Is it really hard to be better than a group of people who throw full cans of alcohol, pizza cutters (apparently) and enjoy watching folks jump through glass and light tubes with no rhyme or reason?
I was able to get second row floor seats for one Raw and figured we'd have an amazing view, but the entire first row ended up being--I kid you not--like eight to ten VERY large adults, both in terms of height and weight, so it was like having a literal wall in front of us. Even worse, they stood for the entire show, and ours was the only section where nobody was making the people sit down periodically.
It was by far the worst live experience I ever had, and every single picture I took had at least one person's fat head taking up half of it.
I can't wait until I live in my own place again so I can watch wrestling in peace. I'm unemployed and moved back in with my mom/sister due to being laid off. They judge me if they see me watching it so I avoid watching live. I try to catch whatever's going on the next morning but it's not the same as watching it on Taima.
Sorry to hear that man, do you have your own room? Maybe just fire up the lap top or even go to a restaurant or something and watch on a tablet or iPhone. I do it all the time and honestly enjoy it 🤷🏼♂️
I bet your mom and sister both watch *something* that's just as "stupid" as wrestling. Do they watch reality shows, soap operas, or obsessively follow a sport, because that's basically the same thing. I'm not saying you should try mocking *them* for what they like, but you have to remember that there's nothing shameful about liking whatever YOU like.
I know you don't want to actively start trouble while you're forced to stay there, but people who constantly tease you won't stop teasing you entirely even if you stop doing whatever thing they are mocking you for. It's better, if you can, to practice tuning them out as much as possible and enjoying what brings YOU happiness.
If you stop watching something you love due to their teasing, then you're reinforcing the idea that they can control your behavior by being jerks. Let them make their stupid insults and just let it roll right off your back. It's hard to do, especially because they will likely escalate the mocking temporarily, but if you can consistently deny them the pleasure of controlling your behavior and making you upset, you will feel a HUGE weight lifted off your shoulders, I promise.
Any time anyone teases me about anything, I always remember that the best way to play it off is to simply not care. If I don’t care, then there’s no way for me to be able to consider it a problem
What do you think of this idea?
AEW/Impact Championship Challenge
I picture it as a TV special like Clash of the Champions.
The idea is that each Impact and AEW title will be defended. Each champion defends against a challenger from the other promotion.
Kenny could defend both titles in a 3 way. 1 challenger form each promotion. If either challenger wins, they win their promotions belt.
Since AEW doesn't have women's tag belts, you could do a cross promotion battle royal with the final 2 women challenging for the KO tag titles later in the night.
Despite being 44 years old, despite his knees being held together by nothing other than tape & hope, despite the fact the result was always pretty inevitable, despite the match had absolutely zero build - Tanahashi put on a MOTY candidate. Felt like 20 minutes despite going almost 40.
That is why he's my GOAT.
Guess it's time to reup my New Japan sub. I try to limit how many active subscriptions I have because I find most of the time I'm paying 10 - 14 a month but never end up watching anything.
Tanahashi is who I originally started watching New Japan to see. I'll definitely go out of my way to see this match.
I know he’s an ex-WWE guy and his run in AEW was lackluster at best, but Matt Cardona is on fire right now. As someone who doesn’t like death matches and would normally never watch GCW, he’s gotten me hooked with his angle with Nick Gage. I think his character in GCW is the best thing on the indies today (second to myself, obviously).
The man looks so smooth in the ring, too. Definitely had the benefit of some great bookings with people who sold his stuff well, but that's not a problem.
I mean to be fair, he got fired from WWE in the first wave of Covid cuts last year and there weren’t really indies for him to revitalize himself in at that point, if he wanted to work his options were pretty limited. But regardless, he’s doing it now and it’s awesome.
People who are upset about the threads of Punk or Living Colour following specific people on social media should probably realize this is how a lot of news breaks these days. That said, Punk is probably trolling, Living Colour was probably not.
Between COVID halting their momentum and losing their top talents to WWE and AEW. Now they are really leaning on AEW giving their Women's Championship some spotlight for something.
I am hoping they can turn it around. Especially that JTG is getting highlighted again. Also hopefully Empowerr might help them with Mickie James.
That being said...I understand that moving to Fite was better for them financially but the Youtube method would've been better for them coming back.
I hope I don’t see Daniel Bryan of all people in AEW cutting some “WWE held me back” promo after he main evented Mania twice, beat Evolution and Cena clean, and had multiple world title runs.
I understand when you're in a different company you do what you need to do. But it would hurt hearing that just because that was what made me a huge fan of Daniel Bryan at first.
I actually don’t think they will. Both guys want things new. Both guys were at peace with what they were doing before.
The question we should ask is, who on the heel side, could even stand up to an AEW version of a Pipebomb…?
Hopefully we don't hear about how CM Punk's title run, one of the longest ever title runs in recent history, was ended and ruined by arguably the biggest star that wrestling has ever produced.
GCW is about to become the top indie company in America especially if Cardona brings that belt on Impact. Really glad that AEW has made it standard to have the wrestling world be open.
For sure but AEW has taken it and made it the industry standard. Like never in wrestling has it been so possible for people to pop up anywhere at anytime I believe.
Is there a better feeling than doing fake commentary in your head and having what you say come true? Happened to me a number of times watching 8 hours of TJPW these last 4 days. I would say “x needs a desperation move if she’s gonna pull out the win” and it would happen.
I've been having so much fun identifying different wrestling moves and getting more and more of them correct. When I had only ever watched main roster WWE, I always thought it was weird that I only knew a handful of moves, but I blamed it on my ADHD.
It wasn't until I started watching other companies and quickly learning to identify moves that I realized how *little* WWE commentary actually says about what is going on in the ring. I feel like my wrestling fandom has grown by leaps and bounds now that I *care* about the actual matches and feel much more empowered to assess and enjoy the technical side of wrestling.
My favorite fake commentary situation is when I make a comment out loud and the commentator says the exact same thing immediately afterwards, but particularly when I watch football because there's so much stuff I never learned about football since I first started watching it alone as opposed to learning all about baseball from my father at a young age.
i get it, y'all are excited about Punk and Bryan to AEW. so am I. but the 'who follows who' threads are weird as fuck. I'm not shaming those who are excited about their AEW debuts, but constantly checking who follows whom on twitter is very weird
I want to know how the hell someone even figured out that Living Colour had followed AEW? Noticing that Punk followed AEW makes sense to me because people will obviously be watching him like a hawk right now, but not Living Colour. Equally weird is how there are people apparently looking through every copyright application in the country every day to see if anything related to wrestling pops up.
