boytoy

Only watched the last three matches but sounds like I need to go back and watch the tag match and Allin/Sammy. I enjoyed what I saw a lot - the finish was a bit flat in MJF/Cody because it didn't seem that obvious MJF had put the ring on, especially to the live crowd. I thought they did a good job of making the matches seem bigger even if some of the bells and whistles (choir, live band) weren't great. Moxley looked absolutely awesome coming in from outside the arena though. The main event was good without being great but that is probably the drawback with Moxley - I think he makes up for it with what he does bring to the table and I quite enjoyed the eye patch reveal.

PAC was amazing. OC is great fun but for me it was PAC who really made the match work. I loved the spot when OC was rolling away and PAC had enough and walked to the side of the ring he was rolling too to cut him off. I don't know how either didn't start pissing themselves laughing when OC opened his eyes. It will be brilliant when he finally wins.

8 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

One it looks like behind as well. So essentially, a human sausage sandwich if you will

Purple hair girl next to the guy that looks like one of the young bucks.

36 minutes ago, Mr_Danger said:

Bodger and Dave Benson Phillips are bellends.

A couple of mates once noticed Bodger walking along on the other side of the street and when he noticed that he had been spotted he yelled at them 'Ha Ha, fucking mashed potato" from the other side of the road. 

Not sure where to post this but here is a detailed article about Tessa Blanchard if you like that sort of thing:

https://www.theringer.com/2019/12/16/21020515/tessa-blanchard-wrestling-future

I find it weird that the singles roster is so small but then guys like Hager and Wardlow aren't really wrestling either.

4 hours ago, BrodyGraham said:

Am I the only person on here that's been watching Watchmen? Despite some initial scepticism I've found it to be consistently the best show I'm watching in a period of time where I've got quite a lot of appointment viewing.

I'd find it hard to talk about without spoiling stuff, but it's better than it has any right to be by a comfortable stretch.

It has been so good, I absolutely love it. The attention to detail has been staggering.

1 hour ago, RedRooster said:

Has Allie ever worked under that persona on the indie scene? I thought Excalibur labelled her ‘The Bunny’ fat too quickly, why would he know that? I found the whole thing really confusing.

Didn't she have Bunny written on her attire or am I mistaken? Either way that might have been the flattest debut I have ever seen.

I know kayfabe is dead but I have questions that need answers...

1. Does Kenny Omega make his own weapons or does he have help? Is there a wrestling version of acme that made them for him?
2. If DIY, how man hours did he put into making the barbed wire bed and mouse trap board? How does he fit that around his wrestling commitments?
3. Why would he make a giant barbed wire bed and then leave it backstage 'just in case' he needed it? Potentially a lot of wasted effort there if he gets pinned before he even gets a chance to use it.
4. Why make a barbed wire bed big enough for two? Surely you only need to plan to put one person through it.
5. How did he transport them to the arena?
6. Nailing thirty mouse traps to a board is more preparation than used by most killers so maybe not great babyface material. Also probably very low pain/workload ratio really.
7. Who collected the glass from the broken table? Why would anyone think to do this anyway?

8 hours ago, King Pitcos said:

The reason Jericho's doing so well in AEW (and Japan before that) is that he's always been up for reinventing himself and throwing shit at the wall - and that must at least partly come down to his bitterness that he never quite made it as a top guy in the big leagues. Has Randy Orton got the fire or creativity in him to do that? Apart from the odd one-week burst of enthusiasm, he's just done the same thing for about twelve years now. His entire career has been defined by his potential vs his lack of effort. If he turns up in AEW as the top guy and he's just Same Old WWE Randy Orton, it'd hurt AEW's credibility in deir eyes. And I don't see him ever changing much.

Jericho, Moxley and Hager to an extent have all come in with the shtick of being free from the WWE umbrella but every signing can't do that forever. I know this story has been done before (and done to death) but I would buy Orton as the corporate guy sent to try and destroy All Elite from within. Actually I don't think there is a better guy for that role on the WWE roster than Orton as he is the complete antithesis to the indie and Japanese scene AEW has grown out of.

He would be a heat magnet in a way he just never could be in WWE and without really having to change too much either. Randy slapping on chinlocks in WWE is boring - on an AEW show it would be infuriating.

