Coffey

After her unionization backpeddling & Tommy's post firing "Vince really loves me" podcast bullshit, I don't give a fuck about either of them anymore tbh.

I've heard good things about the Briscoe Brothers Chicken Coop fight. Anyone here seen it & can confirm?

Wrestlemania VI with Warrior is April 1990 & he's still pretty huge there but I do think he was bigger before that. So I feel like 88'-'89 might be right on the nose. It's crazy to me that that was over thirty years ago now. I remember how hype I was to get that Pay-Per-View. Back in the days when you had to go to the cable company & get the box to hook up to your TV to get the show.

When was Hulk Hogan at his biggest, physically? I know he was billed as 6'8", 303 lbs for a long time but I assume that was worked. Obviously it had to have been before the WWF steroid trial or when he went to WCW. He looked enormous in Rocky III but I think a lot of that was because of how small Stallone is. Was he bigger in AWA than he was in WWF? Even at the start of Hulkamania? I know he was gassed to the gills & huge during most of his run but he was always working guys like André, Bundy, Gang, 'Quake, etc. so he didn't look as huge on TV a lot of the time when compared to someone like Warlord that was working guys like Tito.

I didn't really know where to put this. A buddy & I were talking pro-wrestling today & it got a bit heated over the discussion of me saying that I think Roman Reigns is already better & has surpassed John Cena as a top guy. I didn't really think that it was that outlandish of a statement but apparently it touched a nerve. I don't even dislike John Cena, nor want to discredit what he did for WWE, especially when he was pretty much the flag bearer for a decade plus. I just think that Roman's run in The Shield, his babyface run & now especially his Head of the Table heel run have as a whole surpassed, in my mind, what Cena did. And The Shield debuted on November 2012, so it's not like Roman hasn't been there long enough at this point. Granted, I might like Roman Reigns more so than most but I don't think it's that far fetched that I favor him over Cena.

If you listen to the newest Jim Ross podcast, the second part of the Lex Luger story, he frequently goes off on sidetrack diatribes & starts shitting on flips & thigh slaps seemingly out of nowhere. I have no doubt in my mind that he hates AEW and wishes he was back in WWE. Zero.

The WWE "developmental" as a whole has always seemed like it was more about getting you ready for WWE TV than it was about getting you ready to be a professional wrestler. Like if you go to a normal wrestling school, I don't think you're learning about how to talk to the hard-cam & stand on your markers & shit. I don't like that NXT is a televised program in so much that it is its own "brand" but I understand that the young talent has to get experience on TV & ideally in front of real people. I think the biggest detriment to the NXT program was when Dusty Rhodes passed away. I think that is right around the time that the development of the young new faces drastically changed.

My goodness, Florida in the 70's. Holy crap. WWF from 85-90 is on another level too. Imagine being caught up in that on the roster at the time.

On a lighter note, because he's a goddamn national treasure, this will never not lighten the mood & get some chuckles:

It's amazing what a night & day difference it is between trying to go in the direction of EVIL & trying to go into the direction of Shingo, eh?

Some of the greatest carnies to ever carn could barely read. Professional wrestling as a whole isn't exactly recruiting scholars & astrophysicists. It's people that get hit in the head & dropped for a living while living on the road & out of motels. Even in, hell especially in modern times we shouldn't be propping these people up like they're heroes or something; that never pans out well. Look at Hulk Hogan & The Ultimate Warrior as examples. Or even Stone Cold Steve Austin. Political discourse aside, nothing a professional wrestler says or does should be surprising to us anymore, even if it is someone that currently had higher expectations from their fan base. Like, yeah, if it came out after all these years that Terry Funk was harboring a bunch of vile skeletons in his closet, it would hurt me, so I get it if it's a favorite of yours letting you down, but honestly anymore, I just expect the worst from people in the public eye. What is interesting to me, however, is that this issue with Sasha Banks is coming on the heels of Gina Carano losing her Disney gig with The Mandalorian, a show which Sasha Banks is also cast in. Let's hope Sasha doesn't start liking Holocaust social media posts or some shit. I will say, the one thing that drives me crazy is when fans (or "stans" I guess now) try to defend someone saying something stupid with "it's just their opinion" - like, no, when it's a health issue that affects others, it's not an opinion anymore, it's spreading harmful misinformation that could hinder the well-being of others. That's why the Drake Wuertz shit is an issue. If he were just a loon, no one would give a fuck; there's a lot of loons in wrestling. But when you're a batshit insane misinformation smuggler & the shit you're spreading is potentially harmful to others, then it because an issue that is going to garner interest & response.

