NoFistsJustFlips

I can't co-sign this. So you're saying having Pac ask them in the moment during the match to use the hammer and Lucha Bros being apprehensive isn't enough story telling for you? You need a specific backstage out of ring version of that for it to count? They spread the hammer story out over 8 matches. Pac is a bastard, he wants to win at all costs. So he got his dudes to cheat too to get an advantage. Pretty easily understandable story there in my opinion. I do no need nor do I want a backstage promo where he goes into a long story about how his mother was a hammer maker and he's doing it to honor her or some shit. It's wrestling. A bad guy wrestler starting hitting people with hammers and it was working to win. So he wanted his buddies to do it too to keep their titles. Probably the worst example you could have picked to demonstrate any kind of point.

I don't think being a Christian makes you a psycho necessarily. But if you make it your public identity almost as if it's your wrestling character, that's a red flag. Anyone working that hard to make that their identity is generally pretty phony. Usually there's a reason for being that level of phony and that reason tends to be the psycho part.

I think this is a rational take on everything. There has to be a line and I do agree he's across it. For my tastes not by much, but it's a little edgier than it needs to be. But these are just opinions. The only opinion that matters is TK's. And he's obviously liking it. You don't put the title on MJF if you're not a fan of what he is and what he does. And I don't want that to seem like I'm down on MJF. He's phenomenal in my opinion. He can get heat. He can get pops. He can turn a crowd and lead them anywhere he wants to with just his words. He's also vastly under rated in ring in my view. Some shit doesn't always connect. I did not like his backflip no sell of Takeshta's top rope clothesline. It looked really cool. But it didn't jive with the physics of wrestling. Despite all that MJF is great. And clearly deserving of being on top. You won't like to hear this but he's the closest we have to a Flair in this era. If there was an internet and message boards how many people would have been criticizing the content of his promos? Being married and giving away his hotel room number and talking about Space Mountain and what not. Society changes as time goes on. Flair was the MJF of the 80s. And seeing how hard you criticize MJF just makes me chuckle some times. He certainly needs to dial back some of his act, but I don't quite agree to the lengths you suggest. I think we need more of MJF's commitment to his act from others.

I don't want to speak for him, but I took it as him telling you wrestling is a work. As in it's ridiculous you think what happened wasn't predetermined. Or that any performer would be allowed to lie about what he was going to say and the mic wouldn't be shut off, or they wouldn't go to break. It didn't get posted on Youtube for the exact purpose of your argument. To make it seem real, because everything gets posted on Twitter & Youtube. It was a predetermined choice to make the angle appear real. I promise you there's not a single guy that would be allowed to go off script on live TV like that. Well except for Punk's Hangman call out. But that was a 30 second bit that was moved on from and one of those things no one really understood what was happening until after the fact. I get you don't like MJF. And that's perfectly okay. We all have our likes and dislikes. But don't let your real dislike for the performer cloud your judgement. He doesn't book the show or his own angle. Everything he does is at least bullet point approved and scripted into the format. Just keep that in the back of the mind when you do voice your criticisms.

Don't you put that evil on me, especially when a perfectly okay Baker Mayfield is out there for 20% of the Carr price. I like Jones more than most but what the hell is he thinking? Is this him purposely pricing himself too high because doesn't actually want to stay in NY? Like the highest Tom Brady ever made in a single year was 25 million. He's the consensus GOAT. You're worth almost double the best year of the best QB ever? The highest QB contract year ever was Rodgers at 50.3 million. There's no way Daniel Jones thinks he should be in that realm.

This is a bit off topic, but it's a personal theory of mine that title reigns get viewed through the prism of what happens next (for both the champion & the challenger). People look down on the Brock ending to Kofi's reign because of the squash yes, but also there was nothing next for Kofi. He lost and just shuffled on down back to tag team wrestling with no signs of using this as motivation to beat Lesnar next time. Brock went on to fight Cain Velasquez. An utter and abject failure for both instances of what's next. So it cemented it as a misfire for fans. Yes they gave Bryan the title at WM30. But what was next? Kane. And while that could make sense at the time, Team Hell No history and all, having a colder than hell Kane be Bryan's first feud as THE GUY was a bad call. Of course the injury and the passing of Bryan's father also threw wrenches in there. Now Orton's side of it was good. He went on to do the Evolution vs Shield thing. But this ends up remembered badly because what's next for Bryan was a crash and burn failure. Just to throw in other random examples. When Sting won the title at GAB 90, what was next for him? Not much. What was next for Flair? Not much. When Austin won at WM14? What was next was the Mr McMahon feud. Shawn had to retire, but Austin went on to an all time great feud next. And I could go on and on. Just a theory, but I think that explains a little bit of why there's always complaining at one end of the story. It's very rare that any company handles what's next well for both the new & former champion.

