What does wrestling need to do (for you)?

[tiger_rick]

I've thought about making this thread a few times but I normally don't bother. However, I've seen disparate discussion of this in various threads so I thought this might work. 

Feel free to add any promotions you are interested in. I've only included the two big US ones because I've no real interest in anything else. Include a level of interest so we all know where you're starting from, I've gone with 5 points for each, I think that's a nice round number!

AEW

Current level of interest - 6/10

Big Picture - I mentioned this yesterday but they have a real consistent problem with seeing the big picture. Who are the real stars? What is the hierarchy? What are the big matches coming at the big shows? Who is making their way up? 

It's great to have a ton of really talented people but the lack of clarity and consistency really hurts. For all his faults, the best thing Sex Criminal Vince did in the last few years was make Roman Reigns the undisputed number 1 act in the promotion and establish that the whole universe revolved around him. The bloodline doesn't get over to the same level if that's not the case. Cody Rhodes doesn't get over to the same level if there's not an undisputed, unbeatable champion. Sure, "Roman always wins" seemed kinda boring for most of the time but it's what you've got to do if you believe someone is the guy. Who on earth is AEW's guy?

Commentary - I'm gonna mention this for both but in different ways. I don't like Excalibur's commentary. But I do like Excalibur. I think he's got a great voice, tone and manner and should be absolutely fine as the lead comms, no matter who is alongside him. However, they ask him to do way too much, he's constantly trying to sell something, he's trying to explain the history of everyone and everything mid-match, he's absolutely hammering us with information all the time and it's too much. Tony Skiavone has made the greatest comeback in wrestling history but he suffers from this too. Less is more sometimes.

Roster cuts - This one is obvious. It bleeds into every other point I've chosen. The roster is too big. It's impossible to use this many people effectively, unless you just confine about two thirds of them to the job squad. They'll never do that though, so they are always trying to tell us too many people are important. I'd honestly lose almost half the roster. Just cut them loose. You'd still have more than enough people to fill three TV shows. Some of the people you let go will go elsewhere but lots will still be around for you to hand a payday every now and again as fillers. Anyone you don't have a use for but really rate longer-term, get them working in Japan, Mexico or indies and continue to pay them a retainer. Like they've done with Anna Jay recently.

ROH - Let it go, Tony. You own the library, that's the only value here. Once you've let this go, the above is easier.

Titles - This one is obvious to everyone. Binning ROH belts will help, obviously. The trios belts need to go. I was in favour of them when they seemed to have a lot of natural, 3 man squads, but they've been a massive flop from day 1. The International and Continental titles are too similar. Scrap one. Never put another company's title on your shows again, unless it's a major deal (the IWGP Heavyweight title) and has a purpose. Minor spoiler but on Dynamite, Daniel Garcia literally said "Anyone who has a championship, and that's a lot of you..." Hard to say it any better.

(I could have added the empty arenas they're running. I'm sure others will.)

WWE

Current level of interest - 1/10

Top management - I'll spoiler this and anyone who doesn't want to hear it can skip it.

Spoiler

For me personally to even consider watching their shows, there needs to be a major clear out of Vince's guys. I do not believe that they didn't know. I cannot understand how anyone could possibly believe they didn't know. Their response, or lack of it, has been absolutely abysmal and a further insult to the victims. Get these fuckers out of your company.

Commentary - There was a good discussion about Michael Cole recently so I won't repeat myself too much. He's just the voice of all the dark days of this company. He's a useful employee but it needs a new voice. I've only seen a couple of clips of the new guy but he certainly sounds better. The biggest problem with replacing Cole long-term is they've done a terrible job over 25 years now of finding anyone who isn't Cole or JR. We can all think of loads of people, from Kelly, Styles, Adamle, Grisham, Mauro, etc, etc. Maybe without the maniacal McMahon and Dunn combo, they can get some people through.