Maybe the WWE cut strategy is just to fire so many wrestlers that AEW can't hire them all. Yeah, that's the ticket! Seriously, they have to be setting up to take selling offers, right? This is like the third round of cuts in just the last couple of months.

100%. You're not lying. One of the biggest issues in my opinion with modern professional wrestling. And that's not just a WWE thing, that's an everywhere thing: NXT, RAW, Smackdown, AEW, NJPW, ROH, MLW, iMPACT... everywhere.

The Miz doesn't get enough credit for making people care about Alex Riley, Damian Sandow & John Morrison. When Alex Riley turned on The Miz finally, people lost their minds because they wanted to see The Miz get beat up so bad. It felt very old school.

I'll say this about the Nikki Cross gimmick: it's been apparent for awhile now that Nikki has gotten herself into a lot better shape lately & the new outfit really accentuates that. It's night & day difference from her Sanity days. She's definitely lost some weight.

I have nothing against Julia Hart but what does she bring to the table that puts her ahead of someone like, say, Skye Blue? Is it just the Hart name?

I agree with this but only if those are the two scenarios available & we have to pick one or the other. Ideally, I would prefer something more in the middle, where like Blehschmidt said, you have someone willing to tell the talent if an idea is terrible instead of just giving the green light to everything. If it's just all freedom or zero freedom of character, that a boring wrestling landscape.

Now how many of those went through a commercial break since you want to just single me and that point out.

Randy Orton in particular is super bad about this.

