caley

It would be even better with 'The Firm' and everybody would be going "Wait...who was The Firm again!?"

https://twitter.com/NFLonCBS/status/1783868158408871999?s=19

Boy did I read this wrong on first glance! Now THAT would be commitment!

I do know kind of wonder if the end game of this is Tony, playing into the Punk "he's a nice guy, he's not a boss" thing, brings in a sheriff-type authority figure to make announcements and stand against the Elite and have it be Sting. I remember one of Stings last appearances him talking about not being around anymore and adding "in the ring" and I thought it was interesting. Face authority figures are almost always cringe and do nothing but cut off heel characters at the knees, but I would give Sting a chance in the role/think he could pull it off.

The only way they could have they made that last segment funnier is if they had a graphic with Tony's photo that read "Tony Khan Was All Elite 1982 - 2024" followed by some Sarah McLachlan. What really cracked me up is that of all the wrestlers to come out and check on him, they had to be careful not to show anyone important, so it was basically "send out the luchadores and Christopher Daniels!" I actually like obliviously uncool Chris Jericho's new role/group. I'd like to see him surrounded by some real young guy and have Jericho try to talk about Stryper with them. Also he should say "Lol" ( but actually pronounce it) and maybe create a Tiktok account where he unironically dances and sings duets. Swerve's first post-win appearance was kind of weak. Almost like they didn't trust him with a microphone. Prince Nana got to talk but Swerve just had a too competitive match with a guy way below him in the hierarchy. It was weird. Liked the gauntlet casino match. Komander hitting that move on Archer then staring back in disbelief was great. I would like to see them run this match again and have #1 roll up #2 for the win and cut to backstage where 47 guys are standing around waiting and someone just says "Dude..." and they cut to the next match. Jack Perry with a beard talking tough would be like The Miz showing up with a beard talking tough.

Grimes crypto-millionaire gimmick was basically the first time WWE has ever been up on a current events gimmick rather than months...years....behind. The fact that it somehow lead to him being one of the most over faces on the NXT roster was a testament to Grimes' personality. His main roster run was sabotaged by coming up when Vince was in charge and didn't get/didn't care about him or his gimmick, so by the time he was out Grimes was already basically seen as a JTTS and probably too late/too small to rehab his image. I still kinda think he has "it" to some degree and could be a big player for someone down the line: AEW, TNA or I could even see him being a good fit in Japan.

I do think you could present Roxy with the same video package she had in her early NXT days (About her watching TV and dreaming of WWE), make her slightly less naive than she was then, get Booker T and talking about her, and have her upset some big stars early on to play up the underdog persona and people would get behind her pretty fast. That is easier to do now that Vince McMahon is out of the way.

This last stretch he was not too bad, but his first stretch in NXT he might have been the single worst actor I've seen on WWE TV. Yes, worse than Austin Theory.

But got a middling reaction because of one of my most hated of wrestling tropes: the babyface announcing a big match...next week...somewhere else. It makes perfect sense when a heel does it ("I'm not giving this away in front of you rubes!" "Like I'd wrestle in [insert town name here]!" etc. etc.), but when a babyface, like Mox, says "I'm going to wrestle Will Hobbs [Yay!]...next week in Jacksonville!" why would the crowd cheer for it?! WWE does this too, but AEW does it all the time: Hot Crowd: We love you! AEW Face: I'm going to defend my title... Hotter Crowd: Yes! AEW Face: ...next week... Lukewarm Crowd: Wait what?! AEW Face: ...somewhere other than here! Deflated Crowd: But...why not here?! AEW Face: See ya later, I'm done for the night AEW: Coming up next...Chris Jericho hosts a symposium with Hook Dead Crowd: Oh...goody

A quick Google (Was curious myself) says it's believe she injured her shoulder when Liv threw her into the wall last week...but with the state of wrestling nooz this could just be a guess, bizarre attempt at kayfabe or AI-generated so who even knows?!

