NoFistsJustFlips

Texas Death Match stip adds a lot to Mox vs Hangman for me. Excited to see it now. I think the stip was added for the sole purpose of running that WM40 finish. Texas Death / Bloodline Rules / same - same. Hell of a house for a Dynamite tonight. Over 5k paid. More than double what they've been doing. And the bigger crowd really added a lot. That Young Bucks trios match was incredible I thought. The card for All In is starting to look really strong. I really hope the stadium fills out now that the card is looking so good. I can't help but think if they got some of this card laid out earlier ticket sales would be in a better place at this point.

My last few posts in the AEW folder have come off as pretty negative so trying to balance that out with something a little lighter and a little more fun. Up until about 2009ish FCW, developmental guys usually got to keep their own names. What if they had to get the NXT random name generator names? Like Joe Henning had to be Michael McGulicutty but Randy Orton got to be Randy Orton. But if Orton had to get a WWE name what would it have been? They def would have taken the Ace part from his dad. Ace Briggs? John Cena def would have been like Flex Fredericks lol. For sure Punk would have been Phil Rollins. Taking his first name with Henry Rollins last name and the funny Phil Collins pun. Lesnar would have been like Harrison Brox. There were a few whole generations who didnt have to do the Bryan Danielson to Daniel Bryan deal. What ones can you come up with?

This... is the most rational response in here. Yes, I'm jumping the gun a bit here. I could be full of shit by bell time. To be clear I wasn't comparing AEW vs WWE ticket prices. WWE's gouging is out of control and AEW is nowhere near reaching that category from my perspective. What I meant by jacking up ticket prices, is that tickets for All In 2023 were cheaper than All In 2024. All In 2024 was cheaper than All In 2025. Still reasonable unlike WWE. But the only reason they can claim these gate amounts are because they keep making the tickets cost more every year. They're selling way less of them at a higher price per head. Just speaking for me, I don't want to say it was unsuccessful. I want it to be super successful. And yeah honestly once you get to show week, I would love for them to paper it full. WCW's biggest houses at The Georgia Dome sold their most tickets ever... and they still papered. It looks way better. Full and loud. Loud and full.

Oh this is 100% stanning tho. Jacking up ticket prices to mask you are selling less isnt something that should be applauded. You can like and care about something and still be able to point out missteps and trends that arent favorable. All In has had exponentially less interest every year. The same thing happened with Grand Slam in Queens. 20k first year. 12k the next year. 6k the following year. Me pointing this out doesmt make me brain dead, you waving it away "because money" is brain dead. Maybe in 5 years we'll get to the point everyone is pumped because they sell one single $10 million dollar ticket to All In. Who cares that only one person bought a ticket, its the hIgHeST grOsSinG sHOw eVer.

82,000 ---> 46,000 ---> 20,000ish (so far) is a bad trend no matter how much money you get. You can be wildly profitable and still look bad. A 45,000 seater scaled to seat 35,000 only having 20,000 in there is a bummer even if they make more money than ever before. I don't think being bummed out the promotion you root for the most not being able to pack a house is some kind of hater take. I want them to make money. I want them to fill the building. I want the show to be enjoyable. I don't see a problem.

Seriously? Give me a goofy John Silver TNT Title run over any of the last year of the title. Jack Perry? Boring reign. Garcia? Boring reign. Adam Cole? So far boring reign. Not a knock on any of the performers. But a fun zany John Silver run (especially back when he was hot) would have been much better than what we've gotten.

We're both partially right with how we read the situation. I wasn't aware of the divorce issues so that probably is the biggest factor out of anything. My take on it was that had Hart been presented as a top guy and a big deal right out of the gate he'd be more motivated and fulfilled. I feel like he grew apathetic almost right away because he was presented just like 1996 Jeff Jarrett jumping was. An after thought. You put the belt on him early and show your commitment to him as an important part of the company you get better results.

