Zakk_Sabbath

Ok first of all this line is tremendous, and must be highlighted - well done But secondly, I agree - to me, it almost paradoxically feels like a holdover from the days of rankings. Three years ago, there would've been a little blurb from Ex like, "Nyla is 9-1 in her last ten matches coming into this bout" but without mentioning the fact that like 7 of them were on Dark against an oddly pale waitress on her day off from Hogan's Beach Shack. Now that these nuker matches have the visibility of happening on TV instead of YouTube, I think it's simply a matter of the audience being both A) more in the loop about em, and thusly B) less forgiving about em. To a degree (and I'm not painting you with this brush at all, just speaking in generalities) I think there's also a strong argument for an "audience re-training" aspect, too. NXT is probably what I would consider WWE's C-show, but with it being officially developmental, it's a much different animal than what we grew up watching on weekends from the big 2 (which is probably more where Rampage and often-but-not-always Collision land tonally).

This might be controversial, but I enjoy FTR, and don't mean it as a knock necessarily: their babyface act is kinda the same wink-and-nudge gimmick as the Young Bucks, just aimed at viewers with a different taste in style or era. NWA kids vs. NWO kids.

I personally wouldn't mind such a war (Legally Distinct 4v4 Thanksgiving Eve Survial Eliminator Tag Match anyone?) but IMO the more intriguing path would be BCC and the Elite in an uneasy, loose 'Alliance To End Bryan-mania'.

I've been peppering in "WHASSUP WIT DAT?" like the old Jackie Martling inappropriate laugh drop on Howard to cope. You are my people. (On the real, obviously, my heart goes out to anyone affected, and I'll help any posters in need any way I can)

It's funny timing that some of us were having a convo about possible Private Party regression earlier in the week, cause I thought they both looked awesome last night (and like @AxB I was very pleasantly surprised by how long they went). Good stuff. Also: I am highly, highly intrigued with this Deonna/Taya pairing. I know, difficult to believe that the guy with the Goodfellas avatar would mark out at hearing "This thing of ours..." over and over lol. But I love the way this was shot, same for her prior solo promos in this style - idk if it's intentional or not, but the lighting and/or filter used makes it feel like there's a little LU in the DNA, which is always welcomed. @HarryArchieGusYou sir or madam win the damn day with that post, because at Grand Slam last week, I wasn't looking at the KhanTron much until two guys behind me were like "Why do (someone's red) pants look pink on the screen?" and it drove me insane the rest of the night!! White balance, please!!!! Love, a former video production major who got yelled at for this in 2007 by his ESPN-day-job-having professor, and was scarred for life.

PSA: You'd have to be an idiot to fall for it, but for my conscience's sake, just passing along that someone on Twitter is currently trying to catfish me as Ricochet. I'm gonna see how long I can keep it going, will report back if it's funny.

I'm not sure if it came to fruition or not, but I recall reading that Tony Schiavone offered to be in charge of that with AEW at some point in the last few years - so at the very least he's got stuff like that in mind. I thought the Ian hiding under the table thing on Grand Slam Collision, despite it's simplicity/goofiness, was actually a real pro move in that area

I know I harp on it constantly, most recently after Britt/Mercedes at Wembley, so I apologize in advance for the repetition, but IMO this is where bringing back Dark or establishing a small, formal house show circuit would really help. Ricochet has only had four singles matches since coming in, with this being the longest by far - certainly the lighter schedule is a positive, I'm not calling for anyone to be out 300 days a year again or anything crazy, but you gotta assume that him getting another couple reps in before this one would've been helpful

Agreed - kinda similarly, I'm a fan of stables that have a representative in almost every division in that Horsemen sort of way, where you've got a World title caliber guy, a secondary title guy, and a tag team - so that's another big reason why I like Marina's addition to BCC (or going back half a friggin' decade now, why I was always pushing for Layla Hirsch to join Team Taz). It's a good way to kinda give some of those women's matches stakes/repercussions outside of the division, thus (ostensibly) elevating their importance - and I think your idea works in a similar way: if Nana, whose main charge Swerve just came off a great, long, World title run, introduces a new woman as his client, she would almost immediately feel like a big deal to the audience.

