MoS

Following from the feedback that we have received in these discussions. This would easily be the biggest story to hit pro wrestling since news about the Gold Dust trio disbanding in the 1930s. So what do we think? Personally, I think that even if he is gone, nothing will change materially. HHH and Stephanie are way too versed in WWE philosophy. I think it will be worse, actually, with many pretenders trying to stake a claim to his throne. Nevertheless, this is definitely the biggest story in our circles since Vince himself decided to launch Wrestlemania, nearly 40 years ago. I mean, are Hunter and Steph really that different?

The man really is a DVDVR shitposter at heart lol despite all his money and power, he just can't resist

I mean, when has that stopped powerful men from retaining their power. I didn't see any indication from the last few weeks that he felt pressured enough to do this. The man was appearing on live TV and apparently said "Fuck them" backstage about the allegations after one of his segments on SD a few weeks ago.

That main event booking honestly bummed me out. Kingston unable to win after Jericho called him a loser, and then "getting his heat back" by throwing Jericho into the spider web, was a very modern WWE-esque way of trying to take the easy, cheap way out, and benefited none of them. I don't like faces whose gimmicks are that they just can't win the big ones. It puts a very firm midcard ceiling on them. Eddie Kingston is not Tommy fucking Dreamer.

There have to be more mainstream news articles coming. This retirement is out of nowhere, and Vince always said that the only way he would cede control is if someone was ruthless enough to stab him and snatch it

Barbed wire "everywhere" match?? Why are Americans so obsessed with sharks btw? Also, I cannot recommend this enough - https://www.tvinsider.com/1052065/aew-fyter-fest-dynamite-eddie-kingston-chris-jericho/ Eddie Kingston, How I Met Your Mother fan and general comedian

Dynamite kept steady in 18-49 and lost minimal total viewers, which is a great sign for it. I think it really goes through peaks and valleys, in a very cyclical way, and after a rough last couple of months, AEW seems to have upwards momentum again. I think a fresher focus on angles and storyline-based segments is really helping. It feels more like episodic television again, and not a weekly assortment of indie matches. Also no longer relying on "OMG someone DEBUTED!!" and "OMG backstage attack!!" is helping the booking

I think Christian also does it in a more organic, better delivered way. MJF can look like he is running off some lines he had memorised backstage after googling "best insults ever"

@ohtani's jacket love having your input here, you are absolutely great, but I also need you to account for New Zealand's spineless showing against England in this test cricket summer lol. You guys are the world champs, this was not supposed to happen. The last thing I need in my life right now is England winning a world championship.

I KNEW you would object, but I swear, my reasoning is also this! I feel like in an environment that was more supportive and suited to his strengths and didn't fuck up his booking the way WWE did, he would genuinely be a GOAT contender. His athleticism is ridiculous, and he has also shown a brilliant ability to grasp pro wrestling concepts on his way to the top. Honestly, the biggest failure of Vince McMahon's creativity is not easily making Roman one of the top babyfaces of all time. He had none of Cena's weaknesses, his ceiling was so much higher. As it is, he never came close to reaching that, imo, as for me, undoubtedly, Cena will be comfortably above him now in GWE rankings cuz of what actually happened, as opposed to what the potential was.

I swear I am not trolling: Roman Reigns.

Completely correct, and extremely interesting and intriguing. For those who are curious and for those who want to discuss this on a deeper level, here is Meltz's exact report, and I see no reason to doubt his reporting on business numbers: he has always been accurate in respect of business figures

He is also so terrible at blatantly calling spots and talking to others on camera. This match, he was loudly asking the ref if they were in a break (and no, they were not). I mean, this is one aspect of pro wrestling you would consider him to be excellent at, given he has been on national TV in prominent slots for like 25 years now. I will never forget, in the first Blood and Guts match, he had MJF in the Walls of Jericho, and in full view of the camera, when it was time for MJF to reverse it, he literally tapped MJF on the thigh, told him to reverse it, and started releasing his own hold. It's like he has forgotten how to work cameras? In a promotion full of indy guys who have never worked on TV before, he seems to stand out in the worst possible way.

