Pinc

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

I’m more interested in his new mask and what that means. Looked a bit like a cross between Luchasaurus’ and ‘Takers from when his face broke.

With just a touch of:

I haven't seen any of the White Rabbit stuff aside from the acapella playing at live shows, but this was everything I didn't want from a Wyatt return. Over produced, suspension of disbelief shattered by the apparently supernatural psychopath clearly being in cahoots with the camera crew and prop lads. They even botched the audio of him saying 'I'm Here' and the timing of the lantern going off.

Great pop though, which makes it all the more frustrating. Bray's clearly a brilliant act waiting to happen but not at all encouraged that they're taking the right direction with him. The act will only ever work to its fullest when they reel it in a bit and have him act like a character who could plausibly exist in the real world, not unlike Taker's evolution from an actual zombie into a cult leader/biker during the Attitude era. Bray might be the first WWE main eventer who would benefit from turning his personality down from 11.

He'll be up there now booting Ali in the shins for all eternity. Godspeed Tony.

This week felt very sparse in terms of star power. Regal, Jericho, MJF/Wheeler all out for multiple segments.

I know its partly because of Ian (the Hurricane, not the poster), but it does make me reflect on how perfectly they had their ducks in a row as All Out went off the air. And how much Punk's injury/breakdown banjaxed what should have been a really hot few months of TV with Punk/MJF chapter 2 on top and The Elite having six man bangers every week. They've rebounded reasonably well but middling shows like this get me wondering how its going in the parallel universe where Punk just thanked Mox for a great match and went backstage to eat pastries.

59 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

He was right to take the title from a battered Omega, it was the perfect story. They just dropped the ball with him because they didn't think of a story past that.

They were on their way to a Moxley heel turn, right? Before he had to go into rehab? I always assumed Hangman vs Heel Mox was the plan for late 2021/early 2022. Could've been great.

Thinking about it, they haven't had a title run go to plan for almost an entire year now.

48 minutes ago, LaGoosh said:

I felt the same. I think it's while there's a lot of great characters and wrestling there's not really much story telling going on so there's no genuine emotional catharsis attached to any of it.

Yeah agree with this. They spent a year setting up Punk's title reign and there's a big sense of anti-climax/lack of direction now that its clear we're never getting to the fireworks factory.

Its a shame they didn't save the MJF-is-the-Joker reveal until after All Out. Everything would feel a lot more coherent and purposeful if he'd unmasked immediately after the Mox/Danielson title match.

Can't help but feel Danielson as Champion was the fresh way to go here, all the better to put some daylight between them and the Punk mess. Also think there'd be more potential for character development by Moxley after working himself into the ground all summer only for his best mate to deny him a proper title reign at the last hurdle.

Jericho as ROH champ is intriguing and adds a nice wrinkle to the Daniel Garcia stuff, though again - feels like there'd be even more potential if his idol Danielson was holding the other World belt.

Delighted for The Acclaimed and glad the rap is back after they bottled it each week since the All Out scrum. Max Caster seemed to have a couple of strange botches in a row but gladly it didn't affect the closing straight.

They need to go meta as fuck and say Punk has actually left the company with the World Title after winning it in Chicago.

I'd love to see Punk go back and run the same "ahh I missed real wrestling, that other company is toxic af" routine as when he landed in AEW.

9 minutes ago, air_raid said:

You'd love the meme, or you'd love that happening? I've got a lot of time for Omega as a wrestler, but I don't want him turning up and beating Reigns. I don't really want Reigns making it to 3 years for that matter.

I'd love reality to bend itself so as to bring the meme into existence. Which is all reality is good for these days anyway.

I'd love one of those domino effect memes starting with CM Punk does a stage dive and ending with Kenny Omega ends Roman's 3 year title reign.

3 minutes ago, Factotum said:

Yeah I don't think they will interact, but I think it will be mentioned, even if its MJF going off on him

Could be a big week for Max Caster depending on how he uses his four stanzas.

Was that the best take they could get out of Darby?

2 hours ago, Infinity Land said:

Nope, but i'd rather see the match we were denied when Mox went to rehab last year.

When you think about it they've had a lot of bad luck with the World title since Kenny dropped it. Both Hangman and Punk's reigns were misfires due to unforeseen circumstances with Moxley's rehab robbing Page of an effective heel challenger and Punk's injury derailing him almost immediately after winning.

