TheVileOne

Issues of promotion or lack thereof, Evolution has a nice lineup, even though it was slow on the draw. I'm hoping this is where Jordynne Grace finally wins the title. That said, I'm a bit disappointed it's not Becky Lynch vs. Bayley one-on-one, but maybe they can still do that at SummerSlam.

Triple H, intentionally or not, set up this show for failure.

I think the other problem is that the slots on the PLEs are so limited now. It used to be 7-8 matches per card. Now it's down to 5-6. It can be four if there's some big gimmicky matches like Elimination Chamber or Royal Rumble. I think the 5-match special works for TakeOvers, but on a WWE PLE you have the rosters of both Raw and SmackDown, and it means a lot of people aren't wrestling on the bigger shows or having their feuds culminate on bigger shows. You ended up having more title matches on the SmackDown the day before Night of Champions, when the whole theme of Night of Champions is supposed to be title bouts.

Yes, especially during his title run. His run as champion was lukewarm at best.

Fast forward to several months from now, after CM Punk has been quietly seething over the Saudi Arabia trip and calls Nick Khan a scumbag on TV and demands an apology for "forcing" him to go on the trip and being made to look like a "hypocrite" to the fans. Stranger things have happened in this carny business.

I very much enjoy Tom Holland as Spider-Man/Peter Parker, but I don't see him as Bond. It'd be similar to his miscasting as Nathan Drake in Uncharted as well. But his Uncharted movie did well, so maybe that's why Amazon MGM wants him for the part. That said, I think Denis Villeneuve is a solid choice to direct the reboot. Changing Bond actors is always tricky. The franchise truly lucked out getting Daniel Craig plus Martin Campbell returning and being able to adapt Casino Royale.

Sean Ross Sapp stated that a lot of women ahead of Evolution aren't feeling positive about how Evolution 2 is being handled: https://tjrwrestling.net/news/wwe-women-feel-evolution-2-is-a-set-up/ It does feel like the show is being lost in the shuffle somewhat, coming right after Night of Champions and the same weekend as Saturday Night's Main Event.

Fair if that's the updated figure, but that's still AEW's biggest show of the year. And Texas is typically a good market for wrestling, so this is one show they should be drawing a legit sellout. Globe Life Field's capacity is over 40,000, and that's without any floor seating. My criticism is that they shouldn't be struggling to sell out their biggest show of the year. That 90% of people who have ever worked there love Tony Khan sounds somewhat skewed, considering a few years ago, it looked like CM Punk loved working for Tony Khan. And Ricky Saints probably loved it as well at one point.

All In Texas is one week away, and less than 20,000 seats have been sold. That's without knowing how many are comps. The first All In sold over $10 million in tickets and drew over 72,000 people. In one year, they lost 36% of that audience. This year, they couldn't even draw half of that audience, and in a state where they should be drawing enthusiastic wrestling crowds. As for Britt Baker, I don't, but she hasn't been on TV since November. And sorry, but that's a giant red flag. If she wants to leave, let her leave. Let her see if the grass is in fact, greener on the other side. Use that money elsewhere. Tony Khan does care; otherwise, why keep her under contract?

He doesn't. That's why WWE's hot streak is over.

It's hardly their biggest show. It's a barely half-full baseball stadium with less than half the audience of last year's All In. Hangman is not the guy and never has been and never was. Powerhouse Hobbs, Swerve Strickland, and Will Ospreay have already surpassed him. Hangman doesn't need to win. I don't know what's going on with Britt Baker, but if they have no plans to use her again, then you should cut her loose. This idea that not having her on TV or not using her until her contract runs out will hurt her drawing power or getting over if she moves to WWE is an utter fallacy. It's pure idiocy. Use that money elsewhere and let her go. Triple H doesn't have time to give everyone the big push. By the law of averages not all the former AEW people who go to WWE are guaranteed to break through, even in NXT. Look at Rusev.

Purazzo signed with AEW in January 2024, so less than two years. I don't think anything she was wrong or all that salacious. A lack of consistency is a big problem for a lot of the women signed to AEW. I'm disappointed with how they've treated Athena, but at least she has a spot in ROH where she gets consistently booked and has had a title run, albeit with a title and show that no one really cares about anymore. It sounds like what AEW truly needs is another midcard TV series similar to Dark and Elevation.

The 2025 main events are getting predictable. Cena should not be the champion if he can't work like a champion. These title matches are getting more overbooked than Vince Russo ones. The other problem is they run way too long. It's okay for title matches to be shorter. With the amount of run-ins tonight, they could've had another title match on their NIGHT OF CHAMPIONS card. But isn't this usually the story with the Saudi Arabia shows? They are usually pretty mid and always feel like glorified house shows. One thing they could do is finally pull the trigger on LA Knight, who is still super over right now. Cena only has about six or seven matches left realistically, and LA Knight really can't wait around now until it's his turn. It would make a bona fide new main eventer, which you need right now. Also, it's not like he'd have to hold the title long. Look at Jey Uso. His title run was 51 days. I mean, you could do the Killings rematch and give him a Mick Foley-type reign as a thank you or what have you, but you also have to start building him up to that too. Give him credible wins for once.

Didn't look like he was missing her too much at the end. I get the sense that after Mon Momtha left, he drowned himself in his mistress and gambling, and drank himself to death! My impression from the first season is that Mon made her husband look guilty to throw the Imperial spies off her scent of her rebel activities. She made it look like it was her husband's gambling debts. And it looked legitimate since he had a history of gambling issues before. Either that, or Sculdun has him killed for messing around with his wife. I got the sense that he maybe did love Mon once, but they grew apart as they got older. Plus, he was not as dedicated to preserving and restoring the Republic as she was.