You guys are all missing the obvious highlight of the evening: - (After Thunder Rosa pushed away Deonna Purrazzo after Toni threw champagne in Rosa's face and tried to rub off her makeup) Schiavone: Have you ever had champagne thrown in your eyes?! I have. Taz: Brutal. Shocking. [beat] Was that on your wedding night that you had champagne thrown in your eyes? Schiavone: [completely serious] No it was a championship night in baseball one time. It's brutal, it burns you, I'm telling you that plus the facepaint in the eyes. Taz: You had your face painted too?! Schiavone: Yes, got that in my eyes as well. That's another story as well. Excalibur (I think): Oh wow... - It's legitimately the hardest I have laughed at anything in wrestling in a while. Taz just needling Tony, who either plays along or doesn't notice. When Taz shouts "You had your face painted too?" it was just so great. Also, AEW might go up a whole 'nother notch on the TV-Rating thing after tonight's episode. Pac was quite clearly yelling "motherfucker" at Okada while he paced on the ramp, then Purrazzo let out a completely audible and unbleeped "Fuck you'" to Rosa, then you had Toni drinking champagne and trying to...kiss? it onto (into?) Maria May, followed by Shirakawa and May's post-match...makeout session/feeding May champagne. And, no offence to Shirakawa (Whom I know next to nothing about), but I think that may have been the single worst major wrestling debut since...Seven in WCW? The combination of her goofy music that may suit her character but wasn't really going to pop the crowd; the fact no one in the crowd really knew (or cared) who she was; her weird, awkward running to the ring; the fact they didn't let her get any sort of move in on Anna so there wasn't even a crowd reaction like "I dunno who she is, but that was awesome"; then the weird pouring champagne down her throat and making out with Mariah while Mariah acted like she didn't know who she was. It was genuinely weird, confusing and a completely terrible way to debut someone on Dynamite that's not exactly a big name. It honestly looked like someone said "Oh do whatever you want out there, we'll cut away to commercials" then forgot to do so. Realistically, this show was kind of a complete mess. You had the above weirdness, the footage of Punk-Jack (That COULD have been salvaged if the Bucks had done funny voice-overs on the footage, trying to do Punk's and Jack's voice!); Shibata's Funaki tribute act; that insane Kingston/Briscoe/Copeland backstage promo where Edge decides they should call themselves the chickenhawks (Apparently unaware of the slang meaning of a chicken hawk) then Willow suggests they should team up against King and Julia and Copeland says "I've got a better idea, maybe you and I should team up" which is EXACTLY what she just said, then they cut away as people are talking. This had the feel of a show being re-written on the fly but they just genuinely forgot to rewrite it.

I must be in the bizzarro=verse, I didn't mind the Copeland promo and thought the Danielson-Archer match was bad. Even though Punks interview wasn't really bad enough to merit a response, the actual promo was a good bit of rah=rah delivered by a guy who seems to believe it But Danielson-Archer was just Archer crushes BD, BD comes back by going after his legs, Archer cuts him off with a power spot, no-sells the leg damage, repeat this 3 or 4 times. I thought it was super disappointing given who was in there.

Only if Pat Patterson somehow wins this one, too.

This sound like some sort of fanfiction that I REALLY don't want to read.

I crossed a bunch off in one night way back when (Rey Mysterio, Sting, Scott Steiner, PCO, Great Muta!) but the quiet part is that it was a Russo-era Nitro and not a single one of them was in a match that could even remotely be called anything more than 'watchable ' much less 'memorable'. But still...

Don't forget three men, carrying a weapon (bat), turning and running out of the house when Billy came home. "We're the Bang Bang Gan- oh shit! One person! Run!"

It's funny, because every time you post, I picture you as Scott Ian (Even though it's not even your avatar anymore) and always picture you bald.

My brother has a double-crown, he is so happy that his new baby does not!

Ever since I saw 'Kingpin', EVERY time part of my hair sticks up anywhere, I immediately assume I look like Ernie McCracken and start frantically trying to fix it. It doesn't matter that every time I look in the mirror and it's not like that (Though im getting old so it probably IS coming!), every time my hair blows in the breeze or gets all static-y, it's https://tenor.com/YWto.gif I didn't know Sammy got suspended again...what was it for this time?

It's got to be REALLY depressing to be Jericho, be playing a face (Not sure why he thinks going back to the terrible Lionheart moniker and old music will help...might as well go back to "Christian" Chris Jericho...), wrestling in Canada, and getting booed and having them cheer Hook over you (Not that Hook is bad or anyone uncheerable, but this is Jericho in Canada!). I think he's turned heel on so many people recently that no one is buying this face run as anything but building up some goodwill before another turn, as well as the allegations against him creating a tidal wave of aminosity/indifference. I think the best thing for him would be to form another faction with under-appreciated guys/gals or maybe a reunion with Callis and go after the tag titles. Or maybe have his new faction invade and take over ROH and move him into a special attraction/manager role.

