MoS

This is a fantastic thread! Does anyone know how the transition from Baba to Jumbo happened exactly, given Baba never beat Jumbo?

How about Bret Hart? He is one of Tony Khan's favourite wrestlers of all time

Lol yeah I made the comment before the match. Also, yeah, Riho from the first day has been a consistent ratings draw. Every match she has ever had has increased viewers, no matter what the slot.

Sure, because you have never ranted about or hated someone that everyone else likes. I like you a lot but gtfo bro

Nikkisawa is awesome so I wouldn't mind this!

I was all ready to rake @Superstar Sleeze across coals for insinuating that I am not a "good" wrestling fan but then he pre-emptively extended the olive branch lol! Shaq and Jade might have overdelivered, but that doesn't mean I was not right to expect the drizzling shits from them. Had you seen Jade's promos? They are the worst promos anyone has cut on AEW ever. It was like a bad parody of WWE scripted nonsense. I had made that comment before the match happened. Also, Riho is awesome! And genuinely one of the very few clear ratings draw AEW has. There's clearly something about her that resonates with fans, so I am definitely not the only one

Wight didn't say that the new signee is someone the AEW roster really looks up to. He said it's a HOF calibre wrestler who is one of the biggest stars ever. Like it or not, that does not describe Christian. If wrestlers looking up to someone would make them a big star, then Fit Finlay would have been my top pick. That doesn't mean that the fans wouldn't feel let down

What's Volk Han doing these days, this board needs a Shodate comeback too

Tbh I don't think there's anyone out there who would evoke that reaction in me. Unless they get like, Cena

Kurt Angle made it to the Observer HoF in 2006. There was enough of an uproar that it led to Dave Meltzer, who is not exactly known for being very flexible about what he thinks is correct, to modify the eligibility criteria.

I am not a particularly big Jeff Hardy fan, but I think you are underselling him. He was massively, massively over in 2007 and 2008. I believe he was outselling Cena in merchandise, he was spiking house show attendance and also spiked ratings. He connected. Thing is, later that year, Triple H beat him in 3 matches on back-to-back PPVs so he was never allowed to reach the tippy top level. They might have undercut him cuz they never expected him to get over so they had to cut him down to size, which is emblematic of everything wrong with WWE today, or because they didn't trust him to stay out of trouble, in which case they were absolutely correct, cuz hindsight proved them right.

I love Memphis, but I think my favourite territory to watch is 1983-86 JCP (never really liked Mid-South too much, as controversial as this might be). This is terrible news, although not surprising. And he passed away the day his promotion got a two-hour tribute on national cable. Rest in peace.

Oh God that would suck. Kurt Angle in his last WWE run looked genuinely like Thanos. This is not a compliment. Every time he stepped in the ring, I was scared he would die right then. It also makes AEW look even more like an island of WWE castoffs, and that would definitely make the Bucks' dig on Jericho completely bush league

100% agreed. Speaking of BTE, I dunno if you have checked it out, but there's a compilation of all Brodie Lee/Dark Order segments on YouTube. I highly recommend it. I stopped watching BTE cuz I started finding it unbearable, but I always check out the Dark Order segments. The chemistry between Brodie Lee and John Silver was remarkable

100%, and I think the same applies to Omega too. It's really annoying. Keep it simple, stupid is not just a naughty acronym. The Bucks made their feud with FTR, which wrote itself, so underwhelming with all the mixed signals and tweener bullshit they did. I agree with this, but I actually liked the fact that the show ended with a chaotic dozen-men brawl. This was AEW's trademark in its early days, and I had always liked that cuz it was one thing that WWE basically never does unless it's Survivor Series, at which point it feels too inorganic. I appreciated that aspect. But they should definitely have had Mox and Omega cut promos, especially given Mox was there and taking pictures with Jorge Masvidal.

They dropped War Games because of the pandemic. Tony Khan said it did not seem appropriate with what the world was going through. Agreed about Omega and Page. I have noticed this with a lot of angles involving Omega and the Bucks - they overcomplicate things and never seem to know where they are eventually headed. AEW needs to get better at closing out storylines and transitioning to new ones. But that's a discussion for another thread

I don't think those little things would end up hurting them in the least. I thought the first match was terrible, but that's not because Shaq manhandled Cody. That one was pretty easy to explain. Cody thought Shaq wouldn't know what to do with a lockup cuz he is so new, except he had been training and he knew what to do, and because size matters. The next couple of times they locked up, Cody used his experience to neutralize Shaq's power. Shaq did a stretcher job at the end of the match. That by itself meant that he was far more giving than basically any celebrity has been in any wrestling angle forever. Mr. T was able to get one-up over the top heels in 1985; it didn't hurt WWF's rise. Heels have made fun of how top faces look/how ugly they are forever. That has never hurt them. The bit about the Good Brothers suddenly helping them is valid though. As far as the dig at Jericho, AEW's appeal since the start has been that it allows wrestlers to truly be themselves and not let them get bogged down by the evil management. This is especially cuz WWE took the wrong lesson from Austin-McMahon and worked themselves into a shoot, turning the promotion heel. You might think this is a very meta way of looking at it, and casual fans wouldn't care, but casual fans also wouldn't care about a throwaway line meant just to burn someone while take a dig at the opposition. The fact that anyone spending 2 seconds to think about it understood what the intent was underscores this. If this had been the entire hook (sorry Taz) of their main event storyline, then yes, I would have agreed with it. I think a lot of the criticisms in the last few comments are picking nits. WWF in both its boom period was highly illogical; "entertaining but illogical" has never stopped wrestling from growing. None of the criticisms highlighted above made AEW look bush league. You know what did make them look bush league though? The fact that in the biggest match of the night, the wrestlers took about 5 mins to set up the tables, with the world seemingly having stopped, until poor QT had to come by and help with it. The fact that the camera work was so sloppy, it missed out on numerous spots, including a spear, that ended up being nearfalls. That made AEW look 3rd rate. Not really micro stuff that might be fun for us to discuss, but ultimately don't really matter in my opinion.

Oh fuck, I knew he was on his deathbed but I didn't know he passed away. RIP I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I thought the Shaq match was the worst match of the year. However, this episode was easily the best Dynamite of the year. So much energy and momentum and hotness. I am so pumped for Revolution

Well that was random

These rappers are terrible

Well fuck me six ways to Sunday

I have zero idea why either Riho or Thunder Rosa is not in the finals, esp on such a big show when they would have wanted a proven ratings draw like Riho. And I really do not need to watch yet another Shida-Rose match, especially without any build. That said though, this match has been solid

Paul Wight has always been a great promo and has always been a very entertaining and charismatic personality. I first noticed it during that 2000 SNL segment with the WM 2000 main eventers, when he actually went toe to toe with Rock, who does have a little bit of charisma, in case you never noticed. He seemed like he was having fun too, so I am glad for him

I am marking out SO HARD for all the JCP throwbacks and commentary name-drops. This is the greatest night in the history of our sport

ATSUSHI ONITA ON LIVE AMERICAN TV!! JJ FUCKING DILLON