C.S.

Buck botched that spike piledriver. And now they're doing an injury angle for something that looked so bad!

I added more to the post above. He's also doubling-down on never getting a World Title shot.

Ah, okay, your post makes more sense then. I thought they were one and the same. Very cool that we have two potentially exciting developments to look forward to. Hopefully Ohno still isn't one of them though. I don't mind if the dude gets a job - I'd be happy for him - but I don't think that's necessarily something worthy of being hyped up.

Cody Rhodes: “This will disappoint so many and maybe it won’t, maybe this will excite, but two things I can guarantee you. And I’m not saying this to wave one hand while you’re not looking at the other. I’m telling this from the most honest standpoint, I am not going to turn heel on this company. And I would retire before I did that. Now I’m the head of the community outreach group. I have a little girl now. I’m not going to be doing heel stuff on TV.” “I am not turning heel and I’m not going back on my word to challenge for the title. That stuff was real. It hurts. It is a large regret that that ever happened, but it did happen and I can live with it. And I got to do that dance with Chris Jericho, and I will not go back on that stipulation, me personally. If Tony [Khan] wanted to change things he could. And again, you can never say never in wrestling, but I do think there’s this idea that evil corporate need would turn the stipulation around and challenge for the world title, that I can say never will happen.” https://popculture.com/sports/news/cody-rhodes-aew-reveals-2-things-will-not-do/

Cody Rhodes: “This will disappoint so many and maybe it won’t, maybe this will excite, but two things I can guarantee you. And I’m not saying this to wave one hand while you’re not looking at the other. I’m telling this from the most honest standpoint, I am not going to turn heel on this company. And I would retire before I did that. Now I’m the head of the community outreach group. I have a little girl now. I’m not going to be doing heel stuff on TV.” “I am not turning heel and I’m not going back on my word to challenge for the title. That stuff was real. It hurts. It is a large regret that that ever happened, but it did happen and I can live with it. And I got to do that dance with Chris Jericho, and I will not go back on that stipulation, me personally. If Tony [Khan] wanted to change things he could. And again, you can never say never in wrestling, but I do think there’s this idea that evil corporate need would turn the stipulation around and challenge for the world title, that I can say never will happen.” https://popculture.com/sports/news/cody-rhodes-aew-reveals-2-things-will-not-do/

And you think Kassius Ohno would be less "disappointing"? Oh..kay. Christian was one of the top five guys in the Attitude Era. Kassius showed his pale flesh in unsightly basketball shorts on WWE's third-tier grunge 'n skull brand.

Breaking news: Big E has confirmed that WWE Legal would not clear Big Meaty Men Slapping Meat merchandise https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/big-e-legal-would-not-clear-big-meaty-men-slapping-meat-merchandise "Sean Ross Sapp has learned exclusively that an internet wrestling fan known as @KawadaSmile beat WWE to the punch by registering the trademark first. Not much is known about this mysterious message board poster, but some believe his name to be Bubba. More on this story as it develops..."

WWE DRAFT: ROUND 6 (FINAL ROUND) Carmella --> Raw Ridge Holland (NXT) --> Smackdown Gable Stevenson (NCAA/Olympics) --> Raw Sami Zayn --> Smackdown

WWE DRAFT: ROUND 5 Karrion Kross --> Raw Humberto Carrillo and Angel Garza --> Smackdown Alexa Bliss --> Raw Cesaro --> Smackdown

WWE DRAFT: ROUND 4 Street Profits --> Raw Viking Raiders --> Smackdown Finn Balor --> Raw Ricochet --> Smackdown

Nah, this is actually a nice callback to their shared history. It makes sense.

WWE DRAFT: ROUND 3 AJ Styles and Omos --> Raw Shayna Baszler --> Smackdown Kevin Owens --> Raw Xia Li (NXT) --> Smackdown

WWE DRAFT: ROUND 2 Seth Rollins --> Raw King Nakamura (Intercontinental Champion) and Rick Boogz --> Smackdown Damien Priest (U.S. Champion) --> Raw Sheamus --> Smackdown

Most of that Austin Theory segment was pure WTF territory, but at least it ended okay. Gonna miss his NXT character though. As usual, there's a giant disconnect between NXT and the main roster - which continues to be one of WWE's biggest detriments.

WWE DRAFT: ROUND 1 Becky Lynch (Smackdown Women's Champion) --> Raw The Usos (Smackdown Tag Team Champions) --> Smackdown Bobby Lashley --> Raw Sasha Banks --> Smackdown

Charlotte is unbearable. Nothing works about her character anymore. Nothing!

WWE DRAFT: FIRST RAW PICK Becky Lynch (Smackdown Women's Champion) --> Raw

If the idea is to attract outside female fans, the first half of the show - which was almost strictly rasslin' - may have been great for us, but anyone else would have tuned out by the time they made the baby shower, etc. the focus in the second half. Even then, I can't see the boring baby shower and Cody's heel sister attracting those female viewers either. As far as fake shit goes, the Jade-Velvet convo in particular seemed like really bad acting.

I finally watched the first episode... My thoughts: The first half is dominated by mostly rasslin', which is great for us but isn't going to attract non-fans. The second half is dominated by baby talk and a baby shower. However, by the time the show gets there, I strongly suspect the viewers who aren't familiar with AEW would have already tuned out by then. Cody and Brandi should never try to act "cutesy," "edgy," or "witty" because it doesn't work for them at all. They absolutely cannot pull it off. Cody's sister comes across terribly, which makes me wonder why people's family members willingly sign up to do these shows. The wrestling focus is on Cody's "patriotic" promo against Ogogo, which came across as clunky here, but Cody hyped it positively and Brandi shed tears during it. Tony K. looked like he was holding in a shit. There's also some stuff about Ricky Starks breaking his neck, the ensuing drama of Jade slapping Velvet too hard, and Brandi's executive role. Overall, if you are predisposed to disliking Cody and Brandi, this won't change your mind. I like them, but I do think there's less mainstream polish here than we see with Total Divas/Bellas and Miz and Mrs.

Worst McMahon = Linda As an on-air performer, completely useless As a human being, she was a cabinet member for the worst and most corrupt U.S. President in history and only stepped down to raise obscene amounts of money for him in a re-election campaign SuperPAC.

I just read that, and that's amazing, haha!

Becky is tougher than Edge. Okay, granted, Beth is way tougher than Seth. I still don't know why Edge didn't tell his wife to call Christian - or at least drop in a "Jay" reference as an Easter Egg. Okay, I do know why, obviously - but it's one of those things that makes wrestling so illogical. Any other show - let's use Fuller House as an example - would throw in the occasional "Michelle" or "Aunt Becky" reference even though they're no longer acting and/or in prison.

WWE DRAFT: ROUND 4 Naomi --> Smackdown Rey and Dominik Mysterio --> Raw Jeff Hardy --> Smackdown Austin Theory (NXT) --> Raw Brock Lesnar --> Free Agent ("because of Paul Heyman") Smackdown clearly won Night 1 of the Draft by picking Madcap Moss in the third round.

WWE DRAFT: ROUND 3 Happy Corbin and Madcap Moss --> Smackdown Rhea and Nikki (Women's Tag Team Champions) --> Raw Hit Row (NXT) --> Smackdown Keith "Bearcat" Lee --> Raw

WWE DRAFT: ROUND 2 Drew McIntyre --> Smackdown RKBro (Raw Tag Team Champions) --> Raw New Day (Kofi and Woods) --> Smackdown (BOOOOOOO!!!) Edge --> Raw