Big Pete

It's a good question and my take is that they gained a negative reputation without fans really giving them a chance. They came through right as AEW emerged and Vincent was apart of Taven's crew when Taven was a Justin Credible tier whipping boy and the poster child of everything wrong in ROH. I think AEW fans tend to be more open minded and willing to give acts a chance. With that said, the recent criticism is more to do with the booking of MJF. MJF is the biggest star of the company, yet he's busy defending the secondary promotion tag team belts. I also don't think it helped that the Righteous began feuding with the Hardys who fans seem to tolerate moreso than actually enjoy.

I get the feeling that Britt is satisfied with her accomplishments and is just trying to showcase other women in the division. I think the comparisons to Charlotte get to her so she compensates by doing all these jobs whether they make sense or not. As a result, she's found herself in this weird limbo when she ought to be developing her character and finding a new motivation. It really makes me wonder what exactly was going on behind the scenes in late 2022-early 2023. It seemed like the initial direction was for Toni Storm to dethrone Thunder Rosa, have her defend against Saraya and Britt Baker only for Jamie Hayter to dethrone her. This would lead to Britt turning on Jamie and eventually putting her over to make Jamie the star of the division. Somewhere in there, Mercedes Mone was supposed to debut (they were making heavy CM Punk references) but something happened and they had to quickly pivot. With Jamie injured, this is what we've been left with. The only talent that seems to be finding her feet is Toni who has finally found her character after being this surfer, punk-rock chick who talks like a snob. At least she's leaning into one direction now and the crowd is into it. The rest of the division desperately needs some direction. As does a lot of talent on the show to be fair.

I'm sceptical that's actually what happened between Punk & Tony. I'm also sceptical at the 'lunging' story because I'm picturing a tope suicida in which case I'd be more scared for Punk than Tony. We'll see if there's any evidence but the plausible story is that after Punk & Jungle Boy's set to, Punk came over to Tony, shoved some monitors out of the way and gave him an earful. Maybe I'm wrong and CM Punk fired up a Superman Punch for Tony Khan but based on everything I'm far more likely to believe TK and his team has over-exaggerated this to justify their decision. This is not to say that Vince's method is 100% the right way, but this whole saga illustrates why he micro-manages and keeps a lot of his wrestlers in check. It would never have got to this point because if Vince was in charge, Punk would have been sent home after the 'Coward Shit' promo and Punk would have been scrubbed from every promotional material until it was resolved.

Wasn't Vince constantly looking to sneak attack Kurt and hit him with a double leg takedown? Also wasn't there a story about Kofi Kingston having to challenge Vince to a fight to gain respect? I doubt this would have fazed him. He doesn't watch UFC, but he would have backed himself to kick Punk's ass.

The show just seems a lot more focused with everybody working together to make sure it's formatted correctly. Whereas with Dynamite it feels like the show is just a collection of ideas thrown out there with only a few conscious decisions. Tell me what did Anna Jay do to deserve a main event slot? It's almost like the division is being set up to fail. You may also have a point on MJF. The guy is clearly talented, but if you're the challenger brand, wouldn't one point of difference involve having a fighting champion? Hangman defeated Moxley at Revolution and hasn't shown any interest in challenging for the belt - why should the fans care when the guys on TV don't?

This era was actually my introduction to Pro Wrestling and back then for WCW it was a case of... Whatever chance WCW had evaporated in late December/early January when they lost Goldberg, Bret Hart, Scott Hall, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, Dean Malenko and Perry Saturn all in short order. There was some brief excitement when they did the April relaunch but the show was so rotten it just created a huge indifference. Bash actually offered up a glimmer of hope because Booker T winning the title completely buried the lead. There was still that god awful New Blood Rising show, but WCW actually becomes reasonably easy to follow along with because they actually commit to Booker T, Big Poppa Pump, Sugar Shane Helms, The Natural Born Thrillerz etc. In real time, I actually thought the whole thing was a play on Halloween Havoc '99 where Hogan laid down for Sting for reasons I'm unsure if they were ever made clear on television. I presumed it was all going to finally culminate in a Hogan/Bischoff vs. Jarrett/Russo match at Halloween Havoc 00 but it never came to fruition.

It may have something to do with the genre. Conrad has completely exhausted the timeline genre and the interview genre relies too heavily on the guest. I can't remember the last buzzworthy guest on the Jericho pod, in fact the last Jericho podcast I was inclinced to tune into was the appearance he made on Austin's WWE show. I don't think the wrestling scene could have played out any better for Jim than it did in the past 18 months or so either. Whether it was all the CM Punk news, Cody leaving AEW only to get over with the WWE audience, the Bloodline success, MJF's rise, Vince etc. These are all topics Jim has built his brand on and he's been proven right more often than not. Drama has always been a popular genre on YouTube and there's nobody better at monetizing it in Pro Wrestling than Corny.

