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air_raid

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Posts posted by air_raid

  1. 2 minutes ago, 2Xtreme_lives said:

    Is it that AEWShop is all P.O.D stuff, it's woeful though that they just don't constantly keep a strong supply of latest and biggest selling shirts always on the road. The AEW logo isn't even the same anymore based on that display

    They're hardly going to throw all the old stock in the bin rather than see if someone will buy it, are they? When I went to a WCW show in 2000 the nWo "black and silver" had just died out and the only people still rocking the vintage black and white on telly were the Nazi Twins, yet the merch stand had plenty of 4 year old black white Ts with the "4 life" tagline underneath the logo. Guess what? People were buying them. I did too.

  2. Wait....

    18 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

    ((a post))

     

    14 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

    You're not wrong. But those guys know what sells and what doesn't. So you print up a load of the top selling merch, throw in whoever is booked on that episode, and boom, you're mustard. 

    MMMbW7UlZ4Dr.gif

     

  3. Guy from bygone era in "doesnt understand what today's fans like about current wrestler" shock.

    Bruno used to have plenty of criticisms for Hogan, for Flair, for Steve Austin for Christ's sake. It's no wonder D'Lo doesn't see top tier in a bloke that's won two Rumbles and main evented two Manias when it's unfathomable that his high profile matches with Mideon and Bull Buchanan didn't get him a top spot.

     

  4. 25 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

    I read it was one of the reasons PAC left WWE (and we know from his AEW run he spends plenty of time back in the Toon).

    It wasn't, according to every time the man himself has made comment about his departure. So unless the sources know something he's disclosed privately, I'd dismiss it.

    On 1/26/2024 at 4:41 PM, air_raid said:

    Casper is the last WWE match for Adrian Neville, b/k/a Pac. He'll allegedly be asked to lose to Enzo on the 9/10 Raw and refuse, get into a heated argument with Vince himself, and walk out. During his time off and "contract negotiations" he'll rehab his neck which has been giving him grief but eventually - stories vary - either find himself frozen out or choose to sit out the rest of his contract, getting a release in August and finally returning to the ring in November 2018. He'll later state that it was general dissatisfaction with his creative, that they ran out of ideas for him, and while on the one hand insist it wasn't solely about Enzo who he found "annoying" but nothing more, he'll also give a quote about believing his worth to be above "being jobbed out to jobbers." So probably a little to do with Enzo, then.

     

  5. 7 hours ago, Vamp said:

    I feel like Tajiri would have had a good run in either AEW or WWE if he came along now. I think I prefer the reality we got though as he was a fun midcard act.

    If only they’d come along now… the “I prefer it the way it was” remix.

    I think Tajiri was handled far better than he could have been (and than some of us were expecting at the time), but I wonder if a modern run in WWE would have actually been any better, thinking about guys capable of wrestling absolute bangers but ended up amounting to little or nothing like Kenta/Itami, Tozawa and Kushida.

    AEW would have been a different kettle of (raw) fish altogether. Prime Tajiri could easily have had the run Takeshita is having now. Or been an obnoxious little twat palling around with the Bucks. As long as they kept him away from Callis.

  6. 11 minutes ago, Supremo said:

    Is it too much of a stretch to think the reason Chris Jericho won’t take the hint and fuck off is because he’s trying to work through his AEW contract as soon as possible, in order to make the jump back to WWE? It’s the only thing that makes sense at this point.

    He’s on a “number of appearances” deal rather than a “years under contract” one? What a fitting irony that would be, remembering how he couldn’t wrap his head around his Goldberg match at World War 3 getting cancelled because nobody realised Bill was having that one off.

  7. 39 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

    And then of course NXT UK contracts technically allowed their wrestlers to take outside bookings, but the restrictions and requirements changed by the week.

    Ah, fond memories. Around those years it used to be when a wrestler was contractually property of another fed, it made certain results of matches featuring those guys a little obvious i.e their real bosses wouldn't be letting them job to Andy Local.*

    However, imagine the intrigue when Fight Club Pro put on WWE's Pete Dunne, Tyler Bate & Trent Seven vs New Japan's Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks? I had no idea what was going to happen. Match was a belter too. In fucking Wolverhampton!

