Zakk_Sabbath

After having a day to digest, I think my favorite thing coming out of this one was Hangman looking for Swerve and transitioning right into the MJF promo - I was a big, BIG fan of that. The whole concept was great and it was executed smooth as butta. Hats off to everyone involved in that. Even the people kinda scattered and chatting in the background felt really organic. It was kinda like the promo-version of the ECWesque match-aftermath-match thing they'll sometimes bust out. Cannot say enough about that ETA: Also, I'm not as down on Death Riders as some, but I'll also say it was really nice to have a champ stands tall ending after a bunch of weeks of heat (even if I was rooting for a Yuka upset) - I'm sure many rejoiced at that

My thoughts exactly! Still really looking forward to the match itself, despite that slight weirdness. (Now let me drop the "backpack full of bricks" talk before we wind up going down the "Northeastern HC shows of the early 2000s" rabbit hole yet again lol). One thing I'm looking forward to tonight (maybe even more accurate to say 'curious about') is us hearing from MJF. His last two promo segments were not what I'd call "warmly received" by any stretch, so my hope is he'll be highly motivated to deliver here - we shall see.

I was kind of wondering if something was supposed to happen with the backpack. Like it seemed to me like Bill kept feeding it on purpose with the idea being that "My God, it's full of bricks and Bill felt none of those brutal shots!" But nope, they just kinda walked away. Little bit awkward. (I know you're referring to the later brawl with the table spot, but this was fresh in my brain after seeing your post). ETA @Nice Guy EddieIt's a tale of two pains: Reznor knows he's missing out on living, whereas Cash lived it all and knows it's over. Dig em both for sure, but even Reznor said "Thats not my song anymore" (not sure if I agree, but certainly heavy praise)

That's why I'm cool with it too, I'm totally with you and @tbarrie. I completely understand the idea of wanting to avoid such, carving out your own identity, and all of that, but these are guys perceived to have not gotten their due there i said similar about Shelton individually, too, a while back - these are not "Val Venis over CD in TNA"-type decisions IMO.

You make a good point. At the same time, we don't really know at what point the guys were told they were dropping em, either. It's like when Billy Graham was WWWF Champion - I read in his book that before he'd even won it, Vince Sr was intent like a year or whatever ahead of time "You'll be dropping it in the Garden in December 1977." So obviously total conjecture and speculation by me, but IF it's a similar situation here, while the idea they didn't capitalize on it properly may have some merit, I could also buy a situation where the guys were maybe a bit unmotivated knowing that even if they set the world on fire as champs, they're just keeping em warm for another team. In any event, I'm always pro-sharpening-via-excursion, so we definitely agree on that point.

I've been trying to follow it this morning, but a lot has been deleted overnight so I've only got bits and pieces - that said, of what I've seen, there are a few things not exactly passing the smell test for me. YMMV

Listen man, you can't play with me like this - are we getting the Zack Clayton push or not?!?!

I hope you're wrong too, man - but unfortunately, I can't argue with your logic whatsoever. I also forgot that DR currently have the Trios titles when I wrote that, so sadly, I think that also kinda sends some credence to your theory. Just my opinion, but of any recent dream match/fantasy booking/"If I had the pencil" conversations had, this one feels like the most frustrating, "Money left on the table" example were it never to occur.

I'm likewise psyched to see them ride the hot hand with Hurt Syndicate, but at the same time, as a big Private Party fan can't help but think they deserved a little better than lame duck status. An equally big issue I have with PP dropping them here, is that it kind of undermines the Death Riders in a roundabout way: So Mox & Co. break the young guy's arm to toughen them up, prepare the future of AEW, all that jazz - having now had the killer instinct bestowed on them, PP goes on to unseat the Champion EVPs (ostensibly the largest on-screen symbols of the very machine DR is raging against). They then go on to... have a couple decent defenses, and drop them rather unceremoniously? Idk if I agree with that call, candidly. Not yet anyway. With that (intended to be constructive, I promise) criticism outta the way: I know DR hasn't exactly been everyone's cup of tea so far, but man, when they face off with Hurt Syndicate for the first time? I'm telling you, the roof is gonna come off wherever they are. This is a super lazy comparison given Mox's presence in both, but to me, that face-off (when it comes) is gonna be our version of that first Shield/Wyatts staredown in '13 or '14, whatever it was. My body is ready.

