air_raid

32 minutes ago, Matthew said:

The accompanying forum also introduced me to this world/forum. Anyone from here that was on there?

Wouldn’t have thought so.

34 minutes ago, wandshogun09 said:

Hustle

This absolutely should not be glossed over, for one of the maddest bits of wrestling ever. Great Muta spat his mist into the pussy of Yinling The Erotic Terrorist, who fell pregnant from it. She ended up laying an egg. When that egg hatched, Akebono came out. With a dummy.

.... RIP.

2 minutes ago, FLips said:

A lot of the AEW roster really should start looking at how they can WWE-ify themselves sooner rather than later because you would think the likes of Ricky Starks, MJF and Cody’s other mates are already one foot out the door, and people like Moxley, Renee, FTR and Malakai Black probably wouldn’t be far behind.

His deal is up soon isn't it? I imagine Hunter's already added him to the group chat.

The really sad thing is that I just read Listers tweet that Joe vs Strickland, Danielson vs Ospreay, Pac vs Okada and Bucks vs FTR are all happening on one show, and THIS is what we’re talking about.

You’re a silly sausage, Tony.

56 minutes ago, TheScarlettChad said:

I'd have slapped Sammy too. Didn't he say he wanted to rape Mone? Then said it was a joke. Just Bantz innit.

Schrödinger's Douchebag.

"Adrenaline in my soul
Every fight down at McColls
Do it all to get them buying sweets
The wino's here, about to blow
Readers' Wives is on the go
Shut the curtain, lights go down, in Cromer...
(Whoa!)

And Stanley said, when I was younger
Pay the wages AND the rent!

They took it all away, Jon gave it all away
Can't take my freedom
Here to change the chain, new carpets and new paint
Just like North Walsham
Show us loyalty!
Karen, Nicky and Lorraine!
You'll follow me until the end
I'll go to Aylsham!"

Re : Brawl In footage ;

4 minutes ago, Factotum said:

It will pop a rating, but it was all very desperate Bischoff in late 98.

Will it? Or do AEW fans prefer good wrestling matches to petty bullshit? I can't wait* to find out if it makes an actual difference.

* By which I mean, I'm mildly interested. I do have a life.

8 minutes ago, Vamp said:

He's also a guy who's great at doing very basic moves when they matter.

Nobody in the 30 years I've watched pro wrestling has convinced me that the other guy is about to lose because of a dropkick, like little Kazu.

2 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Honestly, the only person this nonsense will benefit is Drew McIntyre, who’ll almost certainly reference it in the coming weeks, adding extra zeroes to the contract he’ll eventually sign with WWE.

Common knowledge or not, I imagine that's in the bag already.

4 minutes ago, Chris B said:

I didn't get him at first and wasn't that impressed, and I now think he's one of the greatest wrestlers alive.

Imagine, back in the day, with only that short match with Yoshi-Hashi to his name after returning to New Japan, my shock at reading he'd beaten Tanahashi, who even in 2012 I was starting to consider the greatest World Champion of his time. Come August of the same year I was in the building when he won the G1, and I already "got it" that he was special. There's something there that's hard to put a finger on.

12 minutes ago, LEGIT said:

Makes AEW look weak and petty if you ask me.

That's always the problem with punching up. If you punch down, sure you look like a bully. But at least you're laughing at the people you're beating. But if you punch up, you look desperate. Pissing on someone else's bonfire doesn't make yours burn any brighter.

Just now, DavidB6937 said:

If TK thinks this is the best way to get eyes on the product then that's a real step in the wrong direction for me. I really can't be arsed with it all.

Yep. As I alluded to earlier, any overt reference to what the guys beating you are doing or who they employ is a mistake in my eyes. It was pathetic when Vince signed off on Billionaire Ted, it was pathetic when Bischoff instructed Schiavone to spoil Mankind winning the belt on the taped Raw, it's pathetic today.

11 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

The PPV buy is going to be huge to see the EVP's v FTR off the back of that segment. 

This just reminds me of “Insiders” era WCW where Kev would mention Scott Hall every week even though he didn’t work there any more. Can’t wait to hear Cash and Cawson do promos that they’re getting revenge for the slight against their pal. Who happens to work for the other guys.

Terry & Jason Donovan >>> Dusty & Cody Rhodes.

Who wants a story that finishes as opposed to one that runs five days a week to infinity, anyway???

4 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

I like quips, flips and chips that's why I'm here.

I prefer bodyslams, side suplexes, clotheslines, dropkicks and powerslams.

23 minutes ago, Chili said:

Guy got clicking a pen over.

