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

[Ozy_Flame]

I definitely got NWO vibes too, especially since the rush of WWF guys at the time were brought in as "intruders".

I would have liked to see just pure wrestling, set the standard for what's to come for in-ring action, then keep simple introductions of characters and such as we go. That's not to say tournaments aren't appropriate (e.g. the Tag Title tournament), sometimes the structure and drama is implicit in the card itself.

If anyone caught the Cole/Riddle match, it was incredible. Easily the best match of the Wednesday Night war.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

I definitely got NWO vibes too, especially since the rush of WWF guys at the time were brought in as "intruders".

I would have liked to see just pure wrestling, set the standard for what's to come for in-ring action, then keep simple introductions of characters and such as we go. That's not to say tournaments aren't appropriate (e.g. the Tag Title tournament), sometimes the structure and drama is implicit in the card itself.

If anyone caught the Cole/Riddle match, it was incredible. Easily the best match of the Wednesday Night war.

That and I liked the booking of Lerae and Baszler

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I would have run the whole show straight, Show you're different then the WWE, put on 5 really good matches without interference or prolonged beat downs.

Only one match had interference. The brawl with Mox and Omega is feeding a feud they been building since Double or Nothing, so that's consistent. Jericho beating down Cody is consistent with how Jericho has been booked since he's been showing up in NJPW.

Suddenly due to booking, you ended up with a very NWO style WWE guys versus AEW royalty. Basically the WWE guys came in and beat the crap out of the Bucks and Cody and Kenny who are executives behind the scenes. I don't want a replay of the McMahons story styles. One thing that I've always said is that active wrestlers should never be given the book, it always turns out poorly.

I don't really see it that way at all. Guevara and LAX aren't WWE guys and they're selling Hager on his MMA background. I don't think you can count Mox in there because he was off-screen with Kenny and clearly isn't part of that stable.

I'm also wondering if they're implementing factions similarly to how they're done in NJPW, where pretty much the entire roster is part of one of the many factions. It sort of looks that way a bit with The Elite, SCU, and now whatever Jericho's crew is. Would make sense for Jericho to run a North American version of Suzuki-gun if that's the case.

I'm also not irritated at The Elite for booking themselves at the top of the card right now when they easily have the most name recognition outside of Jericho, and are also probably the most polished workers in the company. It's not really comparable to having Nash run roughshod over people or Hogan politicking his way to not look weak.

The company should be built around Omega for the next few years and Cody is super over with that fanbase right now, so it makes sense to book him how they've been doing so so far. If he cools off and is still near the top of the card a year from now, then I think there's reason to be concerned.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Only one match had interference. The brawl with Mox and Omega is feeding a feud they been building since Double or Nothing, so that's consistent. Jericho beating down Cody is consistent with how Jericho has been booked since he's been showing up in NJPW.



I don't really see it that way at all. Guevara and LAX aren't WWE guys and they're selling Hager on his MMA background. I don't think you can count Mox in there because he was off-screen with Kenny and clearly isn't part of that stable.

I'm also wondering if they're implementing factions similarly to how they're done in NJPW, where pretty much the entire roster is part of one of the many factions. It sort of looks that way a bit with The Elite, SCU, and now whatever Jericho's crew is. Would make sense for Jericho to run a North American version of Suzuki-gun if that's the case.

I'm also not irritated at The Elite for booking themselves at the top of the card right now when they easily have the most name recognition outside of Jericho, and are also probably the most polished workers in the company. It's not really comparable to having Nash run roughshod over people or Hogan politicking his way to not look weak.

The company should be built around Omega for the next few years and Cody is super over with that fanbase right now, so it makes sense to book him how they've been doing so so far. If he cools off and is still near the top of the card a year from now, then I think there's reason to be concerned.

Off on a tangent, did you ever read the book Death of WCW. The ultimate line is a picture of Nash dressed as the grand wizard with the caption "Nash booked WCW into oblivious, but everyone agreed that he was funny while doing it"

[CaptainCrunch]

Jeff Hardy arrested again for DUI.


He needs serious help.

[Ozy_Flame]

Lol at Marshmello being the 24/7 champion

[SuperMatt18]

Not a fan of how they booked that Kofi - Lesnar match.

Kofi had a great run and they just wasted it just like that

[d_phaneuf]

Originally Posted by rubecube

The big thing is that AEW crushed NXT in the ultra-coveted 18-49 demographic (878,000 to 414,000). That's huge and I don't think anyone would have predicted it in January when they first announced the company.

