LaGoosh

22 minutes ago, Supremo said:

By contrast, The Acclaimed are absolutely finished as an act. It was insane watching how little reaction they got here. Max waffling on to silence. Remember how over they once were? I can’t decide if it’s the lacklustre onscreen stuff, or Max Caster being a bit of an idiot on Twitter, but either way this felt like the last hurrah for a team destined for the bin. They’re done.

I think more than any other reason it's as simple as they've just had their time. Every act has a shelf life. They are the modern day equivalent of the New Age Outlaws and that includes everyone just kinda' being bored with them after 2 years. They've done everything and there's not really anything left in the tank that can interest audiences anymore. They should be happy with that and just call it a day.

I'd go with an Eddie Kingston vs Christian Cage feud next. Both have just lost their titles so I feel like that could be the genesis of a story between them. Also they are such diametrically opposed characters I think they would really spark. Imagine the promos! 

4 minutes ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

It's wrestling. 

Great post, thanks.

3 hours ago, OzExile said:

In 2024, why isn't Christian going over Adam Copeland? 

Because it's the end of a long feud where the heroic babyface finally gets victory over the dastardly cheating evil heel. 

It's been a fun feud but I'm also excited for the future now that Copeland has closed the Christian chapter and can have a fresh start and really start engaging with the rest of the AEW roster.  

4 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said:

His dad was "The American Dream" and Cody wanted to oppose that. The opposite of a dream is a nightmare, hence "The American Nightmare"

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? 

19 hours ago, gmoney said:

Fucking hell, I don't remember that AT ALL

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.

4 minutes ago, air_raid said:

Strip him of the journey that the viewer has gone on from his return from excursions through first title win, G1 and Wrestle Kingdoms highs and lows and ascent to the top, and any prior knowledge of his previous matches and…. oh look, that bloke did a dropkick. And? Anyone can do a dropkick? What’s special?

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.

2 hours ago, waters44 said:

On the other hand I couldn’t stand Bottoms and the best part of it was when it ended. Heard nothing but good things about it so clearly I’m in the minority, but man I thought it was shite

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.

27 minutes ago, Arch Stanton said:

Damn, he really rattled you AEW diehards didn't he? 

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. 

12 hours ago, WeeAl said:

So BCC beat FTR then aren't in the tournament? That's a bit of weak booking there. 

Looks like Mox might be injured which might be why the tournament makes no sense at the moment as it looked like BCC would have been the focus of it.

Shibata/Danielson wasn't the classic it wold have been in years ago but it was still pretty great. The main thing that stood out to me was the "taking turns hitting each other" spot they did at the end which actually worked perfectly and made sense here unlike 99% of other matches it takes place in. Usually it's just a thing wrestlers do with the story of "let's see how tough we are" with no huge logic to it but here they really built up to it. Both men were equally matched throughout the entire match and had exhausted all their usual moves and tactics on each other but after all that neither of them had yet managed to gain any real advantage over the other at any point so it simply had to come down to "ok, let's just hit each other until one of us cracks". With the story of mutual respect laid into the foundations of the match it just worked here where it rarely works elsewhere.

Good lord. 

14 minutes ago, Keith Houchen said:

“Increased Bumps” explains the Twitter twattery on some night for little tone. 

You have your own thread for this stuff.

Thanks!

59 minutes ago, Chili said:

Booker is a bit daft and very 'DM me babez' but I reckon, in an actual ruck, I'm taking Booker. He could lamp Punk had enough that Sammy Guevera would sell it hundreds of miles away.

Yeah Booker T is a fucking massive bloke and has that "I'm a tough guy but don't need to show it " vibe to him. I can't imagine Punk would be able to handle him at all.

What makes someone valuable to AEW doesn't necessarily make them valuable to WWE and vice versa. Ospreay would probably do well in WWE but unlikely to make a huge change in their business while Ospreay in AEW could potentially make a huge difference, therefore he's worth more to them than he is to Triple H. 

WWE made an offer to Rush a while back but AEW offered him significantly more and you can understand why. Rush's act in WWE is a midcard level guy, but Rush in AEW has tons more to offer than he could in the WWE system. But likewise when someone like LA Knight's contract is coming up next WWE will probably offer him something fairly significant while AEW are unlikely to even ask him at all because he doesn't really have much to offer AEW.

