Statto

On family shows he's The SoulTaker. Which is still really good. 

International shirts are where central badges thrive, IMO. I bloody love that Norway shirt. 

And whilst the pattern on the Brazil one isn't to my taste, that CBF logo bang in the middle of the chest is exactly what I think of when I think of a Brazil shirt. 

Yeah, given they had hinted it was going to be AEW's version of the NCAA basketball tournaments, it's disappointing that the only influence there is the inclusion of the "play in" round. 

Would have liked to have seen at least 16 entries split into 4 "regions". Perhaps those sub-brackets could have been themed - a Flyers bracket (e.g. Top Flight, Private Party), an AEW Originals bracket (e.g. Best Friends, Dark Order), maybe an RoH bracket (e.g.Infantry, Righteous) 

It's still a single elimination tournament bracket at the end of the day, but could have put a slightly different coat of paint on it at a time when such things are very much in the American sports consciousness. 

It's kinda confusing and getting more so, IMO.

The premise that the winner of the Continental Classic became the holder of a "modern American triple crown" comprising of a belt each from AEW, RoH & NJPW('s US offshoot) was a solid one (even if I didn't personally care for the idea). 

It started getting messy with the AEW belt being a brand new one, presumably representing the victory in the tournament. But it's since become a viable "live" championship, being defended as part of the Triple Crown & now separately. So what happens when they inevitably want to repeat the tournament this coming winter?

I'm guessing the champion at the time will be forced to do the same as Eddie chose to do this year, and wager their belts against winning the whole tournament. But that hardly seems fair considering how it's been available to win the rest of the year. 

As well as the Demolition example I put in the Smackdown thread where the discussion began (Record setting 3rd tag title win over Andre at VI to rapid job to some Japanese fellas at VII via a member change), another one that springs to mind is Sgt Slaughter going from the main event at VII to being in a "get everyone on the card" filler 8-man tag at VIII. 

Actually, everyone in that 8 man was dropping down the card compared to their status the previous year. 

Significant Mania to Mania drop-offs (and ascents) are always of interest to me, particularly when viewed through the dual lenses of the year between seeming like an eternity as a kid, and the blink of an eye now. 

One that always springs to mind for me is Demolition going from their then unprecedented tag championship 3-peat at VI (going over Andre the Giant in the process, on paper at least) to a 4-minute job to a couple of outsiders at VII (via a member change). 

I suspect the next step will be a triple threat with Solo which WWE will try to sell as the first time three brothers have ever faced each other in a wrestling match , despite the fact there's probably at least one such match happening in Mexico every week. 

All fair points, Raid. 

I'm perhaps a bit more interested in it than most as I've bloody loved the Usos for years. I was being a bit conservative for my own opinion on saying "top 5 all time WWE tag team" - I remember saying to my mate that I thought they might actually be the WWE tag GOATs as far back as them making their entrance for the 3-way at Mania 34, long before they started getting involved in actual top card stuff. That's how much I love the Usos. 

I'm also currently following the Road to Wrestlemania via whatever gets put up on YouTube as I sacked off TNT Sport in the summer (due to lack of college football) and TBH it's about all I'm finding time for. So I've perhaps not noticed if the recent feud is a little lacking. 

3 hours ago, Arch Stanton said:

"Oh, you get money? Well hallelujah, I get money too, mo' power to ya!"

"And you know this..." 

I'd just like to weigh in and say that I absolutely do think Jimmy vs Jey is a singles match worthy of a WrestleMania card. Even if it were still a one nighter. 

They're a genuine top 5 all time WWE tag team IMO, legit twin brothers facing off for the first time in a singles match off the back of a months-long simmering feud, as part of a years-long overarching storyline (around which the entire company has been built, basically). It's unquestionably worthy of any WrestleMania card, for me. 

I actually spent a chunk of a train journey last week reading through the Wrestling Channel thread that's now enshrined in Gold:

Good times indeed. 

Those Boxing Day cards - I know they are traditional big shows for the company going way back, but they also strike me of having an element of "If some of you have to work at Christmas, ALL of you have to work at Christmas" so every fucker going gets shoehorned onto the card?

32 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

 As regards the Bull Hammer, I'd stopped watching WWE shortly after he adopted it, so I never got to see if it was any good later on.

It got much more devastating when he started turning his black elbow pad inside out (revealing a red interior) before doing it. Red hurts more than black. 

2 hours ago, Vamp said:

I've always seen Dykstra as the poster child for boring mid-00s OVW graduate who was lucky to get the zany gimmick that he did even though everybody at the time was fantasy booking him to drop the gimmick and become a serious wrestler. 

Why do you think he could have been a star? Genuinely interested. 