Well said! I've been enjoying the look of these places so much that I'm almost wondering if the next big advertising push might want to lean into some of this newfound, small-venue, pseudo-ECWness. I understood the danger in doing so early on (remember the Domino's kerfuffle?) but five years into the (ew) brand's life, with TV in place for the foreseeable future, is a much different place to be. It was a crappy game, but you know that Fight Forever commercial where Mox is looking right in the camera going "Remember when you could just pick up a game and play?" My minds eye sees a similar shot, except the line is something like "Remember when wrestling was actually raw?" No one says you can't still run big arenas in some markets, either - doesn't need to be a hard and fast rule. PPVs obviously you'd stay the course on. Maybe the "exclusivity" of securing TV tickets makes the PPVs a hotter ticket. Get em hot enough, and you can eventually get away with sneaking the price up a buck or two. And so on. No one wants a shitty, transparent, WWF attitude love letter - I'm not advocating for that AT all - but overall presenting things a little more "counterculturally" might help in terms of that intangible coolness I mentioned yesterday. Give me more of like, Westside Gunn talking shit at ringside

Well said, and I also very much agree with your mention of the venue in your other post. This place was a really nice compliment to the Cincy and NYC shows I felt (and it looked absolutely packed, too).

Ha, we just caught a rerun of Frank's Little Beauties and I was telling my better half she's gotta see that one too

Hard agree. I thought yesterday was one of the best installments in a while (interesting given the last minute weather changes, right - though I enjoyed last week a lot too, except MJF/JJ) so with that: I didn't want to sound nitpicky, but missing that shot/not having an alt angle ready immediately is almost indefensible - everything you said is spot on. (This is not to say I don't have a laundry list of nitpicky things too, but I won't bore everyone, plus I like to think it was my bitching and moaning that got the LEDs off the apron, and I can only ask for so much lol) ETA: I guess that's sort of the double edged sword of not everything being so slick and cookie cutter, though. That missed shot WAS egregious, BUT man thinking further about it, I'd kinda take one of those every once in a while over like, the weird blue and red rope "Smackdown ordered from Wish" period.

I know the legit fight game is your world so don't take this as me challenging you whatsoever, merely sharing anecdotal BS: You, as someone completely immersed and initiated, and even I as a filthy casual, knew they never had a shot at being competitive with UFC - but I definitely recall my IRL circle of ~10, none of whom follow MMA or wrestling regularly, thinking that Strikeforce was the hot new promotion speficially because of Kimbo and Ken Shamrock. Like, we actually got together for those CBS cards. To circle it back to AEW, you could kind of look at those guys as analogous to Punk's time, or even a Sting or Jericho - big, "legitimizing" names to these guys. Anyway, all of this just to say: perception is reality. That's kind of why I don't mind stuff like the Costco guys, or Edge being in the world title scene - I get what is trying to be accomplished. If you don't dig it, there's plenty of other stuff at the buffet to gorge on. Who knows, maybe my willingness to accept those things is part of what makes some of the missteps maybe a little more frustrating than they ought to be at times - I'm super, super embarrassed by it now, but I remember having a total "killing the fuckin' company!" meltdown here when the Revolution exploding ring was a bust - but that's how legitimately invested I was in the "public perception" / intangible "cool factor" side of things. Because I know that more than any mergers, selfishness, shit booking, or financial mismanagement, THAT is what really killed WCW: being the "uncool" show. Not sure if anyone else my age (mid 30s) experienced this, but for a stretch it was kinda known in our school as the show for kids whose parents wouldn't let them watch WWF/ECW. I don't know that I've ever felt such non-personal/professional disappointment in things like the NBA Twitter crowd saying stuff like "Chris Jericho really the king of this WWE-ripoff," or the steady downsizing of Grand Slam every year, from "Wow, this could be a Mania!" year one, to "Wow, they... prrrrobably could've just done this at the casino" for the last. Boy did this get navel-gazey, apologies all lol - but, on the plus side: I think we've kinda unpacked why I not only enjoy Death Riders more than everyone else, but why they're also the biggest babyfaces on the roster besides Hangman to me (HE WAS DEFENDING A BABY). ETA: Adding to my "perception" comments: I was debating on including this or not because it makes me sound like a bit of a loon, but honestly, fuck it: imagine if WWE had an individual in their HOF with direct, constant access to a wealth of knowledge and experience in bot farming, social media manipulation, and misinformation messaging. Just imagine that. Wouldn't that be wild? Anywho.

I am very late to the font/style party, but a little PSA for our younger friends reading: you know what all styles allow? Hitting CTRL+F, searching for all periods and commas, and increasing the size of them by one point to meet your page count

Not at all! I was just trying to be kind in my last post cause I like her TV character, and I've never met the lady so who am I? lol. More or less saying: it's none of my business but I agree I'd like to see her get her shit together at TNA (or wherever) and make her way back someday, unless whatever she's done to piss off her co-workers/her ex/their friends/their boss is insurmountable, but those are real life people, at their real life job so I'm not gonna get weird about it - I do my painting freehand

Similar thought: depending on what the interpersonal side of it looks like (because no one truly knows outside of those involved, I guess) maybe there exists a path for her to sort of rehab a bit elsewhere and make her way back at some point once the rust is fully shaken and the hurt feelings are mended - think Cody or Drew on the WWE side, for example. But again, that's all depending on stuff we have no idea about - if she has new/recurring injury or health issues, anything with her/Cole's breakup (which I'm not speculating on but only mentioning as a reality that exists), anything with the "attitude" reports, etc. Time shall tell.

