Jmare007

You are right, I didn't remember the fall from night 1 to 2 was that big in 2020 (though getting 70k for both nights was still a success). I guess the real big draw is the January 4th date.

6.3k for Night 2. Seems like fans were more interested in watching Okada get the belt back (plus Shibata's return) than anything else.

I remember that If Shibata went into business for himself we needed a run in by Inoki or Gedo to stop the match and slap Shitaba while the Dome booed and started to riot.

One would guess this is all kayfabe, but yeah he did.

I don't know how much of it was paid but 12k in attendance is a damn good number all things considered.

If/when guys like Keith Lee and Shane Strickland get to AEW, I think there's gonna be very little room to not justify better booking for black people in AEW. And a guy like Fred Yehi (who is a current better version of Moriarty) is 28 and right there to be picked up.

Very similar stance to @Makai Club #1 There's a good number of wrestlers I'm not that fond of that are very over but I can at least understand why they are so popular and why people like their matches so much. I can't grasp it with Cole, even when people explain it to me I just don't/can't see it.

That was a great sprint. Short, to the point and everyone played their roles great so I can forgive the finisher and big move spamming and no selling. Sad that Big E got such a nothing run. So if Roman is hopefully healthy we are getting an unification match at Mania?

They've been pretty open on social media about it tbh. He made public he broke up, Tay got the backlash for it (fans can be so fucking toxic sometimes) and like a week later she was posting pics with him about going out on dates and stuff. I'm glad they are like "fuck it" about the whole thing.

I'd add: "What's the candidate's biggest weakness? Was he/she able to overcome it (or work around it) and how?"

I feel like WWE has given us more than enough evidence that we shouldn't buy into any sort or redeeming/underdog/comeback feel good story because they either never actually plan for it or they do have a plan for it but change plans before the story is finished. Only exceptions are the handful of people that are truly seen as top stars by Vince.

Gotcha, as I stream most of the stuff I didn't catch that.

I'm not very knowledgeable about this kind of thing:: how has AEW promoted the switch to TBS? From what I've seen it's been pretty subtle, not a lot of GUYS, WE ARE CHANGING NETWORKS" which I think is kind of needed (I remember WWE promoting for a long ass time the "homecoming" to USA Network when they switched back from Spike). Then again, maybe that sort of stuff is not necessary in 2021?

Yeah, I guess it's just backlash to people marking out for dude so hard. He's an awesome prospect, let him develop and then we'll see what he's really made of. Right now I think it's fine to focus on all the positives and enjoy the spark he provides to the show.

No doubt. I guess it feels more of an issue because it came at the cost of Miro's run that was basically perfect. Then again, it does seem Miro got injured either during the November return or before it. It looked like his leg wasn't 100% in the Danielson match and he hasn't been back since. So maybe he was going to drop the title soon anyways?

I'm not a fan of Sammy Guevara, at all, but I think his TNT title run being underwhelming falls on AEW way more than him. Before he got the title he was more featured and got more chances to shine. As champ he was barely on TV and didn't really have real feuds, he only had his matches. Felt like booking abandoned him for no real reason. How has Cody's stuff done in terms of ratings? I think that's the main metric that should dictate if this meta stuff is really working or not.

Yeah, with the NFL and NBA bending themselves backwards to not lockdown again, I don't see the machine stopping again unless every hospital colapses with ER cases. Kinda crazy all these 1st world countries struggle to get past 70% vaccination rate. Here in Chile we are over 90% with 2 doses, 70% with a booster shot and yesterday they announced a 4th shot would be available starting Feb 15th.

LMAO!

I would've loved to see a 6-10 month run of him as super babyface El Genérico that would've ended in him losing his mask in AEW's first lucha de apuestas..

Bill's brain exploding at someone like Phil arguing with him about Shawn Michaels would be priceless

Caught up with the Brock segments from this month and they were real fun. And yeah, last night's felt like a big time confrontation but I wouldn't say Roman got massive heat for hitting Paul, he got a lot of cheers too. In fact he got a good number of the crowd chanting for him and shit. Brock is a massive babyface though and it was a nice surprise to see. I thought I was out on Brock vs Roman matches but I'll check the one at the PPV. I just hope they change their formula because that shit grew tired by their 2nd match together... BTW, are they pipping in noises for the live crowd still? Maybe it was issues with the dailymotion link I used to watch all the stuff but it sure as hell sounded like the audio was all fucked up, going super high in some instances to make it sound like a more heated crowd. Didn't noticed as much watching last night's final segment but there was still some, and for sure on the Sami/Brock interactions.

I'm a moron, it's Sakuraba not Shibata

The New Japan vs NOAH card is just plain bad. The company is too damn cold to do a card full of tag matches, they had to at least have a couple of standout single matches. Why not book some tags for WK night 1 or 2 to build up the singles in night 3? Besides, they built up the announcement as some big confrontation, not some "All Together" let's have fun type of show. Gedo continues to baffle me. Also, why the hell are KENTA and Shibata tagging? the last great segment NJPW did was Shibata coming to the rescue to stomp his ass

Been listening to some of these and they are great. Also, it's fucking awesome to see you get into The Ringer, hopefully it becomes a regular thing!

Same happened with Omega vs Danielson. So much for the "wrestling matches don't help ratings" old narrative.