Zakk_Sabbath

Thanks Gordlow I've never seen that Boston Garden match with Bret, I'm really excited about it. I have the first Bret box set but not the second, and I'm too young to have seen it on TV so for whatever reason this one was never on my radar. I can't watch it until later on, but I'm already stoked based solely on the fact the video's 18 mins long.

You know what's funny about this? A while ago on Twitter I was talking to a stranger about how I hope Darby/Sting get to wrestle FTR again because I loved their first match at Grand Slam, and someone suggested a trios to mix it up this time - I said what about Punk/FTR vs Darby/Sting/??? And the guy goes "Miro. Think about it." I didn't get it at the time but after that sweet vignette last night, I think I'm with you. Man, Darby/Sting/Miro vs House of Black? Count me the F in. The TNA segment with the bird in Bischoff's office is some all-time WrestleCrap, it's so bad it's transcendently great. To me, he was more like the Cesar Romero Joker of the '60s, but I definitely see a bit of Carrey in there.

Alright, you asked for it... It is remarkably similar, I will be honest.The World Champion in this scenario could be anyone, but you mentioned Britt so I'll use her for the example. As noted, I would have Jade win a hard fought battle with the World champion Britt, and vacate the TBS title. It's her most even match to date (more selling than she's ever displayed before). Britt shakes her hand after the bell; she's in disbelief, but Jade was the better woman tonight. Jade wins her next couple defenses on TV handily. She's Bill Goldberg at this point. Finally, after her (let's say) 4th or 5th title defense, she gets a heel beat down after the win. It's taking 3 or 4 girls to keep her down, but they're stomping her out bad. Britt runs in for the save! Jade fought so hard, she has earned Britt's respect. Britt assures her, she's got her back. Later in the show, on commentary, the man in the mask says TK has made it official: next Wednesday/Friday, it will be Jade/Britt teaming up for the first time ever vs. our heels! Jade starts the match - she slips on a banana peel at some point, heels take control. Heat, yadda, yadda. Jade's crawling over for the hot tag - Britt is reaching with all her might. Tag made, crowd pops. Britt comes in like a house afire and... Lays down. 123. The KhanTrons confirm it with a graphic: 50-1. Mass confusion and anger. Maybe have a few ladies rush the ring to unsuccessfully try to take out the heels. One heel (a Hayter or Deeb type would be good for this) is choking the shit out of Stokely ala Danielson/Justin Roberts in that Nexus angle. What have we just witnessed?! Britt the following week: "You might have taken my title, but I will forever be the person that handed you your first loss, Jade. And I didn't even need to wrestle you to do it." *Boos* "Oh, oh.. I'm sorry. Did I *rob you of your little moment?* Did you think some *hot new talent* was going to come in here and make a name for herself by pinning Jade? Sorry, but... It was me! It's always been me. This is always going to be my divisi..." Jade runs out of the crowd in street clothes like Owen Hart at the Dec '97 DX IYH and just pummels her, maybe Britt even gets color Finally, Jade wins the blowoff at the PPV, and is ostensibly now more over for having lost one. Now you can do whatever you want with her because she's still the world champion, but has already eaten a pin. Sure its just a tag match, but IMO, it's the visual that really matters. And this way, you've hedged your bets -- if it doesn't work out, you can always go back to the well and do the MJF thing of "never been pinned in singles competition." Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Two of the biggest examples of "pop is not commensurate with card placement" in AEW have to be Sonny and Willow Nightingale. I haven't seen Sonny live yet, but they always get a great reaction on TV - Willow I've seen live twice, and both times there was an honest-to-goodness "we now collectively recognize your ring music" full blown pop. Wish nothing but big things for both of em.

How long has Shida been back in the States?!?! Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think she's been on the TNT/TBS shows yet. Super pleasant surprise. I was just talking a second ago in the other thread about Hayter and Jade getting world title reigns, but I also really want Shida to get another run with full crowds, she's great.

Jade's killing it for sure. She has wildly exceeded expectations for someone with such little experience. Ive mentioned this before, but the potential for crossover appeal is tremendous with her. I say keep letting her steamroll people and improve while Hayter runs with the world title for a bit and gets her big match with Britt. Then once Jade hits 50 or 75 or 100-0 you have her go over Hayter and do the Goldberg/Ultimate Warrior thing of vacating the secondary title. From there, I have a pretty good idea of how I'd end her streak, but I won't bore everyone with fantasy booking.

I could see them going that route, but it depends on what they had planned for Punk's reign. By the time he's back, and does the unification match with Mox, assuming Punk wins, it does sort of sense to revisit their fued in a title context because long enough will have passed since the dog collar. I could totally envision a fantastic promo from Punk where he dogs MJF for being so obsessed with him that he tried to create his own pipebomb moment, but goes 'I did it first, I did it better, and I didn't even need to drop a cheap F bomb!" or something like that. Another thing to consider is the TV/streaming deals coming up soon. It sucks for the younger guys, but the reality of the situation is that you're gonna want that belt on a Punk, Mox, Jericho, or Danielson during those. Shit, if they were ten years younger, I'd put it on Paul Wight or Sting. When you get that deal sorted out, then thats when you go with the Ricky Starkses and the MJFs and the Hangmans of the world.

I don't want to doxx myself so I can't get into more detail, but I've dealt with a lot of university students who are becoming naturopathic "doctors" and it's just horrendous, gross shit. Always makes me think of when Steve Jobs tried to cure his cancer by drinking lots of juice. They're outright manslaughtering. Edit: just want to quickly edit this post because I saw a couple likes when I logged in today, and realized that in my fury yesterday, I rudely forgot to wish you both well with your injuries - sorry @Technico Support(. And @Craig H (and your bro). Best of luck to you all, shit is no joke.