    *Well, apart from that mysterious time in Preston Liger lost to Dean Allmark of all people. But then, Liger tended to do whatever he wanted anyway.

  8. 1 hour ago, organizedkaos said:

    Surely there's an interesting part of this where if some of the people listed here had come along now the wrestling landscape might be fairly different due to the fact they didn't exist in the past? 

    Does Dynamite Kid/Owen Hart/Jerry Lynn have a place in today's wrestling world if they're not there to influence the style so heavily? Or is the general shift in wrestling caused by enough different people's styles that if you remove Dynamite Kid and have him be born in the early noughts you still get roughly the same Bryan Danielson?

    We're going too far down the "Wrestling Of Future Past" rabbit hole. Don't make me again share my theory that if Virgil had won the 1992 Royal Rumble, WCW would still be alive.

  9. 5 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

    If his decision ends up money based I'm pretty sure Tony Khan will match any offer WWE throw at him.

    It won't, if he meant what he said on Talk Is Jericho about his WWE exit.

    Quote

    they offered him an improved deal, but he didn't even look at it, later saying that he wouldn't have signed for $10 million.

    It's not the be-all and end-all to him. If he's happy, TK won't have to match anything.

  10. 10 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

    Yeah I can't personally see Mox going back to WWE. He doesn't have any huge personal issues like others have but he just seems to hate the environment and it doesn't seem to mesh with his vision of what wrestling should be or what he wants to do with his career - namely complete creative freedom.

    I'm on the fence as to whether or not it's just creative or if he took a lot of it personally. This tells it better than any way I could rephrase it ;

    On 3/21/2024 at 5:21 PM, air_raid said:

    In January he'd declared he was seeing out his contract expiring 30th April and he wasn't renewing ; they offered him an improved deal, but he didn't even look at it, later saying that he wouldn't have signed for $10 million. To put it mildly, he's been upset with the creative direction of his character and "hokey" material, mentioning much later on Talk Is Jericho scripts featuring "big goofy words that made no sense" "told no stories" and "didn’t get any characters over" and stating that WWE was "taking wrestling away from him". He knew during his injury rehab in July 2018 that he was leaving at the end of his deal but didn't want to force his way out early out of not wanting to be seen to be "not business" or harm Renee, who was still going to be working there. He's burned out - mental and emotional exhaustion after years of fighting Vince's "stupid" ideas, the peak being a November 2018 promo you can still see on WWEs official YouTube subtitled "The Lunatic Fringe receives multiple injections to protect himself from the WWE Universe" which may have been born out of his (very real) experience with MRSA during his time off injured that year. Because everyone loves their serious infections made into entertainment, right? This was the segment where he knew his character was dead, and he was 100% going to leave. They scripted a line for him to reference Roman Reigns' (very real) leukaemia but understandably, he refused. On top, he's been subjected to behaviours such as him asking writers to change promos that he didn't feel right for his character, only for Vince to put back in everything he'd asked to be removed, and being passed notes by writers from Vince himself such as “Dean needs to understand why he needs to insult the audience” and “Dean needs to read his promos verbatim and not try to rewrite them.” JR always says everything comes down to cash or creative, and pissed off beyond recovery on his creative and not caring about the cash, Deano makes good on his promises and is finished after The Shield's Final Chapter - which he'll later reveal, he was paid $500 for, which is the company minimum. I think it's safe to say that this was a bridge well and truly burned from both sides.

     

  11. I genuinely think that if Ambrose/Moxley were to return, he'd probably only do it for one match. He absolutely despised the environment for a good year before he left and even without Vince around, I don't think he'd be interested in running into any writers/runners/gophers that might have been showing him the notes and happen to still be there. Short of one massively promoted Shield six man in return for a huge cheque to make up for the $500 one he got for his last match there, and then a Hall Of Fame induction. Where he can go straight from his taxi to the stage, say a few words, then head straight back out again.

    I know Hunter's been a bit of a charmer if he could bury the hatchet with Warrior, Punk et al but.... wow, was that a bridge burned.

