Tsurutagun

 They need a mixture of patience, luck and the Khan chequebook

Take Britt, they have something with her. She's gorgeous, she looks like a star and her 2020 has been brilliant. But she's green as hell and she's been unlucky with injuries but I can see her being great in a few years

Anna Jay has something too. She actually got a half decent match out of Brandi even with her experience levels and in a couple of years she'll be great too

Abadon has potential as does Penelope, Kris Statlander and Conti imo but they won't be as good as the WWE stars for a few years. They need ring time to get "elite" 

They have been unlucky in losing people to injuries and Riho to the current circumstances. 

In the meantime they could have got in Deonna Purrazzo but she went to Impact. I'd like to see Nicole Savoy (Lil Swole) in. I enjoyed her performances in the tag tourney. Tessa would be a great get and to get her Tony needs to spend. 

The other problem is that the disgruntled ex WWE guys were the men and the female wrestlers in WWE seem to happy there and the only women that might be underused are Naomi and Shayna but they probably aren't  going at the moment

2 hours ago, The Dart said:

I haven't watched any of Raw yet, but was it announced they've just signed contracts?  Or just that they do have contracts?

Because before they first appeared it was announced a new faction would be debuting tonight, so it'd make sense that they'd been signed to contracts at that time, obviously WWE executives didn't know the chaos they would bring, but also that'd mean they should have known who they are.

They have been given contracts according to what Tom Phillips said on Raw and they can do whatever they want. 

A bunch of guys have caused chaos in the last few months and they are signed to contracts?

Also, Djovokic or whatever his name is says that people who take a pay cheque from WWE are whores. Does that mean he is working for free. 

19 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Get your Sue fix people
 

 

Already watched the Sue/Dark Order bit three times. Brodie corpsing is what makes it so good

2 hours ago, Mark_Doctor said:

Can anybody recommend a non fiction that charts the US territory era?

I read Death of the Territories during Lokdown 1.0 by Tim Hornbaker which was a decent enough read. 

I'm thinking 2001 when WWE won the "war" 

Stephanie would have joined the writing team around then I think and with a degree in communication felt that writing scripts was the way forward. 

I do wonder if the WCW guys in the invasion had scripts because they weren't trusted to cut promos. 

10 hours ago, BrodyGraham said:

They've dropped the ball fairly consistently with the women and continue to do so. They brought in Nicole Savoy for the tag tournament, Savoy was in great shape and looked really good, much better than in her Mae Young/NXT appearances, and was one of the few stand outs. They signed Tay Conti.

They've let a bunch of good talent go to Impact instead of snapping them up. I honestly don't see why they let Kimber Lee, Jordynne Grace, fuck even Tenille Dashwood, go that way without picking them up. 

They had Mercedes Martinez come out as the Joker in the Casino Battle Royale at last year's All Out, to a good pop, but let her go to NXT.

There's a lot better than what they've got, but it feels like they're holding their breath for the Japanese lasses coming back.

Wasn't Jordynne signed to a long term contract before AEW became a thing? Dashwood isn't really that big of a miss. 

Maybe Mercedes got offered a big money deal for 5 yrs and AEW couldn't match the offer

The one that All Elite missed out on was Deonna Purrazzo. She would have been great.

7 hours ago, Yakashi said:

Most wrestling shows? I guess babyfaces hanging out with their mother on national tv is where we are now.

It's not like Best Friends are supposed to be the next incarnation of The Road Warriors.  

I'm voting Sue as Non Wrestling Personality of the Year in the Observer Awards. 

2 hours ago, HarmonicGenerator said:

Last week’s @WrestleMe! had a lovely line about the Bushwhackers... “Like a post-apocalyptic Chuckle Brothers, crawling through the wreckage...”

The bit about Connor, the kid who got the Warrior Award at the Hall of Fame pinning Triple H and the guys saying it was after a 30 minute match made me chuckle. 

Marc and Pete losing their minds over the Triple H/Sting match was great audio

5 minutes ago, NavigatorFan said:

 if the ending didn't make you smile then maybe AEW isn't for you! 

My money is on King of Sports hating that end

2 hours ago, The Dart said:

The question is why do they always have one camera that they only cut to when Retribution are in the ring?  Why would the producers of Raw set that camera up, then ignore it for the 3 hours, the poor operator is probably bored out his mind, but then uh-oh, they've showed up, wake up Billy, shake that camera about a bit please.