I saw a recent interview with Kenny where he was talking being frustrated about taking so long to get rated. That the game is actually fully finished and been done for awhile, and it just took a long time to get it down to a T rating. They had to take some stuff out. And also speaking to how it's disappointing that the game is fully finished and will be a bit dated now by release. The rosters wont be totally current, the looks wont be totally current, the arenas will be the old ones not the current ones. But I do believe this will be coming out shortly. And that's what TK's announcement on Dynamite is this week probably. That the game comes out next month or whatever. Bad timing too because now they'll be directly competing with the new WWE 2k game.

I'm one that's on board with the Sami not winning choice. I think the vocal displeasure here is less to do with this specific scenario, and more to do with WWE just spamming the same thing over and over. For 20+ years in these scenarios they don't pull the trigger. They stick to the manufactured plans and don't change course if something gets hot. I'm not even saying they are always wrong for doing so, or even in this specific scenario. I just think having excitement in something not fulfilled over and over and over rubs people the wrong way. We all look back fondly on Eddie Guerrero beating Brock Lesnar for the title in a similar situation. Some people would like to see more of that out of the box booking. And WWE just never does it anymore. That's what the issue is more so than someone's guy losing or people not being down with Cody. Just for once people want to have a hand in changing the stories and not being spoonfed what they'll be told to like.

Here is why this isn't the same as The Yes Movement and Cody won't get booed out of the buildings. In 2014 the TV audience was around 4.5 million. That vocal audience that were passionate about Bryan are by and large gone. They moved onto New Japan / the indys /AEW later on / just left wrestling. WWE sill gets about 2.5 million as an audience for Smackdown. But the 2.5 million left are not the rebellious sort. Cody is legitimately over and well liked by the WWE audience. Not all of that 2.5 million, but the majority. So they're not going to revolt against him. And the vocally displeased fans just aren't there anymore to try and force their desires on the company. Had someone as well liked as Cody gotten Bryan's spot in 2014 there wouldn't have been a revolt then either. It's because the direction was Orton vs a returning part timer that "quit on wrestling". Batista had some of that 2003 Hollywood Rock heat. The fans hadn't learned to forgive and admire his movie career yet.

Vince still has nothing to do with creative as of now. Remember he was gone in July. Which is before Sami was even paired with Roman on screen yet. But you do speak to a larger point. This as Triple H's first big creative test. Would he keep the status quo and do what WWE has done for 20 years now? Or would he be the guy that actually rewarded the talent for grabbing that brass ring? Well we got our answer. The day to day narratives have more focus now, but the booking philosophy is still the same. And to a larger extent, I think this has more to do with Bruce Prichard who is the director of the writing staff. Triple H still has to okay whatever gets pitched. But I really think it's Bruce who doesn't see Sami as worth the Foley moment. He's the one talking everyone out of it. That's just baseless speculation, but his 40 years in the business has been molded by Vince. I really think he is the Vince proxy in this scenario.

I agree. I'll also say it's odd that we've had a year of unified World Titles and Tag Title, yet the Women's Titles are still separate. They should definitely merge the Women's Titles too. I'm pretty OCD and it's messing with the parity in my brain. And honestly you could do the same with the Women's Division. Create Women's US & IC Titles to anchor the TV, and use the Women's World Title as the big special PPV Title everyone wants. I feel like Reigns and The Usos' auras being so big right now owe at least some of it to being THE champions of their divisions with no equal. You can achieve that with the women as well, while also netting one extra women's champion. 3 men's single titles total, 3 women's singles titles total, one men's tag title total, one women's tag title total. Parity & purpose. All that said, ain't happening. WWE loves the chaos and uneven-ness that breaks my OCD brain.

I don't think this was directed at me. But I didn't expect them to put the title on Sami, nor in my opinion should they have. But for this to be successful they needed to effectively shift who Sami wants to fight. Coming into this the title was secondary to him wanting to fight Roman. So him not winning the title isn't the problem. The problem is not shifting that heat & personal issue onto someone else. The way it played out, it's more like Jey will have the personal issue with Sami (for Spearing him). It's kind of a backwards way to tell the story. And I will state it now, I'm actually in favor of both Reigns & The Usos retaining the titles at WM. Keep filling that heat balloon. This is the era where the profits are there despite what you book. They could realistically have Roman beat Bruno's record if they wanted to and it wouldn't hurt the bottom line.

Thought the booking was a miss. If you're not going to go with Sami winning, then the play was to get the heat & personal issue onto Jey so Sami doesn't even care about Roman anymore. Violent beat down from Jey (after it looks like he was going to hit Roman), just gross beat down that goes too far. Then you book Sami as a wildman stalking Jey, and trying to convince KO to trust him and help take the one thing Jey covets. The way it played out certainly doesn't put a lot of heat onto an Usos vs Sami & KO tag match.

Bingo. He has two scenarios he's okay with. Pricing it out of the market (on purpose) so no one will buy it and he keeps inching closer to regaining all the power he had before. Or Saudi buys it and gives him all that power he had before. Either scenario gives him what he wants. But floating the 9 billion number also pumps up the stock and makes everyone excited about what he's wanting, without understanding the underlying reasons for that number. He's a ruthless and savvy businessman, I'll give him that.

