Firebreaker Chip

I always assumed the Undertaker's streak ending was just to fund a few little retirement nest eggs for some officials in the company

Did GCW just name a show that first or something? Where does "fight forever" actually originate? I had thought it was just a (vaguely cringe) chant that occurred spontaneously during the Zayn vs Nakamura NXT match. It did seem a bit strange for AEW to coopt the phrase for their game name on that basis. It's presumably going to have to come out way later in the year and even more out of date anyway now, to avoid getting swallowed up by the seemingly competent WWE 2k23 2k23 having some rudimentary custom AI logic and more detailed difficulty tuning settings definitely has me interested (if they in fact actually do anything, which isn't guaranteed with this series).

That was a Foley-quality promo by Bryan imo On the preceding Khan announcement I was increasingly alarmed to note that he didn't blink AT ALL during it

That's better from the point of view of gradual wear and tear from repeat bumps and the associated fatigue of a gruelling touring schedule etc, but with the stuff Darby does he could easily kill or paralyse himself off a single bump

This was the ninth consecutive Dynamite where Tazz used the term "yambag" at least once. The streak almost ended, but then he said it during the main event.

Same! Except I'm 39. Worldwide was a godsend back then with all those Dustin/Barry/Steamboat/Dangerous Alliance matches, and the weird curios like Vinnie Vegas, DDP before he actually wrestled and the Diamond Stud

He's beginning to resemble this giant of the broadcasting game, which can only be an auspicious sign

Late rep for how incredibly dumb and funny some of the picture-in-picture commentary on the Fite feed was on this show Tazz quietly mumbling "I might buy a bat and name it"

The style recalibration thing, with Punk's scoop slams getting a big pop and everything, seems like a real wasted opportunity Weird to think that in the last decade NXT had got to the point where wrestlers were getting big reactions from crowds in high profile matches doing spinning heel kicks and belly to belly suplexes as finishers, and now we're at this constant parade of head drops on the apron and whatever else (not that AEW is to blame for that, NXT veered into the OTT maximalist direction post-Gargano-Andrade of its own accord, but AEW has certainly enthusiastically enshrined a lot of the most counterproductive aspects of the modern indie style)

He even talks exactly like Frank Grimes!

From what I read I was expecting the Saraya promo to be much worse and thought it was basically OK delivery-wise etc, but that said "your name rhymes with shit" is an all-time terrible zinger Some v good Deeb content over the past few eps Claudio carrying Parker away one handed like a naughty child ruled

Some sims from TGS here. Some targeting and AI jank to hopefully tweak, but it's looking good imo, liking Rosa's moveset Cole vs Wight was actually a p good big man vs little man match before descending into a somewhat implausible finish, shows off some weight detection and some damage selling by Cole after hitting a move himself Also some evidence of catching springboard counters and flash roll ups as ground counters

He's over and his matches are good

It's extremely amusing to me that Cornette somehow thinks Rollins is a great pro wrestler and Omega is the worst to ever do it, at the same time

Is your belief that this is a work a work?

I would think the problem is not whether there are people he could work with down the line, more that the company absolutely can not let him or Ace Steel get off unpunished, but if they do punish them Punk will never forgive them or work with them again

Khan needs to get Haku barging into a mandatory talent meeting like this guy ALRIGHT YOU LISTEN UP YOU LITTLE FREAKS: THIS IS ONE EXECUTIVE VP OF TALENT RELATIONS YOU'RE NOT GONNA SCREW AROUND WITH ...Tony Schiavone!

God can you imagine Excalibur having to enthusiastically put over CM Punk as a beloved babyface after this, he'd probably top out at "arguably...a good...wrestler!"

Yeah, the DDT didn't feel like a very convincing killshot, don't know if doing two in a row just made it seem like a vaguely impressive shine spot you'd expect a near fall from

I'm beginning to think that Punk shouldn't have agreed to go on Cabana's podcast

Yes, Mr Sherman. Everything's a work.

Did anybody not picture Brandon Cutler trying to defuse the situation by capering around ineffectually in a zubaz jumpsuit spraying deep freeze in the air wildly

No, I think some people decided he must have just donated to that stuff by accident because they were enjoying his work at the time

Interesting that Kenny's been quoted as saying both "I'm not satisfied yet, it needs more polish" vs "we're close to wrapping it up" recently. I wonder if they're just coming up against the commercial reality of needing to get it out, and preferably in the late year timeslot where it's occupying the space vacated by WWE 2k moving to spring, as opposed to competing against it I did read some hands on previews from Gamescom saying the game was jankier and had worse hit detection than the video preview suggested, but I did wonder if they'd just preserved the built-in jank of the AKI games where you couldn't interrupt the animations of guys slowly getting up etc even if you were swinging a chair or coming off the top rope

I can definitely see how the MJF angle has been overshadowed by events, but there is something really next-level prosaic about seeing Best Friends vs Death Triangle announced for Dynamite, like that feels like it's from a different universe at this point I don't feel certain that Punk being a babyface is now impossible, feels like a big chunk of the audience is going to just want more of this scandalous stuff, he's just going to be reduced to this "say the line, Bart!" type caricature where people want to pull his string and have him spout loads of invective so they can pop for it