The Wrestling Thread

[Raging Justice]

To American viewers, this will feel more in line with how WWE presented women in the divas and Attitude eras, though it's not exactly unusual for Stardom. The video feels a bit tongue in cheek too, to be honest. I'll give AEW credit for putting some effort into this though I don't know why it took them so long to do this:

https://x.com/AEW/status/1800286828257583222

Little doubt in my mind she's taking that title off of Storm. Mina Shirakawa has a serious side, but it doesn't look like AEW is at all interested in showing that. Seems like they've decided on what creative direction they are going with her

Is it just me, or is AEW starting to present the women's title as the silly title, while the TBS title seems to be becoming the REAL women's title? Feels like there has definitely been a creative shift. This is the REAL women's title right here:



Tony Kahn is even promoting the NJPW Strong Women's title now, which we know Mercedes will be winning at Forbidden Door:

https://x.com/TonyKhan/status/1799310924664209445



I honestly couldn't care less about Toni Storm's title and who wins it at this point. I'd really like to see someone in AEW challenge for Mayu Iwatani's title. I'd honestly rather have that than Cassidy vs ZSJ. I know that match will be great, but it's not important. Purrazzo seems interested in fighting Mayu

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/deo ... 00281.html

[Raging Justice]

Storm has made the historic first women's title in AEW into a mid card title, and I don't think that will change under Shirakawa

The TBS title is now the top prize in the women's division.

[Raging Justice]

Lol love Dave Meltzer.

PWInsider: "Ricochet has given his notice and the expectation is that he will be written off TV and he will be leaving WWE soon"

Fightful: "Plans are moving ahead for Ricochet to be written off tv, as he is likely to leave at the beginning of Summer. Here's one of the potential scenarios"

Dave Meltzer: "aaaactually I am hearing he might not be leaving. It's all up in the air, but he might be staying"

*A couple of hours later*

Everyone: "RICOCHET IS LEAVING TONIGHT! HIS LAST APPEARANCE WILL BE ON RAW TONIGHT WHERE HE WILL BE WRITTEN OFF TV"



Edit: Ahh I apologise to Dave, I see he did get in there and change his mind. He says he's leaving this week too. Good old Dave. Goes through every possible scenario so he can't ever be wrong

Bron Breakker just murdered Ricochet. Shame this is just a way to write him off of TV and isn't going to lead to anything interesting. This was beautifully done:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/ ... mortified/

That right there is the FUCKING DRAMA that I want from my pro wrestling. WWE just made me care more about Ricochet than I have since he was Prince Puma...and it's all for nothing because we're not going to see him again

What a waste. Yeah I know it's to establish Bron Breakker as a monster, but a segment like this could do wonders for his victim as well. Watching somebody screaming in agony after getting smashed through a car and seeing his fiance practically in tears is EXACTLY the sort of thing that makes me want to get behind a baby face. Why is it only when a guy is on his way out that they actually do stuff like this? You could have done something like this eons ago to get Ricochet more over.

That's the kind of segment that makes me want to tune in next week to your show. They made me care more about two people in just a few minutes than I do about Toni Storm, Mariah May, or Mina Shirakawa after weeks of them being featured on TV

Pro wrestling needs to grow the fuck up and give us more stuff like what they did with Ricochet, Samantha, and Bron Breakker tonight. That's good television. That's CINEMA as WWE fanboys like to say. My only gripe with that segment is that Ricochet should not have done the thumbs up. That killed some of the drama. You should want the audience to think that he is NOT okay.

All I want from wrestling when all is said and done, is evil sons of bitches who make me hate them and sympathetic baby faces who I want to see take those bastards done (and that goes for women's feuds as well). Then you can have your five star matches to "finish the story".

Aside from that Ricochet stuff, the only other thing from Raw that I want to comment on is Otis. I love what they are doing with him right now:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/ ... ions_last/
https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/ ... y_segment/
https://x.com/wwe/status/18003404106082 ... Acwn5da2fQ

That's a fucking story! Again, evil son of a bitch (Chad Gable) and sympathetic baby face (Otis). The only problem here is that I don't really care about Sami Zayne in all of this. Otis is the one pulling us into the story, and Maxine to some extent too (kudos to her). I think WWE should have Gable take the title from Sami Zayne, then slowly over a few months start building up to a feud between Gable and Otis at a pay per view. This would happen after Gable has had a few successful title defenses by forcing Otis to cheat for him.