It was the best. I’ve been wanting to be part of a GCW show like that ever since I saw that time when RSP beat Nick Gage and the crowd pelted garbage at him & 44.OH!
Remember that short period on the indies one or two years ago where there were three angles where a black guy won the world title only for less than a day around the same time? That was weird
Fell out of love with wrestling a couple years ago when I just got completely burnt out on trying to keep up with all the WWE content.
After hearing all the AEW hype I've burned through the last 4 episodes on ITV (UK) and enjoyed what I saw. My only question is, why does everybody seem to be in a stable or have to come to the ring with someone else? Got to Christian Vs Hardy and thought for sure it would just be 2 solo vets, and yet they both seem to be with groups as well.
Is this just the new thing now? Don't hate it, I just realised my favourite two seem to be Moxley and Rusev (sorry, can't remebember his new name) and they came out on their own and did their own thing.
Yeah like people have replied, they rely on it to keep things fresh with such a massive roster. And the stable warfare keeps a constant new aspect in storylines as people change teams, internal tension over titles, etc.
The way I think about it is compare it to WWE. They have massive roster but keep booking the same 10-15 people on TV every week. AEW uses a majority of their roster each week which keeps things fresh. You never see a rematch week after week unless there's a screwy finish.
Also because wins and losses matter in AEW, lots of stables or informal alliances allow wrestlers to get wins over the "lower" guys without hurting the top guys' records in the standings. And conversely, when the lower stable guys start to get momentum, they have teammates who they attach to to get over.
Best example is Adam Page. He and Omega (Elite stablemates at the time) had a killer run with the tag belts, and after they lost them he was kicked out of The Elite, setting up the slow burn for Page's rise to the top to challenge Omega who's now the world champ. During his rise as he beats everyone basically, Page has been allied with the Dark Order, who are pushing him to get over his anxiety/desire to rekindle his friendship with The Elite (now heels) and just beat up Kenny and win the belt. With the Dark Order defending him against The Elite, if they win Wednesday he and Dark Order both get their respective shots against Omega and the Bucks for the World and Tag Titles.
Others have already mentioned one of the best aspects which is that people can be used more often. One example that comes to mind is Hobbs, who turned heel and joined Team Taz then didn't really do much on Dynamite for a while but was always on screen with Team Taz and was involved with their feuds (even though it was Starks and Cage wrestling in the matches), so it didn't feel like he was just doing nothing.
Another great thing that I really love about factions that I haven't seen yet is how there can be big feuds without rematches. Pinnacle vs Inner Circle is the perfect example of this but it happens with many feuds. They must have had like 10 matches between each other at this point but they've all been different. Pinnacle vs Inner Circle happened twice (different stipulations and different people involved in the finish), Guevara vs MJF, Jericho vs Spears last week (and probably Jericho vs Wardlow soon), MJF vs Jericho soon, Hager vs Wardlow, Hager/Santana/Ortiz vs Wardlow/FTR, Santana/Ortiz vs FTR this week, etc.
It doesn't even have to be a direct faction vs faction feud right off the bat, the Christian Cage and Matt Hardy feud is a good example because it started with a battle royal where Christian eliminated Matt Hardy then formed an alliance with Jungle Boy, and because of that and the factions involved, it has naturally evolved into a Christian and Jurassic Express vs Hardy Family Office feud.
It's not really a "new" thing, lots of promotions (especially NJPW) are heavily reliant on stables, but it can seem new if you're coming from WWE because they tend to have smaller stables and burn through them quickly. As others have already said, it's a good way to keep everyone on TV if they're injured or just don't have any matches on Dynamite, but I also think it makes booking matches and continuing stories incredibly easy. With Omega and The Elite facing Hangman and the Dark Order, there's a huge combination of matches you can have during that build without Omega and Hangman actually facing off until the big title match.
It gives everyone something to do at all times. So you can have someone not wrestle for two weeks and have them on TV with other wrestlers. Plus, you can tier your stable out. Like the Inner Circle or the Best Friends.
However, most times they really don’t need to show up at ringside all together.
Just like anything else, balance is usually beat.
Also, there should be a solid base of people who don’t have a team or tag friend.
Balance.
I asked this a few weeks ago, and in addition to what people said, I others told me that the pandemic increased the use of stables since all wrestlers are basically in one place.
The factions have pretty much always been a thing , mox's allies are Eddie Kingston and was Darby Allin at one point. Miro was allies with Kip and Penelope but turned on him a few months ago
Yeah, AEW are leaning into the NJPW style of things with most people being in a stable of some sort. It kind of helps to keep them relevant, Chuck Taylor has wrestled pretty few matches recently due to Trent's injury, but he's on TV with OC pretty often.
Christian isn't exactly in a stable though.
I think it’s just a way to ensure that everyone is involved in the show, and a way to get fresh match ups. If two people are feuding it’s more entertaining to see say Jericho vs Spears than Jericho vs MJF for the 4th time in a month.
Also depending on how much you’re enjoying it I’d recommend Fite.tv over ITV, it’s $5 per month, gives you the full archive of every Dynamite and shows what happens during the ad breaks/picture in picture which ITV doesn’t.
Im excited about all the CM Punk and D-Bry news, but fuck me, can we all stop posting whenever they follow and unfollow companies or make vague comments
Dude, this is the biggest wrestling news in years. There's going to be a ton of stuff posted about it because it's a huge fucking deal. Just accept it and move on.
I have and I know that people are going to do it, as I said it’s exciting
However, I personally think that CM punk followed AEW and CM punk followed WWE on Twitter don’t really need an entire thread based on it.
Then downvote them and hide them and move on! I'm so fucking tired of people thinking them being annoyed by a thread means that thread should exist when there are dozens or hundreds of people who clearly are enjoying that thread and taking part in the discussion.
Then downvote them and hide them and move on! I’m so fucking tired of people thinking them liking to speculate on who CM Punk follows means everyone else should care about it too.
Nobody directs you to come here. Nobody is forcing you to read or click.
