Jrag

Yeah I don’t get this. The crowd cheering for a (mild, lame, nothing) pull apart brawl on a wrestling show is bad because we’re so far through the 4th wall that they should be better? Punk can be in the wrong in real life, I guess, although again this doesn’t seem all that serious. Having heels presenting it on a wrestling tv show? How many wires are they trying to cross in the fans minds here? The Punk chants in arena should have been expected and the confusion in arena should hopefully give a few people a wake up call.

Segment lowlight: Super sad Tony Schiavone. Segment highlight: Super stressed Chris Hero.

Pretty much guaranteed Punk chants every time the Bucks are in the ring for the next few months. Brilliant move guys. The internet can fight over how close Punk’s version of events was to the footage. Pretty close I would say, but damn that line about Tony not running a real business hits a little different after watching that disaster of a segment. Such a nothing of a fight really in the context of a pro wrestling locker room. Would love to see how it compares to, say, the multiple times Sammy Guevara has been punched backstage over the last few years. Maybe Drew gets a few good lines of material out of this. Silver lining.

They sucked me back in temporarily with how great that WM main event was. Count me in the group that loved that opening segment. Too long yes, but Rock clearly wanted to hit a few story beats and decided the only way he was going to be able to get there was to let the crowd wear themselves out. They broke the 3 million mark so I suppose he was right to slow play it. Anyways, I loved it because Rock was doing some very off standard wrestling stuff. Asking to hold the belt didn’t lead to the usual wrestling result. He reacted to holding the belt how a billionaire would react to something he can’t buy. Always wanting more, I imagine, isn’t all that fulfilling, but it definitely makes for an intriguing heel character trait.

Greg you must have blacked out the MJF/Punk promos then because that is actually what you are looking for. The Punk/Kingston and Punk/Mox stuff was more in the shooty “2nd best John, 3rd best Kingston” promo battle style. MJF/Punk had like a month straight of just lights out stuff. Be My Valentine etc etc. I actually really loved this one that may have been YouTube only? Not sure: https://youtu.be/ez7rTA3Sexo?si=oIngm5O3Oe0BiWEN

Guess I will record raw for the first time in about 8 years. I hope this run is magic while it lasts. Regardless, reading the haters cry about it will be entertaining enough.

Darby is a great wrestler who I sometimes feel guilty watching. If he’s not going to tone it down for himself then maybe do it for someone else. Guy is a top tier pro wrestler who makes every bump look insane. He doesn’t actually need stuff like the stair bump. Only watched the things I was interested in which were all great. Christian is on one hell of a run, Danielson/ZSJ was extremely my shit and PUT THE BELT ON SWERVE!

OC is so far beyond the schtick at this point. Haven’t watched it all yet, but that was a great main event. Was hoping OC would pull it out. Wrestler of the year so far imo.

Welp pretty safe to assume Collision will not be retaining its own feel and structure. Hope they still feature FTR and HoB on 2 hour rampage long term, but I’m not holding my breath

The dirt sheets are essentially Fox News, but instead of being fed lines and stories by creeps from the Federalist Society it’s just, like, Brandon Cutler and Ace Steel. New rules for the dirt sheets if I was in charge. 1. You still get to report 2nd and 3rd hand rumors because that can be fun, but you are not allowed to do it in a somber and/or serious tone. 2. If you break rule #1 you must be placed in an old timey stockade every time you get something completely wrong. 5 hour minimum. Hours added depending on how dumb it is. Brody King punched a wall and broke his hand oh actually he just kicked a trash can? 4 hours. Believing 5 people telling a story when none of them saw it first hand = 5 sources? 8 hours.

I had successfully blocked that from my memory and now it’s back. Thanks.

This Punk AEW run has somehow been wildly underrated by the IWC as a whole. Not as much here. It is sort of wild to me that people can’t separate on screen and off screen to such a degree that it is hampering their enjoyment of an all time great pro wrestler revitalizing his career. I guess Punk can’t separate on screen and off screen either so hey I get how we got here. Hope it’s not over, but if it is that was a hell of a way to go out against Joe at Wembley. Incredibly fun match with an incredible huge crowd and they delivered in a way some were doubting if they still could. And this run of Collision has been my favorite pro wrestling tv show in ages. I do not think they will be able to replicate it once/if he is gone. I hope they try. I’m not the type to put a true ranking out of my top 10 AEW matches ever or anything, but for my money that Punk/Kingston sprint is as good any wrestling match this company has put together. The MJF/Punk feud made Max in a way his other feuds with more established stars didn’t or couldn’t. Does his lack of athleticism sometimes get in the way of what he is trying to do? Sure. Are the shooty promo battles not for everybody? Definitely. But Punk’s peaks as a performer are, in my opinion, almost unmatched in all of wrestling history. Punk/Joe, Punk/Cena, Punk/MJF. There is a lot of “tarnished his legacy” talk out there, but I don’t think we will look back on this run with that view. This is his legacy. Egocentric, erratic and GREAT.

Agree with this 100%. If Tony thinks The Chicago All Out crowd is going to accept a vague suspension excuse for Punk not being there after they have watched AEW treat the entire PPV like an afterthought for the last month….. whew this is going to be a interesting crowd this weekend.

What a show. More thoughts to come, but Punk/Joe was my match of the night. Crowd was on fire. Loved the ending. Punk resorting to biting Joe after being all sanctimonious with Ricky a few weeks back was perfect.

You may be right, and just to clarify I’m not saying he is intentionally doing anything of the sort just that the outcome has a high potential to be the same as if he was. Overall I did like this show quite a bit even if my main talking point is a negative. Other cool things about this show. Ospreay calling out Danielson and Punk, MJF sit down and Renee having like 10 segments. Renee is one of the most important signings they have made.