NoFistsJustFlips

That's him. That match was for Battle Arts which was Santino's promotion. Ran out of the same building as Destiny Wrestling in Toronto. That whole facility was the closest thing to the performance center I've ever seen on the indys. A gym, MMA training center, wrestling training center, event hall, & tv studio all in one. Hell of venue.

This is quite the shit opinion. This forum has such a weird dichotomy with AEW. We have people thrilled with the shows singing the praises of Miro and Darby and Hangman. We have people with hate boners for like Omega and Cody and Jericho. It's almost like there's not a rational middle ground. And I'm not going to knock that. I certainly hateddddd Cody's promo last night and agree with every bit of criticism it got. Everyone has opinions and it's not wrong to feel how you feel about characters. But Jericho is 100% a team player. Cody as well. I know you're super critical of like every single aspect of AEW but you're way off base here. More than usual. Jericho is a millionaire top of the card main eventer. He just took a 10 foot backwards bump off a cage as a means to help get a younger guy and his faction over. How is that not a team player? He definitely didn't have to take that bump. He could have pulled a Hogan 'That doesn't work for me brother' but he didn't. And it was probably even his own idea. He's a dude that legitimately cares about the next generation getting over and takes a lot of pride in accomplishing that with them. Cody's dumb promo aside, what about him is not a team player? Dude let Brodie smoke him in 3 minutes to win the TNT title. Didn't even hook the leg. Cody did that to help put over a dude that deserved the shine he was getting. How is that not a team player? Straight up delusional shit opinion.

Did anyone have a clear picture of if / when AEW could start on the road back at the beginning of March? That's when they did the MJF turn / Pinnacle formation angle. March 10th. I'd say the rough outline of what they were doing for the feud had been formulated at least a week or two before that. So if you feel like A) they could wait until the end of May to have the first match (Stadium Stamped at DoN) and B) they knew they'd be back on the road by July and just didn't care... well okay I won't fight you on that. But I disagree. I personally don't think they had any idea when they could get back on the road back at the beginning of March when the backbone for the story was created. So from my point of view I'm not going to hold it against them trying to do the best they could with what they knew at the time. If you don't want to give them the benefit of the doubt, that's okay. But I do wish people would factor in the realities of their limitations.

That is true, and a fair point. Keep in mind that was a big arena that they could hang the cage from, so they wouldn't have the only one match restriction they had at Daily's Place. But I was speaking more to the complaining how Blood & Guts was step one in the story leading to Stadium Stampede. It's one of those things man. When you have to wear the promoter hat sometimes you have to weigh pros and cons. This feud makes sense for Blood & Guts. But the only way it fits in the feud due to the current setup restrictions, was to do it in the beginning. Blood & Guts as step one of the story, in theory, sucks. But it was either that or not at all. And I don't think enough people understand that. It wasn't created this way by choice. It was by necessity.

I think people need to cut AEW a little slack for Blood & Guts being on TV and not PPV. While yes that is pretty dumb, it was done out of necessity. The same reason the first hour of last week was taped is the reason for why Blood & Guts could not happen on PPV. They are stuck in Daily's Place for now. That is an amphitheater with a partial roof. A roof not rated strong enough to hang the cage from. So you have to have it already set up when people come in. It has to open a show, or have no other matches happening before / after. It just is what it is. And the Blood & Guts cage is not something that can just be put together in 20 minutes while they vamp, like WWE used to do with the big bar blue cage. It takes hours & hours to setup / tear down when they can't hang it from the roof. So they had to do it like this while being in Daily's Place. Just some food for thought. (Apologies if this actually came up. I haven't caught up past page 3 yet. Just felt the need to get this point out there.)

I don't have an opinion on the ref doing a leapfrog but shiiiiittttt... Hornet *is* the best worker in the ring there. Had a really solid career doing mostly lucha style on Canadian indies before signing with WWE as a ref.

Pretty standard booking device to set up a title match. Think of it like this. Owen Hart beat Bret Hart at Wrestlemania 10. Who was the first in line to get a title shot when Bret won the title later that night? Owen. Rosa "won" the feud. So now when Britt goes on to win the title, Rosa has a reason for a title shot. She got a huge definitive win in what appeared to be the feud blow off. Because of that heel Britt can dodge her and string her along, but eventually Rosa will get a shot due to the previous win. Then Britt gets the win in the final match and it means 10x more than if she just won the lights out match.