4 minutes ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

I fully believe the figures being thrown around are true. It's Tony Khan. He doesn't care. It's peanuts to him.
He has no shareholders to answer to and billions to play with.

That's definitely true to some extent but I think people overplay it a bit. AEW clearly has a budget of some kind that they seem to stick to other wise they'd be doing all kinds of absolutely insane shit or even just stuff like noticeably better promotion across media or making a video game that's more than just an unfinished demo. Part of me wants to see an AEW where Tony Khan does spend his entire fortune just to see how insane it would be. Though I know the above doesn't fit into the "spoiled kid and his train set" narrative that some people love hate wanking over.

Can Great Sasuke still go? I love that crazy bastard.

1 hour ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

That's reminded me - Where the hell has Britt Baker gone?

She's injured. And also fucking rubbish so who cares? I don't think I've ever seen a wrestler regress in real time like I have Britt Baker.

As for Mercedes Mone's pay there's no chance that rumoured figure is legitimate is there? It''d probably make her the highest paid person in wrestling!

Finished the show. It was mostly good! And it felt like a lot of stuff was going on which is very important.

-  Firstly, as everyone knows Jericho needs to fuck off. On a show which felt full of stars in top programmes when he turns up it feels weirdly embarrassing. Like when your a kid playing footie down the park and then your mates dad joins in and he's fucking old and crap and everyone wants him to leave but is too embarrassed to ask. Toa Liona is cool but the Gates of Agony are a dud of a tag team and shouldn't really be getting TV time on their flagship show. Apparently Takeshita and Kommander had an absolute banger on Rampage - imagine if they had put that on here instead of Jericho's bollocks? 

- Kyle O'Reilly doesn't really look like a wrestler right now. More like a guy in his late 20s who is currently going through a tough divorce and his wife took the dog. Am I supposed to be excited he's wrestling Bryan Keith, the world's smallest cosplay wrestler? Everything Undisputed Kingdom related right now is the absolute shits.

- The Mercedes Mone stuff I'm in two minds about really. It's good to see AEW get behind someone and present them as a top star and hopefully this will raise the division up. But at the same time, I'm not a big fan of her and I wish they just used these resources to get behind Willow and present her as a the top star.

- Swerve coming out with the chain looking like pure murder was good stuff, especially followed up by Joe hilariously kicking the security guard off the stage. I would have liked to have seen a follow up backstage promo with Swerve later in the show but hey gotta' find time for that vital Jericho/Hook segment I suppose.

- Elite 6 man was tons of fun and felt like an old school Dynamite trios match. More of this please! The new Elite already feel like a complete and fresh act. The backstage stuff with Marvez was really funny, especially the cut during Happy Birthday. This stuff has given a new life to the shows, they're really onto something with it.

- Darby/White was a great match which the fans were weirdly quiet for. The shows will miss Darby, I think he's probably one of the best wrestlers in the world. Has he had a single bad match in the past 4 years? I can't think of one. Brilliant ending with the bgi dangerous spot leading directly into the finish.

- Like everyone I'm pleased the Bang Bang Scissor Gang have split but this felt a bit rushed. I reckon the story beat they ran through quickly here in about 3 minutes you could have probably expanded on and spread out over 2-3 weeks to tell a decent little story. Alas. 

- Ospreay promo was surprisingly good. As a Brit I find some of his turns of phrase and slang ridiculous and annoying but at the same time it actually feels pretty fresh and new for wrestling so I think I'm just going to go with it. I've got to give props to the man, he has absolutely carried himself like a star since his arrival and he feels like a big deal. Top marks. I'm excited for the Danielson match, it feels like an obvious result sadly but personally I would go with a Danielson win. Danielson needs to win at least one of his big headline matches and if done right I don't think Ospreay loses anything from it. You've also got to slow his rise down a bit, if he beats all the top stars straight away he might as well be World Champ but it doesn't feel like his time yet. It's Swerve's time.

- Willow/Riho was fantastic. Some of the wrestlers seem to struggle with wrestling Willow because she's so much bigger than them and they don't really know how to get any heat or proper offence on her. Riho didn't struggle with this, the key is to just really lay it in. Top match that most importantly felt like a proper main event match. Get that TBS title on Willow sharpish!

- Weirdly no hype at all for Collision on this episode. Apart from Kyle O'Reilly vs Bryan Keith but if that interests you then I think there's something wrong with you.