Mootinie
-
Posts
2,304 -
Joined
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Blogs
Events
Articles
Downloads
Gallery
Store
Posts posted by Mootinie
-
-
I'm only halfway through the show and will finish it tonight, here's what I think thus far:
- MJF vs. Tanahashi - simply not a World Title calibre match, Tana wrestled in slow motion and though MJF tried, he had to wrestle at half his capacity just so Tana could keep up. Believe it or not, Tanahashi was one of the best wrestlers in the world a decade ago. You wouldn't have known it watching this match. **1/4
- Punk vs. Kojima - this was great! Kojima looked really good here. You wouldn't watch this match and think it was Kojima who passed the torch to Tanahashi in 2009 (?) and that it was Tanahashi wrestling classics in the mid-2010's whilst Kojima defended the NWA title against goobers and tagged with Tenzan, Nakanishi & Nagata as part of the New Japan Dads. Maybe the opener would have been better if the dudes just played their hits like Punk and Kojima did here. Can we just take a second to appreciate how good Kojima looks for a 52-year-old? Insane. A great showing for the legend and a deserved bow at the end. ****
- International Four Way - the best thing here was the recognising of the roles that each dude would play. Cassidy was the underdog defender, Garcia was the entertainer interloper, Shibata was Shibata and Sabre Jr. was always holier than thou. They played it off brilliantly and this was a really fun sprint with plenty left in the tank for individual matches between these four. ****1/4
- SANADA vs. Jack Perry - a technically astute match and all but this was too short, lacked any sort of drama and was hardly a match befitting of NJPW's grandest prize. Either they needed to have a dramatic back and forth or they needed to make this an extended SANADA exhibition. They did neither. The heel turn is an indictment of AEW's booking problems. They have stop-started a few times with Jack Perry and here we are. You can't keep hitting the brakes and expecting the fans to keep following. How many turns for the sake of turns do we need to see? **3/4
- Elite & Friends vs. BCC & Affiliates - it was great to see Ishii getting the pin and I thought Takeshita looked awesome here. I don't have much else to say, this was exactly what everybody expected it would be. ****1/2
-
3
-
-
On 6/23/2023 at 12:09 PM, Matt_Black said:
Was Battlebowl the one where they did actual random drawings instead of kayfabe random drawings, or am I thinking of something else?
Yes I think you're thinking of Lethal Lottery. The Battlebowl was the battle royal they held after the tag matches to decide the overall winner.
I could be wrong but I think the first Lethal Lottery at Starrcade '91 was random drawings. That would at least account for how awful the show was. I think they rigged it for Starrcade '92 and Battlebowl '93.
-
6 hours ago, ColdBloodedSausageMaker said:
You'd think Tony would be smart enough not to schedule the big British PPV on the same weekend the biggest British promotion has their Wrestlemania.
Especially when that meant moving AEW All In away from Labor Day Weekend, when many American fans would have an easier time watching it.
Could Tony not hold the show on Labor Day in the UK for some reason?
AEW announced All In for Wembley before RevPro announced their Anniversary Show for the Copper Box Arena. PROGRESS and DEFY have announced shows in London for the same weekend now too. It's basically a WrestleMania Weekend deal where they're hoping fans going All In will attend other shows in the city on the Saturday.
Labor Day weekend will probably be when AEW holds All Out. I'm presuming that show is still happening, somebody in AEW legal said it was but who knows. The kids go back to school the first week of September so maybe Tony didn't think it was a good idea to ask parents to come to London for a wrestling show when most will probably be sorting their kids to go back to school on Tuesday. Plus teachers will be working the Monday. In terms of maximising attendance, holding it the weekend before is probably a smart move. And the weekend before that is probably off limits because The Weeknd has a gig at the stadium on 18th August. The weekend before is the rugby. The weekend before that is the community shield. I think the weekend he has booked for All In is the only one he could book in August.
-
2
-
-
3 hours ago, aXminster said:
I don't know anything about their relationship or history, but business wise this would be extremely dumb. If you can get your brand on one of the biggest wrestling shows of all time, you do it.
They probably will have some exposure on the show, I'm sure they are open to that. They essentially took over ROH and then started their own US operation off the back of their success with the supercards. But I think anybody considered a drawing card for the RevPro show will probably be withheld. RevPro helped make Jay White into Switchblade, they took in Yota Tsuji and he came back to headline Dominion. I think it will cross their minds that RevPro is a valuable partner to them and there's little rhyme or reason in undermining the gate they could draw for their Anniversary show. If Andy Quildan is booking Sabre Jr., he will surely be annoyed if the dude is booked the following day on All In. He wants people coming into London to see these guys and he will want them on one show - his.