Oh, and Iyo's descent into madness is fun:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20PHwLJQQE0

Raw feels more watchable than Smackdown because we don't have to put up with the trash that is Cody Rhodes along with the complete farce that is now the Bloodline. Smackdown is the brand that got stuck with most of the worst stuff to come out of Mania. Smackdown also pisses me off because of the continued misuse of LA Knight. Pat Mcafee is also a very entertaining presence on Raw. They guy is legit hilarious. The three hours for Raw is still a huge problem though. I spent more time goofing around on my laptop than watching the show. It's too long. There's some good stories going on, but WWE's track record makes me think they won't lead to anything satisfying. They once had an awesome storyline revolving around The Bloodline and then jumped the shark and then completely shit the bed with it. So it's hard to get my hopes up. I hope they don't mess up this Chad Gable/Otis thing. Watching Iyo lose her mind is fun, but again WWE's track record with Damage Control isn't very good. They job the women out too often, particularly to people like Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill

[Raging Justice]

I've always hated Liv, but this new story is fun. She's turning into a femme fatale and it's a role that works for her. I love this line to Dominick:

"You Should Be With A Woman Who Isn't Afraid To Call You 'Daddy'"





WWE is also subtly letting us know that Dominick is going to die when Rhea Ripley comes back





WWE has had some good stuff this past week or so, I hope AEW can kick things up a notch this week. Feels like there is more pressure on them to perform right now than there is on WWE and they haven't been stepping it up like they should. WWE at this point can have wrestlers take a dump in the ring on live TV and they'll be fine. I'm legit worried about AEW though. WWE could, in theory, start bolstering TNA to try and make them surpass AEW. Then there will be a number 2 company that WWE fully controls.

[Reprise]

I wonder if WWE is elevating TNA so they can use them as another pool to obtain wrestlers. The whole thing with Jordynne just screams to me that they are subtly saying "hey, as soon as your contract is up, give us a call".

But it also could be more than that. They could be looking to purchase TNA.

But I also think it's being done to hurt AEW whilst they are in a weakened state. It's them saying "hey, if we want to, we can make the number 3 brand feel more important than the number 2 brand. It's cute you have your silly little indie 'Forbidden Door' stuff, but we can show you how it's really done"

[Reprise]

Dave Meltzer agrees with you. I agree too.

I don't understand why wrestling companies "write off" talent when they leave and always go for the overused getting beaten up angle. How does that write them off television? Is the audience supposed to believe they're dead? Or that they're just so beaten that they never return to deliver retributions? It doesn't make sense to me when any company does it.

"If I didn’t know he was leaving, and I saw that angle, the last thing I’d think is he’s leaving. I’d think it was an angle for this, like big return - him and Bron. Especially when they had his fiancé… Samantha jump in the ambulance.

"That’s like classic pro wrestling angles, for a guy to be out for a couple of months and come back on a big pay-per-view months down the line for revenge."

(WOR)

[Raging Justice]

More Forbidden Doors opening, though I think that this particular door was always open:



WWE making AEW's Forbidden Door pay per view feel like a joke right now. Triple H and company are throwing some haymakers



Incidentally, I think Queen's Quest was the Stardom faction created by Iyo. Utami Hayashishita was the leader of it before she went to Marigold. So there's some context for the match, though I'm sure a more hardcore Stardom fan would have more to say

[Raging Justice]

There's that little thing I keep talking about again...drama:

https://www.reddit.com/r/stardomjoshi/c ... ommentary/



NXT has been putting a lot of focus lately on this "Sexyy Red" character for some reason, who I don't find even remotely sexy by the way. She's been seen in a lot of social media with HBK and I think she was hosting the pay per view this weekend too. Anyway, she's gotten her self into some trouble

https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/repo ... t-brawl-68



AEW Collision's ratings are in the toilet

https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/ ... _013_demo/

[Reprise]

Collision died the second they fired Punk. They don't even try.

I'd scrap it or move it, not that it's up to me or even necessarily AEW themselves.

The problem is once they ended the soft-split in the roster, it lost some of its identity. In the early days the show was consistently very solid. They had their own stories that flowed well from one episode to the next. There was also a pool of talent that were being showcased each week. Occasionally there were overlaps with storylines and talent, but generally the show was about Samoa Joe working his way up the card towards the world title picture, Ricky Starks being given the opportunity to be a main eventer, FTR and Bullet Club Gold feuding, the HOB dominating, Power House Hobbs and Miro squashing their opponents until they meet eachother and also Jay White and Malakai Black being teased for singles pushes.