  12. 37 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

    His time in America has made his accent very strange too.

     

    21 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

    Drew's accent is a bit like his face. All over the shop and not getting better the longer he spends in the US. 

    For reference, here's historical Drew. TWC? Skinny Wade? All the arrows.

     

  13. 1 hour ago, LaGoosh said:

    Unrelated to the discussion at hand but fuck me, that initial Reigns/Strowman feud was just some of the absolute best stuff. It got Strowman over as an absolute killer and it was the only time Roman was even close to being accepted as a babyface.  

    The problem for me was that Reigns beat him before Mania 33, then immediately after Mania, they carried on having a hundred more matches.

    Braun is a great candidate for a similar level of mishandling in his first run, He got over pretty good on the way to Mania 34 as a killer as you say, and was planned for a a bit to go after Miz for the ICT but then they shuffled to Miz vs Rollins vs Balor and Strowman was left holding the baby. Well, holding the 10 year old. Despite having spent most of the last 12 months in the Universal title picture. They then turned him heel as briefcase-wielder (despite nobody wanting to boo him) only because he was opposing Reigns (who nobody wanted to cheer) and tagged him up with Drew and Dolph... then hastily had to turn him back when Reigns got sick, and job him unceremoniously to Lesnar. Come Mania 35, after spending most of ANOTHER 12 months in the title picture... he was in a forgotten battle royal. He had a big lads feud with Lashley and 5 weeks with the ICT before finally winning a World title only because Reigns was quarantining, beating not Lesnar but 54 year old Goldberg. Leaving only a spooky bollocks feud with The Fiend (during which he turned heel despite being programmed against a heel, with the title ending up on Reigns, who was also turning heel), a series where he had to let the MIGHTY Shane McMahon look competitive with him, and his release. Fucking hell, they missed the boat there.

  14. MAY 2019
    Welcome to the month with the last WWE show I nearly went to... but didn't. It's not a great story.

    MAIN EVENTS - SMACKDOWN
    The European tour starts with the queen of exceptions - 9th in Dublin Becky Lynch vs Charlotte obviously and yet completely understandably goes on last - how often does the winner of the Mania main event get a title defence at home so soon after? Below is Kofi Kingston vs Kevin Owens in another midcard-feeling WWE title match - that's our main 10th-13th in Helsinki, Stockholm, Oslo and Bournemouth, but everywhere on the mainland it leads to an "impromptu" tag of Kofi & Xavier Woods vs KO & Sami Zayn. 15th in Magdeburg it's "Swiss Superman" Cesaro that gets added to the tag instead, 16th Hamburg Kofi vs KO gets a finish again, 17th in Berlin it's once again Kofi vs Randy Orton on last.

    THE CARDS
    Before tapings its usually Daniel Bryan & Erick Rowan vs The Usos vs Shinsuke Nakamura & Rusev for the tag belts, Samoa Joe vs Matt Hardy for the UST and The Iiconics vs Asuka & Kairi Sane for the ladies' tag straps plus Xavier Woods vs Sami Zayn, Naomi vs Charlotte and The Fabulous Truth vs Andrade & Zelina Vega. In Magdeburg and Hamburg the shuffle lands us with AJ Styles vs Randy Orton, Billie & Peyton vs The Kabucki Warriors vs Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville, Rowan vs Mustafa Ali, Joe vs Andrade vs The Miz, Woods vs Cesaro and Matt & Apollo Crews vs Rusev & Nakamura.

    VARIATIONS
    Unique to Bournemouth the night of Raw and talents crossing over crews are added value of Andrade challenging Finn Balor, Walter defending the UK belt against Truth and... Orton vs Aleister Black which you should probably watch below. A few bodies off in Berlin - its Styles vs Nakamura, Miz vs Andrade and Matt vs Rusev.

    MAIN EVENTS - RAW
    The tour has Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns & Braun Strowman vs Bobby Lashley, Drew McIntyre & Baron Corbin 8th in Belfast, 10th-12th in Aix-en-Provence, Newcastle and Liverpool and 15th-17th in Birmingham, Sheffield and Cardiff, otherwise its Rollins vs Corbin for the U belt (ew) 9th in Brussels and 14th in Paris. 31st in Rio Rancho is one show that sneaks through back in the States - Rollins vs Corbin again.

