The rumour is Charlotte vs. Rhea main events Night 1 but it’s still just rumour.
On that topic, babyface Charlotte is fucking dreadful.
The rumour is Charlotte vs. Rhea main events Night 1 but it’s still just rumour.
On that topic, babyface Charlotte is fucking dreadful.
Another juicy rumour from some Observer geezer is that Wyatt was pulled from the MSG house show last night (true) and is now off WrestleMania and maybe beyond that due to creative issues.
Thank fuck they did it now. He almost had to wrestle a match.
I guess we'll find out tonight if Bobby suddenly gets into it with someone else.
Wyatts gimmicks are alright and all, right up until he runs into the guy that management dont want to lose. Then anything else that happens just doesnt make sense with what has gone on previously and it all falls apart.
THE FIEND for example was great for a very short while, but then he's put into the title picture for no reason(what use has the fiend for the championship?). Then he gets into the HIAC match with Seth and the rest is history.
I feel like that's the only way you can use Bray. He vanishes for a bit, does some spooky bollocks the crowd gets weirdly into and then vanishes again. No ringwork unless it's an edited gimmick match. Or, I dunno, get him on the booking committee and then everyone can speak bollocks.
They wanted Brock to work with him but thankfully Brock is switched on when it comes to ensuring he doesn’t lose all credibility in a feud. Although fuck knows how he’s going to get a match out of Almost.
Bobby must be delighted.
I can see Brock not wanting to entertain Bray’s bullshit, but why didn’t he put the kabosh on Omos? Surely he deserves more than having to fuck about with a midcarder like that.
Because he'll only have to work about 4 minutes for a massive payday and gets to have everybody wank themselves to death pretending we've never seen an F5 to a big bloke before.Originally Posted by 7om
Ability wise he obviously deserves more, but he also clearly gives not even one shit so you reap what you sow I guess.
To be fair, I probably will have a wank after he F5s Omos.
When he takes the lanky fuck to Suplex City
Just watching Raw for this week. Can someone explain to me what Seth Rollins’ character is? The weird dancing, the constant laughing and weird promos. He actually looks like he’s playing a mentally ill character. He looks like an absolute shadow of the performer he was when he split from the Shield all them years ago.
I've not seen the film but apparently he's just the Joaquin Phoenix joker but dressed like more of a twat.
So he is playing a mentally ill character then? Genuine question because I can’t work it out. It’s crap, whatever it is.
He doesnt really have a character. I fully believe this is just him.
Seems like this is what years of believing in your own hype turns you into.
It’s absolute shit. He needs to go away for a while after putting Paul over.
Probably one of the examples of a guy who needs more of an editor in terms of his promos. But then that's always been the case. First heel run and the 2018 anti-Brock baby-face run were alright but it's never been his strength and he really currently needs somebody to get him to file some of the weirder edges off his current thing.
What the fuck does Orange Cassidy have on Tony Khan? Another week, another Dynamite match, another win. He's only lost one singles match and has won 15 straight. The gimmick has run its course. Imagine if a fucking decent worker with a lot more upside like Ricky Starks got a push like this?
I don't watch it, but I've heard a fair amount of hate for AEW over the last 6 months or so. Is it not good tv?
You may not like it but his segments are a draw apparently.
He drew once, according to Wrestlenomics. Ratings are in the toilet.
Time for a @Ben wrasslin' essay.
So Bork has Omos instead.Sports Illustrated is reporting that WWE believed GUNTHER needed a bit more seasoning before he'd be ready to work with someone the level of Brock Lesnar on a major show like WrestleMania 39.
I’m on it.Time for a @Ben wrasslin' essay.
It's mostly because Borin' Danielson has featured so heavily recently, in a load of pointless matches, leading to a predicable [yet excellent] iron man match with MJF.
Also the tag division is a complete joke now all the good tag teams have moved to the trios division.
I'm a twit
If you're someone who only watches WWE, then you might enjoy the chaos of AEW. Make no bones about it, apart from 10 minutes here and there, WWE television is boring as fuck. AEW doesn't have that issue but that creates its own problems because the booker/owner wants to do everything himself according to his own wet dream of wrestling but he's hardly Vince McMahon; he's got no prior experience of the wrestling business and according to sources has a massive cocaine problem which has a tendency to distort one's sense of reality.
