NoFistsJustFlips

I love this shadow gimmick. But no. Not in one million years. I have like $5k in my bank account. Want to make a bet on it?? Please say yes @Flair’s Shadow lol.

To me it's way more barbaric to make a human being take full force elbows to the skull to produce blood (Brock vs Orton, Summer Slam 2016). And way more dangerous too. Didn't Orton get a pretty bad concussion out of that whole debacle? Far worse that making a painless little 2 inch cut into your own head. Austin still would have become the number one guys. But man. Talk about being shot out of a cannon. That blood made him way more than the 3:16 promo. Does that match mean as much without the blood? Nope. Still gets him over. Still gets him on the path to number one. But certainly it's a little steeper climb. Like starting at the bottom of a mountain vs a helicopter dropping you of 300 yards from the peak lol. And to think, that was Bret & Austin going against the office. That was during the no blood ban. But they knew what every smart wrestler knows, it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

I have zero issue with anyone objecting to blading, be it a fans or wrestlers. It's pretty unreasonable to demand a human being take a razor blade to their own body to produce legitimate blood. I also have zero issue with dudes that are cool with blading. I myself have bladed a handful of times when it was warranted. It's hard to explain to someone who's never done it. But when you're mid flow in a match with that reaction & adrenaline it's painless. You don't feel it at all. I'd rather blade than get an accidental paper cut lol. The nails on chalkboard sound of the blade scraping against your own skull bone is more off putting than any resulting pain. But I don't think it needs to go away. As long as people are being tested and keeping it safe from a health perspective I don't find it carny or dangerous at all. That 'do it in a straight line, neosporin it' advice is garbage tho lol. It's still gonna scar up if you do it a bunch. How many people have a weird scar on their body from a single cut you've had in your life? I know I do. Yes neosporin will reduce the risk but it's not a miracle cure. I'd bet money Flair's forehead only looks so good in comparison to Dusty's because of a little plastic surgery.

This may just be a generational preference and depends on how old you are. But me personally, I loved when WCW had 200 dudes under contact and out of nowhere you'd get a Marty Jannetty vs Rick Martel match on Nitro. If you're younger and have really only grown up on post 2000 WWE I get your perspective. But having a deep roster you can rotate and keep it fresh is a plus in my opinion and not a negative. To that point, I personally loved Cody defending the TNT title against random surprise indy dudes every week. Now if you don't follow the indys and didn't have any idea who these guys were I can understand that reflecting poorly on your personal enjoyment of the show. Like I really enjoy TH2. They don't have matches often on Dynamite. But that's okay with me. I prefer that to them being on every single week to the point I don't enjoy them anymore. As it is now I'm always happy to see them. There's this narrative that you have someone under contract you should use them a lot. That's how modern WWE has been for the most part. But 80s & 90s syndicated shows were not like that. Nitro wasn't always like that. Just because rotating guys is different... doesn't mean it's worse. The chaff you consider wasted airtime, others may view as breath of fresh air. Neither perspective is totally right nor totally wrong, it's just perspective.

I gotta agree. Dreamer is 1000000% right if you're talking about a physical person you can fight. You'll look bad if you lose to the guy you shit talked as a bum. But when it's a promotion, no ones gonna give a shit if you build up the other promotion. Oh gee Impact has some fun stars and a great product, I think we're better but we're both good gee golly. That shit's boring. When it's a promotion vs promotion feud you need conflict you need controversy you need realism. And dudes that used to work at Impact, by and large, did not enjoy their time there. And everyone knows it. Plus it's not like one promotion is gonna lose to the other. Impact is not in a fight with AEW, they are partners right now. But as adversaries they are closer in weight to MLW & ROH than AEW & NXT.

