Coffey

It's still super early in the night but so far, this PPV has impressed the shit out of me. I'm really enjoying myself. Darby looks like a star. I LOVE the tree look with the paint. LOVE. If they're announcing a new AEW video game on the 10th, I hope this look is one of the outfit options for Darby.

both men wearing pretty cool gear

That Eddie Kingston & the Fam segment was goddamn amazing. Holy fuck.

Great match. Good shit to start. Love that finish.

Kevin Nash grew up in Detroit & was around for the riots. So it makes sense.

That neckbreaker was awesome. Does Serena do the old Konnan Tequila Sunrise? It looked like she was setting that up earlier. I always loved that move.

Could you imagine if AEW actually pulled the trigger on Eddie Kingston? Holy shit, that would blow me away. This card looks great. I haven't previously been the biggest AEW supporter, but I'll be watching this Pay-Per-View tonight with my girlfriend. The Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston segment from Wednesday was insane & I miss promos that could get me to buy-in like that. So good. And I love both Serena Deeb & Allysin Kay, so getting them at all in AEW is pretty cool to me. After finally getting the election results today, after this excruciatingly long & stressful week, no wrestling show will be able to take this smile off of my face. But I actually anticipate a great show tonight from AEW & I'm excited.

My goodness, the shade from saying "I know Carmella has fans here for some reason" made me crack up. Carmella isn't a good wrestler, I think we can all agree there. But just like Enzo Amore in WWE, you could still bring something to the table without having to actually wrestle. Enzo would have been a good chickenshit heel manager that you want to see the babyface get his hands on finally & Carmella would probably be a good snobby, heel valet. But for whatever reason, WWE doesn't seem to do that stuff anymore. So instead you get in-ring mediocrity & exposing flaws instead of trying to hide flaws & accentuate strengths.

It's crazy because it's like, the attentions spans of viewers have gotten shorter. Technology & therefore accessibility has gotten far greater. And there's a lot more competition due to all the viewer options now, not just in pro wrestling but competing with everything. Imagine if nothing really changed if you compare 1980 to 1990. Or 1990 to 2000. But from 2005 to 2020 is all still feels basically the same. Everything after Austin & Rock up until John Cena. And even now with Cena gone, it still feels the same. Randy Orton. The Miz. Even when Drew was the champion, I didn't feel like it caught & not just because of the pandemic. Maybe that's just me but he's boring as fucking paste. But at least he was different. They should go completely all-in on Tribal Chief Roman Reigns because it's all they got. If the future is guys like Adam Cole & Johnny Gargano, than the future is fucking BLEAK.

So The Miz now has the Money in the Bank briefcase to cash-in? I'm... not sure that's much better. I don't think there's a big batch of people clamoring to see another Miz world title reign. Thanks for the summary.

How did Otis lose the brief case, what happened? I thought they were going to do something like put Otis & Mandy on both shows & Otis use the brief case cash-in to switch shows to get back with Mandy or some shit.

WWE's version of ECW that was on SyFy channel, when it was airing, left me - a diehard ECW fan - very disappointed. Of course, I went in expecting ECW which was a mistake on my part, obviously. However, that being said: if you go back & look at what came out of that "brand" we got Sheamus, Kofi Kingston, CM Punk & some other pretty good stuff. How different is WWE if we never get Kofi Kingston? Never get The New Day. Never get Kofi winning the WWE title.

He could go back to NXT & work with guys like Finn Balor, Tommaso Ciampa, Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reily, Kushida, Roderick Strong, Timothy Thatcher & Johnny Gargano, I guess? Seems like he would fit in with that group of dudes.

I don't know if I agree with saying she doesn't have charisma but it's pointless to argue about it. Reminds me of when people used to say that about Shawn Michaels. Cutting promos into a microphone is not the only way to be charismatic. To me, Eva Marie very obviously have a physical charisma that you can't teach. Like, defending Eva Marie is not a hill I'm willing to die on, it's not that big of a deal ultimately. It'll just be another face most likely lost in the crowd, like 85% of the roster currently. And I'm sure her TV time would be better served going to someone like Naomi but still. I would take Eva Marie & her not being able to work over Nattie being a veteran ring general seven days out of the week. Or Ember Moon. Or Billie Kay, Carmella, Candice LeRae, Nia Jax, Dakota Kai, Lacey Evans, Ninja Warrior Girl & her stupid battle royal spots, Kay Lee Ray, Lana or a bunch of other people that get TV time on either the main roster or NXT. It's not just the women though. I'll take, in example, Eva Marie over any & all of the sexual allegation motherfuckers. I would be OK not seeing Austin Theory, Velveteen Dreams, that big goof Lars, Matt Riddle & whomever else.

