NoFistsJustFlips

I looked it up and all but the first year (Carmela held the case for a long time), they have burned through the women's case in a day. Five years in a row. They really don't know how to build to any original stories with it anymore. It's all just get it out of the way as quick as possible so they don't have to try and book two concurrent MITB stories. So I agree. It's played out. 2017 Carmela cashed in after 280ish days 2018 Alexa used it the same night 2019 Bayley used it the same night 2020 Asuka used it the next day 2021 Nikki used it the next day 2022 Liv used it the same night

Yikes only 2 pages? The Forbidden Door thread has 27 pages. Quite the contrast. The Liv cash in was really well done. I thought for sure they were going to have Rousey squash her, and so did the crowd. They were booing the shit out of that Ankle Lock. Really a great moment and a great pop. Vince made a mistake forcing Rousey as a babyface this run. The crowd has been wanting to boo her for awhile now. As much as I liked the Liv cash in, realizing it was only done so the fans got a make good moment for what they were about to do with the main event brings it down a few notches. I don't have a problem with Theory winning in theory. Just on a show that really didn't feel like a PPV worthy show to to begin with ending with a heel who lost already getting the chosen one push it really stands out as a poor choice. Usos vs Street Profits was good stuff as usual. I think The Usos are incapable of having a bad match. I can see why this show couldn't fill a stadium. Yikes.

The split happened because Nash & Hogan were shoot beefing and didn't want to be part of the same angles anymore. Which is also why the civil war and direct White vs Red feud didn't happen like it logically should have. Any interaction between the two were wolfpac vs lackeys of Hollywood. Basically Hall & The Giant vs Nash & Sting. Hogan was off fucking around with DDP, Karl Malone, Rodman, Jay Leno & Ultimate Warrior in the original Codyverse after putting Goldberg over. The nWo shirts sold well. But this was WCW. They didn't have a fully fleshed out merchandising department truly capitalizing on it. I think you guys are over valuing the shirt stuff. Along the lines of what Buff was getting at in the tweet... Hogan, Hall, & Nash made farrrrrrr more royalties off of the nWo in WWE than they ever did in WCW. It comes down to Bischoff's infatuation with Hogan. Hogan was the first real mainstream star in wrestling. He thought that was more valuable than any current pro wrestlers in WCW or any current fans WCW already had. All he cared about was the mainstream and casual viewers. That's what he thought was driving the ratings and success, and he thought Hogan was the driving force in their interest. And in the beginning he was right. nWo was cool and new and edgy but the Hogan turn is the spark that set it off. He just didn't factor in Hogan's shelf life dropped exponentially. Him being a heel and the nWo as a whole carried them through to the Sting match at Starrcade. 1998 was still profitable. But it was lifeless because he kept going to the Hogan well after the heel novelty wore off.

I genuinely think Bischoff's thought process at the time was, well god damn Hulk Hogan got hot in 1984 and they prospered until 90-91 with that formula. Heel Hogan got hot in 1996 we can prosper with that formula until 02-03 with it. It was a flawed thought process. But that's why he was never worried about elevating anyone. In his head the golden goose of Hogan was gonna be hot and drawing for a good 6-7 years. And that's why elevating and passing the torch were not concepts he spent any time thinking about or working towards.

I always check the Elevation spoilers to see if anyone I know worked the tapings. Scrolled a bit too far and did see who won The Royal Rampage by accident. I won't indicate either way on how I feel about it. I will just say I'm looking forward to see how they get there.

MRI. They do those same twist and pull and slide tests to determine if they think it's partially torn or fully torn, trying to avoid an MRI. Which are expensive even with insurance. In my case I have strong leg muscles so the leg didn't move much on any of the twisting. The doctor in attendance that night said he didn't think there was structural damage because of it. So I was dumb and kept working on it. Kneecap dislocated again in my next match and I just called and scheduled the MRI without another consult. And it was a torn ACL plus the added bonus of a torn minuscis from the kneecap doing damage when it dislodged. They sent me to rehab a couple times pre surgery to strengthen the areas around the knee as much as possible to make for an easier post surgery rehab. And even my PT did the slide and twist test was like 'Ive seen the tear in the MRI and even I would think there's no tear' when he was dong the drawer test.

Doh. LCL & MCL is what I meant. I've torn my ACL and needed surgery to repair it. And my kneecap did dislocate when it happened. So I'm unfortunately all too aware of which ligaments go where lol.

