Coffey

This episode has done absolutely nothing for me. It hasn't sold me on the PPV at all... and the ROH/AEW merger/relationship whatever-the-fuck sucks.

Honestly, Tim Storm always felt like a bigger deal in NWA Powerrr than Nick Aldis did to me. He felt more genuine & old school, which I thought was kind of the vibe they were going for. Studio audience, Dokken theme song, etc. It was like Storm was trying to be the Steamboat/Dusty everyday man & Aldis was trying to be Flair... without having the chops to do it. Then they brought in the Fox News Funkasaur... lol Even at almost sixty, I would still prefer Storm.

Honestly, if you look at the current landscape of AEW, if you're a guy like Gargano, what is appealing that would make you leave WWE? I assume when she's ready to return Candice LaRae will also want to comeback & the women's division in AEW is bleak. If you're Gargano, AEW is already filled to the brim with very similar talents & a lot of them barely make TV or are only on Dark or Rampage. Like Andrade & Miro barely make Dynamite anymore. Miro is just doing pretape promos & Andrade has just been doing 6-man stuff lately. Of course we still get to sit through Gunn Club bullshit with The Acclaimed for... reasons... but guys like Buddy Mathews or Ethan Page or ReDragon or PAC hardly show up. Gargano on the main roster in WWE can do new stuff. Gargano in AEW I feel would be just doing the same stuff he already did in NXT with the likes of Adam Cole when he's healthy & such.

The pre-Dynamite backstage talent meeting & then Thunder Rosa being "injured" & dropping her title, while CM Punk gets squashed in his title match has me thinking that some of the people that have allegedly been problems lately were maybe made an example of. Or I'm just getting worked but that's not nearly as fun.

Punk is the biggest star in AEW & his debut was the biggest moment in the company - at least I think. He should absolutely be the current top guy & the guy they build the company around. But he's also not a spring chicken anymore & they should use him to elevate the AEW homegrown star that is going to be the top guy in the future going forward. I don't know who that guy will be, it can't be Page or Omega. Maybe someone like Hobbs or Starks. I actually thought that AEW were going to try to do their own nWo/InVasion angle with The Elite against ex-WWE guys like Danielson, Punk, Jericho, Andrade & Miro. I'm also surprised that no one has brought up A.J. Lee at all, at least not to my knowledge, since C.M. Punk has been there. Especially if they're doing all this shooty stuff. Regardless of how I personally feel about the backstage gossip/rumors, one thing is for sure abundantly clear: Tony Khan has way too much on his plate. I know about the new job titles for a couple new people, like Sonjay Dutt & Madison Rayne, but he needs... not like a writing/creative team, but he needs his version of Pat Patterson. He also needs to grow a spine & be willing to tell people no instead of trying to be everyone's friend. He's the boss.

He's very talented but his absence has shown that AEW doesn't need him. I felt like when Danielson & Punk were gone, they were missed but MJF didn't feel the same to me.

Scarlett needs to go back to the red hair imo

HE LIKED BIKES!

Ever since, I don't know, it was before Karrion Kross' run - has NXT been worth watching, like, at all? It has completely fell off a cliff. I like Bron. I like Nikita. But the show just feels like it happens in a vacuum & if you miss it, you don't miss anything. It's like the equivalent to missing SMW or something. It now feels like NXT UK in that it exists but no one seems to really care. Like NWA Powerrr. They should move up like five people & take it off TV. Turn it back into a developmental territory. Their attempt to take over the Indie world of wrestling with NXT failed. Gigi Dolin in a star. Bron Breaker is obviously great. Nikita Lyons is great. It kind of reminds me of Tyler Bate in NXT UK when he had that breakout performance in the UK tournament... and then he never went anywhere because they kept tagging him with Trent Seven & he grew a beard & disappeared. Just squandered. That's what's going to happen to the stars in current NXT if they stay there.

https://cultaholic.com/posts/ric-flair-i-wish-i-hadn-t-said-it-was-my-last-match "I wish I hadn't said it was my last match. That's gonna get heat. Hell, they wanted me to wrestle in Puerto Rico on Saturday night. I said, 'Guys, I cannot get in the ring one week later.' And the guy looked at me and said, 'Well, you know what, could retire in Puerto Rico can't you?' No, no, no that's not the point," Flair said. He's coming for Terry Funk's retirement record!

