War is Raw

Tons on Youtube. And she is even more impressive.

Nick Jackson vs. Rey Fenix 912,000 Britt Baker vs. Hikaru Shida lost 50,000 Dark Order video/ beginning of the Battle Royal gained 13,000 End of the Battle Royal/ the beginning of the Chris Jericho interview gained 98,000 Jericho SCU, post match brawl,/Luchasaurus vs. Peter Avalon gained 21,000 Private Party vs. Santana & Ortiz lost 196,000 Post-match of Private Party vs. Santana & Ortiz/ Moxley vs. Allin intros lost 4,000 Moxley vs. Allin gained 83,000 (and Teenage Peak) Finished 899,000

Pretty sure he and Windham had chemistry up the ying-yang from the 80s to early 90s.

I love how both men took their time to establish face vs heel (for us in the future, too!) and then the story of Muta's crew threatening at ringside to stack the odds against Arn. Solid in-ring work and psychology. Fans on every impact move from Arm. Muta mixes his flips in (but in a safe way) which adds to his character. Did you see how it was not necessary for them to spam finishing moves like WWE or counter them multiple times like NJPW? The finishing sequence was amazing: Arn did the miracle kickout when Buzz Sawyer jumped on him. Had me fooled. Muta softens him up with a jumping kick, backbreaker, and then sets up for the moonsault (the most spectacular move at the time). Arn puts his knees up. DDT. 1-2-3 Super pop.

Dustin got universal praise on the forums I've seen. I was surprised because smarks usually hate down to earth, fun guys who don't know facts and figures. Heck, I loved Dusty in WCW announcing.

Britt Baker vs. Hikaru Shida was announced, not sure if they will fit it. I didn't like Baker in Dark last night- too many botches in AEW. Shida is a complete package for a joshi in the U.S. Can get real aggressive, speaks English, beautiful, good gear. Still a little shy on TV. With Private Party jobbing to Best Friends at Dark, tonight's match seems predictable. Hope it's good, as both teams don't move the ratings.

The original podcast where he spoke the truth? The numerous interviews where he said WWE almost killed him and he hates how things are run there. The lawsuits? Still bitter about WWE not caring about his health. Still thinks WWE was behind it. Lost his friend. Tagged Khan who responded with Saudi. Not mentioned. Very easy to say what you said in hindsight. People tuned in hoping for something big, which will be shown in the ratings...sorry. Not sure why this is a debate.

Unfortunately you'd be surprised how many times real people in real life have told me "it's not kayfabe", "it's a sports job for Rene", and "it covers real sports" (that boxing PPV advert). I don't blame Punk for following the money, but I do blame him for acting like money was not as issue (previous interviews on Youtube) and he is retired. The last point goes away if he wrestles for WWE next year after rejected Khan's light schedule. Heck, Kahn would have paid for him to Dynamite speaking or PPV pipebomb appearances only. Just saying...I'm not on Team Punk anymore. I followed him for years, felt for him, he acted like an artist who was against the system. Sold out to me, you know?

Yeah, 95%+ of the fans in the reddit thread and my bud in real life said it was fine too. I listed those facts in my mind as well. I guess my problem is he tagged Vince and Kahn, which implied pipebomb, yet didn't even mention Khan vs Randy, or Saudi, or the lawsuits. The bigger issue is that it's still not SportsCenter- it's still an advertising arm of WWE, so no ACH or even AEW debates. So he may think he is "free" but he is helping WWE with this buzz. The Seth thing feels like a "coming out of retirement for WM" angle. As far as his "shooting", Booker T, Paige, and Christian did the same thing in previous episodes. They all crapped on Rusev-Lana, and Paige even called out Seth for being immature on Twitter. Booker buried him too. So not sure why Paige paused and acted uncomfortable when Punk teased them to agree with his "hot take". Also not sure why a "free" Rene has problems saying her husband's name. Seems like a step above Corey Graves' FOX podcasts or Austin's WWE podcast collabs. It's WWE being "edgy" but still feels like they have Stockholm Syndrome. Punk's rant about "wrestling" suffering from micromanagement and overproduction? It's not "wrestling", Phil, it's only WWE. It was a Freudian slip that he still thinks WWE is the only player in town. If you reduce it to "So what did Punk say to break the world??", the answer is...he shit on Baron Corbin's promo. Something that has been done on the show for Lana already. The Shield reference? Also made on a previous show. The Tom Arnold promo is just a segment that other have done on the show. That is my minority opinion. I get it everyone likes Punk again after last week. LOL!!! I concede that he did not storm off or act like a corporate zombie. So, yes, he did fine. I just have high expectations for Punk "shooting". But seriously, he had said this year he was over wrestling but now he is on a wrestling talk show, and guys are already challenging him on Twitter (Seth and Ricochet). And full disclosure, I am an AEW fan, and he chose a side, so...