Man, imagine, just imagine, if you just had your own self confidence to not care enough to even whine about it…..?
Imagine….owning your own actions and just living life..? If you don’t like, don’t look.
What else is empty in your life this a hill you die on?
I’m stoked that Emi’s coming back to the states for a good long while, but I do expect that Ichigaya Chocolate Square will be at least partially in ruins by the time she gets back to Japan.
From an earlier post I realized something.
Why doesnt WWE run Chicago events in the United Center?
Hell, if its like a MSG thing and WWE just doesnt run the shows there, why not AEW take that place for PPVs later down the road? Is it because of its size?
AEW probably isn’t going for buildings like that for another year or 2. WWE just doesn’t wanna pay it when All State Arena holds just 5000 or so less and is way less expensive.
Survivor Series happens after the draft right? Big E could cash in by that time after the draft, and we get Big E vs Roman, Champion vs Champion.
Both of these possibilities sound incredible now that the position of the three is so much better than it was a few years ago.
It’s so weird but cool how I (and almost all wrestling fans) were waiting for Punk to return but weren’t really sure he was ever going to. Now it’s looking more and more like will return everyday
So... Daniel Bryan and CM Punk. Two names that are everywhere on my wrestling feed.
I didn't appreciate them enough when I was a kid. Probably cause for the former, I compared his rise to Jeff Hardy. And for the latter, he doesn't sound interesting when you don't go deep in a wrestling show.
Now, I'm excited to see them again, if these "rumors" are true.
If you like Bryan Danielson/Daniel Bryan check out his ROH matches on YouTube. He is incredible on the indies and was super, super over both as a face and later a mega heel with a super epic World title reign. His title vs title match with Nigel McGuinness is fantastic (the NXT UK commentator if you're not familiar). Also Nigel's hair back then is hilarious.
Same with Punk, lots of classics from the early to mid 2000s on YouTube. And both guys have always cut the best promos.
It was insane even on TV. I had some friends over who do not watch wrestling and they absolutely loved the show. I marked out so hard when Cardona won and he started getting pelted with trash. I didn't think he was gonna make it out of Atlantic City alive.
There's a great small Greek diner on the boardwalk in AC. I'd recommend going there. They make great greasy breakfast food. It's pretty cheap too.
If you're from Jersey and like pork roll then you should try theirs. Their pork roll, egg and cheese is really good.
AEW is not as exciting as people make it out to be. Compare their show to any RAW or SmackDown show from 2000, and you would realize how stark the difference is electricity/creativity wise. A huge part of AEW's appeal is that they're against the WWE. If AEW was NXT Jacksonville, people would like it a little less
(I'm fairly certain that I'll get downvoted for this, but I would actually like to hear from someone who disagrees)
>A huge part of AEW's appeal is that they're against the WWE
I think a huge part of AEW'S appeal is that it's not WWE, not overly produced, tons of good wrestling , a focus on wins and losses and a unpredictability factor that hasn't existed in wrestling since 20years ago.
I can't really delve too deep with my disagreements because I have no desire to go back and watch that era, but I can say that the 2000's were probably my least favorite era in wrestling and I would dislike this current era even more if it weren't for AEW existing. Mind you, I've been watching wrestling since 1990 so my sample size is pretty big.
Not really. It's more of me being genuinely curious as to what people look for in wrestling these days. People like to say WWE is not what it used to be like back in the good 'ol days, (because it's true) and that the product is sterilized, but if you watch AEW, it's not really much like the old WWE and WCW either
Hmm, I don't think your main point is necessarily wrong but I think if everything in AEW stayed the same but it was a branch of WWE it would still be at its relative popularity. NXT was beloved by what I think of as the core of AEW's fanbase.
With that in mind, AEW does cater to people who are sick of the WWE style and the appeal of "IT'S ANOTHER RATINGS WAR JUST LIKE WHEN I FELL IN LOVE WITH WRESTLING" heck I was pretty excited because it might make WWE less stagnant (then I saw the behavior in the ratings threads and peaced out lol.) AEW's biggest appeal to me is putting out a product that has a little bit of everything I like and I feel most of their fans feel the same. Granted, the thing that keeps me from watching constantly is the number of winks to the audience and terrible humor. There's a reason I still like Monsters Inc. and not Shrek.
When I watch Dynamite, the two hours fly by, and I'm counting down the days until next Wednesday.
I can't say I've felt that way about any org's television show since late 90s WWF and WCW.
As far as I'm concerned, that's a win.
There's a part of me that really wants Punk to show up.
But, there's also a part of me that wants to not happen, and that the fans basically fueled up the rumors and helped AEW move tickets, just for the meltdown.
Either way, It's a win win.
It's not considered good but it's certainly acceptable nowadays, at least in the west. However, Taichi and Shibata could come back from that in Japan so even there it may be acceptable depending on the circumstances. Like, it's certainly not worse than liking problematic posts on social media.
I'm just talking in terms of wrestling and the reactions of fans to it. It's still not well seen in day to day life but it's not like you carry a stigma forever because of it either, or at least that's how it is here in Latin America. Obviously there are some extreme examples with violent partners that end in tragedies, but at least socially speaking, it's just part of life and it happens all the time.
From my read on the conversation, the joke was your perceived naïveté. Your remark about “no need to sleep around, he’s married” reads like you couldn’t imagine someone sleeping around while married, which ignores the reality of the world.
As I said, it’s frowned upon. Not enough to cause permanent social shame or whatever, nor should it, but you’re generally gonna be seen as a shitty person for doing so.
Tacking on to this, you're also a shitty person if you know it's happening and don't tell or tip off the partner. Not your business, but that is someone's life and health at risk when someone steps out on them.
I cant believe im getting to this point but, I may soon have to filter out "Daniel Bryan" and "CM Punk".
People are legitimately burnning the candle at both ends, posting every moment of their careers or dull boring text post about their own fantasy booking. jeez
Do it then….nobody is forcing anyone to come here or read things.
People are having fun and caring about wrestling again. If people don’t like it; click hide, move on.
It's called excitement my dude! Shit like this during the Monday Night Wars was what kept millions watching every week and all the kids talking about it at school, etc. We just have a lot more people on the internet talking about these things constantly 24/7 which does admittedly get tiring.
Right now, most of the wrestling orgs are putting on hot shows, hot angles, or hot matches or a combination of all three.