Whether TK makes an offer is a different kettle of fish. I do wonder how open he is to having NJPW on the show. It has surely crossed his mind that this should be an advert for the company more than anything else and nothing should be given the opportunity to overshadow that. We'll see, but really, what's the point in doing Omega vs. Ospreay III when you've already sold like 55,000 tickets? They may as well save that for when they came back to the UK and need a drawing card.
-
1
-
-
10 hours ago, ColdBloodedSausageMaker said:
I also think Tony will want to book Will Ospreay on the AEW All In show in Wembley. He's the biggest English name they can loan out for that show, and it makes sense that Ospreay -- win or lose -- would be against Omega. In that case, you'd expect the Forbidden Door match to set up the All In match.
I would be stunned if New Japan allow AEW to do Omega vs. Ospreay twice. I'm sure the deal was probably for two matches - Omega goes over in Japan, Ospreay goes over in North America.
RevPro is running their biggest show ever during the All In weekend, it's their Anniversary show at the Copper Box Arena. Will Ospreay is wrestling Shingo Takagi and the Undisputed British Heavyweight title is held by Great-O-Khan. Considering RevPro have done tremendously well by New Japan in terms of both importing their talent for supercards and taking in wrestlers on excursion, I think NJPW will help their British friends in drawing a packed house and will withhold their talent from working the Wembley show.
-
14 hours ago, Dalton said:
Why would Jay do that? No one was listening to Punk so he could hype the main event. It was already booked and didn't need any extra fluff. Case in point, the crowd was molten for both the promo and the match so what they did worked as intended, obviously.
The promo was straightforward and blunt. He told everyone that he is the most important person in AEW and the rest of the roster needs to come to terms with that, including the current champion.
Because it makes sense for a plucky heel to try and steal his thunder? It's an angle? It's creating and advancing a story? It's actually doing something on the show?
Punk came out and said he had been absent because of his injury and then proceeded to talk about owing apologies and the fan favourites being soft. Am I the only one that thought the whole deal made no sense? I don't really follow the sheets, nor I do really trust them, but AEW's failure to acknowledge Brawl Out is so frustrating to me. I hate the wink wink nudge nudge crap they continually pull, it's intelligence insulting. They should really hire a press agency and start actually talking about what's going on internally. When do they ever tell you when a wrestler is injured?
If you didn't have Wrestling Twitter, a sub to Fightful Select or a membership for the Observer, how were you supposed to know what Punk was going on about?
I find it all really dumb. I do. Maybe I'm alone in this, whatever. WWE are doing a lot of stuff that is working, how much of it is worky shooty insider rubbish? Basically none of it. Smart company.
-
1
-
-
That Punk promo was a brilliant advocate for this company hiring writers. I genuinely had no clue what he was on about for most of it. Vince Russo wrestlecrap nonsense. Why didn’t they just have Jay White interrupt him straight away?
-
6 hours ago, MightyDavidson said:
*head desks* Just when it looked like Impact was beginning to do well. I remember Delirous' run in ROH and it was horrible. Scott D'Amore on the other hand has proven to be a good booker in the past, so why in the pink and purple polka dotted heck wouldn't you give HIM the book?
D'Amore basically runs TNA now and has done since Callis stepped away.
-
The Jericho match was absolutely awful in my opinion. It was low energy unconvincing tripe with a weak finish. I don't think they were even trying out there. As a performer, Jericho is simply pathetic. Nothing he does look good. The fans were laughing at this match. The less I say about Cole's "punches" at the end the better. Garbage. A total DUD.
Wardlow was brilliant, that was a main event performance in my opinion. Dude went out there and wrestled like he had a point to prove. Great stuff from the big man.
I have an issue with Hayter dropping the belt if she's hurt but if you're gonna do that just have her get pinned. They had to do loads of crap outside the ring with run ins and weapons first. There's so many gimmicks. Her shoulder is hurt, that should be the story. But we get Britt Baker running in again, we get Shida with the stick, we get Ruby and Saraya interfering, we get an exposed turnbuckle, we get a false finish, all on top of an injury angle in a match that was THREE MINUTES LONG. Why on earth did they turn Ruby Soho heel if her role is now to play cheerleader? I thought they were turning her so she could fight Jamie for the belt without their being an odd face vs face dynamic but instead, she's now doing basically nothing. What was the point in turning her then? She could be fighting Storm for the belt now. Terrible booking all round there. And why promote a match if you can't do one? If Jamie is hurt then vacate the belt. We didn't get a proper match and on a PPV that's unforgivable. I'm reliably informed this is a STACKED roster, that's what you guys keep saying. What's the excuse here? Running a three minute crapshoot on a show your fans are paying for just to get the belt off Hayter is not good business. I love Jamie, she's my girl, we're the same age, I've followed her career for a while and I think she's fantastic, one of my favourite wrestlers period. But if she went through with this nonsense because Britt has been running her mouth about Thunder Rosa not wrestling hurt then hopefully she has a word with herself. They easily could have vacated and ran Shida vs. Storm and given us an actual match.
