FMKK

Can I take back what I said about not worrying about who can be signed up if it's true that Lance Archer isn't locked down by New Japan? He would be a perfect heel for them.

The Fiend as champ ain't doing it for me either, but Rollins needs to be shunted back to the midcard asap. If it wasn't for NXT on USA, I'd say they should just call up Riddle, have him kill fuckers for six months and then go over Brock or Goldberg at Mania. They need something new on top desperately because Seth Rollins ain't it and eventually the Fiend stuff will have to be more than smoke and mirrors to cover up for the fact that it's Bray Wyatt in a mask.

There are bound to be fans who want big time wrestling but are sick of WWE out there waiting in the wings. I just hope AEW finds them. They're going to be under so much pressure to hit the ground running and Vince is going to be hotshotting so much shit because he desperately needs WWE to turn their fortunes around going into the new deals. I just hope Tony Khan and co keep their heads and don't fall into the WCW trap of being obsessed with the competition and trying to hotshot all their own angles to keep up with Vince. They're got four or five big star acts and another four or five that can be long term projects for the next year. They've got to trust in themselves to tell their stories and work towards their long term visions. If I were them, I'd be looking to have Page and MJF as established main event guys 12 months from now with Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus as the top of the midfield pack. Build new stars and tell new stories as opposed to worrying about Punk or Del Rio or whoever else could be signed up. I really, really hope they manage to do something with this opportunity. There are so many things working in their favour, not least only being only one show a week as opposed to WWE's 10 hours of programming which is totally inaccessible to new viewers. They just have to not panic and trust in themselves and their audience.

I enjoyed the big Sasha Takeover matches a lot at the time but I'm not sure how much they hold up now. The cell match with Charlotte was always overrated here. It's a decent match but it's a 3.5 that was portrayed as a 5. People do generally tend to overrate stuff from WWE imo because lots of people just want them to be good so they grasp for anything that's got any quality about it. And they pushed that women's revolution stuff so dreadfully at first that them finally getting around to presenting serious matches between the big name NXT women was always going to be something fans who wanted it to work would grasp on to. The counterpoint is that the decline in quality of WWE programming even from a pretty low level a few years back means that people might be retrospectively looking back at those matches with much more pessimism about how they turned out. It all probably just deserves a rematch but I wouldn't be surprised if people are coming back with lots of 3.5 star ratings or whatever.

It really didn't get enough buzz at all. I guess people have post-G1 fatigue plus a million other things happening in wrestling. But yeah, my favourite tag match of the year easily.

That's possible but think of all the people who came out of WWE 10 - 15 years ago saying that their problem wasn't Vince it was Johnny Ace or Jim Ross or whoever. If you think your problem isn't Vince, then you've been worked. He would make a good analyst in my opinion but there's only so long until they'll want to put him in front of a live crowd and only so long after that that they'll want him to be in the ring and do a programme and work matches etc. etc. Will he resist those pressures when he's already in their environment?

Meltzer was hinting strongly in this weeks Observer that he's wanting to come back. Strange in a way that it's WWE when you'd think he could make a good amount on AEW without having to make the concession of going back to Vince.

Best announcer in the world....

I hope they throw Ospreay and Eagles in there.

Did he actually call someone doing a low bridge a Phoebe Waller-Bridge or was that someone just taking the piss on Twitter?

He's always so gotten to. It's embarrassing.

The fact that ROH doesn't even get a mention in that list is probably a fair reflection of where they are in the eyes of modern fans. Tbh, I don't see Impact doing a whole lot of AXS either. But yeah, it's complete oversaturation and there's no way it's sustainable.

Jesus, all these shows are getting stacked up for next week and it feels like the fact they have a PPV on the Sunday is completely forgotten

Is he good? Don't think I've seen a match of his in years. Presumably he's getting a good deal and will get a push.

a) Lawler is back b) who tf is Dio Madden?

Unreasonably excited to see Tanahashi teaming up with the Rock n Roll Express. Is Joey Janela booking New Japan now?

Agree, although the Ospreay/Eagles vs Phantasmo/Ishimori match was probably by favourite tag of the year.

Maybe because I already know not to take anything WWE says seriously. I don't really care if Kenny wants to go out and insult them etc but as someone who wants AEW to succeed, it would be nice if he did it in a more effective way.

Yeah, so Omega needs to stop bitching about their developmental and take the fight to Vince or HHH or whatever

Guy has a pair of ***1/2 matches and now this

He can be a champion in future but they'll never recapture what he had then when he was genuinely new and fresh

There are so many easier targets for them to be hitting if they want to attack WWE that this seems like a bit of a waste, even if it is just gimmick

That was two years ago the first time he faces Brock

Kofi's reign is dead in the water though. It doesn't help that he's been in mostly heatless feuds but he's also not had a particularly good match since the title change. Time to move on and have him as the babyface gatekeeper on Smackdown.

Since when did the law stipulate lifetime contracts had to be awarded to every wrestler employed by WWE?