I guess I should answer the thread I created as well. I will say from the jump that I like AEW & think they have a lot of potential. I like quite a bit of the roster. My biggest issue is I think AEW is a different product than what I was expecting. I like Tony Schiavone on commentary. Paul Wight on Dark has been good too, honestly. I don't think Jim Ross has it anymore & think he actively hurts the TV product but he would be invaluable behind the scenes with all of his experience & knowledge. I'm also not a fan of Excalibur as I don't think you need to give your commentators gimmicks. He comes off as a try-hard nerd that makes shit feel uncool by trying to sound know-it-all if that makes sense. You can't take him seriously. I've heard the Mike Tenay comparisons a lot but Mike Tenay in 1998 making Lucha Libre references is a lot different than a masked commentator in the internet world calling matches in 2021. I also loathe the idea of feeling like wrestling ever needs a commentary booth with more than two people. A straight laced play-by-play & a color commentator that works off of them. The in-ring style could be slowed down & the people could sell a lot more. My biggest issue with AEW is probably that everyone thinks they're Shawn Michaels or Rob Van Dam or Rey Mysterio & none of them are. Too many guys on the roster do flashy shit just because they think it'll look cool instead of doing it because it makes sense. Case in point, Brian Cage doing a 6-1-9 or Luchasaurus doing suicide dives & standing moonsaults. This is where I think having a Mark Henry or Big Show offering some guidance might help but that doesn't mean anyone will listen to them, but they don't need to be on-air in-ring talent. The way the show looks, specifically the entrances on Dynamite, comes off as TNA or WCW Saturday Night to me which I think looks a bit amateurish & low rent with the two tunnels. I like that they're licensing music now though. I think that's a big step in the right direction. Other people that they have brought in like Matt Hardy I don't get the appeal of at all if they're in an on-air wrestling role. Matt Hardy looks like he can barely even walk anymore. Christian can still go but every time he gets a win over someone else, it feels like it is squandering younger talent. It needs to lead to something. Miro has been great. Andrade was a great signing. I would be OK with them bringing in Tommy End as well. Jim Ross in particular loves Jake Hager but I've never seen anything there - he doesn't have any charisma. There's a difference between untapped potential & has-been. I think AEW has an issue with trying to do too much comedy at the top of the card, specifically pretty much every time Jericho is on screen. He's corny & is frequently the worst part of every show. I wish they would move away from him entirely. It feels forced & doesn't come off as natural at all. That's a lot different than say, Eddie Kingston cracking a joke. The Elite, especially Omega & Callis have also been quite bad with a lot of their "jokes" like the "69 me, Don!" shit. I also don't think doing gimmicks like the alien chick, The Dark Order or Luchasaurus makes sense in this day & age unless you're leaning all the way into it like Chikara did. I don't mind the stables or factions but they need to have a purpose. Like The Dark Order doesn't have a purpose. More so now with the passing of Brodie Lee. The Matt Hardy group, the Cody group, the QT Marshall group... it's just putting a bunch of people on TV that shouldn't be on TV. The Inner Circle Vs. The Pinnacle was fine because it was serving a purpose. It certainly helped to establish Sammy Guevara. Tully has been great. Jake is kind of just there now but his promo on Cody was good & I think he gave Archer a sense of danger around him (which if he's babyface now doesn't make sense anymore). Not a fan of Vickie. Using a manager as a mouth piece for a talent that can't promo would be really beneficial. Arn with Cody doesn't make much sense because Cody can talk for himself. You put Arn with someone like Wardlow or Hager & it makes more sense. Which is why I assume they were put in the Jericho stable so Jericho could do the talking but he's making them look goofy by association because he won't act serious. Tony Khan needs to keep himself off of TV entirely & needs to be more willing to tell people no. Not every idea is a great idea. Not everything Jericho thinks is funny should make TV, nor should the Young Bucks/Omega stuff just because it's an in-joke for their YouTube shit. Meltzer is too praising, Cornette is too critical (especially of the women) which makes both of their opinions mean less because you expect they're both going to love/hate everything. The rise of Britt Baker is one of the best things, if not the best thing, that AEW has done to date. Shida did a good job as champion & think the women's division is going to be really good moving forward with Thunder Rosa & Serena Deeb. They have talent. I do think that the pandemic hit this division especially hard but I have a positive outlook moving forward here. One of the better parts of the program & if they can get Ruby that would be a good acquisition. Hell, who knows, maybe they could get lucky and get Charlotte in the future, now that they got Andrade. The tag division is a mess. Instead of being a resurgence of the days of the Rock & Roll Express or The Midnight Express it feels like just a spot fest of dives & breaking the rules with the referee not enforcing anything. There needs to be more of a focus on the story of the match instead of just the moves of the match. The Young Bucks are terrible at this & it's the reason why I've never liked them. The gimmick/stipulations would be fine if they made sense. Build to them & then do them when the story asks for it. They went in the right direction with the idea behind War Games - two stables that wanted to battle it out. But the Stadium Stampede doesn't make sense. The Casino Battle Royal doesn't make sense. Putting a ladder in a match just because it has high flyers is lazy booking. Doing a Deathmatch just because Moxley wants to doesn't make sense. Do it when the build asks for it not just because you want to do it. The PWG comparison is dead on. That's a good reference. I wanted more 80's NWA & less modern Indie-style, which going by the roster that's on me for expecting. But when I heard they were going to do a more sports oriented style - which did not come to fruition - I was expecting more like the NJPW main event style & less like the 2008 Ring of Honor style... or TNA X-Division. I think the biggest issue with AEW is that there's not a Pat Patterson kind of person, a go-between from Tony Khan & the talent. They need someone that will tell people no to their ideas when it's not a good idea or doesn't make sense. I'm sure the talent feels like they have a lot more freedom but that can be a detriment to the overall show if everyone is just doing whatever they want & you don't have a direction. The biggest positive for AEW is that they have a blank canvas which they can use to create with - like they have done with Britt Baker, Darby Allin, Sammy Guevara, Jungle Boy. Build up these new stars, make them household names & create brand awareness with your own, homegrown talent. There's so much potential in AEW. I love that we have a promotion in the United States providing an alternative to WWE that is on national television. I love that new people are getting a chance to make a mark. I love that the talent has more working options other than just WWE or Japan where they can make a decent living. AEW right now feels like it could be on the cusp of being something big but they won't go all the way with it. Like they want to be a WWE style big promotion but they won't let the wooden stakes out of the ground for the balloon to take off entirely, so they still have some of the Indie things attached to them. Maybe they find it endearing, or nostalgic, or even like they're paying an homage to wrestling from yesterday with the tunnel entrances & what not but I don't think anything that lets you be compared to "B-shows" is a good look nowadays. I also think they're getting dangerously close to spreading themselves too thin with all of the programming they have to fill up now. I don't feel like they need the YouTube shows at all - including Being the Elite. Promos like the one Miro just cut on Evil Uno, that should be happening on TV, not on Instagram. And assume that the viewer doesn't know every single inside reference, joke or callback - the Elite are terrible about that & the commentators often miss it too. Stop giving the likes of Omega, The Young Bucks, Cody & Jericho so much slack. A perfect example: why has no one tried to reign in Pentagon doing the hand gesture shit yet? He's not even wrestling anymore at this point he just doing that like six times a match & it kills the flow. Someone should be on his ass about that. Where are the road agents? Also not every single match needs to be 15 minutes long, through a commercial break, with the people involved kicking out of finishers.

