Migs

I had this on while I was getting ready this morning and totally missed that line! Loved the sequence with OC and Pac.

Ha. It's a 2002 WWE story, and they're better than that usually.

It's unclear to me what the issue even is between them. It's like they jumped to the middle of the angle without a beginning. (I recall it was on Dark, but for some reason Spears was trying to pull Janela's teeth out with minimal provocation?)

They added pre-show matches to both shows; notable on 1/5 is a NEVER 6 man gauntlet, proving they haven't completely forgotten those belts exist.

Yeah, I'd really love to understand his logic here. Is it simply that ROH is offering the biggest stack of cash? Is it creative control? The freedom to keep managing his own brand? Was there some rift in the group where he doesn't think AEW would be great for him creatively (or they're not making an offer at all)? ROH just had its biggest PPV in what looked like an empty arena.

I guess I have to at least check out the Final Battle main event now. That and the Marty news... man, every time I think I'm all the way out on ROH they pull me right back onto the edge.

60 minutes works from a storytelling perspective as a TV show. That's why the stuff that tends to be rewatchable is 60 minutes - ECW, LU. But that doesn't really work as a major touring brand that wants to do weekly shows, because 60 is too short for a real live show (ECW of course taped in roughly 3 week chunks in its best TV years, and LU didn't tour at all). So 2 hours is the middle ground for Nitro, Raw, Dynamite - a two hour TV show plus a dark opener and closer and you have about 3 hours, which is a good length for a live show. 2 hours can work in the moment, even if it hurts rewatch value (which wrestling used to not care about, and now only to a small extent). As has been said above, 3 hours really should be the max main show for a PPV unless it's the biggest show of the year. I think AEW going 3 1/2 for a quarterly show can work. More than 3 only works if the main event you're building to has real anticipation and can be a true epic. 4 hours is such a commitment that everything better pay off to a really high level. (Which is why it works for the big New Japan shows, because the main events pretty much always justify their existence).

I have heard really good things about the next tapings... excited at the least for DBS vs. Low Ki. Haven't watched in like a month, but I'll tune in for that.

It also seems like they've been pushing Okada in a heelish direction with his interactions with Liger. Maybe not to turn him, but because he's going to be the de facto heel in two matches at WK?

They are not, but I'm guessing Cornette makes that unlikely this year.

Gonna check this out!

I think the best option is Okada-Naito. They've successfully kept them from each other for two years, making it by far the most fresh matchup of the four. Least favorite would be Okada-White, just because it's been done a bunch and I really have no desire to see White in the main event slot. Have the NEVER six man tag titles been abandoned? Feels like they could have done a gauntlet thing night 1 instead of those 8 man tags. But otherwise this looks like a great lineup, looking forward to it.

He does! My recollection is the match is fairly good, not a classic but very enjoyable. They went for a classic and landed a bit shy of there. That show also has PCO and Brody King against the Briscoes (although it might be the least of their matches together this year).

I would guess Brody is "conditional" based on Marty.

I have heard good things, but the friend that took my ticket still said it was "great, but kinda long." At the least, it seems like the booking leaned into the parts of the show that work and relied less on the stuff that didn't, so I'm intrigued to watch at least some of these shows.

I've been to several MLW shows and while they're enjoyable, they also run way long and really burn out a crowd to the point that matches you might be looking forward to don't have the pop they should because the crowd is dead. To be fair, I'm not sure the NWA woould be much fun either, all squashes and talking for a few hours. (The winner in the tapings front for me is Impact - they tape two shows in a night but get them done in under 3 hours, so it's a breezy evening of mostly pretty good wrestling. Highly recommend seeing them if you're near one of the 5 towns they tape TV in.)

In the same boat as you, but it feels like the latter.

The second part is definitely true. The first part seems about right, but it feels like the numbers have bounced around enough that a few more weeks of data might be necessary to confirm that's where they'll settle in.

Would anyone in the NY area like two free tickets to the show tonight? I can't go, just want them to get used.

+1. She's great and didn't seem uncomfortable at all on the big stage.

Of those guys, PCO has pretty explicitly indicated he's taking the biggest offer given the stage he's at in his career. And Brody is almost certainly following Marty. (I don't know about Rush - he pretty clearly signed with ROH because of CMLL, so with his relationship with them in the tank, I'd think he'll explore options.) If I'm Marty, the only way I'd consider taking the offer is if I got the book and could mold the promotion. I've said many times ROH's greatest mistake was not completely giving the Elite the keys to the castle early in 2018. If Marty wants the keys now, when him leaving would basically put a final nail in the coffin of a lot of people's interest in ROH, they should do it. (I agree he'd be better off in a lot of ways in AEW or NXT, but maybe this would be his dream gig?)

I think part of why people are having trouble "clicking" with Janela is that there's a lot of what makes people love the guy that isn't on screen. He's the mind behind Spring Break, the guy that launched PCO and Marko and all sorts of other acts people enjoy - other than All In, it's hard to find an indy show that's mattered more over the last few years. He's a fan in the way a lot of us are (when he wrestled Low Ki, he made him bust out the Ki Krusher because Janela's such an indy wrestling nerd that he was excited to take the move) and so if you connect to him at all, it's really easy to connect deeply. In much the same way I'm sure a lot of people wanted Eddie to just focus on booking, Janela's obvious mind for the business means he could be a big deal behind the scenes, but he wants to wrestle. Unfortunately for him, I think, outside of being willing to take crazy bumps, his best trait is his storytelling ability (check the build to, and payoff of his feud with David Starr in Beyond for a great example), but he hasn't really gotten much of an angle to work with in AEW. I also don't think he works great in a tight TV match structure, which is going to be a problem - his best stuff tends to stretch and be a bit flabby (see the match with Page at All In or the Iron Man match with Starr).

I would argue the fact that the Elite are YouTube stars (to an extent) is the next evolution of things. Similarly, I think any "boom" period that happens now would look really different than ones before. It won't come in terms of TV ratings, because nothing besides real live sports (which wrestling may argue it is, but it isn't) does big TV ratings. It's exceptionally easy to be a casual fan of something now, and watch a few YouTube clips, or check out the big matches or an occasional show when your friends invite you over. I do think wrestling has sort of boomed in the last few years, to the extent that it's sitting more comfortably in a mainstream conversation, but the metrics aren't what they used to be. I'd also add that hardcore fans being willing to spend more money is part of a boom. There's more money in the business at the moment because fans are excited. Sometimes I think people take that for granted - "hardcores will spend more" - but that wasn't really true 5 years ago. People flying to a city for an AEW show and gorging on wrestling all weekend is new. No other promotion was engendering that sort of support (and even the WWE only really lifted business in a city on Wrestlemania weekend, whereas now all the big four seem to get indy add on shows).

Worth noting that they announced a match for Marty at the Final Battle TV taping and it's NOT a 6 man title defense. They can always add one late (a lot of times guys work twice on the TV tapings), but fodder for the speculation...

The classic angle they swipe towards the end of the show is note perfect.