Hannibal Scorch

The right guy was also there at Wrestlemania 39. In fact, you have to ask yourself why now in that case. Is it because they had to pivot? Because what did another year of Reigns as champ give us? A few forgotten defences and the Rock returning to face him and due to fan reaction, swapping sides. It almost feels the extra year wait did nothing much for Cody (don’t tell me the reaction last night was any better than what he’d have received last year). Anyway, I hope Cody gets a good title run for at least a year, he’s earned it. Also, delighted to see @d-d-d-dAz not only so happy, but also that we have mutual feelings about Samantha!

Night Two was a far far superior event than night one. 2 duffers (LA Knight/AJ did nothing for me, at least the trios was treated as a comedy match). Bayley and Io Skye had a great match. Woman’s match of the weekendSeth vs Drew pretty much went as well as I’d hoped, but did feel bad they gave him the Adam Copeland title run, though guess that will lead to his revenge at the Hydro (if he re-signs). Logan Paul is still impressive, as long as you ignore his matches are very samey and he has a limited move set. The Main event. It will either be the best match you’ve ever seen or over booked nostalgia bait. I know you shouldn’t read to much into wrestling, but he was put through a table, thrown in the ring, superman punch and kicked out at 2. Come on, I had £18.75 resting on it! But I was enjoying it. But there was this air of waiting for the interferences, and as that had been the discussion for a while it was a case of who first and how many. Once we got to Rock/Cena I’d had enough. It felt like HHH/Sting from 32 at that point. Anyway, Cody gets the win, he finishes the story. Samantha Irvin, because she can’t remain professional, can barely get her words out. He gets the belt. He’s done it, the faces run down, the family comes in. THERES THE WRESTLEMANIA MOMENT. I’m pleased for him. Oh no, what’s he doing? Oh he’s not surely…. So the only thing I really hated was what was uttered by Stephanie McMahon at the top of the night. This is the Paul Levesque era. Look, steering away from Vince is best for business. But I already hate this is the choice, and Cody declaring it too just left me cold. He’s also the new voice for the opening and closing bumpers. So the good news, now I’ve seen the story finish and lost my £18.75, this is where my story ends. I’m not tuning into Raw or Smackdown. I may check out stuff down the road, but this sugar coating is too sickly for me. It’s been a rollercoaster of the last 34 years, but I’m ready to hop off WWE. Good luck in your future endeavours.

You have to put your money where your mouth is

Considering what’s been happening inside WWE in the last few months, let alone years, it’s interesting that some back stage drama and dodgy twitter exchanges is the rubicon and not the sex trafficking for example. AEW have far better matches and PPV’s. WWE have better production and can deliver better storylines. But maybe just stop watching AEW if Tony Khan bothers you to the point of affecting your enjoyment.

What Cody did was hardly a Pedigree. @air_raid definitely a benefit of watching on demand and not having to sit through everything in real time.

The main event being almost an hour long (with entrances) was insane, especially with half of the match it seemed they were doing everything they could to not get hurt for night 2. Thanks to having the flu I made it through live. Overall outside of the Sami/Gunther match which over delivered in spades, I thought it was a poor show and the Jimmy and Jay match being one of the worst WrestleMania matches I can remember. Will Cody finish his story during night 2? I may have changed my mind.

Giulia is a top talent. My concern is how much she’ll be watered down because she’s very hard hitting. There’s no one like her in WWE, but I hope she does well because she’s a breath of fresh air. From what I’ve seen, her English is pretty poor which will hold her back.

Yes. 100%. At least most American mainstream /WWE fans. How many stars from Mexico or Japan have really done well in WWE? Rey, Shinsuke, Asuka? What about Mistico, Ultimo Dragon. They discussed this on Wrestle Me this week where they went to a show on Thursday and the was a 10 man, Lucha vs DDT and he said the match was great but there was zero reaction from the fans because they didn’t know who they were (ironically one of them was Mistico). I think your average AEW fan is probably aware of Japanese and Indy stars because they watched RoH or NJPW or TNA. A lot of WWE fans don’t watch anything outside of the company. Now of course I’m generalising but I don’t think I’m being unfair with that assumption. At least based on real life experiences.

I assume you’ve not been following the storyline on ROH if you thought that was a shot at The Boys. @d-d-d-dAz you’re right, but that’s what people have been saying for years and indication of why he was nothing like Vince or HHH in that regard, not that you would necessarily want to be. This isn’t the first TK miss-step, it won’t be the last, I still think averaging things out he’s doing a better job than most, but he really needs to sort the communications out better than he has been, specially in regards talent relations.

Do I have to say every time something is slightly tongue in cheek? Of course jobs are more important than music clearances. But people moaned he’s not a real boss, the roster is too bloated. He cuts some of the roster and now he’s the second coming of satan apparently. The Boys showed some conversations about 1 date. A date they couldn’t be arsed to drive to an international airport for even though they were told expenses would be paid. So they did have to drive 3 hours to the airport (America, so not unusual or unreasonable), at no expense but didn’t. And they were a bottom card act. Of the people cut only Sasha was a loss, but I guess they already had 2 other ring announcers, but I’m still sad to see her go.

AJ Styles at WrestleMania has the same success as Ian Wright in an England shirt.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.