Four Pillars match was excellent. Wrestled like they were the best damn four guys on the roster, gave it socks and took it home. I watched guys on this card who turned up like they were wrestling a house show on Monday and then I saw MJF, Jack, Sammy and Darby giving it 110% to entertain this crowd and all of us at home. Breathless for 27-odd minutes. A five star classic. MJF is seriously one of the best wrestlers I have ever seen, he's so good at absolutely everything.
The Blackpool Combat Club are so much better now Regal has hit the bricks.
All in all, pretty good show. 7/10. But time to scale back the overbooking.
-
3
-
-
The fact that people call them "AEW fans" and "WWE fans" is exactly part of the problem. The tribalism is absolutely pathetic.
-
6
-
-
On 5/2/2023 at 9:38 PM, DrawingDimes said:
Most AEW fans are the type of obsessed cultists with nothing else going on in their lives that were refreshing Ticketmaster within 5 minutes of the pre-sale. I honestly think the bulk of the tickets they will sell have already been sold. I'm so confident about this that I will delete my account if they sell over 60,000
WrestleTix is suggesting the number of tickets sold may well be over 60,000 now...
-
I just think it's a mistake running a Four Way rather than MJF vs. Darby in a singles match. Whatever people's opinions are on Jack Perry and Sammy Guevara, it's clear to me that Darby has trended upwards in a way that those guys have not. The best segment of this whole storyline was Sting and Darby verbally sparring with MJF so I am a wee bit disappointed that TK saw that and thought the Four Pillars Match was still the right direction.
Then again, Tony is very much a wrestling booker who does what he writes in his legal pad. There's a domino effect when plans change and he obviously doesn't like flying on the seat of his pants when it comes to putting shows together. I have no doubt the match will be a banger and the TV build will matter nought, that's how these things work. Nobody talks about WrestleMania X-Seven and mentions that they built Rock vs. Austin with a squabble over who Debra was managing. But, yeah... personal bias and all, World title matches to me should always be singles matches to me and I wanted Darby to get the call.
-
4
-
-
WB were not interested in ROH because shows that get cancelled generally aren't very appealing to a TV exec of any stripe. It's why many cancelled shows just wind up on Netflix and, yeah, sometimes they get a shot in the arm and become something awesome. Cobra Kai is great, well done to YouTube for dropping it. But there's also a reason that Netflix is the only destination willing to take them on. ROH was a media property being dumped by Sinclair. Nobody was going to touch it just because of the optics involved. It's a tainted brand, it's somebody else's garbage. It's a different man's seconds and it always will be, you just don't shake that.
IMPACT have their spot on AXS TV only because Anthem own the network and the promotion. If it wasn't for that particular intervention, you would be witnessing the same deal with them. Spike cancelled them, nobody will go near them now. They'd probably be streaming on Twitch or on FITE or on IWTV if it wasn't for Anthem purchasing AXS. Execs don't want cancelled shows and second-hand properties. Hannibal was bloody brilliant but we only got 3 seasons and it was cancelled after its second season when the finale was a legit 10/10 blockbuster of an episode. The ratings were crap, it's a cancelled show, it doesn't even matter that it's flipping awesome because nobody wanted to touch it.
But here's the deal with CM Punk: he has a contract. He was always coming back. Capitalists are not going to pay you to not work. Not unless we're in the midst of a pandemic but I digress. I would guess that the Khans spoke to Punk about a buyout, the dollar figure was too high to be justified and it probably came with all sorts of conditions like withholding a no compete. Essentially, it was pay me my whole contract so I can leave and go elsewhere and get paid or let me come back and work for you and do business. I'm not sure Tony had much option. Imagine what other dudes would pull this crap and try and get a buyout if they wanted out. Andrade? Miro? It's a bad precedent. Punk has to come back and they have to make it work. If they think Collision is the avenue then that's that, we'll see how it goes I guess...
