MoS

THis entire feud is ass backwards. Jericho was the one who lost to Starks, yet Ricky is the one chasing a rematch? And then Jericho says beating him waas the highlight of Starks's career, and telling him he wasn't on his level?!?! Ass backwards booking, at this point I hate Jericho. He is doing the opposite of putting him over.

lol at the crowd cheering when Ricky said "I will be moving on from Jericho" and then groaning when Jericho's music hits

Also, giving Jericho a bigger backstage role is a mistake imo. Look at how inconsistent his career has been - he clearly is not someone who can consistently come up with good ideas/execution.

As someone who criticises TK a lot, this is true. Everything AEW does is under a huge magnifying glass. If a similar approach was applied to other promotions, then 1996-1997 WCW and 1995-1996 ECW would also reveal a lot of mistakes. And yes, so will the Bloodline-Sami angle. For whatever reason, people just have very low expectations from WWE. Even Meltzer will soundly criticise AEW's faults but when it comes to WWE's flaws, he just shrugs and goes "Yeah well, that's what they are doing" or "Yeah, well, that's the direction they want". If Sami had lost similarly in AEW, you can bet your ass that there would have been 50 posts and about 50000 tweets proclaiming the death of AEW.

Is it like a busy time for NFL teams and owners or the English Premier League? His booking has become a lot more unfocused than it was just a few weeks back.

Does Batista count? Also Verne beat Bock to regain his title and had a long reign, but he had been champ before so probably not what you're looking for.

Mercedes v. Kairi was absolutely fantastic with a really hot crowd. Perhaps not the kind of match that Meltz might give 5 stars to, perhaps, but I enjoyed it far more than so many matches he has rated 5 and above. Mercedes drew the house, and the fans treated her likewise. Also, knowing how much @Matt D loves struggle and logical escalation in his wrestling, I definitely recommend this match to him.

TK needs a booker. Has there been *any* booker in wrestling history who has been great right off the bat with zero wrestling background? Watts and Patterson spent decades as wrestlers before becoming promoters/bookers-cum-agents. Jerry Jarret's mom was in the wrestling business and he worked for Gulak for a significant period of time before becoming a booker. Dusty of course was a mega-draw for Florida before becoming JCP's booker. Dory Funk Jr. was the world champion and main eventer for years before he assumed booking duties. Same with his dad I think, although I am not sure about the details. Baba, Inoki and Choshu were main-event wrestlers and in the case of the first two, cultural legends. Gedo wrestled for a decade. Gary Hart and Jim Cornette were managers for a long time before they became bookers. Hunter and Shawn were main eventers for decades. Heyman worked in various capacities for years before becoming a booker. Vince himself spent nearly a decade as an announcer and local promoter under his father before taking WWF's reins. Fritz was a wrestler for decades. Gabe Sapolsky, I guess, did not have any direct experience but even he was Heyman's protege. And Vince Russo, but the moment he stopped having Vince and Patterson to filter out his bad ideas and figure out how to execute his good ideas, we all know what happened. Apart from having no prior experience, TK also runs a football team and an American football team on top of booking and promoting AEW, and now he also owns ROH and is putting on wrestling shows for two promotions. All of this is simply too much for one person. At some point he has to shelve his ego and get someone to book his ideas into execution. Maybe poach Scott D'Amore from Impact?

This is what I was talking about - https://deadspin.com/blackballed-mma-reporter-admits-he-was-ufcs-paid-shill-1780851837

TK is still a message board poster at heart, he just can't resist

Seems like a clear joke to me, especially given Helwani's response. It is not news for those of us who have followed MMA for a while that Helwani is a complete joke as a "journalist". He used to be called "Access Ariel" by some fellow MMA media members, and was once indirectly on UFC's payroll while reporting on it, an absolute no-no as far as journalistic ethics is concerned. Seems like it's the same thing with him and WWE. The UFC thing was worse because MMA is an actual sport.

House of Black v. Elite feels like a big-time match

Yeah there's no way TK or WBD allow that. A world where the Briscoes were not allowed to be on AEW TV until one of them fucking died but where this piece of shit is allowed to be on TV is a world not worth living in.

There's no reason why she couldn't have won the title without radically changing her character to a nervous stammering rookie who was just happy to be there

The Elite segments and the trios title matches have been killing the ratings since they returned at All Out. Not sure if House of Black will change that, but whatever the Elite are doing is just not working. Maybe they need to cut the comedy crap with Michael Nakazawa and weird-ass basketball spoofs that build no heat and make no one want to see their matches. Hell, even BTE's numbers have declined significantly, which shows that perhaps their current irreverent wink-wink "everything is fake and we are in on the joke" gimmick has run its course and they need to revamp. Omega was at his best when he was presented as a serious main-event excellent wrestler in NJPW, perhaps something to take note of.

Saraya had great charisma and as mentioned, a different look. She was also presented in NXT as a confident top star, someone who wouldn't cry or get emotional, with a lot of...gothic touches, I guess. That went out of the window literally her first night on Raw, when she immediately become just another woman on the roster, stammering "I am not ready" when AJ Lee offered her a title shot - if you were not ready then why tf did you interrupt the champ - and then immediately winning and shedding buckets of tears and turning into generic diva no. 16 on the WWE roster. The booking let her down. I would say she always did have a connection with the fans, who would always welcome her back with loud cheers no matter what shit she had been doing out of the ring.

So apparently per Fightful, Thunder Rosa apologised to Britt and everyone in the women's division to clear things for her comeback. Would be interesting to know more details on this. Did the women demand that an apology be made? Cuz this sets a precedent for what Punk has to do to come back, and I absolutely do not see him making apologies to the locker room, that is just not who he is or has ever been.

Dollar store sub-TNA level NWO ripoff.

This Saraya-Storm shit is absolutely putrid, one of the worst things AEW has done. Can't believe I was happy about Saraya coming to AEW. Also really shitty use of Toni Storm, whose world title reign was so important in rehabbing the women's division after the disaster that was Thunder Rosa's run. Not to mention not utilising the current world champ, the most popular woman in division history. I also personally want Dragon to beat MJF for the world title, even though there is not a prayer of that happening. He is a better promo than MJF is, and obviously the far far better wrestler. He has had at least two MOTY contenders in the last month alone. If only he took himself as seriously as CM Punk does.

What's with all these rumours on Wrestling Twitter about the Elite possibly not-resigning and going over to WWE? Any actual basis to such speculation?

I think this might be due to the context that ratings must always be measured against: 10 PM on Friday nights might be the worst timeslot for television ratings in the entire week, so just a terrible time for a channel to be airing any program. Combine that with what I am sure is the relative cheapness in producing and airing Rampage - unlike major sports or prime time dramas - and it might actually be a commodity WMD are very impressed with.

SO happy that WMD got their head out of their ass and have allowed Mark to appear on their network. Although I wish the opponent was someone who wasn't a complete mid and a perennial midcarder like Jay Lethal. But Lethal has a long history with the Briscoes, so it does make sense.

It says something about us as wrestling fans and how we are perceived that execs think we would be interested in Dana White's concussion extravaganza

Wait, that's it?

Becky is the Man. I love her so much. Going to watch this steel cage and then turn this off