Statto

Some top quality filler TV this week, a triple threat match for the right to determine the stipulation for the title match next week... by taking a random chance.

I've said this on here before but I LOVE that New Day are presented as a group of guys who support & celebrate each other's individual achievements (of which Woods now has a significant one to hang his hat/crown on) rather than the usual trope of "well, one of them has had some singles success so the others need to turn on him". I get the feeling from their podcasts that they feel it's particularly important that they are presented that way as a group of young(ish...) African Americans.

I also like that they have remained together as at least a rough grouping despite being drafted apart in recent years. They're still the New Day, just on different brands.

That all said... the thought occurred to me during the KotR final last night how much I wanted to see Big E on the Raw team at Survivor Series and Kofi & Woods on the other side, just to explore the dynamic of them facing off in a competitive environment. (I realize this won't happen as E is champion and they are doing the champion vs champion thing again I think).

On 10/17/2021 at 1:42 PM, Chili said:

The unexpected awesome guitar solo in the middle of the Grandstand theme is absolutely astounding first time you hear it. 

Not Hawkshaw as discussed but, I'll honestly never forget sitting at the dining room table with my old housemate/bandmate messing about on this newfangled "YouTube" thing, finding there was an extended version of the Grandstand theme, and then THAT happened.

Lost our fucking minds.

Yeah, I actually think it'd detract from the story if he was ranting & raving.

He's not angry with Kenny, he's confident he can beat him. And that's why it's time to pull the trigger. Anything else is turning him into an actual loser/choker.

10 hours ago, The King Of Swing said:

Didn't that one get shit on for looking staged as fuck?

I think the issue with that one is surely EVERYONE who works for WWE in any fashion knows what Steph looks like as she's been a TV character in the business they work in for years, plus her "disguise" was a blonde wig & some glasses.

I can buy that lower level employees in other businesses wouldn't recognize the big boss when they shave his head & use the hair to create a massive tache (because they likely don't really know what he looks like anyway) but that one stretched the bounds a bit.

12 hours ago, MVP RULZ said:

The booking of the Queens crown tournament seems all over the place

Its 2 Heels in 1 semi final and I can't see anyone but Shayna coming out of the right side of the bracket leaving 2 heels in the final as well

In contrast, only one heel on either side of the bracket in the men's tournament which gives a strong likelihood of a face vs face final given I don't think Sami will be going to Jeddah...

I'd like to see them go with the story of Xavier Woods trying to achieve his dream of becoming KotR (and having to either overcome his more successful friend [or his friend's conqueror] in the semis) but it seems strange to follow that up with a final against another face.

Jeff himself seems to fucking love No More Words too. I think this is the 3rd time they've gone back to it and he's often enthusiastically singing along.

"We haven't seen Alexa Bliss in quite some time."

"It's been a week, Saxton."

LOL.

Shit, sorry, that was maybe a bit clumsy.

Hadn't really seen him before Dynamite this week but thought he had an impressive look, and was reminiscent of a smaller version of The Rock (which is never a bad thing!) with the shaved head, tattoos & the style of his gear.

I know people usually use "like if you ordered x off Wish" but thought I'd mix it up. No implication beyond that in my head!

I generally sit in the "cull the whole HFO" camp, but I'd keep the new one who looks like if you order The Rock off AliBaba.

They could easily include the arrivals of Punk & Danielson in the Hangman storyline too, given the crux of it is he doesn't believe he is good enough to beat Kenny/be the champ.

Two more massive names showing up would probably only exacerbate that problem in his mind, but you could do something like have him hand Punk his first AEW loss (I don't get the feeling that Punk will go too long without putting someone over as he's got his own "am I good enough anymore" story going on) and/go to a TV time remaining draw with Danielson after which they endorse him to go after Kenny.

5 hours ago, Mr Butternut Squash said:

Dunn being late on the 'boo!' button as the crowd erupted for Shayna Baszler destroying Eva Marie was hilariously inept. Gonna need to upgrade the equipment before the inevitable babyface Nia vs heel Becky feud. 

Having Shayna attack/injure the two most genuinely disliked women on the roster but apparently be the heel (per the sound sweetening) is an odd concept.

Particularly as she interrupted Eva Marie in the middle of being a heel to do it.

Given they are doing MITB in the new stadium in Vegas next year, I could actually see Summerslam in a stadium over here being a goer.

Wonder if it's in any way related to the hinting that AEW might run Craven Cottage next summer?

If we had a holiday (tended to be every other year) we stayed very local, didn't even leave the county. Always a week in a caravan at Wells-Next-The-Sea on the north Norfolk coast.

