NoFistsJustFlips

Weight classes wouldn't work in the US. US wrestling is story telling and soap opera. Not simulated sport. UFC exists. Boxing exists. Why do we need a version of that with fake outcomes? It's storytelling using simulated combat. But it's really *just* storytelling at its core. Amd one of the most time honored stories is big man vs little man. You lose all of those. A world with no Shawn Michael's vs Undertaker matches is not a world I want to live in. No more squash matches & size desrepencies is boring. Like you can get away with having a single weight class that's segmented. But you wouldn't get away with keeping them separated entirely. Just seems like you're taking a lot of tools out of the tool box and artificial handcuffing yourself. And to what end? You're not going to get combat sports fan to watch. They don't want story. They want real fights.

I'm still calling shenanigans to get The Rock with the heels. I could end up being totally wrong of course. But Punk has some storyline thread. He makes sense due to the Heyman connection. Bronson Reed makes zero sense and has no story thread to connect him here. Rollins fucks Bronson up and takes him out when he's supposed to enter last. People think it's 5 on 4 now. They let a few minutes pass. Rock's music hits. He's the final entrant and pins Roman.

Spot was supposed to be skin the cat, headscissors Fletcher over, Ospreay in one smooth motion catches him as he comes over and drops to his feet in perfect position to hit a Tombstone on the floor. High degree of difficulty and they slipped and had to do a new setup. But was always going to be a Tombstone while standing on the floor.

Giants immediate future looks pretty bleak. They're more than just a quarterback away. So what do you do? Try and hit a draft QB, bring in a fee agent to start next year, and hope for the team to just click? Russell Wilson is on a one year deal. Justin Fields is a free agent after this year. I think Sam Darnold as well. Idk. I'm on board with getting rid of Daniel Jones I just don't see light at the end of the tunnel regardless.

Moxley angle sucks. I just don't like it. And I'm not feeling any aspect of it at all. It's just the same exact thing Mox has been doing for the last 3 years just with Mox wearing Kimpossible outfits. OC doing long promos is detrimental to his overness. Some dudes just don't need shoe-horned into long promos. Hurt Syndicate vs Swerve, Hangman being Hangman, Ospreay / Fletcher / Takeshkta / Ricochet are all things clicking with me. But at a certain point it's not enough. This is the first AEW PPV I'm thinking about not buying.

I have a feeling the Barkley from The Gaints signing was fully accepted right away

Why does anyone need added? 4 on 4 is perfectly acceptible for this story and honestly the only logical storytelling answer. No one outside this feud makes sense to be inserted here *unless* it's a swerve to have some sort of Rock interaction. Could have got there with mystery partners for both sides too and just not having anyone come out for the heels. But I digress.

They spent how many years building up the rifts and telling the story of the Bloodline vs Bloodline feud? If they just throw two randos in there that have no connection to that story two weeks out from the big war games match, it's a terrible decision. Period. Im not even open to hearing of any other opinions at this time lol.

I hate this talking point. WWE is the number one wrestling company in the world. Generally speaking the talent there are the best professionals in the world. You're saying really good pro wrestlers should not be hired just because they worked there first? So no Swerve Strickland? No Samoa Joe? No Bryan Danielson? There's only so many Darby & OCs out there (special guys on the indys that WWE haven't touched). It's reallllyyyy hard to scout and hit on those kind of prospects. I'm not saying don't do it. Definitely try. But this tired don't hire anyone from WWE talking point needs to die. It'd be like a fan of an NFL team getting pissed that they're hiring players released from other teams. Well do you want the best available pros? You definitely do. That's not the issue.

Said this in the other thread but this is tailor made for Seth & Bronson to take each other out before the match starts. 5th man buzzer hits for heels. Nothing. 5th man buzzer hits for faces and it's The Rock, who immediately turns. Only way it makes any sense adding anyone else to this match is to just take them away and create that surprise moment.

So you don't find it awkward and cheesy that Britt still comes out and hits her DMD deal then turns around to point at the pyro and there's no pyro? I'm not saying it's alone a reason anyone is tuning out. But what I am saying is it's contributing to AEW looking small time lately. Wrestling at this level is a spectacle. All professional sports are. NFL teams run to the field with music and lighting and pyro. MMA. Boxing. It's about creating a larger than life live event experience. And them going from having it to not having it makes them appear more smaller than they used to. You can say you're not 8 years old but that's just an old head thing to say. It's not 1982. And there were a lot of people that voiced opinions about missing pyro when WWE stopped doing it. Just like people still miss the sets tailored to events like they used to have. No, it's a not reason anyone switch from WWE to AEW in 2019. But funny how it suddenly reappeared in WWE when AEW did it. Because AEW entrances were looking more big time than WWE's were there for a minute. And now that has swapped. It wouldn't even be that much of a thing in my mind if AEW had not used as a tangible proof of alternative in all their marketing for so long when they were starting up. If you're the one beating that drum super loud, you look pretty bad when you decide to drop it.

Small nitpick not many probably noticed. But I have a disabled brother (CP). I get really anxious when crowd brawls end up in the disability seating section. Roddy & Archer are pros so I know they recognized it. But still wish they'd pivot away from that area with all the wheelchairs and walkers because who knows what happens if someone slips or security bumps over there because they don't recognize it. Just a risk not work taking.

He spray tans everywhere I'm sure, it's the sweat and friction of the knee pads that take it off. Spray tan is just a layer of stuff that sticks to your skin. It comes off pretty easy. I'd have a settled spray tan for days leading into a show and when I took my wrist tape off after the match the spray tan was gone. It came off with the tape.

There's a lot of things AEW was supposed to be that they've strayed away from. This is one fo those things I remember them beating their chest about. WWE stopped doing Pyro we're bringing Pyro back to wrestling. It been absent from TV for months now. And I'm not sure why. Really hurts the feel of the company.

