Stiva
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I think this was their best show in a long while. The Owen Hart qualifiers have been pretty dry so far but now it's started properly, it's picking up. I could really take or leave the eventual coronation of Cole but whatever, the guy is a star, it makes sense to have him win it ahead of the upcoming Omega feud (I assume). As for the male joker, they're really hammering home that Lethal and co know who it is so that rules out Gargano surely? I'm thinking a heel that has some history with Joe. Sadly, it can't be Necro Butcher. I feel like they're going to need to position Darby in a big way soon since losing to Jeff Hardy comes across as a bit strange but all anyone is going to remember is the most batshit insane spot I think I've ever seen. That flip into the chairs was beyond belief but every time I see Hardy brace for a crazy bump, it reminds me of watching Johnny Knoxville in the new Jackass. He should be old enough to know better but clearly not. Contract signing was some good stuff and I love how Long Island of all places is AEWs "Bizarro Land" I cracked up at "BARRY HOROWITZ: LEGENDARY JEWISH WRESTLER" and Wardlow is in a good place considering, when the angle reached it's conclusion, all the playalong boos disappeared and the place went wild for him. I can take or leave another three-way tag match at the PPV but I assume this one is to get the belts off Jurassic Express so they can start the Christian/Jungle Boy feud. Hookhausen is entertaining midcard work and Mark Sterling actually showed something in that beatdown segment with Nese. I assume they're going to move him away from Jade because god knows she doesn't need him but as a midcard mouthpiece manager, he'll be great if he can keep working like he did with Nese and in the contract signing. Does anyone really believe that Jericho and his crew stand a chance against Kingston, Ortiz, Santana, JON MOXLEY AND BRYAN DANIELSON? Not to mention Regal. If they do Blood and Guts, Jericho's crew should really get destroyed in record time against that crew of absolute killers.
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I can see MJF looking at the WWE male roster and seeing a vacuum he could fill as top heel when 2024 rolls around.
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Was putting Angelico in the BCC tag a rib? Guy hits like Kelly Kelly. Butcher and Blade still deserve a lot more, even if they’ve had a pretty fun run with some featured matches. I’m pretty deep into the Wardlow as Goldberg push but I do wonder if TK will have MJF be squashed dead by him since I have a feeling that the title scene post-Page will swing back to the Punk-MJF-Wardlow triangle. Wardlow is getting way too over to not go with that throughout the summer. I’m pulling for Claudio as the Joker against Joe, even though neither guy should lose that matchup. Real hit and miss second hour though. Pillman needs to go away for a few years to work indies or even WWE to get ready for prime time. It’s harsh on Griff who I actually like in his role as the hot tag guy in the Blonds but man, Pillman is a bit of an albatross. And how long do The House of Black have to hang around doing this shit when the Blackpool Combat Club, Kingston’s Crew and Death Triangle are waiting to have fucking great 6-mans?
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I do wonder if he’ll work Forbidden Door. Even as a special ref type deal because he feels like the one guy who should probably be there in some capacity
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Only just watching Rampage but Austin Gunn strikes me as someone that could have been great as a stooging, comedy Memphis heel. Someone get him PG-13 tapes
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I don’t really have too much of an issue with that final angle but yeah, the lights out gimmick was a pretty odd way to go about it and there’s no denying it went down like a lead balloon. Not to mention you already did a present angle with Nyla who is a far better promo than Lethal or Dutt. You may as well go full Jinder and bring in the Bollywood Boys with him. And does Cargill really need Red Velvet with her in a stable or even a lackey situation? She’s rapidly outgrowing Sterling, never mind anyone else low on the totem pole. Other than that, the show was good again. They have crazy consistency these days. I cracked up at Kingston working the 6-man like someone bored playing a wrestling game, jumping off the apron when he wasn’t in the ring so he could beat up one of his opponents and then you had Ortiz stealing Cool Hand Ange’s shoes and the hilarious WWE parody before Judas. I’m digging the new Jericho stable because he’s finally reverting back to the deluded idiot that made his early AEW run so great. BCC vs Gunn Club needs to be a massacre. Also, Gresham vs Castle being added to the Saturday show rules. We are slowly approaching peak WCW in terms of match cards feeling like a total lottery. We just need some more old Memphis guys showing up on Elevation with bizarre gimmicks. What’s David Young doing these days?
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The main ruled and I’m glad FTR went over clean. This past couple of months has been a great push for them and now they finally feel like the team we all wanted 18 months ago when they showed up. Christian is so great and I wish he was 10 years younger so could work a busier schedule. The Hardys, on the other hand, need to learn their limitations. They cant be doing the wild shit they did when they were 25 but it does lend their matches a certain atmosphere as nearly every bump and spot in that match looked super nasty. Matt was just crashing through tables at weird angles and was just thudding off the floor. They should cut the flips and dives and just become the 2022 Moondogs. Jay Lethal is doing it for me in recent weeks too. Enjoyed pretty much all of his in-ring work and now he’s coming across really well as a deluded, bitter heel that will be demolished by Joe in due course. Have they said what form the Owen Tournament is taking? I assume it’s a knockout but has it been confirmed? Does Khan think he can book a US G1? Overall, the only real downsides to this show were Sammy and Tay continuing to be hugely unlikable. Even the live crowd were booing them by the end. And Hart/Shida was kind of messy but not to the point where it was completely falling apart. No Daddy Magic promo means it can never be a truly great episode though.
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I think they’re showing up tonight tbh. You don’t shoot that angle at ROH if you’re not going to run the match and, with no ROH shows to speak of coming up, you pretty much have to have them come in and cost the Bucks the match tonight, I’d say
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I’m crying laughing at Elias coming back as his clean shaven younger brother. I have no idea where that could go or how it’ll translate to anything between the ropes but what a flash of inspiration that is.