I'm currently watching WWF Summerslam 1997. Which thus far has been a pretty damn good card, which opened with Mankind Vs. HHH in a cage match. The British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith has the worst worked punches I've seen this side of Lex Luger. My goodness.

LeBron James is great. If someone wants to call him the best of all-time, fine. He has the numbers & longevity. However, if anyone puts him behind Wilt, Bill Russell, Jordan, Kareem, Kobe, Tim Duncan... I certainly wouldn't tell them that they're wrong.

Eva Marie's NXT match with Bayley in 2015 where the live crowd were losing their minds because they thought Eva Marie was going to win the NXT Women's Title is good shit.

The same way people pretend Trish Stratus & Lita were good?

She got heat, which is more than a lot of the current roster can say. It was funny because at first everyone was saying it was X-Pac Heat, or Go Away Heat or You Can't Wrestle Heat but I'm a firm believer that heat is heat. X-Pac himself was a great heel because everyone wanted to see that slimey bastard get his ass kicked. Or course, X-Pac was a helluva worker. Eva Marie more works her gimmick & character than can work in the ring but at this point in time, I'll take it. WWE had plenty of faceless people that can work & not a lot of people that make the fans give a fuck.

Somewhere along the way, WWE forgot how to do basic pro-wrestling 101. Build a feud to a blowoff match. Now they START with the blowoff match & kill every gimmick match they have in the process. Used to be a cage was the end all, be all. Then Hell in a Cell. Now we have Elimination Chambers. It's never enough.

Listening to the Corny podcasts, his gushing over Theory is surreal. Not even just because I don't see whatever it is that he sees, but like, has Brian Last not even told him about the shit surrounding Theory or does Cornette just not care? Did anything else ever come out about it other than the word of that 13-year-old girl? I don't remember hearing anything else & it kind of just went away.

Are Alexa Bliss & The Fiend still on the same show?

I actually think they could use The Fiend really effectively with The Big Dawg High Chief Roman Reigns. Stupid Bray can cut one of his dumbass "The Fiend is coming, let him in while I ramble for 20 minutes promos" & Roman could just no sell it entirely. Then the Fiend shows up doing his b-movie bullshit & Roman can just bust him in the mouth & lay him the fuck out. Just like when Goldberg squashed that jobber. Take no shit Roman with the Arrive, Wreck Shit, Leave gimmick is cash & turning The Fiend into just another warm body in the path of his Samoan Destruction would really cement him as the top guy, especially with Brock Lesnar AWOL. Of course they would never do something like that & it would drag on for four months with them trading wins & having to sit through "spooky" Fiend bullshit.

The best commentators that WWE current has are Wade Barrett & Samoa Joe. Two former wrestlers that do color commentary. WWE's commentary has two major issues right now: 1. they don't have anyone that's any good at play-by-play & 2. for whatever reason, they insist on not doing a 2-person commentary booth. If they has a 2-person booth on the show & then put Joe on color for one show & Wade on color for the other, they would already been in a huge step in the right direction. But when your lead play-by-play is Michael Cole, whom has sucked for twenty years, and everyone after him is being groomed to sound like... Michael Cole.. it's a recipe for disaster. Cole has no credibility & when your play-by-play guy doesn't have credibility, they're not going to be able to sell the show to the viewing audience. WWE has been blessed over the years to have some great commentators & ring announcers but it's been one of the weakest parts of their game for about two decades now. There's not a big list of good play-by-play commentators anywhere right now in the world of wrestling. AEW also lacks in the commentary department & a big reason why is because 1. the play-by-play of Excaliber sucks & 2. they try to do a 3 person booth. Probably just because WWE does it or Nitro did it. It's unnecessary. If you insist on having multiple commentators on the show, you could just do what Nitro used to do & switch out the color person during the second hour or whatever.

It doesn't draw. You have to grab people emotionally. Make them invest into the characters & angles. Otherwise, they're just going to watch actual competition.