MoS

This BCC-Elite feud has felt hot from the beginning. It took Tony Khan two years to realise "give the mic to Danielson and let him cook" is a surefire way to get hot angles and storylines, but better late than never. Not a fan of the 4-way for the world title. Should have been MJF-Darby.

I forget, did Bruce Pritchard try to justify this when he was lobbying real hard to get re-hired by the fed? Also: Holy shit. How was this Callahan dude allowed to keep his job? Does he still work there?

Oh yeah, fuck Triple H too

It's very difficult for any WWE news to truly disgust me, has been the case since at least 2016, but all of this shit has managed to do exactly that. Especially the Mansoor shit. As a brown man who was once asked to change seats while on a flight in the USA because my presence was making the old white lady sitting next to me "uncomfortable", all I can say is fuck you Callahan, whoever you are, if there is a hell, you will rot and burn forever in it. A bunch of "media personalities" who act like passionate advocates of racial equity when it comes to non-WWE pro wrestling sure are silent right now. The grift cannot be more obvious.

I will add Austin's name to adding intensity to feuds and for babyface comebacks, shitty punches and stomps aside. Also I feel he was a very underrated babyface seller, which is why he was able to get the audience to root for him despite being booked fairly dominantly.

TIL that being a rapist or a pedophile is the same as being a dickhead who gets into backstage fights. The fact that this comes from a former Chikara wrestler makes this doubly hilarious

Cannot. Fucking. Wait. AEW has missed CM Punk and his angles, his promos, his builds, and his marquee matches so so so much

I thought Sammy didn't drink or do drugs, I remember him saying something to that effect when Meltz was interviewing him on the Jericho cruise in 2020.

This is funny because in the 60s and 70s, people (wrestlers of other territories at least, maybe fans of those territories too) considered the WWWF style itself to be 'phony'. Some things never change, I guess

Jersey huh. Of course he did

I agree. Also, like someone said in this thread, this entire 4 Pillars is so contrived in the first place. Why are Sammy and Perry pillars, but not Starks and Hobbs? What about Britt and Jamie? Fucking Hangman Page (whose title reign feels so underrated business-wise, AEW would love to get that level of ratings and POV buys now)? The Lucha Bros? Like, just an entirely arbitrary concept with no solid basis.

Yeah, with Randy Orton, the hardcore match with Cactus was just the culmination; it was a 10-month long feud where Randy showed tremendous growth and..err...well..evolution. His 2003-04 heel run remains the best work of his career, as much as some people love his 2009 heel run, which I always felt was overrated. Sammy hasn't done anything close to it. I don't think he is capable of doing that. Ironically, working with Punk might force him to do it. It certainly made MJF add layers to his character and evolve as a worker. But given how Tay liked that shit Deadspin article about Punk "gaslighting" AEW, that's probably not going to happen.

I honestly think his ceiling is as high as Mysterio's, and I don't say that lightly

The thing that makes Darby different from everyone else his size imo is that his shit really looks like it would hurt, because he doesn't look like he's doing spectacular dives or flips, he looks like he is literally using his body as a weapon by hurling it across space onto his opponents. It's like getting hit flush with a 150 pound bat in full swing; you might be 300 pounds but that shit will still hurt.

My dad has hated every single thing about wrestling ever since he walked into the room when I was watching WWE and Rikishi was smothering some opponent's face with his ass in the corner like he used to do

Yeah I actually liked Darby's promo in the opening segment. Sammy should not be anywhere near the world title scene OTOH, he is a midcarder. Jack Perry can get there one day, but he is not ready.

Hobbs should have beaten Wardlow. Book him to destroy QT next week, turn face, and then briefly feud with MJF for the world title imo

Yeah this has been a hot angle so far. Danielson is the best

Darby Allin is one of the best wrestlers in the world and was a needle-mover when he was TNT champ, both with a great presence and incredible matches in the bank. He will definitely make my GWE list. Far better than Wardlow or Cody, far better than most wrestlers wrestling today

Business usually takes months to get affected by booking debacles (or reflect excellent booking too for that matter, like with the nWo and Austin's rise). WCW was never hotter than it was in 1998, despite the ending of Starrcade 1997 and how they later botched Goldberg's title run. in 1998 itself. The only exception I can think of in modern wrestling is Austin's heel turn, but Cody losing isn't anywhere close to it - as Meltz put it in a rather mean way, none of these guys are Austin. WWE has been on an extremely hot run the last year or so, that's not going to change anytime soon.

IIRC, John Cena once said that Bruno was his both his dad's and his grandad's favourite wrestler

Probably for the best, really

Bruno should really rank more (and higher) in lists of pure babyfaces that we often see in online wrestling circles. Being able to remain beloved and actually getting bigger as a draw as the years passed despite almost never losing is so fucking impressive. Has *anyone* else actually become a bigger draw over 20 years despite being booked so dominantly? Almost every wrestler's drawing power decreases when that happens. Shows what an incredible worker Bruno was. Look at the babyface fire in this video.

Hey, if a goatee is good enough for this man, it's good enough for anyone -

No, my point was, even if he had adhered to kayfabe like he was Bill Watts, the steroid scandal that destroyed WWF's business and sent the entire business into recession would still have happened. Wrestling would have still entered its dark age.