Lots of AEW fans don't want to admit it but up until the All Out fiasco which got him shitcanned, CM Punk was the most intriguing segment and by far the biggest draw in AEW. Him going away started the downward spiral and not just because they can't rely on him to pop ratings every week. It opened the floodgates for those on the other side of the Punk/Elite incident to feel themselves fully vindicated and show their most egregious side, which unfortunately for AEW, was live on (inter)national television. Rumours have it that Tony Khan refuses to enlist help in his booking so most of the bullshit you see is his doing, but he allows some of the bigger stars to book their own storylines. Punk was one, but also Jericho and the Elite. Jericho is just ridiculous these days and everyone he gets into feuds with comes out worse than they went in and a cynic (ie. anyone with two eyes and a brain cell) will argue that this is on purpose. The Elite are an acquired taste let's say that and at the time I was furious they bullied Tony into making these trios titles (more on titles later) because it seemed rather convenient that they wanted to do this when a rubber match between the Bucks and FTR would have made perfect sense but that would have required the Bucks to put them over. Now that feeling has subsided I'm not too unhappy about it because personally I can't stand their style of "wrestling" and it seems they are steadily pulling their other indie mates into the division so I can just skip that segment now and not have to suffer.
Now onto Tony's booking. He did an interview with Ariel Helwani a while back which was notorious for his consistent non-answers regarding the All Out scrap and MJF's contract situation. But amongst that he gushed about how for the past 20 years he's played EWR and TEW (computer wrestling booking games, quite fun actually) and therein lies the problem. He's booking a multi-million dollar promotion with international television deals like it's a fucking computer game. Less and less angles are making sense these days and it's obviously due to a lack of filter when he's dreaming this up. He's got an uncanny knack of being able to completely torpedo a wrestler's momentum when they are on the cusp of getting over huge (FTR, Hobbs, Wardlow, Starks, Hayter, The Acclaimed all within the last year). Either they disappear without reason for a bit (FTR, Hobbs), put in a feud with Jericho (Starks) or inexplicably have their titles taken away (Wardlow, The Acclaimed). In most of these cases, we're now actually pivoting back to them which shows Tony has realised he fucked up but there's no guarantee some of them will get back over.
None of the booking is sensical in that one should save a gimmick match for a blowoff to a feud; everything basically descends into a no-DQ match even if it's a throwaway television match or worse is even booked as such. This in turn makes his referees look like completely idiots because they are required to ignore obvious infractions that under any normal circumstances would amount to a DQ, or even worse have to hold a fucking ladder so Hobbs doesn't fall and break his neck in the ladder match trying to reach the brass ring on his tippie toes (oh fuck there's another small time thing they do) because the idiot who produced the match put a 10ft ladder in the ring instead of 15ft one. AEW is littered with idiotic gimmick matches for little reason other than to give the crowd a chance to chant "THIS IS AWESOME!" and other cringey shit. Tony books specifically for his internet fans who, without trying to pigeon hole them, are just fucking clowns who love indie wrestling; they want to see everyone go out and put their spines at risk every match which ends up with half the roster injured and, worse, nowhere for big matches to go because some dipshit has already done seventeen 540 sentons on the undercard. Baz gives Danielson a hard time but the fact the Iron Man match was so well received (despite the stipulation being utterly unnecessary but we'll ignore that) is a testament to him and MJF because all the goofs in the undercard tried their very best to upstage them. The main event should be a main event, not just the tenth match in a ten match card.
So with Tony already stretched in his capabilities, he acquired ROH and tried to book that fucker too. And then he incorporated it into AEW TV so a promotion with 20 titles becomes a promotion with 30 titles. How can you care about a title when every fucking match is a title match? Look at this past week's Dynamite: just a random episode, not a lead-in or lead-out to a PPV or a "special" episode, yet three of the four matches on the show were title matches. Utterly mental. Even if you have WWF's roster of 2000, you can't book like that. It's crash TV and it's killing their growth and appeal to anyone who's not in that core niche of fans who just love this shit. Those fans basically amount to a cult (like Tesla drivers and air fryer aficionados) who won't have a bad word to say about it but to a casual fan or someone like me who likes their wrestling to make sense rather than shock value entertainment, it's been absolute dross since last summer (bar a brief period in January where it looked like they were getting it together). They consistently lose 20% of their audience throughout the show every week.