All Elite Wrestling has been around for a bit under two years at this point. Contrary to what you'll read on other corners of the internet, such as Wreddit, or Twitter, it's not an AEW Vs. WWE (or NXT) battle - however, that is not to say that some of the positive/negative talking points about AEW do not have any merit. So, now that AEW has Dynamite, along with the new Friday night show & two YouTube shows in Dark & Elevation, I thought maybe we could discuss some of the often brought up talking points about AEW, the direction of the company & areas you may be concerned about, if any at all. Regardless of if you're a viewer that never misses Dynamite, only watch it every so often or checked it out once or twice & decided it wasn't for you. I'm curious what your turn offs & ons about it are. How do you feel about the commentary in AEW? Jim Ross & Excalibur specifically. How do you feel about the ring style or the look of the show/arena? What are your thoughts about the talent that AEW has been bringing in like Jake Hager, Shawn Spears or more recently, Mark Henry & Paul Wight? Do you think that AEW relies too heavily on comedy? What about their abundance of factions/stables? Managers/Valets? How do you feel about the decisions Tony Khan has taken, or how Dave Meltzer seems to give AEW the constant benefit of the doubt where as Jim Cornette will barely acknowledge when something is good? Are AEW presenting the women well? How about the tag team division? Is AEW relying too much on gimmick/stipulation matches? Most importantly, what do you think the greatest positive about current AEW is & what do you think is their biggest hindrance at this point in time? I wanted to get some conversation going outside of the AEW megathread to maybe just discuss what we like & what we're concerned about going forward.

This pretty much sums up professional wrestling from about 2005-present. A bunch of bland dudes without any character or charisma doing a bunch of spots to "this is awesome!" chants. The Johnny Gargano's & Adam Cole's of the world. Or... pretty much all of AEW.

Everyone should see this:

So happy for Shingo. Well deserved. Awesome wrestler getting his due in a helluva match. It can't be understated how good for how long & how many terrific matches Okada has had during his New Japan run.

So him and Embiid have a lot in common then!