If you're not first you're last! /Ricky Bobby You make a good point and you're right. Cementing AEW as a long term profitable venture is more important than the distinction of "beating WWE". But by the same token if you're "beating WWE" you're also cementing AEW as a long term profitable venture. They're not mutually exclusive. Yes 61 is older than 49. And yes that does make a difference. (As an aside that doesn't matter, give me a 61 year old Sting after how good he looked in the ring last night over a 49 year old Hogan any day lol.) But also take into consideration 49 year old Hogan was 10ish years older than Bret Hart and 20ish years older than The Rock. 61 year old Sting is only about 10ish years older than Goldberg & Edge and only about 20ish years older than McIntrye & Orton & Cena. The numbers have gone up but the age difference remains about the same as WCW.

Meltzer has seen the firm data. He says they're making a profit and have been from day one. I don't think it's out of line to assume the things that have been reported are true. Especially since he's buddies with all the EVPs. As such it was always reported that TNA never got a rights fee from Spike TV, just help paying for the big names. So their best years can't even come close to comparing to AEW's revenue. $43 million dollars a year is a lot of money, especially vs $0 a year. This isn't a multi-experimental media start up. You're still viewing it in carny indy wrestling terms. This isn't Jimmy Hart's XWF. This isn't an energy company buying a tiny Nashville wrestling territory. This is a start up business venture started by a billionaire family with TONS of professional sports and media connections. I'm not trying to pick a fight. I understand your point. I haven't seen the facts and figures myself. But it's a pretty safe assumption to go with what's been reported in my opinion. TK & AEW haven't been shown to be a company trying to deceive the public. In contrast, to me, assuming they are giving Meltzer fake numbers seems like a stretch.

*Not everyone is going to agree with my next statement and that's okay.* Nyla Rose is the drizzling shits. Nia Jax is green as hell and very unsafe. But Nyla is 10x worse. Now maybe I'm basing this on in ring stuff that a worker can see vs the average fan that doesn't know the ins and outs of in ring stuff. But dude. This is the second time I've seen that she nearly killed someone with a sloppy badly timed Superplex where she starts too soon. Her footwork is bad. Her strikes are bad. Seriously there was one stomp while Britt was on the mat that looked worse than kids playing fighting throwing fake kicks that purposely don't land. I am totally perplexed at what anyone in AEW management sees in her. She's constantly one step away from injuring someone. She blows up every match and gets even sloppier for finishing stretches. I can only assume that she's just a very likable person in real life that everyone loves being around, and that love for the person is clouding their judgement of the performer. But man. I'm just so confused by her constant push over better acts. And just so I don't end this post with total negativity, that was the best Sting segment yet. I really enjoyed everything about it, especially the wacky video that played before their entrance. Darby zip-lining down was cool. Sting being 100% medically cleared and hitting his stuff clean was awesome. Good stuff.

I don't but user Mookieghana would lol. No I don't have inside info. I don't have any concrete proof to show you, just anecdotal Melzer quotes where he says they are profitable. But I also have common sense. $43 million + the crazy amount of merch they sell + having massive legitimate sponsors like State Farm + PPV revenue is definitely > operating costs.

A distinction that might help people see where I'm coming from is this : I'm not commenting from an entertainment / personal enjoyment sense. I'm talking from a business point of view. Me personally, I think Big Show's last 5 years in WWE were on average dreadful. Every time his music hit I hit fast forward. From a personal enjoyment perspective I got nothing for Big Show. But speaking from a business sense this is a really smart move. I'm not saying it can never happen, but in the history of US TV wrestling no promotion has ever grown to number 1 by developing young and lesser known talent alone. Zero. The peak of the 80s was Vince cherry picking the biggest names in the territories. The peak of the 90s was WCW cherry picking the biggest names of WWE. The peak of 2000+ has been WWE relying on the biggest names form the 80s & 90s, while trying to build up new stars to that level. Keeping the fans you have happy is not the key to continued success. It's the key to keeping things exactly where they are forever. But just because they are sprinkling in big names doesn't mean they are gonna be running the things people love now out. The Young Bucks, Cody, & Kenny are management. There's no way they are gonna all unanimously decide hey man let's book Big Show vs Sting and not even put any of us on the PPV lol. Again, with WCW as my example, they brought in Hogan & Savage & Hall & Nash & Luger ect. But they also kept what was working. And they started discovering new young talent and sprinkled them in. WCW in 96 wasnt just Hogan vs Bossman & Earthquake matches. Wrestling is a circus. You gotta have something for everyone if you want large appeal. If you have a circus and all you have is a lion tamer, well you'll get people that love that act. But no one else will come to your circus. (Is the circus even a thing anymore lol)

