The Ultimate WWE Thread

[Gray Fox]

In ring stuff has not been great for the most part.

Now 'mon Gunther.

[Pleb]

Gunther really needs this title.

[Gray Fox]

I think more Judgement Day drama costs Priest and then we see them implode completely. Possibly jealousy from Balor.

Well then.

[Gray Fox]

They're saying Romans name a lot in this build up. Again surely it's too soon?

[Pleb]

But WARGAMES!

[Waffdon]

They're saying Romans name a lot in this build up. Again surely it's too soon?

He’s barely ever there when champion, he’s had long enough for a holiday

[Gray Fox]

The fucking aura on the guy.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Nia winning and Tiffy Time not cashing in, ugh.

[Waffdon]

I think Jacob Fatu got a bad injury there. Wouldnt be shocked if they changed the ending as he could not move whatsoever after jumping through the announce table

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Didn't think Roman would be back, assumed they'd wait a bit longer for him.

Bloodline Civil WARGAMES then.

[Gray Fox]

I thought Fatu kayfabed the leg to get him out of the way of Roman taking out Solo.

He does seem to twat it on the corner of the table as he lands though.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

"Jellyroll" can fuck right off.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

1820109038161363275

RIP the Civil War?

[Waffdon]

I was sceptical but this Rhea/Priest duo against the Judgement Day could be top tier. Priest is OVER.

The Wyatt’s also were actually very decent in their debut. Didn’t expect much but they surpassed it. Shame Perc Gable and his new academy are going to be fed to them

[Gray Fox]

Caught up on RAW now and agree. I imagine we get some "previously unseen" backstage snippets of Balor and the other two pretending to search for Dom/Liv loads while actually covering for them.

When Priest looked ready to win the briefcase I think I remember saying I didn't think he would be it, but you have to give him the chance. And he smashed it really. Carried it very well, got himself over and didn't look out of place against a master like Gunther. It's a shame he had to drop the belt, but they clearly set the Q/KOTR stuff up to get Gunther and Nia to their titles, so it was always the plan.

I wonder who they draft in to be their help though. Dudgement Jay has 4 guys and Liv, while you only have Priest/Rhea. Hopefully they don't shoehorn Rey into it against his son for the 10th time. Dom is great though. Somehow managed to turn more heel, even though he was probably already the top heel.

As for the Wyatt stuff, it needs to do something other than terrorising Chad Gable. It's also getting to the point where everyone is in a stable these days.

[Waffdon]

Yeah, HHH downsides are long ass title reigns and multiple stables

I think Jey will move to Smackdown - no idea who they’ll be trading him for

[Trancemeister]

Kevin Sullivan died.

[Ben]

Oh shit. :(

Whatever happened in hospital after that freak accident must have done him over because he was always in good health up until then.

[Browning]

What was the accident? Freak accident while signing autographs doesn’t tell us a lot.

[Ben]

From what I can gather it was a car crash then he got a load of sepsis in hospital. Tragic.

[Gray Fox]

I said it before but god damn the aura on Reigns.

Crowd electric and chanting OTC at him and he's not said a word since returning. Unless OOOOOOWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA counts as a word.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/afc-bournemouth-becomes-first-football-club-partner-wwe-2k

So random.

Fulham v Bournemouth games now though :drool: What a derby.

[wullie]

They've added Pat McAfee's podcast mates as playable characters for some reason, so hopefully do the same here. Philip Billing vs Omos, big man dream match.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

1826418952475476396

Why are they wrasslin at 0.25x speed?

[Ben]

Paige/Saraya is absolutely tragic now. That neck injury was bad.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Ronda Rousey did an AMA the other day to promote a book she wrote.

She was bombarded with questions about Sandy Hook as she posted a conspiracy theory video about the tragedy 11 years ago.

Here's my favourite:

1825960846541074857

But there were so many:

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She ignored them all and then posted a long winded apology tweet which also got slammed for being 11 years too late.

Here's the whole AMA for anyone who wants it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/1ewyxxv/im_ronda_rousey_ama/

[Baz]

>doesn’t watch wrestling anymore
>spends $50 on a Will Ospreay wrestling figure (https://www.shopaew.com/shopaew-exclusive-will-ospreay-all-elite-wrestling-6-inch-will-ospreay-unrivaled-collection-shopaew-exclusive.html)

:moop:

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

$50 for that?

:lol:

They saw you and other gimps coming.

[Baz]

https://i.imgflip.com/91a24a.jpg

[Mike]

Just got home from a great afternoon in Liverpool and stuck All In on, as fun as it was last I’m glad to be watching on my sofa with a pizza.

[Gray Fox]

Has Baz gone to it in the end?

[Mike]

He sold his tickets

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

He can buy more action figures then.

[Shindig]

And he can put them all in his pink shed.

[Browning]

Sid gone now too.

[Ben]

That one hurts me.

Loved him as a kid.

[Shindig]

Half the brain that we do. :(

[wullie]

Hulk Hogan fucked him over properly in the 92 rumble, Sid should have got the scissors out then.

