JohnnyJ

"Adam, you feud for the belt, not with the belt."

I was thinking the other day how a broken down Jericho would make all of the money in a WWE return.

I didn't see the part about the ladder match. All I saw was there was a big signing and nothing about the performer being an active talent. My bad.

Here's a left field pick. What if he is bringing in Austin for some kind of role?

I just wanted to chime in to say what I really liked about Starks v. Lethal was how good Lethal looked in defeat. It felt like a battle that could've easily gone either way and Starks pulled out something big to get the win. Both wrestlers reminded the audience of who they were.

Dr. Zahorian is such a kick ass villain name. ZAHORIAN!!!

Doesn't it depend on how long she can hang on. I mean, they used her husbands heart attack as the opening they needed to gut the last decade of his professional life. These people are ruthless. Basically. It seems like most of the formerly engaged audience tunes into WWE big events to be reminded of why they no longer watch and go on and on about how crummy everything is. It's nothing new. For some reason this year it feels like the bad press really bothered the higher ups.

Shane was part of the company on/off for forever and the worst you heard about him was he threw shit punches and spent too much time with Johnny Polo. You have to love how they'll bury anyone, including their own on the way out the door. Seriously, what a bunch of savages. For all the nonsense that was Shane McMahon, he was kinda sorta a draw in an environment where all of their special attractions (with the exception of Goldberg) have retired.

I think we've grown accustomed to a world where WWE is the place to be and can outspend everyone for talent. Outside of money (and I don't think that's a problem for AEW), for what possible reason would you leave? MJF is in a promotion that gets him, has positioned him as the future, and in a short period of time he's gone from a complete unknown to getting put over by CM Punk.

I still don’t know how to make sense of the fact that not only did we get CM Punk back, we got this CM Punk back.

With the Davey stuff and now the weird Kendrick story, it feels like we're just playing wrestling mad libs. Brian Kendrick is __________. And believes _______ medical personnel went to ________ to _________ the eyeballs.

One of the issues with WWE is the only performers who will ever become true main eventers are those anointed by Vince. Eventually upper midcarders reach this weird purgatory where they are established and above secondary title level but below Brock/Roman. Its really glaring when you watch the Rumble as these talents come out and are presented as threats to win. Yet the fans have been conditioned to know that’s impossible. I enjoyed the mixed tag match. It felt familiar. Like I was watching a random 2007 ppv. Edge/Miz still remember how to put together an entertaining WWE style match.

Was anyone else getting legit dizzy during the men’s rumble from the frantic camera shots?

I think a large part of it is forecasting where all of this is heading. Cable is a dinosaur. There's barely any original programming. It's a wasteland of nothing. That's why AEW bringing in a demo that barely watches tv anymore is such a big deal. The future is streaming and there's a rush to get as many subscribers as possible. They need to make Peacock a part of peoples everyday lives. The profits will come later. Of course, the question is how long can you take on billion dollar losses until you're profitable.

My recollection is prior to rejoining WWE, Jeff Hardy didn't want to take on a full time schedule again. Yet at 44, he ended up wrestling 50 matches last year. That's a lot for someone over 25 years in. I'm sure in AEW he sees a place where he can work a few times a year and take some independent bookings. Now that that Hardys and Briscoes are floating around, I would love to see a tag team tournament leading to a ppv.

Unless you're into Office/Parks & Rec reruns and WWE content Peacock doesn't offer much to justify even spending a few dollars a month. It's almost all random reruns of shows that don't have large followings with some movies sprinkled in. I still can't believe they made a MacGruber tv show. It started out as a one-note snl skit that wasn't particularly popular. It eventually was made into a movie that lost money. (Highlight of which was that awkward Raw appearance. I can't remember whether I loved or hated the guest host era.) A decade after the movie bombed someone decided to spend millions on a Peacock exclusive Macgruber tv show. NBC even got Will Forte back on snl to promote it. It's fifteen years of trying to make something happen.

Pulled the trigger and ordered the show. I really tried to get a sense of why this fed was getting so much hype. To me this felt like a giant local indy show. It had everything you would expect. The out of shape local guys. The "names" to bring in some casuals. The lack of feuds/storylines. The indifferent crowd. Cardona/Janela match stood out as actually having a storyline and stupidity of it all was fun. I could see myself ordering future shows to see the storyline continue to unfold. I was a pass on just about everything else.

I enjoyed the Cody promo. I understand it is a thing where the fanbase soured on him. However, I don't 100% understand what is going on or why it happened. Performers like Cody and Bucks deserve all of the credit in the world for creating a ton of buzz and that buzz culminating in the creation of AEW. But I wasn't part of that groundswell. I was never seeking out Bullet Club footage or watching Being the Elite. I'm a johnny come lately. Someone who jumped on the bandwagon once AEW started to regularly producing quality matches. And the Punk/Danielson signings were just the cherry on top. So I'm a little out of the loop. Do we have any diehard AEW fans on the board who can breakdown what is going on?

You do have to love that the poor guy has been on US tv for two weeks and somehow ended up in this ridiculous conversation. His assent into a punchline was fast, even for WWE standards.

Didnt WWE glorify the hell out of the time Becky was busted open?

As a kid I would track down any wrestling I could find. Every Sunday when the paper came I would yank the knock off tv guide and search for anything wrestling related. The VHS tape was your friend and I remember not only watching NWA/WCW and WWF, but also got my hands on UWF, GWF and some Memphis footage. I was big on babyface Jarrett WWF stuck to the script. Early 90s WCW rewarded you for your devotion because it was always a little chaotic/random. The thrill people have today revisiting WCW B/C shows existed back then as well. You never knew what you were going to get. I still remember Owens brief NWA run leaving an impression on me. You'd find a syndicated show on at 1 in the morning and 92 Benoit is throwing dragon suplexes. In the late-90s I was WCW all of the way. Again, I liked the randonmness of it all and the quality of some of the match ups. I only changed channels for Stone Cold because he was a force of nature.

What I like about AEW is how the cream rises to the top. Yes, there are always going to be people who are wasted or lost in the shuffle. It is the nature of running a wrestling promotion with a giant roster. However, you really can't compare it to the issues WWE had. Look at Day 1, after several years of hoarding independent talent, WWE has Ridge Holland to show for it.

At the end of the day you can only have so many people at the top. In WWE if you're not at the top you're going to be fed to those at the top and end up looking like a jabroni. At least in AEW when you're not featured you may lose some steam, but they're not taking your credibility.

Danielson v. Morishima-Manhattan Mayhem or Punk v. Taker at Mania.

I just like that I can turn on wrestling on a random Wednesday night and see a great wrestling match that is completely different and be entertained. You can break the booking and decision making down a 100 different ways but at the end of the day that's all that matters to me. I'm not an AEW guy and Hangman doesn't mean anything to me. From my perspective as an outsider, Hangman is a young talent on the rise who hasn't reached world champion level. He just went 60 minutes with the best wrestler in the world. Whether he won or lost is largely irrelevant.