The only title AEW should consider adding right now is women's tag team. Even then, I'm not sure they have enough TV time to feature that division, but it'd be a step in the right direction.

People should be allowed to change their minds and do things they said they would never do. WWE was a different company when CM Punk left, and he made amends with Triple H. He also made up with Miz and Corey Graves. Have people not found themselves in situations or doing things they said they would never do years before? That feels like life to me. CM Punk is still a wrestler at the end of the day. He's advocated for a union and such but we still have no wrestlers' union. Should we rake him over the coals for not starting a union? Also, besides being a wrestler, he's a human being. He's not perfect. He's not a god. I don't expect perfection from the man.

The first three episodes of Andor Season 2 are definitely the weakest of that show, but things pick up once they move on from that. The Ghorman arc was intense. I also appreciated how they mapped out the three seasons, basically like a countdown with four three-episode arcs. While I greatly disliked the first three episodes, I do think it's paced out better than the first season. It does make me wonder what happened to Mon Mothma's family. Her husband and daughter were a-holes. My guess is that her daughter would likely become traumatized by the ensuing years of her toxic marriage, and hopefully would have wisened and matured as she got older and saw what a terrible person she was to her mother. I mean, her mother did basically use her own daughter as a negotiating tool, but the show does its best to make you despise Mon Mothma's bratty daughter.

People are definitely overreacting to one short, blurry clip of CM Punk and the kid. A lot of this anger over Punk in Saudi Arabia feels performative, especially coming from WOR. https://twitter.com/TookTimbo/status/1938342110425428265

Always enjoyed Private Party, and I was happy to finally see them beat the Bucks and get a run with the belts. But that was kind of the peak for them, sadly. AEW had just acquired The Hurt Syndicate, and Private Party had to put them over to make sure the Hurt Syndicate are happy and feel like a big deal. I like that the Hurt Syndicate are kind of getting a second act, and I'm weirdly enjoying their angle with MJF as well. But sometimes the rough part of the business is that there are only a very limited number of spots for guys on TV who can get that genuine push. So a lot of great talents will have to be stepping stones for others. Hypothetically, if Private Party were to go to WWE, would they be available to avoid the Street Profits comparisons from the WWE fanbase? But if they go the NXT route, I guess they can always get repackaged like Lexis King.

I would like them to just stick with this at least for a while. I think they can still do the Continental Title as an annual belt for that tournament if they want, but making it an ongoing regular title sort of muddied the waters when AEW already has too many titles right now. For that matter, it's a bit reminiscent of what happened with New Japan and their belts for a while, starting with the double-gold, then unifying the IC and heavyweight titles in the world title belt, and the business with the US championship, then the UK title, and now the global heavyweight title. I still greatly miss the IWGP IC Title.

I think Mercedes wins to continue pushing her current belt collector angle. And she will take photos holding all those belts, much like Ultimo Dragon did in his heyday. Truthfully, I don't think Mercedes winning now is such a bad thing. It gives Toni a new challenge and someone to chase. I think it also could create drama for a rematch, plus, for when the time finally comes for Mercedes to lose the TBS Title, it would be a nice way for Toni to get some payback. But I see that match could go either way as well.

I thought the video package for Okada/Omega was awesome. I don't think adding Don Callis was necessary.

I don't think WWE is pacing or booking their PLEs well. Too many ads, and one or two matches go much longer than they should. The men's Money in the Bank match went far too long and dragged on forever. Seth winning is kind of predictable, but also kind of pointless because he can really beat Jey Uso anytime and Jey Uso looks like a very beatable champion right now. There's no reason they couldn't have had one other match with decent time on there. Naomi winning I think, was the right decision. It solidifies her heel run, and I think she can do a lot now with the briefcase. She's had title runs before, but now she's got actual momentum, and she can become a much bigger star as a result. Her past title runs were always an afterthought. I'm glad they brought back R-Truth, but WWE couldn't have handled that situation much worse. It shows how badly they are booking the Cena heel run. They could've made Cena sending R-Truth packing a much bigger deal. They could've had R-Truth put his career on the line against Cena and people would've been bawling over seeing R-Truth forced to leave. Then he becomes an even bigger badass and babyface by coming back to get retribution against Cena. Cena, as the big bad, should be bragging about getting rid of R-Truth and ruining wrestling. WWE, TKO, Nick Khan, and Triple H clearly failed to recognize how beloved R-Truth is and how well-liked he is. It was plain to see through the Judgment Day feud. It also shows how badly they are running their business that they are now getting rid of people they are regularly using on TV. It's one thing to cut people creative has nothing for but now they are getting rid of guys they are still regularly using on TV. That's bad business and bad creative. Triple H came off looking like a smug bastard who can't take criticism on Saturday night. Beforehand, he always got fidgety when reporters would ask him timely, relevant questions during the press conference. Now, he's starting to resemble Tony Khan during the pressers more when he doesn't get lobbed softballs or layups. Now that WWE's hot streak is starting to cool off, he's facing actual criticism from people who used to do nothing but offer him glowing praise, and he doesn't handle it well at all. By comparison, Shawn Michaels and Cody Rhodes handle such settings infinitely better, which is somewhat surprising on Shawn Michaels' part. But he seems to be able to conduct himself in such settings better than Uncle Paul. Triple H is starting to chafe now that all the unending praise for WWE is slowing down.

This is going to make a damn good documentary someday. I hope someone is filming and documenting the journey. I'm really glad Darby stuck to his vision of doing this especially with all the critics saying he shouldn't.

LOL, technically, it is possible to do it successfully. Someone has base jumped from the top of Everest before. But Darby has I think set a record by being the first ever pro wrestler to summit Everest, unless there's someone else I'm forgetting.