The Wrestling Thread

[Reprise]

I don't know if it's political correctness per se, but people are overly sensitive and hold wrestling to a different and higher standard than other media forms. I touched on that when the Juice Robinson roll of quarters controversy happened.

Lack of good characters, lack of good stories, strong writing and too many heels are definitely all problems modern wrestling has. People do view the Attitude Era with rose tinted glasses though. It had tons of hokey nonsensical booking, dumb stories and feuds that went no where (people seem to remember the best bits and forget the crap stuff, like Billy Gunn getting pushed and being in a feud with The Rock, or Big Bossman being put in WWF championship match with the Big Show, or the fact that 90% of the matches were utter crap). That said, when they hit, they really knocked it out of the park. They understood how to tell compelling stories and relatable characters. Everyone could get over too, there was so much charisma.

Even with crap matches, it was watchable because of the characters and storylines. The Royal Rumble in 1999 goes down in history as one of the worst of all time. Vince won it! And he won it after him and Stone Cold spent most of the match outside the ring.vThat would get shat on so much if they did something like that now, but at the time it was shocking. It made you tune into Raw the next day to find out what would happen. The overall Rumble was crap too, but everyone had a story, everyone had a part to play. Russo booked it, I remember him explaining it in an interview and you can understand what he was going for.

It's the same with Survivor Series '98. Crap matches, terrible to rewatch, but an event with a well told story and a twist. From the moment it starts to the moment it ends, it's all telling a story and the way they pull it off is really well done. The first time I watched it, I didn't see the twist with McMahon and his stooges allying with The Rock to screw Mankind and Stone Cold. And of course, like Raging Justice said, a good story ends with good triumphing over evil. Stone Cold defeats Corporate Rock at Wrestlemania 15. Right there, they launched all these wrestlers involved to another level. This was the moment The Rock became a main event star and he had two of his best feuds with Mankind and Stone Cold.

[Raging Justice]

So with Bayley and Charlotte re-signing with WWE and Becky Lynch saying she'll never leave her "home" (nice choice of words there), it feels more than ever like a massive missed opportunity by AEW to not sign Sasha Banks. She'll likely end up in WWE and we've have all four horsewomen back under one roof again.

She's the one, the only one, that AEW might have had a shot at signing. Meanwhile, Tony apparently just announced another women's title for ROH. Cause that's what AEW and ROH need...more titles.



Oh but hey, at least we still have her right?



and let's not forget the champ whose bringing in all those ratings right?



You know what I wish? By some miracle of God that Tony could sign AJ Lee, just to piss off Punk and to actually get the wrestling world talking about AEW's women's division.

[Reprise]

Haha there's no way AJ Lee would sign with AEW. She's completely done with wrestling in any case.

Speaking of Mercedes, Fightful were reporting that she's asking for way more money than WWE want to pay and that there are potentially still talks going on between her and AEW, so I don't think it's now some unspoken fact that she's going back to WWE, but who knows? These are the same dirt sheets who were still reporting Punk definitely isn't returning as of the same day Survivor Series.

It doesn't really matter though. If she joined AEW, the IWC would continue to hate on her, continue to claim she is the worst of the four horsewomen, continue to call her a diva and overrated etc. if she joined WWE, they will suddenly call her the best thing since sliced bread and how she's back "home" and she's the best female wrestler ever.

Just like Punk was a old and washed up until her returned to WWE and Jade Cargill was green and rubbish until she signed with WWE.

[TheSSNintendo]

LA Knight was in his hometown of Hagerstown, MD today for a Key to the City ceremony.

[Raging Justice]

LA Knight was in his hometown of Hagerstown, MD today for a Key to the City ceremony.

I heard about that. Pretty cool

So I guess it's about that time of year. Everybody is gonna be doing best of this and best of that. Here's a few links with some matches you guys might want to check out if you haven't already. I haven't seen all of them but I might try to.












And these are just about overall best events

[Reprise]

I have an idea of what my favourite matches have been this year, I think. I have only watched bits of AEW and WWE and have missed PPVs and weekly shows, so it's not as exhaustive as the lists you'd get from wrestling journalists, influencers and youtubers etc. but these are my favourites from what I have seen:

1. MJF vs Bryan Danielson (Iron Man match), AEW Revolution
2. FTR vs Bullet Club Gold (Two out of Three Falls match), AEW Collision July 15th
3. Roman Reigns vs Sami Zayn, WWE Elimination Chamber
4. The Usos vs Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, WWE Wrestlemania 39 Night One
5. Charlotte vs Rhea Ripley, WWE Wrestlemania 39 Night One
6. Gunther vs Sheamus vs Drew McIntyre, WWE Wrestlemania 39 Night Two
7. MJF vs Darby Allin vs Sammy Guevara vs Jungle Boy, AEW Double or Nothing
8. Swerve Strickland vs Adam Hangman Page, AEW Wrestledream
9. Bryan Danielson vs Zack Sabre Jr, AEW Wrestledream
10. MJF vs Adam Cole, AEW All In

[Raging Justice]

Tam Nakano Wins Tokyo Sports Women’s Pro-Wrestling Award 2023

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/tam ... ccounter=1



Someone made a little video recapping some of the big happenings with Tam this year. You know, Tam really lives the whole idea of storytelling in wrestling and there's a sense of gravitas surrounding everything she does that you can see in this video. This is why I don't really enjoy seeing a character like Timeless Toni Storm as champion in AEW. She just doesn't bring that sense of importance to the title

I have an idea of what my favourite matches have been this year, I think. I have only watched bits of AEW and WWE and have missed PPVs and weekly shows, so it's not as exhaustive as the lists you'd get from wrestling journalists, influencers and youtubers etc. but these are my favourites from what I have seen:

