cm funk

I didn't watch but judging from Dave & Bryan's reactions they think Keith Lee is already "just another guy"

YES to the Orange Cassidy---Boogie Woogie comparisons. That's exactly how I see him: as a valuable, popular midcarder who very occasionally mixes it up with upper tier guys Now that the Jericho program is presumably over I'm not sure what to do with him next. Who is his Paul Jones?

Hate to say it as an AEW fan but this was easily the worst of their big shows. Not bad per se, just meh overall. Match layout was poor, the inconsistent crowd heat (partly due to the actual heat) hurt things, and then just some unfortunate botches up and down the card. Some of this was a bit out of their control, but everything combined left me with a not so great taste in my mouth - I actually sort of enjoyed the Tooth & Nail match. It wasn't good, but some of the stuff was cute. Why the hell did this open the show? It would have been much better as a palate cleanser somewhere else on the card.....inexplicable to begin the show with this wrestlecrap and they deserve all the shit they get for that - The ACTUAL opener was exactly what it should have been. I'm a big Bucks fan and every one of their matches feels like a big deal to me, even if this was basically just a placeholder match to give them a win. I went from thinking Luchasaurus had a lot of potential to being pretty unimpressed with him. The act has worn thin, he moves at half speed at times making everything look overly choreographed, and I don't know if he ever fully recovered from that leg injury he had a year ago. Time to give Jungle Boy a singles push IMO, stick Marko and the Dinosaur on Dark. - Battle Royale wasn't very good. I like the setup and rules but this was lacking the kind of cohesive storytelling and pre-planned spots/scenarios that I expect a match like this to deliver. Pretty disjointed and sloppy, nobody really came out of it looking all that great. I felt horrible for Sydal and it really took me out of the match. I really like him so I hope he recovers from this. It does get to how I hate guys doing flippy highspots in battle royales with crowded rings, but that's a rant for another day. I don't believe those were real thumbtacks but if they were wtf were they thinking making everyone else in the match have to bump around them. I love Archer so I'm glad he won, looking forward to him and Mox as a tv match they build up for a month. - Nothing to add to the Hardy situation other than he was clearly out and Aubrey did the right thing to first initially pause the match, then call it off when Hardy couldn't even stand under his own power. I'm not going to give AEW a pass here, there is NO FUCKING WAY THEY SHOULD HAVE FINISHED. And a finish involving a damn scaffold no less. This put such a sour taste in my mouth and AEW trying to spin it makes it even worse. You can't pass a fucking concussion protocol in like 2 minutes like they claim he did. Fuck AEW for this. Wasn't the whole idea behind Broken Matt to save him from killing himself? Why is he doing stupid shit and why is AEW allowing it? I don't want to see him fall off of stuff like it's 2000 all over again, I enjoy the smoke and mirrors and comedy of Broken Matt. Hopefully this is a wakeup call for everyone involved. And one more thing on that.....enough with the WWE style gimmicked crash pads for big bumps. It sucks. It sucks when WWE does it, and AEW is supposed to be better than that - I liked Shida and Thunder Rosa but this needed a crowd. It at least got me back into the show after being disgusted at the Hardy stuff. The other thing that stood out is how much better than Shida Thunder Rosa is and how the wrong woman won, but I understand the reasons why. Bringing in Rosa, Dinaminta and Ivalesse has exposed how bad the regular women's roster is. - Eight man was good. Cardona is out of place. He looks like a million bucks but he's the exact kind of WWE castoff they shouldn't be using IMO. Nothing against him and I kind of feel bad saying that, but it is what it is. Every time I ask myself "why are they using QT freakin Marshall so much" I'm reminded he's really good in the ring, so I don't really mind him in this role. I enjoy Cabana as a sort of Stevie Richards of the Dark Order so I liked the story there. Dustin cut a hell of a promo afterwards, looking forward to him and Brodie. They had really good chemistry during the Rhodes Bros. vs. Wyatts stuff. - Tag title match was really good, would have been much better with a real crowd. I can see the complaint that it went a bit too long, but I didn't mind the length. Tully hasn't been a good fit with FTR IMO, which is surprising and disappointing to me. The storytelling with the Elite has gone off the rails a bit with me. It had been great all year until recently, but they're starting to lose me. - I have mixed feelings on the Orange Cassidy push. He works so much better with a crowd, and while it's nice that Jericho elevated him.....elevated him to what exactly? Where does he go from here? I like Cassidy in a mid-card role but it's hard for me to buy him as more than that. Jericho is my guy but this feels like him trying to prove a point more than making a guy longterm. That said, the right guy won and the match was fun for what it was. And this is where I get to my biggest criticism of the show: TOO FUCKING LONG. And I didn't even watch the pre-show stuff. I was so burnt out at this point that I tapped out before the main event, which I hear was very good. I don't think that's what AEW wants. I'll check it out eventually, but I had more than enough AEW in one sitting at this point. I imagine I'll like the match, but it won't be enough to change my overall thoughts on the show

