The Wrestling Thread

[Raging Justice]

IT'S HAPPENING!!!

https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/ ... k_you_for/

"Tam Nakano: "Willow Nightingale! Thank you for accepting the love letter from Tam! I'm looking forward to a hot, hot, hot reply from you!"

Kenny Omega is really speaking my language here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/ ... d_like_to/

"We had AZM. Great. Really great. Like, I love AZM. I'm a huge Starlight Kid fan. Huge Starlight Kid fan. And I also, I got a real soft spot for - and I have since Tokyo Joshi - I've loved Natsupoi for a long time. Saori Anou, another person who is not originally from STARDOM and you wouldn't have known until she showed up to STARDOM, she's actually from Actwres girl'Z. So, you know, Saori, Miu Watanabe, there you go. Not STARDOM wrestlers whatsoever. There's so many people that are just incredible."

He also had some interesting comments on Meltzer and star ratings. This seemed like him just shooting...until the very end. Interesting nonetheless

https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/ ... regarding/

[Raging Justice]

Is Chad Gable wasn't reason enough that having Sammy take Gunther's title was the wrong move, here's one more reason:

https://www.comingsoon.net/wrestling/ne ... -wwe-draft



Booking pro wrestling isn't hard, why does WWE make it hard?

EDIT: Announced on Collision:



The TBS title is OFFICIALLY above the Women's title

EDIT2: Heard where the best wrestle about 50 times tonight, and got to see Johnny and Taya. Good job AEW

EDIT3: I'm digging these 3 hour AEW shows. This match is gonna be awesome, Edge had a fantastic cage match not long ago against Seth Rollins, and it didn't even have barbed wire:



EDIT4: I know there are some valid criticisms of Mercedes run so far, but you have to admit, both Willow Nightingale and the TBS title have leveled up since Mercedes showed up and this increased integration of Stardom with ROH/AEW started EXACTLY when Mercedes showed up as well. Little by little, I feel like the womens divisions are getting a boost. We're starting to get some decent matches and the feud between Purrazzo and Rosa has been fun. Supercard of Honor was the best AEW/ROH PPV ever from a women's wrestling point of view

EDIT5:

[Reprise]

EDIT3: I'm digging these 3 hour AEW shows. This match is gonna be awesome, Edge had a fantastic cage match not long ago against Seth Rollins, and it didn't even have barbed wire:

Yeah, this is going to be sick! That match with Seth at Crown Jewel - I think - was awesome. The HIAC at last year's Mania against Finn wasn't bad either.

EDIT4: I know there are some valid criticisms of Mercedes run so far, but you have to admit, both Willow Nightingale and the TBS title have leveled up since Mercedes showed up and this increased integration of Stardom with ROH/AEW started EXACTLY when Mercedes showed up as well. Little by little, I feel like the womens divisions are getting a boost. We're starting to get some decent matches and the feud between Purrazzo and Rosa has been fun. Supercard of Honor was the best AEW/ROH PPV ever from a women's wrestling point of view

Agreed. And I think once she starts wrestling she will be ok.

Off topic, but speaking of fans turning on Cody that was mentioned recently, I just saw this post and they have a good point:

Kofi Kingston’s WWE championship reign was booked better than this, they lined up Ziggler (with an actual “it shoulda been me” story), then Samoa Joe who basically said Kofi wasn’t legit enough to be champion, then Randy Orton, the man that killed his push 10 years before he got another one. All legit feuds and people Kofi would have to overcome to prove he deserved that championship.

Cody fought AJ in a throwaway indie WWE match that was built up by handshakes and dad references, and now he’s going against a Youtuber who shows up and wrestles less than Roman Reigns AS A FULL TIME WRESTLER (yet y’all complained about Roman)

If this is the best thing they got lined up for Cody, they shoulda had Priest cash in on his ass then because this ain’t it at all.

[Raging Justice]

EDIT3: I'm digging these 3 hour AEW shows. This match is gonna be awesome, Edge had a fantastic cage match not long ago against Seth Rollins, and it didn't even have barbed wire:

Yeah, this is going to be sick! That match with Seth at Crown Jewel - I think - was awesome. The HIAC at last year's Mania against Finn wasn't bad either.

EDIT4: I know there are some valid criticisms of Mercedes run so far, but you have to admit, both Willow Nightingale and the TBS title have leveled up since Mercedes showed up and this increased integration of Stardom with ROH/AEW started EXACTLY when Mercedes showed up as well. Little by little, I feel like the womens divisions are getting a boost. We're starting to get some decent matches and the feud between Purrazzo and Rosa has been fun. Supercard of Honor was the best AEW/ROH PPV ever from a women's wrestling point of view

Agreed. And I think once she starts wrestling she will be ok.

Off topic, but speaking of fans turning on Cody that was mentioned recently, I just saw this post and they have a good point:

Kofi Kingston’s WWE championship reign was booked better than this, they lined up Ziggler (with an actual “it shoulda been me” story), then Samoa Joe who basically said Kofi wasn’t legit enough to be champion, then Randy Orton, the man that killed his push 10 years before he got another one. All legit feuds and people Kofi would have to overcome to prove he deserved that championship.

Cody fought AJ in a throwaway indie WWE match that was built up by handshakes and dad references, and now he’s going against a Youtuber who shows up and wrestles less than Roman Reigns AS A FULL TIME WRESTLER (yet y’all complained about Roman)

If this is the best thing they got lined up for Cody, they shoulda had Priest cash in on his ass then because this ain’t it at all.