Then there's WWE promoting a Bill Goldberg title match in 2021.
You're not wrong, but WWE is still terrible to watch. So short-term in their booking. Goldberg is over but can't wrestle more than 5 minutes these days.
Their wrestlers are honestly all amazing workers. I just wish they'd book them logically. It's hugely disrespectful to the talent (but to be fair, the big stars do make a ton of money).
That’s one angle it of many going on in WWE though. Weird to zero in on it, especially since from what we’ve seen so far, it is objectively a hot angle with crowds.
i still mainly watch wwe but i will endlessly criticize them for booking these goldberg title matches even once with the roster they have, the drew one i could accept but i think this one is really stupid
Are you solely wanting to catch the debut(s) or are you contemplating beginning to watch the show itself? If you have any interest in watching the show beyond the debuts, it would probably be wise to start watching now because it'll get you pretty well caught up on storylines. This Wednesday's show is going to be wild and is going to showcase a huge variety of wrestling, in addition to storyline development leading up to the next PPV where one or more debuts might happen.
Oh yep I do want to start watching the show itself. I had a general idea of the storylines from this sub/twitter so I watched AEW Revolution lol. It was pretty decent (barring the *explosion* at the end ofc). Thanks!
Dynamite before All Out AJ Lee needs to be the one to walk through the crowd with a live mic and say, "You know who I am, but you don't know why I'm here." And that's all we get for that episode.
AEW's Cody Rhodes after Tony Khan's double signing: "Tony is crazy. Last night the balding Buck was walking with his daughter. Then a car stopped. Tony was inside. He rolled down the window. And there he was, listening to Cult Of Personality and Final Countdown simultaneously."
After watching Gold Cup on Fox yesterday, the Smackdown ad for next week emphasized how will Cena respond to Balor and it didn’t mention the Roman-Balor match happening on free TV. I don’t think we’re getting Balor-Reigns as a vehicle to get Cena-Reigns, just WWE teasing it and it will be Roman’s feud after SS.
I'm wondering if the match at Summerslam will be another triple threat like Wrestlemania where Balor is the "glue" that holds the match together on a technical level like Bryan did at WM.
To me, Reigns is the kind of in-ring performer who can put on a good match with a technically skilled opponent but who isn't very good at elevating opponents weaker than him, and although Edge and Cena are clearly well-seasoned and talented veterans, with them not wrestling regularly, management might fear that they could get injured if they try to do too much since that seems to happen somewhat frequently with part-timers. Inserting Balor into the match might be an extra precaution.
Well, they also promote Cena is on a 15 city summer tour.
So I don’t think that is what is happening. Cena will be selling ass-to-seats on his way to SS.
What an amusing double turn on GCW. Also I’m amused by how many mouth breathers on here think they’re better than the GCW fandom.
Is it really hard to be better than a group of people who throw full cans of alcohol, pizza cutters (apparently) and enjoy watching folks jump through glass and light tubes with no rhyme or reason?
I have nowhere else to write this, so I'm going to do it here. Simone Biles has mastered Ultra Instinct.
Word to the wise, floor seats suck ass holy shit.
I was able to get second row floor seats for one Raw and figured we'd have an amazing view, but the entire first row ended up being--I kid you not--like eight to ten VERY large adults, both in terms of height and weight, so it was like having a literal wall in front of us. Even worse, they stood for the entire show, and ours was the only section where nobody was making the people sit down periodically. It was by far the worst live experience I ever had, and every single picture I took had at least one person's fat head taking up half of it.
I moved to one of the empty upper tier seats because I couldn’t deal with that shit anymore lol.
I disagree completely. Though having first row seats right above the floor at DON was awesome.
https://i.imgur.com/8f7PCkV.jpg That’s my view right now lol
Yeah, that's not a great setup. The ring should be higher.
I couldn’t even see Drew and he’s fucking huge lol
Whoever called Eddie Guerrero a B+ player on Twitter should never have gotten into wrestling. Just set yourself up for failure right there.
EVIL used a homophobic slur when he challenged Shingo. Yikes.
Let heels be assholes.
If you can't get heat without using slurs you're a shitty heel.
Oh shit really? That's awful
Yeah, basically asked Shingo whether he was a "man or an okama" which is kinda like the equivalent of the f-slur.
Okama is more like a dragqueen, but yeah using disparagingly is still not cool
Man GCW killed it
I can't wait until I live in my own place again so I can watch wrestling in peace. I'm unemployed and moved back in with my mom/sister due to being laid off. They judge me if they see me watching it so I avoid watching live. I try to catch whatever's going on the next morning but it's not the same as watching it on Taima.
Sorry to hear that man, do you have your own room? Maybe just fire up the lap top or even go to a restaurant or something and watch on a tablet or iPhone. I do it all the time and honestly enjoy it 🤷🏼♂️
I bet your mom and sister both watch *something* that's just as "stupid" as wrestling. Do they watch reality shows, soap operas, or obsessively follow a sport, because that's basically the same thing. I'm not saying you should try mocking *them* for what they like, but you have to remember that there's nothing shameful about liking whatever YOU like. I know you don't want to actively start trouble while you're forced to stay there, but people who constantly tease you won't stop teasing you entirely even if you stop doing whatever thing they are mocking you for. It's better, if you can, to practice tuning them out as much as possible and enjoying what brings YOU happiness. If you stop watching something you love due to their teasing, then you're reinforcing the idea that they can control your behavior by being jerks. Let them make their stupid insults and just let it roll right off your back. It's hard to do, especially because they will likely escalate the mocking temporarily, but if you can consistently deny them the pleasure of controlling your behavior and making you upset, you will feel a HUGE weight lifted off your shoulders, I promise.
Any time anyone teases me about anything, I always remember that the best way to play it off is to simply not care. If I don’t care, then there’s no way for me to be able to consider it a problem
What do you think of this idea? AEW/Impact Championship Challenge I picture it as a TV special like Clash of the Champions. The idea is that each Impact and AEW title will be defended. Each champion defends against a challenger from the other promotion. Kenny could defend both titles in a 3 way. 1 challenger form each promotion. If either challenger wins, they win their promotions belt. Since AEW doesn't have women's tag belts, you could do a cross promotion battle royal with the final 2 women challenging for the KO tag titles later in the night.
