Hannibal Scorch

Abigail was pretty fun. A little long I thought pacing wise, but Dan Stevens chewing up scenery, Kathryn Newton and Kevin Durand bringing some laughs and Melissa Barrera having fun. Alisha Weir is fantastic, that's three great film performances she's had now, a right little star. Reminded me of Ready or Not at times, no surprise as it's the same directors. 

@garynysmon If I'm not mistaken you watch as much  AEW as I watch TNA (social Media clips, you Tube bits). If so I can see your stance on Matt Hardy. But he has been a drain on AEW for a while, briefly refreshed when Jeff jumped over. But when he first joined in 2020 he was given plenty of freedom, firstly being broken, then having/funding his own stable. Both got stale rather quickly. Personally without Jeff and doing the Hardy reunion, I don't know what he adds to any promotion. I hope he is entertaining enough for you in TNA, especially if they are going to give him a big push. 

23 minutes ago, no user name said:

Aew ppv's were £14.99 less than two years ago and revolution was £16.99 

I don’t think I ever paid less than £16.99 on Fite TV going back to double or nothing 2020. Just checked and every ppv other than Wrestledream and All In were $19.99. Those two were $15.99.

1 hour ago, Donald J Trump said:

I'd be surprised if it was just a couple of established guys with careers in Hollywood that had extended a discreet "wanna talk about it champ" to Vince. It's cynical, but depending on where you're situated career wise and financially if a man like Vince is down you may feel it might be sensible confirming that he's definitely out before you either burn your bridges with him, or try and hammer more nails into his coffin. Whilst it's hard to see a way back for him now, events could conspire to put him in a position where's he's able to at least try and salvage what's left of his legacy and reputation. When you factor in his wealth and connections, the idea that he might still serve some utility to somebody isn't out the question. 

I hope Chris Jericho is good friends with Vince

15 minutes ago, garynysmon said:

I haven't watched much wrestling at all for a few months now, which includes TNA. 

In all honesty the product has felt stone cold for a few months now, which is quite shameful really, given that they came out from Hard to Kill with quite a lot of buzz.

That said, the Rebellion card is looking pretty good and after a bit of a break I'm quite looking forward to watching it.

While they're going back to the Palms at Vegas a little too soon, at least you know it'll be a four figure crowd in a decent, well lit arena in a pretty hot atmosphere.

 

You may have spoken to soon,

that’s not good. I hope they get a lot of walk ups.

Monkey Man here too @LaGoosh although both were high 8 films for me, Monkey Man edges it

9 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

incredible.

 

My god The Rock 😂

2 minutes ago, The King of Old School said:

I mean who the fuck would want to team with Swerve?!

The Mogul Embassy?

3 hours ago, Daaaaaad! said:

I have a half-arsed theory that All In did great numbers, so they tried again with WrestleDream and it didn't do what they wanted it to do because the interest wasn't there as it would be with a Wembley show. They didn't put World's End on either, if I recall correctly.

Shame ITV Box Office tanked as I'm certain snagging AEW must've been a big part of their strategy for that. They had at least one PPV on there, I'm sure.

I’m not even sure that was the case. All In was on ITV4 and repeated again on ITV 1. WrestleDream only got the ITV4 treatment which I assume would be down to views.
 

But ITV Box Office was built around Boxing. AEW was just more content, but the boxing bombed to the point they felt it wasn’t worth keeping it open, AEW be damned. And it wasn’t a bad thing for us, because ITV Box Office only got you the PPV for the week. Fire/Triller you can go back and watch them whenever you want, much better value.

I should have known that I’d find Immaculate disappointing after I heard Kermode rave about it. Typical nun based horror with plot points which seem to be mentioned but soon forgotten about. Not Sydney Sweeney’s finest hour (and 30 minutes).

So glad to see the outpouring of love for Nyla. One of the great tweeters.

I thought that was a cracking go home show*. Great Mox promo, an unexpected bait and switch for the opener (I believe Julia is working hurt), great story progressions for Dynasty and a fantastic main event with Ospreay and Castagnoli, topped with a great go home spot with Swerve stomping an army to get to Joe. Great stuff!

