Migs

Although the angle itself was oddly nonchalant, I do like the move of Sanada aligning with Taichi. Both felt like they had been sort of stuck behind others, and this should at least give them a chance to sink or swim out front. I still think it was an incredibly bad decision to drop the IC title at a time when they had so many guys who were a couple of steps away from the top - it just feels like there's no clear step between the mid-card and the World title for them. That said, Sanada looks like the most likely winner of the Cup at this point, and I'd honestly consider putting him over Okada in April to give everything a fresh direction. It would feel out of nowhere, but who else besides Okada at this point can he beat to step up? Can always go back to Okada at Dominion.

This. And the thing is, I think WWE has plenty of guys at a level where they're not seriously going to be pushed as top guys and can be used in a Wyatt feud without really burning anything. Like, let Baron Corbin be his foil for two months. There's obviously some business value to Wyatt's stuff, you just need to keep it from burning your other assets.

Do we think this is someone they put over Jade? It really feels like the right time to end the streak, and a surprise debut who gets that rub seems like a good use of the moment.

It was just too easy to guess the password - Omega7*

I don't think so - I assume they'll announce a couple of things for the Buy In, but this seems like the right size card for a 4 hour show.

About to be ROH champ?

Aussie Open - Young Bucks was the best Rampage match in ages.

Felt like he was mostly questioning the awards going to TK. But I think ultimately it was a weak year in those categories - WWE spend a large chunk of the year a trainwreck, and even if you give them some credit for business coming back, the booking wasn't exactly special. Felt like TK won on both fronts by being better than his major competition but he didn't have an "award worthy" year if that makes sense.

It's a little bit hard to untangle this question from places being heel/babyface territories. I'm struggling to think of even a decent long-term reign by a face in Crockett/WCW. The Sting reigns (both after Flair and after Hogan), the Goldberg run - they're pretty weak, but that might be less about what the heels did and more that the structure of the booking didn't support the shift. Taz in ECW is a good example for your point, though - he wins the title and there's just literally no challengers for him because no one's been protected other than the Triple Threat and Justin Credible. On the WWF/WWE side - it's a bit hard to find examples because there have been so few face reigns following long heel reigns, up until the last 10 years (at which point the booking of babyfaces generally has completely cratered).

The non-bloated New Japan cup is kinda refreshing, and I'm seeing some interesting potential directions.

I don't think they've really been put in a position to draw since coming back. But I think the ultimate answer is different for Omega and the Bucks. Based on the US numbers for Wrestle Kingdom and tickets sold, Omega is absolutely still a draw for a big match. Presumably they'll go back to ones with him at some point, and I think there's a lot still on the table for him. The Bucks I'm less sure. When Omega took time off, they burned a lot of time in an ultimately directionless angle with Undisputed Era. The engagement in their character work has fallen off (is anyone watching BTE anymore?) and they're mostly out of dream matches unless someone jumps from WWE. They've teased going back to a story with Hangman, but I'm not even sure that would be a "draw" since I'd think most of the people who'd care about that are still watching AEW (that's part of the issue for them as a measurable draw - their fans were the baseline). I still love their work, and they're still an overall valuable part of the show (I'd be less likely to watch if they were gone for good), but I'm not sure they can drive things upward much now.

This is a good point. Cody's most memorable stuff really are the equivalent of dramatic monologues (his best one ever, the one before DoN against Dustin, is absolutely that). A lot of the great ones are (I'd argue Foley's most memorable ECW work are monologues, too). He also strikes me as someone who's very practiced in his promos (maybe he's even said explicitly that he does), which makes him perfect for WWE, especially when he's at the level where they'll let him craft his verbiage.

Isn't the play to do Roman vs Sami in Montreal? Also, Cody got a monster pop and apparently sold insane merch. This is not a Batista scenario. I can see the argument for doing both matches, but at the very least, one night is Cody getting the win and fully getting the rocket strapped.

I think we're all ready for a good cry.

I think Dax does a good job of not taking the bait on Koon's transparent shit stirring. Not sure Conrad would be much better unless they were doing watch-a-longs. Oliver would be fun for the 80s matches ("you know, Cornette said on Timeline that...").

I saw this thread before I saw Rampage, and I'm not convinced that's a Kingston heel turn. It totally depends on whether Ortiz was being genuine, and we don't know that. The crowd also didn't boo him.

The Observer bio was really good. Lot of long remembrances from those who knew him well.

Heartbreaking. My daughter and I are what I guess was his last match, at House of Glory a month or so ago. Their family saw my 4 year old and invited them into their family area to play with the other kids during the show. Just a lot of warmth and kindness. I'm so sad for them.

I really want to hear him chop it up about 80s tag matches, personally.

I'm not a huge Juice Robinson guy, but having him show up and immediately do two title match jobs is... weird? Feels like even a modicum of work establishing his act would have been helpful. He seems to just be a solo version of Bullet Club Juice (down to the t-shirt), but there's no context for that.

I really liked him before he went to WWE, didn't see much if any of his WWE work and was a little surprised at how obvious a star he was the minute he set foot in AEW. He might be the dumbest of the 2020-2021 WWE releases, and that covers a lot of ground.

Because there's only so many main events to go around. The idea that everyone should be a fully protected star is killing wrestling discourse. If Wardlow can't take a couple of losses and still be a valuable piece, so be it. Picking Darby over Wardlow is very reasonable, when Darby's been able to stay over for 3+ years at roughly the same level.