NoFistsJustFlips

My money is on Punk vs Joe to create a buzz.

Good. Now merge the two women's titles, make them a new title that looks like that, then introduce a women's world title for the other brand. Then do the same for the tag titles. Then do the same for the women's tag titles. Parity is almost in sight (yes I know they aren't doing any of that but a man can dream). World Titles & Universal Titles with no mention of what brand they "belong to" in the name would make draft stuff so much more logical. Mostly a lateral move here. Realistically they weren't going to abandon that design, but I guess this at least cleans things up as to the appearance of only one world title per brand. Black strap is the way to go. Not 100% sold on the painted gold backing for the logo. But they did at least change the lettering to say Undisputed Champion now. Would have liked a little bit of actual gold in the backing with some flourishes or embossing of actual metal back there. As is, it's fine, if a bit lazy and mostly just a pallet swap.

Already pre ordered the FTRhausen version. This game looks like a blast to me. I dont care that the models arent ultra realistic or whatever. The game play looks fun and familiar and deep. Plus the mini games and the hands in the pockets and the skateboard stuff. Aiming for a FUN game vs an exact simulation is the way to my heart / wallet.

For fuck's sake how can they end Honky Tonk's historic IC Title reign with NO BUILD? Ugh what an utter disgrace of a booking decision!!11!!!! They should have had Warrior calling him out with Honky Tonk dodging him for weeks with different excuses! Lol just a little exaggerated but food for thought. Sometimes fans get stuck too deep in the conventional wisdom bubble. Just because things happen a certain way more often than not doesn't mean when something different happens it's bad. Jade's loss was actually one of the best bits of booking they've done. She didn't get destroyed. She didn't get ruined. She doesn't have the stink of failure on her for losing. Ryback was dead when he lost to Punk. Goldberg was mostly dead when he lost to Nash. Jade is still protected and can easily say it was a fluke and still move up the ladder due to the manor she lost. Stat also gets a giant shot in the arm right out of the return gate. Wrestling needs surprises. This was a perfectly done one. It almost had the buzz of a surprise MITB cash in. It was just a great piece of business and a creative way to past Jade's streak and not turn her into just another person.

I totally disagree that AEW would be fine without The Elite. This isn't a Punk vs Elite take either, I highly enjoy all involved. My thought process is AEW happened because a bunch of things lined up right. But the catalyst was All In. The backbone, the soul, the reality of what AEW would become was born out of that one moment. A moment Tony Khan wasn't involved in. It was Cody & The Bucks primarily. But also Kenny & Hangman. Those 5. So Cody is gone. If you lose Kenny & Hangman & The Bucks, that's it. You don't have that same backbone, that same soul of the movement that created this. What's left is still a very good promotion with very good workers. But what it essentially becomes is TK co-opting the movement without any of the main players left. Sure if Punk comes back you have him. You have Mox. You have Danielson. You have Jericho. But the fire... the counter culture nature of needing this organic second home for wrestling is gone. WCW lost Lex & Flair & The Stieners at different points. But WCW was never without a king in the castle. SOMEONE out of Flair, Lex, The Stieners and Sting was always there. AEW without any of The Elite is very much the same thing to me. It's just an odd feeling that doesn't fit. And I think a lot of the fans that like AEW as a true alternative go back to a different alternative (likely New Japan). It's just a weird house of cards that starts to fall when you lose the spark of what made this possible, in my opinion.

I think you hit on some good points. The rigid formula they use for TV only allows for a certain amount of people making TV every week. It's hard for some casuals to invest in spending money when they only get to see big stars every two or three shows. Even taping Rampage & Dynamite together (and counting Dark & Elevation when they had it) how many performers were missing each week? I dislike how WWE makes everyone feel like a nobody because they're on 52 episodes of TV a year generally. But there has to be a happy medium between that and only seeing 8 Kenny Omega matches in a year or whatever. Not only is Punk a draw, but it is virtually guaranteed he'd be on every week of Collision. And I think that would make for better sales than having to guess like the Wednesday night tapings. But without him, it's a crap shoot. Only 500 tickets out in Hamilton is disaster levels bad. But we'll see where things are after Wednesday. If it's United Center & Punk is back, things will pick up. If it's Daily's place and no Punk, I think TK is gonna have to try a different approach to get eyes on the show.