WCW was all about fuck finishes. It never really mattered as long as you gave them something cool to go home on. Whatever dirty finish DQ beat down. Lights out. Lights on. Ultimate Warrior still shows up to work woth Hogan. Bret comes out on Nitro pissed off that he's been chasing Hogan forever and he didnt get the chance to win. Benoit comes out and talks about how much he's looked up to Bret but how Bret is soft and whiney now. And he's here to take him out. You pivot to Bret trying to elevate Benoit and having bangers in hopes of getting Benoit ready to be a Stiener challenger. The Nash booking aspect I didnt factor in. But hindsight makes that easy. Just don't give him the book lol. But for real Bret was never iver as a babyface the way they presented him. He immediately went into a fued with Flair, where even if Flair was heel he was a baby to the WCW audience against Bret. They forced a square peg into a round hole. He should have been heel. He was doing the best work of his career as a heel.

I disagree. If he had the sympathy everyone always points to, he would have been undeniable as the top face. Instead he just putzes around the mid card after a cold win over Flair in his first PPV. He ends up heel a few months later teaming with Hogan and no one batted an eye or cared. It took until Russo came in in late 1999 before they do anything of substance with him. And the timing just didn't workout because of the Owen incident and then his injury. But you bring him in as a heel, even if he gets cheered in his first appearance you just have him heel The United States in one of WCW's rural hotbeds and instantly he's heated up as a top heel. With Sting going over Hogan and getting a run as champion there's really no top heels for Sting to work with and a loaded face roster at this point. You get the belt on Hart after an extended 6 month story and let him work with those over faces. After the Sting feud you have Bret vs Lex, Bret vs Nash, Bret vs Macho, Bret vs DDP, Bret vs Goldberg. So much more to work with. This pretty much eliminates the opening for DDP to have a world title run. But him getting the celebrity matches with Hogan then using that to get a run at Bret where he falls, only makes Goldberg look that much better when he's the one to beat Bret. Even before factoring in the upcoming Owen incident, after he dropped the belt at the end of 98 I'd be turning him baby and building to a Hogan vs Bret match at the end of 1999. That's two years of Hogan out of the title picture. That's giving your ace a run (Sting) then new faces runs as champion (Bret & Goldberg). Then you build Steiner in the background as a monster during those two years, and he beats Goldberg clean as a sheet as we enter 2000.

In my opinion the idea was fine, its the execution that ruined it. Had you put Sting over Hogan clean as fuck, giving Hogan an nWo civil war to keep him busy and out of the main event would have made a lot of sense. But you gotta keep Sting a loner and champion, off defending against others at the top of the card. You also gotta keep the Wolfpac as Hall, Nash, Pac, Konan, and Savage. They kind of ruined the coolness factor adding in Luger and Hennig and crab facepaint Sting. Hart should have come in as a heel. Play off that he's such a dispicable person his last company screwed him over. Let him run with the same anti America character that was working on WWE and you run and extended Sting vs Hart program on top. Hart eventually wins and you move on to Hart vs DDP and Goldberg on top. All the while you keep the nWo relegated to their blood fued civil war. Once you get the belt onto Goldberg at the end of 1998 from Hart you get the nWo back together as a super group trying to stop Goldberg. Building to the first Hogan Goldberg match. And Goldberg retains. And keeps retaining. He mows through and annihilaties the entire nWo while you've been building new threats in the background.

I have a strong premonition that will be a surprise entrant in the Women's Casino Gauntlet. No real basis for it lol just a hunch

I got my wish, Women's Casino Gauntlet. I'll take a Men's one too, sure thanks lol. Hopefully TK has a cool surprise or two in mind for them.

The biggest show of the year is 19 days away. There's only 3 matches officially announced. That seems... odd, right? I know AEW is notorious for throwing a bunch of matches on the week of a PPV. But this is the biggest show of the year. This is the biggest building of the year. Why are they not locking in the matches early enough to promote promote promote? You wanna move tickets get a killer card on paper 6 weeks out with only 1 or 2 last minute additions. It's a really odd strategy to me, especially when you're having trouble moving tickets.

Why do I recall it being about a family member of Fox's that passed away? Was that a cover story for the real story? Or are people misremembering? I swear it was like his grandma's funeral he was adamant about not missing and had to back out of the show because of it.

Overthinking like crazy. The significance of Colt Cabana to Punk on the original pipe bomb was that Colt was his buddy that was let go. The significance of Claudio, Dolph, & Cardona is that they're all Cena buddies that got let go. Thats it. There's no Young Bucks thing there. Its just Cena inserting a few friend's names where the original friend's name went.