Rush? I would have included women like Hayter as a Killer but if it’s a cute tournament then outside of the video game, AEW doesn’t do intergender matches. ——— Yeah, @The Natural I agree. You have to leave Dynamite with at least one A-level star

Uggggh, I’m gonna do it. I’ll get the extra version for FTR. I’m excited. I want to play @The Natural online and be Penta. I may lose, but I will spam taunt so hard.

One thing Cole has going for him is that the people that like him, really like him. This was before he was on UUDD, whether through ROH or PWG or BTE or maybe his own streaming he seemed to get very passionate fans. Small sample size, but a few instagram pages I follow of people that are also wrestling fans share a bunch of pictures of him and cite him as their favorite. I’ve brought this up before and I’m sorry if I’m misremembering where specifically I heard it. I believe on AEW Unrestricted Cole was on and he was talking about Shawn Michaels being a mentor and really teaching him to understand ring psychology. I’m sure there is more he’d have to offer on the subject, but what he talked about was very much treating a match like a rollercoaster. Also to lay down longer when he is selling to increase fan investment. I’d be interested to hear more of his thoughts and what he learned from his wrestling dad. I think he has loads of charisma. With the right storyline or feud we could see some really neat promos. Before all the injuries and shenanigans, I thought an Elite vs Ultra Elite or whatever would have been cool. I’m ignorant enough on his work to not be able to reference pre-AEW greatness or weakness. Off what I have seen, I guess I’m 50-50. I think he gets a lot of love from some circles and distain from others. Not an Octopus Guy and I’m not sure he’ll fully win me over but could be an enjoyable character in the wild world of wrestling. He comes across as a kind guy so I’ll always be pulling for him to stay healthy and do cool things. For the body talk, I think he is fine. Handsome face, a real cutie. I understand the criticism, but I will say his pointy knees are a plus and not a negative. Let those razor sharp bad boys get the back of your head and that should be protected like a Jackhammer. ——- Jesus! I was typing this out and say @just drew posted so I thought I’d read before posting my casual indifference but a nice guy post. Hot dang, My dude Drew has the day off and I’m not going to disagree with him today. *fearfully shuffles papers* Adam Cole looks like if a pale Daschshund with greasy long hair stood up on his hind legs and was bad at video games. I bet he tips waitresses poorly and talks too much about his collection of beer shirts but only drinks pilsners. Nothing to see here bud, just casually backing away quietly.

Very well stated evaluation of personal biases and self critique.

Dear lord, if this years All Out they can build to an Anarchy in the Arena type match called Brawl Out with the Elite vs CM Punk Sympathizers, I’ll shake the great Tony’s hand on a masterful long term booking/ talent management save. If they don’t collide, give me a different thing that is neat.

Keep that hat on. We will see Attitude Era snide remarks sent each other’s way as if it was Nitro vs Raw. Some passive and subtle and the other abrasive and bombastic. And like the Invasion, we’ll settle for Cash Wheeler vs Colt Cabana. Not a bad match up, all things considered.

Great work, Tony! I never questioned ya!

Yes! Taunting!!!!!!!!!!