TNT is paying them $43.75 million dollars a year for Dynamite. They are absolutely profitable at this point. Even in a pandemic. And TNA never once pulled a profit. Spike TV paid them peanuts and the deal was only worth it because Spike TV were paying Hogan, Sting, & Flair's salaries themselves.

I just looked it up and I made a mistake, you're correct. I was going of Pop TV & Destination America rating for some reason instead of Spike TV. Their biggest *rating was Hogan's first show, a 1.3. AEW's debut show did their best *rating a 1.5. TNA on Spike's average was about 800k, taking the whole run with dips and valleys averaged out. So roughly the same average as AEW now. *using the rating points here is a bit deceptive. A 1.3 when TNA got it equated to about 1.5 million viewers. A 1.5 for AEW's debut equated to roughly 1.5 million for their show at the time. Peaks are roughly the same. Average viewers is roughly the same too. But my main point still stands, the appearances of management are night and day. TNA was never considered legitimate, and always viewed as inexperienced carnys by the TV & advertising world.

Cameron Grimes' hillbilly knock off of Ted Dibiase's shtick is amazing. Major improvement and my favorite part of NXT right now.

I'm not sure if this example will help you understand any better, but lets use WCW because it's the only example of a company over taking WWE. In 1993 & 1994 the in ring product was really good. Vader running roughshod, Rude, Steamboat, Dustin, Austin, Pillman tearing it up, ect. But they were a deep deep number two. And it took a combination of A LOT of moves for them to close the gap. In addition to the money saving moves Bischoff did, he went out of his way to sign guys that had lots of TV equity. Earthquake. Bossman. Duggan. Honky Tonk Man (for a cup of coffee) and of coarse Hogan. Business metrics started to get better but they were still a clear number two. Then he got Savage. Then came Nitro. Then he got Luger. It was all about momentum and getting wrestlers that people are familiar with in addition to signing new exciting unknowns like Mysterio / Jericho / Benoit / ect. The people that were already fans of WCW stayed. But what these moves did is change the perception that this was a knock off of the big time WWE. By the beginning of 1996 there were more familiar faces in WCW than WWE. More star power. More TV equity. WWE built new stars. Then he even took those, Hall & Nash, and that's when things really started cooking. My point is this is the only blue print to success that exists. WCW fans were already WCW fans. But all the moves grew the fan base with new eyeballs. That's what AEW is doing. They already have their fans. Now they are trying to grow and get new fans. And it's going to be even tougher than WCW because WWE has been The NFL of Wrestling unopposed for 20 years now. The reason why this is different than TNA is because TNA was always just an indy company. It was mismanaged and run by carnys. And on their best day, even with all the big names they had at one time, they averaged an audience about 1/5 of AEW's regular viewers. They probably had like 8% of what AEW's operating income is. AEW is a legitimate business with real employees in the office. A legitimate owner that runs an NFL franchise and a pro soccer team. TNT is a real network who has paid a rights fee for programing. AEW isn't TNA so a lot of the TNA mistakes need to be ignored. They were ran like just a big indy with a money mark. What had Dixie Carter ever been successful at? Were they ever viewed as a legitimate company? No. Not by TV networks or advertisers. So people gotta stop holding TNA's sins against AEW's future choices. As for the quality point, I understand completely and it makes sense. But WCW in 1993 & 1994 had really good quality. And no one gave a shit. The people who did give a shit were already hooked. To grow and get bigger and over take WWE they had to change and appeal to more than just the people already watching. Quality alone isn't enough for wrestling. Wrestling isn't Game of Thrones. It isnt a 7 year journey into a single story conclusion. So just saying ignore everything else and just do a good show isn't really going to work, for professional wrestling. TLDR : Quality is subjective and kind of irrelevant. Catering to the 700k they have isn't going to grow that number. They need momentum & credibility. Adding big name stars is how they do that. Don't hold TNA's sins against other companies.

