Coffey

I bet a Brian Cage Vs. Spike Dudley match would have been good!

Yeah, it's very much like the NBA Dunk Contest. You go back & watch the old dunks & they're not impressive compared to what the athletes are doing today. Like Dominique Vs. Jordan wasn't anything to compared to LaVine Vs. Gordon.

But half a foot shorter & without Masato Tanaka making him look good. I can kind of see it. I feel the biggest issue with Brian Cage is that he doesn't really stand out because everything that he can do & does, you can get from other people like Jeff Cobb. Even the "big guy does things he shouldn't be able to do" trope is kind of overused today. Like we knew of guys like Bigelow or Vader doing Moonsaults & now you just have dudes like Keith Lee running around where they're doing double leap frog spots like they're nothing! Which was always the inevitable outcome when everyone started doing everything. First time I ever saw a standing Shooting Star Press, I didn't think it was possible. Now it's just another move in a match that doesn't even get a pinfall attempt half the time. Or look at Canadian Destroyers. We've seen Scarlett do it. Ricky Morton do it. Britt Baker just did the Panama Sunrise. On the same show, in the cage match, they did it off the top rope. It wasn't the finish. But the first time Petey Williams ever did it, everyone shit their pants. Brian Cage is in an era where everything he does everyone else is doing, so he's not going to standout like a Scott Steiner in the early 90's did. What is Brian Cage's Frankensteiner?

I honestly didn't know that UFC was still that popular. Those numbers really surprise me. Maybe I just fell out of the UFC bubble but man, when The Ultimate Fighter first started, I couldn't go anywhere without UFC stuff being everywhere. Even the damn grocery store. I don't even know who the draws or champions are anymore.

Dare I say her sister already outshines her on social media & if she were brought to TV, would outshine her there as well. Wouldn't even have to wrestle. @MoS I remember genuinely liking her little run with big Vis too. When he ordered one whole side of the menu "that's me dawg." I think it led to the World's Largest Love Machine stuff.

I also want to say that the loss of Dusty Rhodes should not be ignored. I know he passed away in mid 2015 but the impact he had on the people when he was around certainly can't be denied. Definitely seemed to leave a big lasting impression on a lot of the talents & several of the women that went on to prominent main roster roles.

I don't know if this will be a minority opinion here or not. I'm not sure which direction the overall PWO opinions lean in regards to either Nattie or Trish Stratus but, I have them firmly both in the "were painfully average for a really long time & then people just pretended they were good" category. I don't know if I have ever seen Nattie do anything good ever. At least Trish was a great bumper & in some pretty memorable angles.

For comparison sake, what kind of PPV numbers are the UFC getting these days? Or the Jake Paul boxing shitfests?

If it's a TV title where the champion defends the belt on TV shows, putting it on someone like Bryan Danielson or Adam Cole would make a lot of sense. Only, of course, if they're moving Miro up though, as he's been fabulous with this new Redeemer gimmick. Hangman Page will be coming back in the near future too & with AEW being so top heavy now after bringing in Punk, Danielson & Cole, it might shuffle Hangman down the card some, despite all of the big build to him & Omega. There's also a lot of various multiman matches they can do. They've purposely been putting Punk with Darby & Sting and putting Danielson with Jurassic Express. So although the Inner Circle & Pinnacle stuff is played out, The Elite stuff has not.

Outside of Roman Reigns, there's few talent left in WWE that I would go out of my way to watch. If some how AEW could get a WALTER, WWE doesn't feel like they have a whole lot of people anymore that I really want to watch. They've even really cooled off the women, which seems crazy to me. Bayley got hurt. Sasha is MIA. I think Asuka is hurt too? They squashed Bianca & rushed back Becky. Charlotte is wasting time with Nia. They've been pushing the awful Alexa stuff. Shayna is taking up space outside the ring instead of inside, for some reason. It's crazy. They gave Nikki that awful gimmick & now she's like Rhea's sidekick. None of it makes sense even if they were trying to book the show literally for children under the age of 12. I genuinely don't know what their gameplan or strategy is going forward. Everything just feels so directionless and... random. It feels random. Like they aren't thinking about things ahead of time. Like WTF is WWE going to do? Bring back The Undertaker again? Kane? Get Stone Cold to do a promo? They have no aces up their sleeves anymore. They even just blew John Cena & he's gone again already. Brock has come & gone several times and we've already seen him against Roman at least three times. Yeah, it's different this time, with Roman as the heel & Heyman with Roman but fuck, they've been to the same wells so many times. Looks like WWE is going to put a lot of faith into Matt Riddle & Damian Priest.