[Waffdon]

That bronson reed spot was hilarious

[Baz]

Has Baz gone to it in the end?Nope. Was never going to attend anything where the main event is Borin Danielson against Swerve Strickland, was I? Plus I’ve not watched wrestling since about October 2023.

And christ what a damp squib of an ending. Although not quite as bad as Mercedes Mone’s “finisher” :sick:

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

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This could be absolutely fascinating.

[Shindig]

Not sure how much of that will be tied in legal shut-your-mouthery.

[Ben]

If it devotes plenty of time to the 80s boom and steroid trial it will be amazing. If it’s all Attitude Era and dancing around the current trial then no thanks.

[Ben]

Ok I’ve just read that this thing has been in the works for years and was pretty much finished up right before the initial Vince retirement a couple of years ago.

So that means it would have been a complete puff piece in its original guise (especially as Netflix finally bought Raw after pursuing their programming for a long time, and WWE give this whole thing the thumbs up) so I imagine the rework will pretty much ignore as much bad stuff as possible, especially if it puts the company at large in any kind of bad light.

I can’t see how they’ll completely throw Vince under the bus without making wrestling look completely carny, then turn around and immediately expect their billion dollar investment in Raw to be a resounding success.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

The blurb on IMDB suggests it will focus on why he was forced to resign.

It 100% wont focus enough on the bad shit.

[phonics]

If it's the Bill Simmons produced one then it was setup to be an absolute puff piece and then got shelved due to the troubles. It's going to be awful.

[wullie]

A proper dive into him would be incredible viewing, but I can't see a company that's taking over the WWE Network going too heavy on the steroids, limo rape, shit on head and running wrestlers into early deaths.

[Shindig]

Let's not forget the Jimmy Snuka stuff.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Guten Abend.

Bash in Berlin starting in 5.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

WALTER getting the main event :drool:

That shit is going to slap hard.

[Waffdon]

That was such a meh finish. Super Cody is just John Cena at this point. No idea who is going to take the title off him.

Probably Solo :sick:

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I just wish we didn't need to see 4+ finishers from each in a big match.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

What was the point of that if you're not turning Cargill heel?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Strap matches are so shit.

[Waffdon]

Judgement Day buried within a month. It must be great being a face under HHH.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

A regular RAW could be longer than this PPV.

[phonics]

They're STILL going on about a 45 year old mans bracelet?

[Gray Fox]

But it has his wifes and most importantly, dogs name on it.

[phonics]

THANK THE LORD THE BRACELET IS ALIVE.

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THIS IS TNA LEVEL DOGSHIT. Pathetic.

[Waffdon]

That’s a fake Twitter page lol

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

WrestelOps, lol.

[phonics]

The bracelet really is gone? Fucking hell I've got to get my funeral gear back on. Devastating news.

[Waffdon]

Kayfabe well and truly alive, brother

[Gray Fox]

Never work yourself into a shoot, brother.

[wullie]

I don't mind the bracelet stuff so much, but only if it ends with the dog biting Drew on the arse.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Odyssey Jones fired because of domestic abuse allegations.

Great timing from him, just as he was finally being featured.

[phonics]

To balance the fact that I called the punk drew angle terrible. Swerve put out a great video about how his new contract allowed him to buy his childhood home that got foreclosed on in the recession. Now I’ve refreshed Twitter and hangman page has set the entire house on fire within 6 hours. It’s all such bollocks.

[Ben]

They’re still feuding?

[Gray Fox]

They should definitely have an Unsanctioned Lights Out Steel Cage Match to settle the score.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Don't forget the EXPLOSIONS.

[phonics]

They’re still feuding?

This is the resumption after months. Basically Swerves title reign he was gone, trying and failing to get a shot at him and it's resumed now Swerve lost the title.

[Ben]

Tony isn’t prepared to sanction the match, but it was his choice to add the Lights Out stipulation and he will also provide the cage.

[Ben]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwKm7WM_P8E

A couple of hints here that it might not be as soft as expected. They'll have to keep the Rock, Hogan and Prichard interviews to a minimum though.

[wullie]

They asked the lady who's suing him to be involved as well so maybe it'll actually go for it and not be the puff piece it threatened to be. Apart from when John Cena talks which will be full on Linkedin lunacy.

[phonics]

Okay the Hangman promo kicked ass.

Sick photo too

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GWrdkbqWoAArJPq.jpg

[Shindig]

She probably should we wary about appearing on that whilst a case is ongoing.

EDIT: That is some lovely arson.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

A no spill petrol can?

Fucking awesome.

[Ben]

I just looked back at the All In card after seeing that Jamie Hayter came back (and they blew a potentially big return on a fucking pre-show then just throw her into random Dynamite matches lol, but I digress) and I immediately noticed the number of names on the card.

So I counted them up. Tony Khan paid 72 wrestlers, plus 11 managers to appear on the show. That's absolutely mental and has got to be a record? Even WWE do less numbers than that when they run two Royal Rumbles in a night.

[phonics]

Who cares it kicked ass?

[Ben]

Sorry for noticing. Up the flippy shit!

[Baz]

The flippiest person on the night was Ricochet, in his black and gold attire.