My issue with that is that you can emulate that and have that experience at a fraction of the price. Fight Forever doesn't really offer much else and there's no way in good conscience I could recommend paying AAA prices, especially when this game will likely be discounted in the not too distant future. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad there's an alternative to the sim style of game and I'm a fan of that era of Pro Wrestling game. However, the game isn't really bringing much else to the table that those games didn't already bring. In fact, it incorporates a lot of those 'dire dogshit' gameplay elements those later 2K games had. I'm hopeful the game will pull a No Man Sky and will eventually be fine-tuned into the ultimate throwback game. However, I expect by the time that comes, the base game will be heavily discounted and all the money will be tied into DLC packs - which is fine because that's commonplace in the fighting game genre.

AUD. Whatever the currency, you're not getting value for money.

Wrestlemania XIX also had a momentum metre which would be colour graded similar to the AKI games. It worked alongside the 'super' metre and would appear above the wrestler's name on the hud with a colour coded indicator that was similar to AKI games (aka if you were struggling you'd be dark blue, if you were on fire, the name would be fire red). Fight Forever ditches the super metre, but the momentum system is very similar to the GameCube style games and doesn't dictate gameplay as much as the AKI games. Interestingly as well, Fight Forever doesn't regenerate health either. In AKI games, the health system was similar to a fighter where you'd inflict temporary and permanent damage which you could refill by staying on your feet. I think that's why matches are always pretty short and rarely feel as gruelling or tense as a AKI style match. The striking system reminds me a lot of Def Jam in terms of how fluid it is. If you go back and play those games, you'll notice how strikingly similar the pacing is to Fight Forever. Since that's the closest we got to a modern No Mercy, it's fair to say that was always going to be a natural evolution. Granted, Def Jam was intended to be more of a fighting game where you KO your opponent, so the planned WCW game may not have been THAT fast. It's definitely not a $90 game and if it's anything like the 2K games, it should go on special relatively quickly. I expect it to be discounted quickly, so for $20 you'd have a rock solid wrestling game. However as an AKI purist, this isn't the game I've been longing for. It's a fine throwback to the SYM era of Yukes and there are some options I like. Namely, the ability to have music while the match is playing - if this can be modded being able to include the DOR soundtrack and old AKI tracks would be sweet. However there's a lot of core components missing and it's pretty bare bones for what it is.

I'm still waiting for that report on the bots. Onus of proof and all that jazz.

IIRC, fans crapped on the notion that the event never happened and it was all elaborate work. Until we get some Russo-riffic Punk-Elite team up and Talk Is Jericho kumbya podcast where they breakdown their awesome 'work' your PM box will remain empty.

Your mileage may vary when it comes to the mat-work. It looked as loose as anything, for mine the match was all about the dives which were spectacular. Also I 100% co-sign with MoS and MLB on Darby. The exception to every rule and one of the few guys who could have transcended eras.

Not content with just the predictible Ricky Starks post-match 'save' they make a portion of the match about Shawn Spears recycling Kimberly Page's gimmick... Unbelievable.

It was inevitable. It was only a matter of time before he upset enough people that it would limit his opportunities and reflect poorly on his place of employment. It's a shame because Dax was one of the few people who was willing to engage on topics fans were interested in but it was clearly doing more harm than good. I can't help but feel that things really came to ahead with Meltzer's accusations that Dax was painting The Elite into a corner but I'll accept if it wasn't that situation it would likely be another. The strangest thing to come out of this is that Dax was so vulnerable on the podcast, nobody came off looking worse in his stories than Dax. From being incredibly thin-skinned to insecure, Dax painted himself as a prickly guy to work with.

If the main purpose is to have Ricky Starks make the save during the post-match (which is my prediction) then I would save Komander/White entirely and skip straight to Ricky Starks/Jay White. The reason being, fans are behind Starks, there is already a rivalry there and a customary 'make the save' is such a well worn cliche in AEW. Hell, I would have thrown Jay White right into the mix of that Elite/BCC before he splinters off with Juice. However if TK has his heart set on the match, I'd just let them have the match (10 minutes: heat, comeback, commanding finish) and let it breathe with no post-match segment. Then later in the show, have Renee grab some post-match comments where Jay cuts a 90 second promo where he puts over his mission statement and challenges somebody in the locker room to stop him. Maybe have Juice fire up in there and take a crack at Ricky Starks and you can set up a rematch between Juice/Ricky for a later show. Then again I think AEW needs a proper baseline and post-match beat-downs/saves and interrupted promos are two of my biggest issues with the promotion. Trust your performers, let them cook.

Different strokes for different folks. The main concern with Jay White vs. Komander is that when it's all said and done, the main take-away will be the post-match. Ricky Starks will appear, they'll have a forgettable confrontation, that will set up a match for next week and Komander will be relegated to ROH/Rampage that only a fraction of the audience watches.

