The Wrestling Thread

[Reprise]

Thank God Punk is gone and now there is no drama in AEW over people going off-script...

Oh, in unrelated news, Adam Copeland and Ricky Starks are allegedly legitimately pissed off at each other for going off-script during their segment on Collision.

[Raging Justice]

Thank God Punk is gone and now there is no drama in AEW over people going off-script...

Oh, in unrelated news, Adam Copeland and Ricky Starks are allegedly legitimately pissed off at each other for going off-script during their segment on Collision.

Meh, wrestlers get mad at each other. It happens. It's happened in WWE. No wrestling company is gonna be free of that. Punk though, did things no wrestler ever does. The press conference, multiple backstage brawls (one of which got him fired). That's pretty extreme and much more concerning than two wrestlers being pissed at each other over a promo segment. Also, there was a significant uptick in backstage AEW drama after Punk showed up, largely because Punk made people realize what a p**sy Tony Kahn is and how much he'll let people get away with. That is STILL gonna be an issue going forward even with Punk gone if Tony keeps letting people think that.

It also doesn't help that Tony Kahn likes to publicly make an ass of himself, which doesn't set a good example for good behavior for other people in the company.

Edge is gonna have to adjust to all this. WWE is a more controlled environment (people don't go off script) and it has stronger leadership, who actually act like professionals most of the time unlike Tony Kahn. I laughed at Edge calling Starks a vanilla midget as I have never heard the term used outside of online wrestling communities. I was like, "did Edge just say that on TV?"

I do think it's funny how WWE likes to talk about AEW like they are this little nothing company, but treat people like Jade Cargill like stars when logically the only reason to do so is because of what she did in AEW. That's literally the only explanation for Triple H and everyone treating her like she's Beyonce or something.

and I laugh at the "season premiere" thing which was said repeatedly on Raw tonight. How do you have season premieres when you never even have season finales? Maybe they just do this so that companies like Peacock have a way to organize episodes of Raw on the Network, putting them into actual seasons. Though I suspect WWE just loves using the "season" terminology so they can keep boasting about being the longest running show on television.

So watching Raw, you can kind of tell Triple H is back in charge of booking and creative, as well as the overall style of the show. We have stuff happening behind wrestlers during backstage segments, as well as wrestlers moving around backstage instead of just standing in one spot all the time. These are becoming hallmarks of Triple H's style, along with wrestlers randomly coming across other wrestlers as they are moving around backstage. Triple H likes to show us that things are very lively backstage, stuff is always happening. It's not just wrestlers standing somewhere waiting for an interviewer and a camera man to show up. He also likes to have people show up when you don't expect it. Like you're watching a segment where Miz is doing an interview, then Nia Jax just shows up, stands in front of both of them, and basically threatens the whole women's division and tells them that nobody can take her down. I remember something similar on Smackdown once where we were looking at Michael Cole and his partner at the commentary table as Cole was telling the viewers something, then suddenly Rhonda Rousey just walks in front of them and also in front of the camera, surprising me as a viewer and also leaving Cole with a "Wait, what the hell is happening" look on his face as she walked into the ring. I like little things like this. Speaking of WWE women...

The women's division is getting kind of fun on Raw now. I don't like Nia Jax, but she certainly has shaken things up. Now we have her, Shayna Bazler, Raquel Gonzalez, Rhea Ripley, and Zoey Starks all fighting with each other. Rhea did an in ring promo reminding everyone that she runs the women's division. The we had a competitive match between her and Shayna Bazler, which eventually broke down as all of these other women showed up and it just turned into a big brawl. They are all trying to prove that they are the "alpha" female on Raw and I like how Wade Barret puts them all over by saying, "We have all these badass women on Raw, but only one can be the baddest, and right now that's Rhea Ripley." This leads to Rhea, furious, yellowing at general manager Adam Pierce backstage, who tells her all of these ladies will be in a fatal five way match for the title at the next PPV. We also had Becky Lynch getting challenged by multiple women for her NXT title throughout the show, and then a brief stare down happened when she just randomly ran into Rhea Ripley backstage, both of them standing there holding their titles. She ALSO bumped into Jade Cargill so WWE is making everyone guess about which brand Cargill will be on. We also have the women's tag champs harassing baby faces every week. This led to a match tonight between Natalya and one half of said tag team Piper Niven, leading to a post match beat down where Teagon Knox, who has developed some sort of friendship with Natalya, comes down to the ring to save her from the tag champs.

