Official WWE/ECW/WCW/TNA talk, or whatever v2

[CaptainCrunch]

I remember him in the third season of Tough Enough, he was just head and shoulders better then anyone else there. Sadly the only other competitor that season was Matt Cappotelli who died last year after a decade long battle with cancer.

[KelVarnsen]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1150140854360838144

[CaptainCrunch]

I have this fear that Jeff Hardy is going to become another Wrestling Statistic


https://lordsofpain.net/jeff-hardy-a...wwe-statement/

WWE Superstar Jeff Hardy was arrested in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for being intoxicated in public this weekend, according to TMZ.
Hardy was arrested and booked early Saturday morning for public intoxication and impairment. There’s no word yet on what led to the arrest, but Myrtle Beach is a notorious arrest trap for people visiting from out of town and partying too much.

[dammage79]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I have this fear that Jeff Hardy is going to become another Wrestling Statistic


https://lordsofpain.net/jeff-hardy-a...wwe-statement/

I know he has a DUI and alchohol abuse history, but this ones reaching I think. FLA laws are weak AF and the article itself points out how its a police trap.

[CaptainCrunch]

Its not about being arrested for me, the guy has a long history of drinking and drug abuse. He was suppossed to be clean and sober, but apparently not


The other thing is that if Jeff is dinged under the wellness policy it will be his third strike, which is termination territory.

[CaptainCrunch]

A pretty fair review of the latest AEW card by Mr Tito over at Lord's of Pain. Tito has been around forever and is probably one of the better columnists in terms of wrestling columns. He goes way back to the Monday Night Wars. He's also become pretty critical of the current WWE product to the point where he describes it as torture to write about it.


https://lordsofpain.net/mr-titos-pha...fallen-review/


Like I said there are some good points and bad points to AEW which is to be expected. But its hard when you have a audience that as he's said is screaming take our money.


Just some high low lights of his column

Which brings us to AEW… AEW’s biggest flaw is trying to mix guys who could be serious top draws in the business (Cody, Omega, Jericho, MJP, Page, Moxley) with bunch of guys who did goofy or violent stuff on the indy scene. AEW, however, treats them as equals! Just look at Cody Rhodes vs. Darby Allin. Cody is an accomplished wrestler with an impressive resume worldwide yet he tried to make a 5’8″ Allin appear to be on the same level as him. No, he’s not. Allin couldn’t start up his own promotion and convince 10,000 fans to fill it. MJF is one of your top talents and easily the best talker in the promotion. Yet, for the last 2 events, he has to sell for “UK’s Death Match King” named Jimmy Havoc. Jon Moxley is the biggest Free Agent STEAL since Kurt Angle bolted on WWE to join TNA wrestling during 2006. Yet, he’s wrestled a hardcore match against Joey Janela.

^^^ Right THERE is your problem. You aren’t treating your best wrestlers as stars and you’re treating guys who should be midcard acts as top guys. AEW is like the socialist model for pro wrestling where they try to make everybody appear equal… WWE has tried this model for years and it has killed them, as their NXT call-ups are pushed like instant World Title contenders.
And I don’t know WHAT AEW is doing with their Women’s Division. Super heavyweight wrestlers are easily harmed by women half their size and AEW appears to have their own version of Stephanie McMahon.

et, this is your 3rd show as an upstart wrestling promotion. I completely understand that a new promotion has trials and errors… But the Creative and the Talent decisions has me questioning the decision by Tony Khan to let wrestlers become EVPs as well. However, AEW has 1 massive show in Chicago to set things straight… Otherwise, their debut on TNT could be underwhelming.

Between Sonny Kiss and the impressive efforts of the Women’s Tag match, we finally had an AEW “Buy-In” show that wasn’t insulting. The Battle Royal for the #1 contendership from Double or Nothing and the Hardcore match from Fyter Fest were the worst ways to sell your products to fans. However, Sonny Kiss and the combined efforts of Bea Priestley, Shoko Nakajima, Dr. Britt Baker, and Riho made for a highly entertaining pre-game show. Bea Priestley looks like a legitimate fighter and athlete. I could believe in her defeating Rose or Kong in a match… Nakajima is tiny but damn, she has a ton of athleticism and unique moves to offer. Britt Baker and Riho were solid, as always, and were good selling against Nakajima/Priestley. I can imagine that both are very sore today. Some timing issues here and there, a few blown spots… But for the first time of these team pairings and working together, I was entertained.