Yeah, as a big Backund fan I was bummed at the audio quality of that one which basically made it unlistenable. I still haven't listened yet because the minute or two I gave it sounded like absolute shit. You're 100% on point when it comes to Something to Wrestle, Afro Steel. What you described as the initial appeal is exactly what hooked me (minus the Meltzer bashing), but the shows had already lost their luster before Bruce went back to WWE....now they're on fumes and Bruce is even more exposed. My hope is that if Conrad does start doing new shows it also means guys like Bruce and Bischoff are bowing out. The format simply can't last for years with one co-host and a host with limited knowledge, they simply run out of stuff to talk about at a certain point

He jumped the shark with me a while ago. I'll still check out the occasional one here and there but I rarely get through them. Too many ads. I don't mind skipping a few per episode but it's overkill with his shows Aside from Conrad not being the greatest host with a personality I can't handle all the time, the problem is the subjects themselves. - JR is definitely the best when it comes to history that I find interesting if they do old Crockett/NWA shows. But he's such a grouch and a broken record that it's tough to listen to at times. - Bischoff is full of hot air and he's run out of interesting stories to tell. I don't care about his takes on modern wrestling. This show ran it's course a long time ago. - Bruce was always a WWE shill but now that we've seen his modern WWE product in practice it's impossible for me to listen to his takes on what works and what doesn't. He's also run out of interesting history stories for the most part and half the time he's full of shit anyway. - I found Arn's show kind of boring so I don't really listen at all TBF - Schiavone is still the best one and the one I'll listen to the most these days (which is probably once a month), but it can be sidetracked a bit too much by the juvenile humour and I wish Conrad did a better job getting stuff out of Tony. But Tony not being a miserable prick goes a long way with me and the watchalongs of stuff he never watched before are fun

This is lovely https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8699101/Mexico-wrestlers-hit-streets-body-slam-deadly-COVID-19-virus-promote-safe-measures.html

Kudos to WWE for doing something fresh with Jey Uso. It's totally out of left field but the story writes itself. And there's an easy promo for him to cut about being seen as only a tag wrestler but so were guys like Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Jeff Hardy and Edge once upon a time. All he needed was an opportunity to shine and all that It's definitely got me interested, far more than I would be in seeing Roman against Wyatt or Braun yet again. It's not like it matters what they put on a show like this anyway really, and Jey can take a great shitkicking. I figure Roman is going to be a champ until at least Mania so no reason to burn through top challengers right away

Yea, that's worked out great for Gulak...... I don't consider anyone in a particularly good position in WWE these days quite frankly. Orton and Reigns I guess....who else? AJ and Bryan are bulletproof. Other than that?

Speaking as someone who used to really enjoy NXT I've gradually to now completely stopped watching it since they put it on USA. WWE admitting defeat is so fucking rare, I'm greatly enjoying the schaudenfreude here. AEW was kicking their stupid asses, but of course they'll spin it and never admit that It's clearly the best thing for NXT, but god damn do they need to do some serious work to repair the brand at this point. It's ice cold with me right now, literally nothing happening there that interests me enough to check out a show after the fact. I like Thatcher, but as soon as he's getting momentum they kneecap him for no fucking reason. Lots of talent I like there but they're either stale, overexposed, misused etc etc. The whole brand needs a makeover right now. It's no longer developmental, so involve it in the draft and really shake things up with roster turnover. Move Gable, Ricochet etc. etc. and re-focus them

*****

Didn't watch the show but glad to hear Lee got a convincing win, I would guess setting up a triple threat with Drew and Orton for the next PPV Also glad that they didn't mess around and put the belt back on Roman immediately. Wyatt and Stroman do nothing for me these days and Reigns was sorely missed. As to the earlier conversation about why this show happened: I think it's partly trying something different to juice interest, partly because they knew when Roman was going to be back, and partly the deal with Amway Center and trying to do as many shows there as possible. We don't know the exact details of the contract but Meltzer reported that they're essentially renting the building for the next few months and have a contracted number of dates, that could be part of it. It'll be interesting to see how long they stay there. The Magic won't be playing there anytime soon and we're not anywhere close to concerts coming back

They probably crossed paths on the indies (?), were in NXT together (?), and are IRL friends (?) It's totally out of nowhere though, and if that's the story, they need to deliver on context for me to care but.....oh, the "ppv" is Sunday. Oh well. I'm a big Keith Lee fan, but I can't ignore the obvious and act like this was a good debut of him on RAW. It wasn't. And WWE doesn't get the benefit of the doubt on anything

Good on Keith for being chill with the fans on twitter. Twitter is too crazy for me, I keep my rasslin opinions for what they're worth pWo exclusive these days..... That said, while I'm sure some people massively overreacted in the negative to his debut, we've been down this road over and over with talent moving from NXT to RAW/SD, so the concern is absolutely warranted As far as the theme goes.....Keith moving to the main roster has been in the the plans for a while now, they had time to get his presentation right. So the "work in progress" excuse doesn't really fly with me Also, as far as the CFO$ thing goes, they used Keith's NXT theme at Survivor Series and the Rumble.....is this a new development? Also, NXT is on TV and is basically main roster anyway....not sure I buy that. Are we even sure they did his theme? I know they were doing a lot of themes several years ago (like when Enzo was in NXT which feels like a million years ago) but I hadn't heard them mentioned at all in a long time