On 10/21/2019 at 9:31 AM, Liam O'Rourke said:

NXT is the same now. That show, away from Vince's direct orbit, in theory shouldn't face the same problems as Raw and Smackdown, but it does because it still falls within what WWE is in 2019 as soon as it becomes TV. They tell you the title matches are so important. Are they? Why? This cruiserweight belt was pre-show fodder on the PPVs for years. NOW I'm supposed to shit myself for it? Mauro screaming at me for two hours in the same tone start to finish means that everything is on the same level, and the verbiage is no better than Raw or Smackdown as perfectly demonstrated by Alvarez's rant on the ridiculous lines spewed on this last weeks show ("Mauro, don't be fooled by Priest's composure - his ruthless nature is focused on creating an incandescent presence" - Beth Pheonix). They've done a horrible job with the babyfaces for a while now, Gargano is up shit creek.

For me a big part of the appeal of NXT a few years ago was routing for your favourites to make it to the main roster. Success being defined by leaving was a very unique approach to wrestling but it included fans on the journey of the wrestlers and also kept the roster fresh. The NXT titles felt so important as it was the most important step on the journey to the main roster - if your favourite wrestler won either the mens or womens titles they were well on their way to moving up which is the journey we were all invested in. This blend of reality and character really worked and felt like it was where wrestling was heading in the 21st century.

Somewhere along the way though that changed. Firstly, the mishandling of NXT call ups and the stagnation of characters once they hit the main roster halted the emotional investment of fans in the journey of their favourite stars. We have reached a point where you would prefer them not to be called up so we aren't really as invested in their journey. Secondly, as the market dried up the signings to NXT shifted from those who might need a bit of seasoning before hitting the main roster to those who we know are never going to make it. Ciampa, Gargano and the Undisputed Era have done some absolutely great stuff but they have turned NXT into just another self contained promotion. The belt is now just another championship only one we know is just the title on a B level show. It doesn't feel like a stepping stone anymore so it doesn't feel important in the same way.

I've enjoyed enough of what I have seen so far to give them the benefit of the doubt after running just 2.5 shows. For now it still has a very DIY 'everyone do something' feel which isn't the most coherent and it will be interesting to see how this sits alongside the need for more long term booking.

The criticisms based on what we have seen so far are fair - the real test is going to be whether they can listen and act on them.

Seriously, screw this company.

At this stage surely the exposure of being on free to air TV will be a benefit. The PPV deal allows AEW to monetize the small UK fanbase who are already aware of the product but if AEW is going to succeed it is going to have to reach a lot more people than that and exposure on any of ITV's channels is going to help with that.

Lets not also forget that TNA being on free TV allowed them to run arena shows in the UK which is far beyond the venues they were booking in the US with the Spike deal. TNA didn't really take advantage because they were really bad at making money off of anything. For better or for worse that doesn't seem to be the case with AEW who have shown, if nothing else, they will do anything to part the fans from their cash.

Bradley Cooper as Vince would be a waste as a supporting character. 

I was optimistic about this until watching the pool party and although I survived past Conrad Thompson I had to tap out after Sammy Guevara's 'promo'. Absolute cringe. Someone please reassure me that he is going to be AEW's Colin Delaney?

4 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

Agree, that's amusing. I don't really get the rest though. Smoking cigars in someone's back garden and wrestling in a community centre. It doesn't say big time.

It doesn't but I think Being The Elite more of a proof of concept at this point if there is a TV deal in the pipeline. It might not look big time right now but if you exchanged those locations to Las Vegas and wrestling at the MGM grand it would look a lot better. A blend of scripted reality TV and wrestling should work and is probably the best way to mask their so so roster. 

To add female perspective to this thread my wife messaged me her list which is Finn Balor, Aleister Black, Drew McIntyre and Roman Reigns. Would also go gay for Becky Lynch (which isn't going to help me do any work for the rest of the day).

3 hours ago, Devon Malcolm said:

I know, the concept of prestigious titles being saved for prestigious events has been constantly proven to be a flawed idea.

