MoS

I dunno why Nyla had to pin Shida and then get destroyed anyway. It's very WWE-like 50:50 booking.

Like, they JUST had an absolutely terrific match without the need to do any stupid dive. If this is not a microcosm of issues with today's wrestling then nothing is.

Great, Fenix landed bad and probably injured himself for a flip that was not even the highlight of the segment. I am literally chanelling my inner Corny and screaming at all of them right now.

They should film Orange from much closer up. His strength is his selling and facial expressions.

These two are cutting great promos but why is Cody not cutting this promo? It makes him look like a goof, having his old manager confront the guy who put a snake on his wife.

It felt to me like Mox was burying the entire gimmick. I don't understand why Cody-Archer is playing 4th fiddle to Jake, Brandi and Arn. It's not as if Cody cannot cut a promo by himself.

MJF remains a treasure.

Mox SHOULD destroy this dork, but they also need to sell the PPV. One of the absolute weakest headliners in recent history. Pandemic is not a great time to have a PPV.

Brodie Lee is great but the Dark Order still sucks and should never be in the main event.

Go-home to a PPV during a global pandemic

They would have never undercut Hogan by having his coronation moment end with him getting screwed. Multiple times.

Really funny how Mark Henry is all "Owen's son deserves to see his dad be inducted in our hall of fame" and we see his son saying "Actually, nah, sure he's a great wrestler but he was so much more." Martha Hart started dating Owen when she was 15, and even after more than 20 years since his tragic death, she has not remarried. Her loyalty to Owen is incredible, and the fact that the Hart family undermined her is disgusting. I know Bret helped her throughout the lawsuit, and they had a falling out later, but Bret needs to make peace with the fact that for Owen, unlike Bret himself, wrestling was not the be-all and end-all. He got into wrestling because of his dad and remained there because of his brothers. That itself should have shown them how important family was to him, unlike a Hall of Fame induction from a company that never appreciated him when he was alive.

Martha is clearly the best of the Harts

This episode was like a 5 kick combo straight to the balls.

That Mia Yim thing was definitely bad. She's not great as far as making everyone look good by any means. But at least she does not laugh off her losses like Triple H used to do.

I don't remember the Charlotte-Carmella match - tbh I don't think it would have ever captured my interest, going from Asuka to Carmella - but I was going to say that a major factor separating her from Triple H is that she does not make her opponents look like complete jokers who do not belong in the ring with her, unlike Hunter who did it constantly. The times she has put over Sasha, she has done so with no such issues. Same with putting over Bayley. But WWE fucked over Sasha and Bayley and their booking with or without Charlotte. They have spent the last 10 months trying to rehab Bayley with a heel turn, but nothing will match the squandered opportunity they had to get a wrestler legitimately appealing to a new demographic in kids and teenage girls.

This I agree with. And fair point regarding the inability to grow its core audience. And yeah, this definitely deserves its own thread. To keep this connected to Corny, he has made the point about the need to expand its audience, and it's a valid point. I am not sure Corny's vision of pro wrestling would be able to do the same either, though. Maybe it can, if it has the best talents who can execute his vision, but his model is also an inflexible one, and that, coupled with his infamous temper, has led to several problems between him and multiple promotions.

She has been directionless more than anything, especially since Becky replaced her as the top female star. She has been used as props for other people more than anything, except they constantly also push her on commentary as one of the GOATs and occasionally they remember it in the booking and give her big wins that don't really help her or anybody. Prior to Becky's rise, I absolutely think her beating Asuka at WM was the wrong move. Asuka was the closest thing to a force of nature the division had seen until Ronda and Charlotte's PPV streak had been broken - including at WM - so there was absolutely no reason for her to win that match. And then to have Asuka cut a promo basically bowing before the Queen.

I like to imagine Vince at least coinsidered one-upping WCW by trying to get MJ to skip practice. Of all gimmicks for Seth Rollins, a mid-card heel who is grumpy about the upcoming sleepless nights he's going to have is the best suited for him.

Martha Hart has been vilified by wrestling fans and her own family for two decades now for some bullshit hall of fame "legacy" deal, with, among others, Bret and Smith Hart giving interviews about how she is "erasing" Owen's legacy. Just shows that the fans and family never cared about Owen as much as they cared about them being able to mark out for his WWE matches. I am so glad she is doing public appearances now and giving her side of the story. She seems like the sweetest person in the world, someone who did not really understand the wrestling business but tried to get involved because her husband was in it. It's a pity no one in the business returned the favour to her. I saw comments about how she has been "living off" the Hart name for decades, and all I could think was that wrestling fans are the worst.

The Last Dance is not even close to the best sports doc ever imo, but it was excellent. Saw this on Twitter, but it's amazing and hilarious how MJ seems to hold on to the mildest perceived slight, but he seems unbothered by Dennis Rodman literally missing NBA finals practice to join the nWo and hang out with Hogan.

Covid does not stop being a relevant reason for the drop in ratings just by adding "regardless of COVID". Unless you mean since their debut. Which is correct, but to say the ratings have dropped consistently is not correct, given the ratings had rebounded in 2020 in a big way before COVID brought down the TV ratings for every show. AEW can be better than they are, but to compare them to WWE seems silly. That said, Omega I don't think is in the top 5 ratings mover in AEW. When he is put in a focused storyline like Page and the implosion of the Elite, he can be great. But left to his own devices, he would rather do dorky non-comedy with Nakazawa instead.

A friend of mine said about Omega something which perfectly captures my feelings on him: he is a gifted guy who, if booked strongly, can be a huge star and main event guy, but if left to his own devices, would just be doing wacky comedy mid-card stuff with no direction. Gedo booked him perfectly and he became a massive part of modern NJPW's international resurgence. On the other hand, his AEW run has just been underwhelming. Yes, the tag team stuff has been great, but Page is the star of the feud, and it's been Matt Jackson who has been instrumental in pushing the storyline aspect of the feud. Omega is the 4th best guy in that entire story. Yes, he is a star, but he could be so much more. He flat out said on Twitter a while back that he thinks he has had his run and it's time to put others over, which, I dunno, it makes no sense to me. Speaking of Cornette's opinions on wrestlers, he is not a fan of Mox's in-ring work apparently, which is a bit surprising to me, because I thought that grinding old-school wrestling style would be something he would like.

Yeah my comments were not intended to be a defence of Dana Brooke in particular. Cornette was out of line yeah, and I bet he keeps cutting promos about this for weeks now.

Social media has been abuzz with how angle a or angle b is a huge turnoff and will ensure AEW is never taken seriously since before the promotion started so I am not too concerned about that. That said, AEW has consistently shown it listens to audience feedback so hopefully they keep fine-tuning the angle.