Presentation - This is the biggest deal for me. Their entire universe needs to change. I just really don't like it. It doesn't have to feel like other sports but it has to recognise that it's a wrestling show in front of a live audience and the cameras, screens, commentators, and people all exist. That doesn't hamstring them. They had Kane and Undertaker doing magic tricks in the late 90s when they still presented it like a live event. If they got back to presenting and filming pro-wrestling like it should be, the other stupid stuff like the terrible shocked faces and tell don't show aspects should disappear as a consequence.

Clear out - I honestly read stuff and just cannot believe that anyone could possibly care one tiny bit about people like The Miz, Nia Jax, Strowman, Natalya, Crews, Corbin, etc. People who have been on TV 5/10/15 years (and more) and have done the same shite for most of it. I do appreciate that they have an audience who will accept it. We only have to look at the tweets this week complaining about a 2-hour Raw to understand the amount of Stockholm Syndrome, but it's still not for me. Even genuine top guys like Kevin Owens, Seth Rollins and Randy Orton - as good as they've been - I could do without ever seeing again.

(In)equality - Apologies if this one puts me in the dark ages but hear me out. I don't want to see less of the women. WWE have done an outstanding job of making some top women who are genuine stars. I would absolutely want to see them and they deserve their spots. I just have two big problems.

Firstly, I really don't like that there has to be a women's version of everything. I think it's watered down some great gimmicks. There should be a women's HIAC if they build it and all other gimmick matches when merited but forcing a Women's Royal Rumble and a Women's Elimination Chamber and Women's Wargames have been absolutely horrible concepts. Develop new concepts for the women.

Secondly, and this goes back about 25 years, so is nothing new, but it certainly got worse with their Women's revolution - there are too many poor workers on TV because they want to present a women's roster. Men would never make it to their TV if they were that poor. It's not unique to them, AEW have had some awful workers on TV, but I think it's starker because of just how good their top women are. It's fine on NXT. We've probably all seen some of the botchamania level spots from NXT women on social media but I'd give that a pass - NXT is still a training ground at heart. I'd put less women on TV, but ensure they're polished.

Let's hear everyone elses. I sense that even people who enjoy either company much more than me have thoughts!

[SuperBacon]

My interest in wrestling has never been lower, but if any company added Bret Hart either on screen or backstage I'd immediately be interested and watch.

For me there are too many shows (13yo wrestling mad me would hate me) and too many wrestlers I don't want to watch so that really affects my interest. AEW has what seems to be about 400 shows a week. 

So smaller rosters and less shows would do for me.

[RedTwoster]

3 minutes ago, SuperBacon said:

My interest in wrestling has never been lower

It would be dishonest of me to say my interest has never been higher (I just don’t think you can ever recapture the interest you have when you first start watching wrestling), but I think I’m enjoying wrestling more than I ever have. I missed the WWF/WCW era, so I’ve never known what it’s like to have two major companies active at the same time, and I love that landscape - social media tribalism aside.

For me, all I need is good storylines. If a match is objectively brilliant, that isn’t enough for me to feel invested in it - particularly if the outcome is predictable. I need to feel invested in the participants in some way. 

Since Triple H took over, WWE has probably given me more of that, but AEW absolutely nailed their stories up until early 2022 - I’m not sure I’ve ever been as invested in a story as I was Hangman/Omega. Recently, both companies have been doing really well from a story perspective, so I feel like I’m spoiled for choice as a fan. 

I still think there’s room for improvement in both companies though. AEW finally has a women’s division worth boasting about. They really need to have a women’s match main event a PPV soon. WWE could be better here too.

In addition to that, Smackdown is pretty dull right now, to the point I can’t imagine WWE isn’t aware. Dynamite is consistently good, but could be great if they fixed their problems around how they order each show. 

Ultimately though, I’m very much enjoying having two companies producing (mostly) entertaining television and great matches. 

[DavidB6937]

Yeah, despite the fact there's too many shows to watch now, I'd say my actual enjoyment across the board is so much higher than it has been in a long time.