This show (and AEW in general lately) seems pretty directionless. I still enjoy AEW. And there's still a bunch of good matches every week. But the buzz that had been there, the feeling that most of what was happening was can't miss... that's kinda all gone right now. It seems like I say this every PPV cycle, but I wish they would start announcing a couple matches more than a week or two out. One of the biggest benefits of only doing 4 PPVs is having time to really advertise and push things and make them seem like gigantic events. You lose all of that by waiting until two weeks is left to announce your matches. Here's to hoping some big angle is in the works to spark some momentum. I miss how things felt after All Out 2021. Punk was back. Cole & Danielson debuted. The first Grandslam was upon us. How do we get back to THAT excitement level?

It's a little of both here. His TDs were down, but look who his receivers were. How many TDs can you realistically throw when your WR1 is Richie James? Every stat improved except TDs. I stand to believe his TDs would have been up if he had better receivers. Saquon playing well, the O-line being improved, the coaching... they're all factors that helped. But Kafka got him into the zone multiple times with the play calling. Got him rolling were he wasn't throwing TDs but he was stringing 8 / 9 completions in a row together. He was making the right calls on read options. He was scoring rushing TDs. I'd consider that a Jones whisper-er. But that's up for interpretation.

Game 1 was about love. Game 2 was about hate. A third game would likely have a similar over-arching theme, and one that completes the journey. So in that sense a Game 3 theme about forgiveness would finish the story appropriately. Something like Ellie forgives Abby and seeks her out to restart The Fireflies, get that vaccine made / save mankind fits very neatly thematically. But that almost seems too neat for the tone of the series.

Gotta say I'm quite happy it appears Kafka & Wink will be back in NY now. Those two & Daboll had some mojo I think they can improve on. And Kafka was the Daniel Jones whisper-er. Hopefully since they didn't land the HC jobs for Arizona or Indianapolis they'll return and keep it rolling.

I trust Druckman & Mazin to do their thing. If that's what they think is best for the show I'll gladly watch. I just don't see how that jives with what Druckman said about not surpassing the source material like Game of Thrones did. Unless we should be expect a long break after Season 2 has aired? A quick Google search says Part 3 is expected out in mid 2025-ish.

Another excellent episode. I wasn't really feeling Shauna from Yellowjackets' group. I think the intention was to give Henry more depth by making these real people he accosted. But instead, at least for me, it was a miss. Fedra are the bad guys. Then Shauna's group overtakes them. That should make them good guys right? Well they showed her group reveling in killing the Fedra soldiers to an uncomfortable degree. Dragging dead bodies with their vehicles. Killing all the cooperators in cold blood. They certainly weren't the good guys. I think they were shooting for shades of grey kind of thing, but it just came across muddy to me. That being said I thought they handled Henry & Sam really well. Had just as much emotional weight. More even, with Ellie thinking she could cure Sam with her blood. I would have ended the episode with Henry's death and fade to black to add even more emotional weight. Save the grave site thing for opening episode 6. But that's just me I guess. Bloater looked badass. Little gymnast runner was cool. The swarm coming out of sink hole was fun. We got an appearance by Ish in drawing form. Overall good stuff. Love this show.

Jade isn't losing until she hits at least triple digits. Strap in.

Rush vs Danielson was fucking good. Hope The Bunny is okay. That T Bone timing was off and Hater landed full force on her face. Honestly surprised they let Hayter pick her up and hit that Lariat. At least she took care of her on it and hopefully didn't make the possible concussion any worse. Gunns getting the tag belts is fine if it's a short bump in the road. Whether they drop them back to The Acclaimed at the ppv, or to FTR right after it's fine. But they don't have as much heat as they're booked to have.

No not at all. Sorry that wasn't clear. I'm just advocating for using season 2 to fill in the gaps between the end of game 1 and Joel's death. His death needs to happen for the sake of the story. I'm just in the camp that thinks doing it in ep 1 or 2 of the second season is a bit too soon for TV. I trust this team to flesh out the rift between Ellie & Joel that was largely only alluded to in the beginning of game 2, and maybe even show her journey back to the hospital to discover the truth for herself. There's no rush is my point. We can do some world building and flesh out the things that were in between game 1 & 2 and only shown in brief flashbacks. Other wise we're gonna have a 5 year wait between season 2 & season 3. Druckman already said they won't let the show surpass the game timeline.

The joke is not lost on me lol, but killing one of 15 main characters is apples and oranges to killing one of 2 main characters. At the end of game 1 there's basically only 3 people left. And Tommy is a background character at best. GOT had all of The Starks, The Lannisters, etc. Killing one person of a family isn't the same as killing one of a duo. But I digress.

If they stick to that, and also stick to Druckman saying the show will never speed ahead of the source materials, guess pencil season 3 in for 2027? Game 3 is in the works now. We'll be lucky if it releases by 2025 or 2026. The second game has 10x more material than the first game had. And they left a lot of meat on the bone that could be fleshed out in a show. Joel dying in S2 E1 or E2 is going to be some bullshit too.