    THE CARDS
    Most nights before Raw in London its Becky Lynch vs Lacey Evans vs Tamina for the belt and Beth Phoenix & Natalya vs Ruby Riott & Liv Morgan before TVs (didnt know Beth went on the road!), Finn Balor vs Elias for the ICT and in England, Walter vs Pete Dunne rematches for the NTX:UK belt. Aleister Black & Ricochet vs The Revival, Titus O'Neil vs EC3 and Apollo Crews vs Mojo Rawley round out those cards. Main and ICT/UK title matches unchanged, after TVs it's Zack Ryder & Curt Hawkins vs Dash n Dawson for the tag belts, Bayley & Ember Moon vs Riott & Morgan, new grudge match Bobby Roode vs Chad Gable and a return to Lucha House Party vs Jinder Mahal & The Singh Brothers.
    Can I say... Styles, Joe, Rey, Miz and The Usos all going to Raw in the "Superstar Shakeup" continues the long tradition of Raw absolutely pillaging the treasures of little brother. Technically SmackDown received Roman Reigns in return, and Balor's the Intercontinental champ, but they had the guts of their cards ripped out. As always. Besides, Balor's going to lose to Raw's new heel before being fucked off back to NXT soon anyway. Unbelievably. Sheamus is injured.

    VARIATIONS
    In Belfast only a swap has Crews vs EC3 and Titus vs Rawley. It's logically Braun Strowman & Roman Reigns vs McIntyre & Lashley in Brussels. No Reigns in Paris but here's compensation - Strowman, AJ Styles & Rey Mysterio vs Bobby, Drew & Jinder. In Cardiff, Bayley, Ember and Liv have a night off so the title match is Lynch vs Evans vs Riott vs Tamina. At Rancho Relaxo its Strowman vs Lashley and more new arrivals ahoy - Samoa Joe vs Roode vs Ricochet vs Cedric Alexander, The Usos vs Revival, The Viking Raiders (War Machine/Raiders) vs Gran Metalik & Lince Dorado, Kalisto vs Eric Young, Naomi vs Tamina going to a DQ leading to Naomi & Dana Brooke vs Tamina & Sarah Logan, and Evans vs Natalya. No Roman then? Better get used to that, blue brand supporters.

    MAIN EVENTS - NXT
    2nd in Melbourne (Florida, not Oz) it's Keith Lee vs Bobby Fish, 3rd in West Palm Beach Velveteen Dream vs Matt Riddle for the NAT, 4th in Fort Pierce Riddle vs Adam Cole. 9th in Largo its Dream vs Cole again, Riddle's on last with Punishment Martinez 10th in Sebring, 11th in St Augustine on last it's Candice LeRae, Io Shirai & Mia Yim vs Shayna Baszler, Jessamyn Duke & Marina Shafir. 16th in Bethlehem it's Dream vs Cole, next night in Philly the inevitable Dream vs Cole vs Riddle three way and again 19th in Asbury Park though the submission match technically goes on last. 23rd in Bartow its Street Profits vs Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel, 24th in Coral Gables Dream & Riddle (pair of bad 'uns) tag against Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake, 25th in Daytona Beach Matt's on last again, with Trevor Lee.
    B shows! 16th in Tampa it's Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel vs Albert Hardie Jr & Humberto Carrillo (sounds decent to me) then next night its Kassius Ohno vs Killian Dain in St Petersburg (sounds messy).

