The Wrestling Thread

[Raging Justice]

Wow. Drew McIntyre pinned Cody Rhodes.

[Raging Justice]

See, if you watch R Truth over the past couple of weeks on Raw, you'd get my whole Toni Storm thing. He's been prominently featured in a story line with the Judgement Day. It's been full of silly nonsense, as all R Truth story lines are. It's fun, and he's over with the crowds, but everyone understands R Truth's role. He's a comedy character. He's Santino Marella. He gets plenty of air time and probably gets paid pretty well, but he never gets any meaningful wins over anyone important and no one is expecting to see a title on him anytime soon unless they bring back the 24/7 hardcore title, which is a joke title.

That's Timeless Toni Storm. She's female R Truth, IT'S EXACTLY THE SAME CHARACTER. Both of them are delusional, crazy people, who are living in their own little alternate reality. R Truth thinks that Johnny Gargano and Tomaso Champa are Shawn Michaels and Triple H as DX, and he used to talk to an imaginary, invisible child called "Little Jimmy". The only difference between him and "Timeless" Toni Storm is that they made her the AEW women's world champion. I would bet my house that if she was in WWE with this gimmick, there is not a goddamn chance in hell she would EVER get a world title match against Rhea Rhipley or Iyo Sky. In fact, ironically, they'd probably put her in a role similar to the one Mariah May has. She'd be someone's goofy sidekick. She'd be female R Truth. If I was wrong about this, we'd be seeing Cody "Stardust" Rhodes main-eventing Wrestlemania right now.

This is why no one will ever takes women's wrestling in AEW seriously. People like this are not supposed to win world titles:





There's a reason why LA Knight had to ditch these guys to get to where he is now:

[Reprise]

Raging, who are these women?

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/BQaLQgCyJExnwa3J/

[Raging Justice]

Raging, who are these women?

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/BQaLQgCyJExnwa3J/

Pretty sure that's Kiera Hogan on the left, you should recognize her. She used to be one of Cargill's "Baddies" (whatever the hell that means)

Not sure about the one on the right, maybe Amari Miller? She got released from NXT I think?

Kiera Hogan may be getting released from AEW soon

The backstage power struggle between DMD and Mercedes should be fun...

[Raging Justice]

There's a reason why I like to check out wrestling outside of WWE/AEW, for fun stuff like this:



That match is going to be glorious

Speaking of wrestling outside of WWE/AEW, Orange Cassidy defended his International title...internationally for a change. He defended his title in RevPro as a surprise entrant in a scramble match. Cassidy went full heel at the sound of the bell, viciously attacking all of his opponents with several of his signature, career ending kicks. It was hard to watch. Later in the match he caved in some skulls by hitting each of them with the Orange Punch. I don't think RevPro will ever be the same

After sending 6 people to the hospital he had the nerve to deliver a message from Tony Kahn reminding everyone watching to come back to Wembley this year. How the crowd could cheer for him and chant "Freshly Squeezed" after seeing such savagery is mind boggling.

[Reprise]

Raging, who are these women?

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/BQaLQgCyJExnwa3J/

Pretty sure that's Kiera Hogan on the left, you should recognize her. She used to be one of Cargill's "Baddies" (whatever the hell that means)

Not sure about the one on the right, maybe Amari Miller? She got released from NXT I think?

Kiera Hogan may be getting released from AEW soon

The backstage power struggle between DMD and Mercedes should be fun...

Ah yes, Kiera Hogan, that's the one. Thanks.

Yep, looking forward to more backstage AEW drama

[Raging Justice]

Raging, who are these women?

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/BQaLQgCyJExnwa3J/

Pretty sure that's Kiera Hogan on the left, you should recognize her. She used to be one of Cargill's "Baddies" (whatever the hell that means)

Not sure about the one on the right, maybe Amari Miller? She got released from NXT I think?

Kiera Hogan may be getting released from AEW soon

The backstage power struggle between DMD and Mercedes should be fun...

Ah yes, Kiera Hogan, that's the one. Thanks.

Yep, looking forward to more backstage AEW drama

In all seriousness though, hopefully everything will be fine. I'm in a funny mood if my Cassidy post didn't make that obvious, so I made the joke about DMD and Mercedes, but I really would like to see them get along and generate some good buzz (and business) for AEW.

[Reprise]

Haha yeah, I gave it a read

I saw Orange Cassidy was at RevPro. I think Tony Khan was there too.

It's going to be an interesting year for AEW.

[Raging Justice]

I'm still savoring this moment:





Drew also took a jab at Punk on Twitter:

"Look in my eeeeyes, what do you see?"



https://411mania.com/wrestling/drew-mci ... s-wwe-raw/

The only other guy to pin Rhodes since his return to WWE was this man:

[Raging Justice]

So that's how the PPV is looking so far, I expect this isn't the final card though.

So Bucks vs Sting and Darby will be amazing as Bucks PPV matches always are. Sting is limited but knows what he can and can't do, and he always has the crowd behind him. I also know that he will attempt at least one crazy spot as that's been his pattern. The Bucks and Darby will do tons of crazy spots. The Bucks are also underrated for their in ring storytelling on PPV events and this is an important match. Ric Flair will factor into the outcome somehow.

The world title match has been built up extremely well. Swerve is fucking incredible in all of his matches and whether he's a heel or face right now, he's over. He could win this. Samoa Joe may be past his prime, but can still work a great match. He's been an extremely well booked main eventer even before getting the title. I think him retaining is also possible. Hangman ALWAYS delivers in big matches. Just like the Young Bucks he is the "Elite" in All Elite Wrestling and his increasingly, unhinged character is fun. He was getting Cowboy Shit chants tonight. Edgier Hangman might be a good thing for him in the long run. Hangman's character is always interesting when he's obsessed over something, it makes for great TV when he's fighting his own inner demons. I don't see him winning here, which could be a good thing. Last time he was champ, it's like AEW didn't know what to do with him, though you could maybe blame that on Tony's obsession with Punk at the time. If Okada is coming in, a program with Hangman to give both guys something to do could be awesome. I feel like that match is long overdue when looking at previous Forbidden Door events.

Bryan vs Kingston is a waste and shows yet again Bryan's poor booking. He should be doing something better than this. Hell, you could argue he should be in the world title match. Bryan is starting to feel like AEW Cody. He's getting matches against big Japanese names and top AEW talent which I'm sure makes him personally happy, but he's a guy who feels like he should be a much bigger deal in AEW right now than he is. It's not as bad as the awful, "Codyverse", but he does feel wasted.

I don't get the point of Ospreay vs Takeshita, but it could be match of the show easily.

Cassidy/Strong has been built up well and I think Strong winning is possible. Cassidy is arguably the best booked wrestler in AEW. His win streak is incredible. He's also beaten Jericho, Moxley, and Adam Cole. Somehow the sloth-like, laid back, "I don't care about anything" character has become the best "fighting champion" in the company's short history. He's putting even Seth Rollins and Gunther over in WWE to shame. He's defended that title for what feels like a hundred times no matter how tired or broken down we're told he is and I can't recall him ever having a bad match with anyone. That certainly won't change with someone as good in the ring as Roderick Strong is.

Purrazzo vs Storm could be a very good match, but I just don't care. I think some people in the crowd will be receptive and Storm does have some weirdos who like her stupid gimmick, but if some of the other matches are amazing and this follows one of them, the women's match will yet again get the most modest crowd reaction as they have before on other pay per views. If AEW wants people to remember this match when the show is over we need a title change.

This looks like a good pay per view.