Maybe I misremember Kenny Dykstra, but my recollection is similar, that he was athletically very gifted but perhaps lacking in the stuff that makes you a good pro wrestler - "ring psychology", if you will. 

I think about this every time he runs out with the other producers to break up a brawl. My perception of that backstage role is that it's about helping people structure their matches well etc. So maybe he did have that in him, but just couldn't bring it out of himself for some reason.

Back when he was at Nebraska, he was among the first players to take advantage of college athletes being able to profit from their name/image/likeness :

Has the reasoning behind AEW's production becoming a total clone of WWE's over the last few months ever been explained from within the company? 

The LED apron/barriers, the graphics with bits of the belt flying in to form it on screen before title matches, the announcers at ringside opposite the ramp with the collapsible table with a hood, the time keeper's area moving to bottom right of hard cam with its own barriers etc. All just total copy of what WWE does. 

Not sure if it's network pressure to look exactly like the big boys, or someone on the production side having jumped ship? 

Given the success, surely they extend the series by a couple of weeks next time and do a proper tournament without this fastest loser stuff. 

You obviously can't legislate for injury, but 3 of tonight's 4 semi-finalists having lost their 1/4 is silly.

Especially when it meant we had to see bloody Jake & Soldier Boy again, with one guaranteed to make the final. Despite losing. 

Music equivalencies like those from @Scratch properly blow my mind.

I became a Queen obsessive in high school, beginning about 1995. Back then I was roundly mocked for being into such old fashioned music, and even I thought that was the case even though I revelled in it, but the fact is even the oldest albums were only just over 20 years old at the time. Like someone that age now being into Limp Bizkit. 

I use them specifically as an example cos a couple of weeks back I went to a little Sunday afternoon open mic type thing, and one of the performers (who was an older gentleman) introduced a song as "originally by The Who, but this is closer to the version Limp Bizkit put out a couple of years ago". Um, try a couple of decades ago! 

I had (still have actually, on top of the wardrobe) that VHS box set of the first 15 Manias that Silver Vision brought out, and set myself the "challenge" of watching all 15 between Christmas and that year's Mania.

WrestleMania 2 nearly stopped that in its tracks. Took me about a week to get through it. Hadn't seen it before, never watched a second of it again.

Not that the tape would have taken a second watch anyway - Silver Vision has obviously tried to keep the price point for 15 tapes down so the quality was of some iron filings wafted vaguely near the thinnest sellotape you can imagine. 

Reading through that Mania XX thread is a real trip. Handful of people posting who still post here but read very differently 20 years ago.

And people talking about Vince imminently giving up the reins (handing the company over to Shane, based on the opening video) and some confident statements that the handicap tag was gonna be Flair's last match. Only took nearly two decades for those two things to actually happen (sans Shane). 

It's one of the only things that really sticks in my head about that show, the others being:

- The fact that from the balcony of the Corn Exchange we could only just about see the ringposts on the nearside of the ring, nothing of the apron or ringside area. Naturally most of the ringside action took place in the area where nobody in the balcony could see it. I heard on the second night (which I didn't go to) they started the show with a kayfabe-destroying announcement that the wrestlers wouldn't be doing any fighting in that bit tonight so nobody in the balcony need worry. 

- Poor old Johnny Saint forgetting his lines whilst coming out to assert his GM authority during a confrontiation between (IIRC) Noam Dar & Zack Gibson. Having told them to pack it in, he froze up and said "Right... Carry on" and disappeared to the back leaving them standing there unsure what to do. A minute or so later he re-emerged with "Actually... You two in my office, now!" They edited it really well for TV but thenceforth Sid Scala (who I think might have worked that first taping as a jobber, sans Del Boy gimmick) was appointed Assistant TO the General Manager and did all the talking, with Johnny initially standing in the background but quickly becoming an unseen figurehead. 

I was at the first Cambridge taping - the Conners vs Williams match didn't make TV cos about 90 seconds in Conners smacked the back of his head on the canvas and couldn't continue. IIRC he wasn't badly hurt and might have even worked the taping the next night. 

3 hours ago, Chili said:

I personally think Adam Cole and his merry men don't really work for me so I'd be up for them fucking it for Wardlow and him absolutely destroying them. He can even back up MJF when he returns for a tag match or something.

A split from Undisputed Kingdom seems the most likely outcome of this title shot to me, as during their initial promo as a group Cole said Wardlow was going to win the big belt - and then hand it over to him (to which Wardlow looked slightly miffed). 

So either he wins and refuses to hand over and they do a take on the Batista/Evolution angle, or he fails to win (more likely IMO) & they turn on him. 

And yeah, in the aftermath I wonder if they might revisit him & MJF as a pairing but as faces with a very different dynamic.