This is a common talking point so don't think I'm picking on you here. But do people really not understand what JR brings to the show? I understand he's grouchy, he's a curmudgeon, sometimes he doesn't like what he sees and he lets you know about it. But he's also the most famous wrestling announcer in the history of the business. He was the lead voice when they were doing 6 million viewers a week. He brings credibility. People that are only casual viewers flipping through the channels will recognize his voice and be like wait is that JR on a different wrestling show? Now does that value outweigh his draw backs? Opinions definitely vary on that. But no one should puzzled at what he offers. He's legitimately the most famous & well known commentator in the history of the business.

I love this idea. It decreases the chances of another bottom feeder Eagles team tanking so The Giants can't make the playoffs scenario. The only draw back I can really think of is when selling season tickets and making travel plans, having a floating game makes it harder to schedule trips ahead of time. But shit that's how the playoffs work. So it's not *that* much of a drawback if it's sold with the right explanation. But I'm afraid you're right. It doesn't have much of a chance of happening. It's a shame because that really is a good idea. ETA: You can't tell me #1 Washington would have beat #1 Green Bay, or #1 New Orleans to clinch that playoff spot this year. Just saying.

While this came out of left field, I'm not shocked at all. I totally get it. I'm actually a bit surprised to see the mixed reaction to this move. Like he's 49 with a lot of wear and tear, they absolutely are not going to make him go out there and work 15min competitive matches every single week with Omega & Fenix. Yall know that right lol. The roadmap for how to use him is early 80s WWE face Andre. He gets a promo every few weeks. Maybe a quarterly squash match. He gets into a big issue or two a year that doesn't have to be featured every single episode and gets the big PPV blow off. You treat him like the legit special attraction he would be in AEW. And you let him grow weekly as a commentator and personality on the down low. Dude is legitimately one of the most recognizable stars of the monday night way era left actively working. He still has tons of value, even if that value isn't super spotty work rate matches. But don't sleep on him either tho. I know his last few years in WWE have been yuck. But he still had a few hidden gems in there against Sheamus & Braun & Mark Henry. Without the apathy that comes with WWE over production comes a breath of fresh air and new passion. He's still capable of good shit and people should at least see how he's presented by AEW before they decide if they like it or not.

AEW literally already has a ring (Dynamite Diamond Ring) that they do once a year for a battle royal that has on again and off again been defended by MJF who has won it both years so far / wears it every appearance, and medallions were the award for winning the Women's Tag Tournament. I don't think they've been defended, but Diamonte & Ivelese wear them every time they are on the show. I want to say they did a trophy already too, but I'm not 100% on that one. Give it time Coach TK's gonna see these posts and make it all happen, just for you lol.

It works in MMA because of the realism. The journey is real. Guys are maturing growing and learning just like wrestlers, but very differently from wrestlers their size gain is legitimate. They really are moving up those weight classes. Gaining mass, and the mass gain changes thier style. That's not what happens in US wrestling. Is AJ Styles any bigger now than he was in 2001? He was a Cruiserweight in WCW. Why is he not a Cruiserweight now? Now your moving up the ranks "(Cruiser->TV/European->Intercontinental->World)" is not lost on me. But why does that first rung have to be a title that's name is dedicated to size? You get the exact same effect if you don't classify the title by a fake weight limit that isn't based on realism. The word Cruiserweight has a specific connotation in wrestling. You're not going to reverse 30 years of learned history. You get the exact same journey if you pick a low card title that isn't based on weight, without the negatives that the word "Cruiserwight" comes with.

