NoFistsJustFlips

Why yes of coarse Toney got kicked out for throwing a punch. Makes total sense, he was the only weapon still on the field. This was a rough one. I sense Joe Judge is the kind of coach that's going top sit Toney for a game or two as punishment for getting ejected too. Browns had a really smart play at the end there to give them a chance. Game clock would have ran down to a game winning filed goal so they dragged Eckler in for a TD when he was trying to avoid scoring. All a moot point because they didn't get the job done. But I appreciate the high level thinking in getting themselves a chance.

Giants game is cursed today. Barkley sprains his ankle, or breaks it, or tears ankle ligaments or whatever by just stepping on someone else's foot when a play was over. Daniel Jones looked like he was so concussed he burst an ear drum and his equilibrium left town. Stumbling and bumbling to the point they carted him off. Just terrible injury luck today. I'm thankful I had already given up on them being able to stay in contention. So Mike Glennon still gets a paycheck in the NFL, who knew?

I do find value in watching the show, but your mileage will vary on how much reality BS you can sit through. For instance I thought it was super interesting to hear Cody throw out a buy rate prediction for DON. And his guess being a fairly low guess was a little surprising while QT went higher (and ended up being pretty close to dead on). But yeah not a fan of the creative editing that's a staple of reality TV. They mentioned it being the first show back with a crowd and show a legitimate shot of someone walking through the entrance that night then cut to a crowd shot clearly in a much fuller indoor arena... not Daily's Place.

Yeah I didn't explain myself well on this one. I'm speaking from my experience wrestling / running events. That's how I view it. If I'm not in the main let me open that sucker up. The crowd is always hot for an opener. It's the same philosophy I use when laying out a card. I do think it's a factor in how WWE books it's cards as well, but I didn't mean to say it's a trend that's an absolute that we can actually track. But I mean Wrestlemania 10 & 30 definitely use that formula. Bret vs Owen & Bryan vs Triple H were hot openers that rivaled the main events in importance. Tito vs The executioner at Wrestlemania 1 not so much lol.

You use curtain jerk as if it's a negative here. The two most important matches on a show are the opener and the closer. The women main evented. The second best slot was the opener. Bryan vs Kofi went on later in the show but that doesn't make it more important. Smackdown was still on USA and still the B show at the time. (Kofi losing the title in a squash was the first Fox Smackdown). So no, Kofi vs Bryan was not the top men's title match at Mania. The champion of the A show was Lesnar. His match with Seth was promoted as a bigger deal. Bryan vs Kofi was clearly what the fans cared more about. But it was not positioned as the top title. This is all subjective tho so if you disagree I understand. But it's pretty clear to me at least Lesnar as Universal champ was "the man" at the time.

I get the frustration. It's universally agreed that most of these announcements are not what we as wrestling fans actually consider major or big. But you have to start viewing these as promotion for a TV show. There's a segment booked where we are going to learn something new. No it's probably not going to be a major announcement. But it's how you have to promote the segment. You make a graphic and push a segment with enthusiasm to generate interest. There's not really a way to say it that satisfies TNT if it's properly down played. Tony Kahn will talk? Tony Kahn announces some new information? Like TNT want things to be hyped and promoted and treated as big to generate interest and viewership from their non wrestling minded, TV oriented perspective. Just giving a different perspective. You're not wrong tho.

A lotttttaaaa people in here fronting like they didn't use the promo code 83weeks at blue chew (dot) com. Quit lying yall

I tend to agree with every thing you wrote here. I checked out of the show already. I do think Bron Breakker is a gem and going to make them a bazillion dollars. But I also think that would still be the case had nxt stayed how it was and he came in through that system. The new presentation, tons of cookie cutter people debuting, the new nxt isn't for me. And that's okay. But I do wonder if some of those veterans still have a shot. They tend to do a draft in October then a "shake up" gimmick after Wrestlemania. So some of those guys still have a chance. Grimes sticks out to me. He'll probably put some new guys over for a while, go off of nxt for a minute, then show up on one of those shows after Mania. The same could happen for Dunn or Gonzales. I think O'Riley & Kushida are screwed tho. Gargano is already gone lol. He will show up somewhere new in January. Maybe AEW, maybe ROH, maybe MLW, maybe Impact. I have a hunch GCW is getting ready to take the next step and get a TV deal and he could help them out with star power. He's got a lot of options.

Colin & Cheech are one of the best teams in the entire world right now. If all you're familiar with of Colin is his ECW run 15 years ago that's not accurate to go off of for today. If anything working The Acclaimed, Colin & Cheech had to take their foot off the gas a whole lot. A showcase match with Santana & Ortiz would have been killer. I've seen them work Private Party & The Lucha Brothers and both matches knocked it out of the park. I get that this is just Elevation and you may not be familiar with their most recent work. But neither one of these guys should be looked at as an enhancement guy to bump around for a monster. They are much more valuable than that.