I think it's pretty clear that...

Agree x1000. Content churn is a bitch. There's so much to keep up with. It's too much. And it breeds apathy. I used to watch Dynamute live every week. Now it's very very rare. No Collision or Rampage for me anymore. Name names dawg. Because you're wrong. Jericho, Mox, Omega, Hangman, Punk, MJF,Joe, Swerve, Bryan. Who is the never taken seriously one listed there?

Shane was an amateur wrestler in high school and college. He's been wearing singlets for 20+ years now. It's what he's comfortable working in. Some people don't feel as comfortable / work as well in other styles of gear. Probably not a hill to keep trying to die on.

Right, that's a fair statement. It falls on the booker to have their finger on the pulse and feel the crowd momentum shifting before it does. It's really tough to do. Have a long term plan. Have a back up plan. Have a team that's really good at making logical pivots. But if you go with the hot hand at the right time it makes a lot of other things fall into place. If Ospreay is champion and very very over and you're booking him with other top guys, people are going to (hopefully) be satisfied and happy. Austin on top in 1998 is the blue print. Make him champ. Keep building stories around him. He doesn't have to do a Hogan 1984 reign. He can lose the belt. Other guys can eat too. But keep getting back to him being the man as your focal point as your guiding principle.

I've always been fascinated by the thought process of using someone super over to build a secondary title instead of being on top. Like would 1997 Austin having a forever run as IC champ have actually ever cemented him as the top guy and started the boom period? Did 1998 RVD having his forever run with the TV title ever transcend ECW to the next level? Wrestling gets hot when you put the most over person in the most prominent spot. Ospreay should be world champion. You should get behind the hot hand while they're hot. He's already cooled significantly. That's AEW's ultimate missed opportunity to me. Never going with the hot hand. Cody should have beat Jericho. Hangman should have beat Omega sooner. Swerve should have got his run sooner. Punk & Dsnielson should have got the title sooner. Getting the belt on the most over person as soon as possible is the only real way to start moving the needle.

This show was so so so fucking good. Not just as a superhero show straight up just a good ass tv series period. I was wrong on my Vic prediction by a mile but man I hope they do more series like this to world build villians for the movies. They really fucked up not making this universe the new DC universe. Everything is clicking so well. The rebooted kinda not rebooted miss matched new DCU is so muddy and hard to follow already and it hasn't even started. Needed to be a clean reset of continuity. Should have started with The Batman and moved forward from there.

Finally snagged that platinum trophy for Rebirth. Had the game and combat beat for a bit and had to grind out the last few Johnny gimmicks. The piano deals took forever. The situp game took forever. The last glide de chocobo took foreverrrr. But I am finally done. To fill the gap until part 3 comes out maybe I'll jump back into crisis core and try to 100% that. And the original. But the stupid Barrett date achievement takes forever to get.

True story I had to Google what banal meant. Sorry next time I'll just drop a gif of Rick Martel's perfume to describe your disposition lol.

I won't waste too much time trying to sway you because we just aren't going to agree. I enjoy AEW. I much prefer it to WWE even when there's flaws I think could be done better. But the posts you generally make don't hold a lot of weight with me because you cover for everything they do and kind of just blame the people disliking it for not understanding the greatness being displayed in front of them. You don't have a whole lot of credibility in the objectivity category. But hey we both want a fun & healthy AEW to watch. If you're already there and having fun with what's being presented I'm happy for you.

Show, don't tell. The words they're using are saying that the angle is Mox wanting to take out the complacent wrestlers. But what they're actually showing is a group jumping the rail to attack low card dudes and agents. Replace spray painting with neck Pillmanizing. What they're showing isn't matching what they're saying. If they were really going after the complacent wrestlers they'd be attacking champions that don't defend titles. They'd be going after dudes that only work one show. They'd be going after dudes on losing streaks. Outside of Bryan (who does fit the angle), they're just doing generic beat downs on randos. They targeted Private Party and Private Party got their shit together and won the tag team titles. If this is what the angle was about they wouldn't have been fighting with Private Party before their title shot and they would have came back out and clapped for them because that's what they were looking for. It's not that they story they are trying to tell is nWo like. It's that the story they are trying to tell, they're not telling very well. So it's muddy and people are just comparing the similar beats to what they've seen before.

One match in the whole first hour? We got a very promo & video heavy first hour. I'm just gonna say it, the new 60s inspired look for Jamie Hayter is actively sabotaging her overness. She is now in negative over territory when she was the biggest star in the women's division before she got hurt. I don't know why she doesn't pivot. Could just be a me thing. But it's just such an out if character look for an ass kicker. Private Party winning was dope. Still not feeling the boring Mox / BCC thing. Did like that there was *some* kind of development from The Bucks leaving. The shredding documents thing was dumb in a fun way like that too lol. I'm normally not one to ever care or be bothered by size differences. But Cole just didn't work the match well with someone that starkly different from his look. He needed to be more of a Piper getting some cheating shit in (yes while a face) and clever offense. Stick & move and eye poke. Superkick and boom stuff would have been fine if they didn't do the ankle deal. But they did. And it was a disservice to do all that to be hopping and posting off the leg so much. Feel like this angle ends with Cole getting a DQ win over Malakai, then losing to Brody. Roderick will get 2 wins also and MJF will make them face each other. Cole wins and Roddy begrudgingly does respect deal after. The at Full Gear Kingdom turn in Cole. MJF wins and moves on. Cole fights through them for awhile. For those that care, the orange ropes didn't bother me a bit! Black, white, red, orange, whatever. As long as they're not multicolored and visually distracting, I'm fine with it.