The Wrestling Thread

[Reprise]

Haha I didn't watch Dynamite, but social media this morning was FULL of people talking about that segment and mostly in a negative way.

Apparently, it's the worst thing AEW has ever done and will be the death of them. Which is funny, because people say that every week about something the company does

It looked really cringey and WWE like. I am intrigued by what happens next though, so I guess it worked.

Tony needs acting lessons. Bless him, I don't mean this in a negative way, but the more time goes by the more convinced I am that he is possibly neurodivergent.

[Reprise]

Still not as bad as this

[Reprise]

One more thing, having just browsed a bit more social media, the reaction online to that closing segment is really interesting.

Some people think it's the worst thing they have ever done, some people think it's a stroke of genius and some people are in the middle, but even a lot of those who thought it was awful admit that they are intrigued to see where they go next with it. Maybe they have something. It reintroduces Jack Perry in an impactful way.

Then again, we saw that with the whole devil storyline and then they quickly dropped the ball, so we'll see...

But I do find it interesting. One person said it's awful, but that it's like a car crash and now oddly they can't help but be interested in watching how the story moves forward.

[Raging Justice]

One more thing, having just browsed a bit more social media, the reaction online to that closing segment is really interesting.

Some people think it's the worst thing they have ever done, some people think it's a stroke of genius and some people are in the middle, but even a lot of those who thought it was awful admit that they are intrigued to see where they go next with it. Maybe they have something. It reintroduces Jack Perry in an impactful way.

Then again, we saw that with the whole devil storyline and then they quickly dropped the ball, so we'll see...

But I do find it interesting. One person said it's awful, but that it's like a car crash and now oddly they can't help but be interested in watching how the story moves forward.

It's interesting because it's probably still playing off the CM Punk thing. It would have been fascinating to watch with someone like Nick Aldis or William Regal who would have elevated that segment so much through better mic work and better selling. Plus they don't look like dorks like Tony does.

Is this the first time we've seen Tony take a bump?

Stardom is now officially owned by NJPW. We're going to see those girls more often in AEW/ROH now, and probably NJPW too. I hope they are utilized well.

If Mina Shirakawa takes Toni Storm's title like a bunch of people are predicting, they could do a pretty epic Forbidden Door match with her versus Tam Nakano. Lot of history between those two and having their rivalry bleed into AEW would be cool. They could do a great video segment for one of those televised, pre pay per view countdown shows going over their history. Would be awesome if they did the match Stardom style, with both girl's factions at ringside (and Mariah May as well). Mina has sort of a new faction now that includes the world champion Maika, apparently they are co-leading it. Mina had her first big singles title win last year with the white belt, than got over confident challenging her former leader and mentor Tam for the world title while also putting her white belt on the line. When that match ended, Mina had lost everything. Tam beat her and became the second woman in Stardom history to hold both titles, putting her on equal footing with Stardom's ace and icon (and Tam's former mentor) Mayu Iwatani. Mina lost her white belt after a short reign, and helped elevate someone who she at the time hated. Mina has vowed to beat Tam and surpass her ever since. If Tam were to beat Mina again and take her AEW title (which I doubt would happen), she could theoretically challenge Mina's faction-mate Maika for the Stardom world title that she never lost (she was stripped of it due to injury)

I don't know about you, but that sounds like an epic setup for an AEW Women's title match on pay per view. Mina's quest to beat one of Stardom's best (THE best in some people's mind) comes to a conclusion within the walls of AEW.

[Reprise]

Yeah, I can see people thinking it still relates a little too closely to the Punk situation and criticising it for that.

Bucks mocking Khan on Twitter is pretty funny though



I probably need to dig a bit more into Stardom. It's cool that they are officially working together though. There's a hell of a lot wrong with AEW's women's division, so I am on board with them hopefully making some big improvements. You can't just sign a big name like Mercedes and leave it as crappy as it has been in the past.

[Raging Justice]

This is the match that's better than Ospreay/Bryan? This match with mediocre wrestling mixed with some of the most overbooked nonsense I've ever seen? This is the greatest main event of all time?

https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/ ... emania_40/



This is the stupidest shit I've ever seen. There is so much random crap happening in this match. Why is the Rock fighting John Cena? Why is Undertaker there? Why does Seth Rollins think it's 2013 again? This is like watching a stupid Michael Bay movie.