Me bitching and not saying much in coming…. The last two PPV’s were maybes for me. I ended up getting Revolution and was very glad I did. Excellent main event (becoming among an all time favorite for me), a wild tag team silly Willy four way, an intense Texas Death Match, and Christian Cage had a sleeveless turtleneck. What I’d want in an AEW event! Double or Nothing just didn’t have it for me and I decided not to get it way sooner. At least the Forbidden Door was a last minute no that I regretted. Outside of gifs, I don’t think I’ll go out of my way for the last event. Which is a shame for a company that even when I’m not sold on the stories usually makes me feel my money was well spent. Anarchy in the Arena I bet was a hoot. The last one was fantastic. I’m sure the Four Pillar 4-way Thrillar was fun, but I’m not really interested in that as a title match. I can see it being Tony investing in giving them these moments like when you draft a QB and feel the need to give them important playing time. This felt like a TV special main that could have either had a shorter build or not make me long for having Rush in Jungle Boys spot. I find Darby very unique and cool and someone you could really make money off of with great television and matches. I think MJF can be hokey at times but is a very good champion. Sammy needs help on the direction of his character. If he doesn’t go on a face attempt after the pregnancy announcement then what was all this for? If he does go on a face run, be very careful because you can only attempt this so many times. Don’t let him have dumb moments where he comes across like a douche. In a weird way, if you replaced Cole with him in that same Jericho feud with a beat up girlfriend (please no now that Tay is pregnant) then Sammy could have pulled it off better. More on that later. I’ve never been a Jungle Boy boy. I used to be in the camp where he is getting better and with his looks and a willingness to get more experience could really be a popular fella. I’ve now seen him in a build for a championship match and I don’t see him anywhere near there. This is dumb of me, I admit, but that was a factor in me not getting the PPV. Statlander is champ. Neat. Now hopefully we get good weekly women’s matches around this belt. Outside of the Ladies World Order that is now holding the World Women’s Title. TBS Championship can be the workrate belt. Even if you don’t want Statlander weekly, you have a number 1 contender match and can spread it out. ramble ramble ramble Sunny Matt D and Gord Julius are right, there are certain uncanny elements to the recent feeling of AEW that have a Sports Entertainment feel. I think the matches are likely still often better than WWE, but no one can out WWE the WWE. You can be less than, worse than, or different than. Give me the alternative. I like Jarrett shenanigans but we’re getting it along with JAS and the Outsiderz. The Elite have shenanned once and I could see them shenan-again. ramble ramble rambl i won’t spell check this and I no longer know where I’m going with this. ramble ramble ramble Nyla Rose stealing the belt from Jade was the best part of her title run. That was straight up neat and showed a fun side to both Nyla and Jade. Staying on Jade, what’s the deal with the Baddies. It came into existence almost randomly and I don’t know who is in and who is out. Red Velvet was a face that wasn’t getting cheered (often facing hometown talent) so she turned Baddie. But it was done not with a shocking in ring handshake. It was explained by the announcers, if I recall correctly. Wasted opportunity that tells me that if a show doesn’t care enough to show the talents character development, I shouldn’t care. You had bleach hair McNair having a bag over his head for like a year and when you finally do something, he just gets beat and it was revealed poorly. You wasted a year of My Chemical Romance’s Welcome to the Black Parades’ time and mine! The Dark Order was beloved and their slow disappearance is a disappointment and failure of booking. Absolutely embarrassingly bad. ramble ramble. I remembered I liked the Cole vs Hangman match from one of the PPV’s. It had a different feel from the other matches on the card and was a joy to end the show one. I was likely bombed depending what the date of that event was. I’m in the Cole is a better heel camp. I do know nothing on that matter and can very well be wrong. I agree his wrestling as a heel can be excitingly good guy moves, but he has such a swagger to him when he’s pretending to be mean. He either lost that as a face ORRRR is being booked to play victim and then tough guy which comes off awkward. I’ll wait and see. I think everyone here can agree that he is a big draw and regularly moves ratings and merch, so we can drop this. ramble ramble rambl I hope we get Danielson v Omega 2 this year and it goes to a hour time limit draw. ramble ramble ramble calm down Octopus. Everything is fine. Let’s see the next builds now that the current derp is over. ramblw ramble Rush is pretty neat. I hope with the new show that stable can be used well. Speaking of new show, if CM Punk comes back OR doesn’t come back and we get more stupid drama (after I make memes for likes and trophy emojis) I’ll be like “oh shoot” and it’ll really kill my enjoyment likely only temporarily. But for that time period, oh boy. I’m typing all of this while getting sweaty on a couch. everything sucks but everything’s fine and I’m just hungry but I ate so much noodles what the hell. karen Jarrett hitting Aubrey with a guitar is funny to me. Keep it up, Tony!

Speaking of fun sponsorships, I’m surprised AEW does use Cracker Barrel more like they did in 2019. I recall the barrel being used in fun ways.

If this is McGuinness return All in hype, I’ll maybe cry after the match

I’d like to see Jericho vs face Guevara. Including a proxy war of Sammy against Garcia. Guevara had an awkward face attempt in the past with the TNT Title feuds that didn’t work out, but I think it is possible for a good guy run. If I’m wrong, I deeply apologize for bringing this into the world.

