The Wrestling Thread

[Reprise]

The only thing that can save this dumb Drew/Punk thing is AJ Lee coming back as a heel aligned with Drew much in the same way Lita used to be aligned with Edge i.e. they make it clear as day that Drew has been boning Punk's wife.

You just rekindled my interest in the feud. I'd like to see that! "Crazy" AJ is great. I loved her in the Cena and Dolph feud.

Gunther vs Priest was good

Yeah, I liked that match a lot. Liv vs Rhea too. I like "random 5 star matches" too though. I watched Mike Awesome vs Masato Tanaka vs Taz at Anarchy Rulz 1999 a month or so back. No idea what the story was (although know the Awesome and Tanaka feud), but man the match is amazing.

[Raging Justice]

See the shitty thing about WWE is these long periods of time where nothing happens. Raw was actually fun tonight because they actually shook things up over the weekend. We have a new world champion, a new IC champion, a debut, and a new Judgement Day that is way cooler than the shitty new Bloodline we got post Mania.



We've also got a pretty cool new faction for Chad Gable that is a bit of a callback to his NXT days. Also, we saw something that doesn't happen enough in wrestling, a babyface getting murdered.



Still some shitty stuff though, like this Drew/Punk feud for example, and Dakota Kai continuing to be buried by WWE for some bizarre reason, but this is the best Raw in a while and the sort of show you want to see after a big PPV. Who knows if they can keep up the momentum though, that's always the problem with WWE and especially AEW. Mina Shirakawa lost her trios title and is heading back to the states, so she'll be popping up in AEW again. Stardom has gone through some pretty big shake ups recently with the new guy in charge. New factions, title changes, heel turns, old factions getting a new name and makeover, etc, etc. I think the Cosmic Angels have firmly been established as the top baby faces right now and the top heels just came at them hard:




So yeah some interesting things over the past couple of days, we'll see if anything interesting happens in AEW. Bayley's title defense in Japan was pretty decent if you feel like giving it a watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fRAer_-75Y

It's wild that so many women from WWE and AEW have competed in Japan this year, and other places too like GCW and TNA. WWE has not been shy about mentioning CGW on TV either. Oh, and Anna Jay is going to compete in a Stardom tournament

[Reprise]

"OH MY!
COULD IT BE?
IT IS!"

"NO
IT CANT
IT CANT BE
COULD IT BE
OH MY GOD"

"HE'S HERE
HE'S HERE
HE'S HERE
ROMAN REIGNS IS HERE"

Sorry, just another post from me highlighting how much I dislike Michael Cole

[Raging Justice]

Michael Cole will always be Michael Cole. He has his moments in all fairness, but can be goddamn annoying too.

This segment was unbelievable. It started off as a fairly boring Punk/Drew segment (though I do think it was interesting that Drew mentioned Punk's "lovely wife") and out of nowhere turned into a violent assault on Seth Rollins by Bronson Reed. Give this a watch, it was pretty goddamn brutal, even surpassing Bron Breakker's attack on Ricochet a while back:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIhKKjYtJq8

[Reprise]

Michael Cole is Michael Cole. I love to hate on him, but also must admit that his voice is also a huge part of a lot of great moments in WWE's history. He's just a bit cringe and repetitive. But then I find a lot of wrestling commentators cringe and repetitive. I just find WWE more cringe in recent years and their commentary team is a big part of that. God don't get me started on Pat McAfee.

I did see the segment. It was pretty cool. I enjoy brutal beat downs. The beginning was lame, as you said, but Bronson Reed destroying Seth was great! Hey, I wonder what is happening with Ricochet. Everything went quiet there.

I watched TNA's Destination X PPV from 2012 last night. It's TNA's highest rated PPV on Cagematch and having now watched it, I am a little confused why. Maybe it's one of those 'you had to be there at the time' type of things. It was really good to be fair and an all round very solid and consistent show. It was like a greatest hits album at times, with things a little deja vu. You had Samoa Joe vs Kurt Angle (who had already fought a number of times) and AJ Styles vs Christopher Daniels who had also already faced eachother a million times before. Both matches were great, but not their best clashes. The main event saw Austin Aires winning his first TNA World Championship in a fantastic match.

This was in the era when Hogan was with TNA, so he was around in the PPV. Seeing Hogan hangjng around in TNA is just so weird. They treated him like a huge deal whilst he was there and imserted him into lots of major storylines and angles. He even had matches if I remember correctly. Was he really still a draw in 2010-2013 whilst he was there?

It's amazing how TNA transformed over the years from being a sort of alternative to WWE that was focused on taking their crown, to becoming a weird WCW/WWE-lite type of product, very sports entertainment-y (hiring people like Russo, Bischoff, Hogan and picking up a ton of ex WWE and WCW talent) to it ultimately becoming more of an indie promotion that is focussed on the in-ring product and less on sports entertainment silliness and goofiness. I really recommend watching some TNA from the last half a decade or so, as they have quietly been putting on some great shows and great matches. Funnily enough, now that they are gaining more attention, what I have seen of TNA in 2024 is actually worse than 2023 and 2022, but they're still putting on fun stuff. Slammiversary the other month was a really good show.

[Reprise]

Just watched ROH Death Before Dishonor 2023. There's plenty of decent wrestling here, but I really want to highlight Athena vs Willow who main evented the show for the Women's title. This is one of the best women's matches I have seen in a long time.