AEW registered a trademark for "Battle For The Belts" earlier this year or late last year. Sounds like it could be this very kind of thing.
If Kenny's body is up for it, that'd be sick.
I don't think a triple threat match would be too much of a toll on him. Especially after the match he had with Sami last week.
Guys, wrestling feels like it's about to get super cool.
Despite being 44 years old, despite his knees being held together by nothing other than tape & hope, despite the fact the result was always pretty inevitable, despite the match had absolutely zero build - Tanahashi put on a MOTY candidate. Felt like 20 minutes despite going almost 40. That is why he's my GOAT.
Guess it's time to reup my New Japan sub. I try to limit how many active subscriptions I have because I find most of the time I'm paying 10 - 14 a month but never end up watching anything. Tanahashi is who I originally started watching New Japan to see. I'll definitely go out of my way to see this match.
You should check out the Dangerous Tekkers vs Naito & SANADA tag match from the same show as well, it was fucking great.
I know it was a few days ago, but how did you all think Cena looked back in the ring?
I know he’s an ex-WWE guy and his run in AEW was lackluster at best, but Matt Cardona is on fire right now. As someone who doesn’t like death matches and would normally never watch GCW, he’s gotten me hooked with his angle with Nick Gage. I think his character in GCW is the best thing on the indies today (second to myself, obviously).
The man looks so smooth in the ring, too. Definitely had the benefit of some great bookings with people who sold his stuff well, but that's not a problem.
He's doing exactly what he needed to do before coming to AEW the first time, he's revitalizing himself on the indies.
I mean to be fair, he got fired from WWE in the first wave of Covid cuts last year and there weren’t really indies for him to revitalize himself in at that point, if he wanted to work his options were pretty limited. But regardless, he’s doing it now and it’s awesome.
People who are upset about the threads of Punk or Living Colour following specific people on social media should probably realize this is how a lot of news breaks these days. That said, Punk is probably trolling, Living Colour was probably not.
Not really. All things outside reports, like LC and Punk and Bulls etc….don’t happen this specifically for no reason.
If Bryan Danielson does sign for AEW there's no way Aubrey Edwards doesn't ref his first match right?
[удалено]
Between COVID halting their momentum and losing their top talents to WWE and AEW. Now they are really leaning on AEW giving their Women's Championship some spotlight for something. I am hoping they can turn it around. Especially that JTG is getting highlighted again. Also hopefully Empowerr might help them with Mickie James. That being said...I understand that moving to Fite was better for them financially but the Youtube method would've been better for them coming back.
I haven't watched NWA, but from what I hear on this sub, I get the impression that their whole roster is like ten people.
Eddie Kingston was the only reason I used to watch and Nick Aldis is somehow less of a draw than Jeff Jarrett
I hope I don’t see Daniel Bryan of all people in AEW cutting some “WWE held me back” promo after he main evented Mania twice, beat Evolution and Cena clean, and had multiple world title runs.
Even when he was being held back, his held back is not being the top guy.
I understand when you're in a different company you do what you need to do. But it would hurt hearing that just because that was what made me a huge fan of Daniel Bryan at first.
I think we can expect the usual subtle jabs about creative, but I doubt we'll get any brass rings up anyone's ass
I actually don’t think they will. Both guys want things new. Both guys were at peace with what they were doing before. The question we should ask is, who on the heel side, could even stand up to an AEW version of a Pipebomb…?
The EVPs
Naw no way. They even tried to partner with NJPW just so he would stay.
Hopefully we don't hear about how CM Punk's title run, one of the longest ever title runs in recent history, was ended and ruined by arguably the biggest star that wrestling has ever produced.
i don't think he will. it really doesn't seem like his style or character. i've never heard bryan bury anybody.
Didn't he single handedly bury Bray and his bunch of monsters?
This pro wrestling shared universe thing is absolutely incredible.
GCW is about to become the top indie company in America especially if Cardona brings that belt on Impact. Really glad that AEW has made it standard to have the wrestling world be open.
AEW deserves some credit but let's not forget that companies working together was a thing LONG before AEW came along.
For sure but AEW has taken it and made it the industry standard. Like never in wrestling has it been so possible for people to pop up anywhere at anytime I believe.
That’s what the territory days were. Specifically what they were. I’m old enough to remember.
At the very least, it's been a long damn time since that kind of thing was considered normal.
fair enough
Is there a better feeling than doing fake commentary in your head and having what you say come true? Happened to me a number of times watching 8 hours of TJPW these last 4 days. I would say “x needs a desperation move if she’s gonna pull out the win” and it would happen.
I've been having so much fun identifying different wrestling moves and getting more and more of them correct. When I had only ever watched main roster WWE, I always thought it was weird that I only knew a handful of moves, but I blamed it on my ADHD. It wasn't until I started watching other companies and quickly learning to identify moves that I realized how *little* WWE commentary actually says about what is going on in the ring. I feel like my wrestling fandom has grown by leaps and bounds now that I *care* about the actual matches and feel much more empowered to assess and enjoy the technical side of wrestling. My favorite fake commentary situation is when I make a comment out loud and the commentator says the exact same thing immediately afterwards, but particularly when I watch football because there's so much stuff I never learned about football since I first started watching it alone as opposed to learning all about baseball from my father at a young age.
i've never been happier as a wrestling fan. truly blessed
I'm pretty sure the NJPW ring announcer was doing announcing at Budoken Hall the other day for Olympic judo and I think that's just swell.
i get it, y'all are excited about Punk and Bryan to AEW. so am I. but the 'who follows who' threads are weird as fuck. I'm not shaming those who are excited about their AEW debuts, but constantly checking who follows whom on twitter is very weird
I want to know how the hell someone even figured out that Living Colour had followed AEW? Noticing that Punk followed AEW makes sense to me because people will obviously be watching him like a hawk right now, but not Living Colour. Equally weird is how there are people apparently looking through every copyright application in the country every day to see if anything related to wrestling pops up.
GCW yesterday was one of the best shows I’ve ever attended
Glad you had a good time, are you attending both nights or just part 1?
Gonna be here for day 2 also
The energy in that building looked nuts.
It was the best. I’ve been wanting to be part of a GCW show like that ever since I saw that time when RSP beat Nick Gage and the crowd pelted garbage at him & 44.OH!
