MoS

Also, Punk tagged Tony Khan. I am not going to pretend Khan was very gracious here, but surely this is what they were expecting/hoping by tagging him? Brandi getting involved was so unnecessary though.

I think Orton as a character peaked in 2004 with the young cocky little shit who was every bit as good as he said he was shtick. His subsequent face turn and the consistently weak booking with Triple H killed his momentum and he never fully recovered. His run this decade is a big negative for me because he genuinely came across as a black hole of charisma who dragged down all his programs. Although I did enjoy him starting Mark Henry's hall of pain world title run.

Thankfully, at least as of now, Becky is concentrating on cutting good promos to build her matches and not stupid shit on Twitter.

Wrestlers fighting and quarrelling with each other on Twitter is the absolute dirt worst. It's fine when Guevera and MJF take shots at each other cuz it is clear they are having fun, but the shit above? Literally no one comes out of this looking good.

Not going to lie; this made me laugh out loudly. Cornette being Cornette is one thing, but what has made the podcast a chore to get through is how Brian Last also seems to have embraced Cornette's gimmick of being ornery and obnoxious, including fighting with wrestlers on Twitter. However, he does not have Cornette's charisma or delivery - not to mention historical significance - so it's a hundred times more unbearable.

The only wrestler who would make a tangible difference in ratings and tickets is Cena, and Cena is happy being semi-retired and being a fixture on Nickelodeon.

I shit on WWE a lot, so in fairness, here's something fun - https://sports.ndtv.com/othersports/wwe-varun-dhawan-teaches-bollywood-dance-moves-to-wwe-diva-charlotte-flair-2133874?amp=1&akamai-rum=off

I wanted to listen to Jim at his best after all his ridiculous nonsense, so I listened to a couple of Deep Dive Omnibuses - the JCP and OVW ones. He's really good when he's telling stories and recapping what happened.

Also, calling someone a pedo used to lead to lawsuits even back in the good old days when people had a sense of humour.

And as Meltzer pointed out, most huge stars of pro wrestling would get their asses kicked by a bunch of unremarkable no-charisma UFC fighters. Pro wrestling is fake. If someone gets over, as much as you might hate him, he is doing something correct. And I do indeed hate Joey Ryan and that dick flip bullshit. Not even going to respond to "ZOMG it's a joke this new generation is so sensitive!!!" because people have been saying that about the current/new generation since the time of Aristotle. You going "My generation needs to have a sense of humour" does not change the fact that it is a hackneyed, lame excuse and a complete cop-out against any kind of criticism. Perhaps all the cutting-edge comedians need to be a bit less sensitive about criticism of their work.

I actually agree with Jim and Last regarding Janela at least, but yeah, this entire "The 70s Memphis guys would totally kick the ass of the current pretend wrestlers" point is peak pro wrestling insecurity shown by so many old-timers. And as Meltzer pointed out, the exact criticisms levelled against AEW were also the criticisms used by many in the industry against Memphis wrestling, many of whom have gone on record. That includes stuff done by both Fargo and Lawler. Cornette's Drive-Thrus are where I prefer him the most these days, where he can just tell stories and talk about old wrestling stuff, cuz he is highly entertaining when he does that.

The NXT invasion is the best thing going on in WWE right now. Why then are NXT men and women losing so much on the main roster shows when they should be being built up as much as possible? If the logic is "Well they are developmental guys just being competitive with the main roster is good enough" then they should not be running an invasion angle, because "A bunch of rookies keep attacking but often losing to the main stars cuz they want to prove themselves" is not a great angle. Especially given how badly WWE botched the Nexus angle years ago. Thankfully Riddle is doing his own thing now with Balor which is great cuz Riddle is amazing.

True, but in the last couple of months, they have seen many huge first to third hour declines, far worse than the general decline used to be.

From the Observer: WWE has a huge problem with retaining its audience. The 3rd hour has never been great for viewership numbers, but even relatively, they are doing worse than they used to do. An argument can be made that fans actually want WWE to succeed and give them a chance every week, but then get burned off by some segment and do not switch back.

It was voted in the Observer as both the best match of the night and the 3rd worst match of the night. There definitely is some buzz, but I hope they let Mox wrestle brutal but straight matches and keep cutting promos. Omega will probably have a comeback feud with someone he can beat but can put over while doing so. Perhaps Guevera? Leading to a match beyond whenever the next PPV is.

I am hoping they start doing 2-minute video segments, especially for the women, a lot of whom are foreigners with a lot of charisma that the fans would love if they only knew or were told who these wrestlers are. That's a minor thing but it will go a long way.

Yeah, reading the quarter numbers in last week's Observer, the problem was not that the audience was switching to NXT; NXT grew its own audience throughout the two hours. This is definitely a step in the right direction. This week's Dynamite was probably the best one so far, so they are listening to their audience and giving them what they want. They will have to make peace with the fact that if WWE REALLY wanted to beat them on Wednesdays, they would just advertise Becky, Roman and Bryan for Wednesday and they would win. The NXT invasion angle, if done well, can be huge and AEW simply don't have the resources to do something similar in response. The focus has to be to build their own characters and get over everyone on the roster as big stars on a major show, so that they increase their numbers and get more fans.

https://www.cagesideseats.com/2019/11/14/20965395/aew-nxt-ratings-viewership-nov-13-2019-wednesday-night-war-wwe "Dynamite bounced to 957,000 viewers on Wednesday with a .43 rating in the ever important 18-49 year old demographic. NXT on USA netted 750,000 viewers with a .25 rating in the 18-49 demo." Last week was a strong show, and Full Gear was a strong PPV, so not surprised to see their numbers improve. Hopefully, with their excellent show this week, they will continue to improve their numbers next week and beyond. This show was a good sign that they are beginning to get their balance right.

MJF's turn could have been dragged longer, but he is good enough on the mic to make up for it. Does J.R even enjoy doing commentary or watching AEW? At this rate he will reach 1999 Bobby Heenan level of not giving a fuck on air by the end of the year.

I hope MJF and Cody interact on the mic every week. Nothing will get MJF more over than doing what he does and cutting awesome promos with the top guy and only legit star of the promotion.

I know, what a radical concept! MJF segments are going to be so awesome.

I want to point that Cody, dspite being injured and "not clear", still taking on Cody and MJF and beating their ass, and then getting beaten up even more by a 3rd wrestler, and selling and re-opening his wounds, is a tremendous way to book a babyface as a badass and yet make the audience sympathetic to him. AEW has done a good job booking its faces, something WWE has almost forgotten to do in recent years.

We did. They said he will be back to in-ring training in a couple of weeks and they hope he will be back by next month. REALLY enjoyed this episode of Dynamite. It might be the best one yet.

I loved the dynamic of SCU getting the better of Guevera and Jericho by being a more experienced tag team. There were a couple of spots where Guevera and Jericho were not tagging and the commentators made a note of that. Hager has also been used the best way he could have.

SCU are over, and I am liking the fact that more and more people are getting promo time tonight. That was something that was really missing and this is a step in the right direction.