    THE CARDS
    Kushida vs Humberto Carrillo repeats in West Palm and Fort Pierce. Shayna Baszler vs Kacy Catanzaro for the belt goes down in Sebring and Street Profits vs Riddick Moss & Dan Matha starts in West Palm then both repeat all three nights week 3 where it's also Punishment Martinez vs Keith Lee, Kush settles in with Drew Gulak, a submission match in Philadelphia and Asbury Park, both Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan vs Kyle O'Reilly & Bobby Fish and Candice LeRae & Io Shirai vs Jessamyn Duke & Marina Shafir repeat in Pennsylvania. Other repeats include Martinez vs Kona Reeves in West Palm and Coral Gables, Mia Yim vs Reina Gonzalez in West Palm and Tampa, Jessie Elaban vs MJ Jenkins in Fort Pierce and Tampa and Xia Li & Karen Q vs Aliyah & Vanessa Borne in St Petersburg & Coral Gables.

    VARIATIONS - SOME
    Melbourne - Tyler Breeze vs Shane Thorne, Bianca Belair vs Elaban, Albert Hardie Jr vs Luke Menzies, Kacy & Lacey Lane vs Taynara Conti & Reina (TayReina are back!!). West Palm - Kairi Sane, Io & Karen vs Baszler, Duke & Shafir, Fort Pierce - Roderick Strong vs Hardie, Belair vs Catanzaro. Largo - Profits vs Brendan Vink & Jermaine Haley, Strong vs Shane Strickland (!), Shafir vs Xia, Kacy & Jessie vs Aliyah & Borne. Sebring - Strickland vs Trevor Lee, TayReina vs Xia & Karen. St Augustine - last nights main event enemies Matt Riddle & Martinez vs Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel, Kushida vs Thorne, Jenkins vs Karen. Bethleham - Riddle vs Strong. Tampa - Killian Dain vs Haley (WHERE'S THE BEEF??) Garza Jr (a/k/a Angel Garza) debuts vs (Big) Boa. Asbury Park - Burch & Lorcan vs O'Reilly & Strong. St Petersburg - Carrillo vs Trevor, Yim vs Belair. Bartow - Thorne vs Williams, Deonna Purrazzo vs Xia, Lane & Kacy vs Duke & Shafir. Coral - Baszler vs Elaban, Carrillo vs Garza, Breeze & Eric Bugenhagen vs Moss & Matha, after Boogs vs Moss, Kushida vs Menzies. Daytona - Duke vs Lane, Kushida vs Vink.

    TVs
    1st at Full Sail there's Trevor vs Strickland before tapings start, and other unused matches are Xia vs Rachel Evers and "Imperium" (Barthel & Aichner) beating Shane Matthews & Scott Parker (not Solid Gold or the former Spurs player.. these lads are Matt Menard and Angelo Parker). 6th Raw is notable because Kofi and Danny Bry have their title rematch. Next night in Louisville Heavy Machinery vs Jinder & Shelton Benjamin is an odd opener, Bryan and Rowan win the tag belts, Kofi & Woods beat Owens & Zayn last. 13th at the O2 a fairly non-eventful Raw at the O2 has Styles vs McIntyre AND Rollins vs Corbin after the show. Next night they get New Day vs KO & Sami. Sunday 19th in Bel Air there's an NXT taping, in addition to the three matches taped for one episode of TV they see Profits vs Moss & Matha, "Damien Priest" vs Keith, Baszler vs Kacy for the belt, then Dream vs Cole vs Riddle on last. The MITB PPV is hugely eventful over in Hartford - 11 matches looks big but three are less than 21 minutes and several others are short. Rey wins the US title from Joe in a match barely longer than their Mania fiasco, the mighty Shane McMahon gets his win back from Miz inside a cage, Becky retains the Raw title over Evans, who then costs her the SmackDown title in a hastily-agreed-to match straight after... only for Bayley to cash in the briefcase she's won earlier that night. Finally after Rollins and Kofi expectedly retain over Styles and KO respectively, Brock Lesnar inserts himself into the ongoing Money In The Bank ladder match and for some reason is allowed to win - Ali was only told as he was about to go through the curtain that he was no longer winning, as he'd been lead to believe. That sucks. 20th Raw seems to be the first TV show featuring the 24/7 title which I'm only going to mention when won by interesting names - dark, Reigns & Rollins beat Lashley & McIntyre. Next night in Providence Tucker & Otis beat Shelts & Jinder again, on last - how about this? - The Iiconics retain on a heel DQ over Asuka & Kairi. 27th Raw in Kansas City the unstoppable Shane beats Lance Anoa'i (yes), Corbin becomes top contender (zzz) and the dark main has The Man retain the Raw belt over Evans. Finally next night in Tulsa Ali beats Buddy Murphy on first, Bayley retains over Charlotte last.