I enjoy watching the shows. I enjoy the social media aspects. I enjoy discussions on here. It's a genuinely positive part of my life and I'm always excited to either watch shows or read the results and see clips etc.

There's an enthusiasm there that was missing for quite a while, especially when WWE ran town by itself. I didn't want to give up but it definitely felt like a chore to keep up with a lot of stuff. While now I'm watching and actually liking what I'm seeing.

It'll never be perfect. There's no company that can provide a continuously perfect product.

As someone who's watched WWE since he was a kid and barely had a break, I will always eat up the callbacks and the surprise returns and all those things. It's like David Wicks coming back on Eastenders. Can be a bit of a cheap pop sometimes but I fucking love it.

AEW had a chance to be fresh and new and exciting and on the whole they've delivered a shit ton of exceptionally good shows and arguably the best PPV runs of any company ever. But they do have their bad points too, but who doesn't? I enjoy the discussions about what works and what doesn't, especially when there's so many different opinions. To me that's what makes it all so intriguing.

[garynysmon]

1 hour ago, SuperBacon said:

For me there are too many shows (13yo wrestling mad me would hate me) and too many wrestlers I don't want to watch so that really affects my interest. AEW has what seems to be about 400 shows a week. 

So smaller rosters and less shows would do for me.

I get it. The critical mass isn’t what it was but to me it feels that the audience that’s left is made up by more men in their 30’s/40’s with disposable income than any time I can recall. 

If they’re loyally watching the shows, buying the PPV’s and following everything they churn out then its a great business model. The big two are absolutely raking it in.

But wrestling was something I used to look forward to on Sky on Saturday lunchtimes, or later Friday nights. To watch wrestling every night of the week sounds fucking awful if I’m honest, and I’ve reached the stage where I just find it easier to recoil from it all as it sounds too much like hard work.

The issue you then get it is the less you watch the more new faces that you don’t know pop up in the meantime, and the fewer faces you’re familiar with the less likely I am to give it another go.

I definitely found time to watch AEW Dynamite over Covid, but I don’t think I’ve watched an episode since they debuted Collision. And ROH? Pure self indulgence. (and don’t get me started on the fact there are people who’ll watch ROH every week over a single weekly episode of TNA! ?).

Edited October 9, 2024 by garynysmon

[BomberPat]

Great idea for a thread!

Over-saturation is definitely a problem, and that's a trend that will only continue. When I was 15 and watching every bit of wrestling on telly, buying every video I could afford from HMV, and waiting an hour for a grainy Realplayer clip of one spot from a Japanese deathmatch to download, if you told me that one day you would be able to watch wrestling live from Japan or Mexico as it happened, and I'd usually not bother because there was just too much wrestling around, I'd have thought you were mad. 

Dynamite is the first weekly wrestling I've watched in over a decade; aside from when I was in America a couple of years ago and watching live at a sensible time, the last time I watched RAW live was when Shane McMahon came back in 2016, because it was being hyped up as a huge surprise and must-see TV. Before that, it was probably five years since I'd watched any WWE weekly TV. But a big part of it is that it's become part of my routine; I work from home on Thursday, so I have Dynamite on in the background while I'm working.

 

I don't think WWE will ever get back to being something I particularly enjoy. Before Vince left, I used to find it actively frustrating to watch - you'd watch one really good PPV, then watch the next one and it felt like they were actively punishing you for getting your hopes up or getting invested. It's definitely better under Triple H, but I watched Wrestlemania and the Rumble this year, and mostly came away thinking that this is a company that is very good at what they do, but what they do is still miles away from what I want. 

They've shaved away a lot of the Vince-isms in the language they use and the way they present wrestling, but it's still his product at the core. Similarly to @tiger_rick, I've often said that WWE lost something when it stopped presenting itself as a live event that happened to be televised, and instead became a TV show that happened to have a live audience. The pandemic shows cemented that, when the majority of their wrestlers worked exactly the same without a crowd as they would without one - that tells me that the crowd is irrelevant to how they put their shows together, so why would I want to be there? Watching wrestling on TV, I want to feel a sense of "God, I wish I was there". WWE hasn't been able to give me that for years, and I doubt it ever will again. 