I don't actually even think this was possible in this case. It's a legitimate stage built into the venue, not a stage built for the AEW shows. I know the Kahns own the building but it's not really possible to structurally destroy a part of their venue and rebuild it for one bump on one wrestling show. Well I guess it's possible. Just not practical. Moving away from the big bump argument, I really liked how the match played out. The Dax & Sammy opening 5 has got to be up there with the best opening segments ever right? Wish the commercials were timed better with regard to the match plot points. Missing Wardlow's entrance, Tully getting the key, making Jericho stall while climbing the cage... all that did mess with the natural flow. Still loved the match and the amount of violence they brought. Just one man's opinion, but this smoked all the NXT wargames matches.

If that's your side of it, I can understand that and will let you specifically off the hook. But other people in this thread have straight up said if you're not gonna Foley it, then don't do it. That's not saying they want it shot better. That's them saying they want him to land unprotected on a table and maybe dislocate his shoulder like Foley did. That's them saying they want him to land unprotected on the ring below and maybe have his teeth knocked out and his jaw dislocated like Foley did. That's not them wanting to balance safety and looking dangerous. That's them wanting a performer to give of his body on a scale that's totally selfish of them to ask for.

This is a little more rational of a reply. But it's not a false dichotomy because the prevailing opinion seems to be it was a bad idea because it didn't look like it hurt enough. I'm not off base with that summation right? I'm fairly sure that bump hurt more in real life than any single bump in the ring tonight. That's what annoys me from that side of the argument. Yes it was padded. But gravity is still a thing. It wasn't a full on blown up stunt man crash pad they use in movies that's inflated with 30 feet of air. The stage below the crash pad is solid and made of concrete and steel. It didn't give an inch. So the rigid foam or whatever, surely hurt less than steel and concrete... but still probably hurt a fair amount. And every here is acting like it was 50 feet of pillows and feathers.

No more crash pads? If Jericho isn't going full Foley (aka his body was destroyed he had to retire at 34 years old) maybe not book a Foley finish? The fuck is wrong with you guys? You know a wrestling ring is softer than the crash pad setup he landed on right? So maybe we should take the ring away and only bump on concrete floors now? People got pissed when Matt Hardy got hurt on his big bump because it was too reckless. Now the same people are mad because Jericho didn't get hurt and they wanted it to be more reckless? The stunt could have been made a little more visually appealing but you guys are out of your minds if you're thinking a man that's 50 years old should be bumping on anything but the safest of crash pads. There's a fair middle ground for people who didn't like that finish. But complaining that the stunt man bump looked too safe is a bridge too far for me.

Noticed something about the photo. Don't look here until after the show ends...

Got that old timey feeling. Almost didn't know what it was. But I reached deep back in memory and... it's genuine excitement for a weekly wrestling show. Love it. Can't wait to see how it plays out. Would love if this did a monster number. I know we shouldn't be consumed with ratings and the nuts and bolts like that. But it's an instant gratification of other people enjoying what you enjoy. No idea how they will go with the finish. But my $.02 American says let Wardlow murder everyone to the point Jericho is scared Sammy is going to die and he gives up to save Sammy's life. Of coarse after it's over Wardlow still murder deaths Sammy. No matter how it plays out, just happy to be legitimately excited about a wrestling show again.

This bums me out. Yes that's the term, but X-Pac was the man. The whole X-Factor debacle only lasted 8 months. And for half of that they were only featured on Heat. It sucks that a bad 8 months out of a generally awesome career got him labeled as a go away heat vacuum. GWF Lightning Kid was awesome. Babyface 123 Kid was great. Heel 123 Kid was solid. Syxx was awesome. X-Pac (DX version) was awesome. X-Pac (X-Factor version) was god awful. X-Pac (2002 nWo version) was pretty awesome again. Post WWE Waltman was really good too. Who can we nominate to get this wrong righted? Who is the 2021 heat vacuum?