Because Kevin Dunn

5 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

Yes, and for real.

Will be interesting to see how they play that off, and his friendship with Dijakovic too.

10 imaginary pounds says they won't 

5 hours ago, Nick James said:

The Retribution group from the promo are clearly Dijakovic, Mia Yim, Mercedes Martinez and two others who I couldn't work out.

Weren't Mia Yim and Keith Lee dating in storyline on NXT

While, we're talking things that make zero sense. Miz's plan to cause harm to the Mandy Rose/Otis by getting Raw to trade for Mandy might work if both shows weren't in Orlando and they could just see each other the other 5 days of the week 

Also, what the hell happened in the Mickie/Asuka finish 

16 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

the drinking aspect of Page/Omega is something I never thought they'd be able to handle all that well, but they have, and it does a good job of being a kind of microcosm of the whole story - Hangman drinks because he's insecure and second-guessing himself, but Kenny's teetotal so he sees the drinking itself as the problem and is blind to what Page is actually going through. 

Meanwhile, Page is insecure because he was the one of The Elite that doesn't get all the hype and attention, so he doesn't think they're really his friends, or that he belongs with them. So when someone like FTR treat him like a friend and offer him a beer, he's happy to be included, but Omega just sees it as him valuing beer over making their team work. 

 

In real life, two wrestling friends of mine had a similar dynamic - one had never drunk in his life, one was an alcoholic. I would sometimes meet the alcoholic one for a drink to talk through matches or whatever, and the non-drinking one would get really angry because he saw it as just encouraging his drinking - I'd explain that if he's drinking with me, he's having two or three pints in a couple of hours, rather than two or three bottles of wine in the same timespan on his own at home, but the non-drinker didn't see the distinction; any drinking was just him fucking up. I see a lot of that in how Omega carries himself in this feud.

It's the reason I adore the Hangman Page character so much. As someone who suffers from anxiety and a self esteem issues, I can totally relate to Page. I have read way too many takes online this past week about it not being great that wrestlers are talking about their feelings and are being sad. I bet that a significant portion of fans can totally relate to Hangman Page

8 minutes ago, Louch said:

Been thinking the last few days re the Hangman story, and how you’d expect there to be some legend comes in and gives him the pep talk promo to get his mind right. Top pick and ain’t gonna happen would be Austin. Then more realistic Bret. Anything as long as it’s not DDP 

It will probably end up being DDP

My prediction is that it was Omega that got in Hangman's head all along and the Bucks forgive Page and its Page vs Omega with Page getting his big singles win for the world title (after Omega beats Mox at Full Gear) and he becomes AEW's ace. 

Is Brock really flying to Florida to wrestle either in front of a ton of screens with people putting their thumbs down for eternity or in front of a 20% full Dailys Place. He's staying on his ranch in parts unknown with Sable, hunting deer in his spare time until they find a vaccine 

Booker T beats Triple H for the title. Trips could have won the belt back a couple of months later so they could do Triple H/Goldberg later. 

Backland at least holds the title to WrestleMania 11. If Diesel is the guy have him win the Rumble and squash Backlund at Mania. Watching OSW, it got me remembering how over Backlund got in the run up to Survivor Series and the butyrate was the best Survivor Series since 1991 until Deadly Game. 

The one thing I find hilarious about the Trump/Woodward deal is that Trump is notoriously thin skinned and lashes out at anyone criticising him yet he's had 8 phone calls with someone who is a famed Presidential biographer who has already wrote a 362 page book about what a shite job he's been doing as President. What did he think was going to happen. 

There's a lot of people who are angry and bitter about their time in WWE if you listen to various interviews. It's the easy thing to to say on AEW shows that WWE sucks when a portion of your fan base are frustrated, disillusioned fans that thing WWE has gone to the dogs (and they would be right) 

Also, Miro comes across as a very angry man judging by his anti-Meltzer rant on Twitch which would have made even Bischoff go "easy there fella"

Tooth and Nail was fine and better than all the WWE cinematic matches bar Taker/AJ but why did it open the show. 

