Supremo

Two major promotions is the best thing to ever happen to the talent. You can be absolutely washed, with zero to offer anyone, and you can still make yourself the center of a contract war every couple of years and get yourself bag after bag. Heartfelt condolences to whichever company he ends up with. Another three to four years of absolute shite.

I haven’t seen many people talking about what a disaster that main event was on Smackdown. Asuka seemingly injuring her leg somewhere and spending most of the segment hopping and limping. Io Sky landing on Bayley’s head when she hit her top rope moonsault. With no immediate reports of injuries you hope/assume everyone is okay, but scary stuff to be happening so close to Wrestlemania. This whole Bayley thing feels cursed. It hasn’t clicked at all. Where are the side ponies?! Where are the Bayley Buddies?! Where is the old music?!?

I have no evidence whatsoever, but I reckon The Rock is somehow to blame.

Wrestling fans cheer Seth Rollins and sing along to his crap song. You can’t trust wrestling fans, Jez.

I saw someone suggest they should do a one-shot episode of Raw, where it’s one continuous camera angle. I’d love that. Still think they should do a musical episode too. Have a laugh now Vince and Dunn has gone.

For as messy as the Cody thing is, I don’t think it’ll matter on the night(s). He’s had too good of a run and has built up too much good will. As long as he wins the belt, all this will be forgotten about the same way no-one remembers the messy build up to Bret vs. Austin at Wrestlemania 13 or Debra managing The Rock in the build up to Wrestlemania 17. It is an absolute mess right now though. The best thing about Cody was how above it all he was. Bantering off everything The Rock would say. “Grow up Dwayne, it’s not 1999 anymore.” But then in no time flat he’s been sucked into the rubbish battle promos, trying to pop the crowd with crap lines and naughty swear words. You’re better than this, RollerCoadster.

And yeah. Whilst I don’t want it to be the Gratitude Era, and it is daft to say people, “deserve,” a spot on the Wrestlemania card, I can’t help it. It’s criminal nothing-happening, waste-of-space, crowd-reaction-black-holes like Johnny Gargano get a spot in the ladder match over great men like this. Outrageous. No boy!

I’d argue they’d make good hosts for Wrestlemania, but you assume they’ve pencilled CM Punk in for that. Wouldn’t mind seeing them do it with Punk though. Bet they’d have some great interactions with Phil. Sore arm? Pop yourself in the wheelchair!

Rubbish, messy promo from Cody. One of his worst in a long time. Big step backwards. Another example of how Rock’s involvement in all this has simultaneously made everything feel huge and entertaining, and yet wildly unfocussed at the same time. Completely took Cody out of his groove. What are we even doing at this point?

Cody’s at his best with a quivering lip, getting caught up in the emotion of it all, emphasising the end goal of winning that belt. He should be above all Rock’s nonsense. He shouldn’t be out there doing shooty BATTLE promos. Defining what a, “heel,” is? Get in the bin. I also can’t keep track anymore; when Seth was doing the Diarrhoea Dwayne stuff, that was actually supposed to be rubbish, as a parody of Rock’s crap material. What about Cody here, going, “LDS - Little dick syndrome - LOL!” Is that another crap parody? Or legitimate bad writing this time?

Bonus points for a comeback that essentially went, “talk about my mother? How about we talk about your mother…lovely lady, actually.” Solid burn. Remember when you were cool, Cody?

Hopefully Cody and Roman can get everything back on track this Friday. Whole thing has completely come off the rails. Fully veered into the Gewirtz-verse.

The booking of that six-man ladder match at Wrestlemania is starting to feel like a wind up. Eliminating The Creeds and Pretty Deadly in favour of the New Catch Republic and DIY getting a spot?! Bullshit! Let it go, Hunter. These NXT Black and Gold losers aren’t a patch on the NXT 2.0 lot. My boys have been robbed.

Anyway, this show was worth it solely for the final two bumps in that main event. Two crazy, wild bumps that made Becky Lynch look incredible. Best thing Nia Jax has ever done.

Bart Gunn fell like a sack of shit.

Austin Theory’s explanation for his Stunner-RKO oversell is actually quite funny. I don’t know if people are ready to admit this yet, but Theory’s found his groove as a midcard idiot jobber to the stars. Being paired with Grayson has improved his act ten fold.