WWE Backstage was tame and lame.

The amazing thing is how Randy Orton always get put over by old timers and his peers like he was God's gift to wrestling. People like Flair, Cornette, Race, HHH, Cena, Matysik, etc. I never had an emotional connection to him, and he always put me to sleep. So did Inoki and Billy Robinson, but they have historical significance. I guess his Evolution and Legend Killer runs really made him a big star. But his body of work is pure WWE nonsense and boring matches. He looks and sounds like a CAW. He has the guts to work that rear chinlock, thinking that makes him "old school" or something, but it doesn't fit. His dad showed more movement in the ring, had better selling, and better matwork. His dad also lacked charisma and audience connection. So not sure why it is so offensive to some to suggest that with Randy. I guess they have some good memories of him as a tweener from the 2000s or a Royal Rumble win. One of the worse promos, although it may be a scripted issue. Pushes are beyond his control, but his character was irrevocably ruined when he was The Authority's lackey. He gets pops nowadays due to nostalgia, the meme, and his ridiculous WWE poses/mannerisms. The AEW fantasy booking was baffling. Uncle Dave's WON HOF nominee capsule: "Orton kills everyone on the list for longevity, number of main events in major markets, top position, and his 13 world titles are among the most in history. He’s also technically excellent in the ring, has a great look, and has headlined more PPV shows than all but few in history including WrestleMania. Yet, with all that I can say, he’s hard to pull the trigger on voting. It’s unfair to say it was handed to him, because it’s handed to nobody unless they were a relative of the promoter. But he didn’t have to work nearly as hard to get it. And some of that was his natural talent, and a lot was his size and look. He looked the part and could work the part, was pushed for a long time yet there is almost the idea that he was pushed ahead of better people simply because of the traits he had. He had good matches, often very good matches, but as great as he was technically, I can’t really name a slew of true great matches. He talked well, but I would never call him a great promo. He was not a super drawing card, although he also came in the era where that was difficult. Aside from John Cena, who in the U.S. of his contemporaries truly was? But when it comes to headlining big shows, or being legit among the top ten draws of his era, he fares extremely well historically, well above Hall of Fame threshold."

The sad part about Good Ol' JR is that no one is in his earpiece telling him what to say. This is the real JR.

Pro wrestling is a bad form of entertainment to raise moral objections over violence. And, IMHO, so is making a judgment on a wrestling board saying fans of Mox vs Omega have unhealthy morals. It is similar to going on an MMA or boxing forum and crying "you evil men are supporting human cockfighting". Both men are consenting adults and have no ill-will to each other in real life. They discussed their limitations and lines were drawn beforehand. Kahn oversaw everything. It's similar to an bondage session. Moxley promised violence and fulfilled his advertisement. If the match was tame like Seth vs Bray, fans would be displeased and there would be real fallout. Moxley-Omega was more bells + whistles and smoke + mirrors than infamous Japanese deathmatches or backyard wrestling stunts. Nothing compared to Funk vs Sabu in 1997 ECW where the barbed wire entangled their clothes and skin. FMW? CZW? I heard there were more dangerous matches last month. Those types of matches are not entertaining to me either, but I leave morality and judging others out of it. Mox and Omega was more comical and safe compared to the real nasty stuff. You know that match you said was the second best in AEW history? Cody vs Jericho? It resulted in a separated rib and 8 stitches . Actual, real damage. Jericho went after the head and used the Liontamer on an injured opponent because he's a heel. Both men are considered professional for finishing the match, and Cody is considered courageous and tough. Cody refused to stop the match. Cody's stitches came out on Wed with worked punches, so certainly finishing the match did more damage than necessary.

Yeah, I was thinking of your live show comments when I compiled these! I actually thought you would have chosen Io vs Yim over AEW. Io gained 75,000 viewers, a few more than Jericho's tag, although obviously NXT had 200,000 less viewers total. Anyway, thanks for the response.

Open: PPV highlights/Omega w/doc, Mox Promo, vs Nakazawa: 1,080,000 viewers Dark Order vs. Jungle Boy & Marko Stunt: lost 105,000 Shawn Spears vs. Darby Allin vs. Peter Avalon: lost 114,000 Nyla Rose squash, Allie interview, Awesome Kong w/Brandi Rhodes, beginning of the Chris Jericho interview: gain 55,000 Jericho/MJF, Cody gain 101,000 Adam Page vs. PAC lost 77,000 Young Bucks brawl v Santana & Ortiz lost 41,000 Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara vs SCU gain 64,000, Finished 968,000