[phonics]

Sorry for noticing. Up the flippy shit!

You would have sucked off Danielson v Swerve if it had a different logo on it.

[Ben]

I've no problem praising good AEW stuff. You'll see in the past I've enjoyed a lot of MJF matches, for instance. I've not watched any All In yet so I'm not commenting.

This "WWE vs. AEW" nonsense is childish.

[Gray Fox]

Tbf to the Dog Wanker, he has the money and he seemingly looks after the talent. So the more paydays the better.

[phonics]

Think that if we cut the tag match out then tonights card is really good. I hate that I'm so old that staying up for the show will be a pain but I am unable to watch non live wrestling.

https://i.imgur.com/LaZ1MjS.png

[phonics]

Ben it's not even over, you NEED to watch garcia v MJF.

[phonics]

Holy shit every match (outside of the tag I went for a piss/smoke during) has been a truly 10/10 match. Absolute bangers.

[phonics]

I was going to go full mark and then that 4 man match happened. Fucking awful.

Shida v Banks terrible too. Time for the two main events to save this.

[phonics]

Perry v Bryan another banger. Set out some time Ben.

[phonics]

THIS SHOW IS SO FUCKING GOOD. God damn.

[Baz]

They don’t teallly do bad PPVs.

If they’d just left it as Dynamitr, there’s no doubt I’d still watch it religiously.

[Ben]

I’ll give it a chance today.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I really hope you absolutely hate it.

[Waffdon]

Spot fest, no sell cringe incoming

What happened to AEW having about 4 PPVs a year?

[Ben]

I've just seen the post-match angle where Moxley literally tried to murder Danielson by putting a plastic bag over his head.

I think I'll give this nonsense a miss. Sorry phonics.

[Waffdon]

lol at chad Gable re-signing just to be absolutely lolled at by the Wyatt family. They didn’t win a single match and I’m not even sure they got a single upper hand in a segment. Might be the most dominant feud in years

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

RAW going back down to 2 hours next month.

[Ben]

It's a temporary thing until the Netflix deal starts. I can't imagine USA Network wanted to pay too much for three months of snooze booking. All the good stuff will be on Smackdown for now.

[Waffdon]

Not sure about that - Smackdown has been awful for a while.

Apparently it will still be 2 hours on Netflix but ad free

[Ben]

Smackdown starts on USA Network this week so it should immediately pick up. It was awful since Mania because it was coming to the end of the Fox deal so neither party give a shit.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Hasn't helped that Wish.com Bloodline are wank yet get most of the screen time.

[Ben]

The segment to announce Drew vs. Punk in Hell in a Cell was good. Made the gimmick seem important again after years of throwaway matches in the cell.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

The bracelet really is gone? Fucking hell I've got to get my funeral gear back on. Devastating news.

1833288630015599042

Don't worry, you can get your own bracelet!

Edit: RIP, they've taken it down as the CREATOR OF THE OG BRACELET bitched on Twitter as she wasn't informed/paid.

[Gray Fox]

Did Phonics manage to get one before they pulled it?

[Ben]

I'm Team phonics on this one.

Both these guys are great. All they need is a mic. Dogs and bracelets aren't it.

[Gray Fox]

No Ladder match with the bracelet above the ring was a missed opportunity.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I'm Team phonics on this one.

Both these guys are great. All they need is a mic. Dogs and bracelets aren't it.

Clearly you've never had a friendship bracelet made for you.

[Gray Fox]

Imagine what it must mean to have your dog AND your wifes' name on it. Then imagine an angry Scotsman took that from you and then fed it to you.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Just finished watching RAW.

Really liked the Reed interference during the main event. Just a shame it was all ruined by having Jey Uso win.

[Waffdon]

I presume he’s going to finally win a title unless he’s getting put on smackdown

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I actually didn't mind him when he broke away from The Bloodline.

Then he started with the whole "YEET" shit.

[Ben]

Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness

AEW might make a fan out of me yet.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

1833888143579230635

Rejoice Phonics!

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Watching the first match. Where did Fatu go when Roman appeared? He seemed to climb down the cage and I thought he'd head off Roman outside but he was just gone until he came and pulled Solo out.

So weird.

[phonics]

I see HHH was back out. Hates the spotlight that guy.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Ricky :cool:

[wullie]

I see HHH was back out. Hates the spotlight that guy.

When you say things like this about a man like Paul 'Triple H' Levesque who sends people out on camera to talk about the Paul Levesque Era, you're out of line.

[phonics]

I am a known Bret Hart not liker but when he turned up and didn’t go into business for himself he dropped in my estimation.

[Baz]

What was he doing?

[Shindig]

He showed up in Calgary and everyone clapped.

[Baz]

Lame. If it was AEW, Christian would have issued a challenge to Owen for a casket coffin match.

[phonics]

There are videos circulating of Jericho in CMLL and it’s genuinely depressing that 1) he doesn’t realise he’s past it and 2) Khan isn’t strong enough to tell him the games over.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Bronson Reed v Braun Stowman :lol:

So much more of that please, that was fucking brilliant.

