Matt_Black

Thunder Rosa has been out for over a year. They teased a return back in June. And THAT is the best they could come up with for her big return?!?

He is? Because to me, it seems like he's doing the EXACT same stuff that Vince did. "Tonight, on RAW, our main event, for the first time ever, it's Cody Rhodes versus Shinsuke Nakamura!" Me: I bet it ends in DQ. "Oh, no! The red mist, right in front of the referee...!" Me: Dammit, Hunter.

It also doesn't help that the title was hot potatoed with little seeming rhyme or reason. Toni dropped the belt to Shida, who dropped the belt to Saraya, probably for the feel good moment of THE HEEL celebrating with her family in her home country (because the people who had a friggin' movie made about them really DO need more pats on the back), who dropped it back to Shida instead of Storm (which, you know, would have made sense to pay off the Outcasts break-up storyline), and THEN Shida drops it back to Toni. It makes the TNT title business from 2022-2023 look steady and stable by comparison.

Toni Storm is quickly reaching Britt Baker levels of "ENOUGH already." I think there were more camera shots of her than the actual match transpiring. At least with Britt, there was a clear end goal to look forward to- Thunder Rosa. With Toni, it feels like AEW just said, "Eh, let's put the belt on her, we'll figure out something later."

Nah, I think Paul London had him pegged right. It's STILL about getting himself over above all else, he's just had to adjust on how he does it.

More like Triple H isn't an active performer anymore and can't derail their momentum.

Though not without it's flaws. While we criticize how they handle the women's division now (and there's a LOT to criticize), at least the division reliably gets one match per show. That's not something that can be said about AEW during the first year.

"A Tribute To The Troops is our most important show of the year!" "Is the Universal Champion here?" "... No." "The U.S. Champ?" "No." "The tag team champs?" "No." "..." "Dominik is here, though!"

The little kid from Pet Sematary was tiny too, and he was creepy AF.

I thought that might be you. Granted, sometimes different people use the same names...! 😉

I personally like Mutants & Masterminds 3e (and I've made a crap ton of characters the past few months). Certainly, I'd argue that it has the most support, both official, 3rd party, and fan material.

Yeah, AEW in general has gotten predictable with their booking, and it's become very apparent in the tournament. One of the things that really distinguished AEW from WWE in that first year is that there would be legitimate surprises. Like, when they announced Cody Rhodes vs. Darby Allin for their second show. "Let's see- the executive Vice President, or the indy guy I've never heard of? I wonder who's going to win that...?" And then, Darby wound up taking Cody to a draw, and fans were all "Whaaaaa...?" They still pull out some shocking upsets from time to time, like when FTR lost the tag team championships, but those moments are few and far between now.

Oh, for the love of Pete....! Heaven forbid we have a clean finish during a main event in Montreal!

I'm not as enamored of the "Timeless" gimmick as others, but that TCM intro for Toni Storm was brilliant.

I'd say they should just have Danhausen randomly show up thinking he's a part of the group, but they're already doing something like that in WWE with R-Truth and Judgment Day. They really should have someone turn the mind games around on them, in the way that Bugs Bunny will say, "Of course you know, this means war..." Like, the House Of Black is making their entrance, with the spooky music... Cue record scratch, and suddenly their regular entrance theme is replaced by the Benny Hill Theme.

Eh, I hope not. A) AEW has a horrendous track record with women's teams and stables, even by the low standards of how they've booked the division, and B) the House Of Black just isn't terribly interesting. They want to be heels and do all the cool heel stuff but without suffering any sort of meaningful comeuppance. It's like if the Blackpool Combat Club shopped at Hot Topic.

I noticed that for all of the talk about "standby matches" we STILL only got one women's match. On the other hand, we got Abadon! On TV! And it's not October! Even if the end does mean they plan to feed them to Julia Hart.

And they already have Juice Robinson!

Jay White is good at promos... for a guy who's primarily wrestled in a promotion not generally known for promos. MJF was much better, in my opinion.

Jack Perry as the Devil would be a mistake. He's just not interesting enough right now as a heel or a face. Jay White is pretty good on the mic, and he was regularly getting smoked by MJF. Having Jack Perry trying to exchange promos with MJF would be like putting the Carolina Panthers against the Philadelphia Eagles (GO EAGLES!).

Taker's best match as the American Badass, in my opinion, was the ladder match with Jeff Hardy, though that was more for the story, character work, and announcing than the actual match quality. "C'mon kid! Make yourself famous! Climb, you crazy bastard! CLIMB!!!"

Too be fair, that was during a year when AEW was constantly teasing face turns and then failing to deliver. See also- Scorpio Sky, Jamie Hayter, MJF...

Let's be honest- Will Ospreay is not as big a name as some fans like to think he is. He might be known to AEW fans, but a lot of the casual fans who watch WWE probably have less an idea of who he is.

It's really like something Vince would do. Like, when they announce a mystery partner, and then it turns out it's someone we see on the show every week, and they're not big enough a star to really justify the suspense. "Who will Becky Lynch tag with against Damage CTRL? Could it be- oh. It's Natalya. That's fine, I guess."

Remember, these are the same people who were all set to make Marty Scurll the face of the company, so there was vileness all over.