I believe Bret is under a Legends deal now and can't appear even if he wanted to. Happened quite awhile ago too. Unless I'm having some sort of faulty memory here. But I'm pretty confident in this one.

This is the definition of spiraling. Why is everyone jumping to such stark conclusions based on Punk's name being kept hush hush on all this stuff. Isn't that the AEW playbook for him? They booked a building and named a show without announcing him when he came in. When he got hurt and returned it was a surprise. I didn't expect his name to be on anything today. He was just going to show up on June 17th. This is all PR & cover up for his name being found on the initial press release before someone was like no wya guys his return is supposed to be a surprise. Him posting videos being annoyed with the reporting of stuff doesn't make me feel like all of this has blown up. Just the contrary. He's being talked about more today than he has been in awhile. He's keeping himself relevant. He's drumming up interest in himself. Not exactly the same as drumming up interest for AEW, I can recognize that. But that's how draws become draws. They use their own drawing power to make themselves a bigger deal and rises the tide for the company (theoretically). All I'm going to say is if this all happens to be true somehow, and Steel was supposed to come back but they decided against it... that's not on Punk. Dude has not wavered from that detail. And had AEW agreed to it, then reneged... that's on them for breaking their word. But again I think this is mostly something being made out of nothing.

Yellowjackets is really hitting it's stride for me. It's my favorite show on right now. They give just enough of the mystical stuff each episode to keep me engaged. The antler queen has appeared as two people in the current time line so far, and I'm betting we see it in all of them at one point or another. I never watched Lost so this might be scratching an itch for me that a lot of people have already had fulfilled. Only two episodes left. Shit has hit the fan in Shauna's story. Can't wait to see what the next twists are.

Hard disagree. I love House of Black but I couldn't get into it. I'm not sure how this is such a hard concept for wrestling companies to understand but mood lighting for a character always sucks. Original Kane red light. Sin Cara orange light. The Fiend super red light. House of black dimmed lights with spooky flickering on all the screens. It's all bad. Sometimes standing out is a bad thing. As in this automatically gives fans a thought of why does this look weird and takes them out of following the narrative. I hope this aspect quietly disappears. Phenomenal show tho. Loved pretty much all of it. And I'm very glad Kenny didn't tear up his knee with that cage spot. That looked sooooo bad.

Just watched the clip again to verify what I saw and I'm changing my thought. But I am 30000% sure he didn't connect with the eye hook. 30000% he didn't have enough force to get cut by the ring on the buckle or the eye hook. Remember he didn't charge the buckle. He was standing there and Cody dropkicks his knees out. Very minimal force at all. Pausing it directly after impact there's no wound. He brings his hand to his head to hold it and it's clear to me now the blade was in his glove. He pushes it into his forehead and instant cut. I get that rigging the buckle ring sounds like a weird idea. But it's not as weird as you're making it out to be. Outside the box ideas happen all the time to get the desired result.

Yeah I get how it sounds. But the turnbuckle ring in a WWE ring is essentially just a large metal clip similar to a really big key ring. It's not this solid hefty chunk of metal. I don't care how big your are there's no way you're getting a perfect slice in your head that bleeds exactly like a gig by just slamming a smooth key ring into your forehead. Even if you're Brock. I mean you'd get a swollen bruise and some blood. But I looked for it when specifically they showed the reply. It was a slice about a half inch long that was deep enough to instantly just start gushing blood. That's not an impact wound. It also bleed for a long time, and again an impact wound generally swells up and then closes pretty quick. I'm no blood spatter expert so I could certainly be wrong lol. But I feel pretty confident some kind of rigging took place. Ultimately doesn't matter either way. It was a really well done visual and was super effective none the less.

