Embrodak

I kind of agree with this, but Wardlow’s booking has also been atrocious. And he needs a mouthpiece, badly, imo, he just doesn’t have that Goldberg intensity where he can sell a match and/or feud with body language alone.

Reading the comments on him in the GWE thread, this certainly seems a plausible answer. Prior to the Cody match, could a case have been made for Dustin Rhodes? He had some great matches, but was there a match in his canon that was *the* Dustin match?

Setting aside that I hate the House of Black stuff as much as anything on AEW, my problem is the feeling that they’re just going to be vamping with Mox and the belt until Punk comes back. Maybe it’s just a case of there being too many people injured to establish a credible challenger, though, I will grant that.

Britt Baker should be working with Braun, she’s at least as big as her beau.

Brody King has not impressed me at all so far. Giving him the #1 contender spot feels as much like a filler “John Cena fights the monster of the month” angle as Hangman/Archer did, and we’re pretty much guaranteed as pointless and gratuitous of a blowoff match as that got with Moxley involved.

My feeling is MJF is probably legit suspended for no-showing the meet and greet and maybe going farther in the “shoot” promo than he was supposed to, and he’s either still in the punishment period or Tony Khan has no idea where to go with it because it was so ad hoc.

No, they’re not. Yes had actually complex musicianship and lyrics that, while cryptic, had poesy and craftsmanship. Radiohead at this point feels like an artifact of a dead era. Edit: can’t let “a much more real demonstration of actual physical skills” pass by unanswered. One can like the modern indie-inflected, hyperkinetic style, but watching even 80s Mid-South or Japan, let alone older stuff with Thesz, I think it’s pretty clear which style required more skill overall.

Let’s be real, The Sheik worked because he was basically the only guy doing that shit on a regular basis and came up in an era where guys had more charisma and Star power on average.

I don’t even think that’s the issue so much as it is that Theory’s gimmick and booking sucks. Selfies are a terrible heat generator, he hung around with Vince and his egg, he’s lost as or more often than he’s won despite being a shiny new object, and now he’s in the Damien Sandow position of having the briefcase with no plausibility of a successful cash-in. The only sense in which Theory is interesting so far is that they have made him feel like a midcard heel who’s been around forever - a Dolph Ziggler, say - in like four months. He’s super talented for his young age, but he’s being failed egregiously.

Theory is pretty gifted, but they’re setting him up for failure with the booking. Not a new story by any means, but it’s sad to see.

I’m not saying he’s bad, I just think it’s funny they have to outsource their talent farming to social media because they have so much trouble finding people with personality who want to wrestle.

They signed Logan Paul lol

Gotta say, I love “salty, chip on his shoulder” Eddie, but I think he gets really phony when he’s “cartoonishly sadistic” Eddie. Didn’t care for the gasoline, didn’t care for the Sammy bump leading into the maniacal laugh.

Evil Christian is great, him versus Jungle Boy seems like it will absolutely slap, but I could do without evil Luchasaurus - though if they keep it to short squashes like that, it’s tolerable I guess.

Whether it “hurt” anyone or not, lower-card guys going long and competitive with upper-card guys only has oomph if it is done sparingly. I guess in Angels’ case it was a little different because he was un-signed, but if it doesn’t result in a decent run for the unexpectedly competitive guy afterward, it’s kind of a waste of a booking tactic.

The government for libertarians exists to enforce contracts and to prevent and punish violation of the non-aggression principle. They’re mixed, some are against abortion prohibitions, but I’ve met plenty who think preventing abortion is part and parcel with other protective policing functions the state performs.

Orton is a great wrestler, but between the repetitious WWE style and his own lack of motivation, he’s a mediocre great wrestler, if that makes any sense to say. He’s as good as anybody could possibly be at so many aspects of the craft, but the pieces so rarely come together into something greater than the sum of their parts.

Gotta say, Orndorff in Mid South owns, just a phenomenal worker.

There are actually quite a few libertarians who think abortion is a violation of the non aggression principle, especially the ones that favor “natural law” theories of rights.

Is there any possibility that they put the interim title on Tanahashi so Tony can have his Punk vs Tanahashi match when Punk is healed? Putting it on Moxley is just weird unless he drops it to a heel, Punk vs Moxley doesn’t have much juice to it on its face. I think this Danielson injury precludes him ever becoming champ, he’s just too precariously situated in terms of his health. But: Tweener Danielson vs Face Punk and antihero MJF vs Heel Punk seem like the two money matches for Punk as champion. Kingston vs Punk redux, as well, but idk if Kingston is seen as too old and with too much mileage to be a long-term prospect, and that’s why Tony hasn’t pulled the trigger there. Punk vs Omega doesn’t interest me much, tbh. Even if I were an Omega guy, it just seems like a style clash.

That’s what you get letting Omega do the chainsaw arm hair spot to you at a Wrestle Kingdom show.

I mean Big E took a belly to belly on the floor from a green wrestler, so certainly WWE is not all it’s cracked up to be on that front.

Takeshita is the first Japanese wrestler in AEW that has really clicked with Cornette, too. He has a very old school vibe to him.

Tony discovering in real time why WWE makes their wrestlers work a safer style. Some of the veterans (not the Hardyz) need to step in and tell these younger guys why they shouldn’t be taking such gruesome bumps on a regular basis. Sammy and Darby are one mistiming away from paralysis. Been watching Mid South again, and goddamn, it’s amazing how much action and drama and hard hitting can be packed into a relatively safe working style.

Wardlow I can kinda forgive because he’s honestly too green to do much good for himself wrestling bigger name New Japan guys, and I doubt Gedo or Tony would fly some underneath guy out to do a squash. All exclusion of Hobbs and Starks is inexcusable going forward, though. Those are guys with a big future.