Sometimes the card is too full. It's a massive problem in wrestling currently (see: SummerSlam, All In) but WWE's B-level PPVs are generally the best because they let the card breathe a bit. Six matches announced for Payback is enough and maybe they're giving Gable another month of build before doing the switch (probably not).
Yeah I like that currently WWE keep their secondary PPVs pretty short (relatively) and sharp. Ideally if Gable's taking the belt it's one more set of nonsense on Smackdown before they give the match a stip (though preferably just no Imperium, I'm sure Gunther could do a gimmick match but I love his singles stuff.)
Gunther should really be chopping the shit out of Rollins by now.
Finally watching All In. Man, stadium PPVs look phenomenal on TV.
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Let us know your thoughts on all the matches. Both in-person experience and then watching them back on TV.
Tag title match was unreal in both.Originally Posted by Ben
The Wheelers got a gun chant didn’t seem to pick up so well on TV, considering how loud and how long it seemed to go on for.
Hook vs Jack Perry was better on TV.
First trios match (golden elite vs bullet club gold) perhaps less of a shock on TV (and I don’t mean cos I’ve already seen it) cos it felt like the whole stadium went quiet in a turbomoment.
Stadium Stampede’s about to start… Missed the start in rl cos I was weeing and buying more drinks.
Last edited by Baz; 30-08-2023 at 09:41 PM.
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I remember commenting to Mike that Santana look fairly jacked in real life but bah gawd he looks huge on TV. Was also nice to get some context around the whole Penta thing. I actually didn’t mind the stampede on TV.Lots of decent hardcore spots, and I was just glad Yuta didn’t get the winning pin, never mind even win.
Glad that the crowd seemed way into the women’s match on TV. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of people used it as a toilet break, but it was still really well received, especially Britt’s kerb stomp. Funny that last time I saw Toni Storm live she was on the same card as Jimmy Corkhill in ICW.(might have been a different time really, but it was at the tiny O2 Academy in Liverpool. Either way, looking forward to Jamie Hayter winning it next time and it actually being well received by everyone, although the ending was pretty great. Shida’s attire was better on TV!
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Definitely noticeable on TV. Everything just went silent after the three count.First trios match (golden elite vs bullet club gold) perhaps less of a shock on TV (and I don’t mean cos I’ve already seen it) cos it felt like the whole stadium went quiet in a turbo
If I was a Chicagoan (Chicagoite?) I'd be absolutely raging with the card for All Out. They'll have a full United Center who want to see Punk and instead get absolutely nothing, no doubt they'll shit all over this.
ROH World Television Title Match
Samoa Joe (c) vs. Shane Taylor
Who the fuck is Shane Taylor? Nobody who isn't a ROH nut gives a fuck about this guy so this needs to be on a ROH show.
ROH World Tag Team Title Match
Better Than You Bay Bay (Adam Cole & MJF) (c) vs. The Dark Order (Alex Reynolds & John Silver)
This belongs on TV. In no universe should Dark Order lackeys get a title match on PPV.
Tag Team Match
Eddie Kingston & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta)
Could be good I guess? Bit random though, Kingston vs. Claudio would have made more sense. Hopefully Yuta eats the pin.
Eight Man Tag Team Match
FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) & The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) vs. Bullet Club Gold (Austin Gunn, Colten Gunn, Jay White & Juice Robinson)
Again this is a TV match. FTR vs. Young Bucks vs. Jay & Juice would make way more sense and I say that as someone who hates three way matches.
Singles Match
Kenny Omega vs. Konosuke Takeshita (w/Don Callis)
Finally a match with something to care about. Depends on Kenny's health as to how good it can be.
AEW International Title Match
Orange Cassidy (c) vs. Jon Moxley
I couldn't give less of a shit about this. Orange's gimmick is long worn out and even though they're trying to tweak it to freshen him up, he's not actually that good a wrestler outside of the Canadian Destroyer bullshit, and fucking lol if Kebab Head tries to do that. I expect it will somehow get turned into a no-DQ so Moxley can bleed and they can incorporate glass because Orange is now that kind of tough guy. Logic suggests Moxley should win but ORANGEWINSLOL.
