Jmare007

IIRC NOAH was promoting that Budokan show for a long ass time too. I think it's an apples and oranges situation in that sense. No clue about Stardom's build up and promotion for that show so I can't comment. Regardless, it would really fucking suck if anyone, regardless of what company they are working for, gets any blame for how shows are drawing during these fucked up pandemic times.

Wow, it looks even worse than the 2nd generation belt. Not sure there was any way it would look better on the level of the last one though, that shit was flames and one of the best looking belts ever.

Well shit, talk about a hidden gem.

I haven't seen it since it happened but I remember being puzzled at them having such a nothing match and being unable to wake the crowd up. If there's two guys who could do it, it was them. Even more so when we take into consideration that every other match they've had in WWE has ranged from "really fucking good" to "classic".

Yeah, I think his work has been consistently good-to-great during his whole comeback. He's had high profile matches (AJ, Brock, Kofi, Roman, EC 2019 and 2021), he's had a ton of really good TV matches with like 80% of the male talent that has worked on Smackdown, at this point Bryan gotta be in the conversation of best WWE TV wrestler ever. Would love to see that argument be discussed in PWO tbh. He elevated people like Ali, Drew Gulak and Kofi -and helped with people like Jey Uso and Cesaro- AND he became one of the best promos in the biz. I think his biggest flaws are his return match and angle with Owens & Zayn (sure, Shane was involved, but it wasn't very good regardless) and the short lived Cass program. The Rumble match against AJ flopped too. Also, let's not forget he gave The Fiend a good match...in a fucking strap match.

Big E has been the best/most logical choice to dethrone Roman for a while now. So of course they wont do it.

Not really, Bryan is definitely a face but he's more of a "can we cut the bullshit/not gonna let dumb wrestling tropes fuck this up for me" type of face that's kind of refreshing, imo. Edge just turned into his old psycho/paranoiac character, seems they want him to be a tweener but looks to me he's just gonna end up as a crazy heel. I just searched for it and there's a ton of interesting stuff he talked about. -His Mania match with HHH and how Jamie Noble helped him during those days when he was in big pain due to his neck. And how Jamie Noble is kinda like his personal producer in a lot of the things he does. -The Brock match. -His contract is soon to expire and he's juggling between staying at home while his kids are still so young vs doing what he loves and winning a lot of money doing it. It certainly sounded like he's gonna become a part timer as everyone has been speculating for more than a year at this point. -Gave Roman a lot of praise and basically said he's the main reason Smackdown has gotten so much better as TV show. -About his producing role. It sounded like he just pitches people that should be featured on TV and that's about it. He even went on to say that someone like Apollo getting a bigger role has nothing to do with him and that's just Crews being a good performer.

That's so out of left field and nonsensical (I mean, he was fine with Goldberg) that I can totally see it being true

Another interesting development in the Roman/Edge/Bryan feud is them trying to make the babyface (DB) more aggressive and actually making a point of it. It's not about Bryan "getting screwed" over and over and being the poor little guy. Not a fan of triple threats but it seems to me those three going to beat to piss out of each other for 20+ minutes I'm also really interested on why they decided to not only change the match to a three way but also turn Edge tweener/heel. It's not like they have crowd reactions and we already know that WWE (well, Vince) struggles like a motherfucker to actually go with the crowd and not follow through an established plan and run. I guess Edge had to be the one asking for a turn but I'm curious as to why he did it. It's not like he gives a shit about what people online say about him and I'm not sure there was that bad of a reaction towards him social media anyway...were SD TV ratings down or something?

I guess the bigger question would be what number or measurement would we need to acknowledge that wrestling would be getting as much fanfare (or attention) as it could be getting in the 2020's. I agree on the last few post about storytelling. I've always wondered why no one has tried to use Lucha Underground's formula and give it new directions. Not necessarily tape everything in advance but a seasonal presentation with laid out stories -before episode 1- and a unique presentation (for wrestling). Not sure you can actually do "prestige TV" with wrestling matches sprinkled around it but at least try reaching a happy medium between them? I'm using prestige TV as an example because I have the impression that's one of the bigger drivers of pop culture conversations nowadays.

Wrong thread.

Such a fun match!

Wow. I did not think they were going to it so soon, I guess being Charlotte's couple helped avoid the hell most wrestlers go through after asking for a release, specially with AEW around.

I mean, you asked what did the match accomplish and that was it

Putting a hell of a match and making WM a Triple Threat match

Yup. A no small amount of people actually thought that Shane showing up meant that a) The Authority of Steph and Trips (that was like 3 years running in one way or another as a TV act) was done and b) He was going to "take over" the company for real and for some reason it was going to be way better. When you take those two things into account and you add the fact that it was Mania season, it's not that hard figuring out why dude meant so much for Mania doing well (and ratings, for while, IIRC).

I'll remember this.

You better watch Hideki Suzuki and Daisuke Sekimot in Big Japan dammit!

Daniel Bryan fooled everyone with that Rumble match in 2014.

PWG Cena was later though. I do agree he was truly awesome in a ton of big time matches that had a high spot-finisher-repetear formula that had selling up until the final sequence started. I know Matt has been a huge proponent of the "Arn was a big part of Cena turning into a good (great?) main event wrestler" argument, so Dave putting it like that made me curious about what his take on it.

I want @Matt D to reply to this.

After Cesaro won the Battle Royal, the crowd pretty much died until the main event. But you gotta wonder if the Streak match "formula" was even gonna work. Brock came into the match as damaged goods -after being ruined by Hunter- and the finisher spamming could fail at that point when we all knew it was going to take at least 2 Tombstones and 2 F-5s to get shit going. On the other hand, Taker and Brock always had good chemistry and a non-concussed Taker could've had a good match (probably not a great one) as he later showed he could have against Lesnar 1 year later. And if you add to that the shocking finish, it would've probably end up being a pretty decent outing.

I think both are the problem. Too many people overdoing the same moves up and down the card is an issue regardless if they do thigh slaps or not. But doing it so overtly is an issue too, just look at the last two clips posted, that's from the two top stars from NXT, it's kinda hard to expect people not to get used to doing it that badly when Ciampa, Gargano (and Cole, and Strong) do it like that. It's a slippery slope imo, if every top star was doing punches like Shane McMahon in every match, I would hope people would take issue with it. Thigh slapping has gotten to that level of bad, imo.

I'm a complete outsider when it comes to AEW. Saw the clip making the rounds and laughed my ass off at some of the memes. BUT, couldn't they "save" it by having Moxley come out to cut a promo on Dynamite making fun of Kenny not being able to "finish him" with explosion, only for then to have a legit big FMW-like ring explosion with the ring collapsing? Then Kenny comes out all cocky like "you were saying "?.

A fine is stupid but shit like this has to stop I mean, come the fuck on