1. MJF vs Bryan Danielson (Iron Man match), AEW Revolution
2. FTR vs Bullet Club Gold (Two out of Three Falls match), AEW Collision July 15th
3. Roman Reigns vs Sami Zayn, WWE Elimination Chamber
4. The Usos vs Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, WWE Wrestlemania 39 Night One
5. Charlotte vs Rhea Ripley, WWE Wrestlemania 39 Night One
6. Gunther vs Sheamus vs Drew McIntyre, WWE Wrestlemania 39 Night Two
7. MJF vs Darby Allin vs Sammy Guevara vs Jungle Boy, AEW Double or Nothing
8. Swerve Strickland vs Adam Hangman Page, AEW Wrestledream
9. Bryan Danielson vs Zack Sabre Jr, AEW Wrestledream
10. MJF vs Adam Cole, AEW All In

Rhea Ripley's match with Charlotte seems even more important in retrospect given the dominant run that Rhea is still on with the title

Swerve has kind of moved up the ranks a bit in AEW this year

The Four Pillars match was a lot of fun. MJF has had a hell of a year.

On that note, so has Cassidy, and he's had more great matches than I can even remember at this point.

[Reprise]

Will AEW stop its constant boner for Jon Moxley already? Dude really doesn't need to win everything.

This tournament has been pretty awesome from what I have seen, but Mox vs Kingston as the final two is just taking a giant dump on the whole thing. What a pathetic final. They could have had Swerve vs Danielson (or Jay White vs Danielson) instead of this...

Edit: Mercedes Mone is teasing way too much lately. I think her WWE return is definitely happening. Expect her to be #30 in the Rumble for the cheap predictable pop. It'll be great to have her back though.

[Raging Justice]

Will AEW stop its constant boner for Jon Moxley already? Dude really doesn't need to win everything.

This tournament has been pretty awesome from what I have seen, but Mox vs Kingston as the final two is just taking a giant dump on the whole thing. What a pathetic final. They could have had Swerve vs Danielson (or Jay White vs Danielson) instead of this...

Edit: Mercedes Mone is teasing way too much lately. I think her WWE return is definitely happening. Expect her to be #30 in the Rumble for the cheap predictable pop. It'll be great to have her back though.

Yeah, Mox didn't need the win. Frankly, he should be doing nothing but putting people over at this point. At least until AEW can come up with an interesting story line for him. Swerve is a fucking star and having him lose to Mox twice is just dumb. The greatest value Mox brings to AEW right now is how much a victory over him means and AEW is not making use of that investment. I like Keith Lee, but him and Swerve fighting is tiresome at this point and feels like a slide down the card for Swerve. Keith Lee is effectively mid card at this point.

AEW needs to find something for Jay White to do and soon. He's a great talent. I would like to see him feud with Hangman (and actually put him over for once).

Bryan Danielson constantly putting people over is getting tiresome, especially to someone like Eddie Kingston who would be either a jobber or a joke character if he was in WWE. Don't get me wrong, if he went there now he'd get pushed. However, that's only because he was an AEW guy. If he was in WWE and never worked in AEW, he'd be a jobber. I don't know if WWE would have even hired him in the first place. Eddie makes all of his opponents look weak because he has no credibility in the ring. He looks fat and out of shape and his offense and defense are lame. Danielson carried that match.

I'm tired of the goth girl antics of Sky and Julia, even though they both look pretty damn hot (especially Julia). Adding Abaddon to this thing is even cringier. I really hope they get Julia away from the House of Black soon. She's too lame for them. Man AEW has great talent on the women's roster like Statlander, Willow, and even Sky and Julia, but they have no idea what to do with them.

Will AEW make up their minds about Jericho and Sammy already. They're together. They're not together. They're together. They're not together. They're together

Don Callis is a great heel, but his "family" just feels like a bunch of random dudes thrown together. I feel like they all could be better utilized away from him. Konosuke Takeshita is being wasted in that group. So is Hobbs. If AEW creative wasn't so lazy, they'd all have meaningful feuds and story lines with other people.

I like Riho, and she looked cuter than she has in a long time last night, but she's being wasted in this feud. Toni Storm is lame and everything she is involved in is lame as a result. Mariah May has been ABSOLUTEY FUCKING WASTED AND MISUSED by Tony Kahn. She's all the proof you need as to why Mercedes Monet shouldn't waste her time coming to this company.

The Samoa Joe turn was predictable. It's not a terrible thing necessarily, I just thought the kind of, sort of, but not really partnership between him and MJF was more interesting from a story telling perspective. I'm getting tired of the devil thing. The pay off better be worth it, but's it's AEW so it won't be.

Dynamite was lame, and felt like a reminder of how many issues this company currently has

I have to take AEW fans to task. I criticize WWE fans for accepting whatever WWE does. AEW fans are starting to be the same way. There's stuff the company is doing that isn't good but the crowds never seem to take a dump on anything. Frankie Kazarian said something interesting not long ago about AEW. He said they have matches just to have matches and he got tired of that. It's true. AEW creative is terrible and frankly worse than WWE. WWE's main problem is never wanting to take titles off of anyone so no matter how good their creative is it ends up being ultimately meaningless. The titles never change hands and heels never got their comeuppance. As a result, nothing that happens in WWE seems to matter.

[Raging Justice]

Holy Shit!

As if this guy wasn't enough of a legend already.

https://monthlypuroresu.com/features/go ... president/



So with wrestlers running companies now, I actually am imagining a future where Bryan Danielson runs AEW

In other Japan related news, WWE is trying to make inroads over there with the one company that they actually can since NJPW won't work with them

https://monthlypuroresu.com/features/nx ... ajpw-2024/