sek69

TIME TO PLAY THE GAAAAAAAAAAAME

He's consistently been the happiest person in the company since Vince left. He must feel like he hit the lottery after having a crazy person yelling in his ear for 25 years.

When Snoop did the attendance gimmick and said "you ready for the main event" at like 9:45 eastern I did a double take. Neither show felt like it dragged at any point but night 2 absolutely ZOOMED by. Also Snoop should be hired to announce every sport ever. He did a guest spot for the LA Kings calling hockey and NBC is sending him to Paris to do stuff for the Olympics.

Him doing it the same weekend Paul E gets inducted is just *chef's kiss*

Normally I'm also not a fan of the arena HOF shows either, Paul E absolutely had to get inducted in front of an arena full of Philly mouth breathers as God intended.

Going back to NXT for a moment, Dragunov might the the best I've ever seen selling a beating since Ricky Morton. Dude looks like he's legit being killed to death in every match.

It occurred to me watching his speech that if pro wrestling manifested itself into a human being, it would be Paul Heyman. Creative, entertaining, a little sleazy, and passionate as hell. When he put the coat and hat on, that wasn't Special Counsel (My Name Is) Paul Heyman, that was fuckin' Paul E cutting a promo behind a shitty bingo hall in 1994 making you remember why you love this shit in the first place.

Goddamn I missed seeing Big E on TV.

Also Andrade replacing Dragon Lee is a step down imo.

I like the idea of Andre becoming the patron saint of the Meatyweight division

Decades of WWE monopoly gave a portion of wrestling fans brainworms where they see any competitor as a threat to "their" wrestling that they have to do anything they can to prevent that from happening. AEW being mostly successful for 5 years now has driven a lot of them crazy despite them constantly moving the goalposts of what they would consider seeing AEW as a viable alternative. Its also why the Cornette/Bischoff stuff rubs me the wrong way, both of those guys know better but are happy culling the lowest common denominator for easy cash. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at Eric since he seems dedicated to being an asshole any way I can, but it's embarrassing seeing two important names in history doing this nonsense largely over personal beef they have with people in the company (you'll never convince me Eric isn't mega salty TK didn't offer him a job).

Not to mention Austin showed with his match (ok... "match") with Owens that he's game for whatever, and it would be kind of the perfect guy to balance out the Rock after Seth and Jey counter Solo and Jimmy.

Joe/Swerve, in addition to being a AEW world title match is also a for the world championship of suave motherfuckers.

He's so outside of Ospreay's normal style of opponent I guess there were questions on if it would be a style clash or not. Also I'm getting real sick of Jericho and his heat vampiring.

How silly it seems now that anyone doubted he could have a good match with Hobbes.

Ariana Grace has crossed the "so bad it's good" line for me and I am unironically a fan.Also why is Wren Sinclair wearing the Zack Ryder one legged pants?

I think it's more a matter of some of the new office hires convincing Tony that perhaps it's time to trim the fat a little. Not releasing anyone was fine during the pandemic when people really didn't have any options, but it really wasn't sustainable long term.

Is it me or is this the first Mania in a long time where pretty much the entire card from top to bottom was well built? Cody/Roman/Rock is on another level of course, but Rhea/Becky, Seth/Drew, Bayley/Iyo and Gunther/Sami have all been great as well. Even Lashley's crew vs Karrion Kross and Pals had a pretty good build even if I'm not exactly clamoring to see the match.

In my headcanon, that sent Rock on a quest to reclaim his mojo leading to this run.

Good on Tony helping out the folks who paid for a month of CMLL's top tier Youtube sub just to watch tonight's match.

Bianca/Jade/Naomi vs Damage Control is gonna slap hard

Also are we sure AJ didn't eat Brock Lesnar? Jesus he's massive now.

That was my exact reaction as well, god damn

Even the WWF was drawing big crowds before Vince, look at the Shea Stadium show in 1980. Bruno, Pedro, and Backlund were selling out MSG every month for decades.

The story of Brutus and Hulk falling out is interesting. Hearing everyone's side of the story makes me think Hulk just was getting tired of what was a mostly one-sided friendship and having to deal with the new wife who didn't take shit was his "fuck it, I'm done" moment. Whatever you think of him and his career, it was nice at least to see that Brutus seems to be in a good place and is happy with his life. It does make Hulk kind of look like a dick that he seemingly has no interest in burying the hatchet with the guy. It's not like he has to worry about Brutus hitting him up for a job in the biz at this stage of the game.