Correct: Pac vs. Trent 976,000 Beginning of Private Party vs. Dark Order 809,000 Ending of the Private Party vs. Dark Order match/Chris Jericho video 827,000 It's just that Dave values bringing viewers back. So I considered their end segment a "gain", even if it was a total loss from the opener. This because Dave gives mad props for gains even if total number never matches the opening or previous segment. In this case, he ignored them for any gains because of Jericho's vid and they got tagged with the total loss Ultimately, the show lost viewers all night, but some segments got people back, like Moxley/Omega video, the main event, and brawl. None of them got the show back to the opening. So Dave gives "credit" to any growth as a "draw". So that is why I put over the end of Dark Order vs PP, but I see how that can be off base and apologize if I am. After all, even if you give them end credit, the match lost 132,000 viewers. Brandi/Cutler/Shawn lost 99,000. But there is this tibit too: "In Men 35-49, the Cody segment was the strongest, but also showing growth were Private Party vs. Dark Order and the main event."

He was and is a non-union company man. Actually, he has his SAG-AFTRA card now that he left The Empire.

I stand with you and your episode thoughts.

I read it too. Said Dark Order vs Private Party lost viewers at first but then gained on the same segment as Jericho's video. Brandi's vid + Brandon Cutler vs. Shawn Spears killed the viewers.

"Nice guys" are passive-aggressive. He was OK with the logo on a different colored shirt.

Uncle Dave said Dark Order vs SCU gained viewers, even before Jericho came out. The Brawl gained viewers. Riho gained teenagers Weeks 1 and 3. Main event killed NXT's.

The fans were out of this world. This was like stories from old timers where they said "back in the day" fans would pop for working a 15-minute headlock. Really shows you how serious WCW fans were and how they appreciated this style, even in 1994. Arn said all the crazy holds and moves from Regal was a huge challenged but Arn worked them out on the fly, which I guess added to the realism of this match. Yes, the finish was shocking , but it worked because it evoked an emotion from me and if Arn wasn't gonna be the TV champ, might as well do the job. Bobby Heenan was great announcing, and although Tony doesn't get half his jokes and is so anal retentive/serious, he wasn't as bad as on a random Nitro. I probably don't rate this as MOTY-worthy like some of these reviews only because IMHO every Arn Anderson match is like this. The man simply has no stinkers and every match is gritty, real, and entertaining. I am OK if all of you decide to vote him GOAT based on this observation.

Coffey You have said a lot of truths, no doubt. However IMHO there is one contradiction: if titles have meant nothing in WWE since the mid to late 1990s, to quote Hillary Clinton, "what difference- at this point- does it make" who has the title in 2019? The titles are utterly meaningless for all the reasons you said. Therefore it stands to reason, there was no wrong choice. Russo saw that in WCW and took it to its logical conclusion. No need to take this nonsense seriously if it already jumped the shark. Saying "Kofi wasn't worthy" doesn't make sense in the system is broken (kayfabe dead, viewership down and cannot be taken back up after Episode 2 of FOX, too many title changes, bad writing, etc.) Underdogs getting hot has been a staple with pro wrestling. It's the reason why guys hang around for decades. They know at any point they could be booked near the top or at the top. Look at The Miz who was a jobber for a whole year a few years ago and then got pushed in spotlighted matches. Even Dolph gets resurrected every year, like an undead zombie. Even Uncle Dave thought Rey Mysterio was going to upset Seth Rollins this month on RAW for the belt. See Tito Santana's WWF career. If you don't like my examples, there are more. These are off the top of my head. For WWE to insult its dwindling fanbase with a 7-second "realistic" squash (as defended by Lance Storm BTW) to put over Brock (again), push a Saudi match, show the 1 million new FOX viewers Kofi was an impostor champ, not even have Kofi mention it the next week...well, it's one of many reasons why Smackdown loses viewers every week, fans are pissed on Reddit, and disgruntled fans are checking out AEW. So by all means, keep doing it, WWE. And yes, I'm sure Bruce Prichard will defend it one day.

I guess it's selection bias for us because I see Squared Circle being full of WWE apologists and trolls. There are a bunch of WWE loyalists on there who think it is a betrayal to even watch AEW for a minute. The majority of posts are about WWE videos, tweets, how to make it better, and calling out AEW. They truly believe Seth Rollins and Bruce Prichard's company lines about WWE being the only act in town/the big leagues. I guess our online subculture full of toxicity, skepticism, or just prone to being critical, but IMHO fans ought to give AEW a chance if one wants to have a legit #2 company to chisel away at the silly sports entertainment monolith. I'm really not sure why some podcasters or posters get their panties in a bunch criticizing AEW so early in its life when so far everything they have touched has turned into gold.

Gosh, I am still getting an adrenaline rush even thinking about that Omega-Fenix match a day later. Such athleticism and acrobatics. I can't even do a write up with all those spots.