I totally get what you mean, but I actually liked it here! Not sure why, because I usually 100% agree on those types of tropes being used - honestly, and it's a simple answer, but maybe it just didn't clock as "WWE" to my brain cause I really like Bill

MVP has been great in his two promos so far, but you've got me salivating at the idea of Stoke and Nana going back and forth in a similar fashion now. Even if they don't do what you're pitching here, I want Nana to add another client in the women's division just to get to that via a Stat feud

Co-signed, I also liked the presentation of that, and I really, really liked the touch at the end where after Mark smacks Jericho, Jericho's down on the mat but he still tells Bill/Keith to stand down - like even Jericho himself knew he might've gone a bit too far. I've made no secret about the fact I'm not digging this Learning Tree stuff, even if I do like all involved, but if I can find one positive in it, it's the little flourishes like that (or for another example, the one a couple weeks back on Collision where Jericho said 'If someone wants to be your friend, they're just using you' and Bill sideeyed him for a second). Moving forward: I wonder if our endgame is Bill/Keith preemptively turning on Jericho before he can do anything to them. A lot of Jericho's previous stablemates have moved on, but as a story beat, it might be some nice closure to that early-era Inner Circle/JAS stuff to have a super group of Bill, Keith, and let's say Guevara, Daddy Magic, Ortiz, and Anna Jay giving Jericho his "ultimate" comeuppance (which you can then use to give Jericho a nice vacation to freshen up, and maybe even a babyface turn). Not even saying as a formal stable, but just coming together for a beatdown as a visual signifier that basically everything he's done since losing the title to Mox years ago is now coming back to haunt him

Heh I was cheating you got me there. But yeah, just too good for me to be objective about. If we're disqualifying any that we're biased on from attending, then I change my pick to Winter Is Coming '20 too, I think

You're probably right in the grand (lol) scheme of things, but personally speaking I've got to respectfully disagree. You've got not only the tag Niko mentioned (which is maybe Sting's best AEW match) but a sadly forgotten Malekai Black/Cody bout which I thought was fantastic, and a really, really good Punk/Hobbs match from Rampage where they were aping a ton of spots from Bret/Diesel. Edit: Plus the big Kingston/Mox v Suzuki/Archer main event w Homicide!

That's totally fair - really as a bigger fan of Hobbs' than Wardlow's, I can't disagree with your logic. Its just frustrating as fuck because you're right, he really isn't - but dammit if he wasn't close for a period. Idk if he's quite as "rehabbable" as like a Jay White or some of the others mentioned, but I feel like it's at least worth a shot given the initial investment - though it's possible i'm falling into a "sunken cost" thing here This is going back a bit, but I think the whole "MJF plane ticket weekend" thing really took away from what should've been a much bigger, much more cathartic moment for his character. I'm not certain about this, because obviously both guys were hurt almost immediately after, but I felt that the pairing with Adam Cole and his guys might've been a bit of an attempt to recapture some of that down the line

Ok you win the day for teaching me this term lol

Co-signed to the fullest degree. Back in late '21(?) during the seemingly endless Joe/Hobbs/Wardlow feud over the TNT/ROH TV titles, I was hoping we'd eventually get those two teaming up against Joe and someone in exactly that fashion.

This is a fantastic idea which I would be glad to see on TV, but at the same time, Hangman's been on fire lately and I'm not sure he needs it. If I had the pencil, I'd hold off on formally retiring Satnam until Hobbs is ready to return, and have him do the honors. This gives a nice excuse to refer back to the footage from that big Jericho-verse tag where he took out Big Show on the hood of the car (which I felt they hadn't utilized enough at the time he was hurt).

I'm excited to see him mix it up with Hologram (and it's also been really nice having Komander around even if he's mainly been relegated to trios).

Note to self: refer to the Bloodline as "cinema" next annual review

Late to the party, but real life got in the way a bit this week. It was definitely a sad sight to see how scaled down it was, but I think the show itself was the best since year one (at least as a live experience). We were tired as hell by Collision, but the MxM stuff got a great reaction in the building and was a really nice way to cleanse the palette before Okada/Sammy. On the attendance front, one big positive I noticed was that they were pushing the upcoming shows in NJ and CT hard, at one point even putting a QR code up on the KhanTron to buy tickets which I thought was brilliant. It's a good first step, at least.

More tomorrow because 95 is a mess and I have no voice, but the verdict: still ruling the motherfucking world

I mean, obviously you never match the first shows in a market attendance wise, but this is always the time of year I start to have some very serious questions about the sales/marketing team. I live in the area and have seen no billboards, no commercials, no radio ads, no Google ads, zip. One interview on the FAN, that's it. I'm about to leave in the next hour or so, and everyone I've mentioned it to is like "That's today?" I'm not saying they could've come close to year one, but I have no doubt they could've had a better showing if this were advertised *at all*. Yeah, it's "the market" but at the same time it's NYC, we're not talking about Casper, WY here; people would've traveled. I had a great time chatting with a guy from Germany in line one year ffs ETA: this in no way affects my excitement level for the show btw, it just drives me nuts. I'm finally gonna see Okada!!!! Nigel/Danielson!!! Maybe!!!! Also mysteries!!!!