*other than Piss Jericho, can’t believe he’s worked on to the main show and not zero hour.

It’s a beautiful thing 

48 minutes ago, JLM said:

We'll see how he does in promos trying to heat up feuds against filler challengers etc. going forward as that will be a bigger test, but surely he deserves a bit of a grace period after Mania before people start turning on him. Everyone loves the underdog until they make it eh. 

As I said in another thread, same thing happened with Hangman, the thrill was in the chase. I agree it’s too soon to write him off though, it’s only been a week and change since he won

31 minutes ago, Chili said:

I think I said it in another thread but Cody from the start of AEW up until the pandemic began was just phenomenal. He was absolutely brilliant and I loved everything he did from Dustin to Jericho to MJF (except the smashing throne silliness but nevermind). I think @RedRooster saw it before we all did but he was alright after that and through most of 2020, but that QT Marshall feud was where things started to feel off in retrospect even if I didn't see that at the time. All his feuds suddenly started skipping chapters.

It was the Ogogo bit that really did it for me. That and the more Brandi got involved the less I cared. Both of them seem lovely in real life, but she was prototype Jericho.

Not sure where else it fits, but I thought this thread was interesting. It was in response to a very pro WWE twitter account saying Cody’s promos since winning have been dull and someone asking if this was how his downfall started in AEW. I think it’s still far to early to say Cody’s a bust but still 

1 hour ago, FUM said:

In fairness, I said it before Mania and he got some reaction in Philly too so fair play to him.

Sami does generally get a good reaction, but saw a clip of R Truth/Miz and HHH and that crowd was silent (I mean, the comedy didn’t seem to land particularly well, maybe the just weren’t into THAT bit). But his reaction was awesome last night which is always good because he’s another one I think deserves it. And the general presentation is so much better out of Kevin Dunn’s hands

Maybe the Jericho Vortex is what Hook pushes him into tomorrow night and we never see him again. A la Poochie

3 minutes ago, TheScarlettChad said:

Can you never just give credit where its due? It was class. Montreal or not. 

Where did I say it wasn’t class? It was a comment about the crowd.

16 minutes ago, FUM said:

Echo the thoughts of that Sami entrance, looks like I need to hold my hands up and admit I was wrong about him losing his spark a bit with the crowd. 

Not shitting on the presentation at all, because the whole bit was superbly shot. But he was in his home town of Montreal.

25 minutes ago, Infinity Land said:

He's a guy in his mid-50s, if he goes away he ain't coming back in any meaningful way. He's just desperately clinging to his spot. 

Billy Gunn and Sting send their regards

4 minutes ago, andrew "the ref" coyne said:

Gotta say I dig the new tag belt design. Clearly taking design inspiration from the world titles and effectively making them a family of belts. Love it.

Got to say they could have put a massive poo emoji on the silver belts and it would have looked better. I loved the square attitude era titles, and wish these weren’t round, but these new ones are a massive glow up.

I’m so glad we got Tony back into wrestling

1 hour ago, Loki said:

There's whole swathes of the roster that haven't achieved much in 5 years.  Private Party - couldn't tell you who is who in that team and they've been on tv since 2019.  Those two brothers who both look like Action Andretti, and seem to be tagging with Action Andretti.  So much dead wood that's on telly all the time.

There’s a whole roster to choose from but you can’t name, or tell who is who from these 5? Without googling Darius and Dante Martin, Marq Quen and Isiah Cassidy. Yeesh.

Anyway, at @RedRoosteryeah I did misread your comment earlier. My picks for the elbow.

Jericho - let him have his hall of fame run

Jeff Hardy - same

Hook - there’s something there, but it ain’t there yet

Danhausen - His obsession with Pepsi Phil has shown him up to be a bit of a tit. A hard act to book on a serious wrestling show. He doesn’t have the range of an Orange Cassidy, and I’m sure he’ll make lots of monies in a comedy role. Pains me as a fan to say, but I wouldn’t miss him.