I disagree. Everyone else mentioned it's the title for TNT. But beyond that Dark & Elevation are just enhancement shows. The original concept for Dark was, we're doing dark matches before the live events... let's tape them. I don't think it's meant to be WCW Saturday Night's successor or something they want to drive viewers to. Wrestling monetization on You Tube is pretty lousy. It's meant for rusty & green members of the roster to get some work in and practice in front of the cameras. And for them to test out new potential signings. I know they sold Elevation as being something a bit more. But I truly feel like it's just meant to be a second Dark in the long run. They've been saying a second TNT / Warner show is coming. So when that happens they can tape Dark before Dynamite on Wednesdays and tape Elevation before Untitled Second Show on like Fridays or whatever on the road. It's Velocity & Heat. It's Metal & Jacked. It's not meant to have a title that drives the product. It's an accessory not a priority. Once they get back on the road there's no way they can keep loading these shows up with 13 matches each. But that's just my assessment of it. Maybe I'm way off.

Now this idea is more my speed. A US Title that is the clear number 2 title. You use it as the real springboard for the Miros / MJFs / Hangmans on the roster to solidify them taking that next step. Then the TNT Title becomes clear number 3 title and used primarily on open challenges that don't need a lot of setup. I like it.

I understand your stance a lot better now, good post. And you're right it's mostly based on opinion. The United States is too arrogant to adapt the superior metric system so I have no idea how tall 163 cm is lol. But Rey Mysterio is 5'3 and he's a multi time world champion. Your opinion may vary on if that is believable storytelling but I'm good with it. Even if you don't buy a world title chase, there's still the TNT title. He's got about 30 pounds of mass on Darby so you can't say it's unbelievable for him to win that title, no? Comparing wrestling to UFC is not comparing apples to apples. In UFC you are not allowed to fight anyone outside of your weight class. So you don't have clear cut cruiserweight size workers competing for other titles. But you got Finn going for the NXT title and Bryan going for the SD title. How is it okay for them to fight out of the weight class but not the workers that are in a cruiserweight division? Not to mention all of the mixed up scenarios with tag matches. Pro wrestling is a movie. It's a creative endeavor where storytelling is the main purpose, not realism. I too like more realism added to my wrestling. But there's a tipping point. I don't watch UFC because it's boring to me. You start trying to force wrestling into that MMA box, it's gonna get boring to me and I will stop watching. Just saying "This is how it was in the past" is a disservice to my greater point. 100 years of learned behavior doesn't just go away. You would need to dedicate years.. maybe even decades to retrain the audience. "World Heavyweight Champion" / "World Champion" is the top prize and has been since Hackenschmidt. Just changing everything and saying welp all the weight classes are world championships that are equals now would go over like a wet fart. You would have to stick with that plan for like 20 years no matter how well it was getting over or not, just to maybe have people buy it. And remember no matter how good of an idea you have, you aren't allowed to let wrestlers from separate weight classes work each other. No intermixing in tags or multi mans or trios or anything. It's not worth the retraining. It's just a dead / bad idea for pro wrestling.

Maybe I'm a bit slow to catch your point. But what is stated here already exists. There *are* titles of varying esteem that exist. Tag Team, TNT, World. A ladder to climb. Your personal view of "realistically believed to compete for" is irrelevant tho because that's just your opinion. If you personally don't believe Silver can win the world title, does that mean we all have to believe that? Or that the company can't book that? Because I would buy into a Silver world title chase if it's booked well. But if you make 5 separate titles based on weight class I am not going to buy that Silver being world "middleweight" champion is equal to him being world "heavyweight" champion. There's 100 years of history in pro wrestling that defy that. Anything less than heavyweight in a weight class system in wrestling, is automatically not as important. Sure MMA and specifically UFC have been able to embrace weight classes and that's great for them. But projecting that system onto wrestling just will not work. Hell no one buys into separate brand "world champions" as equals, and that doesn't even have a weight tied to it. How many people view the WWECW world title / NXT world title / NXT UK world title as equals to WWE World Title / WWE Universal Title / World Heavyweight Title in the WWE system? Now replace the brand letters with inferior (as booked in wrestling historically speaking) weight designations. You just can't erase 100 years of story telling and history. I 100% agree with what @Goodearposted above. You should book different motivations and reactions for title wins based on character traits. But I'm very confused because you quoted his post and agreed with it. His post had nothing to do with adding separate weight classes or limiting who can vie for what titles.