In total agreement that segmenting your roster by weight class is an outdated concept. Now New Japan makes it work still with the IWGP Jr Title. But the main difference in why I consider their process vastly different than US wrestling is they force Jrs that move up the card to add on incredible amounts of size. When Kenny Omega moved up he bulked up. When Ibushi moved up he bilked up. When Osprey moved up he bulked up. We don't do that here. And because of that, visually, there's no real distinction between a Junior / Light Heavyweight / Cruiserweight vs Heavyweights. Finn Balor's billed weight is 175. But he's the NXT World / Heavyweight Champion. AJ Styles is billed at 225 and he's been WWE World / Heavyweight Champion twice. Same with Bryan, Rollins, and a bunch of other guys that would be classified as Cruiserweights if they were in 1990s WCW. Buddy Murphy was Cruiserweight Champion for a good stretch. Then he lost the belt and went to the main roster. What changed? He's still at the same billed weight. Still wrestles the same style. Still has the same physique. What makes him not a Cruiserweight anymore? That's why it doesn't work here in this era. Cruiserweights were my favorite part of the 90s. But had WCW put their World / Heavyweight Title on Rey Mysterio at the same time there was a Cruiserweight Division that wouldn't have made sense either. The glass ceiling broke and smaller workers and now seen as capable top draws if they get over. If places only put their World Titles on giants like they did in the 80s and 90s I'd get it. But how is Escobar more of a Cruiserweight than Balor right now, ya know?

Are you sure about that? I know that was talked about at one point. But I'm fairly sure they had to stick to a single 4 hour feature due to the contracts of the actors. Something about repurposing the original movie into an episodic format would trigger all of the actors needing to be paid a second time. So they had to scrap that idea and just keep a 4 hour presentation with no chapters or segment separations.

Yuck. But not like a hard yuck, just a soft yuck lol. I think we all see the Mania match is Drew vs Lashley. Which I will gladly take because I was expecting Drew vs Sheamus and Sheamus is no bueno for me. Miz & Morrison vs Bad Bunny & Priest isn't even the worst Wrestlemania celebrity tag match Morrision has had to do. One word, Snooki. Kind of a boring show. I'm still begging them to book the Women's Tag Title scene without the singles champions involved. Speaking of booking the women... on the preshow they were hyping that someone would face Asuka. Did I hear that wrong or miss something? She wasn't on the show at all right? Wonder if there was some late game rewriting going on because the pre show was more of a mess than usual lol.

If I were the one with the book... Cesaro wins SD EC, immediately faces Reigns and gets this __ close but takes the loss. Post match in ring promo Reigns says he isn't going to defend against Edge at Mania because Edge brings nothing to the table. And the Tribal Chief don't have time for a retired has been. Because of this, Edge Kofi's Kofi and takes his spot in the Raw EC. Edge wins. Big celebration. Miz cash in, Edge still wins. Reigns out for the shit head heel beat down. Picks up the Raw title and says okay Edge now you have something I want. See you at Mania. Unification match. McIntyre gets stuck having to wrestle Sheamus at Wrestlemania. We get Edge & Christian vs The Usos at Fastlane. Reigns and Cesaro have a rematch at Fastlane.

Is that really an acceptable answer? In my opinion, no. Your opinion may vary. But he's making a product for consumption. Once he starts taking steps to make that consumption difficult he's veering away from the goal. I don't want to watch a movie created in 2021 formatted to a screen from 1981. Sorry. I'm still going to watch it. And hope for a fun experience. But some of the fun of that experience is already ruined because he made a big time dipshit choice.

I did my rewatch recently of BvS & Justice League. I wouldn't consider myself a Snyder fanboy, but I was excited for this to come out and see the differences. That is... until it was confirmed this will be in the 4:3 aspect ratio. Completely takes me out of it. The reason for 4:3 is he wanted the whole movie to be formatted to fit on IMAX screens. Well dipshit, your movie isn't being shown on IMAX screens. It's being shown on HBO Max. Zero IMAX screens are showing this. Yet it's formatted exclusively for IMAX screens. He also wanted to make the cut black & white, but he backed off on that. I assume there will be a black & white cut as a bonus for DVD release. But I realllyyyy lost a lot of excitement for this knowing he made it to fit TVs that no one owns. ?