House of Black Malakai and Buddy - HHH loves them and their partners are there. Have fun boys

Ricky Starks - Another who wants to go, so let him go.

Max Caster - Off to NXT for you sonny

Preston Vance - I like him, but he can’t catch a break.

1 hour ago, DavidB6937 said:

What does LA Knight have to do to stop getting the Fandango comparison?

 

Not be shit

3 hours ago, RedRooster said:

Even if you accepted this as true, the current regime hasn't been in place long enough to undo much of the damage caused by Vince McMahon. But every metric I could throw at you would suggest you're wrong - live attendances, revenue, TV ratings - they're on a hot streak. But the attempts to make wins and losses count, and to build wrestlers that matter are there - I'd point to Rhea Ripley, Drew McIntyre, Gunther, Sami Zayn and even Ricochet. 

 

I never suggested they were. This is weird thing to say because I never suggested that. Of course they are doing phenomenal business, but that has nothing to do with my point. And you have, rightly picked 4 people they really have been trying to build (Priest over Riccochet though, he’s been jobbed out too often too long to make his recent win record mean much. 

3 hours ago, RedRooster said:

Again, it's relatively early in the new regime - but it's far from the best batch of NXT talent they've ever had. Hence the point in this topic. Who would you shift over to WWE, following the rules of the original post?

- Sami

- Owens

- Ricochet

- Chelsea Green

- Piper

- Balor 

- Trick Williams

- Chad Gabel

- Bayley

- R-Truth

3 hours ago, RedRooster said:

Well yeah, this was pretty deliberate. Cody was the first major jump to WWE, and they wanted to signify that by keeping his presentation intact, so that it would feel like a jump. I'm not sure why you view having similar music as being a problem as far as Jade is concerned? Both of them are bigger deals for being in WWE - and I think you'd struggle to argue otherwise. I'm genuinely not trying to be 'rah-rah-WWE' here, but I'm not sure there's a wrestler who feels bigger because they're in AEW, such is the damage that has been done to the brand - and that wasn't always the case, and doesn't have to be the case going forward. 

I think that opinion is largely led by vague jibes people throw at AEW presentation in general. That said Trips made a big deal about how Jade was mistreated in AEW training wise and now she’s in the best place. 6 months down in the PC and she’s exactly the same. But I appreciate if your ambition is to get my attention from outside opportunities (like acting) you’d be a fool not to go to the biggest circus in town, which is the WWE.

3 hours ago, RedRooster said:

Firstly, not all talent needs to be top tier. Secondly, LA Knight is shifting merchandise like nobody's business, and is popular to the point he's appearing in adverts for Slim Jims. I don't necessarily understand the appeal, but there's little doubt that he's had cut through. When did they pivot with Sami, Owens or Gable? Sami didn't win the World title, but he ended Gunther's historic IC title reign and main-evented Wrestlemania. Owens has main-evented two Wrestlemanias, one of which was against Steve Austin. Chad Gable isn't gaining a huge crowd reaction, so it would have been hard to justify pitting him against Gunther at 'Mania, but it's pretty clear he has a longer term storyline going on with Zayn, and attempts to give him more prominence haven't finished. 

 

CM Punk sold tons of merch the first time round, but the ratings were down when he was at the top of the tower. Of course they want merch sellers, but my point is being over with the crowd is different than people paying to see you. People are paying for Cody and Roman, not LA Knight. It’s the Fandango effect. And in my original point the problem seems to be they either don’t pull the trigger at the time (and yeah, it was great Sami got his flowers, but it felt bittersweet because of the delay imo) or they just don’t build them up properly.

It’s a testing time. Roman was the figure head for almost 4 years. He’s gone. Cody is now leading the way and his promos have been disappointing, albeit not surprising. He’s got the Hangman issue of being more dynamic chasing the title than winning, something I saw when Cody had his TNT runs. But I want him to do well, nicest man in the business, but if he got injured tomorrow they would be buggered.