Jmare007

Grand Slam 3 at Arthur Ashe confirmed. Sept 20th

I agree with all of the bolded. But Roman was someone that had "great" matches and I haven't seen one from him in a while. At the same time I recognize he got better and better at character work and leaning into simple things to get big reactions. I think the Zayn match, while being very good, had all the makings for a classic but it didn't get there, and it kinda felt like the didn't want to go there as the story called for something else. That's why I think this Tribal Cheif run is interesting to judge. One thing his matches tend to be way too long for the style he's working them, imo. Most of the guys that mastered the "less is more" approach didn't have a lot 30+ minute matches and current Roman takes like 10-15 minutes to get things going. Also, his matches with Braun were simple as fuck and didn't have anything complicated, they had a less is more approach too, and those were fucking awesome.

One of the things I've loved about White-O in AEW is how he's made it a thing to pick a wrestler and do his best to create a rivalry/beef during a match. That's a troupe from japanese wrestling I'll never get tired of seeing and that US wrestling almost doesn't ever have.

The Bloodline angle being such a huge hit has made Roman transition more to a "soap opera" type of wrestler but I think he does as good a job as anyone has ever done at that particular kind of performance. But I do believe his matches have suffered from it, I think the last legit great match I saw from him was the one against Cesaro (which I think is underrated, that match was fucking great). While the others matches since then have delivered as spectacles and as part of a bigger story, I don't think they stand out as much as his prior work. It's an interesting scenario. The hotter the angle got and his performance as the Tribal Chief got more iconic, the less impressed I've become with his ring work

I think the elbows stopped working as a spot when they no longer meant the match was over once he got in the position to hit em, now that's the role his kicks to head have. I don't believe the elbows expose the business anymore than other wrestling spots that most wrestlers do though, I don't find them particularly egregious. To be fair though, every member of the BCC copying it and doing a waaay worse job than Danielson at them has devalued them more than ever before but at the same times they make Danielson's look like the "real deal" in comparison .

Tag match was something else. Main event was really good, seems we are in a real feud between Joe and Punk and I'm all for it.

Haven't seen anything in the last 2 weeks. Have they made any effort in promoting Joe vs Punk as any sort of big deal?

Sadly, I think the hardcore wrestling fanbase here has died down in the last decade. In the late 00s-early 10s there was a mix of fans that grew up with 97-2002 WWF/E (myself included) and the younger audience that was picking up from 2007 when wrestling was once again on national TV. Once Fox Sports got the rights I feel things died down considerably. On the other hand though, I've seen every musical act you can imagine run big stadiums or multiple arena dates to sold out crowds with embarrassingly high ticket prices so WWE running a big show might get some numbers anyway, lol.

I don't know if England will get Wrestlemania in the next couple of years but I have no doubt in my mind WWE will have a huge 2 day event at Wembley so they can have bragging rights about total attendance for a wrestling show

The crazy bastards really are going for 90k at Wembley, and they might just pull it off. https://twitter.com/WrestleTix/status/1676335490121846784

Tribal Chief still got the belt and Paul Heyman.

I pray to Terry Funk that Tony Khan is smart enough to build and promote Joe vs Punk on Collision in 2 more weeks because episode 2 had a huge drop in ratings and this week is taped delayed so they gotta be all hands on deck to get some momentum back, and that match seems like a perfect opportunity.

Yeah, they needed a stop gap between Okada and whoever of their young guys they decide to give an IWGP title run first. But questioning if Sanada was the right choice is valid, imo. I'll always question them not giving an outsider a run so they could put over the promising young star but oh well.

Welp, the 6-8 weeks timetable for Danielson will be put to the test. This looks like a clean ass break.

Fucking injuries, we were going to get Danielson vs Ishii on Dynamite....

Btw, thank you to @NintendoLogic for giving Tony the heads up about the Final Countdown being available.

I loved the match, it's just that I understand why the crowd wasn't going crazy in the final minutes. Danielson does have a knack for having surprise finishes to matches. Last big one that came out of nowhere was when he debuted the running knee and beat John fucking Cena with it.

Yeah, the finisher exchange did not get the crowd going. Like Timbo says, they were probably expecting something much crazier as a finishing stretch.

Does Dragon challenge Sanada at Wembley? Him getting the belt and then losing it at WK is the only thing that makes sense to me as to why Gedo agreed to this, lol.

Whaaaaaaaat?!

After the SSP from Ospreay this became fucking great. Not a fan of those wild kickouts but this is the kind of match were I can be more forgiving. Plus, the crowd losing their shit and believing Kenny could comeback made them work.

That kid losing his shit after Kenny gave him the flag was dope as hell.

You just called the man washed, you don't deserve the match.

That was fun as fuck to watch.

Not yet, bubba