LaGoosh

Yeah I understand it as a character concept but the "American Nightmare" isn't actually the character he's portraying. How has he opposed his Dad or portrayed a character in stark contrast to the American Dream? How is accomplishing more than his father make him the "Nightmare"? And I don't think he's stepping out of his father's shadow when he brings him up all the time, mentions his family at the start of his entrance music and has his nickname tattoo'd on his chest. To me, the true American Nightmare would be someone who completely rejects his fathers character, values and spits on his family legacy. That would be a genuine opposite of the 'American Dream'. His current character has loads in common with his father's character. So why is a character primarily based on virtuous values and principles calling himself the Nightmare?

It's a deleted scene I think.

So "The American Nightmare" is now part of the "American Dream Team". Why the fuck is he called the American Nightmare anyways? Has that ever been explained? His character is basically the biggest red white and blue flag shagger since Hogan so I've never really got it. And it definitely doesn't help that the "American Nightmare" has "Dream" tattoo'd on his chest! I'm assuming the only reason he uses the nickname is because it sounds cool. Like with everything with Cody it's all surface level schtick.

Yeah that sounds about right. However at the same time I don't think AEW are really doing anything wrong at all with his current presentation. He's being presented as a top star and sometimes you just need to go all in on someone and hopefully with time the audience who are unfamiliar with him will catch up and see them as a top star too.

I also really hated it. One of those modern comedies where the characters are just constantly endlessly talking and they are all saying weird shit and no one is reacting to any of the weird shit that people are just constantly endlessly saying without a single moment to breath.

I haven't seen any of Okada outside AEW so this legendary status they've given him is a bit confusing to me because he hasn't hugely impressed in-ring. He's working a slow and safe style but I'm not really buying him as this super talent that they are telling me he is. Thankfully the Young Bucks as his dickhead henchmen are doing tremendous work and really making the character stuff sparkle. Brilliant booking really as I think Okada would be pretty lost without them two holding him up. After hearing for so long how great Okada is in-ring I'm looking forward to seeing him put on a top performance. Soon hopefully.

Yeah Zack Knight is proper cringe. I can imagine his act working at the working men's clubs in front of children and pissed up old ladies but his panto snarling is fucking embarrassing. I love Nigel constantly taking the piss out of Danielson but hope it never leads to a match. The retired wrestler turned commentator coming back for one last fight is the ultimate babyface story. It doesn't really work when it's a heel constantly ripping the piss out of a babyface coming out of retirement. If the roles were reversed and it was Danielson picking on Nigel the Commentator I'd be all for it but the way things are currently it just doesn't work as a story for me.

Going by Supremo's posting style I'm pretty sure he's joking...

Just finished The Curse. An absolutely incredibly series overall featuring some of the best acting and complex character dynamics I've ever seen and a fascinating portrayal of a deeply abusive relationship between two awful people in a way I haven't seen before. However the finale left me in two minds. On one hand it was a wildly unpredictable and hilarious finale that perfectly encapsulated the series themes. But on a plot/story level it left me fairly unsatisfied.

Fuck me, they're going to have to turn Mercedes heel soon aren't they? Pretty hard to cheer her, even Toronto seemed to give up after the initial CEO chants. She's coming across as insanely phoney and unlikable. That she basically came out just to be like "hey, I made the production team put together a video about how great I am, watch it!" isn't exactly top babyface behaviour.

Trailer for the new show The Acolyte is out. 2 episode premier in June. Visually it looks fairly generic but I'm definitely intrigued. Anything Star Wars that doesn't have Filoni/Favreau's shitty hands on it has my interest. I'm still genuinely shocked at how mind bogglingly terrible Book of Boba Fett, Obi Wan, Mando season 3 and Ahsoka were. Just the fact that it's coming from someone with their own singular narrative vision and it won't be tied in with all the other bollocks means it actually has a chance to be something good. And that it's taking place in a time period the films/TV shows haven't ever explored is quite exciting.

The Dynamite thread is getting once again over loaded with the ongoing CM Punk saga. Makes sense to have a separate thread to discuss the whiny hyper sensitive hypocritical little twat. Or you can just post stuff you like about him. The Raw match with Cena was his finest moment and he's never been anywhere near as good since.

