Hannibal Scorch

Considering the reaction it got a Wembley paying a years wage of a wrestler so we could have Sting come out to Seek and Destroy was worth it. Same with Final Countdown.

6 minutes ago, Supremo said:

Shocked there hasn’t been more chat about this. Five years ago, in the dark days, it’d be the most interesting and exciting thing to happen all year. It’s mad. So unlike anything WWE usually do.

Was the whole thing planned, including the blood and dangerously crashing through the chairs? Did they clue anyone in beforehand? Were some security guards supposed to break them up, but forgot?

Feels like a work someone came up with at the last second, which came off the tracks almost immediately. If that whole thing went exactly as planned and AJ isn’t legitimately furious at the end then that’s the best acting of his career and the best thing he’s done since the Boneyard match. F-bombs from a dweeb like AJ Styles! Crazy! Guess we should be thankful though. I reckon there are other words AJ Styles might say when legitimately angry that wouldn’t have gone down so well.

I only saw a clip after they break apart and saw AJ’s bloody nose. That looked diverting. Seeing the whole clip ruined it for me because the fight is so lame, especially if you’ve ever seen any UFC or MMA. The fact everyone is just standing around doing nothing and not trying to pull them apart also makes it look bad. 
 

But seeing the other F words AJ has used in the past, you’re right in his acting. How his nose got bloody from that though I’ll never know, like the fight from Bridget Jones in it’s viciousness. 

A fair amount of the crowd left after Heyman’s induction as well, further proof it was the wrong order

Why has WrestleMania week just been slights at AEW? Rent free indeed. Also just a reminder the champion has had 9 matches since April 2023 and Big Kev and Scott routinely didn’t want to work at WCW and just took time off. What a chump.

1 hour ago, Dr. Alan Grant said:

I can’t remember who it was on here who said they wanted Cody/Reigns to have the Avengers Endgame portals ending. Well…somebody’s made it.

The Maui army is my personal highlight.

You know those football match posters they would make ripping off popular films, same energy. That was awful. 

55 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Being asked one question about it in 2 years and answering that question doesn't really qualify as "going on about it", does it.

That sounds like a loaded question to me

@SuperBaconthe Heinz pizza seems to come around every 5-10 years. Definitely remember having them in my early teens and then in my late 20’s. Just regular cheapish frozen pizza but beans makes an interesting topping. I liked them back in the day.

25 minutes ago, The Gaffer said:

It may not be, but it sounds like one. 

I think down here on the ground floor most of us would attribute the talk of how great WWE are on a weekly basis to the fact that the product itself has improved. I'm not sure what bringing up their past ticket sales have to do with anything either. 

 

I thought that was pretty obvious. Because you were using the point about not wanting a big house. And every promotion wants to get a venue filled. And WWE weren’t doing that. But no one cared because they just used the hard cam side of the arena to close off, making all the audience fill in the wide shots. It’s smart. But AEW do it and it’s hilarious, but it was what WWE did for years and no-one cared. Because why should WE care? Because it’s not us being financially affected. And what I do think is hilarious about Punk bringing it up is that his ego wants him to think he’s a  needle. He sold tons of tickets for his return. He sold decent tickets in Chicago. But he didn’t pop the ratings outside of returns. HHH was right about him. He’ll shift lots of merch, he’ll pack a hometown arena. But in terms of a draw he’s no Roman, Cody or, especially, The Rock. 
 

Also I don’t think booking is an issue. I mean the Continental classic was great, the last few months of TV have also been mostly great. If that’s because you don’t think there’s been enough stories, well that’s what WWE are for. And outside of Cody/Bloodline, Bayley/Damage Control and Rhea/Becky, what storylines have they got? A look at Night 2 gives you an indication of the dullness. But if you have one over the top exciting angle, it’s all you need.

And I’ll once again give props, the way they have managed to save WrestleMania this year after they botched The Rock’s return should be studied in future years. Truly remarkable.