Also, I really hate this booking trope of "NXT star loses title--->NXT star debuts on main roster" It's tired and predictable, and given that NXT is on TV as a third brand and there is crossover between the brands you can't go with the "NXT is a separate entity" logic that they might have used 3-4 years ago I think it's fucking stupid to have Keith Lee lose his title and then show up on RAW with zero momentum. That's bad enough. But then they have to go and tweak his presentation too? And they wonder why people who are mega over in NXT get moved to RAW/SD and struggle

So.....they change Keith Lee's look, his music, and put him in a 4 minute match where the focus isn't really on him and he disappears while the real stars brawl? Sounds about right

Pandemic hurt their momentum. They'd just started the group with Pac and I'm pretty sure Pac was set to be the next challenger for Moxley (they rushed Harper into the spot). It's easy to forget but pre-COVID Pac was one of the top guys in the company with a bunch of big wins. Then he's gone completely and Lucha Bros were gone for months I LOVED Brodie Lee beating Cody like that. Came completely out of nowhere. Cody sold being hurt immediately when Lee tossed him out of the ring early, then it was just Brodie domination. When he hit the discus lariat I thought for sure Cody would kick out and we'd get the match going proper with Cody working from underneath....there was still a fair amount of time left in the show. But nope. Total squash destruction and I loved it. Then the angle afterwards was well done too, actually getting physical with Arn which is rare, and they sold the Cody injury as well as you can I've been pretty high on the Dark Order stuff since Lee was revealed. I love the stuff with Cabana, and adding Anna Jay was a good move. Angels, Silver and Reynolds are showing to be very good in the ring and are a great trio if they ever add 6 man belts. I wish they'd done a better job introducing Tully with FTR other than just "hey, he's their manager now" I dug the MJF promo video the most of all them so far. The stip request is stupid, but whatever, it's classic pro-rasslin I loved Kenny wanting to murder dude by powerbombing him on a stretched out chair before the Bucks made the save. I CAN'T WAIT for the return of Psycho Kenny I was MARKING OUT for the idea of a Mimosa match and yelling "MIMOSA!!!" before Jericho even said it. It's so wacky yet so perfect. Only thing that segment was missing was a return shot for the OJ drop with a champagne drop, but they did the beatdown and waterboarded him with bubbly instead, so it worked just fine

The Molly Holly hair match was a good strong match on a strong WM card. A female hair match is absolutely a draw and I don't think they've done one since then. It's a good way to elevate the Mandy-Sonya program and add a big stip match to SummerSlam. I'd have Sonya win to really put her over strong, it's great heat, and I think Mandy would look good with a shaved head. I have a feeling Asuka is going to lose to Banks and beat Bayley, moving to Smackdown. Sonya would be a good heel to pair her with, and they can do something else with Mandy and Otis

I'm also surprised they haven't done anything with celebrities really during the pandemic. THUNDERDOME would be a perfect time to get some B and C level celebrities to watch the show on zoom or whatever and be in the crowd

I've got to admit I'm curious about the THUNDERDOME The NBA's virtual fans fans fade right into the background for me. I don't register the fans really visually other than being an amorphous blob watching sports anyway WWE has some insane superfans, so I hope they make it really F'n noticeable to distract from their crappy wrestling product

My first thought when I saw them advertising that was, "how many creepy guys will sign up pretending to be women?" Just a bad idea all around IMO.... Another strong Dynamite episode this week. AEW has been must see for me for a while now, which I didn't think would be possible early on in the pandemic. They've adjusted and the shows have a unique energy and feel to them that actually makes me forget that it's essentially an empty arena show. Daly's place is the perfect venue, but from top to bottom I think they've done a hell of a job under extremely difficult circumstances. Honestly, all things considered in a making lemonade sort of way I think we'll probably look back at this period of time as to when AEW really found it's footing as a promotion, if it hadn't already. I think there's going to be even stronger brand loyalty and affinity for AEW from fans for continuing to put on a strong product while WWE circles the drain....

And I'm an NFL fan. Not as diehard as I used to be for a variety of reasons, but far from casual. If I give zero shits about this jabroni, who the fuck does?

Yeah, I give zero shits about any of this

https://www.f4wonline.com/aew-news/nba-playoffs-force-three-aew-dynamitetnt-schedule-changes-316761 Most interesting is a late night Dynamite show after the games and Inside on the 26th, followed by a live show at 8pm the next night.....with both said to be "loaded up" ala Bash at the Beach or Fyter Fest. Using the first night to promote the second is booking 101 Huge basketball fan but not having cable I follow thru alternative methods.....now I'm curious how TNT has been promoting them during the games and how much they'll ramp it up during the playoffs. It's a great sign for AEW if their ratings go up during this stretch

Kevin Nash is from Detroit