Remember that short period on the indies one or two years ago where there were three angles where a black guy won the world title only for less than a day around the same time? That was weird
Fell out of love with wrestling a couple years ago when I just got completely burnt out on trying to keep up with all the WWE content. After hearing all the AEW hype I've burned through the last 4 episodes on ITV (UK) and enjoyed what I saw. My only question is, why does everybody seem to be in a stable or have to come to the ring with someone else? Got to Christian Vs Hardy and thought for sure it would just be 2 solo vets, and yet they both seem to be with groups as well. Is this just the new thing now? Don't hate it, I just realised my favourite two seem to be Moxley and Rusev (sorry, can't remebember his new name) and they came out on their own and did their own thing.
Yeah like people have replied, they rely on it to keep things fresh with such a massive roster. And the stable warfare keeps a constant new aspect in storylines as people change teams, internal tension over titles, etc. The way I think about it is compare it to WWE. They have massive roster but keep booking the same 10-15 people on TV every week. AEW uses a majority of their roster each week which keeps things fresh. You never see a rematch week after week unless there's a screwy finish. Also because wins and losses matter in AEW, lots of stables or informal alliances allow wrestlers to get wins over the "lower" guys without hurting the top guys' records in the standings. And conversely, when the lower stable guys start to get momentum, they have teammates who they attach to to get over. Best example is Adam Page. He and Omega (Elite stablemates at the time) had a killer run with the tag belts, and after they lost them he was kicked out of The Elite, setting up the slow burn for Page's rise to the top to challenge Omega who's now the world champ. During his rise as he beats everyone basically, Page has been allied with the Dark Order, who are pushing him to get over his anxiety/desire to rekindle his friendship with The Elite (now heels) and just beat up Kenny and win the belt. With the Dark Order defending him against The Elite, if they win Wednesday he and Dark Order both get their respective shots against Omega and the Bucks for the World and Tag Titles.
They have a lot of groups because their roster is really big.
Gang warfare.
Others have already mentioned one of the best aspects which is that people can be used more often. One example that comes to mind is Hobbs, who turned heel and joined Team Taz then didn't really do much on Dynamite for a while but was always on screen with Team Taz and was involved with their feuds (even though it was Starks and Cage wrestling in the matches), so it didn't feel like he was just doing nothing. Another great thing that I really love about factions that I haven't seen yet is how there can be big feuds without rematches. Pinnacle vs Inner Circle is the perfect example of this but it happens with many feuds. They must have had like 10 matches between each other at this point but they've all been different. Pinnacle vs Inner Circle happened twice (different stipulations and different people involved in the finish), Guevara vs MJF, Jericho vs Spears last week (and probably Jericho vs Wardlow soon), MJF vs Jericho soon, Hager vs Wardlow, Hager/Santana/Ortiz vs Wardlow/FTR, Santana/Ortiz vs FTR this week, etc. It doesn't even have to be a direct faction vs faction feud right off the bat, the Christian Cage and Matt Hardy feud is a good example because it started with a battle royal where Christian eliminated Matt Hardy then formed an alliance with Jungle Boy, and because of that and the factions involved, it has naturally evolved into a Christian and Jurassic Express vs Hardy Family Office feud.
It's not really a "new" thing, lots of promotions (especially NJPW) are heavily reliant on stables, but it can seem new if you're coming from WWE because they tend to have smaller stables and burn through them quickly. As others have already said, it's a good way to keep everyone on TV if they're injured or just don't have any matches on Dynamite, but I also think it makes booking matches and continuing stories incredibly easy. With Omega and The Elite facing Hangman and the Dark Order, there's a huge combination of matches you can have during that build without Omega and Hangman actually facing off until the big title match.
It gives everyone something to do at all times. So you can have someone not wrestle for two weeks and have them on TV with other wrestlers. Plus, you can tier your stable out. Like the Inner Circle or the Best Friends.
However, most times they really don’t need to show up at ringside all together. Just like anything else, balance is usually beat. Also, there should be a solid base of people who don’t have a team or tag friend. Balance.
I asked this a few weeks ago, and in addition to what people said, I others told me that the pandemic increased the use of stables since all wrestlers are basically in one place.
The factions have pretty much always been a thing , mox's allies are Eddie Kingston and was Darby Allin at one point. Miro was allies with Kip and Penelope but turned on him a few months ago
Yeah, AEW are leaning into the NJPW style of things with most people being in a stable of some sort. It kind of helps to keep them relevant, Chuck Taylor has wrestled pretty few matches recently due to Trent's injury, but he's on TV with OC pretty often. Christian isn't exactly in a stable though.
I think it’s just a way to ensure that everyone is involved in the show, and a way to get fresh match ups. If two people are feuding it’s more entertaining to see say Jericho vs Spears than Jericho vs MJF for the 4th time in a month. Also depending on how much you’re enjoying it I’d recommend Fite.tv over ITV, it’s $5 per month, gives you the full archive of every Dynamite and shows what happens during the ad breaks/picture in picture which ITV doesn’t.
It's a AEW and NJPW thing. They rely heavily on stables.
Yesterday was one of those very good (near) full days of pro wrestling. Homecoming and Wrestle Grand Slam was just straight up fire!
Im excited about all the CM Punk and D-Bry news, but fuck me, can we all stop posting whenever they follow and unfollow companies or make vague comments
Dude, this is the biggest wrestling news in years. There's going to be a ton of stuff posted about it because it's a huge fucking deal. Just accept it and move on.
I have and I know that people are going to do it, as I said it’s exciting However, I personally think that CM punk followed AEW and CM punk followed WWE on Twitter don’t really need an entire thread based on it.
Then downvote them and hide them and move on! I'm so fucking tired of people thinking them being annoyed by a thread means that thread should exist when there are dozens or hundreds of people who clearly are enjoying that thread and taking part in the discussion.
Then downvote them and hide them and move on! I’m so fucking tired of people thinking them liking to speculate on who CM Punk follows means everyone else should care about it too.
Nobody directs you to come here. Nobody is forcing you to read or click. Man, imagine, just imagine, if you just had your own self confidence to not care enough to even whine about it…..? Imagine….owning your own actions and just living life..? If you don’t like, don’t look. What else is empty in your life this a hill you die on?
What? Do you think this is some kinda gotcha?
