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Nigel was right all along about Brittle Bryan :shambles

Quite sure it's just an angle

You know, when Christian made the challenge, I was like "oh well of course Ric will get Andrade and he'll move to the TNT title or something" and then later the interview with Edge happens and I realize I had completely forgotten Edge was in AEW already.

Flair was originally supposed to be the one to reveal the title that Bret end up doing. He was also supposed to come in around the time of the DSOTR episode that put everything on hold. TK has wanted Flair since day one, which makes sense as AEW = WCW 2.0 (3.0 I guess if we count TNA) on Turner and all the JCP/WCW nostalgia they've always had going on.

I feel like that actually isn't a good thing in modern wrestling. Legitimate heel heat in a long post-kayfabe era is the same thing as X-Pac/go away heat.

I don't watch the current product. I did watch Bully Ray era TNA, and Aces & Eights was so dogshit that's around the time I completely checked out of TNA entirely until sometime into the Don Callis era. Also Bubba Ray fucking sucks and always has, even if Bully Ray was his peak.

I'm completely sick of the "both almost hit their finish in the first 2 minutes" spot that has been a staple of "we are using psychology for this epic match" at least in the US since Rock/Austin. I know it was more common in Japan earlier than that, but it is so overplayed and no one ever hits the finish that early to make it actually seem dangerous. The only times I can recall that happening is with Brock, either hitting an instant F5 for a kick out and laughing, or Cena hitting an FU on him and him kicking out immediately and laughing. It's as played out and ultimately somewhat of the evolution of the indie respek stand off, which I also hate.

It's 2023 and we got mfs saying it's actually good that Tommy Dreamer and Bubba Ray Dudley on TV. That wasn't even a good thing in 2003. TNA did their ECW nostalgia shit nearly 15 years ago, yet they're still using these dudes.

I agree, first time I checked out TNA in quite a while and it was definitely a big step up from the last PPV I watched which was probably during the Kenny Omega title run. Did think Trinity/Mickie was quite bad, though. A few things I hope they improve with the rebrand and bigger budget: Get straighter ropes. Nothing says rinky dink to me than wobbly, bent ropes. Unless it's some random JCP from the early to mid 80s. The ring seems too...I don't know what. I think the lack of sound just makes it seem soft and floppy. Mic that mf up. Tell the announcers to stop yelling or at least adjust where they sit in the mix, because at least to me it feels like they're constantly yelling and it is ear tiring. Ease up on the ex-WWE guys. There's all the talk about AEW overdoing it, but they're taking in guys like Bryan, Christian, Edge, Joe, Adam Cole. TNA has a gang of 2010-2016 WWE mid carders. Like I'm watching the battle royale and it seems that the bulk of their mid card is comedy, ironic, or former mid card WWE guys from 8 years ago. Also, why the fuck is Tommy Dreamer still around? With Sting retiring, PCO should be Darby's new dad, and then they can see who can take the most horrific bumps for no reason.

BOTB usually aren't even added to the schedule until the week of, I wonder if it is just a "hey we have an empty hour" thing from the network

It's wild that it took them over a DECADE to recover from Hogan/Bischoff killing the brand. What a disaster they were for TNA.

I think Brock's literal first match was on Dynamite with a few months of training. Dude is 26 with 2 years of experience mostly in sub-7 minute matches on the youtube shows. Little early to write him off as a failure. I've seen some Marty Lunde matches and you'd never know that guy was going to be as great as Arn got in his formative years. Even early into the Horsemen run, he hadn't put it all together yet.

Bennett doing Head Neck Strong by Trapt popped me.

I see it more as doing the Bret/Owen thing. White-O giving Penta his best singles match in AEW. Would really like to see White take the belt off of MJF and then MJF do some weird love rectangle with Cole/Strong/Caster.

Man the majority of Edge's top run when not working with Cena was hard came side is empty arenas. Not to mention, he's been on TV for a company that is extremely focused on making sure you are facing hard cam at all times for 25 years, back to the camera should be antithetical to all of his instincts.

Does evil Skye Blue go by Skye Black or Black Skye?