[SvN]

I want to know what phonics thought of it.

[Ben]

There's no way he can't like that.

[wullie]

Reed using a man from the crowd as a projectile, now that's wrestling.

[Gray Fox]

There are videos circulating of Jericho in CMLL and it’s genuinely depressing that 1) he doesn’t realise he’s past it and 2) Khan isn’t strong enough to tell him the games over.

It's quite sad to see where he's got to. From being able to make pretty much whatever he wanted to work, work, to being called a tree? I guess its the only real downside of Tony not cutting peoples contracts. Still, he could just tell him to stay at home. The one the other week with some pennies being dropped onto his Bentley was such cringe.

I also see he's wasted no time in giving everyone what they want in Ospreay v Rick O'Shea.

[Ben]

Jericho is Jericho at this point but the CMLL thing is insane. He lost a 2 out of 3 falls match (2-1) but AEW showed the fall he won and claimed he won the match? Now if it was Jericho doing this to play up his gimmick then fair enough, but AEW the promotion is peddling it as if it were real. Vince used to lie all the time but his fans were mainly casual/naive so he got away with it, whereas all the AEW fans live on the internet so they all know Jericho actually lost. What do you even gain out of trying to claim you won a random match in Mexico anyway?

EDIT: I've just seen he lost a 20 minute match to Orange fucking Cassidy last night, so the answer is they gained nothing.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Lucha Bros have put Penta paper and signed with the WWE.

Can't wait to see LWO's ranks grow larger.

[Gray Fox]

Yeet? I guess.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Haven't watched RAW yet because the TNT Sports recording went MASSIVLEY out of sync and the audio was miles ahead of the pictures during the Zayn/Kaiser match.

They also ruined the shark cage reveal by putting up the graphic early.

I have seen the news about the IC title and fuck me, how could they?

[Shindig]

The crowd was into it, I guess.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Fuck the crowd and fuck "Yeet".

[Ben]

Yeah I don't get it either but these Yanks seem to come unglued for it. I guess it's a case of striking while the iron is hot. He can't sustain this popularity for long given his lack of actual wrestling skills, and Breakker can get his heat back within a week.

[Ben]

Apparently Vince was pushing Netflix hard to sell him his documentary, so he could kill it.

It's in danger of being really good I suspect.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

There's this too:

1838320734579441946

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Oh and Braun/Bronson is still absolutely incredible.

I never want it to end.

[wullie]

I've watched two episodes of the Vince McMahon thing and so far it's more a history of the company with all the classic bollocks (would the 800lb Andre do business in front of 93000 brother) but a few juicy parts are Hulk Hogan openly admitting to snitching on Jesse Ventura's union plan and Vince McMahon saying he didn't rape the referee but even if he did the statute of limitations had run out. Episode closes with a note that the statute was waived recently and McMahon settled with her for millions.

Hoping there's a lot more of him saying one thing and it being instantly shown up

[Ben]

It’ll get better towards the end when they get to the stuff they filmed after he was outed.

[wullie]

It says that didn't get anything more out of him after that point but fingers crossed there's footage of Cena and the lads squirming in their chairs or Bret Hart laughing his head off.

I'd forgot about the clip Hulk Hogan promoting the first Wrestlemania by dropping a TV host and splitting his head open, I'd pay good money to see someone smack Jimmy Fallon about a bit.

[Baz]

I loved the shit eating grin delivery of I WISH I COULD TELL YOU THE REAL STORIES as it flashed up the new stories of his debauchery. :D

There’s a bit where Dave Meltzer is talking about Hulk Hogan and he says that Vince (and therefore WWE) are the best at making huge stars, and it doesn’t necessarily involve good wrestling matches. That basically sums up why WWE is popular and AEW isn’t, right there.

[Ben]

Gotta appreciate Hogan keeping kayfabe by saying he only found out he was winning at WM3 when Andre didn’t kick out.

[Baz]

I reckon I’d enjoy Tony Atlas doing anything.

[Gray Fox]

Vince (and therefore WWE) are the best at making huge stars, and it doesn’t necessarily involve good wrestling matches. That basically sums up why WWE is popular and AEW isn’t, right there.

Yeah to me, AEW has the better in-ring stuff and it's not really too close. However for some reason the production just feels off. Problem is for most of your audience these days, Sports Entertainment will trump top in-ring graps. Whether this can change in future remains to be seen.

[Waffdon]

WWE just isn’t really interested in that side of things. If they wanted to be the best in ring wrestling company they would be and it wouldn’t be close. But then they’d be absolutely nowhere near where they currently are

[Ben]

Yep.

Remember the Angle vs. Lesnar 60 Minute Iron Man match on Smackdown in 2003? Basically hundreds of thousands of viewers tuned out during the match, then OVER ONE MILLION came flooding back for the last stretch. WWE audiences have been conditioned forever to not pay attention to the in-ring product until it gets to the point that matters (basically all Attitude Era matches were under five minutes to prevent viewers going to the other channel). Good wrestling is great for the enthusiast but it never draws a penny in a vacuum.