We still haven't had them have a run on top. Big E is the secondary champion because Roman is obviously the top guy right now. Kofi was the secondary champion because the Seth / Brock match was clearly the number one spot. The brand split just waters everything down and makes everything mean less. You merge the brands and make one world championship and Kofi or Big E get a run with that, then you can say they had a run on top. As it is now by your definition can you really say Jinder Mahal & Jack Swagger had a "run on top"? Totally agree with you here. Which is why having a pool of 100 options for Crews to work vs only having 30 options is a way to not run rematches into the ground. You expand the roster and you automatically freshen up the potential options. That's not to say it would change the shows, because rematch to death is a crutch they will use regardless if there's 10 guys or 1,000 guys to pick from. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I'm just of the opinion that the brand split sucks. As a kid in the 80s having Hogan be a champ on one show and Savage being the champ on another show would have been farrrr less entertaining than them getting to work with each other. That's the lens I'm viewing it through. Sure Jake & Piper & Dibiase would have had "runs on top" but the quality would have been much worse than what we got. Merging the roster would cut the championships in half and instantly make the top titles way more important again.

Austin Ares is a dipshit, no argument there. But he's actually right in this instance. It's not that what Bret & Hennig did was wrong by any means, it's that they know what they're doing enough to deviate from the basics and keep each other safe. Bret & Curt probably worked each other 10,000 times and knew they could ramp it up and go harder than just the basics. But if I were in a match with a dude I've never worked with before (presumably like his scenario) and they guy did a headlock takeover like that without giving me a heads up in the back to know how to better protect myself, I'd be a little mad too. Wrestling is all about protecting your opponent. The way they do the headlock in the clip is not the safe way to do one. Which is okay they are both pros from wrestling families that know how to protect themselves and keep each other safe. But I have no idea who that worker is that tweeted that, but safe to say he ain't no Hennig or Hart. So I would not be happy with him taking liberties with me like that. Ares did a shit job of explaining *why* he was mad in this case. But he wasn't wrong.

Nah just trying to take his mask off. Oh what's that.... he wasn't wearing a mask... Randy Anderson is a savage.

Probably entering old man yelling at clouds territory but here's how you insert some internal logic into the draft and make it actually fun to watch in a few easy steps. 1. Rebrand the titles. Get rid of the Raw & Smackdown names from titles. Universal for one set, World for the other. Then you pair the titles in value. World men's & Universal men's in one group, United States & Intercontinental in another, Universal & World Tags, Universal women's & World women's title. 24/7 & Women's Tag Team Titles are co branded. So you can pick the champion but the title isn't exclusive to your show. (I mean I would scrap the 24/7 title, and make a second set of Women's Tags to be brand specific but trying to make this as realistic as possible to the current state of WWE). 2. Title parity. You say right off the bat champions are eligible to be drafted, but once a champion is drafted their counter part is automatically on the other show. So you can switch any title you want, but both shows stay even. Say Raw gets the first pick and picks Universal Champion Roman Reigns, then World Champion Big E is automatically on Smackdown without Fox needing to use a pick on him. (This also helps alleviate some of the ego problems of getting drafted lower than you think you should). 3. Make it a shoot. We always hear about the network execs being upset about so and so being on the other show. Let them legit make the picks. Realism sells. And it's not like WWE booking is so hyper specific that it actually matters. Let the execs make the picks. Give them some agency over what their shows look like. You can't tell me with the haphazard way they currently do it that this would be too erratic. Let them make the picks and you write new stories going forward starting with the season premiere each year. That would actually be exciting to watch. 4. Give them power to make trades during the year. If Fox really likes how Bailey looks when she returns but she's on Raw, let Fox make an offer of their people to USA. If they agree allow the switches. I mean it's all a work anyways. WWE should be able to take any situation and write their way out of it if that happens. Yes I know there's zero percent chance it would happen. But it's really not that hard to have an internal structure that puts real world logic into the draft each year.

It's not half the roster to be protected tho. It's been some form of this since the move to Fox. They designate half the people you're allowed to pick from on Night 1 and then the other half can be picked from on Night 2. In the past they've listed who can be drafter which night ahead of time, this year they didn't. They do this so USA doesn't get screwed. Because kayfabe wise if you let everyone be eligible off the bat then logically all the big stars are gone on night one. Now that doesn't hold up as making sense when Austin Theory & Madcat Moss or whatever are getting picked before actual big names. Like sure maybe Becky & Seth are not eligible until Monday. But there's gotta be 30 or more people that someone would draft before Theory & Moss that are supposed to be eligible night one. But WWE gonna WWE. Internal logic went out the window decades ago. Yes. This. There's no logical reason champions of a brand should be able to be drafted. They do this every year and it insults our intelligence, but we're supposed to believe "The Raw Women's Championship" is now a Smackdown title? Obviously she will drop it to a Raw person, or they'll just trade titles like New Day & Street Profits did last year. So dumb. Hate the lack of internal logic WWE has.

From the September thread: Wait for real? My mistake then. I wish TK would give up on the deck of cards bullshit. Casino Battle Royals are always bad. We're two years in and they still can't get the production right for them. No one cares about what suit people draw. All the entrances are missed because of the person ahead of them hitting their hot spot. Just keep the surprise entrant element and scrap this concept man. Especially bad for a ladder match that can end before everyone has entered.