Coffey

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.

It's the whole NFL logic, right? Like sure the CFL exists & you can make a living there, but it's not the NFL & you can't play in the Super Bowl. In professional wrestling, WWE is the NFL & Wrestlemania is The Super Bowl. I reckon to some people that's all that matters. Both people in the business & fans, if you go by social media.

They should get rid of Kevin Dunn, Michael Hayes & Bruce Prichard immediately. If they want new creative, they should bring in fresh faces. Not another shot for Heyman or Bischoff. We also don't need Stephanie & Triple H all over TV again. Lest we forget the whole Authority bullshit that killed TV for what, two years?

I think it's time for AEW to move on from Chris Jericho.

They shouldn't bring in Mauro & should get rid of jobber-ass Excalibur too. Also Mark Henry and The Big Show and Jim Ross.

I knew a Darby/Brody feud would slap. Brody could be a top monster for AEW.

It has to be some sort of bait-and-switch. OC Vs. Wardog makes zero sense. It'll probably lead to a beatdown of like Mark Sterling's people? I don't know - last week we had that backstage interaction with Danhausen being the lawyer & I didn't watch Rampage but it was supposed to lead to Tony Nese Vs. Cassidy.

I never get to see Rampage or else I probably would talk about it. I work every Friday night, but I guess I could download it or find a way to watch it. The high praise has me intrigued. Allan doesn't come out of the woodwork too often anymore!

Looks like I'm going to get my wish & AEW is going to do a Brody King Vs. Darby Allin feud. That match should slap. The way King just dead dropped Allin off the apron in the battle royal was sick. Now they're having King beat the slop out of Allin at a autograph signing. I'm here for it. I know I made the comparison that Brody King could be the AEW Bam Bam Bigelow but this feud could be like the Bam Bam Vs. Spike Dudley feud if they do it right. I don't think we'll get some legendary moment like when the crowd surfed Spike after Bigelow chucked his tiny ass into the crowd but we all know Darby is willing to do crazy shit!

I really don't think y'all are focusing on the part of the story you should be focusing. It doesn't really matter which women it was.

Toni Storm is pretty good & Britt Baker is pretty over. Jade Cargill will probably get there but she's still really green. AEW as a whole needs some help in the women's wrestling department though. It'll be interesting to me to see if they bring in either Saraya or Mercedes Varnado - since we can't call them Paige & Sasha Banks anymore. If Mercedes is available obviously they would be insane to not get her. Tay Conti was getting a lot better but now she's apparently just arm candy & made a heel turn which didn't do her any favors. Anna Jay has a ton of potential but is stuck in the go-nowhere Dark Order. Abadon is a fun gimmick & she's doing a great job getting into a lot better shape but she's already kind of been used as a jobber so often that it'll take a bit to rebuild her back up if they want to use her. The Bunny was pretty damn good in Impact, as El-P would attest to, but again, in AEW she's pretty much just arm candy for whatever reason. Shida is alright. Riho is alright but never really around. Hayter is pretty good. Paige Van Zant has a ton of potential but it's still way too early. Penelope Ford was getting a lot better but I haven't seen her in forever. I don't know if she's even still in AEW at this point. Serena Deeb is probably the best women's wrestler in AEW at this point. If they're serious about their women's division, they need to either give it more attention or at least use their TV time better because right now when the women come out on Dynamite it feels like the old WWF Attitude Era bathroom break time only they're wrestling instead of doing strip teases. It feels like we're so far away from the Britt Baker Vs. Thunder Rosa hardcore match that made people stand up & pay attention.

Awesome show. I live-tweeted during most of it, so I won't just repost all of my thoughts here but man, a lot of this show felt like it was just for me. Good stuff. I will say, Ruby Riot & Thunder Rosa do nothing for me & although I think Eddie Kingston is great on the mic, he's the shits in the ring. So I'm never excited for his matches. I wish he were a manager. If I were starting my own promotion & could take talent from anywhere in the world, my first two picks would be Miro & Brody King, so that's pretty cool to see them both in AEW & both getting TV time. So glad Miro is back. Brody looked great in the main event & they protected him pretty well. This shot was awesome:

When Kenny Omega does come back & when C.M. Punk is healthy again, I think there's big money in a heel Punk vs face Omega feud.