It has worked in that past but isn't the idea of AEW to be an alternative? Without PPV I don't get why cards still need to be loaded with title matches. I don't mind 9 title matches at Wrestlemania but 6 or 7 on every Network card is too much for me and plays a big part in everyone feeling like a mid-carder. Plus if you want to be family friendly presenting a show that kids might actually be able to watch that isn't four and a half hours long might help!

I am not a fan of the whole sports presentation in wrestling as it is entertainment rather than a sport but I don't see why your Cruiserweight or Tag Champion can't be a big enough star to headline a show when it clearly works in the UFC. Stars come in all shapes and sizes after all! A marquee title is still essential in wrestling but I think a product where the other titles are important and storylines are given a chance to breathe would be a good thing and I hope AEW does that.

38 minutes ago, Louch said:

The young bucks said you don’t see tag teams main eventing, and that’s what they said they are bringing back

It is sad that the tag titles rarely get defended in a main event. I hope AEW can book their TV around having one of their title's defended each week as the main event of the show. The program should build to that match, highlighting a different division each week as well as sowing the seeds for the next few weeks title matches. The Champions can still appear on all the shows but they don't have to all be in featured matches.

It absolutely does my head in that WWE feel the need to have all their main titles defended on big shows and I hope AEW can avoid title matches for the sake of it that get lost in the shuffle.

+1 for Finn. Also probably the one man alive I wouldn't trust my wife with, she is mad about him.

6 hours ago, air_raid said:

I think it's more to do with the idea that if something's going to be massive in the womens division, Steph thinks her involvement will make it an even bigger deal and thus duty to stick her face in.

Steph's involvement in the Ronda angle last year was a big deal and was pretty much the highlight of Wrestlemania. Not saying she isn't annoying as hell or that she doesn't do a poor job of putting over talent but their thinking on Steph making it a bigger deal is probably  based on that.

Just now, Foalie said:

Whilst Becky/Ronda in a 1v1 match SHOULD absolutely main event, by the time we get 6+ hours into the show, the crowd will be totally burnt out and the match will suffer so much for it. Perhaps the better idea is to have it in the middle of the show, to maximum heat and fanfare?

It would make it better to watch but WWE are clearly invested in firsts for the women's division. This seems like the first logical opportunity for women to headline WM and I am not sure that a natural opportunity will come around again any time soon. This feels like lightening in a bottle and Rollins would have to heat up considerably to convince me otherwise.

On 1/19/2019 at 8:58 AM, Supremo said:

The Nigel McGuinness documentary is bloody brilliant. Far more enjoyable that his own documentary, which painted him as a self-pitying tragedy.

Watched this last night and really enjoyed it, something a bit different from the normal WWE bubble content. The weird thing was that he said that he documented his comeback tour to show that he still had the passion to do it but the clips they showed he looked like a broken man which was sad to see. Assuming by your comment that must have been the general tone of the doc.

With Triple H now in charge of picking up talent he probably should have had the surgery as he would have got picked up eventually but that is with the benefit of hindsight. Punk and Bryan were outliers at the time so I can't say I blame him - his decision to retire was a good 2 or 3 years before NXT and them started picking up everyone from ROH.

28 minutes ago, garynysmon said:

I mean, if we hadn't heard them almost every day of our lives, how shit do "The Rock" and "Triple H" sound in the cold light of day?

Rocky Maiva is a shit name, Dwayne Johnson is a shit name. Surely The Rock being a rad name is beyond question.

7 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Right. I nearly added that Cena has been booked very similar to Tanahashi in New Japan in terms of the gradual portrayal of not being quite "that guy" any more and going back for that one last reign, except the parallel ends that Tana has just finally laid his hands back on the belt, presumably for the last time. It's not a stretch to think if John could give WWE three months to build towards winning his last big one then dropping it again, they'd do it. With a bullet proof guy to win it from (Styles, Bryan or maybe Rollins) and a guy that would truly benefit from winning it from him (Balor? McIntyre?).

Bryan and McIntyre would be my choices. Rollins isn't bulletproof yet and Styles doesn't have as much history with Cena. I'd like Bryan to get a big win at Mania first and then switch to Raw before Summerslam. McIntyre could win money in the bank so Cena wouldn't even need to keep the belt long.