AEW TBS Title Match
Kris Statlander (c) vs. Ruby Soho
Absolute garbage. They've actually been building the women's division on Collision quite nicely and Statlander has been going up against Mercedes Martinez and Diamante so a match against either of those would have been fine but instead we get this random thing built from one 20 second promo where Ruby said she's going to steal the title. OK mate.
Singles Match
Miro vs. Powerhouse Hobbs
I do love a hoss fight. Hobbs should win, but probably won't.
AEW TNT Title Match
Luchasaurus (w/Christian Cage) (c) vs. Darby Allin
Christian and Darby have been so much fun on Collision building this. Hopefully Luchasaurus doesn't get in the way too much.
So what is the main event here? It's going to be that International Title match isn't it? You know, the one that opens the show on Dynamite every week. Tony clearly left his booking sheet in London. This is a complete afterthought with little-to-no build for anything and he's still managed to overfill the card.
Takeshita’s terrible music probably also contributing to that.
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On the flip side Chicago crowds are self important cunts as a collective so fuck 'em.
Well yeah that's true, but Tony is shooting himself in the foot because he books Chicago seemingly every other month and is one of their few guaranteed sellouts (unless there's a special event) so if he pisses them he's only got himself to blame.
They must have worn out the CM Punk returns at Chicago show trope by now.
Going to be interesting to see how Tonys pandering now turns on him as the crowd shits on his show.
He's fucked himself, really. When AEW kicked off it was all jobs for the boys and putting a show on for himself and Dave Meltzer and that was it. Then he started bringing in ex-WWE guys (which culminated with Punk) and most of those don't do the PWG flippy shit so the show started to pivot. AEW originals, wrestlers and fans, were a bit deluded into thinking they didn't need these "name guys" to succeed (just look at recent ratings, the Bucks drive viewers away) so naturally they were going to butt heads with guys who actually gave a shit about the product and weren't just there to get a payday off Tony. Punk isn't the only one to clash with the OGs, it's just by far the most reported. But now what does Tony do? He can't fire Punk because WBD won't let him (he's integral to the Collision deal and the future streaming deal) and he's just gave the guys Punk hates the most massive new contracts. Much like Triple H with the Curtain Call, the odd man out ripe for punishment is Jungle Boy. But he sounds like a right cunt and is shite anyway so this is Tony's chance to finally show some authority I guess.
Hopefully the two involved can resolve it amicably (unlike The Young Bucks) and Tony can fork out for Cry Me A River for Jack Perry’s entrance music when he inevitably returns.
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Cody Rhodes was the only adult holding the place together, all this nonsense that happened after he left.
As I said before, with zero leadership it's like children screaming at each other without an adult to get them in line.
Just needs Justice Cocaine Tony to bang his gavel and say, "Boys will be boys. Dismissed."
Dennis Rodman is on Collision tonight lmao.
Is Tony just watching The Monday Night Wars for ideas?
That Jimmy Uso stuff doesn't half have the stench of wheel-spinning.
I think we know the answer to that.
It’s no secret he loves WCW. The Collision logo is just a copy of the Nitro one. To be honest I don’t know how WWE haven’t come after him for copyright.
Ding.
He's already started on socials how fozzy has played to bigger crowds than your big rock/metal acts.
Cm punk, fired.
Wow. Never thought he’d do anything, much less this.
Collision, we hardly knew ye. All Out will be interesting now.
Stunning.
Tournament for the Real World Championship incoming.
That’s a work.
"I saw TNA do this with AJ Styles so nobody's done it before or since." - Tony Khan
He can turn up at Payback with his belt digitally blurred now.
With Wembley covered by CCTV I guess it didn't need much investigation
I hope it's not a work. Even in a business of a lot of self centred bell ends, he was a massive one.
I need the Shawn Michaels/Ric Flair gif with Tony and Punk imposed on it ASAP.
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I hope nobody was looking forward to All Out because that crowd might just take it up on themselves to ruin it. Because they're cunts.
