FMKK

Darby being the most over act in the company since November 2019 is pure fantasy. We’re moving the goalposts here specifically so that Cody Rhodes can get zero credit for putting someone over when anyone else would be acknowledged as having done so with the exact same actions.

If Cody didn’t elevate any of those people then you’re setting such an impossible standard that there may as well be no such thing as elevating anyone. Darby Allin pinning one of the EVPs clean on PPV for a championship that Cody himself got over didn’t elevate him? I mean, Jesus Christ.

It was definitely more of a down show but that was always coming after the insanity of the last two weeks and it makes sense for them to save stuff when they have so many huge shows coming in the next six weeks. They’re debuting a new Friday show next week, running the United Centre likely with Punk’s debut the week after that, they’ve got a PPV in early September and then just after that their first New York show which is in a packed tennis stadium. A breather show is perfectly fine right now.

NXT I thought had already jumped the shark well before autumn 2019 but they got exposed so badly going against Dynamite. The dirty little secret of NXT is that it was never a really exciting weekly TV product but especially after Dusty it was a supercard promotion. To me, it has three distinct eras: Dusty Era (main storyline was Sami Zayn’s rise and beginning the women’s pushes) Supercard Era (the peak of which was the signing of Shinsuke Nakamura in 2016) Shawn Era (Gargano and Ciampa and Cole descend into overdramatic self-parody) Within all three of those, it’s difficult to really see what the distinctive HHH fingerprints are. The show is basically yellow Raw, with a better working standard but the same tropes and bullshit.

Ric on AEW is…not necessarily a good idea imo. If they can get him as a special edition character in the video game and sober him up enough to do voice overs for pre-match videos that would be cool but he shouldn’t be a week to week manager on TV or anything. As for WWE, the least interesting thing about the company right now is their actual TV shows. They’ve gone from one extreme position of hoarding wrestlers to stop anyone being able to get a promotion off the ground to cutting star names left, right and centre. Nick Khan is doing his job of finding savings so that the profits are always going up but that completely ignores other issues like talent morale, harming the company in future negotiations by showing their contracts to be worthless and having a negative media perception at a time when AEW feels as hot as it ever has. It’s Vince’s responsibility to factor in all those things when he makes the final call on these cuts but right now he’s wielding Khan’s axe. Maybe they figure that AEW is already well established and not going away so the hoarding strategy no longer has any purpose. The other thing I find fascinating is HHH and his rapid slide into irrelevance. This guy wormed his way into the kliq to get himself to the top of the card, got into Vince’s inner circle and married into the family and ruthlessly politicked to keep his main event spot for over a decade. Then when he knew he was done in the ring and he was the assumed heir to Vince, he built NXT very deliberately to be the in-house alternative to main roster WWE and Vince’s booking with simple storytelling and big name indie signings. He spent years cultivating a reputation as the saviour of the hardcore fan in preparation to take over the company and it seemed like 25 years of careful political manoeuvring would put him in the highest position in all of wrestling. And then NXT was used to go head to head with AEW and he got completely decimated by his old nemesis Chris Jericho, Kenny Omega and a fucking smark message board poster with a rich dad. Now it seems like he’s lost Vince’s trust and a generation of climbing the greasy pole was washed away in 18 months. The dude is a fucking Shakespearean tragedy.

Surprised there was no comment on the Alexa Bliss voodoo bullshit at least. Raw for the last couple of years is one of the worst shows on television let alone in wrestling.

Bryan doing literally anything else would be more interesting than whatever WWE will give him but I have zero expectation of him doing anything but re-sign.

Meltzer I think was saying that WWE wanted him to cut weight and learn to work 'like a big man' and suggested that he wasn't confident and was second guessing himself in the ring.

The Young Bucks doing a crap 30 second backstage promo completely tainted a great six man tag match that they weren’t even present for until the last ten seconds of the post match segment? Seems harsh. The Bucks really cannot act though. Back to Christian, I think he fills a really nice spot on the roster where he can have a professional, no frills match that builds to a climax. Something very different than the spotfests and brawls that AEW usually excels at and a needed change of pace on the shows. There’s quite a few guys I can see him working really good matches with in this style as well. Even the blander dudes like Ethan Page and Scorpio Sky would be good opponents for him.

Home run show

Also Lee Johnson didn’t thank QT in his speech.

They had a feud in 2007 or so which consisted of a very good TV match and then a ladder match that Kaz won. But obviously it's TNA so that never translated to a serious elevation. I think they even wrestled before then on independents. They do genuinely go way back.

Kip is obviously a geek but he's pretty good looking tbf

Time is a flat circle. Kaz is a much different worker to those days tbf. He’s got a great working punch imo.

I feel like that’s what the Out Work Everyone shit is about, as corny as it is. Signifying that he’s a regular roster member and not a now and again type of guy. I totally get what you mean, it doesn’t seem that long ago. But I just think he’s not really a high spot guy compared to others on their roster but he can do all the basic stuff really well, work smooth, time stuff etc. Akin to Dustin but pushed a bit higher I guess.

It would be cool for us fans but none of the other companies are on New Japan’s level enough for it to be meaningful I don’t think

I watched back some old Christian singles stuff recently and I’m relatively excited for him doing some good old fashioned TV wrestling. I think they could build a very dramatic title match with Omega if they leaned into his history of concussions and built it around him needing to avoid V-Triggers. Then the whole thing can be structured around Omega finally hitting one.

It’s hilarious that they’re tampering with the booking of both world title matches. I bet Vince has grown very used to the comfort blanket of the fake crowd noises and is desperately overthinking what it’s going to be like with a stadium with actual fans.

They’re crying out for something to add some juice. If I were them I would be looking for Ibushi vs Omega and Okada vs Naito as the WK main events.

Christian will be fine. He’s not going to be a ratings difference maker I don’t think but it was a gamble they took and this idea that he’s going to absolutely tank ratings seems overly dramatic. He’ll do fine in line with what they usually do, have a great match with Omega for the title down the line and then settle back into a midcard slot. He’d be a valuable opponent for the likes of Ricky Starks down the line.

The concussion lawsuits were done. That’s the long and short of it.

They really need Moxley or someone in to spice shit up once crowds or back. Or heaven forfend, Kenny Omega.

Kip is a perfectly average wrestler and makes a good douche manager for the hot girl. I don’t ever need to see him pushed but he’s fine. I think if her contract was up and someone showed Vince a picture of her in that wedding dress, he would send her a blank cheque.

Jungle Boy has inheritance enough that he wouldn't mark for the money surely? I wonder who the first big jump to WWE is. I think Penelope Ford.

Okada is hurt but I also think that's been a bit exaggurated by Dave, who bit every time Tana sold a new injury and has been reporting Naito on death's door for the longest time. I do think he wins G1 over Ospreay in the final and then the title over Naito in the Dome on the 5th. That's how I see the booking playing out this year. In fairness to New Japan, they had Ibushi working El Desperado in the main event as an emergency replacement match after Hiromu got hurt. Not exactly marquee stuff compared to NOAH bringing in Mutoh and hyping the show as their biggest in years. I don't think NOAH or Stardom would even have booked the building if not for COVID. I'm concerned about the increase of wacky angles and convoluted booking too. I hope the fact that the Ospreay and Bea thing died a death will cause Gedo to wake up a bit. EVIL is basically back to being midcard after his title reign went down like a lead balloon. But they shouldn't be making these errors in the first place to have to correct them.