[Reprise]

Why? Because fan service. It's like one of those overhyped comic book stories or television episodes where they try and cram as much fan service as possible, even though 99% of it makes no sense and it just harms the overall story. It's style over substance. And fans will go through mental gymnastics to justify it and explain why they think it does make sense.

In a way, WWE is smart to have done it. People love that kind of stuff. They love big superhero team ups and cameos in Marvel and DC movies and comics.

Back in the day people would have called stuff like that an overbooked mess or put it in a "it was a lot of fun for what it was" category, but or course people are so hyperbolic and over the top with their opinions and love for WWE right now, that it gets called stuff like the greatest Mania main event of all time or even one of the greatest matches of all time.

Btw, Cena looks awful these days. Can he just do a Shawn Michaels and shave his hair short already? That comb over and balding spot, coupled with his clothing style, just doesn't look good. He's become the "how do you do, fellow kids?" meme.

[Raging Justice]

Why? Because fan service. It's like one of those overhyped comic book stories or television episodes where they try and cram as much fan service as possible, even though 99% of it makes no sense and it just harms the overall story. It's style over substance. And fans will go through mental gymnastics to justify it and explain why they think it does make sense.

In a way, WWE is smart to have done it. People love that kind of stuff. They love big superhero team ups and cameos in Marvel and DC movies and comics.

Back in the day people would have called stuff like that an overbooked mess or put it in a "it was a lot of fun for what it was" category, but or course people are so hyperbolic and over the top with their opinions and love for WWE right now, that it gets called stuff like the greatest Mania main event of all time or even one of the greatest matches of all time.

Btw, Cena looks awful these days. Can he just do a Shawn Michaels and shave his hair short already? That comb over and balding spot, coupled with his clothing style, just doesn't look good. He's become the "how do you do, fellow kids?" meme.

All of this is driving me crazy because we're hearing so much nonsense right now:

"Pro wrestling is cool again!"

"The Attitude Era is back!"

"We're in a boom period!"

"It's a new era!"

"Greatest Wrestlemania of all time! I'm gonna be telling my grandkids about it!"

"Look at all the new wrestling fans showing up now!"

"Did you see NXT this week! The crowd was so amped the cameras were shaking!"

Meanwhile, people are talking about AEW the way they used to talk about TNA years ago:

"AEW is on its last legs"

"Imagine if this company had good booking and storytelling like WWE does"

"AEW has no stars. Who the hell is Swerve Strickland?"

"Why do they keep showing these Japanese people who all look the same?"

"It's WCW all over again"

"AEW is dying"

"CM Punk was right"

"WWE IS THE BEST!!! NO ONE WILL EVER BEAT WWE!!! SUCK IT AEW LOSERS!!!"

Who started this massive shift in narrative? It's bordering on delusional

Aside from a few bright spots here and here (like Gunther and Chad Gable), I'm just seeing the same WWE we've have for the past 15 years. Also, I'm not seeing people everywhere talking about WWE or wearing WWE T-shirts. I'm not seeing WWE wrestlers pop up on every single commercial and TV talk show, but somehow I'm supposed to believe it's a boom period and it's the Attitude Era all over again

I lived through the 80s. I lived through the Attitude Era. I know what it's like when pro wrestling is super mainstream and popular. When you pick up a magazine about stuff that is not even pro wrestling related and there's a picture of Hulk Hogan or Steve Austin on the cover because people are talking about them even outside of pro wrestling circles. It's hasn't been like that in at least two decades and I don't see anything right now indicating that this is changing.

Like these people would have you believe that Cody Rhodes is going to be on TV shaking hands with Joe Biden, introducing the next Olympics, and starring in the next blockbuster Hollywood movie. It's so fucking ridiculous

EDIT: Cody may literally be the biggest traitor in the history of pro wrestling. From the guy smashing a throne with a sledgehammer back when AEW was the hot new thing, to being the face of this supposed, new era of WWE as public opinion on AEW has turned sour. It blows my mind when guys like Edge and Darby are on live AEW television talking about Cody in a positive manner.

