Embrodak

Jacob Fatu rocks, but WWE has passed on him because of his criminal record, no? He’s way too good for MLW, but it seems like it’s where he’s maxed out, unless AEW decides to take a shot.

Wrestling is different from most other art forms in that 1)more popularity/more people being there really does improve it, in that you can get hotter crowds, and 2) when something you like makes money, it is in some sense “proof” that, at the very least, the company should do more of it, since making money is the primary goal of wrestling and pretty much always has been.

Will he? Idk, I think that assuming the AEW audience will remain hot for everything AEW just because it’s AEW has to prove false at some point, especially three years in. MJF is mega over as an entertaining heel, but him being a quasi-sympathetic antihero is uncharted territory, especially if the strategy is to have him recite Jim Cornette-adjacent criticisms, whom a solid chunk of the smartest parts of that smart audience think is an irredeemable bigot whose AEW criticisms shouldn’t be taken seriously by anybody. (Note that I’m not commenting on the legitimacy of such accusations leveled at Corny, just that there are those who won’t even allow any criticisms substantially similar to one’s he’s made.) If MJF and/or Khan weren’t willing to really commit to this angle, do extra leg work to make it look like MJF really got fired or was really acting independently, I’m not sure that it was worth doing. It doesn’t work if it’s obviously worked, and it’s especially obviously worked in a world where Tony says “no comment” to this every time but shoots on talent for real on Twitter. Live by the shitpost, die by the shitpost.

Yeah, but there’s a difference between putting something on the back burner to reduce and get richer and just letting all the liquid evaporate. MJF got Wardlow so hot even three months of terrible booking haven’t totally cooled him off, but at this point, have you even thought about MJF in the last two months? MJF should have at least been out in the world talking shit or something, or they should have gone all in on the work and convinced people backstage he was really fired. It’s a little like how Summer of Punk 2 made no sense if WWE wasn’t willing to let Punk go pop a few big gates at some independent shows with the belt, just a total waste of what is actually interesting at the core of the concept. Which makes me think there was at least a little stank to the way it’s been handled so far, but eh, what do I know?

MJF has to be actually in trouble, right? There’s absolutely zero reason to stretch the storyline out this long unless he was actually serving penance for the no-show and for publicly talking shit about how unhappy he was with his contract situation.

I mean weight classes are a thing in real fighting for a reason. It’s one thing to say that one can allow a degree of flexibility for a Rey Mysterio or Daniel Bryan or Shawn Michaels, a generational talent, but “small guy who can hang with heavyweights” should also probably be used sparingly if one is to maintain any pretense that this is worked combat, rather than an athletic burlesque that has combat as a loose theme. I can sympathize with some of this thread, but there does seem to be a converse “AEW brain” where rules of thumb and best practices that have guided the business (not just WWE) for decades are just not applicable at all if they come into conflict with enjoyment of the product.

I must admit, I don’t understand this at all unless it’s just personal with Punk. Even if one does not like or believe face Punk, and I think that’s a fair criticism even if I disagree with it, I would kill to have a higher proportion of the roster take their shit as seriously and present it as straightforwardly as Punk has. Even if it was melodramatic and over the top, which I don’t necessarily agree with but think is a valid read, the stuff with Punk last night was 1000x more wrestling to me than that six-man main event, where my 67 year old dad lost track multiple times of who the legal person was even supposed to be.

Is this the first time WWE seems to have a stronger card on paper than AEW?

It has more juice this way, but it’s hard for me to be hyped for a main event between two of the sloppiest top guys in the history of the business, with both guys as babyfaces. It’s a weird way to heat up a match that, on paper, seems ill-conceived, but I guess it’s better than just running the match cold.

God help them if Austin Theory cashes in MitB and a more substantiated accusation from a teenage fan comes forward. Right now I think they’re operating on the assumption that since the original accuser has disappeared from the internet, it may have just been a bogus headline grab in the midst of all the #SpeakingOut stuff, but if that was legit and the person just dropped it because it wasn’t worth it to her to pursue it, there’s pretty much guaranteed to be more out there.

If people were being misogynistic, take them to task, but if people were pointing out that the team that looked markedly worse in the ring should not have won the titles, get over it.

I get that it’s a surprise, but having a big tournament to make the women’s tag titles feel like a big deal, only to have them become a prop that gets put on a pretty weak team in order to build heat on a PPV match not *involving* said weak team, or the titles, is just nonsensical.

Omos is absolutely terrible. Braun had a period where he was pretty good. No real reason he should be brought back, but he’s absolutely preferable to Omos if they’re gonna have a giant.

See this is my assumption, and what I was thinking when I posted that. Jericho is a vulture, he wants to be at the center of every wrestling happening.

Cody is still young enough to get a few years out of him and had the Dusty story to pitch. Jericho is gigging himself in the middle of the ring on camera and arguably hasn’t had a good match since the one with Kingston two PPVs ago. Idk, I don’t see it.

I think people were seeing what they wanna see in that Yamashita match, tbh.

I just don’t believe that WWE reached out to Jericho. I can believe that they called Swerve because they were bringing Hit Row back, or Keith Lee because Trips is a fan, or either Starks or Hobbs, but I cannot imagine anybody at WWE looking at Jericho’s self-indulgent bullshit and saying that they want to be in that business.

I can’t stand Moxley, but if Punk needs a longer time out, either because of his foot or because he and TK can’t agree, it was the right call, I guess. Thunder Rosa has been a dud of a champion, but idk why people are buying that “sandbag” stuff, it was Marina goddamn Shaffir she was wrestling when that came up.

Omega turning the AEW video game into a huge financial debacle because he’s a picky video game nerd is pretty funny, if true, so there’s at least that component.

I get that. I’m burned out on cool shit, been watching old Mid-South of late.

In terms of this year, I liked it when Danielson was being a grumpy dick treating Hangman like an upstart goober and MJF-Punk was running. I strongly dislike the AEW “house style” (to the extent one can say there is such a thing) and, to be honest, Moxley and Jericho are both huge turnoffs and have been the biggest focus of the show for months.

Did he piss someone off? Was *he* pissed off?

Tony is definitely spreading himself pretty thin, will be interesting to see how he handles the backstage drama and if the people he hired to deal with it are up to the task.

Because Last is one of the only people with an encyclopedic knowledge of territory history that can keep up with Jim.

Corny digs into his archives and reads a 1997 memo from USA Network that may have gotten Vince Russo a spot on the creative team and inadvertently kickstarted the Attitude Era. I honestly think he should just retire the podcast and write some memoirs and history books, this is much better than him reviewing goddamn Smackdown.