Bill Russell Wilt Chamberlain Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Michael Jordan LeBron James Kobe Bryant Magic Johnson Larry Bird Tim Duncan Hakeem Olajuwon Shaquille O'Neal That's 11 that I would definitely have above Steph Curry. As more time passes I can see more people falling out of favor with Larry Bird due to not having the longevity that a lot of greats have but I'm an Indiana boy, so he'll always be in my top ten. And I didn't even list guys like Malone, Barkley or Dr. J. ANYWAY... Orange Cassidy is a one note joke, admittedly, but people still find it amusing, much like Danhausen, so it doesn't bother me in that sense. It is perplexing when they try to treat him as a serious competitor instead of the comedy character he is though. But even that sometimes can work. Remember the Royal Rumble when Santino wasn't actually eliminated & they made it look like he might win the whole thing when he came back into the ring? That being said, I actually think that the Yano/Orange match suggested would have more room to be entertaining. I think it's a slippery slope to judge a characters use/push on what merch they move though.

Of all the things to complain about... Christ.

I'm glad this news came out today because I needed some sort of wrestling story to rejuvenate interest for me. Got my popcorn!

I won't speak for others or suggest this is the same for anyone else, however I would suggest that WWE, especially lately, is judged on a different scale, so to speak, as it pertains to... expectations in my mind's eye. NXT even more so than the main roster. Much like how there's not as much belief going in when watching AEW Dark that you'll see much. It's the old MadTV Lowered Expectations clip in my head. So I have different ideas of what is acceptable when watching various modern wrestling shows. I've seen so much wrestling in my life, great wrestling at that, that it became impossible to maintain my wrestling standards while watching current wrestling. Eventually, almost subconsciously, I stopped comparing current stuff to the catalog of other stuff in my brain. Inevitably, there was a lot of apathy & then it got to the point where if someone manages to make it through a match without hurting themselves or their opponent, it was considered a theoretical win. Watching wrestling nowadays for me is almost background noise, just a habit of consistency due to a lifetime of maintaining a hobby. I still enjoy something occasionally but more often than not, it's all just white noise placating the need to pass time. I am notoriously a glass half empty person. I often enter shows with a negative mindset & a "prove me wrong" attitude to begin with. I realize it is unhealthy & doesn't make for the best viewing habits - and mixed with nostalgia is a dangerous cocktail - yet I still often will turn on a WWE show, or an AEW show or watching a New Japan event, whatever. Then I end up spending the whole time thinking "wow, this sucks." So, to me, when I see others praising someone like Wendy Choo, my first thought is that they're seeing something that I'm not seeing or they're starting the show is a better mental space than I am in. Johnny Sorrow comes to mind as he's been so much more positive in his viewing habits lately since watching the shows with children. I'm usually watching stuff by myself, at odd hours, in between work shifts where I just don't want to go to bed yet because it feels like all I do is work & sleep. Also after watching wrestling for so many years, longevity plays into my thought process - as if I wasn't already thickheaded to begin with - and I'll often disregard the opinions of others & write them off as "I've watched wrestling longer than they've been alive, what the fuck do they know?" Also not great for being on the internet... I think the death of kayfabe & how professional wrestling turned into just a bunch of "good" matches in a vacuum with everyone being in on the work really hurt my love for the hobby. I can't get drawn into storylines anymore because they're so few & far between. I can't get drawn into characters anymore because we're constantly beat over the head via social media & news stories about how these are people playing characters. So the ability to suspend disbelief is just gone. Bron Breakker is a good example for me because he's good & I can see that he's good... but is he better than Buzz Sawyer or Hercules Hernandez? Or does he just look so much better because everyone else is so lame nowadays? Imagine if Monty Brown just debuted right now in NXT & it was the first time anyone saw him. People would think he was the next Hulk Hogan. So, yeah, Wendy Choo is...whatever. But I mean, are you comparing her to Bull Nakano or to Torrie Wilson? Because at the end of the day, she's a green wrestler wrestling in a onesie on a C-show & ultimately, it doesn't matter whatsoever. Heel/Face, gimmick change, whatever, people will still just care about if she has multiple star matches & talk about how Karen Yu is such a great/nice/genuine/whatever person & deserves more/better/greater things. Social media is a flat circle.

OK, I've had some free time (and a day off) so I actually watched AEW Dark, which I know is pretty much just a jobber show to let people get reps in. Which is great. I used to love the WCW Sunday morning show (Main Event?) and some old WWF shows like Velocity & they were mostly undercard guys but you could still see good stuff. With Dark, to me, I see a lot of potential. But what really stood out to me was that Anthony Ogogo & Nick Comoroto but have great looks. You can tell they're still super green... and on the gas, but I think they have future potential if they keep improving. Also, Nyla Rose kind of comes off as a star too big for that show.