AEW just needs to get out of its own way. Almost every problem they have is of their own making, and is fixable. I don't think there are necessarily too many belts (though with the ROH titles in the mix there is), but they need to give each belt more of an identity or purpose, and stop having champions challenge for other titles. Bring a tighter focus on everything - it doesn't need to be peak WWE in terms of recaps and replays, or WCW where the commentators talk about Hulk Hogan over every midcard match, but AEW doesn't give anything enough time to breath. They're not very good at reminding you that wrestlers exist when they're not on-screen. Something incredible could happen in the opening segment of Dynamite, but you'd be forgiven for not remembering it by the end, because they don't remind you of it; better pacing could see angles better interlaced through the show - again, it doesn't need to go to this extreme, but in the Attitude Era, Stone Cold was like Poochie: if he's not on-screen, everybody else is asking "where's Stone Cold?". 

The main thing is to not be WWE. The best AEW has been recently has been in showcasing styles, or individual wrestlers, or approaches to wrestling, that WWE has historically turned its nose up at or not given a chance; All In and All Out both excelled at that in different directions, and the more "open door" approach to collaborating with CMLL and NJPW, and the early days where there was a sense that anyone might show up, are a real difference from WWE. But recent weeks have had too many WWE-isms creeping in. Shitty non-finishes, angles that don't add up to scrutiny, finishes meaning nothing when somebody can just be handed a title shot next week anyway. Just makes things matter again.

They did the mid-00s WWE TV trope last week of revealing somebody (Shelton Benjamin) in a promo by just zooming the camera out and showing that he had been stood there all along, as if not being on camera meant that he was invisible to the people stood in the room next to him. Put that shit in the bin. Get rid of every bit of invisible camera bollocks. There needs to be more pushback against the ex-WWE voices in creative and production who think this is the way to go, and there need to be more people speaking up for making things make sense.

I usually Tweet along as I watch Dynamite, and a friend once referred to it as me "logic-checking" AEW - I don't set out to do that, but too often there's something that doesn't make sense, when all it would take to make it make sense is one line on commentary, or one tiny bit of set-up in an angle earlier on the show. They just need to do the work.

[d-d-d-dAz]

The many different ways of watching has allowed me to just pick out the stuff involving the people I like.

So, in terms of 'how much do I enjoy wrestling?'; if we're talking about Daniel Bryan, CM Punk, Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns, The Bloodline, Gunther, Sami (and maybe a few others) it's a 10/10. I've probably never been more engaged in the stuff I like.

But 'how much do I enjoy wrestling' that isn't those people? 0/10. Don't bother, don't watch. As an overall product I'm completely out. Life is too short.

I'm an A La Carte fan, and pretty happy to be.

[Carbomb]

This won't happen, but, whichever company it is, it just needs to cut several hours out per week. The main thing putting me off getting back into watching any wrestling at all is that it feels like too much to commit to time-wise. Takes on a homework-like quality.

That's only regarding any wrestling other than WWE. I won't watch any of that product again until they publicly denounce Vince, acknowledge and apologise for what they did to Ashley Massaro and other women, and own up to their contributions to the deaths of so many wrestlers. So, with that in mind, it looks like I won't ever be coming back to them.

[FUM]

I have to disagree on the current presentation of WWE in the OP. I think it’s a criticism you could have seen levelled a few years ago but right now they are nailing a lot of the presentation for me. They have a way of making everything seem big time, a lot more of the backstage acting makes sense and it’s probably what keeps me more interested. One aspect of presentation that is genuinely a huge reason I watch current WWE over AEW is the crowd, how they show it off and light it up.

I’m also not going to pretend I’m solely in wrestling for wrestling - quite frankly I find there is too much actual wrestling, especially in AEW, and a show with a few 8-10 minute matches is always going to be my go to over one with a few 20-25 minute matches. WWE hasn’t quite nailed that yet either but I feel they are closer to it than AEW. NWA were doing it really well when they first launched Powerrr.

