Embrodak

Corny had a great Tweet about how it’s so strange that Linda is consorting with freaks in her old age while Vince seems happy to stay home and watch birds in his retirement.

Loved that Iran-Great Satan game, so much fun watching Iran play nothing but defense the first half then try and fail to surge in the second. It’s a true shame that America invests so little in soccer, it’s better to watch than almost any sport.

Nothing weirder than when Hogan can randomly kinda go when he goes to Japan, makes you wonder why he couldn’t have had Cena’s weird insecurity of wanting to prove he’s a great wrestler.

Roman was getting booed out of the building everywhere he went, they were petrified of Roman winning in the main event and hit with a tsunami of boos as the fireworks went off. What’s funny is that was actually a fantastic match where Roman was totally getting over as a babyface, but they had no way of knowing that in advance. Roman didn’t really get over consistently as a baby face until he came back from his cancer hiatus.

I mean if Bryan Danielson was having feuds like Punk’s with Kingston with, say, Powerhouse Hobbs, or Ricky Starks, or Swerve, or Takeshita, or even Garcia (in a world where he wasn’t drowning in Jericho bullshit), I don’t think anybody would have an issue with that. If Danielson doesn’t want or care about the title, that’s fine, but I would 10000x rather he tell Ricky Starks that he’s gonna kick his smartass head in than see him wrestle Shibata on Rampage or YouTube.

He’s not “making” younger performers if the context of the matches he’s having with them is not some compelling angle. He had what was regarded as a pretty good match with Daniel Garcia a few months ago or whenever, yet in the light of subsequent history, it’s basically one component of an asinine angle where Garcia is experiencing internal anguish over whether or not he’s “a wrestler” or “a sports entertainer”. (An angle that didn’t even resolve satisfyingly on its own inane terms, by the way!) I’m frankly not sure what about this is so outrageous to you. If it was just a case of him falling victim to the time between Tony running out of his Adderall and when he refills the prescription, alright, he wouldn’t be the first person let down by the scattershot booking. If after he felt nothing in the WM main event he went “Hey, I’m not the young, wrestling-obsessed guy I once was” and just retired to a life of occasional appearances at indie shows, I could totally respect that. But if he’s at a place in his life where he doesn’t value the place of prominence he’s obtained in the industry, doesn’t care whether he’s booked in a compelling way or not, and doesn’t fight to contribute as much as his star power and name recognition has to contribute to this still-young, upstart company struggling with the wrestling equivalent of the sophomore slump? To have been in the main event of Wrestlemania and not stand up to Jericho’s self-indulgent bullshit when you’re involved with him on television? Good on him for getting his bag, but I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be respectful or supportive of in that. I’m sure there’s a portion of his fan base totally happy with him fucking around on Dark and having dream matches of 8 years ago with over the hill New Japan guys, but I ain’t in it.

The notion that we owe Danielson anything if he doesn’t actually value or care to protect the elevation he’s experienced on the industry is far more stupid.

Tony is a fucking mark, I don’t care if he approved it. At this point, AEW is as much or more an indictment of the people advising him as it is a wrestling promotion.

I haven’t been into basically anything that he’s done since the Adam Page feud. His match with Moxley was a Moxley match (and BD had Moxley’s match more than Moxley had BD’s match), he’s been fucking around with Jericho for many many months at this point, he got hurt in a stupid stadium match, he feuded with Daniel Garcia who I could not give a fuck about… I’m not even that into his in-ring lately, it seems like he’s more interested in playing around with the AEW House Style (which I’m not a fan of) than in trying to be like Punk and attempting to exert influence over what that is.

I respect his right to choose how to conduct his life and career, but if he doesn’t respect or value the emotional investment made by a large group of fans to earn him a position of prominence in the industry, a position way higher than he was on track for in an industry dominated by the preferences of Vince McMahon for most of his career, then yeah, I’m less inclined to view him positively. He basically just openly said he doesn’t particularly care if I support or like him, he’d rather go out in a Randy the Ram match in front of 300 people in an armory wrestling nobodies than in a big stadium show. If that’s how he feels, it is what it is, but where you envision an “ego driven mark for himself”, I imagine “Respects himself and his fans enough to insist that his booking be something others would be excited to see, rather than something that is merely self-gratifying or -enriching.”

I respect that Danielson has become a family man and has his own, bespoke set of preferences when it comes to wrestling, but I can’t say his AEW run thus far has maintained my interest in and respect for him. He was the greatest ever World of Sport heel at the end of last year, and now, he’s spent almost a year fucking around with Moxley and the BCC and the JAS having what are, by his standards, fairly mid matches, with a few exceptions. Even if you don’t value your own stardom all that much, the notion of wasting your reputation and drawing ability when it might do the upstart company you very publicly jumped to a world of good to stand up for yourself and insist you be used well… idk, man.

On some level Tony clearly doesn’t buy into FTR the way a lot of people do. Maybe he’s too much of a tapes nerd and thinks they don’t do enough original material, maybe the stats just don’t favor them as much as we’d like, maybe the Bucks and Omega are in his ear with that “tribute act” shit, maybe Dax is too near the verge of serious injury, but Tony does not see them as stars.

MJF is, to me, clearly the breakout star of AEW, glad to see him with the strap, though it would def be better if he’d gotten it off of CM Punk rather than a kinda cold match with Moxley. And lol at him quoting Corny and CM Punk in the scrum. He may have found the way to stay a heel if he starts using catchphrases and nicknames of the two biggest personae non grata in the company.

MJF is absolutely a ratings draw, at the very least, and Regal is a much better villain than hero. Moxley sucks way worse than MJF, I’m glad to see MJF with the strap.

What’s sad is I feel like Impact, NWA, and MLW have a collective solid third company roster, but talented guys like Aldis, Fatu, and Hammerstone languish where barely anybody sees them.

LA Knight rules, heathen. Classic wrestling heel!

Saraya is thoroughly derailed at this point, I don’t think that’s a future happening. She needed approximately the same story as Punk, “Can I still hang?”, not “This division sucks and I’m here to dominate it”. Even if the latter is true, AEW has extremely defensive fans who do not like stuff like that.

He’s also lost almost every match since Vince left and got jobbed out on his cash-in, and been made to look like a stupid goober every step of the way. At a minimum, it seems fair to say that Trips is significantly less sold on him than Vince was.

AEW is not dying, but it is absolutely in danger of settling into “good TNA” territory, if that makes sense.

Jericho is really terrible at singing.

Idk, man, Theory seems comparably or more talented than Orton at the same age, to me. Unless he’s a problem in the locker room or there’s more scandalous shit that they’ve squashed for now, not sure how Hunter could “not see it” but think Karrion Kross is worth his time.

The treatment of Theory is utterly bizarre. Have we gotten any dirt sheet speculation as to why HHH seems to have it in for him? Does he believe the #SpeakingOut accusations, or was he just an arrogant young guy who was perceived as needing to be humbled?

I mean there’s a lot of people that are part of the “All Friends Wrestling” crowd (incidentally, the people with the warmest relationships with the biggest journalists in the game), it’s unsurprising to me that the locker room is full of marks that think sticking up for their buddy Colt goddamn Cabana is worth losing probably their biggest star.

I think Fetterman would have curb stomped Oz were it not for the stroke, but alas, ableism is one of the last -isms people allow themselves without much reflection.

Tony doesn’t delegate enough, but I think it is probably safe to assume that he is probably pretty permeable to advice and suggestions.