COLETTI

Great post, @supremebveand I can only add one little thing: you mention how head drops for 2-counts are meant to bring realism to wrestling (unlike, say, a Stunner) but in real life that shit should kill or at least permanently injure a human. It's infuriating that they've gone far past realism into what is frankly superhero bullshit.

I think you could also go with Danai Gurira, who's always a total badass. Shuri is so deeply involved with the technology of Wakanda, you could easily use that for the reason to keep her away from the Black Panther title.

Somebody ugly-fied somebody else's idea... my wife randomly got this for me a few years back (in green):

Is it bad that while I enjoyed Punk/Garcia a LOT, in the end I just wanted to fast-forward to see Danielson/Garcia? That shit is going to be SO good.

Absolutely agreed with Tony, and yeah some of the older people are doing whatever they want with their appearances but that's just it, it's not micromanaged by the company or at least doesn't seem to be. I don't want to dig too hard into WWE because I generally prefer to talk about stuff I like, but with AEW it just all looks more natural and real. From the appearance of the talents to the lighting and sets and all of that, to me one show looks like wrestling and the other show looks like a cartoon. And hey, cartoons are fine if that's what you want ?

It's probably been mentioned a bunch here and there, but I really love that AEW allows people to have gray hairs if they so choose. Punk and Henry immediately jump to mind. It's refreshing to see compared to like Drew McIntyre's ridiculously dark-dyed hair AND beard. Add in more regular body hair, women who have a variety of different make-up and hair styles, wrestlers not constantly being in gear... It's almost like they're actually human beings and not just products to support a brand!

Hey while the more liberal people on this board are currently paying attention, I'm listening to news and politics podcast The Daily Zeitgeist at the moment and the guest today is comedian Joey Clift who is talking NJPW during the opening segment where they get to know their guests. So check that out if you are so inclined.

...he says, while having an "anon online internet persona where you presumptuously throw shade."

Cody's sense of humor is similar, if you listen to Fuego on AEW Unrestricted. Apparently Cody started the joke/rumors that Fuego was in his 40s and has a dozen kids.

FTR's promo specifically mentioned The Pinnacle and how they're killing it.

Hell yes. I've had the base game since day one but then got the whole package on PS4 where I thought I'd play it far more. Now that the edit limitations have really slowed me down, I've been waiting for the whole shebang to go on deep discount. Just grabbed the DLC bundle - but that doesn't include Stardom. Luckily that separate pack is on sale for $7.99!

Yeah when Cody hit it on Martin not only did it not look good but Martin is made of flubber or something, you're not going to hurt that kid unless you actually drop him on his head and neck. Of course, please don't drop him on his head and neck...

Sami Zayn's contract ends in October*. If he signs (and I truly fucking hope he does), the angle of "eventually he needs a surprise partner for help" writes itself. *Edit to say that I read this a while back and upon a recent internet search, most people think his contract is up in Spring 2022 ?

With Lio Rush's stonk gimmick it does feel like there's a little too many rich douchebags in the company, but hey, right now there's a whole lot of contempt in the zeitgeist for billionaires so at least it fits the times? Plus everybody's a little bit different... Hardy is clearly a hang on grifter type, signing lesser used talent to contracts where he claims to give them the stars but is robbing them blind. MJF is a spoiled little prick born into wealth and privilege, who concentrates less on bragging about money and more on just being better than you. Andrade is classic superstar wealth, dressing to the nines and presenting himself like a real big fucking deal but unlike MJF, he wasn't born a rich little bastard and actually has some class. And now Lio is the arrogant investment bro who can only talk about financial success and shows off through outrageous spending. As long as they all get repeatedly punched in the mouth, all is well! Although I'm assuming that Lio won't really be in-ring as much if at all. Shit, if they really want to go all out have all the rich pricks start talking about merging their brands and bullshit like that.

Yeah Greene's gimmick for a while was "The Retrosexual" Anthony Greene and he had, I believe, The Platinum Honies on his arms. They ran with us a lot for Beyond Wrestling's first season of Uncharted Territory. It works as a happy-go-lucky face, but not so much as the obvious fall guy in a glorified squash. Speaking of Beyond, that same season also showcased Bear Country so they at least worked together a whole bunch back then.

I liked the package/pretaped stuff like FTR and the hype for Friday's three-way, looked great. One thing that feels off to me is Lambert/MOTY. Those three can all talk very well but somehow it ends up less than the sum of their parts.

See, I've felt this way before, but I think the way Darby totally no-sold it and MJF just IMMEDIATELY runs away was absolutely perfect - it showed that MJFs paper tiger mic time bullshit is just that.

Seriously, the ending stretch of the main event was so well laid out that every time it hit another beat I got more hyped, and when all the pieces fell into place I was clapping in anticipation of the payoff. So fucking good. Sammy earned it and Miro is a goddamn tremendous professional wrestler.

Fuck. Yes.

The thing about Windham is we really only know him as this character, all smoke and mirrors and promos even though he can clearly bring it in the ring. I want to see what the guy can do as a professional wrestler from a professional wrestling family. Not to say he's going to turn into the next coming of Bryan Danielson, but I'm super curious what he can do without the shackles of being just a sports entertainment character. And of course, motherfucker can talk.

Pee Wee Herman is All Elite!

There's been a little bit of talk about toxicity in the fan base and it touching our happy little slice of the internet, so I wanted to get overly positive for a minute or two. Not to get too hyperbolic, but intentionally or not Tony Khan has helped save and boost independent wrestling after a very trying time. There's obviously the idea of actually allowing your talent to be independent contractors and wrestle for smaller promotions, which means smaller bookers can have television stars at their shows and draw more tickets. Unintentionally though, and I don't know if anybody could have predicted this, but the brief little war between AEW and NXT forcing a rebrand of the WWE mega indy means there's no longer an arms race to sign every hot up and coming wrestler. Instead you have the bigger promotion going back to its formula of in-house training and bigger, more physically impressive talent. Meanwhile AEW does have unsigned talent come in for Dark and Elevation, which furthers their careers and again brings more attention to their matches at smaller promotions. All in all it makes things all the more exciting to be a wrestling fan again, whether you are watching the world's biggest sports entertainment promotion introducing new stars and taking risks again, or the rapidly rising new kid on the block, while also having a wealth of smaller televised and independent promotions thriving. And the best thing about it is the primary driving force behind the whole thing is a guy from DVDVR ?

Hell yes. I wanna see Dragon have a bunch of great matches while climbing the ranks, and maybe have a returning Hangman do the same until they meet one-on-one for the right to get a shot at the belt. In Bryan's own words, let's fucking go!

I feel the same way about the ignore feature, you never really get to actually avoid what those people are saying for the most part which makes the whole thing pointless. I have noticed though, if you look at these threads within 24 hours of the show you see a whole lot of happy people happy with watching good wrestling. Certain folks who care to complain and dissect and fantasy book everything to death will keep these threats going for days and days and days. Hard agree on Cornette as well. Every so often something comes out about how horrible he is as a person, and yet folks can't stop bringing up his racist, misogynistic, sex creep name. Personally I don't understand it but there's also a lot of other stuff I don't understand here, but I'm here for the good people liking good wrestling.

Freddie Mercury was bisexual, but because he died of AIDS-related complications and had sex with men the "not so woke" mainstream of the time just went yep he's gay.