I definitely agree there is a lot of wrestlers who aren’t going to amount to much more hanging about that need to go. I’d even group Sheamus and The New Day into that list - the tenures have just been far too long and, while they aren’t particularly causing any harm, they are just wasting TV time working with other long tenured wrestlers for the most part while they could be out on the indies helping less accomplished wrestlers. In AEW, they just have far too many people that it’s almost a monopoly on the indy scene and is actively harming it imo.

The one thing I’d do is get rid of NXT being a product that is easily available to view. It’s probably just nostalgia but I preferred not knowing huge deals about people before they debuted on the main roster and it allowed for more elements of surprise when freaks like Lesnar would show up. I don’t watch NXT much but seeing all the “development” wrestlers advertised regularly on my TV takes away the journey of seeing someone join the big league show.

[Your Fight Site]

Be accessible and digestible.

I don’t have Sky or BT Sports or whatever WWE is on these days. I can’t remember the last time I watched an episode of WWE TV in full, but just keep up with things out of habit. I did go through a period of watching the PPVs each month, as every bout has pre-match video packages that catches you up on what occurred over the past 4–5 weeks leading up to the match, but knocked that on the head after that terrible WWE Network redesign a year or so ago.

I know AEW is on ITV, but I just don’t have the time to watch three multi-hour shows a week. They also seem to be on late at night, and don’t have the inclination to watch on catch-up via a clunky itvx app.

Black and gold-era NXT with Neville, Tyler Breeze, Tyson Kidd, etc was the perfect show for me. It was an easy hour’s watch, building to the occasional Takeover every couple of months or so.

[FLips]

I stopped watching wrestling altogether when WWE was at it's worst pre-pandemic and came back when AEW first started. For those first couple of years I was 10/10 on AEW. I would watch Dynamite, Dark, Dark Elevation and bought all the PPVs. The excitement of a new startup got me into NWA Powerrrr too where I was finding myself with a much higher tolerance for consuming a ton of wrestling week to week, most of who I'd never heard of or seen before.

Then NWA Powerrr stopped so it was just AEW. I was still keeping up with it but having no crowd was a killer, that being said AEW's thing where they had the wrestlers be the crowd kept it alive and was much less intrusive than the WWE Thunderdome. I think the Thunderdome era Rumble was the first one I didn't bother watching because the product was so cold, so with WWE I was now in a position of not watching the weeklies, PPVs or the big events. My interest had never been lower.

But then crowds came back and the heat for both products changed. AEW started bursting at the seams with talent that didn't need to be there and they were adding even more shows and belts. The product progessively became more about dream matches and signing up anyone that became a free agent so the people I'd spent the pandemic following now barely featured or when they did traded wins in nothing dream matches with talent from other companies.
WWE though was picking up steam in 2022. Vince had one foot out the door, Austin was back for Mania, the Bloodline stuff started properly with Reigns merging the belts. Then Cody left AEW for WWE and that was pretty much it for me, and I followed Cody over.

WWE still wasn't 10/10, but my interest in AEW at this stage was a 5 and lowering. The Bloodline, Cody, Sami, the whole thing rejuvinated the product for me. Then later Kevin Dunn was out the door and the on-screen talent all changed for the better and coming off the back of Wrestlemania 40 I'm much more interested in the shows now. I watch clips of AEW on Youtube but haven't bought a PPV since Sting retired and wasn't even buying them regularly at that point. I couldn't really care less about the company these days other than Hangman's heel stuff which I dip in and out of.

Currently I would say my WWE interest is a strong 7. I'll sometimes watch Raw and Smackdown, and I've signed back up to the Network for a couple of PPVs. When it all moves over to Netflix I'm expecting to consume a lot more of it, so ask me in January with Netflix and being in Mania season and I could be much higher up the scale.
AEW is a 3. I check the results and some clips on Youtube but find it's more out of hoping something big has happened rather than actually caring about the results week to week. I watch some of the PPVs on dodgy sites the day after but their product has never been colder for me because I've seen them waste too much talent and clog the roster up with ROH/NJPW/CMLL/etc talent so it's hard to get behind characters because they're all too focused on just having good matches.

