sek69

According to the fan in question, the one who escorted him to the back was Hunter Johnston, who's apparently dating Mandy Leon. Not a good look for ROH. I'm sure the guy was not as innocent as he's making himself out to be, but you can't have two guys on the creative team out there acting like they're 1984 Bill Watts.

It's jarring to see Nikki Cross looking like a normal woman around all the other women who've been WWE Glam Squad-ed to bejezus and back. Plus her going from crazy feral member of Sanity to "golly gee someone wants to be my friend" has been quite a character arc so far.

Dave has mentioned more than once that most if not all of the infamous "Stephanie emasculates a guy" segments were designed by Vince to keep her looking strong with no thought put toward the other person involved. I think your theory is pretty spot on, in a lot of ways Vince is just another territory promoter making sure their kid looks good when up against other people more equipped than they are.

See I probably would have got my ass beat if I was in that position because my smartass self would not have been able to mention the "your mom taught you how to suck dick" stuff he would say in ECW to the crowds.

Honestly I think it's part wrestling having a history full of money marks getting conned, and part WWE revisionism that anyone who has the money to run against them must be flawed somehow. Plus the WWE ride-or-die crew has to have something to hold on to. Their first two shows were both well received, they got a major TV deal, they got a top level WWE guy to come on board. The only thing they have left is the idea they're being run by a dumb money mark. I saw Tony being interviewed after Double or Nothing where he was geeking out over the show in a way that wouldn't have been out of place as a post on a board like this, dude's a fan but he clearly seems to know his shit.

Just the fact AEW is something a politician feels they can score points with is kind of amazing.

The biggest difference between the two companies is if you didn't like something on an AEW show, there will probably be something you did since nearly every match is different. If you didn't like something on a WWE/NXT show you probably won't like the whole show since everything is homogenized

Yeah, and in between him and Tomasso get seemingly called up to the main roster as a package deal despite them knowing Ciampa's neck could be turned to dust in a strong breeze. Despite that completely fucking up a years worth of NXT stories, they did it anyway and then sent Johnny back after a couple weeks. I still have no idea why that was done, in retrospect it almost seems like it was just Vince fucking with Hunter.

You're not wrong, but the NA title came out of having so many people on the roster there they needed something for them to fight for. The flaw in that logic is that since they only have the one hour of TV per week, you can't focus on that many people anyway. So in retrospect adding a secondary title was them trying to put a band-aid on a wound that needs stitches. Just furthers my theory that historians in 20-25 years will be looking at the hoarding of talent as one of WWE/NXT's biggest issues, just from the ripple effect it creates.

Not only was she there, she was in the shot when they did the stand-up thing with Steph in the front row. I doubt Steph was sitting there all night, so that had to have been done purposely on their part.

I believe Dave mentioned that when folks get called up, it starts a new three year WWE contract. I wouldn't be surprised to see more seemingly "random" callups happen to make sure the ones seen as particularly valuable are tied up as long as possible.

It's like a ROH show, nothing's terrible but it seems like everyone's kind of running in place.

You know, when I think of guys who could use a live rapping intro....Adam Cole never comes to mind.

Shanya's run reminds me of that era in New Japan when Inoki had a hard on over proving pro wrestling was strongest, only to have their guys get wrecked by shooters every time.

Honestly the joke got too self aware in season 2 IMO.

You know, the real annoying thing about Mauro is that he's actually pretty good when not forcing in pop culture references. Someone there has to be able to tell him to reign it in a little.

I remember first hearing reports that Patrick Clark was trying out some sort of Prince gimmick on the NXT houseshows, and thinking "wow that doesn't sound like something he would be able to pull off that well". Glad to have been wrong on that one.

Ford's the one married to Bianca BelAir, right? Dude's just winning at life on all fronts.

The Street Profits' ring jackets look like every 80s jobber who tried to look like Michael Jackson.

Yeah I never particularly care about Strong, but I always enjoy his matches. Riddle is just overflowing with charisma, he looks like a big playful puppy that also has 47 ways to choke out a bitch. Also lol @ Road Dogg having to escape to NXT because he got tired of Vince being Vince all the time.

Still trying to figure out Sam Roberts' angle on these preshows. If looking like homeless Dean Ambrose isn't enough, it seems his gimmick now is to just shit on people like how he was pointing out Tyler Breeze did precisely dick on the main roster. Which is true, but fuck, way to make Dream seem like he isn't going to accomplish much by beating a guy who's a loser.

He's trading wins with Cesaro, who's spent most of his time in a gatekeeper tag team. He shouldn't be losing in random ass Raw matches to guys the greater crowd sees as midcard 4 life. No one is saying he should be beating Brock or Roman, but it's nice wrestling bubble black-or-white thinking. There's tons of middle ground between that and not going 50-50 by month two.

There was an almost throwaway mention in the WON this week about how Ricochet's time on the main roster opened a lot of people's eyes in NXT. Seeing a guy that can't-miss in the process of being wasted seems to be cutting through whatever magic spells they weave down there.

So one thing I think everyone can agree on is AEW absolutely needs to devote some time to introduce characters once they get on TNT. They don't want to fall in the trap of thinking everyone watching knows who these people are, as while it may be true for All In or Double or Nothing type shows, a larger TV audience will need a primer on who folks are.

Yeah, but they were almost always heels where their effeminate mannerisms were designed to get heel heat. To think that people in 2019 aren't ready to accept an effeminate character as anything but a conduit for heel heat is honestly the same shit we get mad at advertisers for when they paint all wrestling fans as poor, dumb hicks.