Christian vs Bryan ruled and I'm already tired of Edge. Dude has started and ended every show for 2 weeks now in extremely 20+ year old WWE formula fashion. Put him in the ring or tell him to go fuck himself. Joe vs Willie Mack also ruled. Joe truly is the king of television.

I don't even know what could have pissed Edge off. All the dude said was basically "I'm not talking to you"

That kind of thing has been Edge's thing really since the start of his first solo run. It's never been a particularly good thing, but this one seemed extra "fuck this guy" in tone for whatever reason. My fear has someone calling Ricky "Enzo" and killing that man's career on the spot. Edge seems like the guy who might do that if they're put in a few promos together.

No, I'm not talking about perceived backstage stuff aside from him dropping the title and then being on the shows MORE and headlining PPVs instead of the champ, which is SOP for Hogan going back to dropping the title in 1988 and 1990. No one is getting me mad at them and thinking they suck because they're such a good heel, man. The context is I've been going through the Nitro era over the past 2 years in a bookclub like deal with some buddies and Hogan segments/promos/matches are consistently the lowest rated of anything on pretty much every show but everyone in the group with pretty varied tastes in what they like in pro wrestling. When I say Hall and Nash did the heavy lifting, I mean the only reason the nWo seemed fresh and cool was because of them. The had all the swag, were the ones that felt like they were doing something transgressive, and they're the ones that seemed physically dangerous in beat downs in a way Hogan never, ever could. Hogan is the opposite of what they were and what they brought, and it really sticks out once the black and white cut up promos fade out and Hogan is cutting those rambling nonsense promos like a heel from 1983. He's so out of place with the vibe, and he's promos are just dreadful yelling until his voice sounds like he's gargling blood while not even saying anything of note (not unlike HBK during the same period, which was also dogshit). His bad guy acting goings beyond laughably bad into embarrassing. Just constantly mugging and preening like a cartoon when the whole point of the nWo is supposed to be realism. His matches are absolutely dreadful, and that's judging him just on his WCW run up to that point, which was pretty dodgy outside of the first couple of Flair matches and maybe a Vader match. His psychology makes no sense: he's both a complete over the top chicken shit AND a dominate big guy who imposes his will on whomever (but usually extra when it is a Sting/Luger and even Goldberg). And his matches are such bullshit on TV that fans don't even react to someone kicking out of the leg drop (which happened a few times to zero reaction) because everyone is just waiting for the run in. Great, he drew so much money and such ratings and buyrates and it was such a hot run, well who gives a fuck, because that's not what I'm talking about. No one can go back and watch his work in 1996-1998 and tell me that's good entertainment. It's bad wrestling. It's bad promos. It's bad angles. He's an active detriment to enjoyment of any show he's on during that period.

Sheamus is 45, Lashley is 47. Considerably younger at 44 lol.

Yeah what other argument do you need when I'm saying it was dogshit? Do you need specific promos and matches that fucking sucked? Outside of the original turn and post turn promo, everything involving Hogan fucking sucked. Hall and Nash were doing ALL the heavy lifting and making the nWo seem hip and fresh. Hogan was just full blown cartoon bad guy that went totally against what the whole point and vibe of the nWo was supposed to be. And the longer it went on, as the chopped up promos gave way to in ring promos, Hogan became more and more exposed as the lamest fucking old dude who would just talk/yell until his voice went out every week hyping himself up and not even pushing angles most of the time. In ring, every TV match is a complete waste of time with him doing chokes and eye/back rakes for a few minutes before a DQ. PPV matches are pretty much the same but twice as long and Hogan taking a few more slow motion bumps and selling like a parody of Ric Flair. Any time he drops a fall it is immediately over shadowed with a nWo beatdown and he gets his win back while still being all over TV. Guy "puts Goldberg over" after controlling Goldberg far more than anyone had ever done before in Goldberg's longest match to date and them main events the next two PPVs with celebs doing all the mainstream media shit, his angle dominates the War Games build and match, and his match with Warrior dominates the build for Halloween Havoc despite the Goldberg/DDP match being the main event.

Hey Phil not feeding his ego lol

I'm not talking about the numbers. I'm talking about the actual quality of what he was doing. Just absolute dogshit angles, promos, and matches the entire run.

Impact gets like 30k viewers, Punk ain't taking it to number 2.