Then he should go all the way and bring a clipboard with him so he can write down his 1004 holds.

1 hour ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Genuine question, Do you actually watch any AEW or you just here for making quips?  

I just come here to segue into talking about the 90s any way I can.

…

…

…. you weren’t talking to me, were ya.

5 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

That said, Taker's from TX as well, so that's also a potential, simple explanation right there.

In storyline terms he was from Death Valley so he should have helped Cody last year in California too!

7 minutes ago, Vamp said:

I'm not sure you couldn't pick just as many holes in Austin appearing as you could Undertaker. His feud with Rock is years ago. The Rock is the final Boss and Austin has a history of teaming up with bosses at WrestleMania.

The Texas Rattlesnake showing up to help the offspring of Austin TX’s favourite son facing insurmountable odds, helping repel the baddie who even in storyline terms had been acknowledged as a corporate suit, and who happens to have been his biggest rival of all time and who beat him in his first retirement match?

No sense at all, utterly random, agreed.

7 minutes ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

if you're going to be breaking through to the next level you can chance your arm at being the Champion of the World; and if you climb that hurdle only then can you consider a crack at being the Champion of the Codyverse.

50 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

I imagine he's spent thousands of hours studying tape of Bret, Dusty, Hogan, Cena, Austin etc. and meticulously picked apart what worked, what didn't and what he could take from them.

Don't forget Triple H. I just rewatched his entrance from Sunday, mostly to hear a big stadium pop when his music started, and that particular piece of production reminded me a great deal of a "King of Kings" Mania entrance.

@Loki"Speaking of... is it Undisputed WWE Championship, Universal Undisputed Champion or what?  They've called it so many different names this weekend."

.... just caught that actually, Samantha introduced Roman as "the Undisputed WWE Universal Heavyweight Champion." Blimey.

And of course, I've watched the last few minutes again. Christ.... it was like Backlash 2000 for a new era, it really was. Jesus wept, the Silver Medal took a beating here, didn't it? Imagine watching Cody's big moment and trying to give a shit about the other belt now!

14 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

They could use it to transition into Jack Perry’s return; but how do you square that with the storyline world? Backstage assaults happen all the time in the fake world of wrestling. I can’t see a way of doing it without acknowledging the fakeness of it all.

Horrible Matt Hardy in 2005 vibe here.

I mean, horrible vibe all round, but you know.

Some might suggest he doesn't look like the makings of a monster, but when Strowman first showed up he looked like a baby-faced soft lad that had grown a beard, like Samwell Tarly on roids, so never say never.

13 hours ago, Statto said:

I did all 4 shows of Summerslam weekend in Toronto - nominally my honeymoon.

🤣 You cold bastard! I'll remember that for "nominally a Christmas break in New York" if I ever do MSG on Boxing Day.

13 hours ago, Statto said:

The other notable thing from those shows you've not mentioned is the week before his cracker with DB, Buddy Murphy has what several called (in the immediate aftermath) a genuine MOTY contender with Roman Reigns at Smackdown. It was bloody good, but then I've always loved Buddy. 

Yeah... I go back and forth with how much I should mention from TV outside of dark matches. I try to limit it to title changes or what I think might be significant in terms of part timers showing up or what might impact "the roster" for the road. In Murphy's case here it was one of "look at the false dawn here for the guy that ends up going nowhere and released" situations that's depressingly frequent.

18 hours ago, Carbomb said:

Because of the debate in the Raw thread about the Samoan/Polynesian family relationships in wrestling, I decided to check Wiki. There's some interesting stuff, to say the least.

The first is the generational gaps - there are brothers separated by whole eras. The one that surprised me the most is that Samu (of the Headshrinkers/Samoan SWAT Team) is the brother of Manu, who was briefly in Legacy - Samu's prime era was early 80s to early 90s, but Manu came to WWE in the late 2000s. Sam Fatu, who was in Bodyslam with Roddy Piper in the 80s, is the older brother of Umaga, whose era was also mid to late 2000s. The three Fatus all had their WWF/E eras in different eras too - Sam in the 80s, Fatu/Rikishi in the 90s/early 00s, and Umaga in the late 00s; each one had left the promotion before the next came in.

Sam Fatu being Tonga Kid/Islander Tama if people haven't read that thread.

The one I always liked and surprised me, even thought there wasn't that many years in between, was that Matt Anoa'i was in the Samoan Gangster Party with (I think) cousin Samu and they were briefly the two mystery blokes that were showing up ringside for "making a difference" Fatu's matches... then years later Matt would be Rosey in 3MW with cousin Eddie/Umaga.

And Matt's little brother, of course, is Roman Reigns.

