MoS

I mean he played college football. That might mean something, but it's not giving him any mainstream buzz on its own. There are hundreds of high-level college football players. Cena is now a legit Hollywood star and prior to that was a constant TV presence. That's not just one level above, it's several levels above. No one in wrestling is in the same ballpark as Cena. He is arguably the only wrestling Superstar (with a capital S) of the millennium. Same with drawing. People are forgetting how terrible WWE's ticket sales were getting in 2002-04 before Cena infused a fresh life into the promotion. They were doing 7k-8k paid for MSG shows, which was humiliating. Even the TV viewership was something he held steady and increased from 05-07 until the Benoit tragedy, at which point it remained in steady decline. But the decline was very steady and Cena himself was a mega quarter-draw. The only knock against Cena as a draw is that he was never a big PPV draw. Intuitively, it makes sense because his fanbase was younger, so they would watch on TV, buy his merchandise, and convince their parents to buy tickets for live events. But convincing parents to buy monthly PPVs that cost 60 dollars was a bridge too far. Roman has been on top for a time when every direct consumer metric has nosedived (and I don't think it's a coincidence that this overlaps squarely with the time Cena got phased out of the main event.) It's not just the ratings. Live event attendance got so bad that house shows became money losers. Same with WWE Network numbers. I'm sure he moves merchandise, but I am equally sure that a direct comparison with Cena will do him no favours. None of this is Roman's fault of course. There is a legitimate argument to be made that this crash wouldn't have happened had Roman beaten Lesnar at WrestleMania instead of them swerving everyone and going with Rollins. That long Rollins reign was a knockout blow for WWE business, especially because it was coupled with Mega Heel Overlords and Gods The Authority at their absolute, most heat-killing worst. Then Hunter undercut Roman in their feud so blatantly that you couldn't help but laugh. Do you remember that segment after HHH won the Rumble and the title where a face Roman came to confront him and got his ass thoroughly kicked, as Triple H slammed his face in the announcers' table repeatedly as the crowd chanted along, which is like the ultimate babyface spot. It's crazy that this tribal chief reign is the first time Roman has had a long steady reign as the undisputed top guy. That's one good reign in SIX years of being a main eventer. Cena was 100% booked better than Roman, but to play devil's advocate, people forget how terribly Cena was booked as well. He was constantly forced to work from underneath in his first year as top guy, even though he had got over standing up to giants and taking them down with his brute strength. He was undercut thoroughly in the feud with Hunter, to the point that even when he won, the stench didn't wear off. He then had an excellent feud with Edge which often played second fiddle to DX playing literal kiss my ass with Vince and Big Show. He is actually really lucky that Hunter got injured in the beginning of 2007. IIRC, the plan then was for HHH to beat Cena at WM to get back his loss. This injury meant that Cena had a chance to run with the ball as the top guy in the company, even if his booking with Shawn was not doing him a lot of favours. Roman never had that kind of run as the babyface ace. Cena got really established as the ace in that run before he got injured. When he came back at the Rumble and the Garden went absolutely apeshit for him for several minutes before realizing that they have a reputation to maintain and are supposed to boo him, you knew he was the top guy and the main star. The haters had told on themselves. This meant that the bad booking subsequently didn't affect him because he was a legit draw and the man and was bulletproof. For all the criticisms about Super-Cena, we should remember he was not booked well between 2008-10 before the Nexus angle made him Superman again. First, Hunter made sure he got his W back. He got a visual pin on Cena at WM, then got an actual clean win over him later in the summer. He did a job to Batista, which is fine, and then to JBL, which is a lot less fine. He was also booked in a lot of throwaway feuds, something that actually has rarely happened with Roman. Roman is obviously a bigger victim, but the WWE booking had done Cena no favours either. Roman is a better bell-to-bell wrestler, but Cena is truly unique and special, and no one has since come close to matching his appeal.

