MoS

And when he goes for a GPS, apparently

As a fan I stopped following ROH regularly around the time Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards were having their terrible shit faux-MMA matches for the title in the main event. A very close friend of mine was really into Chikara and I started watching that more, a decision I have never regretted. It was so weird for me to stop following RoH. For a generation of hardcore fans like myself, who came online in the mid-00s, just after the Monday Night Wars had ended when a lot of the posters here first came online, so most of the discussion at that time would center on why wrestling had lost popularity, how HHH was destroying Monday Night Raw, why WCW had lost, whether Shawn Michaels and Undertaker were hall of famers...and RoH. Joe and Punk. Bryan Danielson and indeed, Low Ki. Ring of Honor was like the only "popular" discussion topic then that was actually positive and exciting, and I quickly became immersed. It took me some time to be able to watch some of those matches because RF were not shipping those tapes to India and I was a kid who couldn't afford them anyway. Then I learnt torrenting and during a brief period for a year or so in 2007-08, YouTube might as well have been Alibaba's cave. It was when it still worked on buffering and not streaming, there were video length limits, but because I guess promotions were not paying full attention to it, there would be entire shows sometimes on YouTube uploaded in parts. Remember watching the Joe-Punk trilogy on YouTube. I followed Danielson during his title and I was so invested for his success when he signed with WWE. For that generation of internet hardcore fans (especially younger, more impressionable fans like me) that got online back then, ROH really was the platonic ideal of current pro wrestling, as silly as that sounds now. It is so weird that it seems to be ending with a complete whimper, after a protracted, extended slow death where it stopped being the cool niche within a niche for a long time before it's evident demise. Of course, the pandemic was no one's fault, but if RoH was cooler and had been more relevant at the time the pandemic started, maybe Sinclair doesn't just shut it down indefinitely. I am sure fans over the next few days will talk about when it started going down south. I stopped following a long time back, but I am seeing people on Twitter question Bully Ray's booking of RoH too. I did not know when exactly Bully Ray booked RoH, but no one seems to have one good word to say about it. It definitely seems like it went cold for a while, then got hot due to the Elite but who never really liked RoH, so that was weird?? And as soon as AEW became a thing and RoH lost the Elite, they immediately lost whatever momentum and buzz they had.

That is all fine, but how does that translate to pro wrestling? Or make him appealing on a wrestling show? How does this inform how he wrestles in the ring? I am just trying to understand why he would be someone a major promotion would be interested in bringing. Not everyone can be Orange Cassidy, who was always great at basic pro wrestling like sympathetic selling and fiery comebacks, and he could incorporate his character into his in-ring work. Plus, OC is really an exception and they are exceptions for a reason.

Can someone explain what Danhausen's appeal is? He is some skinny dude who...jokes that he is actually an evil monster?? I don't get it? Can he be anything more than a prelim jobber?

He actually called it a "mutual respect decision" which somehow makes it even funnier. Just something about that phrase

I pretty much learned American geography due to pro wrestling. Some of you have no idea how convenient and helpful that old picture of the US divided into all the territories with names on the map, as well as discussions about the "North-East" and the "Deep South" in a wrestling context, are to understanding American geography.

Dark Order v. Elite means some COWBOY SHIT

This reminds me that Mox and Cassidy have had an interaction and it was actually pretty funny I would probably not want to go back and watch those 2019 Dynamites though. It feels like a different show compared to now. One or two great matches or promos every episode, but mostly, a promotion trying to find its voice run by rookies literally learning on the job for the first time

A 5-min absolute brutal squash cuz he pissed off Mox by trying to waste his time?

You have been saying this exact same thing since literally the first Smackdown after Summerslam. It's been two months now.

Great thread here

Yeah I am not sure if he was publishing monthly or fortnightly back then. Can't imagine he was doing weekly issues. Also, yeah, while he is an obstinate dude and will publicly defend constantly calling JYD Junkfood Dog on Twitter, he is also smart. He knows that while a lot of his snark and jokes in the 80s were funny, he probably thinks a lot of them also don't age well, and they were certainly not becoming of the professional publication the WON would eventually become. He is more chilled about his 90s snark, he often comments on his 90s quotes on Twitter.

Sasha does have a good reason to be aggrieved here as well. She was made to look like a complete afterthought in the segment, and she is probably going to lose to Charlotte cuz she loses all important matches to Charlotte. That story of Charlotte being booted and getting physically escorted out of the building seems like a massive exaggeration to me, if not an outright work. Is that me being too cynical?

I am listening to people defend him by saying "Stop hating fans having fun!!" and like, if he had one funny/corny sign, that would be one thing, but when you are directly in front of the hard cam, and you have ten deliberately distracting signs designed just to put yourself over, then you are basically being an attention-seeking twat, and don't blame the company for not wanting you to be the star of the show. Remember those assholes who would turn up with Benoit signs for a few years after the tragedy and then would whine about not being allowed in?

On a happier note, look at these three legends -

It's clear from my posts that I don't like Charlotte and I am a massive fan of Becky - so much so that I named a street dog my family rescued last month Becky cuz of course I did - and Charlotte absolutely was unprofessional if she sandbagged Becky in the segment, but this Keller report seems like a source who has a particular axe to grind with Charlotte. As susceptible as Dave is to being worked by his sources, Wade has historically been worse. I am not denying that a lot of the talent hate working with Charlotte, but there was also a report that she fought hard to lose clean to Bianca, thinking it would really elevate Bianca, and if correct, she was right to think and do so, and should be applauded for it. That's certainly doing more for Bianca than Becky has in the last two months. That part of the story has not caught any traction. IIRC, she has also advocated for Naomi in the past. I can't imagine that she has no friends or support backstage. Obviously Becky is the bigger star and also the locker-room leader, so Charlotte won't get any supporters if Becky confronts her, but that report made her sound like Scott Hall in 2002.

Having slept over it and subsequently thinking over it with a cooler head: fuck Cody, and fuck him for beating Black. Is there any good kayfabe explanation why, in a promotion where rematches are so hard to get, you don't get one even when you are screwed out of winning a title, he is constantly able to get rematches, and all he has to do to get a second rematch is have his dumbass students throw garbage at him? Fuck this shit.

Well Cody beat Black

Bryan, since his sleepless phase is over. He just has to watch shitty cartoons with his kid instead of feeding them at 3 AM

God I love Jon Moxley promos

Really not a fan of using shoot insults like "Haha you suck at promos" in promos

AEW's breakneck formatting style with a million things happening is really incongruous when a man, you know, nearly died in the ring.

Fuck

Why the fuck is Bobby Fish getting a CM Punk match. I am joining you all who are questioning his booking now.