I should have mentioned in my last post, I do really like the approach they take with not having Jericho do it himself, because it always gets 2.0 great heat (and ostensibly the goal of this whole thing is to prop up the younger guys)

Agreed big on this one. I am hoping he's got different music for the Mox match, since they've leaned so hard into the "Lionheart" thing. Both his WCW themes are production music (so they could go the Jeff Hardy route) or they could license White Zombie (or have Rukus do a sound-alike) for a more ECW approach. All of that said, I wouldn't hold my breath for a more permanent change: https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/chris-jericho-says-he-and-tony-khan-agreed-not-change-his-theme-song-despite-heel-turn

Rampage was up almost 25% from last week, my man. I completely understand the concern-- I too have some scars from March '01 that have not yet healed-- but I think you're leaning too hard into the negativity on this one.

Those kinds of shows are watched by such an old audience, though - the kinds of folks who will ask if "The Hulk" is still wrestling. No one watching Gayle King is buying a ticket to All Out. For clarity, I don't think this needs to be done; but IF they were hypothetically going to make any sort of time/money investment into drawing the mythical casuals, the smarter thing would be to try and get in bed with some of these social media influencers to get younger, more valuable viewers.

I'm starting to tend to agree, man. I understand the history, I understand the value of the tape library for this falls streaming negotiations ( X hours of content - which is why I thought those marathon tapings during the pandemic were a pretty ingenious way of adding value to the company during an uncertain time) but it's just not working for me, brother. If they are insistent upon keeping ROH alive in some form, I'd pivot a bit and treat the shows like NXT Takeovers - put them in the same city as the AEW PPVs the night before, run it from 8-10, and then do the live go-home Rampage at 10. Unify all the titles with their AEW counterparts (maybe keep the Pure active just because it's such a unique concept, you could even make it the top Dark belt like I wanted to do with the FTW way back when) and run nothing but 'dream matches' between AEW talent and indy guys. Doesn't need to necessarily be canon on the main shows, other than to say during someone's entrance like "Hey, don't miss Danielson vs Angelico this Friday" or whatever. Basically, treat it like a combination of the aforementioned Takeovers and a quarterly version of ECW One Night Stand and I think it's both A) a much more palatable way of presenting it for the average viewer and B) a way to keep AEW from being watered down as you mentioned.

Queen Aminata was awesome, and that dropkick bump on the rail was scaaaAAaaAAaAAary. To me, she's another Skye Blue/Willow -type "must sign."

This is total speculation, and I know no more than anyone else here, but my personal theory has always been that they had originally planned to do Flair/Andrade vs Sting/Darby and the DSOTR episode fallout on Ric derailed the whole thing. As for the rest of your post, it's accurate but doesn't tell the whole story. Ratings are down across the board for every single cable network except Fox News (I'll save my jokes) because everyone's starting to leave the house again Edit: You know what I think the coolest thing to do with Andrade is? When Pac's AA title run is over, he should be the next champ and take it to Mexico. I have been loving these defenses on Dark.

It would be pretty dope if they started negotiating trades. It seems like the type of thing TK would be into with his sports background.

Although we recently learned he was dealing with a serious back injury, he checks all of the other HHH boxes - I think he would have been in line for a very strong push on the main shows right now if he were still there.

I'm down for that. I really wanted her in Team Taz when they were riding high, but I'm with you - BCC might be an even better stylistic fit. That said, if they only add one woman, Serena Deeb would be my top pick. Like Leyla, she would benefit *tremendously* from having Regal as a mouthpiece. I guess it would come down to whether it makes more sense to go for the more fully-formed wrestler in Deeb (another Mox/Bryan/Cesaro type) or for someone more moldable like Leyla (more akin to Yuta's positioning within the group. Beyond one or *maybe* two more people, I say keep it to the original guys though - too many waters down the mission statement.

That makes a ton of sense. There were a couple stretches of inactivity where the timing wouldnt necessarily have lined up with Pac being back home or Fenix's injury

it's been a long time since I've felt so passionately about a difference of opinion here, but I have absolutely no desire for any kind of authority figure on television ever again, in any promotion. Its a concept that peaked 25 years ago with Bischoff and Vince, and they were lucky to have gotten the extra longevity they did out of the idea, owing largely (IMO) to just how talented the people they cast in those roles are - Foley, Regal, Teddy Long, Flair, Austin, AJ Lee etc. I'm sure there are many I am forgetting or have plain blocked out. I just don't think you get the same mileage out of it if it were, let's say, Stephanie or Mike Adamle (or yes, the fucking laptop) the whole time.

Ya got me, I should've gone with the ol' "I was doing research for when AEW is on Discovery+ look out for my post about it." Some of the folks on that show would be great heel managers in another timeline, I'll say that much.

I always think it's this one couple from 90 Day Fiance, my better half got way into it over the pandemic

Yeah, I'm thinking it's 40% COVID/Monkeypox safety, and 60% "Have you fucking BEEN on Twitter?!"

Either on the podcast or in an interview somewhere last year, Tony Schiavone said that he notices that when he's calling matches and would love to be able to help out with things like repitition and continuity, so I'm hoping his recent promotion aids in reducing these occurrences

I can't remember off the top of my head who said it, but I agree entirely with whoever here recently said that Rosa's got a case of the yips. It's gotta be either that, or her famously hectic schedule is catching up with her. She's lost a step in a major way, and while I'm all about letting her find her footing as a new champion, if it's getting unsafe it's time to shut her down. Put it back on Britt for a month (which very nicely gives her the ability to talk endless shit about being the first 2x women's WHC) pull the trigger on Jamie's turn at All Out, and have her go over Britt for it at Grand Slam.