[Browning]

Yeah to me, AEW has the better in-ring stuff and it's not really too close. However for some reason the production just feels off. Problem is for most of your audience these days, Sports Entertainment will trump top in-ring graps. Whether this can change in future remains to be seen.

This is it for me. I tried to watch AEW when Jake first turned up because I thought that was somewhat interesting and I lasted about 10 minutes. It felt dark and dingy and like it was being filmed in a gym.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Which they also wouldn't be able to fill out.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

1840471020047679828

Drew :cool:

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Finally watched RAW.

Why is the ref not doing his job and counting? Why is he checking on the crowd when there are about 18 members of "security" checking on them?

[Ben]

Yeah that took me right out of it too (amongst some other stuff). It's why I often criticise AEW, because they're usually the egregious ones when it comes to ignoring rules for the pops.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Apparently Braun tore his groin during the match.

He did looked fucked when he "ran" at Bronson Reed to push him off the apron into the chairs.

1840946542649229374

Looks like he's running through treacle in slow motion.

[Baz]

Looks like Rooney.

[phonics]

New AEW deal will be about 185 mil a year which kind of ruins the whole 'AEW will never draw a dime' storyline.

But enough positivity, the show overran by 20 minutes. Little production tip Tony, the show doesn't need to overrun by 20 minutes if you cut out the 20 minute Jericho segment.

[Waffdon]

If they did draw they wouldn’t be performing in front of arenas 2/3rds empty

[Ben]

But enough positivity, the show overran by 20 minutes. Little production tip Tony, the show doesn't need to overrun by 20 minutes if you cut out the 20 minute Jericho segment.

They need to drop the overrun. They do it every week and it's drawing less viewers than the last quarter. Kill it off, then do it once in a blue moon when the situation calls for it.

The stipulation for the main event last night was stupid. Everyone knew a mile out how it would end.

[phonics]

TBF it just seemed a way to get people to care about the first 20 minutes of an Okada match. What a boring wrestler that man is.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

1841890362278687125

Sadiq Khan's tiny belt worked.

[wullie]

If it's in Birmingham I'll almost be able to smell Braun Strowman from my house, living the dream.

[phonics]

It’s been a fun time in the internet. We have several people claiming their uncle works at Nintendo and they have secret information.

Then we have people like this

1842069692586066260

[phonics]

1842305207499366537

Fuckin' hell.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

So corny but the production value :drool:

[phonics]

It looks like one of those late era straight to DVD Bruce Willis movies called like ‘GunMan 911’

[Gray Fox]

Have you seen the one where they meet in the Atlanta stadium? All kinds of sports entertainment on show.

[Shindig]

I'd watch a buddy cop movie of this. Maybe replace 'Metro' with Ron Truth.

[phonics]

HHH spent years listening to Vince say ‘We make movies’ and took it way too literally.

[wullie]

Metro Boomin sounds like a mobile phone contract.

[Ben]

The Blade film was Triple H’s first clean job in about three years.

[Shindig]

Metro Boomin sounds like a mobile phone contract.

A railcard aimed at 16-21 year olds.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

The Blade film was Triple H’s first clean job in about three years.

I marked out when I saw him in that.

[Ben]

It was supposed to be Bob Sapp in the role so I don't know if he backed out or Vince managed to pull some strings.

[7om]

That was absolute insanity. The spot where Drew missed the claymore and hit his back on the edge of the steps was a particular highlight.

Will probably go down as one of the best feuds ive seen in the 30 years of watching this stuff. Masterpiece.

[Waffdon]

Wait, what? Why is this so early?

[Waffdon]

Blood hits different when they finally let it happen in WWE. Can’t believe I missed the match. Some of the highlights look great.

The rivalry throughout was properly good. Shame McIntyre had to lose out but was always going to happen. Hope he doesn’t drop down the pecking order now

just seen the clip of punk smashing the legs of the table into McIntyre’s face. Christ, that could have ended terribly

[Waffdon]

Looking forward to Priest burying Balor even further tonight

[Waffdon]

Jesus. I knew he’d win but I didn’t think he’d turn into super Cena and beat him clean whilst fighting off two others on his own

Balor technically his 3 finishers as well :D

[7om]

What the fuck is that belt. Give me a break with this sports washing trash.

[Waffdon]

Gunther is just the best.

There’s nothing he can’t do.

[phonics]

That was absolute insanity. The spot where Drew missed the claymore and hit his back on the edge of the steps was a particular highlight.

Will probably go down as one of the best feuds ive seen in the 30 years of watching this stuff. Masterpiece.

When he poured the beads from the bracelet on punk I cried and immediately wrote to the Academy demanding an Emmy.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I haven't finished Bad Blood yet but my word is that Crown Jewel title ugly as fuck.

WALTER v Cody though :drool:

Edit: Lol at Goldberg still getting another match.

[Ben]

Absolutely magic that Hell in a Cell match. Everything else was pants like. Main event should have been great considering three out of four of them are excellent workers, but a swing and a miss I feel.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Think I would have liked it more but I had pretty much everything spoiled for me sadly.

What the fuck was that ending between Liv/Rhea? Was it meant to end in a DQ? If so, why did Raquel pull Liv on top of Rhea?