@DavidB6937 also you make a great point. Kids want to see WWE. All the talk of the PG era but there’s a reason the arenas are full and every toy shop has WWE toys and not AEW ones. So when your choosing where to spend your money are doing it on the product the kids want or the one you’ll drag them to? And tickets are expensive so you have to make a choice.

1 hour ago, The Gaffer said:

On the drawing houses comment, the aberration of making your all time most profitable year in your (checks notes) second year in operation aside - when you have an enormous amount of goodwill and less overheads than you'll ever have, when people are happy to coast at home watching you coast in an empty arena - AEW should be concerned about making houses.

If that's some weird old school view then I must be really out of touch too, because the counterargument that they're a TV company seems like a bit of a free pass to me. Not only is your house a major part of your television presentation, it's also...I don't know. I kinda want my major wrestling organisations to strive to have big houses. Even if the business has changed yadda yadda. It's an odd thing people are picking up on, of all the things Punk said in that interview. 

Raw was filmed in some tiny venues in the early days. Pre-pandemic they were half filling 15,000 arenas at best. The talk of how great WWE are on a weekly basis is a new phenomenon mainly born from the tribal discourse on social media. That’s not a knock at the success, getting 15k for a regular TV taping (as they did last night) is phenomenal knowing how boring it is to watch a TV taping over a house show or PPV/PLE. 
 

AEW shot themselves in the foot by being successful from the get go and then booking larger arenas than they actually needed when the momentum of novelty wore off. But they already sold more tickets within their first few shows than TNA ever have for a live event.
 

The booking of the venues is done normally far in advance and usually they will have multiple dates locked in. We’re also in a climate where AEW can’t run the same venues WWE do (in certain markets due to exclusivity), and Tony K has said before the cost of a large arena compared to mid is fairly similar so they probably banked on go big and hope you sell more. I hope they are already planning to move to smaller venues for TV, but I don’t believe for a second they don’t want to fill the venues, I think they haven’t appealed to the fair weather wrestling fan in the way WWE can.

33 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

If anything, he seems oblivious - he goes on air and admits to choking someone; not remotely aware how serious an admission that is. Punk goes on to say that he did nothing to make Tony Khan think his 'life was in danger' - Helwani screws up by not asking, at any point, if Punk thinks that choking a colleague might be grounds for Khan to feel that way. He just kind of accepts this incredibly serious confession as being perfectly acceptable. Punk admits to continuing to choke Perry until Joe told him to stop - what was his plan here? If Joe hadn't been around, would Punk have throttled JP until he was unconscious? So make no mistake about him; I'm not defending Punk. But I think there's reason to trust that what he's saying is relatively accurate. 

That’s because Helwani is as real a journalist as Clark Kent! The fact Punk had the gall to refer to him as a real journalist 30 minutes or so before Rhea Ripley and Becky Lynch did an angle on the same show is testament to that. (Though fair play, it got Ariel on Raw I guess).  

Whether you think it was justified (it wasn’t) for Punk to put Perry in a chokehold, it sounds like he did it because of who he was friends with and his paranoia justified doing it. I have a work colleague who is a knob, I’ll just ask my boss what he’s going to do about it. If I don’t like the answer I’ll just choke the guy out and let you know how I get on.
 

1 minute ago, Devon Malcolm said:

If they can't drag an iota of entertainment out of Kross in a mad clusterfuck street fight then maybe they'll get the hint.

At this stage I can only imagine Kross and Scarlet have some information on Vince because what else could there be for keeping them employed?

50 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

"And everyone's like 'Oh my god, think of the billionaires'"

Genuinely the funniest man in wrestling. I cracked up at that, and "you know I always try and stay humble" Phil! Hahahaha.

He's great value always, and that was a brilliant watch.

Yeah choking someone a little bit not being provoked is hilarious behaviour and not at all insane. Although believing he can kill various wrestlers if Tony Khan didn’t sort things out is hilarious

What was it Mox said about him again?