I think WWE is in a strong place for me but to get me back on board with AEW they need to scrap ROH and most of the talent associated with it. They need to get stronger characters and commit to wrestlers and their stories on a consistent basis. I got sick of getting into a character and them vanishing for weeks.
Yes it's great that they have Ricochet and Will Ospreay and Danielson and they can put on a good match, but I prefer heel Christian, Hangman Page, Eddie Kingston and others who get ahead on just having a good character, good promo and selling me the matches.

Edited October 9, 2024 by FLips

[Vamp]

Currently I'm not watching either AEW or WWE.

WWE

Every now and then, normally around Royal Rumble time, I'll pick up the network and watch a few PLEs. To be honest, I'm too cheap to get whatever subscription I'd need to watch the TV shows and can't be bothered with other methods. I always cancel after a few months. This is mostly because watching WWE for the matches is obviously missing the rest of the product that makes WWE what it is. 

My only real gripes about the presentation are the stages, the ring ropes, the corner posts and the apron and barricade screens. I suspect most of those are me being stubborn about things being the way they were when I was a kid. I do miss their creativity around stages a lot. 

I'm going to struggle to explain this, but it feels like in ring wise WWE has very much followed the hybrid vision of pro wrestling where wrestlers do whatever they're physically capable of doing and, with some notable exceptions, don't really seem to have their own individual character driven approaches to matches. If nearly everyone can springboard than it loses its lustre. Some of this is likely because I'm only ever watching PLEs when I'm watching.

I do think WWE would feel fresher if they got rid of some of the people who'd been there forever but at the same time I'm glad they have jobs that pay enough and they seemingly like. 

 

AEW

I go through stages with AEW where I'll pick it up for a bit and then very quickly get bored shitless. I could say it's because there's far too much of it, because there is, but would I be bothered about that if I was more invested? Maybe not. 

I also find myself frustrated that as an alternative they seem to like picking up the same shitty habits. It's been like that since the beginning. They used to light the audience in the same shitty way the WWE did, they barely change their stages or doing anything special with them for PPVs, they looked at WWE's half arsed brand splits and did an even more half arsed one because of backstage drama, they looked at WWE having too many titles and went "hold my belt" etc. To me it's more frustrating when the newer promotion does it. 

To be fair I also don't like most wrestling tournaments. I like 1 night or weekend tournaments, can appreciate how clever some of the G1s have been booked even if I've never watched all the way through, but otherwise I largely can't be arsed. I can see their place in promotions like NJPW or NOAH or whatever, but in a sports entertainment promotion like AEW they always give me a feeling of "couldn't come up with a story, here's a tournament for a few weeks." I acknowledge that no one else feels this way. But it does mean that AEW's probably never gonna be for me because they love a tournament. 

Overall

I'm not looking for a sport when i watch AEW or WWE. I've enjoyed NJPW in the past, before AEW gutted it, but I'm not tuning into AEW or WWE for that. Really I'm looking for a circus. I want to see something intense and serious, something camp and amusing (whether intentional or not), big bad brutes brawling, some fancy mat wrestling exchanges, some acrobatics, giants and underdogs, promos, shenanigans, and I enjoy a supernatural light show too. I mostly don't give a damn about wrestling's internal logic. I want variety. 

I'd also just like a 1 hour show that had fun colourful acts in short matches. Love a C show. 

[Arch Stanton]

@FLips That post could have been written by me, almost word for word. Exact same viewing behaviour over the past five years, and for the exact same reasons.

[JNLister]

2 hours ago, Your Fight Site said:

Be accessible and digestible.