Drew/Punk was a real highlight though, that was great and exactly what a HIAC should be.

[Gray Fox]

Nobody, even Rodriguez, seemed to know what that ending to Rhea v Liv was.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

1842750460198789169

:drool:

[Ben]

You’ve got to give TKO credit, they’re not short of a unique idea or two.

[phonics]

Cinema!

[Waffdon]

Cinema!

The obsession :drool:

[phonics]

Says the guy counting attendance numbers?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Doesn't take long to count the numbers at AEW shows tbf.

[wullie]

Can't this thread just be sad enough talking about wrestling without also plumbing the proper depths of online wrestling talk as well?

[Gray Fox]

Yeah guys. Can we talk about how lucky those two were that there just so happened to be many WWE personnel, as well as the GM, just around the corner to break that fight up? Could have been really bad otherwise.

[Ben]

Rick :cool:

[Ben]

1843445896949698772

The "I'm not going to Saudi" promo. :D

Also lol at Young Bucks disciples making Saudi Arabia the babyface in this because they can't get over Punk.

[wullie]

Hopefully once the new Saudi champions are crowned, the only way to challenge them is to win the Greatest Royal Rumble, starring some FCW guys and a fat sumo lad nobody recognises.

[phonics]

I don’t watch the show so I’m asking, are you contractually obligated to sign up to QAnon to get an NXT contract?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

1844679125329441019

So Lucha Bros were about to sign with WWE and debut on Smackdown but TK added injury time to their contracts. Fenix is with the company for another 9-10 months and Penta for 1 more month.

Hasn't he said in the past that he'd never do this as he felt it was scummy when WWE did it?

[phonics]

1844679125329441019

So Lucha Bros were about to sign with WWE and debut on Smackdown but TK added injury time to their contracts. Fenix is with the company for another 9-10 months and Penta for 1 more month.

Hasn't he said in the past that he'd never do this as he felt it was scummy when WWE did it?

Classic no-win situation. If he doesn't do it 'TK is a walkover' if he does do it 'TK is Vince'. I think if Konnan (who hates TK) doesn't go onto podcasts and boast about how they're leaving then this all just happens. Although there's a rumour that their debut angle on Smackdown was an AEW burial angle so TK felt he could be a dick about it considering how much leeway they were given.

My bigger issue is that the moment Penta and Fenix debut, they will have replica masks available on WWE.com and WWE.mx something that AEW haven't managed in 5 years.

I cannot wait for Waffles to be :drool: at the exact same stuff they've been doing for years on Dyanmite though.

[Ben]

It’s easy to say you’ll never do it until you’re in that situation. Tony probably did the right thing here.

WWE aren’t missing much anyway. Sure they’d sell a shit load of merchandise but I can’t see how they’d be anything other than LWO.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

That's what I thought, in regards to the LWO, but they were going to Smackdown not RAW. So weren't going to be involved.

[phonics]

Fenix could be Rey Mysterio 2.0 but both times he got close to a major push he got major impact injuries. I used to feel sorry for him about it but after the second time it was clear he hadn't bothered to use either layout periods to bother learning English so he'll be stuck as a mid card tag teamer forever. It makes me sad as he was my first AEW 'holy shit this guy is money' wrestler 2 minutes into his first match.

The current one of those being Takeshita who I'm incredibly worried about following a similar path. AEW has a 6'2, 230lb wrestler whos only rival in speed is Bronn Breaker, has 6-8 variations of german suplex, an incredible Lariat and can pick a large opponent off the ground into a variety of powerbombs and suplexes depending on how their weight is distributed and they don't know what to do with him apart from put him in matches with people that'll get 5 stars but won't be remembered next week.

He can do strong style, he can do high flyers, he can even do comedy. But his booking sucks.

[Gray Fox]

+1 for Tony doing the right thing. They'll also be much better in an AEW ring that no doubt jobbing to Dom Mysterio inside a month or whatever.

With Rey being the only exception I can really think of, the Luchas dont really work with your standard WWE audience. Now you could say that's a booking problem, but it sounds like Trips is going to try and fix his casual racism problem first.

Also this immediately jumping ship to the other brand and doing a burial promo or something is childish and needs to stop. If more guys are getting paid everyone wins.

[phonics]

Also AEW update that I know no-one cares about.

Wrestledream PPV is tomorrow and it's classic modern AEW. The card largely sucks, there's no point to any of it but 80% of it will be incredibly good.

Here's my preview:

ROH World Television Championship (Pre-Show): Atlantis Jr. (c) vs. Brian Cage
-No one cares, Brian Cage will do some Lucha shit that's impressive considering his size and then lose

AEW World Tag Team Championships: The Young Bucks (c) vs. Private Party
-No-one cares, Private Party's storyline reason for earning this match is that a few weeks ago Moxley pointed out when AEW started they were hyped to be the next big thing and failed so badly they couldn't get a match bigger than AEW Dark so he beat one of them with a hammer. They took offense to this so tried to beat Moxley up and once again got beaten up by a woman and Claudio.