This Mercedes booking is really starting to remind me of when Saraya came in. Massive initial pop. Sustained follow-up reaction. But Mone single=handedly fighting off the TBS champ and Skye Blue, hinting at Willow (who should pretty much only be face...and get some better theme music while I'm at it!) turning on her, then getting in Willows face reminds me of the crowd completely turning on Saraya. Also, it's really funny to have Mone and the announcers having to talk about Willow injuring her when it was my understanding she slipped off the turnbuckle, right?! I would be down for a heel Mone with Stokely Hathaway doing her promos for her though. Also if you don't know hockey, that spot in the penalty box probably didn't make a ton of sense to you but there's a fair amount of backstory to the Toronto-Boston feud that explains why the crowd went nuclear when the the good guy not only put on his hometeam jersey but put the Bruins jersey on the bad guy. It was like 15 years of hockey disappointment being let out at once!

My brother saw this in theaters and just HATED it (I was pretty meh on it myself) but he did come away with a great story, he was sitting there, contemplating walking out but his friend didn't seem to want to leave so they get 2/3 through the movie and when [spoiler]Salma Hayek takes off her wig to reveal her short-ish hair, IIRC suggesting or outright telling us she has cancer[/spoiler] some guy behind them just goes "UGH! SICK!" (or posssible "GROSS!") and my brother said it was so random and stupid that it almost made the entire experience worth it. And now whenever I am reminded of this movie, this is the only thing I can think of.

I dunno, I'm pretty tired of Jericho in AEW, but he's changed quite a bit in his time in AEW: formed the Inner Circle as a dominant, semi-serious heel group; did the feud with MJF replete with musical number (which for the record, I DETESTED) which is pretty much as big of a changing things up as wrestling production goes; clearly got annoyed with comments about his physique and got into much better shape; tried a lot of new catchphrases but ditched them if they weren't catching on (My Jerkoff Friend etc.0, did the Jericho Cruise episode of Dynamite which, again, was pretty different for a wrestling show; formed the Jericho Appreciaton Society which was more of a semi-serious/comedy group; had his group wear themed-costumes for big matches which isn't something I see too often in North American wrestling; worked an actual losing streak angle which was aimed more at getting young guys over than himself (i.e. didn't immediately get his wins back or beat the guy down in order to get this heat back and the longterm goal, seemingly, wasn't to get himself a title match). That's just off the type of my head and doesn't include reasonably innovative ideas that might have been his (Stadium Stampede). I mean, he's even basically kept himself out of the main event scene for the better part of the last year, working side-feuds, tag feuds etc. I think he's maybe hit a wall in AEW in that the crowd's not so into him right now (Though I suspect if he went face, played the greatest hits in terms of moves and catchphrases), but I don't know if you can fault the reaction on him too much. It reminds me of when Seth Rollins went off about being one of the greatest workers in the world, called WWE the greatest fed in the world, and people online got really mad about it and he had a few months of muted reactions, before crowds decided they actually still liked him and re-appreciated him. Jericho's crowd response seemed to plateau around the Callis feud (which probably would have gone like gangbusters if Omega hadn't gotten hurt/ill) then the online allegations seemed to turn a bunch more against him, but again he's playing sort of a tweener role right now. If he came out on Dynamite and called Don Callis an "ass clown", put him in the Lion Tamer, said he was on "the list" and that that he'd never "everrrrr" do it again, I think he'd get cheered like crazy all voer again. But I think he's been guilty of trying to change too much and be a little too giving, in terms of taking losses, so he's sort of a borderline main eventing Dustin Rhodes.

I still can't wrap my head around WWE agents seeing Daivari do the magic carpet finisher, loving it, hiring him, then never letting him do it again.

-Mike Enos was so incredibly fun around this time. I remember at the time I was doing a kayfabe Top 30 for both leagues based off wins/losses (I wasn't really online at the time, otherwise there'd probably be a Geocities site up somewhere with all my rankings still! Alas, they were done pen on paper.) and Enos would turn up almost every week and destroy some jobber and I kept bumping him up and up the list thinking "Man, Enos is going to win a title at this rate" and then he would get clobbered by, say, Stevie Ray and fall back down the list. Then he'd start destroying guys and I would be repeatedly fooled all over again. I feel like the same thing happened wih Wrath: big win, impressive win, loss to a random NWO guy, big win, impressive win, Goldberg rolls over him. -I'm not sure if there was any wrestler around this time that I was less enthused about than Rick Steiner, except maybe Rick Steiner the following year when he turned heel and said "If you want some, come get some. If you don't like me, bite me." every damn week.