With all this happening on one show, and that's not even getting into everything going on with the women on NXT and Smackdown, it boggles the mind why Tony Kahn can't seem to get more out of his women's division in AEW.

We also had a fun falls count anywhere match between anime villain Shinsuke Nakamura and Ricochet, where Shinsuke once again busts out nunchuks and start spinning them around like Bruce Lee. I love this shit. He keeps doing it every time he gets put into a no rules match. It reminds me of Lucha Underground



I'm convince if he could get away with it, he'd bring his Japanese katana into a match too

Drew Mcintyre is the most compelling guy on Raw right now. He's still mid-heel turn and I love the slow burn. It's largely revolving around how aggravated he is that everyone is cool with Jey Uso despite his past with Bloodline (who screwed Mcintyre out of the title at Clash at the Castle). Drew has a chip on his shoulder, and it is justified. I also like how even though Drew is still kind of acting like a face, Seth Rollins sees right through him. Good stuff. Also noteworthy that WWE reminded us tonight that Drew once beat Brock Lesnar in five minutes. Hardly anyone can make that claim. Drew was once a dragon slayer in this company.

Gunther defended his title in a solid match with Bronson Reed. Man, WWE has some dominant champions right now in Gunther, Roman, and Rhea. I honestly can't make a prediction about who will beat them or when it will happen. Seth Rollins is having a good run as champ too, but he doesn't feel as indomitable as the other three. He's super over though. However, some people will claim it's just because of his theme music, which arguably gets a reaction on par with Jericho's Judas.

As always, everything in WWE revolves around the Bloodline and Judgment Day, so Jimmy shows up to screw Jay out of the tag titles ending his and Cody's reign at 9 days. WWE isn't subtle, they kept repeating throughout the show how Cody and Jey won the titles just 9 days ago. It's like you knew they were gonna lose the belts on this show just based on that. They're really milking whatever they still can out of the Bloodline storyline right now, but the way they are building up Judgment Day, they'll be fine whenever they can no longer rely on the Bloodline storyline anymore.

[Reprise]

Meh, wrestlers get mad at each other. It happens. It's happened in WWE. No wrestling company is gonna be free of that. Punk though, did things no wrestler ever does. The press conference, multiple backstage brawls (one of which got him fired). That's pretty extreme and much more concerning than two wrestlers being pissed at each other over a promo segment. Also, there was a significant uptick in backstage AEW drama after Punk showed up, largely because Punk made people realize what a p**sy Tony Kahn is and how much he'll let people get away with. That is STILL gonna be an issue going forward even with Punk gone if Tony keeps letting people think that.

Yeah, I know. That's how all the Punk drama started though, with Hangman going off-script and then Punk subsequently doing the same as a "receipt" and it escalating from there. I am pretty sure from everything we know about AEW, that Punk was pretty spot on about it being an amateur operation, full of children who go into business for themselves, don't like taking advice from the legends and spend too much time gossiping to Dave Meltzer. It's just a shame Punk is a hypocrite who doesn't seem to realise that running his mouth, going into business for himself as well and putting people in choke holds tends to exacerbate issues, not resolve them. I was mostly poking fun though. The memes are still funny:

I laughed at Edge calling Starks a vanilla midget as I have never heard the term used outside of online wrestling communities. I was like, "did Edge just say that on TV?"