Yes. There's no way those polished metal rings are going to create that cut. I saw exactly what you saw, immediately after contact there was blood. No time to put hands up and blade. They had to have rigged the buckle ring with a gig. There's no possible way you get that perfect of a cut from smooth metal like that. They either notched in something sticking out or welded in a little blade or something of that nature. But it's a narrative contradiction. Just regular match with buckets of blood, not stopped. "Hell in a Cell the ultimate career shortening match" was stopped for Finn's cut. Just doesn't jive. Clearly if it wasn't a scripted moment they wouldn't have shot Brock's face at the very least. But to me seems pretty obvious it was a planned spot in how no one over reacted, ref / trainers alike. I don't have a problem with it at all and thought it was very well done. It just amplifies how shitty the actual stoppages are tho. Joe from NXT. Finn from Mania. Makes they look bad in comparison being "saved" by the trainer.

Undercard guys I got a lot of time for: Moriarty, Vikingo, Komander, Hook, & Jeff Jarrett lol. He gets plenty of love, but it's crazy how his presentation as a wily old school throwback Memphis stooging heel is clicking so perfect. Regarding all the Punk & Bucks stuff, I have a slightly different take. Punk has been told he can't have contact as of now with The Bucks (their call). It seems to me like maybe Punk finally got a bit of perspective and has started a bury the hatchet tour. Went to Raw to bury the heat with Triple H & Miz. Stopped by Impact. Made up with Jericho. I think when he's allowed to have contact with them he may try to make up with them. Kenny I think is already at the point where he'd accept it. I mean maybe not too. But one can hope.

I think they were probably shoot friends seeing as how they were both trained at QT & Cody's school at the same time. On air Tay Jay are bffs. But in the context of training and off air it's probably true. My only complain with the compound match (and this is like the tiniest complaint of all time) is how in the world did Lexy Nair travel from Jericho's locker room in Baltimore to North Carolina in the matter of minutes? Just a small continuity thing that makes my OCD tick lol. Just have someone else interview Jericho.

How very Tucker Carlson of you to take something legitimately grimy and gross (like the term Vincels) and tie it to people comparing you to Tucker Carlson. Gotta muddy those waters. Gotta put a drop of truth in your bullshit soup to give it legitimacy. Your posts are so negative and so devoid of reality that you have zero credibility. Your posts are the nadir of what this place is supposed to be about. You wring your hands and scream that the sky is falling when AEW literally just locked in a new deal for additional programming with WBD. You don't understand how TV & ad sales work. And all you care about is your axe to grind with the wrestling company you don't like. Go away. (I typed this response before I caught up to the mod post. But I feel it still needs to be said. Even if it solves nothing, at least I feel like I've said my peace and didn't let him get away with more of his inane fear mongering).

Where there's smoke, there's fire. Double or Nothing is a traditional PPV. If they announced a Max deal starting with Forbidden Door (or All In) now, it may make people decide to skip Double or Nothing knowing the value and price point will be out dated. I definitely think there is something to them being on Max. But we'll have to wait until at least after this PPV to find out for sure. Seeing it reported that there is a new deal that has been signed (regarding You Tube streaming shows now being against the new contract terms) has me believing it's a done deal. PPVs will be on Max starting with All In. This way they aren't trying to get $80 out of the fan base in a single week with All In & All Out 7 days apart.

I do think there's some merit in the argument but it's just being stated poorly. I think the truth is the decline in AEW is an over saturation issue. Dynamite, Rampage, Battle of The Belts, Ring of Honor. There's a lot of TV being produced right now with no delineation or difference in presentations or identities. I don't like the brand split in WWE, but I also don't this quantity over quality like AEW is leaning into. AEW was strongest when they had just one flagship show and they tried to make it as awesome as possible every week. Now things are trying to be threaded through multiple shows possibly with multiple week lags. It's just not as fun of a narrative to have to follow so many shows. ROH has mostly self contained narratives but it's messy because Claudio is also doing this other things with BCC. Lucha Bros are tag champs but also a trios with Vikingo now on the other shows. Any ROH performer can show up any given week on AEW and vice verse. Case in point Claudio vs Fenix is happening on Dynamite. ROH was a smart purchase. The way it's being run currently is just not smart. The PPVs & subscriptions may be pulling in a technical profit (since ROH has no over head to pay out) but it is a net negative since it is helping drive down overall interest. TK is too beholden to what ROH once was to see what it could be. And I just don't think it's ever going to change.