I can't keep up, is AR Fox #511 or is that Vikingo? Jay White vs. Komander maybe the most polarising match since Tony Nese vs. Bryan Danielson. Like Nese/Danielson the world will keep turning after the match is over but I don't know, it's like celebrating Christmas in June, aren't we a little early here? They'll really need to bring it, moreso than the Sammy/Komander match.

I was just about to say, what an awful week to be an ROH fan. But yeah after OC/Matthews I could really give or take the rest of the show. It wasn't terrible by any means and the Jeff Hardy return got a good reaction but none of it left me as excited moving forward. If the Jeff return was a one time thing, I'd be fine but I know they're going to drag this on and we're going to get FTR-Hardys while the rest of the tag division twiddles their thumbs. The rest of the show could be nit-picked, but you could say the same for most shows really. OC/Matthews and Darby/Swerve delivered so that's what I'll take out of the show.

Cassidy/Matthews stole the show. OC continues to be an MVP for AEW and his sell job really elevated the match. He really meshed well with Matthews and these past couple of weeks have been the best Buddy has looked in AEW. I'd be down for a rematch between the two, but OC has only gone from strength to strength this past year or so. I thought Darby/Swerve had it's moments as well. It was a nice mirror match with both guys going high risk until Swerve tweaked his ankle on the double stomp to the outside. I enjoyed the shift of gears and basing Darby's comeback by having him target the injury. My only gripe is that it seemed like after the chair spot, Swerve abandoned all hope and just ate Darby's signature moves to finish the match. Also I largely like Darby, but at a certain point, those no-look dives just make him look silly. That spot where he went for a springboard and Swerve countered with a German is something I hope he doesn't make a habit of. Otherwise I enjoyed the jump-start, nobody hits a tope as well as Darby and of MJF's challengers he's far and away the best all-round pick. Another great promo afterwards and while they're clearly going for a 4-way of sorts, Darby/MJF is clearly the best pairing.

While it worked out for AEW in the end, why would you even risk putting the title on a free agent when you have Hangman & Jericho right there? As far as I remember, Moxley winning the interim title felt out of the blue as well. Wasn't he embroiled with the JAS when they decided he was the #1 contender and would face off against a Battle Royal winner? Then that led to the Forbidden Door match with Tanahashi where he won the title. It just seems like TK had his mind-set on Moxley/Punk for All Out and was unwilling to change his mind despite there being obvious issues. As far as the podcast goes, nothing Moxley said contradicted the points Punk made. All it did was confirm a story from around that time and provide some context behind that squash which in hindsight was a dumb idea that made Punk look less than before he'd go onto beat the 'baddest man in AEW' clean as a sheet.

Which is what the likes of Jericho, Matt Hardy, Jon Moxley, Bryan Danielson etc. have all said. Tony obviously has final say, but he's evidently nowhere near as hands on or restrictive as Vince which is why the show varies wildly from segment to segment. It also helps when you're in a position of power like Sonjay Dutt. Certain guys are always going to be featured, whether they're a benefit to the show or not.

It's funny how a show that doesn't appear all that great on paper can just hit the spot. Once again, we're seeing the positive impact touring is having on the product. The crowd was into everything which in turn gave the wrestlers some confidence and every match delivered. I'm not typically a huge fan of battle royals but every now and then it just breaks up the monotiny. One thing AEW did well here is that they got the balance right and had enough stars in the battle royal plus a few acts that haven't been featured in awhile making an appearance. With a big roster, I always think it's an important to rotate people around and make it seem fresh. For instance it's been over six months since we've seen The Butcher and The Blade team up on Dynamite let's test them out. I think OC is great at working his shtick. His cat & mouse sequences this Wednesday were really smooth and I thought his selling really added to the drama of the match. The fans all clearly loved it too so the OC-Wheeler match was about as good a match you're going to see from Yuta. I just wonder if you put the World Belt on him could you expect him to carry it for a year and for fans to be emotionally invested? Does he have that type of charisma or is he just too polarising for wrestling audiences? Selfishly, I'd also like to see an international wrestler with the All-Atlantic Championship. Whether it's Konosuke Takeshita or RUSH, just somebody who could use the spotlight and bring a different flavour to the company. OC is doing a fair job working against all these different styles, but ultimately it's always going to be an OC match.

The funny thing was the quote sounded completely reasonable but then he couldn't help himself right at the end. But even Tony Khan can't help himself and makes these comparisons to 1997-98 WCW when really he should be focused on his product. If the discourse is going to change, Tony really needs to represent the company better than he currently is.

They can't play nice but they also can't make absurd statements and not expect some backlash when they fail to live up to it. "This is bigger than The Outsiders coming into WCW!" Oh boy...