As soon as Punk was gone, their initial reaction was to start sticking the Bucks, Moxley, Jericho and all the other guys who are on Dynamite week in week out on there, which meant suddenly Collision just felt like Diet Dynamite. With the ratings failing to match Dynamite, they don't even try to make Collision exciting in terms of storylines. There's plenty of good stuff on there sometimes and good matches, but when was the last time even a hardcore AEW fan said "You have to watch the most recent episode of Collision! You won't believe what crazy story development just happened!"

AEW is struggling and kinda boring. The PPVs are always fun, but their tv isn't really interesting me right now. I wish they would pull their finger out. This storyline involving the Elite and Tony Khan is so silly and has gone no where.

They keep doing such random-ass stuff.

The Elite confront Christopher Daniels, who is revealed as some kind of new on-screen GM, for some reason (*shrug*). Who comes out to back him up?

The Acclaimed.

ZzzzzZzzzzzZzzzzz

MJF returns! Immediately closes his chapter with Cole/The Undisputed Kingdom. Oh ok. Who's his first feud with?

Rush.

ZzzzzzzZzzzzzzZzzz

WWE is a mixed bag too unfortunately, despite how red hot they are presented to be.

Edit: Oh and Sexxy Redd, whoever she is, is cringe as hell. Another reason why I dislike WWE. I can't stand all their celebrity worshiping nonsense.

[Raging Justice]

Cody never stops reminding people that he was in AEW (the company that he's now helping WWE try to destroy)...or that he's Dusty's son



WWE is really pushing a "Forbidden Door" vibe with everything they are doing right now. Total coincidence I'm sure, not calculated at all

If you're Tony Kahn, can you feel that dagger digging in deeper into your back when you see stuff like this? It's funny how he'll openly call WWE evil and talk shit about people like Rossy Ogawa, but he doesn't have the balls to talk shit about the two biggest backstabbers he's had since he started AEW, both of whom are now in WWE. He such a pu**y. I actually wish he'd go scorched earth on Cody and Punk. You know why? It'd actually generate some buzz and might also provoke a response. Punk in particular would not be able to stop himself. I'd want to get under Punk's skin just so he'd do something stupid that would make him look bad or piss off WWE higher ups. Kahn should just do an interview or podcast and talk shit about Punk and Cody. What does he have to lose? The people who will criticize him for it are probably already talking shit about him online anyway. I just want to see Tony Kahn grow some balls and show some attitude. I know it plays into tribalism, but a lot of people who loved AEW when they started loved them because they were the anti-WWE. Fuck it, just go with it. It pisses me off when people like Adam Copeland, Darby, and Dustin say nice things about Cody or the competition on TV

AEW will never surpass WWE, but I want them to act like they are TRYING to. Sometimes it's not about WINNING the fight, it's about BRINGING the fight. That's what they need right now. AEW is too complacent right now, that's why everything feels so boring. Get aggressive, show some fucking attitude or "Ruthless Aggression" as someone once said. Act like you are a company that DOES want to be the number one brand and DOES want to bring down WWE. It's not like WWE hasn't been aggressively targeting them anyway. Stop being a pu**y Tony Kahn. Fight fire with fire. God I miss the Monday Night Wars and the console wars. I miss companies aggressively going after each other. It was fun. It was exciting. Some of my favorite video game TV commercials of all time are the ones with Crash Bandicoot talking shit about Mario. I miss that. I miss companies actually COMPETING with each other. I don't care if it creates tribalism. Tribalism can be FUN. At least it's not boring, which both companies are right now. AEW had a certain swagger and attitude and, as Meltzer put it, "coolness" back when they started. It's not there anymore. It's like the company has gone flaccid. As MJF might say, it's time to be the wolf:



Stop playing nice and stop being complacent.

Why does Cody get to announce a 25-man battle royale to determine the next challenger for the NXT world champion? This is what I mean about the sleazy politician vibe that he gives off. Like WWE doesn't even hide the fact that Cody Rhodes, in kayfabe, gets special treatment. Cody feels like that guy at your job whose ass everyone has to kiss because they all know he's banging the boss's daughter. Everybody acts like they love the guy because they have to.

Anyway, seems like the battle royale will likely feature non-NXT talent, again trying to one up AEW who just had a similar match recently with the Casino Gauntlet.

So Iyo was the price paid for WWE to get Giulia:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/ ... _to_utami/

Not really that surprising. Now is there any chance WWE will promote this? I am not expecting them to...but you never know. They've been doing a lot of unexpected things lately (unlike AEW)

I have a lot of issues with WWE's product, but some of the moves the company is making lately are certainly interesting. They are creating buzz, something AEW can't seem to do. Ironically, they are copying AEW but just doing it all better