[Raging Justice]

I think I will check out some old stuff as you said not long ago. TNA has been on my radar for some time now, and WWE's recent interest in them has been quite interesting

So MJF...kind of sucks right now, and his American title gimmick is fucking stupid. I think MJF's face run made him a bit more interesting. Him going back to being a heel has surprisingly sucked, because he's just the old MJF again and doesn't have an interesting story or arc.

Hangman and Christian are killing it as heels, and MJF looks like amateur hour compared to them right now. Even Swerve is more interesting than MJF right now as that guy who is not really a heel and not really a face either.

Dominick is killing it too over in WWE, as well as Drew McIntyre and now Finn Balor after his Summerslam heel turn. Finn's reveal of the New Judgement Day on the Raw after SummerSlam, with him as the figure head, was fucking epic. Also, Finn Balor has mastered the art of villain facial expressions. Drew just needs to fucking murder Punk already and be done with this stupid feud, or bring in AJ Lee like I said.

There are strong heels in WWE and AEW right now because they have interesting characters, stories, and know how to create real heat.

MJF isn't one of them.

MJF just comes across as one of those radio shock jocks right now. He says stuff to make people go, "Did he just say that?", but that shit gets old when you don't have a compelling character or story. It's the same reason no one gives a fuck about Max Caster right now. We all got kind of tired of his topical, oh so shocking, raps, and it kind of feels like MJF is heading in that same direction by making fun of America and opining on what's going on in England. Lame

MJF has no story right now, no interesting character arc. It also just feels like MJF has been demoted to a lesser title after being a world champion. He kind of feels like a mid-carder right now if I'm being honest, and Christian and Hangman and Swerve and even Samoa Joe (despite not currently being on TV) all feel higher up on the pecking order right now. Not to mention Okada

I'm just surprised. His return has flopped as hard as the DMD/Mercedes feud...and pretty much everything Mercedes has done since coming to AEW

Also, this is gonna sound crazy, but I hope Shida beats Mercedes for the TBS title and proves that she is indeed the "ace". If I was AEW right now, I'd push Kamille over Mercedes, as she has that shiny new feel that Mercedes no longer has. I'd also start focusing more on Willow Nightingale, DMD, Rosa, The Virtuosa, Shida, and Athena (who should be in AEW by now). I'd have Mariah squash Storm and end this Timeless crap already and then move into a feud between her and Mina Shirakawa. Mina and Mariah are where the money is and it's time for Storm to fuck right off already and stop holding down the division. I know people will say that Toni elevated Mariah. Bullshit, Mariah had all of the tools she needed to be a star the moment she stepped into AEW. Toni's shitty title reign elevated NO ONE.

AEW is fucking stale and their ratings are tanking hard.

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

WWE's product is better right now, at least on the Raw side of things thanks to SummerSlam, though Smackdown getting Roman Reigns back is a good thing for them as well as Smackdown has felt like it's been run by mid-carders ever since Wrestlemania with trash like Solo Sikoa, Cody Rhodes, and guys who now feel like has beens in Kevin Owens and Randy Orton. I don't know when those fucking idiots are going to push LA Knight as the top babyface on Smackdown and feud him with Roman Reigns like anyone who didn't have their heads in their asses would have done a long time ago.

[Reprise]

MJF just comes across as one of those radio shock jocks right now. He says stuff to make people go, "Did he just say that?", but that shit gets old when you don't have a compelling character or story.

Yeah, I was honestly disappointed they reverted back to this. About a year or so ago, actually more than a year ago, I remember having the same complaints against MJF, and then they changed things up and added real character development. The best heels are the ones who have depth and real motivations. To be honest, I didn't hate his initial turn back to being a heel, because they tried to make it make sense. MJF blaming the fans and lashing out because he let Cole see the real him, he let his guard down and it backfired. That makes sense. But then he just went back into the same lazy tired cliched crap he has done before. And he has no interesting story arc going on.

and Athena (who should be in AEW by now)

Yeah, I watched some more 2023 ROH and finished with Final Battle the other night. Athena is so damn good.

I don't know if I will bother watching any ROH in 2024, because even though the PPVs are enjoyable enough, I still don't understand what the point of the promotion is now it's just some weird AEW-lite sub-brand. Although I heard they might be completely revamping it and moving it into a new direction, so we'll see.

[Raging Justice]

Anna Jay had a decent Stardom debut. It's not a must see match, but it was solid. She does seem able to work this style of wrestling. Japan does wonders for some people so I look forward to seeing what she'll be like when she returns to AEW

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5daNcadW208&t=40m21s

[RCBH928]

They also have the most toxic and blind supporting fans of a corporation I have ever seen. A wrestler signs with WWE and the fans think they are greatest wrestler alive. A wrestler leaves WWE and they turn on them in an instant.

I love how everybody is excited and thrilled about the crossover between NXT and TNA. Like, it is something they have never seen before and how it is helping both companies. When, in all actuality, it is just an easy way for WWE to poach talent away from TNA.

I am not sure if its a generational thing, but I find the current WWE offering incredibly bad I am surprised people are still watching in the millions. I keep hearing the old wrestlers saying how much the current generation is better than them (maybe in ring action?) , I do not see it. I'll take Macho Man vs Rick Flair or Steve Austin vs Bret Hart any day over Roman Reigns and who ever is Solo Sikoa.

And its not just kids, there is a lot of adults in the audience! Is AEW any better?

==============

On a different topic, has AEW reached its climax in popularity? Seemed it was rocketing up to give WWE a real competition but things have calmed down. Just from YouTube subscribers , AEW has 4 Million vs WWE's 103 Million . There is still a lot of room to grow and beating WWE in this comical offering has never been easier.