So Goldberg vs Yano for Forbidden Door?

To be fair, Sabu is pretty great.

I think more people are crapping on Cole than Jericho, but I do agree with you for the most part. Especially with storylines, just like when Cody was here, the blame gets out on the worker instead of the booker. Jericho has a pretty good track record of having good matches throughout every year of AEW.

I did not watch this match so can’t comment. I usually post on Cole to tease you more so then defend him. I’m not a big fan, outside of how lovable he was on UUDD playing Uno against Claudio (they got me through the pandemic, along with T90Official narrating Age of Enpires 2 matches and Grand Poobear playing Mario Maker 2) so I do have a level of respect for how he comes across outside of the ring. He isn’t really one of my guys and also I didn’t dig deep enough to maybe find some Indy classics, it just didn’t hit for me. I will defend his Suplex to Knee move he does because those knees are razor sharp. One thing he does have going for him (which I feel works 100% better as a heel) is his in ring and during segment charisma. As a piece of shit dirtbag he just comes across so greasy and I want to punch him. It’s likely why Vince wanted him to be a manager. Yes, in real life he is likable, but he also comes across dopey and he’s the most teased guy on UUDD for making silly plays and quickly forgetting what the others players have. He’s a goofball and he’s kind. I’d rather him be a dick than a rough n tough girlfriend protector. Part of me wishes he could be a heel and try less to be like Shawn Michaels and more like (hmmmmm, who should I say?) um Piper? IDK, I’m mostly rambling and don’t have a point. He has an interesting fan base that is super into him. Very small sample size but his shirts I’d see people wear at breweries and around town. Is it the spots? The charisma? I could reach out and ask people. Like Gargano, he is a HHH and HBK guy, but probably not a Vince guy. Maybe he’s a Tony guy. I’ve been close a few time to write a piece on him. There is something there. It’s not for me, but idk. No to be held here because it is too off topic of the PPV, it’d be interesting to compile a list of the style babies of different workers. Who came in and modeled themselves after HBK, Mysterio, Foley, Funk, Graham, Hart, Danielson, etc.

So if Kenny has 2 friends that will help them in their journey against the BCC, who is the extra member of the BCC? Mox, Danielson, Yuta, Claudio, Takeshita, and ? Vs Omega, Hangman, The Young Bucks, ?, and ?

Same boat. Neat about Blackpool Cinnabon Club tho

Honestly, this was a tough decision for me. I’ll likely skip outside of a spur of the moment buy. Build up hasn’t done it for me in a lot of ways. I would prefer Rush beating up MJF. Buuuut, I did drink some zingers with my brother while everyone in the house was taking a nap and will have a family bbq where I will drink more. Last time I was wiggle I still bought a PPV after not fully being sold on it for the very reason that they usually live up to it. Who knows what will happen. I’m gonna grab a Ham’s now that I’m home. Then I’ll have some fancy heavy IPA. Then after putting meat in me will probably want to watch people hit each other charismatically. Unless, someone finds daisuke sekimoto vs. shuji ishikawa BJW from March 2015, maybe I’ll AEW. Or I could get more hammered and watch an ~art film~ or write stuff. Or get even more hammered and go on a walk and cry.

Test

Hey, not sure if it’s annoying to ask for link requests but I’ve been searching for this one for a bit: Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Shuji Ishikawa - BJW March 31st, 2015 (aired I believe April 14th so it could be under either date). I love me some Sekimoto beefy grappling. —— Re: Misawa vs Kobashi. I’d love to travel down the King’s Road chronologically (like our friend @Matt D is doing, if you’re not reading his thread on that I highly recommend checking it out. Agree or disagree with certain takes, it’s a fantastic thread!).

If I recall correctly from the scriptures, Elijah and Enoch are the only two that Dolfan did not Stone Cold Stunner. All else will eventually face our Johnny Cash middle finger judgement.

E-Fed legend and 13x behind the Walmart street fight Champion

What are the 10 (or five if you want a smaller number) favorite Greggulator matches?