Nick James

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

The worst thing about the whole thing online has been that everyone who was always going to hate it are pretending they watched with an open mind and hated in anyway. Those who wanted to love it are doing the same in reverse.

This is it, 100%. Its fucking tedious in the AEW threads, it's tedious in the WWE threads. It's smacks of elitism, ironically. 

Anyways, the promo, whilst being a bit shit, was passable for the absurd sight of seeing Punk stood with e WWE mic in front of his face. The line said to the camera and not to the live audience makes it quite clear the way they are going with this. I just wish it wasn't Seth, give the story to Drew instead.

19 minutes ago, TheScarlettChad said:

Tony's crying into his corn flakes that he let this guy go. 

He's not the only one it seems.

Imagine being one of the folk who have pinned their flag to one particular company and not being able to enjoy the absolute lunacy that is going on in wrestling right now. I can't wait to see Tony Khan rebuttal to Punk joining WWE. 

Enjoy the ride, what a time to be a fan.

I'll take 'Things I never thought I'd see' for $500 please, Alex.

How far the stock has fallen that it's during a set of ROH tapings as well rather than on one of the main shows as a ratings boost.

No idea how anyone would just go straight to Cricket from Devon Malcolm and not think the clue was relating to film and cinema or Adidas trainers. 

Ol' Tone is giving it the big guns.

This surely has to be Mercedes Moné, right? Either that or the devil will be revealed to be Marty Scurll.

I half expected Orton to RKO Drew as he stood on the ramp. I would absolutely piss myself if Orton returns with 'This Fire Burns'. Marvellous stuff.

Name value (which he no longer has now they have changed his name) is the only reason that he is on TV straight away. He's rank rotten and needs a lot of coaching. To say he was in MLW for a few years before AEW, then a few years there, he's greener than most of these athletes with no wrestling background.

Mind you, he's better than Gable Steveson.

Whilst the storyline hasn't been great, that Devil mask is fantastic. Looks brilliant. 

Logan Paul is just fucking great. Absolutely pisses charisma, really good in the ring and absolutely deserves the title. Will be good for business when he's waving it in people's faces at his brother's freakshow boxing matches. Him driving the dune buggy around and into the arena was brilliant too.

So glad to see Kairi back, was gutted when she left last time and hopefully her and Iyo move away from Damage CTRL now.

Claudio is very good. Just an enjoyable, safe pair of hands that you know if going to put on a cracker match. Nothing else really needs to be said about O.C either. He has well and truly proven everyone wrong that only saw him as a comedy character, or 'pockets'. Done right, he could well and truly be a main eventer in the same vein as Daniel Bryan as the underdog taking on all comers. 

I am ever so slightly obsessed with Chelsea Green. Niven as Anvil was a hoot too.

How many times have AEW had a really good episode of Dynamite, only for people to end up talking about one part in particular being terrible instead of the show itself. Feels like every time a bit of momentum gets going, a mad segment / angle or new signing gets announced that just takes the momentum away and has everyone talking about that one thing instead.

This week it's Flair, the other week it was the roll of quarters and so on and so forth. It feels like one own goal after another with smatterings of really good TV in-between. Highly frustrating.

Edit: Completely forgot about Christian just being fantastic as always. I know it seems like a weekly thing to say, but what an absolute revelation his heel work has been. Best run of his career, hands down.

Just watching Episode 1 of this and I'll be honest, it's quite boring. Feels like I've seen this type of thing a million times, however I'll stick with it due to people in this thread saying it picks up after episode 1.

It doesn't help that so far it's been 30 mins of Al Snow doing sad faces and people calling him a legend of the business. Don't get me wrong, I used to be an Al Snow fan, but I never watched a show purely for Al Snow. His feud with Hardcore Holly was a fun time, but other than that and that Kennel from Hell match, I don't recall too much of his career.

I did a training seminar with Doug Basham about 12 years ago and always remember him being a really nice guy, glad to see he's still kicking around.

I'll stick with it, but I'm close to turning it off to watch The Wiggles documentary instead.

Rocky Romero is their main envoy for the NJPW deal, isn't he? If giving him the odd showcase match on Rampage against outside talent continues on that relationship, then give him the main event every week. 

I'm actually quite intrigued to see how the former Sin Cara looks outside of a WWE ring, I've not watched any CMLL since the days it used to be on Virgin Media about 12 years ago (if he is actually from CMLL).

1 hour ago, Loki said:

Hobbs was working a Mark Henry style which really suits him. 

You could be onto something there, instead of sticking him with QT, Callis and the like, get Mark Henry to 'coach' him. Do vignettes with Henry showing him the powerlifting stuff with Gimmicked ridiculously heavy items and just have him be strong as an ox that just throws people around until you finally get to someone who outsmarts him. 

I genuinely think out of Miro, Wardlow and Hobbs, Hobbs has the most potential to be rehabbed into someone that could really have a good go at being a top guy.

Imagine being a Fulham fan right now, protesting against the club due to the high ticket prices, calling for Tony to resign etc,  whilst he Is arguing with wrestling nerds on Twitter and rarely speaks about Fulham. 

Brilliant.

6 hours ago, Infinity Land said:

Something that I found jarring last night that's been overshadowed as it was played for laughs, Max Caster's 'I love/like it when he plays hard to get' line. Taking the kayfabed in-joke between friends that verges on creepy stalker behaviour and put it on TV as the message persistence pays off wasn't for me.

It comes across as very 'David Walliams' to me.

3 hours ago, Devon Malcolm said:

As for the quarters thing, well, if you try and defend that then you're a blinkered mark moron even by the standard of wrestling fans. 

1 hour ago, Infinity Land said:

That wasn't done in reaction to the segment. It's something that would have been lined up in advance. Just trying to keep a good relationship with WBD it would have been ran by them considering current events. Being truly cynical I had to double check that the NE Pats weren't playing their TNF game this week, they aren't.

With MJF's use of the topic in past promos and Juice's history of using a roll of quarters to attack people. This is a bit that was probably going to happen regardless of the news when the feud with Bullet Club Gold started. It's even more of a livewire topic but they presumably see the jewish kid standing up and beating his bully as worth it.

Go figure.

3 hours ago, Supremo said:

Brian Pillman not even being Brian Pillman though. Hilarious. Literally the only thing he’s ever had going for him. Useless lump, just now with Turkey Teeth.

Come on, to be fair that promo was the most interesting thing Brian Pillman Jr has done in his career and at least for once they gave an actual, logical reason for his name change.

I often thought that it was more than Tony misspoke and meant he feared for his safety rather than life, but think LaGoosh is spot on that it was more a legal wording to avoid any potential legal issues with Punks firing. 

Meltdown Tony Khan is the best Tony Khan. 

Jade signing was broken by ESPN, she's had multiple promotional tweets by the WWE account, had other stars talk about her in interviews outside of WWE such as Bobby Lashley talking about recruiting her for his new stable, shown getting out of a fancy car shaking hands with the man in charge, that's a pretty strong signing so far if you ask me.

She hasn't been shown in a 'Property of WWE' shirt, debuted front row of NXT or had her name changed to 'Jade Storm' or some shit (yet), so I'd say she's getting a lot, lot better than other indie or folk from other companies that have signed in the past. 

She was at times, presented as a big deal in AEW, no one can say otherwise. She went on a god knows how long winning streak, how they capitalised on the momentum is another matter, but they did do well with her there's no denying that.

How they follow up is another matter, but I'm happy to stay on the train so far.