cm funk

It goes without saying, but the WWE's real life game of thrones is way more entertaining than their product

did Ric train Charlotte in any sort of old school Gagne/Robinson hooking? How to really handle herself if shit goes sideways? Because legit tough gal or not I think Nia would break her in half styles make fights. now I just want to see Nia run through the women's roster one by one until she gets to Baszler. BRING BACK BRAWL 4 ALL! FOXXXY BOXXXING!!!!!

after those clips now I want to see Nia and Charlotte in Josh Barnett's Bloodsport! reading the results I like how they mixed different people together, putting Lashley in the mix with Orton/Riddle and AJ/Omos, as well as with Priest, and putting Priest in with McIntyre/Sheamus. Looks like they just threw all the top guys in a hat and shook it up, but they could go in some interesting directions typical Vince throwing shit at the wall again is hilarious though. At least in this case they didn't have a clear direction for Lashley anyway coming out of SummerSlam. Him and Oldberg in Saudi seems obvious at least I really hope Charlotte put the kibosh on working with Lilly. wonder how long that contract is..... Just WTF on Morrison

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if they open the show, make short work of the dorks, and call out Punk

I was pretty burned out on Callis after ECW and the TNA runs but he's been perfect in this role I'm enjoying them slowly building more trios and putting them in matches to get people used to it before they introduce trios titles. Very much borrowed from lucha and NJPW but it's tried and true. Mox/Kingston/Darby vs. literally any team is going to be worth watching, and I happen to enjoy those dorks as well. I'm fine with showcase matches like this, and as long as they keep the comedy spots to a minimum they're great at eating offense and stooging Anyone got an official list of established AEW trios? I haven't been watching a lot of Dark lately but it feels like they have enough for a 16 team tourny with all the factions and singles guys they can put together. Mox/Kingston/Darby is such a Chikara KOT team, they just need a badass name now And if they do it, and I'm booking.....it's Garcia/2.0 over

Not just that. A match with her recently released fiance wrestling the AEW champion, discussed on a podcast hosted by the wife of the former AEW champion..... bizarre times we are living in all around

Speaking of false advertising...... Charlotte on Renee's pod apparently says fans shouldn't be mad at her for not being at the show in Charlotte despite being heavily featured in the advertising because, get this, she told WWE she was going to TripleMania on that date 2 MONTHS IN ADVANCE I believe her because that match was booked far out ahead, but just WTF WWE. You know there were some little girls from Charlotte there, specifically to see their favorite wrestler Charlotte, and you made them cry, you bastards!!! There is zero reason to false advertise. ZERO. And WWE does it left and right, even when they know the rassler won't be there. This is early 90's WCW shit The hilarious part though is Charlotte flipping it on the stupid fans for being mad at her for supporting her man and not her stupid company. I get it and all, but geez....

nm

I'm looking at it from Vince's perspective. ROH was a potential threat if only for the fact that they had Sinclair backing them. And Vince being Vince he certainly knew how powerful Sinclair Broadcasting was even back a decade ago. Sinclair never attempted to be competition even on the TNA scale, but in terms of resources and reach all it took was the next Bischoff at the right time, or Vince/Linda snubbing the wrong asshole at a Repub fundraiser. I don't think Vince liked even the possibility of competition with that kind of backing behind it after seeing what Turner was able to do In reality everything you say about ROH, NJPW, The Elite is undoubtedly true, and that potential has manifested in AEW with ROH left in the dust

Agreed on over talent being killed dead on the main roster killing fan enthusiasm. It certainly killed mine. I enjoyed a lot of the "super indy" era of NXT for what it was, but it rested on the idea that all along new talent is being developed, the top talent moves up to the main roster, and the cycle continues..... The ironic thing is that this "new direction" is what NXT was always meant to be, especially once they got the PC up and running They've been recruiting and signing athletes with no experience this entire time mind you, they just weren't getting the ring time to improve outside of the small Florida house show loop....but even then they didn't have enough spots for the 100+ people signed to developmental to actually work in front of fans. Some dudes have been under contract for years and years just to keep in shape and "train" and "learn" and they never get anywhere. It's mind blowing Meanwhile this entire time they should have been farming out the green contracted talent to indy promoters around the country, send them on excursions etc. All tried and true ways to get experience that they never did. They sort of had it with Evolve, didn't utilize it enough, then they just swallowed them up without replacing them.... It's ironic to me that the whole move to the super indy phase and signing up so much talent began as a way to stop the progress of ROH/Sinclair, which they rightly viewed as a threat at the time, and it ends with getting decisively stomped by AEW, the first legit threat in 25 years

kiwi roll one of my favorite rolling pin holds. god bless Terry Funk, because we're all fucked

I actually find Britt entertaining as a character, but I think she's better at comedy than being a super serious champion. My favorite match of hers was in a dentist's office.....

Well now I feel like a triple jagoff!!! Not trying to insult any of the great denizens of Pitt. I've actually been to Pittsburgh a handful of times in my years. Lovely city. Would visit again!!

