Hannibal Scorch

1 hour ago, RedRooster said:

This is pretty much how I feel. I’ve come to realise that all I want from my wrestling shows is to feel like I’ve had fun watching them. That’s why I really enjoyed Wrestlemania last night in spite of its flaws. I felt similarly around the early years of AEW, there was a feel-good factor surrounding the promotion which made each show a delight to watch.

The undercurrent of negativity and backstage drama is something I find more than a little exhausting. And it can pretty much all be traced back to Tony Khan. Any good intentions he may have are lost in the leadership skills he appears to lack, along with his ridiculous behaviour on Twitter. 

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. 

19 minutes ago, Chili said:

Double pedigrees? Absolutely not.

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.

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

Are wrestling fans that much more incurious, or small-minded, to not understand the idea that other countries exist where other people are performing in a similar context? Would they have had their minds blown by International Gladiators?

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.

1 hour ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

No, but cutting people for 'budget reasons' and then publicly saying a few days later that you spent more money on one song than the guys you just released will earn in a year is pretty cunty. 

Still, at least Tony's not petty....
 

 

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.

1 hour ago, TildeGuy~! said:

Absolute chuffed she chose the fed 

1 hour ago, RedRooster said:

I mean; come on, he’s used the ridiculous amount paid for music as a justification for cutting people - people who likely earned much less than what he was paying for the songs in question; given that one released wrestler a post saying he’d had to hold down another job to make ends meet. I’d rather see lower card wrestlers get paid more, and have no licensed music than a situation where people aren’t earning enough to live off.

Khan has also claimed The Boys no-showed multiple shows; something they’ve denied in a detailed statement.

Obviously I don’t know whose account is more accurate, but saying something about a lower paid act that might hinder their chances of getting bookings elsewhere is a bit shitty. 

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. 

21 minutes ago, JimmyAnderson said:

This may be common knowledge to everyone else on here but it was a surprise to me; as I was watching RAW Homecoming from 2005 the other day on the network and there's a lad front and centre with a hatful of signs that he shows throughout the night and during the main event (John Cena v Eric Bischoff for the WWE Title) one of his many was CM Punk is the future.

During the Michaels/Angle Iron Man match there was "my myspace name is Nature Brad". That hit home how old the episode was because he was advertising myspace. Ian Rotter = king of hardcore. Matt Sydal of all fucking things. He had plenty of others as well.

1 minute ago, Arch Stanton said:

AJ Styles is a weird one. Unquestionably one of the best in-ring performers of his generation, but I've just never felt even remotely engaged in any feud he's ever had. I saw these clips going round yesterday but didn't even feel bothered enough to press the play button on them. LA Knight feels like a particularly bad fit for him too. AJ has had a history of disappointing matches at WrestleMania and I'm sure that will continue with this one.

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.

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).