KawadaSmile

They still need to do Big E vs Otis before that. Then the BIG MEATY MEN can cross over.

Hobbs' neck is INSANE

Cody hanging from the rafters watching The Elite dominate the entire company. Sting even hangs the lampshade during a promo.

Kenny did the one thing that could make me like him, which is dunk on a fool I like even less.

Like, he nearly fucking died last week, we only got to know about it now. Pure chaos, hope he has a fine recovery and gets that 2002 pop in the office

The idea of Vince outliving Paul is some weird fucking stuff.

lots of cowboy hat emojis tonight, then

Same. I hope he doesn't get lost in the shuffle. Also, checking out Dark: Diamante vs Swole was pretty good! Loved the chain action in that match.

I mean, he's pretty ahead of the curve for someone so young. Austin was barely in the business, The Rock was on the verge of turning heel, Cena was The Prototype... MJF is good. He better not rest on his laurels, tho.

I thought that was more because he was seen, at that moment, as a TNA guy rather than an AEW guy. He was the "foreigner".

[1] Yes, bubba, I know. When later I mentioned how convenient it was to single out a wrestler and said "you" and "your", it was referring to the Fed. [2] Yes, it is stupid. And it's what they've done. MJF does nothing for me, man. I'm not gonna say he sucks ass, which he doesn't, and he is a very good heel and very good talker - which means he can easily do the most important thing in pro wrestling, make people spend money to see the show. He's very young too, which means he can improve on any given area he's lacking (he's sometimes too much of a tryhard, and sometimes he's lacking in the ring - even JR pointed out on commentary that he "seemed lost" at All Out). He does have a very high ceiling. He just ain't for me.

Bubba, you quoted me on a post where I mentioned that. Here: And that's where our opinions mostly disagree. Much of the heavy criticism he got online at the height of his unpopularity stemmed from him being singled out as the reason the product sucked ass. He's at worst just an average in-ring dude who can talk very well and is 100% into whatever storyline he's given. An older MJF, if you will.

It makes sense in kayfabe tbh but I guess Reigns will just have to make them bend the knee.

I think even as an occasional challenger to the top title he ain't the worst option. Some of his matches against Roman were certified bangers.

It seems awfully convenient to put all the blame of a stale product - your own product, even! - on a single wrestler. They didn't take a hint for nearly HALF A YEAR that heel beatdowns every week was weak booking and the blame is on a single wrestler? Come on bubba. And the issue is not that you, El-P, don't like him, or think he is the one to blame. The issue is that WWE, through whoever had the mic, went out of their way to put the blame on a single wrestler. It's just counterproductive as fuck. Compare that to the writing on SD now. Corbin has an actual story, he still is a smarmy fuck, but is in a context that is very entertaining. Happy Corbin is WIDELY more accepted than whatever came before. It's as if the quality of the booking matters.

But there's the thing - Corbin was, even in WWE, in-character, the incorporation of what people don't want. He was literally called the reason the product was stale at one point (not sure by whom, maybe Angle? Possibly more than one person), which is... stupid, but it's clearly pointing at the character, and not Corbin himself. The catch is that all of the problems in his presentation are in fact faults of overexposure. He can absolutely pull an RVD or Foley and have an engaging character. He clearly can speak well and is unphased by a crowd shitting on him. He can have a great match. However, if you just have him beatdown all the babyfaces week in and week out, he's gonna annoy people. Drew, who is really fucking over now, was getting the same type of reaction as Corbin. He basically had to force a face turn calling himself handsome (which he is) and wrestling in a more appealing style. His feud with Seth generated good, legit heat! The problem is that it went for tooooo fucking long. Same with his feud with Reigns. One thing AEW knocks out of the park more than anything is that they give things time to breathe. They give things space. You don't need to see everyone in action every week. Just by virtue of that, you get all the positives from Corbin and remove all the negatives.

Corbin's major problem was overexposure. I remember that period on Raw which it was him, Drew and Lashley just beating the faces every week, the same way. It was pretty dull. He proved to be very fucking good in the ring during the KotR tournament and subsequent feud with Gable, and he is always 100% committed to whatever gimmick he's given. Happy Corbin is great. Besides, having someone to represent the antithesis to your product is far from something bad. RVD throwing himself at Vince on ECW was very fucking good.

AEW would love having someone like Baron Corbin and I'm not fucking joking.

Yes. The squash match was basically a Steiners match in 2021. Violent as fuck. I loved it.

holy shit

We need to know the details to this story. Tony Khan got "Ruby Soho", "Tarzan Boy", "Wild Thing" and "Where's My Mind". Jericho mentioned they tried getting "Running with the Devil" from Van Halen, but they asked half a million dollars. I cannot imagine Europe asking nowhere near that price.

Those Creed Brothers might become something special, man

Carmelo Hayes is really fucking good

This isn't bad or anything, but why is it going nearly 20 minutes?