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There's also a fundamental change in how wrestling is presented that for some reason goes unmentioned. When I was growing up, Ric Flair would talk shit and then get embarrassed by the babyface challenger on TV. More often than not, he would win the match but since it was predominantly a house show business, most of us only saw the babyface show up the heel on TV. Unless you paid for a ticket or bought the show when the VHS dropped (which most people didn't since them bastards were expensive in the 80s) you'd almost never see Flair take an L. Even on TV, most of the time he was in a match that wasn't a squash we'd get the TONY WE'RE OUTTA TIME before the finish. Nowadays we see the heel talk his shit, and even if the babyface gets one over in the build, everyone sees him eat a loss at the end. Since the Monday Night Wars demanded PPV quality matches every week, it's been infinitely harder to create a babyface since you're going to see them losing on TV a ton. The only person in history who could lose frequently and not really lose popularity was the Rock, since it takes otherworldly levels of charisma to not get hurt by that.

I guess Maximum Male Models didn't titillate your juices? Funny how ol' man.soor went from token hometown guy for the Saudi shows to someone who probably wouldn't be allowed on them with this gimmick.

The only downside is that Fite's website organization is a two pack of ass. Best bet is to just search for GCW (or anything else you want to find) in the search bar instead of trying to navigate the pro wrestling section.

If Punk could swallow his pride, this could be one of the biggest feuds ever, but all available evidence shows he's way too stubborn/petty/dickheaded to do it.

It's interesting seeing the reactions AEW gets nowadays. People complaining that Bryan is being "wasted" despite him saying on multiple occasions that this is what he wants to be doing in this stage of his career. The Elite knew they were going to get booed out of the building in Chicago and leaned into it and people are upset that it was "low rent".. I've noticed in this era of Prestige Multi-Star Matches, people get really fucking mad online if heels do heel shit to get heat. LIke somehow that became a distasteful thing to do.

I was stuck on how dumb it is to want to associate oneself with Kayne in this current climate, and I didn't even think about who he's going to be going up against soon. ffs.

So I jumped on that Fite+ gimmick and have been watching some GCW shows, and I have to say this is the closest I've seen anyone recapture the vibe of prime ECW. From the cable access aesthetics to seemingly every show having both great wrestling and violent bullshit, I half expect to see Paul E come out and cut a promo on each show. Another thing that stands out is the love the fans have for everyone that is on the show. I know Nick Gage isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea, but the GCW fans fucking LOVE this guy. He has such a great redemption story for pro wrestling and him doing things like doing inspirational Cameos for people and having that Eddie Kingston real-as-fuck mentality make him such a perfect avatar for the company.

I thought Pac was doing a Mankind gimmick for a second.

Kittle/Penta is the best bromance in the biz right now.

Not a happy reaction to the Elite in Chicago, lol

No, it wasn't the best way to kick off the new era but I suppose at least Regal was getting heat and the whole Bryan/Mox dynamic was great.

I think MJF actually is off filming that Von Erich movie, so it wasn't them not wanting to heat things up. Also I think it's pretty clear Regal is going to return when MJF does for whatever Stage 2 of their villainous plan is.

Seems like FTR/Aussie Open is the plan based on how things are going.

I legit thought someone new was debuting for a few seconds between the gear and the hair. Also DA SHEETZ are reporting there's rumblings that Becky is going to be the fifth person for War Games, which if that's the case they better announce that on Smackdown because if not the fans are going to assume it will be Sasha returning in Boston and get pissed when it's not.

My theory is it's all a vicious cycle AEW is clearly burning out towns by running them constantly, which in turn makes the product seem less hot than maybe it would with a better crowd. Ironically one of the reasons Tony brought in Double J was for his expertise in getting buildings for shows to expand the places they run. The fans were into MJF winning, the question that remains is will there be any rejection of him not turning babyface. It was kind of funny how the crowd was not caring at all if Max cheated to win or not, they just wanted to see him win.

Watched the NJPW x STARDOM show and it was pretty good. They did a good job breaking down the stables/angles/titles for people unfamiliar with STARDOM and of course KAIRI brought it in the main event. Of course the biggest news was Kenny Omega appearing (on screen) after the US title match and challenging Will Ospreay for WK.

Well since MJF is still a heel, there's a program right there for Wardlow. At least we can be reasonably sure the blow off won't get fucked up again.

YES

This is some straight up Ric Flair/Dusty Rhodes stuff with the knee work and I love it.

Mox clearly loving being able to play heel here.

Time for BIG MATCH MAX

Looks like there was some asshole getting ejected in the crowd, which took everyone's attention.

Shoutout to Bowens, who by all accounts has been kayfabing his injury in public all week.

There's knowing Keith Lee is huge, and there's seeing his fist was like twice the size of Swerve's.

Yeah she looks good, but the Marylin Monroe cut is an odd choice for a punk rocker.