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Thought that show was really great, top to bottom. But, Kyle O’Reilly is one of the least plausible wrestlers I’ve ever seen in my life. He looks like a competition winner practicing his karate kicks in a mirror and he gives Matt Jackson a run for his money in the deathly unfunny, overacting stakes. The sooner we can get to Hangman/Punk and Jurassic Express/FTR, the better. The outfits on the JAS were fucking spectacular. All props to Daniel Garcia for finding the one hat that could make him look like the biggest asshole around. Eddie and co are a couple of guys short for, what I assume, is building to Blood and Guts 2 or Stadium Stampede 3. Wonder who they’ll draft in
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It’s supreme pro wrestling logic if you think I’m going to cheer two people who would take that photo.
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Darby vs The Butcher was aces on Rampage. They have fantastic chemistry and it’s the best I can remember Butcher looking in AEW.
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Fantastic brawl that feels super chaotic with some crazy shots. Hall throwing the can at the speeding car and Goldust throwing himself through the door at full speed looked wild. Feels like something you’d have got out of Smoky Mountain more than the WWF
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I didn’t think the brawling section was too bad but it definitely didn’t add too much, other than the hilarious counter to the suicide dive. When they get back in the ring and it becomes a battle of the bombs, it’s really good. Combat drops Aja with a nasty German halfway through, maybe she watched Vader/Inoki from the week previous.
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[1996-01-08-WCW-Nitro] Hulk Hogan & Randy Savage vs Ric Flair & Arn Anderson
Stiva replied to Loss's topic in January 1996
A nifty little main event tag. I really like this period of WCW and always felt that Savage in particular was always working really hard. Even Hogan, outrageously stale and lame bullshit aside, seemed to try much more around this time. And then he goes and ruins it all by no-selling Arn’s spinebuster to widespread disgust from the live crowd. -
I think that Vince McMahon probably watches these back now and still thinks they’re high comedy. This is pure, undistllled Vince McMahon, right down to the hypocritical cheap shots
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[1996-01-08-WWF-Raw] Brother Love: Ted DiBiase & The Ringmaster
Stiva replied to Loss's topic in January 1996
A flat, rambling debut in the grand scheme of things. Brother Love is an incredibly dated gimmick to be bringing out of mothballs but that’s where they were at this point, I guess. I will always love the Million Dollar belt however -
With it being September, most of the major stadiums will be used for the football season that will have just begun so the Millennium is the best choice, I think. They would have been better off trying to schedule it for July or early August if they wanted to hit England proper.
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I saw a few people bemused at the female demo rating dropping, despite there being a women's title main event. Like yeah, I don't know a lot about women but I know they're not massively keen on watching other women powerbomb each other into thumbtacks and bleed everywhere. If you want to attract women, give Jungle Boy the strap.
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I don’t mind watching Sky wrestle at all, it’s just he came off as by far the least engaging person in that entire affair and he’s holding the belt. I’d even include Spears in that now his job is to hit people with chairs and get squashed. Also, massive props to DADDY MAGIC. What a nickname that is. Also, “Pray tell, man in the mask: who is the demon waif?” made me crack up huge
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They should run that building as much as possible, the crowd was great all night. Glad we’ve finally got Rosa as champion since Britt was getting pretty stale. Hardys looked real old in there with Private Party; I think Butcher and Blade would be a better match for them at this point. Moxley/Danielson continues to be fucking great and even Luchasaurus looked half decent in the opener. I wonder if we’re getting Stadium Stampede 3 with JAS vs Kingston, Santana, Ortiz and whoever else is getting involved. Having said that, Tony Khan has his work cut out to get Scorpio Sky over. Like, at all. This crowd popped louder for a mariachi band than they did the TNT Champion. He was the least over person in his entire segment and his first title defence saw him get his head kicked in and he only retained thanks to about 4 other people. They should have went with Ethan Page. “Cleveland Jr lookin’ ass” was a total kill shot from Bowens, holy shit.
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[1996-01-05-ECW-House Party] Public Enemy vs The Gangstas
Stiva replied to Loss's topic in January 1996
I like The Gangstas tactic here; Mustafa will work the leg while New Jack tries to gouge eyes out. Much like Sabu/Richards, this is too long but there’s good stuff sprinkled in; Grunge and New Jack’s crowd brawling is spirited, New Jack is such a charismatic bastard that he’s always worth watching and the ending video is a great little sending off. Public Enemy are off to work with The Nasty Boys for, what felt like, every week -
[1996-01-05-ECW-House Party] Raven, Beulah and Tommy Dreamer
Stiva replied to Loss's topic in January 1996
Over 25 years later, this is totally ridiculous soap opera nonsense but everyone playing it so straight and acting like life-changing events were enveloping around them is what makes it hold up to a decent degree. And yeah, fuck that guy Pete mentioned. I hope a stray chair hit him when they were flying around that arena at any point. -
[1996-01-04-NJPW-Wrestling World 1996] Shinya Hashimoto vs Kazuo Yamazaki
Stiva replied to Loss's topic in January 1996
A match where one guy aggressively works the arm and the other guy responds by punching him in the throat is going to be a **1/2 affair at minimum. The hot finish puts it beyond that. Great fun -
I like the Flair/Hogan matchup and I dig this one too and I like the idea of starting your TV year off with a big match like this. Hogan has some decent leg selling at times here that is totally done by the time he’s attempting to emasculate all of the Horsemen. A ridiculous finish, thank god he went heel.