sek69

I like how they have the crowd/stage set up. Has all the elements needed in modern wrestling (ramp/big screen) in a style that looks different than anywhere else.

Plus JR has been miles improved from his time in New Japan. AEW might not be 100% his ideal, but it's way closer than anything he's done recently.

Man.....how many times did we see the ad for "The Night The Line Was Crossed" on ECW TV? That show has Last Battle of Atlanta level mythos to me.

Not to sound like Dave here, but that just exposes you have no idea what the point was to run an event at CEO was and it makes you sound like one of the dummies on Twitter who thinks the greatest wrestlers in history all came after 1996. Jebailey wasn't just some geek to that crowd, he's a star. So was Justin Wong, and him handing over a fight stick to use as a weapon was a pop moment for that crowd. I really don't see anything wrong with working for the crowd you're in front of. If they start doing some WCW shit and make him champ, that's different.

Honestly this is like young people saying Memphis is shit because they don't understand the context of the wacky stuff that went on there sometimes. And that's fine. Just don't get upset when the people who do know what all that means point it out to you.

Kenny and Brandi are booking the women, and Kenny is a big fan of hers.

People keep clowning on the Jebailey stuff, but he's a big name in the gaming world, his "Jebaited" emote is global on Twitch (which means it was popular enough for all of Twitch to use it rather than just his subscribers) and there's a growing connection between wrestling and gaming. To continue to dismiss it comes off as "I don't follow it therefore it sucks" at best and "old man yelling at the kids on his lawn" at worst. I get it if it's not your cup of tea, but to dimiss it because you don't follow it or aren't in the loop is the same kind of shit we get on Vince about for being out of touch.

Criticism saying AEW isn't doing enough (anything?) to build an outside audience is valid, everything so far seems aimed at the current base, BTE watchers, and/or people just sick to death of WWE. I think it would be fair to assume they are biding their time until October and the TV show launches though. I would expect a harder push toward new fans, also probably lapsed fans if TNT's Nitro-reminiscent branding means anything. I don't see anything wrong with catering to the base until then, but if post October everything is still references to YouTube in jokes, then I would say that is cause for worry.

July's Classic Content Dump appears to be a bunch of ECW supershows! (Bonus in the comments, someone shares a tweet where the guy who owns the Superstars of Wrestling trademark sent a letter to Jerry McDevitt saying he's agree to sell the trademark to WWE for $200,000 and consideration for a HOF Induction)

Her "oh shit" face was classic, but the back and forth was something to behold. Her "of course we rent our own cars and drive ourselves" should be used as exhibit A in any discussion of why a union would be beneficial to wrestlers.

Yeah its neat, I believe the idea with the applause is it lift's the deceased person's spirit to heaven. This is true. Paul Bearer had nothing on Marasela.

People tend to think anything with tons of blood is at least "more real", which it kind of is in a way. I also recall around when the Secrets of Wrestling type shows in the 90s leading to JR yelling about guys "learning how to fall" during dangerous highspots as a way of both mocking those shows and implying what you're watching is "real".

I would assume it meant something like that they know the results are predetermined but that the faces and heels really don't like each other. Something like that.

She's stated that she doesn't plan to make major changes, but there's bound to be differences just because of the generational gap. I'm wondering how the rest of the company will react to having a 28 year old woman as the boss considering the culture in Mexico and wrestling being....well..wrestling. It is something to behold that both major lucha promotions are run by women now.

Booking was never Eric's strong suit though, WCW always had a booking committee of some sorts and Eric was the politician/schmoozing Turner execs expert.

He's not "sweating" anything, he's just pointing out that using the Evolve show as counter programming to a competitor's shows is basic Vince McMahon 101 behavior. If anything, it was Kenny Omega who came off looking sweaty by complaining on Twitter about WWE running against their charity show. You wanted to come at the king, don't be surprised when he goes to his old reliable bag of tricks.

Eric won't start until next week so his half of the reboot actually hasn't happened yet. Last week's Raw clearly had differences that prior ones did not have that didn't carry over to this week (except the follow up on the Maria stuff). What can be determined from that is up to the reader I supposed.

Sometimes I forget that there's an entire generation of wrestling fans who only know WWE as the only game in town and forget the grimy shit Vince (and every other promoter if we're being honest) would do to fuck over the competition. Then I see people get Very Mad Online at Dave for saying "of course WWE is doing the Evolve thing to counter program AEW", as if even the suggestion would sully Vince's character. Then I also saw a few of those people get their minds blown when Dave broke it to them that two of the Big Four WWF shows were invented just to mess with JCP's PPV money. To paraphrase my man Mark Henry, when it comes to how Vince deals with competition THATS WHAT HE DO.

WWE doesn't care enough about a guy like Rhyno going to a place like Impact basically. If it was someone like Randy Orton trying to show up on the first AEW TV show, they'd be counting his non compete down to the second.

Man, the whole Bayley/Nikki/Alexa feud is a mess. Nikki is basically a babyface people want to get behind even though she hasn't officially turned yet, like Rick Steiner before he turned on the Varsity Club, Bayley is supposed to be the babyface since what she's saying (Alexa is using Nikki) is correct, but she's been acting like an asshole the whole time. Alexa is the only one who's actually been portrayed as her character is supposed to be. It's really stunning how apparent it is how completely incapable they are to create storylines for the women. I mean, they have a hard enough problem writing for the men, but they come off as completely out to lunch with the women.

It is true apparently, he wasn't named (even though the crowd was chanting GORE and it was obvious who it was) and didn't participate in an actual match so it didn't break the rules of his non compete. (it was his non compete that ended July 17 not his actual contract, internet scoopsters strike again)

No wrestling during commercial breaks wouldn't be nearly as bad if they didn't have such convoluted reasons to stretch matches out. Just make Raw into Gringo CMLL and have everything be 2 out of 3 falls. It would actually differentiate the brands for once and they wouldn't have to come up with an excuse to interrupt every match.

Nothing like having smaller companies running a place that is supposedly too expensive for WWE to tape TV in to serve as a swift kick in the pants.

Still want to know where they are getting the money to pay anyone, Anthem doesn't strike me as the type of company that has infinite money.

Not surprised Johnny was finishing up, his promo they showed before his match was the most phoned-in, no-fucks-given thing I've seen since that time Kevin Nash drunk dialed his way on to Nitro.