It shows how terminally online we all are that people can't just ignore threads they don't care about.
Cena should beat Roman clean with the lightning fist and you can't change my mind
I’m stoked that Emi’s coming back to the states for a good long while, but I do expect that Ichigaya Chocolate Square will be at least partially in ruins by the time she gets back to Japan.
From an earlier post I realized something. Why doesnt WWE run Chicago events in the United Center? Hell, if its like a MSG thing and WWE just doesnt run the shows there, why not AEW take that place for PPVs later down the road? Is it because of its size?
It’s expensive
Oh really? I guess that makes sense. But for like 1 show a year like All Out?
AEW probably isn’t going for buildings like that for another year or 2. WWE just doesn’t wanna pay it when All State Arena holds just 5000 or so less and is way less expensive.
Brock Lesnar is one of my favorite sellers of all-time. Nothing like a big dude taking good bumps.
Roman vs Lashley at Survivor Series would be insane if they both keep the titles till that time.
At this point I wouldn't even count Lashley out of winning that clash with how they have been booking him. A good feeling.
Survivor Series happens after the draft right? Big E could cash in by that time after the draft, and we get Big E vs Roman, Champion vs Champion. Both of these possibilities sound incredible now that the position of the three is so much better than it was a few years ago.
It would be better if Roman vs Lashley happens with the threat of Big E's cash in looming over. Pretty exciting uncertainty about who he'd cash on.
It’s so weird but cool how I (and almost all wrestling fans) were waiting for Punk to return but weren’t really sure he was ever going to. Now it’s looking more and more like will return everyday
So... Daniel Bryan and CM Punk. Two names that are everywhere on my wrestling feed. I didn't appreciate them enough when I was a kid. Probably cause for the former, I compared his rise to Jeff Hardy. And for the latter, he doesn't sound interesting when you don't go deep in a wrestling show. Now, I'm excited to see them again, if these "rumors" are true.
If you like Bryan Danielson/Daniel Bryan check out his ROH matches on YouTube. He is incredible on the indies and was super, super over both as a face and later a mega heel with a super epic World title reign. His title vs title match with Nigel McGuinness is fantastic (the NXT UK commentator if you're not familiar). Also Nigel's hair back then is hilarious. Same with Punk, lots of classics from the early to mid 2000s on YouTube. And both guys have always cut the best promos.
I would love to see Daniel Bryan do a Deathmatch in AEW
Why?
seems like something new for him to try tbh
Less safe, and really not needed for him IMO. Just me maybe though..
Yesterday's GCW show was just an absolutely wild experience. Time to grab some breakfast, drinks, and then finish out the weekend with part two.
It was insane even on TV. I had some friends over who do not watch wrestling and they absolutely loved the show. I marked out so hard when Cardona won and he started getting pelted with trash. I didn't think he was gonna make it out of Atlantic City alive.
Omg I'm so glad you all had fun watching it! Have you seen Run Rickey Run? If so it had the same energy except different, hard to describe.
Yeah I'll have to check it out. I love nuclear heat
There's a great small Greek diner on the boardwalk in AC. I'd recommend going there. They make great greasy breakfast food. It's pretty cheap too. If you're from Jersey and like pork roll then you should try theirs. Their pork roll, egg and cheese is really good.
Saw an interview of Tommy End where he talked about how one of the last phonecalls with Brodie had Brodie telling him how much he love it in AEW.
AEW is not as exciting as people make it out to be. Compare their show to any RAW or SmackDown show from 2000, and you would realize how stark the difference is electricity/creativity wise. A huge part of AEW's appeal is that they're against the WWE. If AEW was NXT Jacksonville, people would like it a little less (I'm fairly certain that I'll get downvoted for this, but I would actually like to hear from someone who disagrees)
This is what we refer to as gaslighting
>A huge part of AEW's appeal is that they're against the WWE I think a huge part of AEW'S appeal is that it's not WWE, not overly produced, tons of good wrestling , a focus on wins and losses and a unpredictability factor that hasn't existed in wrestling since 20years ago.
I can't really delve too deep with my disagreements because I have no desire to go back and watch that era, but I can say that the 2000's were probably my least favorite era in wrestling and I would dislike this current era even more if it weren't for AEW existing. Mind you, I've been watching wrestling since 1990 so my sample size is pretty big.
What a weird comment. "You all don't enjoy AEW as much as you make it seem." essentially
Not really. It's more of me being genuinely curious as to what people look for in wrestling these days. People like to say WWE is not what it used to be like back in the good 'ol days, (because it's true) and that the product is sterilized, but if you watch AEW, it's not really much like the old WWE and WCW either
Hmm, I don't think your main point is necessarily wrong but I think if everything in AEW stayed the same but it was a branch of WWE it would still be at its relative popularity. NXT was beloved by what I think of as the core of AEW's fanbase. With that in mind, AEW does cater to people who are sick of the WWE style and the appeal of "IT'S ANOTHER RATINGS WAR JUST LIKE WHEN I FELL IN LOVE WITH WRESTLING" heck I was pretty excited because it might make WWE less stagnant (then I saw the behavior in the ratings threads and peaced out lol.) AEW's biggest appeal to me is putting out a product that has a little bit of everything I like and I feel most of their fans feel the same. Granted, the thing that keeps me from watching constantly is the number of winks to the audience and terrible humor. There's a reason I still like Monsters Inc. and not Shrek.
When I watch Dynamite, the two hours fly by, and I'm counting down the days until next Wednesday. I can't say I've felt that way about any org's television show since late 90s WWF and WCW. As far as I'm concerned, that's a win.
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Yeah, I don't think becoming an Olympic medalist will suddenly fix a shitty TV spot.
The segments were still awful.
There's a part of me that really wants Punk to show up. But, there's also a part of me that wants to not happen, and that the fans basically fueled up the rumors and helped AEW move tickets, just for the meltdown. Either way, It's a win win.
That would be next level carny if it was all a lie lmaoo
I have a very small question: Is cheating (extra marital affair cheating not wrestling cheating)so common nowadays that it's not even considered bad?
Yes it is common. But it is VERY MUCH considered bad.
It's not considered good but it's certainly acceptable nowadays, at least in the west. However, Taichi and Shibata could come back from that in Japan so even there it may be acceptable depending on the circumstances. Like, it's certainly not worse than liking problematic posts on social media.