-
1
-
-
Does TK do everything? It's pretty well known that Tony Schiavone and Chris Jericho are go-to dudes backstage. QT Marshall has been writing TV all along. Pat Buck and Sonjay Dutt were promoted in creative roles and they put out a press release, Jarrett has a role, they have coaches like Big Show, Mark Henry and Billy Gunn, they have Omega & The Bucks as EVP's. I seriously doubt all those dudes are just bumming around and doing nothing. I wouldn't be surprised at all if TV is now a case of Tony simply signing off on whatever they have put together.
There is a rumour that The Young Bucks have been writing TV for a while now. I'm not sure where it originates from, but the Pillars storyline doesn't seem like the sort of thing Tony would put together. It's been more sports entertainment and less wrestling supercard since Revolution.
-
1
-
-
I really have no idea how they're going to do 4 hours of A-show television every week when they have struggled mightily to produce 3 hours. Rampage has been borderline useless for the majority of the time it has been on the air and I would never have advocated for it to go 2 hours in its recent presentation.
I wonder if Collision is going to viewed in a similar light to Thunder in terms of stretching the deck too thin simply to meet the wants of a demanding provider. Time Warner saw WCW as this short term thing they needed to milk dry for all it was worth and I really hope WBD don't view AEW similarly. The mere idea of 5 hours of television, plus Dark, plus ROH TV... it's insane. This roster is not that deep.
-
1
-
-
I'm still having a hard time working out what that blank check deal was all about.
-
AEW need to get a move on in christening Darby Allin as the #1 Contender for the title belt so I can start getting excited for Double or Nothing. You just know that dude is gonna market the life out of his first ever PPV main event. Fully deserved too. Got his head down, did the work, never complained and worked the programmes. Ethan Page? It was great. Brody King? It was great. Cinematic stuff? Awesome. Everything with Sting has been gold. He was Samoa Joe’s best opponent in years. Yes, absolutely the top contender. Get that marquee up already Tony!
-
2
-
-
2 hours ago, Dalton said:
It was a good, fun match. Failing to see the issue and why it would upset a fan like you or me? Since we don't work there and the mythical casual fan being irrelevant to our enjoyment?
I'll never get enough entertainment out of people more interested in "how does this bring in new fans?" rather than "is this entertaining to me?"
I think some people find the business end of wrestling to be interesting and I don't think it's fair to delegitimise their attitude or their approach towards wrestling. This is a community, there are always going to be different lines of discussion and since it's an internet forum engagement is a choice. If you don't want to talk about "bringing in new fans", you can always ignore that dialogue and just make your points about wrestling as an entertainment medium instead.
-
3
-
-
Thanks to the NBA lead in, one of AEW's most watched segments in the history of the promotion is now Aussie Open defending the IWGP Tag Team titles against Best Friends. This promotion, man. They ain't even your belts and two of the four people involved in the match aren't even signed...
-
1
-
-
One of the primary differences is that WWF was running the UK regularly through to 1992 as part of their ordinary touring routine. Bulldog went over but many of those fans had been seeing WWF shows in England before that big PPV so it made sense to run with that sort of vehicle on top. They needed something to push it versus a normal WWF card of the time. It's the same for WWE with Clash at the Castle. You're already running that market so you need a little extra push to sell the PPV over the house show loops and TV you do when you come over.
For AEW, this is the first time hitting the market. The priority should be getting the talents on the card that the UK fans will want to see live and in person. Omega, The Bucks, Sting, MJF, Darby, Jungle Boy, Hayter, PAC... I can think of a few others too but that's the main thing. You don't need a big broadway or a massive story to sell this, it's done 50,000 presale tix already, just do a normal show. That is what fans want to see, not some British fairytale to make absolutely sure we're all aware that AEW is in England.
-
2
-
-
English fans don't want English wrestlers booked on top just because the show is in England. If Will Ospreay was a big star here, RevPro would have booked him in larger venues than York Hall. Same for Sabre Jr., he's been booked by RevPro forever and it ain't like they book Wembley Arena and sell it out. Nobody here will even know who David Finlay is and it's not what English fans want to see, we're not a patriotic bunch that will be swinging Union Jacks above our heads and singing God Save The King.