Going to the amusement arcade in the evenings was always the thing I'd look forward to most - Wrestlefest, Turtles & air hockey. There was a local (we assumed) fella who was always hanging round the arcades who was on the larger side & vaguely resembled Ray Traylor. One evening my dad greeted him with "alright, Boss Man?" as we walked past him which 9ish year old me thought was the funniest thing ever.

It's still one of my favourite places in the world. 

13 hours ago, JNLister said:

This would be a couple of months before I signed up, but I would have been lurking by that point I think. I signed up for for the FWA forum and stayed pretty much exclusively on there until its demise, when I started to migrate to the main boards.

Some nostalgic names on that screengrab!

"I've lived through storms before in my life, I've lived through everything..."

26 minutes ago, Sphinx said:

I was gonna say it feels like it'd be hard to take MITB away without fans feeling like it's something being taken away from them but I guess they did it with King of the Ring after 2002 which was fine.

I think that's an interesting point as part of the reason I think the MITB concept is here to stay is because they have positioned it as the 5th* "major" PPV which was the perception of KOTR when it was scrapped too.

I honestly don't know if MITB draws accordingly or not, but it was one they accompanied with a Takeover as a weekender pre-pandemic, one where Brock would work etc. They're doing it in a stadium next year, although that might be solely due to waiting to go back to the stadium in Vegas but Summerslam being too close to NFL pre-season dates?

*I'd actually say MITB is thought of more highly that Survivor Series in the company right now.

My main sporting interest these days is American Football of the college variety, and my musical taste is primarily in the outlaw country sphere, both of which trace directly back to wrestling, and this in particular:

James Storm's first post AMW theme, which is a Jimmy Hart-esque (although not actually Jimmy's handiwork AFAIK) rip-off of this:

Discovering Shooter Jennings (who I now consider my favourite artist) led me to discover a whole raft of similar artists (listen to Hellbound Glory, y'all) and that's primarily what I listen to now.

Then, in 2009, I went to the US primarily to see 2 Shooter gigs (I also went to Raw & Smackdown when I was there) and at the 2nd of those gigs, a stranger down the front (who is now one of my best friends in the world) said "Hey... do y'all in England watch college football?" and an obsession was born.

9 minutes ago, Winston said:

LOOK AT HIM BRUCE..HE'S BRONNNNN BREAKKKKER

Every time someone rocks up with a name like this I imagine Vince in the meeting, based on Foley being told he was a "mutilator" in his first book.

"You're gonna destroy people! You're gonna BREAK people! You're a BREAKKER!"

Seeing suggestions on Twitter that Scott (who is obviously not in good graces & vice versa) owns a trademark on "Steiner" which prevents them from using it, but don't think that's true. Seems a bit too much to be able to blanket trademark a whole (fictional) surname and prevent anyone else from using it?

Not sure how this is NXT "2.0" either, as far as I can see this is at least the 4th major version change:

1) rookie contest

2) NXT Redemption morphs into general c-show (the best NXT)

3) rebadged FCW > super indy (these could be considered two different versions)

3 hours ago, WyattSheepMask said:

Rumours abound that Gargano’s contract is up in early December.

Here’s fucking hoping he stays well away from AEW.

Agreed.

1 hour ago, DavidB6937 said:

So who do we think is the next champ?

Jaxson Ryker.

1 hour ago, The King of Old School said:

I think it makes more sense for Omega to keep interacting with them both over the next couple of months, with Hangman coming back half way through that to clock up a few wins to take him up the rankings to face Omega at Full Gear.

Yeah, there is still the rankings issue to address with Hangman also. Although IIRC they never really clarified exactly what "stepping aside" meant as a result of losing the tag match - he did step aside from the top ranking, meaning Christian got the next shot (and lost).

Now that's out of the way, his existing 2021 W/L record should allow him to slot back in again at the top fairly quickly - I don't recall it being a "step aside for a year" or "no shots as long as I'm champion" thing. The fact it wasn't absolute might actually be a nice thing to address directly, in a "you're not as smart as you thought you were, Kenny/Don" way.

I think you can fairly quickly deal with the issue of Hangman getting enough confidence back to step up to Omega again with a "I'm a father now, I'm not just fighting for me anymore" angle.

Malakai Black looked much better in those martial arts type shorts he wore vs Cody than he does in his little shiny trunks, IMO.

Been my suspicion since they started making changes to developmental that the Tuesday night timeslot would become home to a 3rd "main roster" brand that just happened to be called NXT to try to appease some folks/cash in on some recognition, and it looks like we're well on that path.

NXT Champion Jaxson Ryker feuding with Jinder Mahal incoming.

32 minutes ago, Louch said:

2.0 are a great too cool level team. Never gonna be top tag team, but good for others to beat 

I likened them to the Beverly Brothers in a conversation with a mate about their early days in AEW. Cocky blowhards who look good squashing jobbers on the c-shows but readily get their comeuppance from the actual stars.