Pinc

Proper Joe Rogan ‘why are you so great though’ interview style but with the volume turned up to eleven. Even a very brief allusion to thinking Saudi Arabian culture is ‘millions’ of years old? Shite.

Must’ve seen Moxley’s transformation and knocked the ale on the head as well.

I tend to think the Boneyard was a load of arse as well to be honest, but I gather most people liked it.

I hope it doesn't happen at this point. Steve has the most fitting, least blemished Last Match of any wrestler in living memory. It would be a shame to tarnish that for a big match with a top guy on a three month build. It would be a travesty to do it for a thrown together match with Kevin bleedin' Owens.

36 minutes ago, Loki said:

The main reason for that is that Taz is an actual heel colour commentator - something that is IMO hugely missing in the normal lineup.  Excalibur seems to be play by play, Schiavone is I guess face colour?  JR just doesn't have a role really.  Whereas Taz brings the much needed heel side of the story.  Wrestling commentary is always better when you've got a Heenan or King justifying the heel's motivations.

Spot on. I still really enjoy JR but Taz’s run in the booth was great, despite coinciding with one of the coldest run of shows they’ve put out in the last year. Very revealing of how that heel perspective had been lacking.

I think the earlier suggestion of an Excalibur/Schiavone ‘core’ team with a rotating third chair (mostly featuring Taz, with JR in for main events and the odd guest spot) is the way to go.

3 hours ago, Mr Butternut Squash said:

Fuck me, that Eddie pop! Give that guy more airtime.

I assume we are getting a proper babyface main event run from Eddie eventually but it does make me nervous how little we've actually seen of him since the Punk match.

Its crazy that the fans were still with Cody as recently as that angle where he teased leaving his boots in the ring after losing to Malakai the first time. If they’d just written him out there his stock would be a lot higher (as would Malakai’s). Though we’d never have got Arn’s glock promo.

Cody’s debut and feud into Mania (if they happen) are bound to be the most interesting things to happen in WWE this year so I am looking forward to seeing how that plays out. Given Vince’s penchant for rotating people with real-world experience of running a show in and out of their creative positions its not at all out of the question that Cody eventually ends up in some kind of influential backstage role.

Cody vs Austin at Mania please, Vince.

Did no one else expect Wardlow to be Punk's partner? Especially when they showed MJF and Spears (but no Wardlow) watching Punk's entrance backstage!

Penta is absolutely tremendous and I'd rather he'd got the Malakai Black push these last few months. One of the least actorly wrestlers I've ever seen. You never for a second think it's just a guy playing a role.

MJF being Punk’s first loss is so clearly the right call that it becomes predictable. Always impressed that AEW tend to avoid overthinking these situations and going for the swerve. Thought they’d possibly done it with that weird Wardlow match the other week but everyone seems to have recovered fine.

Lambert's pretty great in my eyes, don't understand the criticisms. More managers, more stables, more heat is all fine by me.

Wardlow's mannerisms remind me of Gary Windass.

I always forget what year it was, but remember that Survivor Series tag a few years ago that had Nakamura, Joe, Roode and maybe some other 'new' guys along those lines in the ring with Triple H, Shane McMahon, Kane etc? And the young guys just got eliminated one by one so the Attitude lads could finish the match?

This Rumble was the extremely forseeable consequence of that and the booking mentality associated with it.

Michael Cole’s Rumble commentary is becoming a signature part of his brand for all the wrong reasons. The constant feigned surprise/elation at every single entrant is exhausting and impedes the story of the match by trying to present everything at the same fever pitch. Diminishing the genuine big deals/actual surprises.

Was disappointed by the Moxley return to be honest, and I love the guy. Not much of a pop nor much of a promo, though good on him for not letting that heckler knock him too much. I think the time's right for a heel turn (as does he, it seems). His whole tough guy working class hero thing has been done more convincingly by his mate Eddie of late, who would benefit from being given space to breathe as a top babyface character.

Fast forwarded much of the rest of the show. Feels like the company is in a weird rut at present. I worry that Cody's transparently self-serving refusal to turn heel is burning some of the company's good will with the fans, ever so slightly. The arena seemed pretty empty with lots of individual voices from the crowd cutting through. It doesn't feel like the same show as two years ago where the crowd were clearly willing every segment to be a home run.

I'm hoping Archer is just a 2 week feud for Hangman to play into him being a fighting champ. There's a good pool of potential challengers far more interesting than Archer. If they waste a whole PPV cycle on him I'll be gobsmacked with Miro, Andrade, Cole, Cody, Punk, MJF, Kingston all knocking about.

I don't mean to drag it back up but totally agree that the Punk/Wardlow thing was a mess that made everyone involved look shit or stupid.

When Wardlow hit the 4th or 5th powerbomb I was like 'wow, so this is Punk's first defeat.' I wasn't sure it was the right decision but I admired the boldness. What actually happened was a bottle job that made everyone weaker. I imagine the crowd may have turned on it had the arena been full.

And Sidney Poitier does he mean? In his 95th year?

On 1/7/2022 at 10:01 AM, mim731 said:

ROH rises from the ashes after being bought by a consortium and Jeff Jarrett takes control of the wrestling side of things

World title match was great and I dug the blade jobs. One of those lovely wrestling moments where you're hoping that they'll be able to continue despite the blood loss, just as you would watching a real fight. Fiction and reality all pulling in the same direction.

No obvious next move for Danielson but a TNT title run makes too much sense to not happen soon, surely?

Paul E seems like an absolutely unbearable cunt you wouldn't want to be in a lift with. But in the wrestling biz he's probably in the upper few deciles of not-cunts for his era.

1 hour ago, Supremo said:

But yeah. Taz was fantastic. Whilst I hope JR overcomes all of his health problems I don’t know how you bring him back when Taz has been such an obvious improvement in his place. Was Taz this good in TNA? He’s the best. Calls everything brilliantly. Gets everything over. Wildly entertaining. Always makes me laugh. He’s everything a commentator should be. It feels like watching the show with your mates.

Its nice watching a show where the announcers seem to like eachother and have a bit of a laugh. Instead of the completely humourless yet still weirdly passive aggressive vibe that WWE announcers have had with eachother forever.

Between the ring gear and the light stubble and the moonsaults to the outside Hangman reminded me a lot of post-comeback Shawn Michaels here. With added babyface likeability.

I think the 60-minute time limit draw is smart story telling. You preserve Danielson's unbeatable aura but Hangman still develops by going longer than Omega. I think Hangman needs to win the series clean eventually, but for now I think they've maximised the value of everyone involved. I wonder is Moxley going to be back quick enough to be Page's second challenger or will it be the winner of the MJF/Punk feud?

Anyone else think Dante Martin should've remained a white meat babyface while he got comfortable with being on camera/speaking/emoting? Its good that they're trying to give him some character development but he doesn't seem to have the acting chops for it yet, and his ring-style's tailor-made for a babyface jobber-to-the-stars.

I just don't believe he's this dastardly guy double-crossing everyone who goes near him. Everything about him screams deer-in-the-headlights rookie and that's no bad thing for a lower-card blue eye. They're trying to skip straight to X-Pac when he'd have been best as the 1-2-3 Kid for a few years.