Someone on Twitter joked that Corbin's current arc is good because the booking is basically "Let's book this like what's happening with Will Ospereay in real life" and it is funny cuz it's true

I swear to God EVIL must have like compromising pictures of Gedo somewhere

I mean, deathmatch wrestling isn't for me, but that does look like proper, pissed off wrestling heat. Matt Cardona is genuinely the devil for that group of fans, this reaction was absolutely organic. I am not saying thay throwing stuff in the ring should be encouraged, but if it does happen once every while, I don't think it's an embarrassing reaction at all. To use the obvious example, Hogan's heel turn. Of course WCW later started actively encouraging fans to throw stuff in the ring, which they shouldn't have. But I don't think GCW fans do that for every show. From what I understand, Matt Cardona is a special case. He couldn't be a more natural enemy of deathmatch wrestlers if he tried

There are definitely some storylines in AEW which are treated as if it's real and the stakes are high and they matter. It's not a coincidence that those storylines are the ones with the most heat and momentum. I am talking about storylines like Hangman v. Omega, Darby v. Page, FTR v. Proud and Powerful. I don't mind the more lighthearted storylines because I think that 2 hours of national primetime booking every week would necessarily entail some light, tongue-in-cheek stories, because not everything can be dead serious all the time. However, there is no doubt in my mind that the main stories should always be completely serious, where the feelings seem real, the stakes are high, where there are grave consequences one way or another for what wrestlers are doing. That's the shit that makes more viewers actively set aside their time and tune in every week, as opposed to just laughing and getting entertained if they happen to catch the show that week

Gotcha. I am probably misremembering the account in Dave's bio

This is absolutely incredible. I really hope and pray that you are able to finish this, but if you don't, I am grateful for whatever we are getting. All of these stories are incredible and now my mind is just imagining prime Kawada and Maeda stiffing the hell out of each other. Does the book get into the supposed Misawa-Kawada high school fight? IIRC Meltzer in his Misawa obit said that it happened while both were doing amateur wrestling, and that Kawada got the better of his senior

She says she won't miss any action. If this means they book her matches to her strengths and keep them short and focus more on her personality, it might actually help her record. Injuries are never a good thing of course, but last year her injury really helped with her character development

Sasha has to return at some point too once she is done with her shooting. They will probably do a lot of Bianca-Banks rematches once she returns

Yeah I think people were tapping out to his ankle lock. Was nodding yes to submit completely phased out after Montreal?

When did tapping out become the default way to submit in WWF? ECW was doing it for years but I don't remember exactly when WWF switched to doing it exclusively. It certainly was not the default at Montreal

At least they know they have a problem I guess

The chest pounding absolutely killed me

That main event in hindsight needed to go last and it really redeemed the show. It was several steps down from last week's episode. It almost doesn't seem to matter right now, because the Omega-Page angle is as hot as ever (just please no more Good Brothers crap) and AEW really has a lot of buzz, albeit a lot of it is due to unconfirmed reports about Bryan having signed a contract and Punk being in talks. There is momentum and a sense of growth and progression, which is exactly what has been missing from the sterile and stagnant WWE product of the last 6 years or so

Lance Archer's finish should be bodyslamming JR on his opponent after using random fans as weapons all match

That Andrade segment tanked. As far as I am concerned, that was a sink or swim segment for Andrade and he sank. Wearing suits and glasses does not give you star power. It was a bad segment

I just realized Chavo does business with Alberto Patron. Fuck him

Why bring another ex-WWE guy when Konan is right there ffs. Nothing against Chavo but there already are a million managers here

Yeah this back and forth was gold. Bald FTR is a great promo too but Santana is seriously next level. He is just so good

I will never not mark out for that Eddy tribute but Nyla didn't sell it like Eddy used to. You have to really roll on the floor screaming as if someone hit you in the head with a hammer

Really surprised she is not the main event. Love Mox but she is the star right now. She deserves it

Sting just exchanged shin kicks with Orange Cassidy and this is exactly what AEW was formed for

That Kazarian beatdown was tanking hard until Hangman came out, and he saved the segment simply by drinking on the job and being mega-over as (cowboy) shit. God I hope he beats Omega at All Out, because I cannot take many more weeks of Omega and the Good Brothers being unbearable dweebs on TV

This is certainly the best time to be a US wrestling fan in at least 8 years The Good Brothers suck especially Gallows. Frankie losing to Gallows is WWE Raw-level bullshit

What the fuck.