Decided to put a thread together where we can bitch and complain about whatever stupid thing Cody has done this week rather than inevitably clogging up the Dynamite thread. Personally, I find Cody Rhodes to be a pretty interesting wrestler. On paper and at one point in practice he was the perfect babyface with a great story. Son of a wrestling legend walks away from the big evil WWE who are forcing him to dress up like a cartoon character to start his own promotion for the fans and to bring back "real wrestling". There was a few months where Cody Rhodes was an absolutely excellent white meat pure babyface the likes of which the business hadn't seen for years. But it all gradually fell apart and every week it seems to get worse and more confusing. I would easily put Cody at the top of my worst wrestler of 2021 list. The fall from grace is really unique and kind of fascinating. I've tried to come up with every terrible decision he's made that gradually eroded fan support to the point now where everyone is either bored of him or hates him. - Firstly and perhaps most importantly: that fucking tattoo. The MJF match was a hot feud with great angles (the 10 lashes is an all time great angle) but regardless of how good the build was when he came out for the match with that ridiculous thing on his neck you could feel the air suck out the room. I think a huge portion of the fanbase lost a lot of respect for him as soon as they saw it. I know I did. It's hard to cheer for someone who would do something so stupid. - "Cody Rhodes has a special announcement". Every couple of weeks you'd get this on Dynamite. And every time not much really happened. Cody merely going out to do a promo was advertised as if it was important. Gradually over time fans pick up on that stuff and it's annoying. - Cody is not a very good singles wrestler. He seems to think he is though. On a show with one of the best and most exciting and dynamic rosters of all time, you need to be really good. Especially if you're positioned as a top star like Cody often is. Cody rarely has a match above average and only does with the right opponent (namely someone who is much, much better than him). He does a lot of stuff in his matches that don't really make sense for someone of his style or size and his matches rarely have any story or psychology to them. He had a terrible match with Anthony Ogogo which had probably the most obvious story possible to work (dangerous boxer vs wrestler - wrestler dodges and outwrestles the boxer to stay away from the punches, eventually a punch lands so the wrestler sells loads before eventually getting using his superior wrestling skills to get the win) but instead they worked a generic and dull normal match. - That time he dyed his hair black to show everyone how serious he was but looked like Eddie Munster. Cody does not do subtlety. - Brandi Rhodes. I'm sure she's a lovely person in real life, but she's a horrendously unlikeable onscreen character and any association/appearances she makes with Cody Rhodes the character makes him more smug and unlikeable by association. Remember when she randomly went all "ima' whoop yo' ass ya trick bitch" on Jade Cargill? Embarrassing scenes. - Hey, it's lovely that Cody and Brandi had a baby but did they really need to announce it on television? And did they really need to do it with the most sickeningly smug video of all time? It's not a huge thing on it's own but all of these things add up. - That entrance. Firstly his song is pretty bad but not offensively bad by wrestling theme standards...then he started adding extra layers to it...and more pyro...he has the biggest entrance of anyone on the roster by far. Even the Champion! - AEW typically doesn't do rematches...except for Cody though. Dude always gets his win back. - Cody is booked like he's a special attraction. He's not. He hasn't earned that spot. The fans don't see him as a special attraction. - Cody Rhodes is a lazy storyteller. You can tell he's a product of the WWE system because Cody's stories are always based around "moments" rather than build or logic. It feels like he has an idea he gets excited about and he just rushes towards it so he can do it as soon as possible. It always makes his stories feel completely disjointed. Like the 3 week long story of Arn Anderson calling him weak, setting a fire in his garden and him getting slapped about in a training school before coming back like nothing had ever happened. Or having a hardcore match with firespots to blow off a feud that's ONLY ONE WEEK OLD. - Set himself on fire on live TV doing a fucking idiotic spot for no reason whatsoever. Cody also blades constantly in matches because he's not talented enough to build drama in any other way. - The CodyVerse, completely separated himself from the rest of the roster and spent almost a year only feuding with his training school people who no one cared about. All the while the rest of the roster rapidly outgrew him in talent and star power. Now feels like he's from a completely different show. - No one comes out of a feud with Cody better off than they were on the way in. He's a star power blackhole, sucks you in and shits you out. - Seems to think he's doing some kind of tweener John Cena type act. Except people actually liked John Cena, he was a star and paid to see him. I know the talk is how great a Cody heel turn would be...I'm not convinced. He doesn't seem to want to do it and I don't think he has the talent to actually pull it off to a top level. So...anyone here like him?

Fuck megathreads. Paul Wight made a good start as a commentator on Elevation. He's naturally likeable in the booth and while he sounds fairly green at times it's clear he's working very hard to put over the wrestlers. AEW feels much less chaotic and much more cohesive when you don't have JR rambling, bitching and fucking up constantly. Not really sure what the difference between Dark and Dark Elevation is supposed to be though.