TAG MATCH WAS GOOD FOR FIRST ROUND BYE
Honestly, no issues with the Dark Order vs. Angelico/Jack Evans vs. Luchasaurus/Jungle Boy. It was fast moving with all of the wrestlers having high energy on display throughout the match. I really like Luchasaurus… He has a crazy unique look, great size, and moves like a Cruiserweight yet can mix power moves in as well. I’m not fully sold on the Dark Order yet, as they had 4 great bumping opponents tonight… But we’ll see. The thing I do like about AEW is that they give their Tag Wrestlers freedom to do whatever in the ring and it allows for the wrestlers to push their own creativity. So far, I’ve enjoyed the other Tag Teams more than what Alex Marvez called the “greatest tag team in the world” in the Young Bucks.

LUCHA BROTHERS vs. SO CAL UNCENSORED WAS GREAT
I really enjoyed Lucha Brothers vs. So Cal Uncensored. In my opinion, this showcased the Lucha Brothers the best out of the 3 nights with AEW. SCU members sold their stuff more convincingly than the wrestlers in the previous events. Probably the “Match of the Night” for me…

I’M JUST NOT SOLD ON KENNY OMEGA AS ONE OF THE “BESTS IN THE WORLD”
Some of the New Japan matches deserve the praise, yes… But Okada and Jericho work well with everybody they encounter. I’ve had multiple chances now to see Kenny Omega work for the past 2 years… He’s a great athlete and can pull off some interesting stuff in the ring… But the lack of psychology and selling just bothers me with his matches. When a wrestler hits a big move or works on a limb or other body parts, you gotta sell it. Omega wrestles as if he doesn’t feel pain, as he quickly recovers from everything that should devastate any performer in combat sports. New Japan seemed to know how to better market Kenny Omega as a star than Omega knows how to market himself. The match against Cima was fine but it didn’t jump off the page for me. Maybe his matches with Okada have pumped up our expectations too much as if everything he tries could be a “6 star match”? I’m just not seeing that greatness yet in AEW…

YOUNG BUCKS vs. RHODES BROTHERS WAS GOOD… BUT NOT GREAT
We’ve had 3 matches with the Young Bucks now and I’ve seen them for years on Ring of Honor. I’m just not that impressed with them. Both are undersized and instead of pushing the traditional tag team psychology, the Bucks are spot machines and then reduce the seriousness of a tag match by pushing comedy. Cody and Dustin are an actual proven tag team and have many years of experience in that ring. As seen in the WWE, you could put them with any tag team and it produce a consistently good match. Put them with a great team, and you have serious “Match of the Year” contenders. The Young Bucks are EVPs of this company and push themselves as if they should be the absolute top acts of the company… But what they don’t realize is that they were part of Ring of Honor and New Japan’s several attempts to grow their business in the United States that didn’t go over well. They aren’t the draws that they personally believe that they are and are pushing themselves as. Cody Rhodes took the pin in this match. Yikes… He should be your top star of this promotion yet he’s looking weak against wrestlers under 6 feet tall for the last 2 events.
And there was a better need for a “Sense of Urgency” for this match. Young Bucks are the strongest pushed tag team in AEW yet Cody/Dustin were an accomplished tag team in the WWE. This should have really been for a First Round Bye in the tag division, if not for the AEW Tag Titles themselves. Instead, it was just a match put together for this one show.

I don't disagree with Tito on any of his review. AEW has a lot of work to do. They have a strong upper card, but the mid card talent is a bit of a mess.


I also stated at the start, that I've always had a serious problem with promo's that have wrestlers in key booking and wrestling positions. It just turns to consistently bad booking decisions. We saw it here in Stampede with Bruce Hart running the book and becoming the main face of the company. We really saw it in WCW when Nash and Hall and Hogan were on the booking committees. Even in the modern day indies where you have the owner of a fed as a 10 year champion. Having wrestlers in EVP positions or recruiting positions is bad if you want to be taken seriously as a Fed. We saw it in WWE as well, with the HHH shovel of death.


