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Funny thing is his NXT run was largely pretty good, and he even got called to do a dark match on the main roster, and somehow Vince looked at him and thought "nah".

JR announced on Twitter tonight he's going to be away until at least the last show of December dealing with his skin cancer treatments. He's getting something like 22 radiation treatments starting Monday so that would have made traveling to shows difficult.

For context, Nick Wayne is Buddy Wayne's son and he was kind of a local indy hero in the Pacific Northwest scene. Not that it takes away from the fact that Nick is apparently some kind of pro wrestling prodigy (he's only like 16 or something I think), but it is a part of why the crowd loved him so much.

They should do a bit where Bryan is getting paid by Britt to knock people's teeth out. Also they put the whole MJF/Punk deal up on Youtube, and since I was watching while working I somehow missed the "the only way you'll be #1 is if we wait around long enough for Tony to have a daughter you can marry" line. That was brilliant since not only was it red meat to pop the AEW fans, it was a reference to the Pipe Bomb promo so it brought everything full circle.

Dropping Hunter references was particularly stinging since that was famously one of the last straws for him in WWE when Hunter tried to position a Mania match with him as the same as being in the main event and Punk told him to GFY.

I'm picturing KawadaSmile looking like his profile photo during that promo. The only downside I can think of from it is we're probably gonna have WWE folks crying about them mentioning WWE in promos. I can just hear Booker T now being all "man you don't bring up the competition on your show" since it's so ingrained in their brains to never acknowledge anyone else in the world unless you have to. Also I guess looking back, Bryan's "I want to create something different from before" was just his way of trying to keep people from doing the YES chants since this is the second time he's dropped "fickle" in a promo.

I kinda want to see Thunder Rosa vs Bryan Danielson now

MJF's first lines being his usual was the perfect set up for him to get fired up when Punk roasted him. You could see him maybe looking shook for the first time before reloading with the big guns in reply. Also an underrated part of why this was so much better than every 20 minute opening promo on Raw ever is both guys were talking like actual humans getting increasingly pissed at each other instead of robots awkwardly reciting a script loaded with verbiage you would never hear in real life.

Punk out there throwing bombs, my goodness.

The Mega title match is being turned into a 5 way with Vikingo vs four others. So far they announced Samuray Del Sol and Jay Lethal so they must have just asked AEW to see who wants to take a trip to Mexico.

I wonder how long the initial contracts were (for the non EVPs) when AEW started. I know MJF stated his is up in 2024, but you have to figure some of the mid/low/Dark level people might be coming up soon. I don't see Tony doing the WWE style firing sweeps, but I can see him letting some of those deals expire as a way to trim the fat since he doesn't have to feel like AEW is the Home for Wayward Wrestlers During A Pandemic anymore.

Gotta say, the closing angle for NXT with the old school vs new school was pretty hype with all the dudes battling while the battle sirens were blaring.

The funny thing is the company is clearly aware too, since they had Cora Jade do that promo about "can they coexist" being so tired and lame.

I wonder if AEW is opening any eyes in the TV world, now that there is proof a non WWE wrestling company can garner good-to-great TV ratings. Of course a lot of that was because it was run by someone who wasn't just a money mark and was putting on a product the fans like, but it's the first non WWE wrestling show to be successful and if nothing else I'd think other TV execs noticed how gaga TNT got over the ratings.

According to Dave, Gargano's deal ends with this show so there could be another Adam Cole situation where someone in a NXT main event shows up on Dynamite a few days later.

Saw this on Twitter, that's a lot of badassery in one photo:

That doesn't make sense since they air on TNT which is a Warner Bros property. I think someone floated that one to try to make AEW look bad. It's like the Chucky stuff in WWE, sometimes you gotta do something silly to make your TV partner happy.

I don't remember, was Scotty 2 Hotty a HHH guy? I suppose he must have been since he apparently decided to leave rather than keep working for the new era of NXT.

WWE reportedly got seven figures from Netflix to promote Rock's movie so I'm sure Vince considers it a success no matter what us nerds think.

To think all those jokes we made back when she was born about her main eventing Mania might actually end up being prophetic.

In fairness, Austin Theory's character (in NXT at least) was in part that he's an idiot.

Creatively, it's just as bad as WCW 2000, maybe worse if you consider at least you got the sense WCW was at least trying then. Sure all the ideas were panic driven and terrible, but you knew someone somewhere was making an attempt. Modern WWE just feels like it's coasting by on its laurels and the idea they're basically making infinite money thanks to TV deals and the Saudis.

Austin Theory. So he could take a selfie with it. Seriously.

Vince winning the title was part of an ongoing storyline that furthered other issues. He wasn't a heel manager like Heenan/Cornette/Hart, he was (is still lol) the megalomaniac owner of the company doing whatever he could to foil his enemy. YMMV of course if it was any good of course, but there was some greater context. The David Arquette thing (that he didn't even want to happen) was just to promote a movie and the Russo thing was just an ego driven mess. Just saying "why is A and B bad and C is not?" divorced of context is kind of the thing that leads to bad faith arguments we see so often about....well.. practically everything nowadays.

Apparently the security at Barclay's really sucks, since this dude came from the same section as the dude who attacked Bret and Nattie at the HOF that one year. I mean, shit happens, but if shit keeps happening at the same building like that you have to start thinking there's a pattern here.