Bet you the negotiations are happening in a fucking stairwell.

For someone so demonstrably talented, it is crazy how - bar the Boneyard Match, which doesn’t really count - AJ hasn’t had anything close to a show-stealing match at Wrestlemania. A Wrestlemania legacy that ranges from just fine to outright bad. This LA Knight match will likely follow the same pattern. Probably be good for a piss break. I can’t complain though. Whole thing has been worth it for last week, when LA  Knight beat up a television because AJ Styles’ face was on it. Brilliant.

It’s mad that they kept the belt on Roman for so long, only for his eventual loss to be completely overshadowed by The Rock. Rock vs. Cody now feels like the biggest match of all time. Roman’s the sidekick goon. They should switch Night 1 and Night 2. Main course should come last.

All because Black Adam bombed. Bet Roman is wishing he bought more tickets for that theatrical run.

Shane O’Mac is gonna run wild. Bloodsport’s just a poor man’s Raw Underground.

Okada earned a solid million or two just for the comedic timing of him telling Marvez to sing Happy Birthday to Mathew.

"The internet might wanna pick that up - me and CM Punk almost got into it at NXT this week.

"We'll talk about it later. I don't wanna put it out there because they're gonna pick it up and run with it. But yeah, I'll talk to you about that off the air."

Urgh. The equivalent of typing, “Absolutely FUMING,” on Facebook, and then when asked what’s up, reply, “Don’t want to talk about it, I’ll DM you, babe.”

Booker T is the fucking pits. I hope Punk chins him and bans him from Collision.

Streets are saying Tony paid her half a million to watch Takeover Brooklyn with him.

It is bizarre that they’ve seemingly learned nothing from Rock and Cody and are still stepping on their own bollocks. You’re writing the stories. Why are you muddling the narrative by having two protagonists that can undermine each other?

Well that’s good to know.

Stunned so many people are down on Mercedes’ new entrance theme. I liked it. But then, maybe I’m biased. Her New Japan theme was so rubbish that anything would have been an improvement. That genuinely sounded like something you’d knock up in Year 7 music class. I also think the C-E-O chant in it works really well in that Pavlovian Pro-wrestling way. Considering nobody had ever heard that song before, they were all chanting along both during the opener and when they wanted her to run in during the main event. Job well done.

PAC has become the new CM Punk for me. So injury prone that I spend every match thinking he’s hurt again. Particularly at the end of this six-man, when presumably he was just selling the loss, looking all sad, I couldn’t help but think, “oh god, which limb has fell off now?”

For as much credit as Will Ospreay deserves for that promo, his biggest weakness was still blindingly obvious. You could see the cogs working in his brain.  Everything he said was brilliant, but fuck me his eyes were twitching about like nobody’s business. He kept glancing here, there and everywhere, as you could see him trying to remember his lines and hit his marks. It was like he was reading a script that was scattered throughout the arena. Really took me out of it. It’s something you hope he can improve on, but considering how demonstrably thick he is, I think it’s something we’re going to have to just accept.

Only in pro-wrestling could you have a thought as morbid as, “ at least they wrote him off and put some heat on Bullet Club in case he dies on that mountain.” It remains utter insanity Tony Khan has allowed Darby to go.

Saw it reported that The Rock is shooting a movie in May, so will likely be going away not long after Wrestlemania.

God bless their optimism. A fifty one year old Rock, wrestling his first match in a decade, juiced to absolute fuck, in there with someone like Seth Rollins? And you don’t expect him to get injured?

I hope they have insurance. If not, this’ll be Rock showing up on set the first day of production.

I saw someone suggest putting Mercedes with The Elite in the style of putting Rhea with the Judgment Day and it’s one of those, “oh, fuck off,” ideas that’s so good it’s going to annoy me if it doesn’t happen.

Plays into Merdedes’ strengths as a heel, with her gimmick fitting the other three perfectly. It just looks right.

But yeah. The one thing AEW does better than anyone else is the little things. The clever touches. The cute Easter Eggs. The Samoa-Joe-lightly-kicks-a-security-guard-off-the-ramp-to-amuse-himself. Belter.

5 hours ago, andrew "the ref" coyne said:

So i didn't watch the show (just read the results) and just seems a bit "meh" that the top two advertised moments (Mone's debut and the AEW Title match) were put out first.