If AEW wants to take the next step they need to bring in a proper booking committee of out of ring members who can protect the wrestlers from themselves.



I do want to add on that yeah, I was never a fan of the Young Bucks, I thought they were ok, but they were just like the early day Hardy's in that they just threw as many spots into a match as possible and had no idea how to tell a story. I also thought that giving Brandi Rhodes the position in ring that they did was silly because it truthfully was too much Stephanie.


AEW has a great upper card. They need to take better advantage of that. But they can't do the everyone is equal thing.


Like I said and even Tito said, these are problems that are fixable and probably easily, but its up to Kahn to decide if he wants to be a wacky indy with a TV deal or something serious.

[Deegee]

I find Sonny Kiss to be horribly unbelievable in the ring and terrible. I get the gimmick they are going for, but it doesn't come across as real at all with his moves being more for show and on the furthest possible end of the spectrum from stiff as possible. Maybe that's the point, but it doesn't work for me.

The ladies tag match was decent, and I think showed that Bea Priestley has some promise. Unfortunately, it was filled with some botches including a hot tag to the wrong partner by the dentist lady. I thought it looked really poor for an organization that wants to be seen as on par with WWE.

Mr Tito is correct about how they are currently mixing the talent.

They should be using the following for their top tier talent for the top belt and fueds:

Cody
Jericho (tremendous at delivering promos)
Kenny
MJF
Mox

I'd have the belt on MJF or Jericho and have the faces chase it. I don't know know if CIMA is there part time or full time, but you could likely add him to the above mix if he had someone to cut promos for him (I'm assuming he can't cut any).

MJF is actually already one of my favorites from either promotion, and my poor wife who is usually editing photos while I watch wrestling actually recognizes him from the first show and says he is awesome at working the crowd. His twitter feed is classic, too.

Not a fan of Page at all, but the AEW work is all I have seen him in so far.

Highlight of the night and what should have been the final match of the night was easily Kenny and CIMA for me, which I felt was match of the night, even if it started slow. I have enjoyed his matches so far, so I do disagree a little with Tito's assessment of Kenny. Honestly could have done without the main event of Brotherhood and Young Bucks. I was exhausted at this point and really didn't care about the match. I don't think this was the type of match that worked for the Young Bucks, either. Felt the show was a bit too long. I'm not sure why the need is there to have PPVs be so long. That's one of what's wrong with the WWE right now, and it was an issue with last night's show.

I don't like their announcing team either. Don't know who is calling the action, is it JR or Excalibur? Needs to be one or the other and I'd like to see a heel added to the mix.

I do think it's harder to build emotion and get viewers invested when you don't have a regular show on the air to build a story line. I'm not going to be tuning into YouTube for that, sorry. It will be interesting to see how they do with a regular show. I hope they can get it together and push the WWE product to be better.

[CaptainCrunch]

I'm surprised Extreme Rules has been a fun little ppv so far, there are some booking issues, but the actual match execution has been really good.

[Deegee]

I came in At the Bliss/Cross and Bayley match. Heard Undertaker had a great match.

This Brain and Lashley match was great for TV.

[CaptainCrunch]

Yeah the Cesaro vs Black match was really good, but I swear that Black pretty much knocked Cesaro into next week with a major potato.


The tag match between the Rivival and the USO's was excellent as well.


I did like the woman's match, Alexa Bliss is just so much fun. But man has she thinned out, I know she's been really sick according to the wrestling boards, but she looked tiny.



That Strowman Lashley match was going to be my smoke break match, but it was actually pretty great.


This has just been a good PPV but I just have a bad feeling about some of the upper card matches. To me the mixed tag match could be a train wreck. I'm so over Becky now that they've done this stupid Rollin's Becky dating stuff that they've literally killed the whole man concept. I like Lacey but she's just so green in the ring.



I guess the kick off show matches were both really good as well.