No, people in Japan who ordered through NJPW world. In any case, per Meltz, the number was just 7,000, so that made a minimal difference. I suspect the low number in Japan was because of the timing - it was Monday morning in Japan when the PPV aired, like the worst possible time to have a PPV.

Apparently between PPV buys and NJPW subs, Forbidden Door did 127,000, which, given the lack of AEW stars and the awful build, has to be considered a big success for them. Maybe they should start doing more PPVs generally.

Looks like Roman got his next few WM opponents

They've been friends for years, haven't they

Eddie was also telling Claudio at the end that he hurt his back. Hope it's not too serious, the absolute last thing AEW needs is Eddie Kingston on the shelf

I dunno if Mox will make my ballot, I dunno if he is one of the 100 GWE, but as someone who was in the crowd at DoN 2020 when he made his entrance, he absolutely felt like a top 100 GWE on that night. That entrance was the greatest moment I have experienced at live events of any sort, and that match was a banger too. Easily the main event for the live crowd, and it going 2nd hurt a lot of the matches that followed.

I thought the middle of the match dragged a bit, possibly due to Santana blowing out his knee and them needing to adjust to that. I also wish that not every one of this kind of match goes on top; it takes ages for them to climb, and the Sammy bump was not necessary In this case though, for me, it was worth it just for seeing Claudio swing Jericho on top of the cage. That was a crazy "holy shit" spot, and credit to Jericho for trusting Claudio enough to do that. Man, Claudio is strong as fuck, and now that he is on a roster full of generally smaller guys to work with, it means we can see him press slam more fools. The finish was also clever and great storytelling, and it's nice to see more angles and storylines developing in AEW again. Christian being the swarmiest dick possible is another great one.

For now, I will just settle on you saying she is not as bad as Charlotte

Also I know I like to pick on good bubba KawadaSmile's hatred for Britt, but by my understanding, she has now put over Toni Storm twice in a much stronger and more convincing way than anyone has in the past, what, 5 years? To the point everyone was thinking Storm would win the title.

I watched the show not having seen a full AEW show since DoN, and I thought the show definitely overdelivered. My first thought coming off the show was that Eddie Kingston should absolutely get a run with the world title, even if it is brief. Everything he does is so compelling. Compare it to someone like Adam Cole, who looked like a fish out of water and a total generic midcarder in the four-way, although I get that someone had to be there to eat the pin. I also think that this is the best run of Sting's career. I never liked surfer Sting, thought he was goofy as fuck. Crow Sting was great as the opposing force to the nWo - and I think Hogan really carried the bulk of the TV in 96-97, with a lot of help from Savage and Luger - but he immediately crashed pretty much as soon as Starrcade 1997, and the later years were just bad. Never watched his TNA run. But Sting as the cool crazy badass dad in AEW has fit in like a hand in glove, just perfect. Part of it is his opponents making him look like a god and the booking being perfect, but everything has aligned perfectly.

That's my feeling on it at least. He made Linda the interim CEO or chairperson or whatever when the roid trial threatened to take him down, as long-time fans would know, while still retaining creative control, stiffing Bill Watts in the process and keeping a Jarrett in the wings, like he has right now. The only difference I guess is that he did not appear live on Raw in character as Memphis McMahon to address the allegations against him back then

Paige is leaving WWE next month so it actually makes sense. Shame about that. Leaving aside Paige's personal life being what is, in the post-WM 30 world, which I, along with many fans, have thought of as a series ending finale for WWE, she was one of the first wrestlers of that post-finale era -if you weeeel- who kept my attention and drew me to her matches in NXT, even before she became champ. Great in-ring, excellent ability to play to the crowd and project her gimmick, good mic-skills, and a natural connection with the crowds. Sasha is the GOAT North American female worker and the Horsewomen really accelerated the trend of women being taken seriously in WWE - even though the credit in official canon went to Steph, because of course it did - but I would argue it was Paige who lit that fire. She was excellent, and I have legitimately great memories of her matches with Emma; those matches imo were excellent, some of the best things NXT has ever done, and really showed just how brilliant Paige could be. All of this shows in just how over she always was and remained to the end, even when she would randomly return with no fanfare to manage other wrestlers. She really is one of the OGs, one of the pioneers