That one episode of Dynamite we got with Punk as champion teaming with FTR in a 6-man was like a breath of fresh air. Really felt like all was right with the world for the first time in a while with the proper biggest star the company holding the big belt and loads of interesting potential feuds for him. Its basically the only show since Kenny was champ were they were actually able to book the world champion how they wanted.

And then Punk had to do that fucking crowd dive and everything's been a bit of a mess ever since. Remember Kyle O'Reilly and that battle royal? That was like the wrestling version of Harambe's death for how much it knocked the world off its axis.

1 hour ago, Loki said:

I’m sure AEW will find its stride again, but they just took their biggest potential matchup and blew it in a 5 minute midcard slot.  That’s bad business even if you enjoyed Mox winning.

Do people really think this is true, by the way? I know on paper they're two of their biggest names but I think any combination of former WWE guys is a little tainted in the context of AEW.

I'd expect both Omega/Punk and MJF/Punk to draw more than Punk/Moxley.

I didn't mind the unification match but I don't see why they couldn't have just done this at All Out?

Moving the match forward and placing it at an unnatural point in the show, I suppose it broke my suspension of disbelief. It was hard to engage with the story of the match when the circumstances made it extremely clear that this was a deviation from what would otherwise have been the plan.

Clumsy storytelling. I get that squashing Punk in Chicago might have turned the crowd on the night, but Moxley is enough of a tweener to roll with it. I wonder if Punk said he'd rather not lose in that manner in his home town?

P.S. I also noticed the 'Time is Now' repetition from Moxley... 👀

Last time they had a situation like this was the battle royal to select Moxley’s interim title opponent. And that ended with fucking Kyle O’Reilly.

They can’t afford two stinkers in a row. This one has to deliver. I can’t see anything other than Punk wins and MJF appears.

Wardlow ain’t ready but I’m down for everything else.

I think they’ll let the Page thing breathe for a bit though. Doesn’t strike me as a run-in-on-the-title-match-the-very-next-week kind of deal.

27 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

I honestly don't think it was a huge problem at all. The announcers said they didn't think he was there, so if anything it made Punk look cowardly, while potentially acting as a red herring for whatever might go down next week. "Wrestler deliberately calls out wrestler who isn't there" is an angle that's as old as the hills.

Aye this was how I saw it. The commentators said Page wasn’t in the building so it came across as Punk being angsty and paranoid about a potential Page challenge, rather than Page ducking him.

Even if it was a ‘shoot’ it still worked within the canon of the show. And its put some heat under another Page/Punk match when previously there was none. Good bit of business for me. The best in that segment to be honest given Moxley’s tepid response and those honking punches.

Daniel Garcia is the scousest looking wrestler in history.

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

but forget about Debra, she's a non-factor.

Bam, she's not a factor.

1 hour ago, eugenespeed said:

I know we've just had Mania 38 but X7 still feels fresh in my head. 

Everyone knows wrestling attained perfection at WrestleMania X7. Its a scientific fact.

1 hour ago, Chili said:

Oh come now, HOOKhausen will pop up again. 

They were in the graphic that went up during the ad breaks on Fite. Sat in a boat on the eponymous lake on which the quake was occurring. Made my heart swell.

Ambrose probably should have gone over to be fair. And then we get Shield Powers Collide at Mania and maybe Ambrose grows into something like what Jon Moxley is now.

Would have achieved more than that cursed Reigns/H match. One of the ugliest atmospheres for a WWE match ever, that.

8 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

Can't say I enjoyed him in his post Shield WWE run though where he was acting like a muppet, had shit hair and his arms got so skinny they looked they were going to fall off.

Even in amongst that there was some good stuff. He remained popular enough that they had Roman rub up against him as often as possible to try and get the boos off him. And that run he had opposite Triple H culminating in the title match at that weird Roadblock event was great. Enough so that they canned Wyatt and put Dean opposite Brock bleedin' Lesnar at Mania (which obviously didn't work out, like).

10 hours ago, BomberPat said:

That was especially annoying because Jungle Boy has repeatedly, publicly, said that he purposefully didn't use his surname because he didn't want to be seen as coasting on his dad's fame. Throw in the emotional complications of his dad's death, and JR just deciding "fuck what the kid wants, I'm going to say this" never sat right with me.

I think JR just kept saying it by mistake and the mini-strop he had on his podcast about it was a post hoc rationalisation lest people twig it was just senility.