2-out-of-3 Falls: Hologram vs. The Beast Mortos
-You should care if you like wrestling because this'll be a banger. If you watch this and think 'that was cool' book a holiday to Mexico and visit CMLL. You can see this 3 times a week and get front row seats for 8 quid and it'll be one of the best things you'll experience in your life.

MxM Collection vs. The Acclaimed
-I like MxM, I used to like The Acclaimed. Both of them are terrific indie show teams. I think Max Caster is going to swerve for MxM and it'll make both sides worse off.

ROH World Championship: Mark Briscoe (c) vs. Chris Jericho
-I'm just presuming that Jericho is TK's cocaine plug at this point. Abysmal.

Darby Allin vs. Brody King
-This'll be a great match. Would have made more sense a year ago when Brody was beating Darby up at random signings/appearances. No-one will remember it in a week.

TNT Championship: Jack Perry (c) vs. Katsuyori Shibata
- I hate CM Punk so I want Jack Perry not to fail but fuck me the entire thing sucks. Shibata yet another Japanese Wrestling Mark signing that does nothing.

"Hangman" Adam Page vs. Jay White
-Two guys that are between angles so lets have them feud for a bit so both can get tv time.

International Championship Three-Way: Will Ospreay (c) vs. Ricochet vs. Konosuke Takeshita
-Ricochet a classic recent AEW fumble, he and many other signings add no style/talent separation to the roster but take up space. I presume he's in here to take the pin for an Ospreay/Takeshita singles.

AEW Women's World Championship: Mariah May (c) vs. Willow Nightingale
-Another classic AEW fumble. Mariah May with a wonderfully told, long term booking story that culminates in her winning the belt and then absolutely nothing for her to do afterwards.

AEW World Championship: Bryan Danielson (c) vs. Jon Moxley
-This storyline where Moxley is on a rampage for I'm not sure why is so unintelligible that I'm genuinely worried that the swerve of this match is Shane McMahon coming out and doing some sort of AEW vs WWE invasion angle.

[phonics]

With Rey being the only exception I can really think of, the Luchas dont really work with your standard WWE audience. Now you could say that's a booking problem, but it sounds like Trips is going to try and fix his casual racism problem first.

Rey's not even the exception. He had to spend 20 years as an opening act and have his much more successful best friend die tragically young to get pushed above that.

[Ben]

I’m not going back to quote you from the last page but 100% agree on Takeshita. He’s absolute money and AEW need to push him ASAP otherwise he’ll run out his deal and fuck off to WWE.

[Ben]

I’ll not watch any WrestleDream. Normally I’d like to see Ospreay and Takeshita but I have no interest in Ricochet and even less interest in triple threat matches.

Main event is a hard pass too. Moxley is actually one of the worst wrestlers going and I’m not sure how he’s getting away with this Nazi gimmick in 2024, but somehow he is one of the company’s biggest draws so he needs to be in the top spots.

This is where Swerve comes back as a huge babyface isn’t it?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

How good are the Motor City Machine Guns?

Only ever seen Shelley in one match (he teamed with Kushida to re-form the Time Splitters once in NXT) and that was a while ago now.

[Ben]

I’m ready to be surprised. They were good in TNA years ago but I feel they’re too small/generic and past their prime to be anything other than a veteran team to put over younger acts.

[wullie]

I always enjoyed them but then I've not seen them in years so they could well be a tribute act to themselves by now.

[Shindig]

Aye, I've not seen them much outside of Dixie-era TNA. They were outstanding.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Watched the McMahon documentary on Netflix today.

It's well presented and put together but there's nothing new and/or groundbreaking really.

It's also a shame that they weren't able to do as much on the allegations.

[Baz]

I wanna know what happened to the original Linda McMahon and why’d they cast someone who looks nothing like her to pretend?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

1845241750576648637

:lol:

[Waffdon]

:lol:

The ending of the show was certainly something.

[phonics]

Didn’t like the repeat of the same spot. Do like the storyline of AEW going forward to be a series of baby faces trying to take these psychopaths down and failing until the true next one up comes along. Who that is though I don’t see it on the roster.

Edit: what am I saying. It’s Takeshita after Allin, Cassidy, Page and some other chumps all fail.

Edit 2: it’s Takeshita with Omega as his manager after Omega tries and fails because he can’t go anymore. Gimme the book Tony. Give. Me. The. Book.

[Ben]

Tony channelling his inner Jim Crockett Promotions by having all the champions be heels. The chase over the next six months could be excellent if he wasn't such a goof.

[phonics]

1845843466426671188

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Heel Cody, what a cunt.

[phonics]

I can't find the clip anymore but some dogshit level Reigns member of the family tree shooted on some guy doing kayfabe Samoan.

It's disgusting.

[Ben]

Yeah I saw that. It was Afa Jr. who was Manu in WWE about 15 years ago.

[wullie]

Hard to imagine why a load of his relatives are in big arenas while he's smacking a child about in an empty warehouse.

[phonics]

As AEW is wont to do the possibility space theyve provided has put me in pure fantasy booker mode.