I don’t have Sky or BT Sports or whatever WWE is on these days. I can’t remember the last time I watched an episode of WWE TV in full, but just keep up with things out of habit. I did go through a period of watching the PPVs each month, as every bout has pre-match video packages that catches you up on what occurred over the past 4–5 weeks leading up to the match, but knocked that on the head after that terrible WWE Network redesign a year or so ago.

I know AEW is on ITV, but I just don’t have the time to watch three multi-hour shows a week. They also seem to be on late at night, and don’t have the inclination to watch on catch-up via a clunky itvx app.

Black and gold-era NXT with Neville, Tyler Breeze, Tyson Kidd, etc was the perfect show for me. It was an easy hour’s watch, building to the occasional Takeover every couple of months or so.

Try the official YouTube channels for both of them.

WWE does clips of almost every match and promo/angle on the TV shows, plus a 10-20 minute recap video of every show. They also do 20-30 minute recaps of every PPV but without match finishes.)

AEW does a long video for every match, usually from the last ad break in the match onwards. It also has most or all of every angle/promo. All told you'll get about an hour of every show. They also do a mad little recap video of every show that's basically nothing but every key spot and promo line in the space of about three minutes like you've got ADD. 

[The Gaffer]

There's some enjoyable analysis from everyone here. 

Honestly, wrestling doesn't need to do anything different for me right now. WWE has managed - astonishingly - to stay brilliant since the Sami/Bloodline stuff started kicking into high gear around two years ago. 

Any real issues I have with its presentation are easily remediated by the amount of choice and control I have over how much of it to watch. The 15 - 20 minutes Raw/Smackdown recaps they do on YouTube are perfect for when I can't be arsed watching a full show on a given week. The big PPVs all delivering seem to be a cast iron guarantee. It's fun to talk about how smug and technically imperfect the Triple H helmed Self Congrattitude era is but - honestly - it's nothing but minor, fun quibbling about a product that's - in many ways - the best it's ever been at certain things. 

If you're a semi lapsed fan who gets off on the half dozen or so big angles and matches a year, it's made for you right now. They knock that stuff out of the park. It's hard to go a month or two without something to get excited for. The big stuff's great and if you want to watch all the rest of it (because you don't have to, and it's really easy not to) then that's all there as well. 

AEW? Honestly, since Punk left my interest has been hard to maintain on a week to week basis. I see the match cards posted weekly on here and they mean nothing to me, which just tells you the sort of fan I am. I'd never really realise this is Brian Danielson's first time up against some bloke from New Japan, and if it's just thrown out there for the sake of the match then it means nothing to me. There's people that's for though and all the more power to them. I'm glad AEW's delivering that for them, because it seems to be better than it was maybe a year ago. 

Not denying they do angles, of course. They do plenty of fun, goofy big time American pro wrasslin' style stuff. But it never consistently seems to be feel like the promotion's focus or centre. Which is fine, too. Maybe it shouldn't be. Like Rick alludes to, it's hard to get a sense of big picture planning or hierarchy. There's a few guys there who - for me - feel like they should be on multiple title reigns already so that they're building that sort of history. I love that obvious, but still exciting when it happens feeling of sort of knowing who is in line about a year from now, and then following that happening. Very often their storyline writing can feel like it's constantly shifting on a dime, flavour of the month or everyone-gets-a-go. Not too dissimilar to how completely randomers would get the world heavyweight title for years when nobody cared about Smackdown, though obviously with much, much better quality. 

I'm also a sucker for when a promotion has serious momentum behind it. I find myself into whatever it is they're presenting, just because it's hot. It's weird, I know, but actually visually and audibly getting that cooled off feeling in the buildings on Dynamites cools me off on a product too. 

Going back to the 'E and losing interest in them wasn't on my bingo card two years ago. Like many people I thought we'd pretty much turned a corner and we were done. That was it. But here we are. 

I have nothing to complain about though. I'm catered for. The business is great right now.

I'm looking forward to Survivor Series for absolutely no reason other than I'm pretty certain it's going to be great. How fucking weird is that?