Well from a kayfabe perspective his goal (and every wrestler in any promotion) is to be world champion. You're projecting you views and opinions as fact. There aren't any rules prohibiting him trying to be the world champion. The only limit for him is your perception. Not every guys is going to accomplish their goals from a kayfabe perspective. And that's okay. Because if everyone became champion, then it loses it's value. But just because the dude is short doesn't mean he can't be champion. That's what's cool about wrestling, anyone can get over and get the push if they get hot enough. It may never happen, but it could. Kofi Kingston is legit like 145 pounds. You think he could shoot beat up most guys in WWE? Nope. But he got hot as fuck, the company went with him and he became world champion. It's a work my man. This isn't UFC. And thank god for that because I can't get into a promotion that has 15 separate but equal "world" champions. F that nonsense. The real world goal for Silver should be making as much money as possible. Something that his height has zero bearing on in the real world. Someone writing on a piece of paper saying Im the champion doesn't mean a whole lot in the real world. But you use that pen on some paper and put a dollar sign and a shit ton of zeroes and now we're talking lol. And as an aside... Ever notice how AEW's world title doesn't even have a weight? It's the AEW World Championship, and anytime anyone uses the word heavyweight it's an error. No graphic or ring announcer has ever used the term heavyweight. And that's because weight classes in wrestling is an out-dated concept.

Totally agree. Dope set. Love that they went ahead and made a pirate ship 4x as big as the one that's built into the stadium lol. I'd venture to say WM 35 was the laziest WM stadium set ever. It's was literally just a 30 yard long LCD with no added design elements.

If I took that post wrong and @Goodear was talking about keeping all the narrative on Dynamite it's self, and not needing to seek out BTE / Sammy Guvara's vlogs / John Silver's Anchorman reenactments on Youtube / ect... then I totally agree on that. If there are bits of back story on any of the Youtube shows, they should show clips of the important parts on Dynamite. I don't watch BTE all the time, just once in awhile. But had they even showed 30 seconds of the who texted Hangman saga on Dynamite it would have helped the over all story telling out tremendously. It's also a weird dynamic tho. Because a lot of the BTE stuff is them filling in a backstory, or adding to a narrative, on their own. Like TK is the head writer, he writes the TV story. But then you have Nick Jackson writing stuff for BTE that comes up with more story on TK's story, that may not even be stuff TK wants part of the story. Also the legalities of Young Bucks having to sign rights away for AEW to use their IP on TV. I know they are EVPs of the company, but they didn't sign lifetime deals. Things can change down the road. I agree with you but I can also see why it's complicated to make that happen.

If I understand what you mean here, I disagree with this thought process. Don't dumb down the storytelling elements to the detriment of the current viewers. Don't hinder the people who do watch your show's enjoyment for the sake of maybe hoping new people are tuning in? I hate how WWE does this with Raw. They use at least 30% of the show's run time showing replays of stuff that already happened tonight, just in case new people are tuning in every 30 minutes. They prioritize new people who theoretically might tune in over long term viewers that are already invested in the stories. It's a major turn off for me. Imagine using this same logic for other story driven TV shows. Imagine if like Breaking Bad was written in a way to make sure first time watchers can follow what's happening even if they're jumping in at episode 8 of season 3. Just write compelling shows. If new people tune in and like what they see, they will stick around.

A quick google search shows QT started wrestling in 2004. Maybe he was cute then lol? He's one of those guys that has done way more than people realize. Had a contract with ROH in the mid 00s. And did a lot of enhancement work for TNA in the Fox Sports days.

I see where you made your first mistake lol. Kidding. But Cagematch misses a lot. As for Dark, how do they know what's on there? Unless someone at the taping messaged them how would they know? AEW doesn't announce what's on Dark until Tuesdays now right, so as to not upstage Elevation. So maybe they're right. But I'd take the over on that bet.

The Panthers made out here. Darnold hasn't looked great. But a 2nd, a 4th, and a 6th for the 3rd overall pick from just three years ago seems pretty reasonable. Especially in this era of crazy QB compensation on trades. If he never improves, they didn't bet the farm on him. But if he does improve, they didn't lose much capital to get him. The Jets are The Jets and will just ruin whatever their next QB is, until the end of time. It's the Joe Namath curse. He traded The Jet's soul to the devil for that Super Bowl guarantee.