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Okada's been on the backburner and really doing nothing of note since ending his mega reign in 2018 and it's hard to blame him for going through the motions for a while. Gedo has had nothing for him while making too late ascensions for Natio and Ibushi that flopped for different reasons, and during the pandemic, Okada was doing PPV matches with Yujiro and The Great O'Khan. Hard to get your dander up for shit like that, but he still brought it for the G1 and big matches with Ospreay/Shingo. I would say it's probably difficult for him to get up for much of anything other than a sold out Tokyo Dome main event at this point. How can he possibly stay motivated when he's broken basically every record the company has ever had by the time he's 30? And in Japan these mega names stay wrestling regularly into their 50s and 60s so we might have another 25 years of Okada doing Okada things.

I want to say a few years ago WWE was in talks to buy the tape library for the Network and it probably fell through because it was Sinclair era only and who the fuck wants that footage

Cody's promo was truly weird. The only similar thing I can think of is the promo where Cena literally turned his heel on the mat and trolled fans begging for a heel turn. Except Cody isn't likeable at all and nothing he can do is going to get people popping for him like they would when Cena would really turn it on and do some cool bad ass spot or beat down and everyone who would normally be screaming Cena sucks were 100% behind him in the moment. Cody sure ain't John Cena but that's what it felt like he was trying to position himself as. I really have no idea where this is going. The whole thing felt like it was an attempt to acknowledge every single complaint fans have about him and try to garner sympathy for him, but I sure don't see that happening anytime soon. He would probably be best served to just take 3-6 months off and try to capitalize on the lights out return pop.

ROH has been dead in my eyes since around the time they first got that HDnet show so that was what....10+ years ago? It's been so entirely irrelevant to me as a fan despite being a real close follower until right around the Age of the Fall and rise of one Tyler Black, which is when I tuned out and then anytime I've looked into ROH in the meantime the shows have been so lifeless and the roster would be worse and worse.

It seems awfully weird to me that the end game of the AEW/TNA relationship was have Kenny beat all of TNA's guys then drop the belt to AEW's Christian, who then drops it to TNA's X-Division champ who immediately drops it to Moose.

The real hey wait a minute this ain't real when it comes to blood is no one is ever bleeding from anywhere but middle of forehead or in the hairline. Not that I think it'd be great to have dudes blading their cheek bones or near their eyes, but that's where people get cut more often than not in actual fights.

Walter uses a lot of the same tricks that Regal used in WCW to look brutal but was safe, and they're mostly things that guys stopped doing in the 1970s for whatever reason. You'll see a lot of Dick Murdochish 70s techniques taken to a different level in Walter matches if you're really watching to study.

I think this was the first Saudi show that was actually pretty good. Real interesting how the last couple of these they were real strict on not mentioning where it was being held or why it was on at such a weird time for Americans because of the backlash after the Khashoggi murder and various talents boycotting due to various things. But this time around, god damn they couldn't say Riyadh or Saudi Arabia enough.

Sandman and Shane came in in 1999. Terry hadn't even been in ECW for like 2-3 years at that point. Mike Awesome made sense even if how they used him absolutely did not, but bringing in Terry Funk to feud with I guess 4th version of the NWO was pretty wtf.

Why bring in almost 60 year old Terry Funk in 2000 at all, especially when they were trying to push a youth wave when the knock on WCW since 1994 was all their top guys were old and over the hill? Why then do another Flair vs Funk feud in 2000? Why do another Flair vs Hogan feud in 2000? Why bring back Larry Z and Paul Orndorff, both of whom would obviously not be in wrestling roles, to back Terry against the nWo? Endless whys.

That only makes sense from a smark "well they book this way because..." perspective. It makes no sense on screen, which is far more important than the theoretical considerations that go into booking. Obviously he doesn't want to have to have any of those people have a loss, but that can't be the reason given on screen. The only one that makes any sense to leave out would be Adam Cole, who might not want to go after his buddy's belt yet.

Yeah why are they in there and why should anyone take the tournament seriously with them in it and missing Punk/Miro/PAC/Andrade/Darby etc

In kayfabe explain to me how the guy last seen LOSING to Punk is in the tournament, but Punk himself is not makes sense in this company where wins/losses are supposed to be so important

Well, JR wasn't the only one to say it and it was a very common saying in just about every American wrestling promotion that has ever had television. Gorilla and Jesse said it just about every show, Tony/JR/David Crockett said it frequently. I honestly don't know how a poster here could have not heard that phrase or some variant hundreds of times in their lives watching pro wrestling shows. I've even heard it in 1950s/60s commentary. The point is, Punk calls himself the Best in the World. TK keeps saying Punk is the biggest wrestling star in the world. His return was allegedly the biggest deal in a decade or so. And yet he's not booked in not even a title match, but a title shot TOURNAMENT, on commentary at the time the brackets are announced and he doesn't even give a shit he's not in it. So, why are we doing 2 months of circle jerking every episode that he's back when he's not ready to really be back and AEW isn't ready to really book him like he's back?

Have you never watched professional wrestling in your life or something? JR said that weekly for about 30 years on TV across multiple promotions.

That's completely lame. Oh I'm the best in the world bit actually I'd rather just fave young guys I know I can beat and not fave the actual top guys. Like.. what. This is more and more like Bret in WCW where he came in and didn't even mention challenging for a title until about 8 months in and it was for the TV title. Meanwhile having matches with Disco on Thunder.

Tony keeps saying Punk is the biggest wrestling star in the world and yet he doesn't put Punk in the title shot tournament and Punk is on commentary during this and doesn't even acknowledge it. That's not complaining for the sake of complaining, that makes Punk look like he's not the big deal they keep telling you he is and makes him look like he doesn't give a shit about being the top guy. How many hundreds of times have you heard some version of "if you're not here to be the champ, why are you here"?

So CM Punk isn't in the title tournament and didn't even have a comment about not being in it so what the fuck is he doing in AEW

The back and forth strike battles suck when it's a whole show of them, which is why that era of NJPW is such a chore, but Suzuki and Ishii being the only ones doing those matches now in NJ stand out and are awesome. I do kind of lol when you see it in American wrestling with shitty wrasslin punches and the BOOO/YAAAY reactions though. If you're gonna do that spot, lay that shit in as much as you can while still being safe.

In character or not, he told no lies about punk.

It's called cocaine, brother

Yeah that shit is some real peak the smartest fans are the dumbest fucks territory

Or the former CEO who worked in the cabinet of a twice impeached president and then was a major fundraiser for him AFTER a failed coup attempt. Or the former star who is now a mayor who is anti vax and anti mask in the midst of a global pandemic that has killed over 700,000 people in his country. Or doing a woke safe space heel gimmick. Or whose response to George Floyd protests and BLM was creating a blatant ANTIFA based heel terrorist group and of course turned the Muslim guy heel to lead it. Or who let their head NXT ref go absolutely bat shit crazy for months and months on lunatic conspiracy theories while AT WORK. Or a company that had two black men born and raised in America wrestle in a NIGERIAN DRUM MATCH at WM in 2021. But yeah they did switch the Moolah battle royal to Mae Young and did ignore Hulk Hogan for a few years before bringing him back and putting him in segments with black talent as often as possible despite him admitting on television that he's a racist.

Snuka was a murderer, Fatu was in a gang, Jimmy Uso has like 5 DUIs in 2 years. Criminal charges from his youth lol.

I do not give a fuck about storyline set up for shit in AEW. AEW is Super PWG and dream matches for the sake of dream matches are good enough for me.