Didn't JR replace Schiavone? There were only 4 out there counting Regal. Christian dressing like when Ron Burgandy gets fired & depressed in Anchorman is the best. Luchasaurus is now dinosaur Kane. The music sound realllll close to the original Kane music. That Blood & Guts was so fucking good. Sucks Santana got hurt. Looked like the PCL & LCL ligaments might have gone (the ligaments on the sides of the knee). There was some awkwardness on top of the cage, wonder if he had a role to play in that. I thought they did a pretty good job covering for him. It obviously wasn't a serious enough injury that he needed to be removed. Whoever posted that AEW did that to "not hurt the cage being opened spot".... you realize Eddie still entered the cage after that right? The door being opened had nothing to do with keeping him there. Probably had more to do with JAS losing and it making them look bad if they lose 5 on 6. It essentially still was 5 on 6, but visually there were 6 guys for each team in the cage.

False. The ref dropped down and counted to one. Stopped because Dax's shoulder came up. Started a new count (while also yelling very loudly ONE on that second time his hand hits the mat), Dax kicked out at 2 and a half.

I get that WWE is for a more casual viewer these days and isn't really for the hardcore wrestling fan. That being said there were two things that really annoyed me. That opening. Heels & babys just standing around together in a receiving line clapping and cheering? Cena stopping and hugging heels? It was like the opposite of Vince heading out to his death in the limo. They also missed an easy gag where Elias could be at the front of the line with fake beard and as he's out of the camera view he gets behind everyone and throws on a new shirt and takes off the beard to be Ezekiel at the end of the line. Why do they present all the wrestlers as marks these days? The Street Prophets acted like fans that paid for a meet & greet with Cena. Dudes in the 80s didn't mark for the stars of the 70s. Dudes in the Attitude Era didn't mark out for the 80s stars. Why do they make the current generation mark out for 2000s wrestlers? Its hard to present everyone as a star on par with previous stars when they get stars in their eyes and act like the previous generation was soooo much better than they are.

Shit I looked it up and you're right. Dude was only gone 8 days. I thought 4 weeks was too short. Damn, they really ran through a whole ass tournament and two title reigns (Mysterio & Cena) in 8 days to get to his return? Bad story telling.

Disagree. Whatever they have planned, they're being patient with it. When Punk left WWE with the title he was back in like 4 weeks. So it makes sense that if AEW is gonna crib that angle, they're gonna be patient with it. Why on earth would they have had MJF come back after 4 weeks and attack an interim champion? Even if Punk weren't hurt, way too soon for that. And Mox is more of an AEW guy at this point than a WWE guy that jumped (the whole point of MJF's promo was fuck them WWE guys come in and making more money than me). MJF not coming back after 4 weeks to nonsensically attack someone not part of what he was complaining about doesn't put anything to rest.

Going by the graphic this one is 6 on 6.

I would assume they purposely avoided Okada taking the pin when laying out the match. Politics and what not. AEW didn't want Hangman to lose. NJPW didn't want Okada to lose. So everyone was happy with Cole losing. Had Jay White pinned Okada instead in that moment he would have been in the dog house. Unless the situation with Cole was super serious. Something borderline catastrophic would have had to happen for there to be no heat on him pinning someone he wasn't booked to pin.

This show over delivered. Crow was hot for everything. The replacement wasn't a letdown. Good show. Not totally 100% sure of this, but how I read the finish for The IWGP Title Match was when Okada hit that high angle Michinoku Driver it fucked up Cole's shoulder / neck / stinger / or maybe his labrum finally let go. So he was so in his head worried about being hurt, he accidentally ducked the Rainmaker he was supposed to take. Because why would they not have Okada hit one? Especially when it can be broken up. Or in this case still win the match, just for Jay White. So Cole realizes he didn't actually take anything and contemplates kicking out but it was too weak / they just went with him being pinned. Just my read on it. Could be wrong. But the most plausible scenario. Was supposed to be pinned there, but was supposed to have taken The Rainmaiker he ducked on because he was hurt.

