NoFistsJustFlips

I don't know why I am pitching this because I hate brand splits. But the only way to make multiple shows relevant is a brand split. Would WWE's viewership be as healthy as it is if all three shows were the same rosters and mostly the same identities? WWE has 7 first run hours. But it really doesn't feel like it. Because Raw has 3, Smackdown has 2, NXT has 2. You know the pool of talent that will possibly appear and which stories cold be focused on. When WWE killed the original brand split for a bit from 2014 - 2016 it made both shows feel less than (other than NXT which really thrived by having a different roster & format). Less titles were great. But 5 hours of thea main roster felt like a chore. And made Smackdown feel so irrelevant. That's kind of how AEW feels to me. They also technically have 7 hours of first run TV as well (counting ROH), but it all feels the same. It's a muddied. There's no identities. If done correctly I really think a brand split is the answer. Dynamite, Collision, ROH Rampage. 3 distinct rosters. 3 distinct set of stories. An A brand, a B brand, and a developmental brand. Yes it's similar to WWE's format. But if AEW is insistent that they need this much content you have to give purpose to that content. Scrap Battle of The Belts completely. Extend Rampage to two hours if necessary. Give it the real sports feel WWE never has. Make Dynamite Jericho & The Elite's hangout with a more WWE like sports entertainment presentation. Make Collision the show that's a gritty no nonsense brand anchored by BCC, HOB, & LFI kinda like 1992 WCW. ROH can still be the pure sport band. Rankings and handshakes lea heavy into technical wrestling One men's World Champion. He can appear on all 3 brands. One Women's World Champion. She can appear on all 3 brands. One set of World Tag Champions. They can appear on all 3 brands. One set of World Trios Titles. They can appear on all 3 brands. Dynamite gets the Men's International Title & Women's TBS Title. Collision gets The Men's TNT Title & Women's International Title. ROH Rampage gets The Men's Pure Champion & The Women's Pure Champion. Purpose. Parity. Identities. My DMs are open TK. Let's talk.

For once, last minute fantasy tinkering worked in my favor. Pulled Burrow in favor of Purdy about 10 minutes before kickoff. That hand injury looks like it's gonna linger tho.

I know it doesn't make sense to just blurt out Ospreay picked AEW. "ABP. Always be promoting." But the way it's worded doesn't really leave room for anyone else. I'm sure they'll be a swerve of some sort and two people signed or Ospreay "won't sign" or whatever. But this one isn't leaving room for much speculation.

No thank you. In that regard AEW is already turning to the WWE model of content quantity over content quality. There's already 5 first run hours for AEW and 2 for ROH. No more programing please. Tighten up the stuff ya already got. We're almost to the point of like well Monday, Tuesdays, & Wednesdays are for promos and Thursdays, Fridays, & Saturdays are for matches. And Sundays are for PPVs. It's an MCU problem. Too much content dissuades people from keeping up with the stories. I know this is a wrestling forum full of wrestling fans, so my opinion might not be shared. But I miss the time where all AEW had was Dynamite. Yes their roster is huge and more people deserve shine. But what is the tipping point? 5 hours is already too many hours to support viewership. Collision and Rampage are doing 300k - 400k. Dynamite is getting 800k. Adding preshows isn't going to make any of those numbers go up.

I know you mean this in a demeaning way, but The Black Scorpion was fun. The payoff wasn't good but the journey to get there was (for 1990 WCW at least). Except for the bad live magic skits lol. I know Ole slapped it together as a mockery, but he ended up proving the point he was mocking. Who was The Black Scorpion was a lot more compelling than the normal shit he was booking. Hopefully they already have the destination figured out and don't have to have it be Ric Flair too.

Won't speak for anyone else but myself here but when I was musing about JB being a part of this he was never Devil mask guy in what I was picturing. Just another guy in the group. Cole has got to be Devil mask (unless they have a super creative swerve that people will love). I just figure this is a good spot to incorporate JB back into the show. Cole is the leader of The Kingdom. And The Kingdom is Cole, Roddy, Taven, Bennett, & Jack Perry. A way to do a surprise reveal that ends up being a fake out. I doubt we get the reveal as soon as Full Gear. Especially if Cole is involved. I just hope the 5th dude is Kyle O'Riley. I like O'Riley and think he has a higher ceiling as a baby coming back from such a rough injury.

Just to follow up on the CW talk, it looks like they are / or at least were trying to do a block of multiple companies. They approached AEW in 2022 about a ROH deal and TK declined, wanting to package all the rights together at the same time when AEW's are up in 2024. So the talking point that NXT only got on the CW because NWA did that dumb coke spot isn't true. Tho the dumb coke spot costing NWA them their deal does appear to be true. (Even if their deal was just supposed to be an All Access reality show thing or that and an in ring show together).