Bucks/Jurassic should have opened. Really good match. The Bucks are great

Casino Battle Royale was alright. Right guy won. That Sydal botch was something. Also, Sydal being a surprise was TNA-esque tbh

The Matt Hardy deal was troubling. People are going to shit on AEW and rightfully so but wrestling in general has a problem in dealing with concussions. Dr Samson is an ex WWE guy and probably has a mentally installed of "toughing it out" 

Shida/Rosa was really good. Shida might actually be the most underrated wrestler in either of the big two right now. 

Anyone who didn't find the Sabian twitch plug funny needs a sense of humour bypass. 

I enjoyed the 8 man. Cardona is alright. Dustin is awesome. Brodie/Dustin should be really good on Wednesday 

Right team won the tag titles. Omega is turning heel (all is right with the world) Match was really good if 10 mins too long. The big collision between Page and Omega didn't actually happen though (sad face) 

I enjoyed Mimosa Mayhem. I'll never not enjoy being thrown/falling into pool of liquid. 

World title match was a Mox Special and that's fine by me. The finish was not a big surprise. I've read people talking about the top face shouldn't be cheating. I'm fine with someone like Mox not being close to white meat babyfaces. He's a "I don't give a fuck" face and I don't have a problem with that

People have called this the worst AEW PPV so far and I get that. There was nothing out of this world unlike all the other PPVs. I thought Stadium Stampede aside Double or Nothing was bang average and that was the worst PPV. All Out was good with some flaws. 

What if Austin doesn't go to Vince asking to turn heel in the build up to WM 17

Austin has to win the title because its in Texas and Rock is going to film Scorpion King. Triple H makes sense for being the No. 1 contender after winning 3 Stages of Hell but you need him to have momentum so he has to beat Undertaker right. That means the Streak ends before it even has a chance to become a thing. 

Also, if Austin is a face when the Invasion happens who leads the Alliance. Stephanie is the ECW owner, Trips has to take his wife's side. So he is the leader of the Alliance. 

28 minutes ago, CavemanLynn said:

Moxley's been fucking ace in all his promos and angles, but he essentially been doing angle-of-the-month without the longer term arc of Jericho or Cody's feuds. He's put on solid to great matches against monsters like Lee and Cage, emotionally charged big brother beat downs like Darby, and now what should be a gobshite-getting-his-comeuppance with MJF. It's just that a stronger character development for himself just isn't there.

He could have done with more pretapes, perhaps, vignettes of the champion at home, supported by whatever arc they wanted to give him. He was also pretty much fully formed when he arrived, so I don't know where there would be to go with him on his own.

A lot of people seem disappointed in MJF in this feud, like this is his big coming out party as a main event er, when it's really not. That'll be versus Cody some point down the line. This has been a taster for him, an investment in him by the company for when they're really ready to pull the trigger. I think he's done a blinding job, turning the volume up on his snivelling shitbag side, with a heel aesthetic that felt topical without being heavyhanded. It's a shame it's been a 4week build rather than a satisfying logical end to a longer ascension for him, but then again, there's no way he's taking the title. I reckon it'll be a miscommunication between him and Wardlow forced by Mox, after giving him a double-arm DDT, then a cleanish pin for Mox after a knee trembler.

Then of course, the post match beat down on Mox by MJF and Wardlow is interrupted by a voice over the mic. "HELLO AYE EE DUBYOO!" And Rusev in a tank wearing a bow tie rolls up, cleans house, and stares down Wardlow to close the show. It's Miro Day!

It feels like Sammartino's run in the 60s and 70s with the monster of the month then they go down the card. 

It's pretty obvious that Lance Archer is winning the Battle Royal then facing Moxley at a special Dynamite which NXT will counter program with Cole/Balor vs Priest in a title vs title match

Question, does this also apply to backstage people who do podcasts on Fridays with people in mortgage industry. If not, I could see the wrestlers really kicking off about that

49 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

I'm guessing we would have had that a lot sooner had it not been for the pandemic. Page staying at home ground whatever they were planning to do to a halt, then they seemed to hit the reset button for a bit. I imagine we're going to get to the next chapter sooner rather than later. 

Personally though, I love the build. It feels very non-traditional but in the best possible way. Everything about it has felt real, and the animosity between Page and the rest of the elite has felt surprisingly genuine. 

I'm convinced Blood and Guts would have been the moment that somebody would have turned. 

Omega has to be the one to turn now. Page is the perfect face. Bucks have a book out this Christmas and being faces makes the most sense. 

Can see it being that Omega was the one who needled Page into interfering in the gauntlet match.