I did too. I am surprised actually. I was watching thinking "is he allowed to say that?" Haha.

I do think it's funny how WWE likes to talk about AEW like they are this little nothing company, but treat people like Jade Cargill like stars when logically the only reason to do so is because of what she did in AEW. That's literally the only explanation for Triple H and everyone treating her like she's Beyonce or something.

Yeah, that makes me laugh too. I felt the same when Cody debuted. You're spot on.

[Markies]

I do think it's funny how WWE likes to talk about AEW like they are this little nothing company, but treat people like Jade Cargill like stars when logically the only reason to do so is because of what she did in AEW. That's literally the only explanation for Triple H and everyone treating her like she's Beyonce or something.

Yeah, that makes me laugh too. I felt the same when Cody debuted. You're spot on.

That's a pawn tactic for later people.

Treat whatever start jumps from AEW to WWE like gold. Then, in the future, when more AEW contracts come up, they look over at WWE and see how they are treated and then jump ship as well.

I think Jade is more suited for WWE anyway. She is a person that can barely wrestle and only got better when Bryan Danielson started training with her. Might as well work for a company that barely has any wrestling in it. Much like Roman Reigns, she wants to use the WWE as jumping off point to Hollywood. Many people see how the Rock did it and they want to do it themselves.

[Raging Justice]

Yeah, I have to agree, Jade Cargill probably will go far in WWE...unless she does something stupid. If she really does become a top star she's gonna have to step up her ring skills though. You can't be having matches with Becky Lunch, Charlotte, Io Sky, etc. with Cargill's current skill set. Not to mention a lot of the incredible talent down in NXT right now. That would have been the best option for Cargill to improve her skills, but instead she's probably gonna be on the main roster. Though I guess if WWE wants her to be a big deal it won't matter. We've seen people with no wrestling skills get carried in WWE...like Olmos, or...shudder....The Great Kali. Ugh, his matches were UGLY.

I'm watching NXT and this breakout tournament they are doing with the ladies and it's something I wish AEW was doing. AEW had a cool joshi tournament once during covid and you got to see all these interesting women compete in it. The Mae Young Classic that WWE did years ago was phenomenal and introduced us to a lot of future WWE stars like Kairi, Rhea Ripley, Shayna Baszler, Candice LeRae, etc. and some notable names like Sereena Deeb, Tessa Blanchard, Taynara Conti (who we all know from AEW now), Santana Garrett (currently a coach in WWE's performance center), etc.

A tournament like this would revitalize AEW's women's division and would be an EXCELLENT way to bring in Mercedes Monet or some big name joshi or Mariah May. You have to make a tournament like that feel like a big deal, like WWE did with the Mae Young Classic.

[Raging Justice]

Oh well look at that, they ended NXT with a Jade Cargill tease. She has shown up on every WWE show now. NXT is the best fit for her in my opinion. WWE wants us guessing where she will go, but this felt like a nod in NXT's direction with Cargill making a ticking clock gesture.

[Reprise]

Interesting, NWA has scored a TV deal. Guess AEW might end up with some competition on their hands.

[Raging Justice]

Interesting, NWA has scored a TV deal. Guess AEW might end up with some competition on their hands.

NWA has a long and storied history in wrestling, so that's nice to hear. I used to watch an occasional episode on youtube. Their product was interesting because it was filmed in a studio, kind of like those game shows you see on TV. It also had a very 80s vibe. Cornette used to do commentary there until he not surprisingly said something deemed offensive and was let go. Any time Cornette opens his mouth you're either going to hear something stupid or something offensive, that's just the kind of person that he is. It was actually AFTER he was let go that I found myself occasionally watching NWA on youtube since I can't fucking stand that asshole. I've also had a crush on the gorgeous Velvet Sky. She's been on commentary there, but I think she left to go wrestle on Impact Wrestling.

