garynysmon

I don’t know if you’re being serious but that sounds brilliant… I must say how much in awe I am of some posters’ ability, with ease, to forensically analyse shows on a segment by segment basis. Its really good and always strikes me as a facet of these AEW threads. I could be watching the best or worst show in the world yet an hour later I’ll have forgotten 90% of the match card. As a result the TNA thread is essentially a string of “Yeah that was a decent show”, posts.

These docs will take up a lot of time to watch but fucking hell, they don’t half give me the fuzzies.

Tom Hannifan certainly made it seem so on commentary. Having been through the WWE system for so long and knowing what its like to sit in catering, I can certainly see why Maclin would want to stick around. Knowing he’ll always be featured in some way shape or form, as long as the money’s decent and a revolving door of new talent to work with, I can see why TNA would be a decent gig for a bloke of his standing/ability. TNA’s like rolling 3 on a dice isn’t it? No its not the notoriety or exposure of being a WWE (or to a lesser degree AEW) wrestler, but on the flipside you could be working for NWA or MLW which is further down again on the totem pole. MLW had a big show last night too, but you’d never have known it. Nic Nemeth has been very open about how much he enjoys being in TNA, certainly far and above what you’d expect someone to say about their promotion of employment at any given time. That counts for a lot when you’re at a certain stage of your career. On Matt Hardy, yeah I can certainly see why some would roll their eyes. But Broken Matt is about the only incarnation of MH I can see being watchable in 2024. In an environment where he’ll be given the creative freedom he needs for a character like that to work, I can see it being good for a giggle. Plus, while Santana would be the ‘best’ signing according to many, the Matt Hardy one is by far the most viewed video published by TNA from the show. He’s not really there to provide ‘banger’ matches is he? There are plenty of others on the card able to do that, its all about a mixed television show. But I accept personally, as someone who has always detested the original ROH and any ‘workrate’ fetish, its not going to appeal to everyone the same way.

You’ve just reached the FA Cup final… No point pretending its still 1999 and that Man Utd are still somehow above reaching your odd cup finals. Be thankful, fans of 98% of football clubs are facing winning fuck all this season.

FFS, Dusty finish.

I’m fine with Matt Hardy, its fucking Sami Callihan being back that annoys me…Useless waste of space. Steve Maclin’s staying, Santana should shine here and Matt Hardy should be a laugh. More positives than negatives I’d say. The production has been rough on some of the recent shows, which is really off-putting. But Rebellion looked great.

On my first visit to Vegas in 2012 I actually had a snoop around Caesar’s looking for the “arena”. I didn’t realise it had long been built upon. Heartbreaking… I’ve not seen Leon Slater wrestle on a US-held TNA show yet, but he’s on the preshow tonight.

That's a few days old, they've passed 800 now. With walk ups it will comfortably top 1,000 which will look good in that particular venue.

I haven't watched much wrestling at all for a few months now, which includes TNA. In all honesty the product has felt stone cold for a few months now, which is quite shameful really, given that they came out from Hard to Kill with quite a lot of buzz. That said, the Rebellion card is looking pretty good and after a bit of a break I'm quite looking forward to watching it. While they're going back to the Palms at Vegas a little too soon, at least you know it'll be a four figure crowd in a decent, well lit arena in a pretty hot atmosphere. Singles Match: Rich Swann (w/AJ Francis) vs. Joe Hendry Last Man Standing Match: Josh Alexander vs. Hammerstone Full Metal Mayhem Match: Frankie Kazarian vs. Eric Young TNA X-Division Title Match: Mustafa Ali (c) vs. Jake Something TNA World Tag Team Title Match: The System (Brian Myers & Eddie Edwards) (c) vs. Speedball Mountain (Mike Bailey & Trent Seven) TNA Knockouts World Title Match: Jordynne Grace (c) vs. Steph De Lander (w/Matt Cardona) TNA World Title Match: Moose (c) vs. Nic Nemeth