Somehow worse lol - appreciate the 'back story'

Even knowing the things we know in the modern age about neurodivergency, trauma, nature vs nurture, all that shit, I have zero insight into how someone's brain could possibly make that jump. Evel Kineval couldn't have made that jump on a Harley! Just wild.

No dog in the physical vs. digital fight other than to say 1) I found this back and forth super interesting with valid arguments made by all and am enjoying the hell out of reading it, and 2) I recently read that Spotify and YouTube are going to be experimenting with compression rates on their music services to more closely resemble what you would get on analog, so that might be something to think about if sound quality is a key driver for anyone still collecting physical music (and I'm not saying that in a judgmental way whatsoever - I have IRL buddies who will die on the hill of even CDs being too over compressed, nevermind streaming, and that vinyl's the only 'true' lossless format)

Oh yeah, totally agree with you on all fronts, only joking around - that was some legitimately unhealthy behavior, and reading it summarized actually kinda blows my mind.

I saw this report yesterday and had that immediate thought too! Like damn, I owe someone an apology. Hope he got his dough from the 'other' Colletti and no kneecaps were injured in the process lmao Double fisting on quoting you Craig, but with good reason because this is exactly where I find myself on her, too. Between very serious health issues, a LTR break-up, and the demands of two physically demanding careers on her body overall (plus facing the possibility of being unable to produce consistently) it's completely understandable if Baker is having a difficult time personally, and I'd never denigrate anyone for that, wrestler or not - but I'm a massive Deeb fan, and that line seemed extra crappy to me, and still does now. I don't know anything about them interpersonally, but Deeb's been on AEW TV damn near just as long as Britt (even if technically an NWA wrestler for much of the early days) - The "rule" about not doing that in promos has been repeated ad-nausem in almost every wrestling book I've ever owned, from Foley to Bret to Flair to the fucking Bucks' - so it's like c'mon Britt... Either you're intentionally being a jerk to a way better worker, or you stink on the mic now somehow, too! Either way, it's regressive, and I hope she can put it back together at some point because I loved her promos so much during COVID. If she sticks around, hopefully they've got Reba Not Rebel in a "Break in Case of Emergency" glass case or something, or she and Hayter get locked in a room with Danielson during the next West Coast run in spring to hash whatever their shit is out. I say that in jest, but she just needs *something* until/unless she can get herself sorted mentally and physically.

Co-signing any and all things related to pushing Gates of Agony hard, early, and often. Faces of Fear comparison is spot on, and to this DAY I think it's bullshit they didn't get a big two tag title, so yeah - would love to see that rectified. I also enthusiastically support the Nikita/JLowe convo about turning the Tags into a de-facto Heavyweight title, and the Trios into a de-facto juniors title - I've discussed to death my annoyance with the lack of identity/hierarchy for the secondary titles (save for the CC rules, or FTW rules when it was with us) and it might be a good backdoor way to add divisional stakes/implications to some of the lucha rules matches or WAR-style six mans we get on Collision. Even those kinda predictable, PPV Go Home "Main eventer and two guys vs main eventer and two guys" matches could be enhanced slightly if we had commentary wondering aloud whether a win could mean a regular teaming and pursuit of the titles. Doesn't need to be as black-and-white as it was during the formal rankings days, just a little something extra to add perceived/potential gravitas.

I was looking out for that too last night and was surprised we didn't get it - in retrospect, I guess it would be kinda similar to the New Day turn I've read about (if I'm wrong someone who actually saw it lmk). I have to specially shout out Bowens for setting up whatever's next by reintroducing the Five Tool Player nickname, always a fan of that one. Can't say enough about Hanger/Daniels - if that's it for FA, you can do a whole helluva lot worse than Muta scaling it vs. the main character in primetime in Cincy. Big respect CD! A bit of a criticism: I felt like the ST/Garcia/Daddy Magic thing was just a liiiiiiiiitttle too close to what we just had with Hook/Taz/Joe on Wednesday (though I'm excited for the return of Cool Hand Ang and was cracking up at Menard getting all wide-eyed going 'YOU WANNA CALL THE FATHER?! YOU WANNA CALL THE NEW FATHER?!?!'). I've mentioned this before but I'm really looking forward to some eventual interactions between those guys and Outrunners hopefully, either feuding or as a superteam for whatever 8-10-12 man next causes a 2-day fervor for nothing

Idea time: I should move to NV and open a brothel where they treat you like shit, like that famous diner where everyone is an asshole. I'd call it "Don't Even Come."