Given that youtube is truly becoming a cesspool of late (I won't be posting links from them anymore), I would LOVE to see NWA get on television.

[Reprise]

Yeah, I have seen some of the really old NWA stuff, but not watched any of the more modern stuff. I remember Cornette being fired or saying something dumb and racist at the time and I was meaning to check it out since Corgan got involved and bought it (off topic, there was talk of him buying Impact/TNA at one point right?) but I never got around to it. I wouldn't mind giving it a chance if it makes it onto TV.

The more promotions getting onto TV and getting a bigger audience, the better. Impact seems to be growing again, which is great to see. Wrestling seems to be in a decent place at the moment.

[Raging Justice]

Yeah, I have seen some of the really old NWA stuff, but not watched any of the more modern stuff. I remember Cornette being fired or saying something dumb and racist at the time and I was meaning to check it out since Corgan got involved and bought it (off topic, there was talk of him buying Impact/TNA at one point right?) but I never got around to it. I wouldn't mind giving it a chance if it makes it onto TV.

The more promotions getting onto TV and getting a bigger audience, the better. Impact seems to be growing again, which is great to see. Wrestling seems to be in a decent place at the moment.

Yeah, there's definite growth happening it seems. I don't watch Impact much, but I do hear good things about the product. The few pay per views of theirs that I have seen over this past year have generally been pretty good.

I believe modern day NWA goes under the brand NWA Power. If nothing else it's interesting for its style. That studio setting and heavy 80s vibe is really different. There are a few people who had a run there right before coming to AEW like Sereena Deeb and Thunder Rosa. It's fun researching where AEW talent have come from. It shows you how important all of these companies are. I think MJF for example, was primarily working in MLW before coming to AEW and I'd argue that guys like Pentagon and Fenix got a lot of exposure from Lucha Underground, leading to them eventually ended up in AEW. Speaking of LU, they had done events back then with Impact and when LU came to an end a lot of those wrestlers ended up in Impact for a while.

Oh, and yeah, I believe Billy Corgan is running NWA as you said. I did indeed hear once upon a time that he wanted Impact, but ultimately ended up running NWA. Some people are already talking about NWA as possible competition for AEW. I feel like it would just be a competition for TV ratings and not ticket sales, since NWA doesn't seem to do shows in big arenas. In fact, now that i think about it, their current product feels a little like Lucha Underground in that the shows take place in a small venue with an intimate crowd.

You know on the subject of other wrestling companies. I haven't been watching WOW (Women of Wrestling). They have been on TV for a while, and CM Punk's wife AJ Lee is like a producer or something and also does commentary there. I watched a few episodes back before she came to the company, and it also reminded me a bit of Lucha Underground, but more so for having some over the top characters. I think when WOW came back to TV after getting AJ Lee on board they wanted to build around Tessa Blanchard. Tessa Blanchard is super talented, but for some reason she seems to make enemies everywhere she goes and seems to get blacklisted everywhere. She actually won the world title once in Impact (yes, the one that the men compete for) and then something happened after that and I think she got let go.

Her and Sexy Star (the original one from Lucha Underground) were kind of breaking new ground for winning titles usually reserved for men in both Impact and Lucha Underground. They were like the poster children for intergender wrestling. Ironically, both of them would then go on to piss off people in the business and get blacklisted. Weird coincidences.

So in WWE news, it's official now and I don't know if I should be happy for LA Knight or worried that WWE will bury him



So we talked about AEW and NXT going head to head not long ago. I was thinking about this and found it funny how WWE is proud about beating AEW on a night where they were not on their normal time slot. That's like bragging that you beat someone in a fight when they had one hand tied behind their back. It's natural to lose viewers when you move to a different night or a different channel. Ironically, a lot of people (and I think that includes myself too to be honest) made a big deal once when AEW beat Smackdown head to head, but that was also on a night where Smackdown got moved to FS1. I feel like neither company should boast until they can compete against each other on an even playing field.