Fun show!

God I fucking love Brody. What a goddamn monster!

I wonder if WWE improving due to Vince McMahon leaving leads to more "pro wrestling is cyclical!" talk.

Worked for Demon Finn Balor.

People done been crazy. Trying to act like the only thing that matters is ring work... lol

Billy Gunn, in my eyes, is an all-timer when it comes to tag team wrestling. Dude got over three different times in three different teams with three different partners in three different eras. The Smoking Gunns, The New Age Outlaws & Billy & Chuck. That's... that's just impressive. He just wasn't a great singles competitor because he was never a great talker & is kind of boring. His strength was always his impressive athleticism, especially for his deceptively huge size. No one ever really talks about Billy Gunn when talking about tag team wrestling. There's been a ton of great teams over the years, from different eras, but even when you look at teams like the Rock N' Roll Express or whatever, dudes like Robert Gibson weren't doing anything like what Billy could do. You could argue The Smoking Gunns were only over because they were pushed in an era before kayfabe was dead. That the NAO were over due to their ties with D-X and the Road Dogg sing along introduction & that Billy & Chuck were over, at least partially, due to the unspoken gay aspect of the team. But they were all over & all featured Billy Gunn.

I can't wait for Ric Flair's next last match ever! In my mind, it was all just to make Carny Conrad money & give Flair one last reason to have an aftershow party because he's an alcoholic.

A stable will attack WWE & destroy property. Then it will be revealed that HHH & Steph are in charge of the stable. Authority 2.0.

This would be ideal for me. His push never made much sense to me. There's a lot better options, imo. I can't take Judgment seriously. Too many spooky things in wrestling nowadays. Just comes off as cornball to me. Like they're Cenobites or something. I feel the same way about the House of Black. Think that stable gimmick hurts Brody more than helps him. EDIT: Hey, who is that ref? She's new to me!

Logan Paul's athleticism isn't surprising to me but him taking to wrestling as quickly as he has sure is.

Io Shirai looks amazing. Hell, they all look amazing. That was a cool surprise.

Bianca Vs. Becky to start. It's been OK but a bit sloppy... but the Kevin Dunn camera cuts are as bad as ever. The sooner someone fires that worthless fuck, the better.

This SummerSlam card might legitimately be the worst card on paper I've ever seen in WWE. I will say though, two things: 1. when the card looks weak on paper, the show usually over performs & 2. there might be a couple of cool surprises tonight. Hoping for Bayley to return & we find out whomever that secret person is. Which all indications are it's just Edge again but at least we'll get confirmation. The card: Logan Paul vs. The Miz Liv Morgan (c) vs. Ronda Rousey Bobby Lashley (c) vs. Theory Pat McAfee vs. Happy Corbin The Mysterios (Dominik Mysterio and Rey Mysterio) vs. The Judgment Day (Damian Priest and Finn Bálor) (with Rhea Ripley) The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) (c) vs. The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) (Jeff Jarrett special guest referee) Bianca Belair (c) vs. Becky Lynch Roman Reigns (c) (with Paul Heyman) vs. Brock Lesnar - Last Man Standing match

The Ricky Starks promo & Powerhouse Hobbs heel turns was amazing television. Goodness. I miss stuff like that! That clothesline was stiff as fuck too. That was a big positive. AEW doesn't need more fucking titles though, that's for sure. How many Trios teams do they even have? Four? Maybe? Maybe they can just make the Trios tags a Rampage exclusive.

He comes off fake as fuck. Like when WARRIOR was trying to sound smarter by using bigger words. It's ridiculous. He sounds like a moron.