(I genuinely hope they don't because I hate that shit.)
They are 100% shitting on the show. And AEW in the same way WWE was for ages.
Looking forward to Jon Moxley reusing his
promo, as he once again steps up to save Tony's arse.
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While the talk of Ronda Rousey or Brock Lesnar turning up at UFC 300 were nice ideas, this opens up a return for the real ultimate fighting machine.
No crowd could ruin a PPV with a card that shit.
Exactly. Trying to get hundreds of thousands of people to drop $50 for a PPV just one week after dropping $50 for a PPV with an Orange Cassidy vs. Jon Moxley main event is asking for trouble.
Personally I’m just gutted about Collision. Punk was clearly involved in the booking and that 10-11 week run was the best TV in a long time. I hope it doesn’t just pivot to Dynamite II now.
Same, I can’t fit it in.
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Judgement Day
Trish vs. Becky - Really enjoyed this. They kept the pace up, the crowd were super into it, good spots, made Becky look great in the finish. Liked that a lot more than I thought I would. Crowd seemed a bit confused as to who (if anybody) was turning in the Trish / Stark stuff which is a shame as they had booed Stark when she appeared so that bit didn't land, but a small blemish.
Knight vs. Miz - As espected this was Fine. For a match mostly there to put Knight over he spent far too much time taking Miz's offence which took the crowd out of it.
CINNAMON TOAST CRUNCH US title match - Theory is an athletic dude and him being so a) boring and b) not over isn't helped when they put him in a match with a guy like Rey and have him work the worst sort of WWE "methodical heel" style. You could do the guy a favour by having him work a fast match, have him keep up with Rey. Yawn.
Tag titles - Make new tag belts ffs if you're not splitting them. Having a dude holding two belts loses any lustre when both sets are identically shit. There is also zero excuse for having a tornado tag match get so slow and walk-and-brawl as quickly as this did. WWE are so paranoid about showing stuff in these nowadays they just have people lying around because otherwise Kevin Dunn might piss himself trying to manage it. And the idea of a costume change into hockey gear halfway through what's meant to be a heated match is fucking stupid. It was much better from when Owens nearly broke his arse off the Swanton (that looked like it suuucked) and it got back into/around the ring for the finish and actual wrestling broke out. It's a pity Zayn and KO's reign amounted to so little but that was probably the right result especially if it means Judgement Day not getting broken up prematurely as I thought they were about to be.
Ripley vs. Rodriguez - Decent, a few sloppy spots aside, but not the pace I was hoping for. I loved their last woman standing NXT match and was hoping for that sort of pace and hard-hitting...ness. I think it got better toward the end when Rodriguez finally got to get some offence in and I liked the story they were doing that they were about even in the power game but to get out from under Rhea she had to get nastier with it. I'd have shaved a few minutes off this but it wasn't bad.
Rollins vs. Nakamura - I'd initially thought the tag title match result had confirmed the result of an already-predictable result here, but then couldn't decide if all the chat about Rollins' back was foreshadowing or trying to create jeopardy where there wasn't any. Didn't care a great deal for the pace of this one either. Rollins' back being a focal point is fine but Nakamura's moveset doesn't really lend itself to making that a super interesting body part to be working when he's dominant for stretches. That's not to blame Nakamura, just wasn't huge on how they laid it out, it didn't even have a proper five-minute sprint at the end. Also Nakamura looked a fucking idiot when he Kinshasa'd Rollins to the back of his head and didn't cover.
How good is Grayson Waller? He’s who they thought Theory would be
I love Tony Khan's mad video about how CM Punk made him fear for his life so much he's apparently forgotten how to blink.
Did the nasty people from Chicago chant all night for Pepsi Phil?
It’s surely a work after all that speech. Properly weird if not
Yeah I’m leaning more that way now. Although looking at his eyes he might have just polished off an 8-ball and gotten far too carried away.
If I worked with him, I'd be sneaking around hitting 'Cult of Personality' when he least suspects it.
"Look in my eyes what do you see? A coke head booking shit TV"
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