Digging the new Sonic Collection. There's a lot about these games I missed out on as a kid. I had NO IDEA Super Sonic was even a thing. I never completed all the emerald races in Sonic 2 as a kid so I never unlocked it. They also added challenges for each game to add some new content. They take the level design and switch it up and give you objectives. It's a lot of fun and totally worth the money if you liked Sonic as a kid. I haven't gotten to Sonic CD or Sonic 3 / Sonic & Knuckles. I know I never beat Sonic 3 / Sonic & Knuckles. And I never played Sonic CD because who the hell had Sega CD? I also didn't know it was a prequel that fits in the timeline before Sonic 2. I guess I missed a lot of the narrative here as a kid lol

He does. But this fucker loves his handicap matches. And partners that hate each other. Partners that hate each other handicap match hookup is right up the old man's alley.

I get where you're coming from. But Christian and Luke Perry were friends. He was on That Edge & Christian WWE Network show. He's a huge fan of the business and was boys with lots of the workers. So in this situation I would assume Christian knows how Luke would have felt about it. Jungle Boy too especially. Just as when Paul Bearer's ashes were used in the Punk & Taker feud and Taker and Paul's real sons all agreed he would be cool with it, I don't think they go through with this without universal approval that Luke would have been fine with that. It's a situation where Luke unfortunately died younger than he should have. But there's something to be said for this being a natural death vs someone overdosing or some sort of nefarious death. Still understandable tho if it strikes you the wrong way. Just saying the specific case of Luke Perry I don't think would catch heat anywhere it was used in this same context. Just like Paul Bearer's death being in a WWE story that had minimal to no backlash from the fans.

Man as a companion to the tape trading talk, how many other people used to do the two VCR deal to copy tapes they rented? I had a huge collection because of it. I would rent all the wrestling tapes at every rental store in my city. Id even get rides to out of town rental places to see if they had any tapes I didn't have. At a certain point VHS tapes had some sort of copy protection on them. Where the copy you made would be all scrambled like a PPV you didn't buy in the old days. But of course I still found a way around that. As if they thought I wouldn't test out ways around it. Two pieces of electrical tape over the copy protection square usually did the trick. I may have taken it too far. Because I eventually got a job at a Blockbuster. So I would go to stores and buy new VHS tapes. Copy them. Then take them to work and use the shrink wrap machine to reseal them and return them. I had an addiction for sure.

Since The PPV is in Chicago (and at The United Center) I expect Punk will make an appearance. Nothing major. Just a promo saying he wished he could wrestle. Or awarding the interim title to the winner or something. Now I'm really interested to see what kind of t-shirt he wears if he does show up.

Everyone pontificating about the title being meant to be defended abroad are forgetting one thing... It's still geographically inaccurate. Even if that is the plan (and hey, it might be) the name of the title is a big strike against it for me. I'm sure eventually that annoyance will go away for me. But people just kind of trying to downplay it as a title being out there in the ether.... regardless... it's still inaccurately named. So that talking point doesn't help me be less annoyed by it. I've never seen Clark work. But the other three are top tier talents. Its gonna be good even if Clark sucks. But I would assume if NJPW is putting him in this spot he's at least solid or better.

Because it's for a weird new geographically incorrect title. That's my reason at least lol.

I think she was fine for that role too. I don't think she's good or even adequate in the ring. But that too was also a two match glorified enhancement story. -Win an enhancement match on Dynamite. -Lost decisively to Jade on Rampage. It's hard to say she deserved to be on when that's a whole lot of talented people ahead of her that aren't getting on TV. But you have to take in the totality of the story they used her for. She got beat decisively by Jade. Would you be happy with any of the talented people you like having that same story? They get one win over an enhancement talent then get squashed out by Jade? Ruby, Statlander, Nyla, Deeb, Mercedes Martinez, Britt, Hayter, Toni, Rosa, Riho, Shida, etc are all too valuable for that story. So I don't have a problem with them sparing those talents from that story to not lower their equity and importance. Looking at it from a strictly why is she on TV over person X isn't on TV, without taking the story into consideration is surface level thinking. Gotta take more into consideration to understand why it was her and why she was fine for the role.

I am so down for John Wick 5: Fast & Furious 11. The real interpromotional dream match we've been longing for.

Shafir is a glorified enhancement talent in this story. -Loses to Rosa. Gets beat up after by Storm. -Loses to Storm. Gets beat up after by Rosa. She was a plot device to bring Rosa & Storm together. You don't want to throw away someone that's over on that role. Like do you wanna job Ruby or Statlander out twice like that? I get that there are great talents being left off TV due to the dumb one women's match only formatting. But Shafir was fine for this role. And you wouldn't want to waste someone good on being jobbed out a bunch.