Jmare007

The card is undoubtedly top heavy with a bunch nothing in the undercard but I think you were so upset about it you read it wrong Umino, ZSJ and Uemura were thrown in a Never Openweight 6 man match that pretty much features everyone on the roster. The 4 way is for the Jr. Title Gabe Kidd's try hard ass can stay in nothing matches for all I care tbh. If anything, the women's match will have a big chance of standing out with 70% of the card being bloated filler. Even more pressure for Wolf and huge responsibility on the shoulders of Takeshita and Tsuji. By the time they get to the ring the crowd would've sat through 2 and half hours of bleh with a potentially dope joshi match in between.

Foley made a whole thing about being done with the company for all the blatant Trump supporting they do. Good for him! but did he have a role in the company or something? a legends deal?

Haven't seen much of anything from this retirement tour but it really goes to show you how badly they botched it (and other angles) that the WWE fans went from almost taking pride in reacting the way you are "supposed to" because they loved the product from 2022-2024 to going all meta and reacting against the company and HHH instead of the heel for beating Cena. The fact it was Cena, the poster boy for fans reacting against the company because they didn't like the booking direction is fitting end, I guess?

I've seen a couple of Cena internviews this past week and I'm legit dumbfounded that he went to WWE with a whole ass chart with ideas and pitches for 200+ dates for his last year with the company and they basically told him "keep it, we good". And then they turned him heel out of nowhere as a pivot from Cody saying no to Rock's idea and got into an angle that lead nowhere and was pivoted again to turn him back. WWE is beyond lucky that Cena is such a company guy. Any other top guy would've forced his ideas or just leave (and a couple would've legit worked AEW just out of spite, lmao).

Historians putting Cody ahead of Punk is interesting, even though I can see the argument given the difference he made once went back to WWE and his role in starting AEW. Sabu being ahead of both of them among those voters is also interesting, Punk and Cody still being active has to be a big factor "against" them for historians, I guess.

The very few we got to see Wolf it was not encouraging (I got Gable Stevenson vibes) but it was still just a 30 second spot so who knows. I hope it's a short match and he destroys EVIL and his wack ass stable.

WK 20 officially sold out, they are opening up more seats due to demand still being high. Tana is carrying this company one last time. Let's hope Wolfe, Tsuji and Takeshita come out as big standouts/stars from this show.

Cool to see Hamada finally in.

Women's Blood & Guts had some really high highs, once it was 5v5 it picked up tremendously and it just kept getting better. Absolutely fucking loved the finish, just heels doing heel shit with some awesome pro wres drama *chef kiss* I gotta say though, they have to make the entrances shorter. They could've cut 10 minutes and gone faster to the stuff they all really had in mind once shit got going.

I feel Danielson's case is mainly performance based. And yes, those of us that rate him highly will always sing his praises and argue for him to be placed on a "greatest ever" tier. But to me, historical importance goes beyond that. I don't think the business changed or flipped when he was active and it certainly didn't suffer while he was/is gone. His WWE run is the one thing you could make a case but I feel like without Punk, Bryan might not even get signed in 2009 and by Dragon's own take on the matter, without Punk leaving, he wasn't maineventing WM 30 either. And his injuries didn't let him have a proper run on top to make a case of any lasting influence either. The one big lesson Vince got from Danielson was that he could book babyfaces like complete losers and maybe the people would get so mad at him that they would rally behind and get him more over (which didn't really work with anyone because Dragon's case was unique). Him being part of indy wave of the 2000s is relevant, for sure. But again, I feel other wrestlers were more important than him in making it as special/important as it was.

At least WK is doing great business. I'm glad the promotion behind Tana's retirement has worked so well. Takeshita will face Tsuji in a double title match. It seems we are gonna get Tana vs Okada (Gedo got involved in "helping" Tana find an opponent). Wolf vs Evil Syuri vs Saya Kamitani also booked.

I mean, you are not gonna find bigger babyface potential than this guy...

I sure hope Wolfe doesn't end up being like Gable Stevenson All the technical tools you can dream of but this company doesn't need a stoic character right now. The roster is too thin for a gimmick like that to work.

Thank lawd, step 1 (out of many) was taken.

Takeshita has to win, it's the only possible spark this company has as an immediate option. They can't just put all their hopes on Wolf debuting in January and being a special talent.

A 1 time thing with Andrade is ok, and a match with Kenny looks cool on paper on to me. But I wouldn't spend much energy in him beyond a 3-6 month run.

Loving the presentation of this main event. These two are working their asses off and commentary is not letting it go unnoticed.

I like the Hurt Syndicate so I have no issue with how they are booked.

Lashley vs Liona was a dope little TV match. Danielson on commentary is really a breath of fresh air. Him marking out to Hechicero and having that back and forth with Callis was hilarious

Yeah, as a latino I could give two shits about it being called a trios match instead of a 6-man tag. Like, who fucking cares

Smart call, good on TK and AEW. Only positives from going eariler, now the have a real chance to even avoid the dumb "negative publicity" of having the least bought PPV in their history.

I mean, I think the PPV buys will undoubtedly suffer because of the WWE show but All Out will still make money and have one of the bigger attendances of the year. There will be dumb trolling/stan wars weeks after the show once it's revealed it did the lowest buyrate to date for AEW but bleh, who cares.

The TBS 4-way was my fav match along with the tag title match though that botched ending takes it down a peg compared to those 3 women doing their absolute best to give Bozilla an AEW (or WWE) contract in the very near future. There wasn't a single bad match on the show but there also wasn't one of those eye popping MOTYC AEW PPVs usually have either. Fun show though, I was entertained throughout and didn't even feel the need to fast forward or skip matches, which I tend to do a lot.

That's a weird point to make in this thread considering we've discussed the deeper issues within the promotion for literal years in here.

And a heel faction being forced into a promotion despite awful results isn't a new thing. I remember Suzuki-Gun going to NOAH and business tanking beyond what most thought was already rock bottom. And Suzuki-Gun was much more compelling than HoT or other boring ass stables that have gone longer than they should for no real good reason.