Kofimania happened at a time when I wasn't watching WWE, could be a fun thing for me to go and check out now. Sucks how his reigned ended though. No matter how perfect or beautiful something is, WWE can find a way to fuck it up

Yeah, I agree on Cody. Cody's whole "story" is basically how nepotist and pro wrestling politics can make you a star. Not exactly the kind of babyface you want to root for.

I'm not really following TNA, but this looks like a fucking awesome match. I want to see it:

[Markies]

Cody's whole "story" is basically how nepotist and pre wrestling politics can make you a star.

Sounds like something right up Triple H's alley.

[Raging Justice]

This is what it looks like when wrestling is actually mainstream and booming, which WWE wants us to believe is happening again now:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/ ... wrestlers/














































In the 80s and 90s, wrestling was everywhere. I miss those days

[Raging Justice]

I don't wanna say that AEW needs to be more like WWE, but this is the sort of thing WWE would stick on TV and it's honestly not a terrible idea. This is good PR and it just makes you feel good when you watch it. It's also a great way to get more support behind your champion:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/ ... ise_guest/

[Raging Justice]

There's a thread on reddit about a legend returning on Raw tonight. I clicked out of curiosity. It was a video of Lilian Garcia. When I say that the current WWE fanbase is delusional and has gotten drunk on Triple H's Kool-Aid, I'm not joking. I also saw this on reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/ ... w_5132024/

Every single match outcome you could see coming a mile away including how they never allow Dakota Kai to beat anyone despite the fact that she's leading a major faction

Triple H booking is boring as fuck. There's a hierarchy set in stone and it NEVER changes

[Reprise]

I am still a sucker for physical media. I just ordered these two ROH sets. The AEW era of ROH still confuses the hell out of me, particularly as there is a whole bunch of talent that seems to wrestle for both promotions, but their PPVs seem to be consistently very good, even if the weekly shows and the poor builds are a common complaint. Final Battle also seems to have like a billion matches on the card and it seems pretty fucking random, like Tony Khan's critics might be half right that he just throws a bunch of random matches together. For example, Nyla Rose has a random squash match on the main card, which was apparently a late addition. Why, when you already have about 5 matches on the pre-show and like 10 or 11 matches on the main card?

I also ordered WWE MITB 2016 and Payback 2016 on blu ray. I know that seems pretty random, but 2016 is the final year I was really watching WWE consistently. Even though I got pretty bored of WWE, I still have a bit of nostalgia for 2015 and 2016. AJ Styles debuted in 2016 and had a bunch of great matches. Guys like KO, Sami and Balor also moved up from NXT around 2015-2016ish, I think.

[Reprise]

I was reading an article yesterday about what the writer feels is "wrong" with AEW. It was just an opinion piece dissecting various issues the writer has with the company, but I thought they made some good points.

They discussed over the last couple of years, AEW has repeatedly done these kind of faction storylines at the forefront of their shows, pushing those instead of personal, emotional, real heated blood feuds between individual wrestlers. To be fair, that's not entirely fair when we have had the amazing Swerve and Hangman feud and others in recent years, but I can still kinda see what they mean, particularly as they highlight that a lot of these faction storylines are very samey and often revolve around one group defending rhe honour of AEW.

They mention the Jericho Appreciation Society feud with the Blackpool Combat Club and how it dragged on and on and how there was little in the way of true progression nor emotional investment. The whole thing played out under the same one-dimensional premise. The pro wrestlers versus sports entertainers thing was basically a pretext to do a lot of matches. The faces won some, the heels won others.

Then it was basically the same kind of thing with The Elite vs Blackpool Combat Club, again with little progression or emotional investment. I remember having the same complaints at the time and getting really bored with that feud, because it seemed to just go on for the sake of it.

They also brought up the Outsiders stuff with the women, which was their own version that was even worse, because it never really got off the ground. I mentioned the other day about Saraya and Wembley, but the writer managed to explain more clearly what the issue was by focusing on AEW's faction war storylines. The group basically did nothing and then went into Wembley as heels, the group kinda broke up in the match, but with none of them turning face. Saraya won and got the babyface treatment, despite still really being a heel, then immediately got turned back to heel and lost the title to Toni who also remained a heel. The whole thing made no sense.

Now we have heel Elite vs AEW and it feels too samey again. Again, there isn't really a sense of progression or that the stakes are high. "The Elite have taken out Tony Khan!!!" Ok... And? He's now working remotely with a sore neck. So what? "The Elite have taken over!!!" Ok... And? What does that actually mean, because watching Dynamite or Collision or Rampage, you wouldn't really know it. It's not like when the nWo took over or when WWE did their various Corporation and Authority angles over the years, where you felt like a heel faction was really in control and the stakes were high. "The Elite took out Kenny!!!" Ok... And? He's still injured and off tv for months. Of course it was just an excuse to put on yet another anarchy in the arena match with a bunch of dudes defending the honor of AEW yet again.

I do like AEW a lot, but I must admit I find most of their faction stories kind of weak. I had hoped this new heel Elite story would be different, but so far it doesn't feel different enough to me. There are some positives though. Heel Okada is great, Jack Perry comes across better now and that moment from a couple of weeks ago when the Bucks played a new Dynamite intro that only featured the Elite was pretty funny. It's not that I hate the story, but I just feel kinda meh about it going into Double or Nothing.