[CaptainCrunch]

Soooo, if Brock cashes in on Rollins during the mixed tag team match and wins the title from Rollins, does that mean that his wife Sable becomes the Woman's champion.


Because I would so book that.

[Deegee]

I do not like the slapping of one's legs for kicks. There is no need for a slapping sound effect on a kick.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I did like the woman's match, Alexa Bliss is just so much fun. But man has she thinned out, I know she's been really sick according to the wrestling boards, but she looked tiny.

Yeah on her instagram she posted that the lasted two weeks have been the sickest she's ever been in her life - so likely that.

[Inferno]

Ugh, I was really hoping I wouldn't see Seth or Roman face Brock at SummerSlam. Do something different like the women's match.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Inferno

Ugh, I was really hoping I wouldn't see Seth or Roman face Brock at SummerSlam. Do something different like the women's match.

I don't know, I get there's some real panic in WWE over attendance and dropping ratings, so they're trying to hot shot the main events. But to be honest



Rollins - He's a great worker, he's a meh promo man. The whole Becky and Seth thing has really made me turn him out. I was hoping that Heyman would come in and find a way to split them off.


Becky - I've really lost interest in her, the relationship story line is just a character killer to me. I love Natty, I think she's one of the best pure workers in the company. I actually liked her promo against Becky and has shown that the WWE is trying to go to more emotional real feeling promos. But we know Natty ain't going to beat Becky.


Reigns - They just can't quite get him over, they've tried piggy backing him on other stars but the problem is that they had this great ready made story line of him coming back from cancer, and they could have had him struggle to regain his edge. Instead they took the super cena treatment to 10 and I tuned him out.


Its funny, because I've recently said it that the top of the WWE card is the weakest that its been in a long time, but their mid card is strong.


BTW I loved the Ziggler Miz interchange tonight, it was brilliant and really well done.


I loved the debut of Bray tonight, I thought I'd hate it, but I completely loved it.

[Inferno]

Becky/Natalya isn't a match that gets me excited but I'm just glad it's someone new. It gets tiring seeing the same feuds over and over. My niece used to follow more than me and now she's lost complete interest because it's so repetitive. Alexa hasn't wrestled alot the last year because of her health problems but I'd rather see her in a non-title feud. It's bad enough we'll most likely see Charlotte in another title match against Bayley.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Inferno

Becky/Natalya isn't a match that gets me excited but I'm just glad it's someone new. It gets tiring seeing the same feuds over and over. My niece used to follow more than me and now she's lost complete interest because it's so repetitive. Alexa hasn't wrestled alot the last year because of her health problems but I'd rather see her in a non-title feud. It's bad enough we'll most likely see Charlotte in another title match against Bayley.

Maybe its me but there just seems to be a limiter on what Alexa can do in the ring. I know there are concerns after multiple concussions with her and they're protecting her. But looking at video's of her at the performance center she's pretty athletic, and she clearly is a very good story teller. Even in tonights fatal four way she does the little things so well.



I do agree though, the woman's division has really lost its shine. Ronda leaving and Sasha going on hiatus ripped a big hole in the woman's talent pool. They broke up the riot squad and Ruby who's very good went off for double shoulder surgery, but Sarah Logan who's talented has fallen off of the card and Liv who I really like is no where to be found. Mandy's push vanished and Sonya Deville who's really talented is a valet.


At one point the woman were carrying the men, now the woman's division is a mess.

[FireFly]

You know it's bad when they're bringing in Stone Cold on next week's RAW.

[CaptainCrunch]

Its to me a sign of a bit of executive panic. Its a hot shot card, bring in a bunch of old timers and their older demographic will tune in.


I did notice that it terms of things like Language, man on woman violence and even camera work, WWE is kind of upper the edginess factor.



But while there were some fun things on raw that followed up on a solid ppv, the show seemed to be kind of disjointed.

[CMPunk]

Originally Posted by FireFly

You know it's bad when they're bringing in Stone Cold on next week's RAW.

USA network wanted the Raw reunion show, probably to spike ratings, as well as to help promote Stone Colds new show after Raw