caley

I GREATLY enjoyed Vic and Booker during Pages debut: "That's Ethan Page! But isn't he in AE-" "Whoooooah!" By the way, Book's "remixing" (?!) over Trick's theme is the dumbest, greatest, goofiest and oddly endearing thing in NXT

When I first saw one of his videos, I genuinely thought Peck was wearing a lucha mask. Love him.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rJ_GDG9V9hs&pp=ygUVTmlra2kgYmVsbGEgaW4gc3R1ZGlv This is still my favourite Nikki Bella moment (also my favourite Renee moment!). I think there was a longer version where Jim Johnston coached her more, but I can't find that one. But this is still gold.

I actually thoroughly agree. I liked Swerve's reign of terror before he abruptly turned face (That Nick Wayne home invasion angle was friggin' DARK for a wrestling angle and I was THERE for it!), I'm not so fond of Swerve Cold Shane Strickland. As a face, I feel like he eats his opponents up and leaves them worse than they were going in, but he also wrestles way too many 50/50-ish matches against guys way below his station. Him defeating the entire Mogul Embassy by himself was just dreadful, to me. Samoa Joe was perfect as world champion of a wrestling company, but not a big enough name striving for more mainstream attention (Anytime his name has come up with non-wrestling people in my bubble, I get an incredulous "His name is Samoa Joe?" response back). But he had the dominant scary champ who lets his biggest challenges get just enough shine to look bigger in defeat than they were going in act down pat.

I noticed this a few weeks back, too, but then AEW seemed to pivot back to BC on Twitter/ IG posts at that time so I figured I wasn't paying attention. I actually thought that run was going to lead to him being kind of a bargain bin Daniel Bryan for the main roster; The pre-Yes Movement Bryan who makes other guys look good but stays dangerous enough to pull off The odd upset.

You know what I love about this place? I made a completely admittedly uninformed assertation about a wrestler I knew nothing about to answer a question posed about a page back and instead of mocking me for my lack of knowledge or "well ACTUALLY..." -ing me, people provided context, explanations and even matches to seek out! And that, in short, is what makes the DVDVR the best wrestling discussion on the internet. Thanks again folks.

I'll be honest I don't remember where I saw him or in what context, and I've never sought out any of his earlier matches, but the few times I saw Takashi Iizuka staggering around with the metal glove and...dog collar (!??) brawling into the crowd, I was totally all-in. From what I gleaned at the time, the general consensus was that he was terrible and ruined a lot of matches, but I absolutely loved the gimmick

He probably had despondent look on his face because the promo makes no sense: "Go get 'em, Rock! I'm too much of a wimp to beat Roman but you can do it! Also my ultimate goal is to see Roman get beat up - not the world title that I have not stopped talking about since I arrived - and I can't beat him up nearly as well as a semi-retired, Hollywood actor!"

What is the deal with Serena Deeb's flag? I can't think of a dorkier thing for a face to do then stand at the top of the ramp holding a flag and smirking at your opponent.

In the build-up, Danhausen curses Danielson causing them to swap bodies. So we have Bryan Danhausen (Danhausen with no makeup in semi-serious shooter mode) and Danielhausen (Daniel Bryan in facepaint doing curses and appearing under the ring).

Nigel's complete befuddlement at the word 'Canuck' made it very clear he'd No. 1 Never heard it & No.2 Had no idea how to pronounce it. It's "Ka-nuck" not "Ca-nook" Chris Jericho being the wrestler who best understood the West Canada dynamics and using them to his advantage is not a surprise. Him "accidentally" saying 'Calgary' instead of 'Edmonton' is practically a war crime in Alberta. My grampa once disliked the taste and refused to eat any more soy sauce, after he found out the soy sauce my Mom had purchased was made in Calgary. That's how deep that Edmonton-Calgary hatred runs.

Not for nothing nor to deny seriousness of these or the allegations against Gulak, the idea of Shawn Michaels chewing someone out for not being professional tickles me greatly. "Back in my day you didn't take advantage of your opponent in the ring, you might stomp on him and curse him out or maybe make an overt reference on live TV to them cheating on their wife, or you just showed up to work high and/or drunk..."

Last picks on Twitter -Creeds/Ivy to Raw -Vinci to Smackdown -New Catch Republic to Raw -Tegan Nox to Smackdown -Dijak to Raw -Apollo to Smackdown -Kayden and Katana to Raw -Nattie to Raw -Oddysey Jones to Raw I like New Catch Republic...but they are going to die a fast death on Raw without a mouthpiece...maybe Gable's new backup? I think if Dijak got a similar build on Raw like his most recent run on NXT and allowed to show his personality, he could do well. I wonder what WWE's fascination is with trying to make Vinci a singles guy? It's the second time they've done it. Maybe he doesn't love being in Imperium anymore. I completely forgot about Apollo. Haven't heard about/from him in forever.

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.