Yep, big debut for them

Think they were always going to crush week 1 though, dont think we will know much until 3-6 months

[d_phaneuf]

So I finished watching nxt right before smackdown, watched aew yesterday

I dont think there have been 3 shows on tv that good in a month long period in years, let alone 3 days. So for that alone AEW being alive and just the changes it's made WWE take are a win for all fans

I did think the two wwe shows were better this week

Smackdown was the most entertaining episode of raw or smackdown since? I cant even remember

But it also cant be duplicated weekly, the rock isnt gonna walk through that door again... unless he has another WM match with cena or roman, Cain Velasquez ain't debuting every week, tyson fury will probably be back as they are setting something up for him and Braun, but not until after his rematch with wilder so likely wrestlemania, they ain't running ladder matches like that...., and the roster wont be that loaded with the draft next week

Nxt and aew could do similar things week to week, but they clearly had the top level of the roster this week on the show, and both do rotate quite a bit, but I think that's a plus

I thought nxt had the better wrestling and balor potentially in nxt sets up an incredible title feud amongst him, cole, gargano, and ciampa, maybe riddle too

Aew was great for a first show, the best part for me was schiavone, JR I love but he doesnt have it, they need to have him more as the 3rd guy, let tony do the heavy lifting, I do agree with cc its matches were mostly overbooked, but it's a first show so that's to be somewhat expected but I hope they learn from it quickly. Cant wait for mox vs kenny and the tag team tournament.

I love that they are like rube said clearly into the stables thing njpw does , been begging wwe to do that forever, just look at how UE work so well in nxt, still dont know why they dont just put balor with whatever the club is called now

But in the end I think everyones a winner right now, usually the time between summerslam and the rumble kinda lulls, even survivor series the last few years has been kinda meh, besides a few years ago that raw vs smackdown mens matches single and tag team were incredible. But with the 'wednesday night war' I think AEW and NXT will only be improving constantly trying to outdo each other, and with smackdown moving to fox, they need to stay hot for a few months to build a base with those ratings

Also, and this deserves a thought on it's own not just lumped together with smackdown. Kevin Owen's may be the best ladder match guy of all time, every one hes in has been awesome.

[KelVarnsen]

Lawler is terrible

[KelVarnsen]

[CMPunk]

#### the WWE

[KelVarnsen]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1181030168640524288

[CaptainCrunch]

I rarely use this term with wrestling because I haven't seen it since the Finger poke of doom in WCW and the Goldberg loses his belt to a cattle prod, but that main event was actually brand damaging, in a incredible sense.


I'm not saying that WWE is going to fail and go bankrupt, but we might be able to point to this someday as the day that there was a mass exodus of fans from the WWE.



I mean this has gone from the Fiend being this intriguing character and wrestler that you can get excited about to tonight him becoming the modern day King Kong Bundy to Hulk Hogan, where you build up a monster for the face to over come.



I mean who cares that the fiend kicks out of multiple stomps and a pedigree at one, it just shows that the Fiend can take a beating. A DQ in a HIAC match is the worst kind of Dusty booking since Dusty took a spike in the eye to defy WCW executives.


Basically in the end, all this showed is that Rollins is a better wrestler and a more determined fighter, and the Fiend is Jason from Friday the 13th stumbling after faster teenage girls.



When you hear the fan reaction they boo'd this match out of the building, not because the Fiend is a great heel, but because they wanted something to be excited about and the WWE slowly raised a middle finger to them. I even heard what sounded like AEW chants.



I mean who cares now that Bray made Seth bleed after the match, all we'll remember is that Seth kicked the shyte out of the Fiend and now he's not scary anymore.


I don't know how they can recover it, its the same old Bray booking and no cool funhouse segment is going to repair the damage.


Stupid Stupid Stupid.


Oh and to add on, to bring back Sasha and Bayley and turn them heel only to have them both lose and have them both crying at the end of the match was incredibly damaging to the woman's division.



This wasn't a great card at all, there were some neat moments but not many. But the Sasha/Bayley booking, and the Fiend booking shows how out of touch the booking is here.

[rubecube]

I debated watching this instead of the football game and am glad I didn't. A DQ in a Hell in a Cell match? Please insult your audience's intelligence more, Vince.

[KelVarnsen]

https://twitter.com/user/status/1181032499503173632

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by rubecube

I debated watching this instead of the football game and am glad I didn't. A DQ in a Hell in a Cell match? Please insult your audience's intelligence more, Vince.

From a pure moment of watching something that was both historically bad and shyte on by the audience, I'm almost glad I watched this, you don't see this kind of audience reaction everyday.


I'm amazed that they didn't filter the sound in the fade to black where we got 10 seconds of black screen with audience booing and AE-dub chants. That alone amazed me.

[White Out 403]

Is there a way to catch up on aew? Like online or on demand? I want to support their product becuser #### WWE. Seriously.

[CaptainCrunch]

I'll watch AEW to see if they can be different then WWE and book better. I'll certainly watch NXT. But I think the main roster stuff, I'm going to continue my break on it.



Even the Fiend who was must see for me is dead to me now.


Maybe his next character can be an evil dentist.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I'm not saying that WWE is going to fail and go bankrupt, but we might be able to point to this someday as the day that there was a mass exodus of fans from the WWE.

Reading the reaction online this was my first thought too.

This week was an important week for the WWE to prove to fans that they could be better with the increased competition, plus the relaunch of Smackdown, and they failed.

They failed with how they booked the Lesnar vs Kofi match where fans were unhappy leaving that show.

And tonight they failed with how they booked the Fiend and Rollins match.

To have fans booing several minutes after the end of the show, and having fans that bought tickets to your PPV chanting AEW during the main event is not a good sign for the wwe. Really interested to see the ratings this week.