On balance I think that social media has not been a force for good and has forced a wedge in society that seems to be widening. There was definitely a ‘sweet spot’ for the internet. When it broadened horizons, provided us with wikipedia and search engines but your mum and Sandra next door hadn’t discovered Facebook yet. Broadcast media and the printed press was far from perfect and there have always been red and blue newspapers. But when you consider how much of a platform social media has given to utter cranks, it makes you pine for a time that they didn’t have a platform at all. In 1994 Laurence Fox, rather than having half a million Twitter followers, would have been a guest on an obscure late night James Whale cable show or stood on a soapbox in an inner London park with people looking on in bemusement. The 1960’s Heath government decriminalised and legalised a lot of things, including gay sex. The direction of travel was clear and people generally followed. Its hard to see such liberal and seismic (for the time) legislation enjoying a free ride in this climate. There was a time when people at least tried to pretend they were ‘hip’ and forward thinking, despite what they may say behind closed doors. But now you can find someone that will share your opinions on anything, which usually has an emboldening effect. You think the earth is flat? Well here’s the Fb group for you buddy…

I thought this was a great little film and worth 20 mins. More of these please TNA.

Pretty much! He was great fun on the UK Indies and came out with some right bangers based on popular songs. There's no way TNA is paying for any licensed music so that hurts his act a little bit, but he's great. My favourite TNA creation of his was this little ditty.

This is made me laugh anyway.

“Banning” Hulk Hogan and signing Ric Flair is about as clear an example as I can think of.

Swap around AEW and WWE in your comment and it would be just as valid.

If you added up how many people were watching live shows in the USA and wrestling for a living in 1980 compared to 1990, both figures would show a significant drop.

The best theme we never had.

Good old whataboutery… In all seriousness, as @RedRooster alluded to, is Tony Khan really a ‘nice guy’ though? Yes he gets excited about wrestlers he signs, which may be endearing to some. But ask Big Swole and others he’s had a wobbler about if he’s a nice guy or not. Tony Khan’s major advantage over any other booker is his financial clout that he inherited by virtue of his birth. A hill I’d happily die on is if you gave Scott D’amore AEW’s budget it would be a better product all round.

819,000 viewers. So a stunt designed solely to pique the interest of hardcore fans who follow all the backstage stuff didn’t break through. What a shocker. On the WCW stuff, WCW always felt worse than it was at the time because it was up against peak WWF. I find a lot of 1998-99 very watchable personally, certainly never boring. 2000 I will concede was fucking terrible though.

Coming up next week, Sean Waltman shitting in Sunny’s food.

Just seen the footage on Twitter now. Wow… was that it? Whenever you heard of backstage fights I always imagined them to be worse than that. If this was a real sport or the lobby of the House of Commons I could see how it would be newsworthy. But in pro wrestling, where we’ve had ‘backstage attacks’ on weekly tv for over 25 years, it seems rather tame in comparison. I may be desensitized to the whole thing by now but on a TV show where you’re always trying to put over heinous attacks, showing a guy being struck and being put in a front facelock being hammed up as this massive big deal is kind of funny. Given AEW is on a channel like TNT not everyone follows the online stuff anyway and it would all seem rather confusing.

I grew up on squash matches and then the Attitude Era. Take the ‘0’ off the end of all those match running times and then you’re talking.

To be frank I think Tony Khan clearly demonstrates some of the traits you'd expect the son of a billionaire to have and is a total berk. I don't find him endearing at all and would, on a personal level, rather not support his endeavours. But he is only human. You can see how, from TK's point of view, it must be frustrating (whether you feel its valid or not) to invest so heavily yet shows like Wrestlemania are just a reminder that WWE is in a different stratosphere. With a massive cash injection thanks to his family, TK managed to quickly set up a federation snapping up the best free agents on the market and signing others from established promotions unable to compete on a financial front. The WWE was at a pretty low ebb at the time and things couldn't have gone better early doors. Enough name talent and his family's clout secured a TV deal no non-WWE promotion had secured in 20 years. It even felt there was a short window where AEW could even catch up, but that horse has long bolted. (In hindsight it probably wasn't there but it did feel achievable) But it's all plateaued hasn't it? You can argue that Chris Jericho and Edge are the closest to a household name any non-WWE company could ever hope to sign, but the growth has seemingly stopped. The big name talent they've signed this year would excite their existing fanbase but haven't made a dent otherwise. I have no idea if AEW are happy or not with how things are going. On some metrics they're clearly doing well, but are probably falling short on others. But where does TK go from here? Has AEW hit its natural glass celing? There has to be a point where you think "Fuck it, its worth a go".

I can’t claim to have followed his latest run, but even going from the glimpses that I have seen, Cody is so WWE isn’t he? You almost forget he played such a vital part in setting up AEW, everything about him fits the WWE style and platform like a glove. Some things are just meant to be.