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Shocking that Edge lasted that long without an injury considering he's been very injury prone since 2003ish and has been working a weekly schedule of real twerkrate style

Lmao at Shibata throwing dice like Kiryu doing a heat action

Learn deez nutz, bruv

lol at Cole namedropping EVIL when talking about the Bullet Club and not Balor/AJ/Cody

After months of debate, it was decided more people thought the wrestling shit was bullshit and didn't want to see it ever again than those who liked the "coverage", which was just talks in the op-ed section and a two part special on lucha horror movies. There was a brief turnabout in the letters to the editor section after Lawler/Kaufman slap on Letterman, but ultimately the haters won out on that front. But you know, there were a lot of letters to the editor that had people thinking The Shining/Halloween III/Poltergeist sucked around the same period.

Been working overnights and loading up Fangoria from the start, and in Spring of 1982, there is a big back and forth between editors and readers over talking about pro wrestling stemming pretty much entirely from Ox Baker in Escape from New York. It was followed up with a feature on lucha horror movies, which in 1982 had to be pretty much unknown and inaccessible for US audiences unless they lived around the border and got Mexican programming on TV. Very interesting to see similar debates you'd see today in an unrelated magazine letters section before national expansion era.

That can't be accurate. All the metrics were trending down during MJF's title run. I don't think it was him, specifically, but a mix of Punk/WWE being so hot/the angle with Cole being derailed from Cole's injury/AEW moving past the new hot alternative into established secondary company all hitting at the same time. I'm sure the raw numbers will show MJF run > things now, but it was already on a downward trajectory when MJF's reign started. Similar to Seth Rollins' "record low" ratings for TV during Rollins' first main event run ignoring said ratings were on a literal 13 year straight decline, and a decade later actual ratings are even lower despite WWE's actual business being literally hotter than ever.

Late to the show but it ruled. Even the pre show matches were rad. Idk if Bryan/Ospreay was "greatest American match of all time", but it was an absolute delight and could have gone another 2 hours. Danny Bryan's AEW has been so fucking great. Dude already had a GOAT tier in ring career even up to the first retirement, had absolutely no reason to go to AEW other than love of the game and wanting to have great matches with people he hadn't worked with (or at least hadn't in a long time). Roddy/KOR had some really great familiarity spots and fake outs and double/triple fake out counters.

Jericho's promo with Hook on Dynamite was fucking brutal. Not sure I've ever heard a promo so aggressively getting in and trying to get in all the catchphrases he's trademarked. It was seriously every sentence.

Lmao come on man

It didn't land well, but I get what TK was trying. The Bucks used the footage as meta trolls but kept it in the context of storyline shit (FTR's good friend CM Punk causing a commotion distracting them from their wrestler roles, causing them to lose the match, maybe FTR was behind it all along....), and FTR's promo seemed pretty definitive why the fuck is anyone talking about this shit still (including Punk), we're all moving on, we're the better team and will prove it in the ring, but the angle only happening because Punk got TK spiraling from that Ariel interview is a self inflicted L for sure. I'd imagine it won't be mentioned again, and everyone will not give a shit when OkadaBucks vs FTR/PAC and Bucks vs FTR rule.

I don't think it was quite Russo tier stuff, but it was just a step or two away. The FTR promo wrapped it back around to a wrestling promo and moving on from all Punk bullshit, but the whole thing seemed needless for all involved. And clearly was just because Tony was mad at Punk's shit talk over WM week and that spiraling into a bunch of shots at AEW during the week.

Idk what y'all are talking about with Bayley/Io, it was sloppy and clunky as hell.

That vibe was very present when Vince first stepped away and then he came back and everyone seemed so dejected and miserable again. It's really quite funny how the entire apparatus including Vince's own family members can't stop talking about how great it is he's gone even if they can't mention him by name.

A lot of just fine sports entertainmenting. Sami/Gunther definitely stood well above anything else ring wise, the main events were good spectacle horseshit (absolutely should have been Austin instead of Taker popping up). Rock's entrance was prob the best thing of the weekend. With the story finished, hopefully they can move on to new stuff as the Bloodline really peaked in terms of interest a year ago. It's fascinating and hilarious how much of an absolute goober Seth Rollins has come off this whole 4 month period. Why he was so gung ho to defend Cody and be second fiddle despite being champion, getting constantly punked out by Roman or Rock, loses the main event of night one, loses his title in the opener the next night, then shows up in the main event to get punked out one final time. And then had to just be out there half dead for Cody's celebration.

Lol all the constant AEW digs and yet the video package for Cody vs Roman features a line about starting a revolution and pics of Cody with Jericho/Omega and The Bucks. You can't have that shit both ways, mayne.

Rhea/Becky was brought to you by Dude Wipes so I wouldn't look too much into it. WWE is ultra ad based now, to the point where every match has a different sponsor on all LEDs. Plus now the mat and buckle pads. Even peak WCW "sponsored by" whatever, I don't recall so much aggressive advertising. I would love to know how much Wheatley paid on this show, that ad was on every break (unless you sub to the double special premium on Peacock) for 6 fucking hours, including a match where it was on all the LEDs, had a corner graphic, and had announcers talking about it.

That does not sound like a positive line

WWE owns essentially all footage in US wrestling from the 60s to today, considering the storylines with Cody/Roman/Bloodline, it actually is kind of strange they aren't exploiting the hell out of that footage for the match. There's so much footage of generations of family matches between Rhodes and Anoa'i from Dusty vs Wild Samoans up to Cody/Goldy vs Shield and Cody vs Roman.

Queen Aminata rules, need to get her in a prominent role in AEW division ASAP. AEW time line is so bizarre where we get shit like Minoru Suzuki beating the shit out of Billy Gunn's kids who for some reason dress like 1992/1993 HBK, in 2024.

But also lmao that Rock has been management for 4 months and in that time he: Forced himself into a WM main event, when fans rejected it, he worked around it and still got the WM main event and win over the top face, got his grandma into the HOF, got his own title belt so he could have one to bring out for WM.

Considering all the hype and good will heading into this, show was real just fine outside of Gunther/Sami. Surprised Rock did as much as he did and his presentation and literal size made him seem so much bigger than the other 3, which I don't think is great. Finish was lol but of course will only make Cody more over for tomorrow, but extra lol if they rerun the finish from last year and keep Bloodline going.

He is, he's had multiple bad knee injuries, just returning from one in the last couple of weeks, working with a back injury for a while, had a beat up neck before he even got to WWE, now in his late 30s. But also having to slow down for Rock and even Roman stuff usually goes slower with lots of downtime drama.

The Rock is physically so huge he makes the other 3 look like teenagers. Dude moving with Resident Evil tank controls.