Coffey

No one has really cared about Natalya Neidhart in a decade, so why is this match tonight happening? It seems so random. There's three women's matches tonight & they just feel all over the place & slapped together without any rhyme or reason. Ember Moon is getting a title shot. Nattie is getting a title shot. Trish it out of retirement. Talk about throwing shit against the wall. They're really missing Ronda, huh?

Universal Championship Match Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Seth Rollins This will be interesting to see how they book it & what story they go for. Hoping that Brock retains because Seth is painfully boring. I still enjoy Brock. At least he still has a superstar aura about him, something that Seth has never had. Raw Women’s Championship Match Becky Lynch (c) vs. Natalya Don't care. Expect it to be sloppy. Hopefully the Toronto crowd will at least give Nattie a nice pop. WWE Championship Match Kofi Kingston (c) vs. Randy Orton I've already seen this match like five or six times. Don't expect to see anything new. Tired of the Kofi title reign but another Orton reign isn't the answer. Trish Stratus vs. Charlotte Flair Trish was never great, despite what some internet revisionist history would like people to believe (same with Lita). Charlotte is pretty good though. I hope this is just Trish coming back to give some rub to Charlotte so they can start pushing/using Charlotte again. I predict Trish will be moving in slow motion. SmackDown Women’s Championship Match Bayley (c) vs. Ember Moon Will suck. Ember Moon is not good. Bayley is not charismatic. Kevin Owens vs. Shane McMahon — If Owens loses, he will quit WWE Will suck. Shane sucks. Maybe they'll do some crazy stupid bump or something but after Gargano/Cole last night... I'm not sure it would matter. Goldberg vs. Dolph Ziggler Hope Goldberg kills him in 20 seconds. Dolph sucks. At least Goldberg still has a presence & intensity to him. Dolph brings less than nothing to the table. Not sure why this match is even happening but whatever. United States Championship Match AJ Styles (c) vs. Ricochet This could be pretty good if they reign in the flips. Finn Bálor vs. “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt I heard Finn is taking some time off? And the new Bray character needs to be built up, so I assume Bray wins. Finn isn't going to be The Demon, right? Because they need to protect that. WWE Cruiserweight Championship Match Drew Gulak (c) vs. Oney Lorcan Good chance this is the best match on the card. Drew Gulak is really good. Like a five hour card with very few matches that I feel anyone will even care about. It's crazy to me that the biggest stars on the show are Brock Lesnar & Goldberg. No Roman Reigns. No Daniel Bryan. WWE really needs to focus on making some new stars & stop worrying about people potentially leaving or making The Brand the star. That shit doesn't work.

...Dave Meltzer gave Gargano/Cole from New York in April 5.5 stars & gave their match in June 5.25...

I hope the Mia Yim experiment is over.

I still think they do for comedy. Last one I remember was during Avengers when Hulk beat the slop out of Loki & said "puny god." That got a reaction in the theater.

Gargano is hit or miss for me. I don't dislike him it just always feels like his feuds last too fucking long. The Ciampa shit, even without injuries, felt like it was never ending. Now this Adam Cole feud feels the same way. And I don't think Cole is anywhere as good as Andrade, so I don't see the match being as good as Gargano/Andrade was. There will definitely be A LOT of near falls & finisher kickouts. Complete with a zoom in shot of the "OMG, I can't believe he kicked out!" faces about thirty times. You'll also get the infamous "lost stare" sell that Gargano always does after taking a big spot. I think it's his "I'm concussed" face.

I don't like the subplot of The Undisputed Era potentially winning all of the gold. I would like the NA Title match more if Strong wasn't in it, for example. I think Mia Yim might win the title just because I think they're going to strap Io and another Shayna/Io match doesn't make sense, especially if they're both heel now. It feels generic that the first fall of the 2/3 falls main event is "normal match." Matches should still all be decent. I think Candice is gonna die a thousand deaths tonight.

• 2 out of 3 Falls Match for the NXT Championship (first fall is a classic match, second fall is a street fight, third fall stipulation will be decided by William Regal if necessary): Adam Cole (c) vs. Johnny Gargano •NXT Women’s Championship Match: Shayna Baszler (c) vs. Mia Yim •NXT Tag Team Championship Match: Street Profits (c) vs. Undisputed Era •Candice LeRae vs. Io Shirai •Triple Threat Match for the NXT North American Championship: Velveteen Dream (c) vs. Pete Dunne vs. Roderick Strong

Wasn't she one of the people that spoke up about the Bill DeMott shit with the abuse of trainees? Also something about sexual inappropriate stuff in regards to a different trainer or something? I remember a Mia Yim "no thanks" Twitter comment when someone suggested Ivelisse being in NXT with her. I think she might just rub a lot of people the wrong way due to having a bitchy attitude or something.