There's 4 henchmen plus Devil mask. Devil mask wasn't part of the attack, his face just flashed on screen. The only night Devil mask was part of the physical attack was the first night while Cole was still there (on crutches) right? Think they are doing their best to make the story they had planned out work via Cole being able to believably still be Devil mask. They just do Devil mask inserts now because he's at home. So Cole is Devil mask. Roddy & The Kingdom are 3 of the 4 henchmen. Is Jungleboy the other? Doesn't seem like he'd fit. I like a good who done it. But ya gotta stick the landing. The reveal can't be dudes with noticeably different builds or people no one cares about.

I understand Gregg's thoughts on this (very detailed and coming from a place of knowledge which I really appreciate). But one thing that it doesn't seem like you considered in your breakdown is that NXT may not have the pull to get an exclusive deal. It might not have been one or the other. CW certainly could have been trying to build a wrestling block. Raw & Smackdown definitely have the pull to have exclusivity. It's entirely possible they just wanted to maximize the earnings for NXT and wouldn't have put the exclusivity into that all. In that circumstance it's entirely possible the coke spot could have caused them to pull a deal. I'm sure these big corporate entities also put fail safes in these huge money deals. A morality / moral turpitude clause would almost certainly be a component of it, and glorifying drug use could be a case for pulling that trigger. I actually agree with what you've laid out as being the mos likely scenario. Corgan had a meeting that he inflated the importance of an over shared to wresting media. CW probably met with him as a backup plan in case they couldn't land a WWE property. But it's not an absolute impossibility a deal could have been in the works and went south as it's been reported.

How far off are we from the Marvel Spotlight was a waste of money posts? We need to separate MCU and Marvel Spotlight completely. Feige bought it with no real plan for it. Marvel Spotlight needs to be the developmental brand. Get the Marvel Spotlight characters off of MCU TV. (For those that don't understand this post, he posts all these same things about TK in the AEW forum in regards to ROH) lol.

I hate football.

Lol not at all. Since his health problems he's become a shell of who he was as a speaker. Most often now he's kind of a mush-mouth and can't stay on target for a million dollars. Even still, there's value. It might end up with 50% trainwreck segments, but that other 50% could have some solid character growth for AEW talent. For instance this makes more sense than Big Show & Mark Henry signings at least.

On screen? Sure I can agree with that. But he's one of the most recognizable wrestlers in the history of the business. There's a ton of ways to make money with him and off of his name that doesn't even require him to be on TV. Shirts, action figures, DLC for the game. Having a name TV & business to business execs will know and have heard of will always have value in negotiations. On screen I mean they can at least get as much use out of him as Arn & Tully & Jake. A random pre tape with MJF and Flair has character value for MJF. A random FTR promo with Flair or them needing him in their corner in Charlotte or Atlanta has value. Flair helping Andrade find his mojo has value. Flair doing promo shit with Lethal & Jarrett has value. There's things they could do that are worthwhile. I understand if he has worn out his welcome with people. That's totally fine to not enjoy him personally, but I find it pretty hard to believe all the people reacting negatively can't at least grasp the potential value he could bring even if you don't enjoy him personally.

I'm okay with the Williams trade in the sense that he's on the last year of his deal and they didn't plan on keeping him for the price tag he's gonna want. Might as well get a 2 & a 5 for someone that's not gonna be there next year anyways. Gotta hit on that extra 2 tho.

I'll accept that as an answer. That's at least SOME kind of explanation. If what happened in the Dak situation was actually wrong and the ref didn't need to pick the ball up and place it like he did there, then I can see how this drive by would hit the letter of the rule just barely. I find the inconsistency disingenuous at best. I don't think it's fair or right that The Jets center can spot the ball himself and just get a tap on the ball and all is well. I would feel that way even if The Giants got the lucky break. A player should not be able to place the ball where he thinks it should go. How it happened to Dak is how it should have to work, regardless of the time crunch.

I've noticed a move towards more sports entertainment language too. But I disagree that the name matters more than the outcome of the move. Calling a Brainbuster by name doesn't tell a story or accentuate the psychology of why a move was done or what part of the body was hurt. I'd liken it to NFL announcers just deadpan rattling off the names of plays instead of describing what just happened or how that impacts the game. What tells more of the story? Saying Saquon Barkley with a trap play to the right. Saquon Barkley with a draw up the middle. Saquon Barkley with a counter to the left side. Or saying look at Saquon Barkley spinning away from defenders and exploding though the hole with incredible speed. Think this is one of those too in the bubble takes. In a perfect world you blend the two together. But describing what happened and why is a lot more important than just listing off move names. Especially since that would get old over the course of an entire show. How many times should they say he hit a Canadian Destroyer in the same broadcast? Throwing in explanations like he spiked him right on his head or oh god the impact on his neck is going to make it hard for him to kick out is story telling. Saying he hit a Canadian Destroyer eventually loses it's effectiveness and it just becomes listing off move names like a top ten list, which isn't very engaging.