Nothing against Rhio and Willow, but as a main event? 

Good example of why you can’t really judge a show from reading the reports; Willow and Riho main eventing seemed like a silly idea, but in execution they had a great match, that got a brilliant reaction from the crowd. That, combined with everything involving Mercedes on this show, felt like a much-needed kick up the arse for the women’s division.

I don’t even particularly rate Mercedes. A lot of it is style over substance. The gimmick is solid, she carries herself like a star and obviously has a huge (slightly scary) fan base, but her work on the mic and between the ropes has always been wildly inconsistent. Case in point on this show. The promo was okay and the finish she hit was at least a bit better than the disaster at Wrestle Kingdom. They can position her as a huge deal, but her work will likely never live up to it. I don’t care though. If her convincing Tony Khan to pay her crazy money to come in is what forces him to finally put some time and effort into the women than I’m all for it.

Willow in particular. She’s the embodiment of money being left on the table. The most natural babyface in the business, insanely likeable, stunningly beautiful, great in the ring. I genuinely can’t fathom how she isn’t pushed to the moon, with the whole division build around her. I saw reports that Bayley was at this show to support Mercedes. You could do the Spider-man pointing meme with Bayley and Willow. Two gold mines waiting to happen. They fucked it up with Bayley on the main roster, but the potential is still there with Willow. Female John Cena.

It was another great show. Between this all-star roster and a momentum that seems to be growing like a snowball rolling down a hill, it’s as if they cant help themselves but put on good shows right now. Ospreay cut the best promo of his life, Darby and Jay White had a brilliant match, Joe looked like a killer walking through Wardlow and putting Okada with The Bucks is going to go down as one of the best decisions in the history of the company. Crazy to think that act is only a week old because it’s already phenomenal.

Next week’s lineup looks bonkers too. A really solid time for pro-wrestling, with both companies pumping out top drawer stuff. Except Jericho and Karrion Kross, obviously.

21 hours ago, The King of Old School said:

What do we think to the 6 team ladder match at Mania?

I’m mainly hoping it signposts The Hardy Boys leaving AEW and going back to WWE. Other than that, hopefully we see the Creed Brothers do some freakishly athletic, insanely dangerous spots. Awesome Truth to win, obviously. 

Swerve and the Mogul Embassy is starting to feel like when The Rock was still a part of the Nation of Domination in late 1998. It’s time to call it a day. He’s completely outgrown them and is ready to have the rocket strapped to his back.

Plus, if Swerve remains part of the Mogul Embassy that’s a little bit too close for comfort in regards to the Vortex.

In 2024, you always want to be at least three or four degrees of separation away from Chris Jericho. The way things are right now, with Jericho feuding with Swerve’s close mates the Gates of Agony? Scary stuff. He’s almost within the perfect distance for a Dementor’s Kiss on Swerve. Probably licking his fat lips at all that relevance and momentum he could suck out of him.

Mentioned in the Smackdown thread that - bizarrely - Cody was starting to feel like the odd man out in all this. Despite being the main character, it had felt like all the focus and spotlight had been on everyone else. He refocused everything in one promo. Turned the gulps and croaky voice up to eleven. Referenced the blind fans. All the little Rollercoadsters. He completely got me. God bless that preposterous man. He’s winning that belt. There’s zero chance of any other result. Bet the house. No rubber chickens required.

Terrifying to hear him mention Brandi though! Legend has it that if you say her name more than once in a promo she suddenly appears, screaming, “WHO THE HELL TOLD YOU TONIGHT WAS OPEN MIC NIGHT BITCH!" Zero interest in Brandi coming in. Would give my first born for Dustin though. If Tony Khan truly loves this business then he’d allow Dustin to do a run-in at Mania. Imagine the pop if it’s Dustin who evens the odds. Wrestling has more than one Royal Family.

But yeah. Sami fucking Zayn.

12 hours ago, organizedkaos said:

Ahh I just realised he would've be the one with the Mariah May sign she posed with - I was wondering why that person seemed intent on fully staying behind their sign.

Copeland still hasn't forgiven Danielson for turning his Wrestlemania 37 main event against Roman into a Triple Threat. Love easter eggs like this.