To elaborate a bit further so it's not just a hit and run insult post, WBD just locked them into an exclusive deal to where they can't even post You Tube shows anymore. The sky is not falling. WBD must be very happy to be partners with them. No, those numbers aren't great. And I even tend to agree that the 4 Pillars story is a big mess. But you need to stop with your non-stop hate mongering. You are the Tucker Carlson of this forum. No one likes you even when you make good points because you're fear mongering and being outlandish for the sake of your gimmick posts. Read the room. You're the bottom of the barrel of wrestling discourse. Smackdown ratings are great. Raw is doing a bit better than they have been. And that's good for the business. WWE TV is not for me, but it doesn't make me mad that they're doing well. The more national companies doing well, the better it is for the wrestling business as a whole.

You're an idiot.

So which is it, do you want The Bucks & Kenny & Punk to refuse to work the date without more money, or be kept off the show as a punishment? Your posts are so disingenuous. I made the mistake of taking that one post at face value and you just up and add more verbal trash to the pile. I don't know what your hate boner with AEW is about but maybe you should harness that energy into something you do enjoy? Saying The Elite no showed the MSG show is probably the dumbest post I've ever seen on this board. And that's covering a lot of ground. Dude The Rock no showed Mania this year!!1111!!!! Same logic. Someone not under contract wasn't on the show, absolutely shocking development.

I'm not going to mock this because it's based on how things used to be. When your only payoff guaranteed to you was three $50 bookings and the rest was based on houses and what-not I'd see your point. That's how WWE used to be run. So you'd get Warrior holding them up for money because he didn't think his payoffs were going to be fair teaming with Hogan. But now with guaranteed contracts this isn't really a thing. No one is on paper only making $150 a month + discretionary bonuses. The Young Bucks make like $3 million a year each. They don't get to say nah I'm not doing All In without getting X amount extra. It's already baked into the guarantees. You show up and work as many dates as your contract allows for. So a little off the mark, but at least based on how business used to be done. Can anyone think of the last time there was a big payoff dispute or holdup? MJF not doing the Wardlow match doesn't count for me, because I truly think that was all part of the plan. Drum up drama for his TV shoot promo. He just took it too far and made it more of a spectacle than it needed to be.

I actually have a theory on this. We'll see. But The Women's Tag Champs were drafted to Raw. The NXT Women's Tag Champs were drafted to Smackdown (and their next challengers). They could be using this as a way to do split rand women's tag titles onthe main brands. I expect the men's tag titles to get split up some point soon as well. I keep expecting and wanting some sort of parity and internal logic, both shows having equal titles and all that. If it doesn't happen after this draft it will never happen. I prefer all the titles unified. But if that isn't in the plans (and it's not going by them creating a new men's world title), I am begging for some logic and parity. Don't make the women trade titles. Rebrand them Universal & World. Split the men's tag titles up and rebrand them Universal & World. Keep the NXT tag titles on Smackdown and rebrand them as Universal while Raw keeps World women's tag title. I for the life of me do no understand the appeal of the writing always being so messy and haphazard when it comes to the structure of what titles are where and why.

Hi. Old man yelling at clouds here again. Found me another big ole logic gap. Anyone want to explain why Raw got 9 draft picks today (14 people) & Smackdown only got 2 (4 people)? I think the draft is my least favorite trope in modern wrestling.

Maybe this is a poorly thought out idea. But the draft pool thing I understand in the sense you have two shows. You can't do a real draft where all the big names go on Fox and then USA gets all the scrubs. Would Smackdown being the men's draft and Raw being the women's draft at least alleviate the stupid and weird draft pool thing? There are a lot of legitimate big names people care about in the women's division. I think it could anchor Raw just as well as doing half of the roster being eligible. Just thinking out loud.