Brian Cage is not a very good promo, or a very good worker... and he looks great but he's also pretty short. He's not big enough to be a big man but he's so jacked he's like stuck in no man's land. I personally feel like it would be really hard to book him. I have no idea what you would do with him. Also, he's been everywhere non-WWE for so long he some how feels overexposed, which was the same thing I thought about John Morrison right before WWE hired him back. I actually think he might be better off in WWE.

There's also a history of pro wrestlers being really terrible people. Dick Murdoch comes to mind. So what makes Tessa so untouchable? Is it really just that times have changed & no one is willing to risk it? I mean, I could sort of see AEW not wanting to take the chance, but WWE, really? They literally just had that Lars dude a few months ago. They brought back Hulk Hogan. Vince McMahon himself isn't exactly a saint. Jerry Lawler? DUI Uso? They have an award named after one of the most hateful people they ever employed with The Ultimate Warrior. Seems like if anyone shouldn't cast stones, it's them. You telling me that bringing back Eva Marie is a better business decision than taking a shot on Tessa Blanchard? Worst case scenario they fire her if she fucked up, yeah? But I'm sure more Charlotte Flair Vs. Nia Jax matches will really get people excited. She must have really pissed off someone with some strong pull.

Somewhere Chris Masters is awaiting his opportunity to send a Tweet...

I don't feel like anything you said makes my statement untrue. They would just be better without those guys.

Now that they brought in Adam Cole, I think The Elite would be better off kicking some of their members to the curb. Namely The Good Brothers, Cutler & Nakazawa. I'm indifferent on Don Callis, but if it were just Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks & Adam Cole, I have to think that makes them look a lot stronger.

I stopped reading when you said Corbin has no charisma.

WWE weren't exactly booking Jon Moxley well during the end of his run there... and he turned out fine in AEW. At least he's not coming out in a hazmat suit, anyway... I think fans are a lot more forgiving nowadays. It's not about how WWE uses you on TV, it's more about how they fuck people over & fans like seeing them get a clean slate. Ruby Soho's debut just happened & was cool as hell. Fans were chanting her name. She was a jobber in WWE. If AEW could get a Gable, or Cesaro, or Keith Lee.. the fans would welcome them with open arms, no questions asked.

Friendly reminder that Chris Jericho finished #73 in the PWO GWE list & I don't think his AEW work would move him up. If anything, I think it would move him down. That being said, I remember enjoying his List stuff in WWE, but that was more for the comedy skits than it was the actual wrestling & if anything, it was Kevin Owens that looked good from it when he turned on Jericho. I guess the JeriShow tags were... OK? For PWO GWE comparison sake, in 2016, Kenny Omega was ranked 259 behind Kevin Von Erich & Eric Embry. Think those have changed... just a hunch.

I genuinely don't know what to do with Andrade anymore. We know he's a great talent, we've seen him be a great talent. But lately, it's been some questionable booking & honestly, some half-assed effort. So, I don't know. Stop trying to have him cut promos on AEW. You gave him a mouthpiece for a reason. They really fucked up his in-ring debut in AEW too, having him go 50/50 with fucking Matt Sydal, whom is a goddamn jobber. That did him ZERO favors. He can still come off as so damn cool, just from his swag. I don't think the answer is putting him back in his mask & trying to make La Sombra happen again. Maybe a stable? I don't know. I also think that Charlotte Flair is a tremendous talent. That being said, AEW have a lot of stuff that needs to play out in the women's division. Serena Deeb coming back. Britt Baker being an actual babyface. Thunder Rosa getting a reign. Tay Conti is getting good. Shida is still there. Riho will be coming back. Nyla Rose is still lurking in the weeds. They just brought in Ruby Soho. So it's not like the AEW is clamoring for female talent (or male talent for that matter), they just need to utilize what they have better. I think they'll get there. I think there's money in a Britt Baker Vs. Thunder Rosa feud with Britt as the babyface & Rosa as the heel. (I accidentally typed the AEW but I'm leaving it as an homage to The Hitman)

Just realized that with Gallows & Serena in AEW, now with Punk, they have the Straight Edge Society again.

So he's Eminem?

I would rather they get Ricochet than Morrison. Morrison had change the channel heat for me during his Lucha Underground days. Only time I really liked him was when he was in MNM.

and they still opened RAW with a 15 minute talking segment lol

Charlotte Flair is the big name that leaps out at me. Especially if AEW bring in Ric Flair too. I'm sad that Samoa Joe went back to WWE after getting released. He would have been great in AEW, even if in a non-wrestling role. It'd be cool if they could get & reunite Chad Gable & Jason Jordan. I more think of non-top guys that would help flesh out their roster. The top of the card is going to be busy already. But getting people like Tyler Bate or Pete Dunne could do a lot for the undercard & filling up TV time.

AEW still have a big video game coming out too. That roster is going to be crazy.