    NON TITLE WHINING
    Beaten on TV this month : Balor, obviously (Intercontinental Champion) in a four way with Orton, Ali and (winner) Andrade, Hawkins & Ryder (Raw tag team champions) by Viking Raiders, Bryan & Rowan (SmackDown Tag Team Champions) by The Usos.

    A PERSONAL NOTE
    I had a ticket waiting for me for the Wednesday night Raw show at the NEC but for personal reasons decided not to bother going which would have required two days off work. In hindsight, it was one that I'm not arsed about missing. Gun to my head, would it have been nice to see "The Man" defend the Raw belt at the peak of her powers? Sure. But I saw her at that SmackDown back in November which arguably was more in the eye of the storm of her ascent anyway. Of the wrestlers I'd not already seen live, most would barely have registered as a box to tick on "the list" save.... Liv Morgan? And I'm thinking far more about "inoffensive on the eyes" there than "great wrestlers I've seen live."

    DEPARTURES
    I don't think so.

    Some kind soul put Bournemouth up in its entirety ;

     

  15. 6 minutes ago, Version1.0 said:

    Paul Burchill

    Looked great crushing flyweights like a British Brock Lesnar. Looked bang average in WWE where he was no bigger than hardly anyone.

    7 minutes ago, Version1.0 said:

    Nikita

    Would definitely have benefited from being active under her TNA gimmick at the peak of Game of Thrones so we could make the "Winter Is Coming" joke.

  16. Having watched the simmering sexual tension threaten to bubble over between Punk, Rollins and McIntyre, I've never been more convinced (or terrified) that Priest will cash in at Mania.

    Seth did one thing I liked - dropping the mic in such a manner after he left Drew laying. Subtle, which he doesn't usually manage.

  17. 41 minutes ago, Loki said:

    I don't think the WWE were deliberately jerking Reigns around, and I agree with @Shane O' Mac Version 2 that he was front and centre of the company through those years.

    But this was the WWE in the depths of the final Vince McMahon years when his understanding of what wrestling crowds wanted had completely evaporated.  The company was incapable of changing direction or responding to crowds and ploughed on with Vince's "vision" regardless. 

    Sure, it wasn't deliberate. But it was sure as hell misguided, most of the time. Hunter entering himself into the Rumble to screw with Roman and make himself the big bad for Roman to topple would have been a great idea - I only wish they'd have gone all the way and had him be #31 - but it was sloppily executed and works better if (a) Roman doesn't sit out half the match (b) you haven't made him look stupid with the Sheamus diversion because suddenly you haven't got another heel to bridge the gap between Survivors and the Rumble (c) the match at Mania had been better, mainly shorter.

    One thing Survivor Series 15, Mania 34 and a few other times had in common was Vince being convinced "sympathy" was the way. A bloke you've previously referred to as a "juggernaut" doesn't need to be left flat on his back over and over again, and "sympathy" isn't the way to do it. You could cheat Steve Austin time and time again, he always got back up. Was it Linus that had as his avatar Reigns' face as he lay flat on his back surrounded by confetti at the end of that Survivor Series? It's a hell of a fade to black and fine spiritual successor to Lex celebrating a count-out surrounded by balloons. Chumps, the pair of them.

  18. 43 minutes ago, Loki said:

    Can we borrow John Moxley for the night?  Imagine The Shield and The Rock lining up opposite Cody, Cena, Stone Cold and Jey.  Goodness me.  Throw everything at it, like you did with Sting v HHH.

    To completely recapture Sting vs HHH you'd need the rest of the Bloodline standing on the other side with Roman waving to them not sure whose side he should be on, plus Taker, Shane and the ghosts of Vis, Boss Man and Test standing next to Austin as we pretend that in the storyline the Corporate Ministry weren't his blood enemies and would never come to his aid in a huge ruck.

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