No, AEW should be putting the "hometown hero" deal aside and keep their focus firmly on promoting the sort of show that brought them to the dance in the first place. The Young Bucks need to be in a wicked tag team match. Jamie Hayter needs somebody to have a banger against. Get Sting out there, get MJF out there. PAC should wrestle. Omega should probably wrestle a singles match, he probably does lose the IWGP United States title back to Ospreay here. I'm assuming CM Punk will face MJF between this show or All Out, maybe save that one for the States and just do a live promo in the UK. It would be cool if The Hardy Boyz could wrestle. Christian needs to be on the show.
But they should absolutely not do a SummerSlam 1992 and have a wrestler win that they have no plans for. AEW is the brand that has sold 50,000 seats, just run a normal show, it's what all of us want to see over here.
-
2
-
-
Cody Rhodes is an AEW guy with his AEW theme and his AEW gimmick. Vince has a proven track record of refusing to run with talents that aren't his own creations.
He put the WWF title in the midcard when he put it on Flair, he never ran with Luger when the cupboards were bare. He never gave Vader a run when his business was lower than ever. He held back Booker T, he horribly exposed Goldberg, he brought in Sting just to job him out and it took him 4 years to see dollar signs in Rob Van Dam.
If you aren't a WWE creation, you immediately have a ceiling imposed on you. The only wrestler who bucks this trend is probably AJ Styles and even then, he had to go through with a "soccer mum" haircut and lose to James Ellsworth whilst he was WWE Champion before dropping the belt and being shunted back to the midcard.
I'm not saying the WrestleMania creative was good, but... folks we have been here before. For like 30 years we have been here before. People never see it coming but it's a Vinceism, he doesn't run with guys he didn't make.
-
2
-
-
What was next for Cody if he won the belt? I don't think him defending against Solo or Jey or Jimmy is really the ticket. Seth Rollins has been done and he probably shouldn't be losing again to Cody again. Lashley, maybe? I reckon they might do Roman vs. Lashley as a make good for Bobby since he was left off WrestleMania and really did deserve a spot on that show.
I think they're looking at Money In The Bank in July. It's in London, Gunther will probably challenge there, it makes sense given that he came into WWE through NXT UK and really made his name over here. They probably think Reigns surpassing 1,000 days and defending against Gunther is better creative than doing Cody vs. Gunther.
They'll probably then do Reigns vs. Orton at Summerslam since they originally wanted to that last year until Randy got injured.
The thing is too, business is great for them right now. There's not much argument for a significant shift in promotion. They're still pretty hot, it's still a strong ticket, I don't see a reason for drastically changing it.
-
2
-
-
Charlotte is superb is on, she's just isn't on a lot of the time. That match with Ripley ruled.
The main event was pretty great too and they finished the story in absolutely the right way. Kevin Owens being a two-time WrestleMania main eventer is lovely.
I still can't past the ads and the overall rampant commercialism of their product though. Having an ad after a video package for the main event and stuff like that just took me out the moment. I hope this is a phase but I doubt it is.
The All Elite Wrestling Discussion Thread
in The Dog Pound
Posted
Okay, second half done!
- Toni vs. Willow - seemed to end just as it was starting to shift gears and become pretty good. I'm not a big fan of them running what is essentially an AEW match on this PPV. I get why they did this but was Iwatani busy? Was Kairi? It was a TV match. I keep getting told Willow is really good but I just don't see it, she seems like a lovely woman and she has a charisma and charm that nobody else in the division has. But I'm still waiting for the truly great showing that makes me understand the calls for her to be rocket strapped. **1/2
- Omega vs. Ospreay - what was the deal with Callis getting ejected from ringside and then just coming back with no consequence? What's the point in ejecting him then? You know, I know fans are gonna wax lyrical about this match. It was dramatic, it was fun, but matches where one dude needs the howitzer to beat the other just aren't good pro wrestling to me. I didn't dig this one on the level that I know a lot of fans are going to and that is okay. I thought it was indulgent and I'm not sure it was the good kind. ***1/2
- Darby, Sting, Naito vs. Jericho, Guevara & Suzuki - this match was terribly put together. Darby should have been in the ring for most of it, tag in Naito to do his spots, tag in Sting to play the hits and then go home. What we got was a mess that seemed to fall apart as soon as Jericho and Sting started teeing off on one another. Nobody knew where they were supposed to be, did it get cut for time? Did Naito even want to be there? I have lots of questions. *3/4
- Danielson vs. Okada - it was every Okada match I have ever seen. As methodical as ever, there were glimpses of a great match in here but I don't think this one ever got to the level it wanted to. Injury probably denied us a hot stretch and I'm sure they will run it back at Wrestle Kingdom. But this was far from a classic and with the benefit of hindsight, it probably shouldn't have gone on last. ***1/2