15 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

He is the absolute fucking best. I love him. I'm sure the bedwetters and pearl clutchers will be out in earnest tonight. Good. 

I can't believe he's gonna make me watch an Ariel Helwani interview mind. Crazy times. Why is he a Forest fan? What's going on?

I’ve watched half of it. If you thought he was an egotistical cunt before, you’re not going to change your mind. Same if you think the sun shines out his arse. Him saying he thought he was acting professional is hysterical though. If there’s any take away it’s the man needs therapy and Tony needs to be a boss (hardly a revelation though).

Monkey Man felt like a combination of Oldboy, Drive and John Wick. Certainly felt like a decent take on the revenge action genre.

Yep these have been launched in the UK before. I first remember them in the late 90’s. But in more recent times 3D Doritos and I think Wotsits may have tried a version (or maybe that was just wafflers not tube shaped)

Don’t Worry Darling feels like a Black Mirror episode with a huge budget. It’s not awful, but yeah. Completely agree on Astroid City, my biggest disappointment of last year.

Godzilla x Kong contains 

And that’s the only positives I have. Woeful.

So I open this thread and what do I see?

”Wankfest”

Anyway, Dude (Self)Love

2 hours ago, air_raid said:

Wait....

 

 

So I’m not allowed to write words in an Italian accent no more? Racist.

Trying to save money, I recently bought a big old bag of Asda own brand crisps (Meat selection, although one of those selections is ready salted, go figure). I have to say they were more enjoyable then Walkers to me in the like for like stakes, and at £3.60 for 36 bags, value for money.   

Just now, BomberPat said:

I think PWT (which, as I understand it, is still basically the back-end of the AEW official merch store) is part of the reason why their merch at events is so awful. PWT is all print-on-demand, so you can rattle off as many shitty designs as you like without losing your arse on them when they don't sell. But the flipside of that is that it's not a business model that supports having a solid back catalogue of different shirts in a range of sizes, having decent stock management, and so on. It's leaving money on the table, and it makes the live experience worse, but it's the way it is.

You're not wrong. But those guys know what sells and what doesn't. So you print up a load of the top selling merch, throw in whoever is booked on that episode, and boom, you're mustard. It shouldn't be difficult, and they seemed to do an OK job at Wembley in comparison to their usual, but this is what happens when you work with companies like PWT and Jazwares over Fanatics and Mattel, you get second rate returns. If I was in charge I would allow PWT to run the online operations but get an events company to run live events merchandise.

1 hour ago, IANdrewDiceClay said:

I liked the 2016 version of Ghostbusters better than the current sequels. The jokes took precedent over the sci fi spooky shit. Which is what the first one was. A comedy first. The cast was great, too.

I didn’t prefer it to the cannon sequels, but I’m a defender of GhostBusters (2016) / GhostBusters Answer the Call as well. It’s got a better joke landing ratio than most modern comedies and Chris Hemsworth had a great turn in it. Unfairly criticised.

That said, how it cost double what GhostBusters: Afterlife did I’ll never know.

48 minutes ago, Merzbow said:

That could have also been said at one point for guys like AJ, Sami and Owens etc. If anything be has a whole host of guys he could mesh well with in WWE's current style plus he's already shown in his move to the heavyweights in New Japan that he can change things up perfectly when needed. People still sleep on his versatility.

I agree with the rest though, he's not after that lifestyle.

Which one of those wrestlers is at the top of the card, and which one is the company being built around? Ricochet is another good example, historically with Ospreay, who is in the mid card shuffle. I think Ospreay is a better all round asset, and those other wrestlers are great examples, but I think my point stands.

@SuperBaconthats kind of my point. It’s not he wouldn’t fit in, it’s just he’s a big fish in a smaller pond (the pond is also full of a load of guppies but I digress) in AEW. He also gets to headline Wembley Stadium! But he also has always spoken of his love of TNA and NJPW, he never had his eyes set on WWE, and whilst those thoughts may change as you get older, he’s stuck to his gun