And after several days of thinking about it. The only thing stopping me from winning Booker of the Year is 1) Paying Kurt Angle enough to accept a manager role and 2) AEWs absurd PPV schedule.

They have PPVs in November and December then two foreign PPVs in Japan and Australia in January and February and then nothing till July. The two American ones are needed to build failure but they’re too close together and the foreign ones are in a time zone that means you shouldnt make them more than really good house shows.

Outside of that I’ve worked out the World Title, Tnt title, tag and trios titles. The only other issue is how to involve the women’s titles considering they, rightly, know Shafeer can’t actually wrestle and forcing her into a scenario that doesn’t involve ‘looking mean and have opposition sell for you in a brawl’ exposes the issue.

But as I say on the men’s side if Tony gave me the book till May I could make #CINEMA

[SvN]

Did that just go out?

[phonics]

I couldn’t give a fuck about Shelton Benjamin and then he turns up wrestling like peak Ahmed Johnson.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

1847286565950693471

No UFC event on so this is a bit strange.

[Ben]

Don’t complain. We might actually get to watch it live.

I reckon they saw the ratings from the Bad Blood PPV which also started earlier (because of UFC) and that the earlier times actually get more viewers. The arena is going to be a sellout anyway so no issues there.

[Shindig]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs2sC856Xx0

How this starts is so damn jarring. WCW and their stupid face paint, the "Well, let me tell ya something." promos and the concern about America's youth being upset by Hulk's betrayal. It all looks very old hat until Sting shuts up and starts stalking. I feel about Surfer Sting the way I feel about pre-Poppa Pump Scott Steiner: They might as well be different guys.

Scott Hall committing to the Razor Gimmick for a couple of weeks is my kind of dumb. :D

[Ben]

Nice to see them get the IC title back on Breakker quickly.

The Bron Breakker and Jacob Fatu tease. :drool:

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

That title run is near enough an all time low.

Only one successful defence against Xavier Woods.

[Gray Fox]

The wheels must spin.

[Ben]

That title run is near enough an all time low.

Only one successful defence against Xavier Woods.

It's fine, I think.

Not all title runs need to be long. They did the switch to get the huge pop, then switched it back because a) Breakker is the future and b) it looks like they're cycling Jey back into the Bloodline stuff.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

It's fine, I think.

Not all title runs need to be long. They did the switch to get the huge pop, then switched it back because a) Breakker is the future and b) it looks like they're cycling Jey back into the Bloodline stuff.

Doing B for WARGAMES which will surely be new Bloodline v old.

Just need Sami back on board to make it Ucey.

Although it will probably be Cody. They could do 5 v 5 and bring in another new Bloodline guy like Hikuleo.

[phonics]

That Carlito clip. Jesus christ.

[Waffdon]

Nice to see them get the IC title back on Breakker quickly.

The Bron Breakker and Jacob Fatu tease. :drool:

HHH does have a fetish for ridiculously long title reins

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

btw did they tell Bron to ease up on the spears?

His spears used to look amazing but now he's doing the wank Roman-esque spear where he jumps far too early and then rolls after.

Started doing it a couple of weeks ago.

[Ben]

It wouldn't surprise me BUT I'm wondering if it's some Triple H nugget where he gets Breakker to do the Roman Spear as a little wink wink to future plans or just because he was against Jey Uso. I dunno.

Jey fucked up the sell last night too so we've still got a small sample size. Hopefully he busts out the three rope run spear next time to right the wrongs of the world.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

It wouldn't surprise me BUT I'm wondering if it's some Triple H nugget where he gets Breakker to do the Roman Spear as a little wink wink to future plans or just because he was against Jey Uso. I dunno.

Jey fucked up the sell last night too so we've still got a small sample size. Hopefully he busts out the three rope run spear next time to right the wrongs of the world.

He did it against Woods the other week and he also did it against Solo.

Edit: Actually against Woods he just went too low.

[Ben]

Fingers crossed it's just Bloodline stuff then and he goes back to wrecking folk ASAP.

[Gray Fox]

I'm becom-, I'm becom-, I'm becoming, Judas in, Judas in my mind.

[Ben]

Oh boy. :eyemouth:

In fact, the whole show looks like it was utter dog shit.

[Shindig]

I hope Motor City Machine Guns get over. It's already weird seeing them put on a match without 3-4 other X-Division regulars in there keeping the pace up.

[phonics]

1849635837861941253

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Baron Corbin, Indi Hartwell and Tegan (no more knees) Nox are leaving WWE.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

BLOOD MONEY on very soon.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

New Bloodline to get a fifth member tonight which leads us nicely towards WARGAMES?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Jey coming out on his own after the other two?

Wow.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Jimmy missed his mark.

Solo pinned Roman clean, he is the real Tribal Chief.

Edit: lol, didn't expect that finish.

[Gray Fox]

So bloodline drama is almost exactly where it was this time last year. Can Roman trust Sami etc.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

So bloodline drama is almost exactly where it was this time last year. Can Roman trust Sami etc.

Heading into Wargames where he ends up proving he is loyal...

[Dark Soldier]

What the fuck they have an Arab only belt now?

[Waffdon]

Codywinslol