2 hours ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

Undertaker, yeah. I did some mental gymnastics on a previous page as to why it made sense, and others have explained it away by Undertaker getting one over on the people who caused his only Wrestlemania losses, but I accept that it was The Undertaker probably only because Austin couldn't do it for whatever reason.

1 hour ago, mim731 said:

I saw someone on Twitter saying that it was simply that Taker was often (when it suited, so not when he was being a heel) presented as "the conscience" of the WWF/WWE so was helping to even the odds.

58 minutes ago, The Gaffer said:

Yeah it's because they couldn't get Austin but the conscience angle makes about as perfect a wrestling sense as you need there, I think.

He's the on and off screen locker room morality guy, seeing the new authority figure come in and throw his weight around abusing his power.

1 hour ago, d-d-d-dAz said:

This is a guy who was the conscience of the WWE, a locker room leader through The Rock's era who will have known Cody as a child. He was defending the integrity of the Mania main event and of Wrestlemania, and was making sure a 52 year old from his era didn't come back and rob an opportunity from the new era.

It's all nonsense from a storyline point of view when we remember that the last on screen interaction between Reigns and Taker was, IIRC, Taker being Roman's partner against the combined menace of McIntyre and the invincible Shane McMahon. It's possible that it's more convenient to not look for a reason why Taker would cost The Bloodline than to go looking for story that the company hasn't given us. I don't mind when fans remind us of stuff that happened when WWE forgets to but sometimes it gets out of hand. I saw something on Twitter about Sami the other day which made my head spin in terms of "You might be the only human being that thought about this, including writers/agents and Zayn."

51 minutes ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

If you’re going to apply logic to the end of that match, I say you have to apply logic to the rest of it. Heyman said in the backstage interview earlier in the night that Bloodline Rules meant (paraphrasing) “whatever we want”.

So where was the Over The Edge 1998 style rewriting the rulebook as they went? Why didn’t they say “in Bloodline Rules, nobody is allowed to hit Roman Reigns ever” or “in Bloodline Rules, Cody Rhodes requires a 20 count to win but Roman Reigns only needs a 1”? Logically if the rules are “whatever we want” they could have done that.

But when you apply logic to wrestling you ruin the magic. Enjoy the cameos. Enjoy the run ins. Enjoy the match and enjoy The Story!

Yeah. Plus, even just within an "anything goes" context, how logical is it that instead of Rocky, Uso and Solo just piling onto Cody within seconds of the opening bell so Roman can win and they all can go to Butlins, they each waited in turn for the opportune and most dramatic moment possible to show their faces? In reality, too, if you're Cody, you actually show up for the match with Seth, Jey and anyone else you can persuade in tow, already ringside to counteract the interference you know is going to come based on, well, Mania 39 for a start, and the fact The Bloodline have openly talked about it. But because its wrestling, he turned up on his tod.

4 hours ago, mim731 said:

Hollywood Backlot Brawl at Mania 12 surely is the first one?

Good shout. Unless I discount that as "no bell, no ref, no decision, no match" as people have done to me re: HHH vs Orton being not really Hunter's last match.... LOL.

That and the first Boiler Room Brawl are the first two PPV matches I recall with a pre-recorded element (bell to bell, or not, so to speak) plus the car chase footage spliced into it. I'm not 100% but I think the Empty Arena match at Halftime Heat was the first time I noticed anything particularly "cinematic" in terms of the filming style - i.e. the visual of Rock's face as the forklift descends on him and worse, his POV of it lowering... like, there's a camera shot there that has no reason to exist. It's a wider conversation, but that was the first one that made me go "Ah, that's some bullshit." It's not "making movies" in the sense of cameras being invisible. It's a pretend sport, and it's a world in which the people doing the filming exist, are seen on screen and acknowledged, and have even been used in the match (as recently as Bad Blood/Hell In A Cell at the point of Halftime Heat). At the point you show me something filmed from an viewpoint where I just saw that there's no cameraman and then you immediately cut back to a shot where I see no cameraman, I'm no longer suspending my disbelief. Subconsciously I no longer can believe I'm watching a wrestling show, I'm fully aware that I'm watching what Max Landis called (and I'm paraphrasing) a TV show about a wrestling show.

4 hours ago, FUM said:

Granted it may have been different purely due to the pandemic times but states pay WWE about $20m to bring WrestleMania to them so they aren’t really paying for stadium hire.

That's the key, isn't it? There's a pretty good chance the "ask" may have been lower given the tourism revenue coming in was in turn going to be lower, so they will have crunched the numbers on monies received - cost of rent + two nights ticket sales and decided it was worth it.