I was so mad and frustrated at the end of The Giants game I had to turn football off and play some XBox. Scrolling through here and not seeing it mentioned here either boggles my mind. On the snap where The Jets spiked it before kicking the tying field goal, The Jets center illegally spotted the ball himself. The receiver ran the ball to him, he spotted it, the ref was sprinting in to pick it up but didn't get a chance to because they snapped it. And it was allowed. Even more infuriating I seem to be the only person in the entire country that noticed. Not a single player, coach, ref, nor commentator has mentioned it. I almost feel like I'm living in an alternate universe. As we know from the Dak playoff botch, the ref has to spot the ball. And that didn't happen. The time should have run out and that kick shouldn't have happened. The Giants didn't deserve to win. And they have no shot of the playoffs even with a win today. But what the fuck are there rules for if we're only going to follow them randomly? Outside of that abysmal officiating, I feel like Daboll going for the FG was a mistake. It was 4th and 1 on the 20. Surely Barkley can pick you up one yard. And even still, the ball is 15 yards further back than if you miss the kick. And with how bad Gano missed the one earlier, I suspected he was gonna miss it again. Infuriating day of football.

I am very much on board with the name change revert. But can we get them to use the sleeker Hogan era TNA logo? The version they're using doesn't look very good with the multi color and weird X design element in it. I think changing the name back is a good PR move and a good business move in general. The TNA brand name has a lot more brand awareness and identity. More people were watching then. More people know that name. It's a more conventional wrestling promotion naming style. It just works better despite the T&A double meaning.

+1 message board credibility point for me for calling that when it happened lol

I think this Watson stuff straight up kills the chance of anymore fully guaranteed contracts. Which bums me out. I was hoping the league was moving in that direction.

Caught Saw X. Overall I thought it was well done. The setup took forever and was boring as shit. But once it got going it was good stuff. Some of the traps were fucking gross being based on surgery stuff. I think this might be the Saw path for a bit. Fitting in prequels to when John Kramer was still alive. I figured out the twist a bit before it happened (if you want to call it that, because it wasn't super twist-y). But I almost wish it had gone a different way. Without spoiling too much he tried to get this miracle cancer cure surgery in Mexico. I think a much more interesting way for it to play out would have been if it worked. His cancer was actually cured. But it also caused him to not really fully have his wits about him anymore. Where he goes back to Jigsaw-ing even harder and believing he still has cancer, even tho he is cured. So that it makes the end of Saw 3 that much more impactful. He wouldn't have actually been dying. He just gets killed due to his own game not playing out the way he wanted.

Is Taylor... better than Jones...??? Last night sure made a good case for it. If I were to guess what's happening with Jones I think he's in his own head about the contract. Instead of playing on instincts like last year he's like well they paid me like a top QB I have to play like one. I need to try and find reads and stay in the pocket and hold up to top QB standards. Tyrod played like he knew he'd be fucked up if he took too long to decipher things. He was pretty much pre-determining who was getting it before it was even snapped. Okay Slayton's singled and it's man I'm chucking this one to him, fuck it. And it was working. Saquon is also excellent in pass blocking generally. So that helped a lot. But last night that line looked border line passable for a pro team for the first time all year. Chicken and the egg there if Jones is causing his own problems. But that's what last night made it seem like.

Well, at least the uniform The Giants are wearing tonight look dope. That's all I got.

Seeing as how Tyrod almost had to come out of the last game after playing only a few minutes (saved by getting hurt at the 2 minute warning stoppage), I'm very curious who the backup is. I know Daboll downplayed Jones' injury. But like I said in the thread last week the neck caused him to miss a ton of time in 2021. I suspect this one is going to be a lingering / IR / season ending thing once it all shakes out. I have accepted that last year was an aberration and this one is done. I just hope a good draft next year and some more calculated moves / fixing of the O line happens so they can be at least be in the conversation for a wildcard spot. It's a bummer to know your season is over this early. It's also a bummer to have blown money on tickets to a Week 14 game when it's Week 7 and the season is already over.

Caught Terrifier 2. I thought as a movie it was worlds better than the first one. There's a plot and a cohesive story with a beginning middle and end. I still actually prefer the first one. While not a cohesive story, it had a tighter runtime and I almost thought the chaos without a lot of stopping to storytell or explain made him a more mysterious entity and thus scarier. Art The Clown ranks high for me as a horror character. I feel like he's a lot more marketable than a lot of what's out there. But the amount of gore and indulgence these movies thrive on, it's unlikely he ever gets put into the same lists as Jason or Freddy or Michael etc. The final girl in this one was really good I thought. And knowing there's going to be a number 3 made, I hope she factors back in. And we find out the larger meaning of her father's artwork linking to Art & the murders. Not into the giving birth to his head thing, but it's campy and fine in a Jason kind of way. Hope Jericho is back at the start of 3 to get got too lol.