[Reprise]

Also, I'm not seeing people everywhere talking about WWE or wearing WWE T-shirts. I'm not seeing WWE wrestlers pop up on every single commercial and TV talk show, but somehow I'm supposed to believe it's a boom period and it's the Attitude Era all over again

I lived through the 80s. I lived through the Attitude Era. I know what it's like when pro wrestling is super mainstream and popular. When you pick up a magazine about stuff that is not even pro wrestling related and there's a picture of Hulk Hogan or Steve Austin on the cover because people are talking about them even outside of pro wrestling circles. It's hasn't been like that in at least two decades and I don't see anything right now indicating that this is changing.

Yeah, I agree with this. I had been thinking how weird it is that we're being gaslit into believing there is a big renaissance era and that wrestling (specifically WWE) is cool and big again, like it was in the attitude era.

I don't really see it either. It certainly seems cooler and bigger than it has been for a while, but I lived through the 90s and Attitude era (( am a bit young for the 80s) and wrestling was a massive cultural phenomenon. It was mainstream and everywhere. Kids, teenagers and adults of all ages loved it. You''d constantly see people wearing nWo shirts and then later on WWF shirts during the Attitude Era. Wrestling dominated conversations on the playground for nearly a decade when I was a kid. Now I have kids and none of my son or his friends seem to have any interest in wrestling. My son thinks it's lame as hell

Anyways, I just watched Dynamite and it was a really good episode for the most part. I like where they are going with a lot of these stories. It feels like AEW as at the "fuck it" part of their existence where they are going to throw everything they have and don't care what people say.

I was also wrong about Jack Perry. I spent years going back and forth between being apathetic and just straight up trashing the guy. He looks like and holds himself like a star now. It's like something has ignited inside himself. I also didn't mind the ending. It was almost in "so bad it's good" territory. Tony's acting is terrible and he's really cringy (why do people act like he's the first to be this bad though? Go back and watch any segment involving Stephanie from WWE 25 or so years ago), but the segment did its job. I care a lot more about the new Elite now and it's interesting that Omega will be on next week's episode. Things are going in a very interesting direction.

So yeah, I just watched a decent episode and then Tony Khan has to ruin it by saying something dumb again, which I immediately found out when I logged into Facebook after I was done watching the episode

[Reprise]

Just read this post on Facebook. It's an interesting timeline of events.

AEW Dynamite's main event angle was a masterful long-term storytelling, blending kayfabe and reality!

Courtesy of Air Gold:

"Outside of the first two years in AEW, where they had the first 4 Champions mapped out and told Hangman's Tale, this story with The New ELITE is the most thought out story in a long time! Let me explain:
- Nov 18 = Young Bucks lose at Full Gear to Golden Jets and leave pissed off at Kenny
- January 10 = Young Bucks returned to AEW and proceed to assume the status of serious EVPs
- January 14 = Jack Perry appears in NJPW, rips up his AEW contract, and assumes the moniker of 'Scapegoat'
- March 6 = EVPs suspend Hangman and fire Kenny Omega
- March 6 = Okada makes his AEW debut and joins The Elite
- the dirt sheets all report that Jack Perry has heat with Tony Khan, then Jack presented his own side of the story, so we're all led to believe that both TK and Jack are adversarial, that there are real, unresolved issues!
- April 6 = Jack pays tribute to the Young Bucks and Okada by doing all their moves in a match in Japan
- Young Bucks and Jack exchange pleasentries on Instagram, comment on each other's pictures, showing that the EVPs have a soft spot for Jack
- April 10 = Young Bucks air the All In footage
- April 12 = Jack wrestles in Chicago
- Kenny says on stream that his favourite storyline in AEW is the one of him getting fired
- Kenny also said on stream that he doesn't think he should be EVP because his method for resolving issues is fighting, and not everyone likes to do that
- April 21 = Jack returns at Dynasty and helps the Young Bucks win the Tag Team Championships, throws up the Elite sign
- April 24 = Jack returns to #AEWDyamite, gets reinstated, attacks Tony, and The Elite take TK out
- NFL write an article about the whole angle
- May 1 = Kenny Omega returns to AEW for the first time since December 13

So from November to now (even All In), you can connect every, single thing that's happened to this one storyline. AEW has done a masterful job of blending kayfabe and reality. Long term storytelling that has gotten mainstream attention, and set AEW up for a huge summer!"