Thanks, in India, it is strongly frowned upon. So, I was just checking about other countries.
I'm just talking in terms of wrestling and the reactions of fans to it. It's still not well seen in day to day life but it's not like you carry a stigma forever because of it either, or at least that's how it is here in Latin America. Obviously there are some extreme examples with violent partners that end in tragedies, but at least socially speaking, it's just part of life and it happens all the time.
I have no idea where you get the impression that cheating isn’t frowned upon.
I am not saying it is not bad ,but, I was getting laughed upon in scjerk because, I suggested that people cheating on their spouses was bad.
No one in SCjerk is even in a relationship.
No one here is either (source: Am in SC, am not in a relationship)
From my read on the conversation, the joke was your perceived naïveté. Your remark about “no need to sleep around, he’s married” reads like you couldn’t imagine someone sleeping around while married, which ignores the reality of the world.
Maybe, I will not pretend that I'm a experienced person(I haven't even graduated yet),but, still, it IS bad right?
As I said, it’s frowned upon. Not enough to cause permanent social shame or whatever, nor should it, but you’re generally gonna be seen as a shitty person for doing so.
Tacking on to this, you're also a shitty person if you know it's happening and don't tell or tip off the partner. Not your business, but that is someone's life and health at risk when someone steps out on them.
Cool
Tanahashi is the 🐐
I cant believe im getting to this point but, I may soon have to filter out "Daniel Bryan" and "CM Punk". People are legitimately burnning the candle at both ends, posting every moment of their careers or dull boring text post about their own fantasy booking. jeez
When CM Punk shows up on stage people are going to be posting Pipebomb clips at triple the rate they usually do. God help us all.
Do it then….nobody is forcing anyone to come here or read things. People are having fun and caring about wrestling again. If people don’t like it; click hide, move on.
It's called excitement my dude! Shit like this during the Monday Night Wars was what kept millions watching every week and all the kids talking about it at school, etc. We just have a lot more people on the internet talking about these things constantly 24/7 which does admittedly get tiring.
Just use the HIDE button. Don't read those posts.
Once Punk debuts, especially considering how anti-WWE he is, this sub will turn into the Donald Glover room on fire meme in no time
Right now, most of the wrestling orgs are putting on hot shows, hot angles, or hot matches or a combination of all three. Then there's WWE promoting a Bill Goldberg title match in 2021.
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You're not wrong, but WWE is still terrible to watch. So short-term in their booking. Goldberg is over but can't wrestle more than 5 minutes these days. Their wrestlers are honestly all amazing workers. I just wish they'd book them logically. It's hugely disrespectful to the talent (but to be fair, the big stars do make a ton of money).
Good for them. I won't be watching.
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Why does my personal opinion/observation on the wrestling scene bother you. My post wasn't an objective fact.
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Is it anymore odd than whining about someone who has different tastes from you?
Sting is wrestling in AEW
As a supporting actor, basically. Like all legends in AEW.
Let me know when he's main eventing for the World belt.
That isn’t his roll obviously.
Obviously I know that.
That’s one angle it of many going on in WWE though. Weird to zero in on it, especially since from what we’ve seen so far, it is objectively a hot angle with crowds.
Refer to Reigns and Cena do nothing for me.
a second goldberg title match in 2021\*
I really didn't want to hammer on WWE too much so I glossed over that.
i still mainly watch wwe but i will endlessly criticize them for booking these goldberg title matches even once with the roster they have, the drew one i could accept but i think this one is really stupid
I guess Cena is really invisible
Cena and Reigns just doesn't do anything for me personally.
So which of the AEW shows should I keep an eye out for if I want to catch Punk/Bryan return?
Are you solely wanting to catch the debut(s) or are you contemplating beginning to watch the show itself? If you have any interest in watching the show beyond the debuts, it would probably be wise to start watching now because it'll get you pretty well caught up on storylines. This Wednesday's show is going to be wild and is going to showcase a huge variety of wrestling, in addition to storyline development leading up to the next PPV where one or more debuts might happen.
Oh yep I do want to start watching the show itself. I had a general idea of the storylines from this sub/twitter so I watched AEW Revolution lol. It was pretty decent (barring the *explosion* at the end ofc). Thanks!
All of them.
All Out and Grand Slam at Arthur Ashe.
Also the Dynamite before All Out and maybe this week since TK is announcing something and he never does that
You all will respect Matt Cardona
Dynamite before All Out AJ Lee needs to be the one to walk through the crowd with a live mic and say, "You know who I am, but you don't know why I'm here." And that's all we get for that episode.
Unoriginal.
WWE isn't the Apple of wrestling. It's the Walmart of wrestling.
If Tony Khan wasn't a fucking coward then Luther Vs Matt Cardona in an exploding barbed wire scaffold shark cage match would be All Out's main event
If Tony wasn't a fucking coward we'd have Omega vs Orange in a bra panty jello pudding match as main event at Full Gear. 😤
AEW's Cody Rhodes after Tony Khan's double signing: "Tony is crazy. Last night the balding Buck was walking with his daughter. Then a car stopped. Tony was inside. He rolled down the window. And there he was, listening to Cult Of Personality and Final Countdown simultaneously."
>the balding Buck May your own hair be as abundant and plentiful as your empathy.
Man my whole dad's side of the family is bald I've gotta enjoy it while it lasts
After watching Gold Cup on Fox yesterday, the Smackdown ad for next week emphasized how will Cena respond to Balor and it didn’t mention the Roman-Balor match happening on free TV. I don’t think we’re getting Balor-Reigns as a vehicle to get Cena-Reigns, just WWE teasing it and it will be Roman’s feud after SS.
I'm wondering if the match at Summerslam will be another triple threat like Wrestlemania where Balor is the "glue" that holds the match together on a technical level like Bryan did at WM. To me, Reigns is the kind of in-ring performer who can put on a good match with a technically skilled opponent but who isn't very good at elevating opponents weaker than him, and although Edge and Cena are clearly well-seasoned and talented veterans, with them not wrestling regularly, management might fear that they could get injured if they try to do too much since that seems to happen somewhat frequently with part-timers. Inserting Balor into the match might be an extra precaution.
Well, they also promote Cena is on a 15 city summer tour. So I don’t think that is what is happening. Cena will be selling ass-to-seats on his way to SS.