I'm excited for War Games. Sorry, War Chamber. But I'm not sure if the mystery partner stuff is a draw for me at all. I kind of like knowing who is participating before hand because, as a fan, it's fun to theory craft how the match will be laid out. I think if WWE or AEW get Jacob Fatu, MLW as a promotion is going to be in trouble. Their roster is not super strong. Of course, I also feel that way about ROH, NWA & even iMPACT (although iMPACT! has a lot of talent). This fall is going to be interesting just to see where everyone lands & how the contract shit manages to work itself out with all the companies under AEW in the pecking order. And just reading about the NXT TakeOver Toronto secondary market dying, with tickets being $7, feels like the shine has worn off of NXT as well.

Going back to Simon Gotch, that dude has just became so... boring. I don't think he was ever brought up when talking about good workers or anything but he at least used to stand out a little bit with the Vaudevillain stuff. Once he shaved off the mustache, he had nothing left. And that's coming from someone that LOVES Cradle Piledrivers. He's not a great promo or worker & feels like the least interesting member of CONTRA. So putting all those things together, I'm sure Dave has not had a lot of great things to say about him in the past, so he probably holds a grudge over something that we have all long since forgotten.

I love the duo of Bryan & Rowan so much. It reminds me of Master Blaster from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. Bryan being the brains & Rowan being the muscle.

Just wanna say, I'd be down with a Seth Rollins Is Terrible thread.

I think Jumbo is one of the greatest wrestlers that ever lived. He's in my top 10. But PWO voted Daniel Bryan, I think, top 5 in the GWE, so I don't think many people have a shot at beating Bryan around here.

It's a weird dichotomy too. You have wrestling fans that on one hand will talk about AEW negatively due to some of the things they say about WWE but then turn a blind eye when WWE says negative things about AEW. Vince calling them "blood & guts" or Triple H calling them a "piss ant company" gets overlooked if it doesn't fit the narrative. Granted those throwaway comments aren't as big of a scene as Cody on PPV literally using a sledgehammer to smash the throne but, it is what it is. I also think them addressing it & embracing it was a good move. You also have the fans that will lambaste everything WWE does & complain about no competition. Then as soon as potential competition pops up, they channel all of their energy into badmouthing the new company (in this case AEW) as being bush league or whatever. The talking point was "they're just a T-shirt company" for a long time. That seems to have died down now. Now I see that it's shifting into the roster being too small or them not having anyone that looks like a star or whatever. I was guilty of it myself, when I had basically dismissed Shawn Spears. AEW thus far have done a good job of making me eat my words. The pairing with Tully & the vignettes have been exceptionally well done. To the point that it is one of the matches that I am most looking forward to at All Out. Cody Rhodes himself has turned into quite the entertainer. His ring work & promo skills have both vastly improved & on top of that, he also carries himself extremely well.

Dustin Rhodes also mentioned it. One of the greatest of all-time. In my personal top three favorites of all-time. The more of his work that I watch, the more I admire him. I'm really saddened by this. I knew his health wasn't great but I was literally just talking about him last night with a buddy & saying how I really wanted to meet him, shake his hand & get his autograph. Literally last night.

Short & to the point. They've done a great job of making Shawn Spears looks like a star. The addition of Tully was genius.

Not me because I 100% put the blame on Seth himself, not try to pass the blame to Vince or WWE as a whole. There's a reason he sucked as Tyler Black pre-WWE too.

The crowd alone will make it worth being there. If you can go & don't, you're crazy.

Mae Young giving birth to a hand was also a joke. People still talk about it & insult it years later. Wrestlecrap is Wrestlecrap, straight up. Regardless of the letters of the name of the promotion. Shit is shit. The librarians are shit. Doesn't matter if it's supposed to be a joke. Still shit. Just shit that's supposed to be a joke.

I really liked Cobb in LU as well. I've pretty much just liked him less & less with the more I see of him outside of LU. So now I'm thinking maybe I just liked Matanza. Also, honestly, he just looks super generic without the gimmick, too. I think the mask helped him.

The only time I ever liked Dolph Ziggler is when he was packaged with A.J. Lee & Big E. Langston... and then I just realized that I was a fan of A.J. Lee & Big E. Langston. Pre New Day. I actually think WWE lost a lot when they lost A.J. Lee. People still talk about CM Punk but no one seems to mention her anymore. And not just talking about her wrestling pretty fake looking matches. Her as a valet was great. Big E. in the Mr. Hughes role I liked a lot too. It was like an entourage that looked & felt legit.

If AEW really wanted to try something different, how about a 90 minute show?

Man, that is a rough SummerSlam card. 100% skipping the show this year. Good God.

OK, so we know it starts Wednesday October 2nd & that it's live. Do we not know how long a show it is yet? Also, what happens on the NBA nights?