This reads back like an obituary but we are talking about the negatives. There are many positives too but wrestling starts with the booking and that's by far the biggest problem in AEW. Yes, I don't like some (a lot) of the roster because they know how to do a corkscrew but not how to work or sell but that's by the bye in comparison (if I'm feeling especially twattish one day I'll do a breakdown of the roster). There's some great talents there, interestingly most of them being on that list further up about those who have had their momentum trashed and despite how I make it sound, some of it is watchable and entertaining. But unless you're some super fan, you'll quickly learn how to skip the stuff that isn't for you. If you just like spot fests with no rhyme or reason and you're able to filter out all the nonsensical stuff, you'll probably enjoy the majority of it, as it's just a promotion full of indie dream matches every week. If you're more like me who wants an actual reason to why things happen, then the fast-forward button on your TV remote will get a regular workout.
So yeah, your mileage might vary compared to mine but the stuff I have listed is why I think AEW has been so bad lately. If it was booked remotely logically then I could begin to stomach some of the more talented lunatic wrestlers he has signed up.
The referees thing is something I've mentioned on here before when I dip into AEW. They're just staring at really basic DQ moves and doing nothing about it. The biting is the most egregious one. Last time I watched a full AEW show I'm sure it had three matches at least that I counted where in the middle of the action the heel just openly bit their opponent and the ref did nothing but there's loads of examples of that sort of thing when you watch it.
Serious talent on that roster but too many unchecked egos and sometimes that leads to it all being a bit late era WCW.
I hate the name 'trios' for a division. Either call it a six-man tag or have a duos division as well.
Here’s another of their problems:
Twat is forbidden but Moxley yelling “fuck you” whilst flipping the bird and bleeding everywhere several times a broadcast is just fine for Tony.
They should have some more battle royals to see who qualifies for another tournament to win a golden brass diamond swear box which allows them to tell Tony Schiavone to cut the shit once a week.
Profanity in the Bank
Tables, Ladders and Slurs
Heck in a Sec
That's just because Americans are still a bit puritan around words for women's genitals. Presumably 'asshole' or 'dickhead' would be fine? I've not clicked through.
But they love pussy.
When Nigel McGuinness was in TNA I'm sure he had free reign to call people wankers because Americans had no idea what he was on about.
Nige
Or I should say, Desmond Wolfe.
Total aside but this is how plonker got into Only Fools and Horses despite meaning penis, because the BBC poshos didn't know what it meant.(According to David Jason.)
Great write up, Ben. Thanks for that.
Just watched Dynamite and I guess Wardlow is completely dead and buried, considering he didn’t get a mention when MJF mentioned Christian, Jericho and Sting looking after Jungle Boy, Sammy Guevara and Darby Allin. Great to have them all in contention for a title match though. Should be a great run up to Double Or Nothing. Hopefully a 4-way ladder match so we can see seventeen 540 sentons.
I'm a twit
I wouldn’t mind seeing Darby Allin vs. MJF but the other two belong nowhere near the World title. Even still, I think that should be a title match on a special Dynamite. That four-way won’t sell the PPV to casuals.
Smackdown was pretty decent last night and with all the lacklustre Mania build we normally get these days it was refreshing to have one that was so laser-focused on building the show.
Crowd were awful though, doing a bit of a pop when a thing initially happened then immediately going dead quiet. At least they popped properly for the end.
Cameron Grimes is looking unrecognisable.
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Looks like something you'd get back from an AI request to draw Jinder Khali.
Scott Hall vibes.
Butch is dead, long live Pete Dunne
Give him a title shot against WALTER now please.
The return of Yellow Peter
Anyone watching the New Japan Cup? I’m now caught up and Mark Davis (Aussie Open) and David Finlay have been most impressive.
Ospreay beat Davis but got a shoulder injury so Davis came back in. Hopefully it’s not too serious because if it’s something like a rotator cuff then it torpedos the obvious plan for him to win the G1 and then Okada for the title.
I’ll be honest, I almost (*almost*) choked up when Owens returned and hugged Sami at the end of Smackdown. It’s been so well done since War Games.
he looks like about 10 otger wrestlers. I'm mostly getting Stevie Richards vibes, but all the other suggestions in this thread workCameron Grimes is looking unrecognisable.
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Hopefully the cokehead signs him up.
Full cop entrance or don't even bother.
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