And, just to make sense of that re: Britt and not to throw unneccesary shade, she just isn't that over with me. I can't deny she's over in PITT, or that her segments have drawn good ratings. What I don't understand is why she's so over with everyone but me. Alvarez is over the moon for her. I personally don't see it in the sense that for me personally I can think of so many other female wrestlers, active, that I find better in-ring, on mic and also more attractive. Not saying she's bad in ring (best match involved a better worker and blood), or on the mic (being carried by Tony), or in the looks department (I find Rebel more attractive personally).........wait, maybe I am kinda throwing shade at her Like, I don't watch Stardom on any sort of regular basis, but Giulia is a far superior version of Britt from the little I've seen of her

Jericho booking himself into matches where he's getting beat up so him looking like shit in ring makes sense is the kind of booking I'm not necessarily the biggest fan of, but whatever Stooge boy Cutler for the Elite is amazing, one of my favorite stooges of recent memory Also enjoying The Elite keeping up with the basketball shit and making it part of their characters now because it apparently pissed off so many nerds online, several weeks running now after the 10 man Liked Evil Uno and Stu only backed by Cabana. That's good storytelling. Cabana would be the one to respect Brodie's wishes, unlike the young boys in the crew Thought it was a solid show, decent enough. Some of it felt off kilter, but I think there's definitely a lot of booking on the fly going on here and changing of plans, so it's understandable that a show feels a bit WCW style Nitro klunky at times. For me personally it's a welcome breath of fresh air Oh, and sorry Pittsburgh, your crowds still kinda suck. I found myself very annoyed with the crowd during this show at various points. Understandable because it was a show with a lot of wrestling involving people who aren't "superstars" but meh overall to that crowd. Don't go back for a while after this week IMO....... And to double down on it and go full heel, DMD isn't over with me personally at all, I skip her segments

There's nothing earth shattering about any of them really on the surface, but big picture it's kind of absurd and it's not even big picture, because WWE at the moment clearly doesn't have one of those, whatever that is but again, I need to get a followup on Mercedes Martinez getting released after getting knocked the fuck out by a WWE PC trained worker who apparently has a history of accidentally hitting people with, ya know, the knobby parts of your bones that you're not supposed to hit people in the temple with in a fucking worked fight

And since this is the empire crumbling thread.....I find it fascinating how everyone, especially people who were there, point to the corporate culture and the disconnect there leading to downfall of WCW (it wasn't just that of course, but it was a contributing factor) and now WWE is going down the same path by handing the keys to the equivalent of a corporate raider And if this is all happening because Vince views Paul as a failure due to AEW kicking their ass it's doubly hilarious. He's not the reason Kenny and the Bucks didn't sign, he's not the reason Jericho went there and Mox left, and he's certainly not the reason for all the NXT talent flopping when called up. Typical Trump Republican Vince can't look in the mirror and has to scapegoat his own failings........inevitably just making things worse in the process

THIS You can argue the merits or lack thereof of any of the talent released, but pride of the performance center Xia Li kicked her fucking head off a couple weeks ago. WTF I can only echo others sentiments.....why the fuck would anyone want to work for this company anymore?

I popped big for Black hitting Cody with the crutch. Expected the show to end with the retirement angle and didn't see it coming. Kind of obvious in hindsight the way they set up the crutch, but it was great I get the HHH comparison in terms of Cody's self-important vanity booking sucking the air out of shows and making me want to change the channel. HHH was the king of that. I continue to maintain that everything started going downhill when he got the tattoo. If EWR had a "get a horrible tattoo" angle he would have been like -25 overness after he booked that I give him credit for getting QT kinda over as a heel, I didn't think that was possible. But his character is so douchey, and he's booking his own shit, so he kinda deserves whatever crap he gets these days He's also never maintained as a babyface for any sustained period of time for a reason. Everything will be fine when he ditches whatever this Son of a Son of a Plumber American Nightmare character is. Hopefully Black is here to kill off that Cody completely and turn him to the dark side

Feels like a case of Vince knowing he's got everything he can out of the Wyatt character and not having to feel bad about letting him go because there's a viable place for him to work now. He'd been there a long time and felt like a Vince/Dunn guy and as close to "family" as it gets. Also, I think he's another of those guys who resigned in the last few years for big money, who was probably "overpaid" relative to the type of pay scale they're trying to have. He's tight with Cody and others in AEW I believe and I can see Tony being a fan so I fully expect him to end up there at some point. I've been sick of him for a long, long, long time but way back in the day I did enjoy the Wyatt Family. I'm willing to give him a chance away from WWE, but I'm really not a fan of all the hocus pocus. I don't mind it done for a bit of comedy in AEW here and there, but that's it Also, this totally feels like Vince trying to trojan horse AEW and kill multiple birds with one stone. Old talent (Henry, Show, Christian, Wyatt, etc) gets paid, AEW's roster gets bloated and the next Austin, Foley etc. come running to Vince. I can see Vince looking at how things played out with WCW and thinking he can make history repeat itself

https://www.f4wonline.com/aew-news/aew-sells-10000-tickets-united-center-rampage-show-348571 DAMN

Wasn't a fan of Jericho and Gage at all. I could say more but it is what it is. I guess it works as a one off, but I don't need to see that bullshit on their show again I'm not even a hater of Nick Gage, but he belongs in bingo halls I remember when I thought Big Japan was kinda neat like almost 20 years ago now with the light tubes and glass and shit. It was novel to the teenage/young adult me who loved ECW in the 90's. In this match I was more worried about the ringside crowd than the wrestlers in the match here. the glass all looked gimmicked as shit, but still...... Also, so much of the crowd was boomers......and also a lot of kids.....not an indy deathmatch crowd I'm definitely not in Corny territory, but this is definitely some backwoods indy as fuck shit that they shouldn't be doing at TV tapings IMO The last fucking thing I want to see is AEW go the way of ECW or early UFC and piss people off with the blood and violence The movie Hobo With A Shotgun really speaks to me at times like these

God, I don't know why this of all things is bugging me so much but fuck it..... I did a bit of instructional youth coaching in my 20's. Almost all 9 year olds suck at dribbling, period. Why single out girls? What a lame diss Also, Space Jam 2 is getting savaged......everyone hates it, LBJ is a heel compared to MJ......do you not understand why this is heel heat? It's not a babyface movie to hoops fans...... ok, now I'm really /fin