More viewers tune in at the top of the hour because most other shows are finishing. It’s why wrestling, when I watched regularly anyway, always went big at that time.
Television Tho Prop Grops Throps
- Thread starter Big-Red
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
What are the odds, Paul Heyman Bait and switches on Day One PPV?
Just inject this shit into my veins, dammit.
Whether its the right thing to do is one thing, but I don't think AEW are aiming at the casual crowd at all when you look at their product. Not PG rated, long matches, long-term story lines and feuds, storylines spanning multiple shows, hardcore matches, crossing over with other promotions and having lesser-known indie wrestlers appear regularly. WWE has the casual crowd and trying to take them on in that would be suicide. AEW is trying to aim at the older audience, the ones who don't want PG wrestling and aren't as easily won over by cheap gimmicks and want to see actual good and fresh wrestling (not that WWE doesn't have any good wrestling, but lets be honest, Vince's type still covers the majority of the roster). Indie wrestling has been on the rise for a few years before AEW existed and I'm sure that's why it happened when it did.
The greatest man to ever exist
Interesting start to Dynamite. Some NeXT level plot?
Theres plenty of juice in a feud between the 2 teams, but I wonder if the idea is that the two factions join together now Omega is away and have the 4 men backup for Cole who is elevated in the singles
Who knew jackets were so difficult to take off? Makes you wonder how she got it on in the first place…
So, title rematch in 2 weeks with judges. Interesting. Sooner than I expected I thought they'd save it for the next PPV.
WWE released the greatest ass in wrestling, Toni Storm. Apparently she asked for her release and it was given. Odd given she was in the middle of a title feud.
But he’s been in AEW with his sons Colton and Austin for ages.
Took forever for her to get on the main roster and get that feud though. Maybe she was already unhappy.
Also watching her matches with Charlotte where she has to just slowly do the basics... Yeah not even half as good as the matches she used to have outside WWE. So maybe not happy with how she had to work as well.
This from not long ago
https://www.sescoops.com/2021/12/toni-storm-main-roster-call-up/
Big fan of AEW putting the lights back on too early, and showing Malakai casually sauntering back up the tunnel.
I actually thought that was on purpose at the time, didnt think it was very good though regardless. Think it was to annoy the fans and try to get a heel reaction, not sure how well it worked
To me, it looked unprofessional more than anything else. The rest of the crowd also seemed confused at what they saw.
Wasted her completely. She looked like a star, and was a good wrestler, was hot, could talk well too. Nxt did her no favours
Claiming she was burnt out.
Let's see what happens next.
I still think Alexia and Sasha will keep us going on the Ass front.
Eh, not for me. Decent wrestler and hot but bland as they come. Wrestling is littered with that type right now.
Current drama (AEW diversity/ Big Swole) is a tough one for me to call out what should have been done better in terms of people being pushed.
Also I never rated Swole so when I first read her comments it was through that lens. She's just the messenger though and not the message. So I thought more on it
I already felt that Scorpio Sky should have had more after his tag run. I think he's good. But in terms of a singles championship... I think it could have been done with the TBS title instead of Miro, but people were complaining about Miro's booking before then... And I think Miro deserved his run due to the hard work he's done on his body and look and AEW not having many big physical threats like him with the exposure/star power he has. So then its like... Should that be ignored and you go with Scorpio because he could be in that mix and he's black, so even if you decide he doesnt deserve it as much, the being black part is more important so you make him champ? Maybe. I dont know the answer. And ill talk about the tag champs later but Scorpio was part of the tag team that won the first tag titles, although it was a 3 man team. Back to the singles titles for now though
What I can say is I dont think Cody needed to win the title right now. So maybe it should have been Sammy and Scorpio now with Scorpio eventually winning the title.
Other than that, I didnt rate Swole but she was getting pushed way back when before she took a break in terms of being on tv. I felt at the time she was being pushed because she was black. Whereas with Red Velvet and Jade I think if you took skin colour out of it the merits of what they are/were doing and have to offer have made sense for their pushes. Jade stands out no matter what and Red Velvet shows loads of heart, is athletic and flies around the ring. I just dont get anything out of Swole
Private Party... Could they have been champs? I wouldnt have done it but I suppose with the right story. Young Bucks and Lucha Brothers are better obviously and most people would choose them. But for the sake of pushing black champions, yeah I guess it could have been a thing.
And then obviously the new guys come in and what do you do, not feature Bryan Danielson, Punk and Malakai Black? Of course they're going to be featured and of course theres a limited amount of time on Dynamite. Why werent there big name Black wrestlers to sign also? Thats the question.
As soon as his ROH contract was up they signed Jay Lethal, they had already signed Lio Rush but he quit/retired after the birth of his child and had to keep at him to get him to come back. Lethal has only just signed, Rush has been there a few months since returning. I dont think its reasonable to think either of them could have been a singles champion in their short time in the promotion or that they were featured as regularly as Punk and Bryan Danielson.
We can absolutely say that WWE has been pushing black champs a lot in recent years. But those guys are under contract. So AEW would need to make their own black stars, and there are some black wrestlers on the way up like Powerhouse Hobbs who had a match with Punk and maybe you could do even more with him but where does merit come into it?
So again for me its a tough one and obviously I have no idea whats going on behind the scenes. I think AEW could have had a black TNT champ and/or a black tag team champs, with Kong having to give it up when her body wasnt feeling good (and Brandi Rhodes coming in to do her matches filling in for her with that whole Nightmare thing) I dont see what they could have done for the womens championship.
And then theres the fact that other diverse groups were represented and if there was a push for black champions then maybe its at the expense of mexican tag team champs, or asian female champs. So is that good?
I feel like AEW has mostly been merit based when it comes to who it features and who have been the champions. In hindsight I would probably have had Scorpio Sky be one of the people who had the TNT title, or have it now and thats about the only correction I would make.
There are a few other things I would change in AEW.
Like I would personally like to see what I would call "stronger lineups" on Rampage and sometimes even on Dynamite. Of course thats subjective and what I'm saying is I'd like more of the people I care about having matches with each other. And someone else might be getting exactly that from it because they're into people I'm not. So thats a more personal thing.
I would go a bit different with Cody. I liked Black and Andrade together for those few weeks, I would have stuck with that and added some members to make it a faction. Thats about it for now
Edit - Theres also other things, like AEW having a trans womens champion and openly gay wrestlers on the roster. I may be forgetting something but do WWE have any gay males on the roster? I know they had bi and gay females, although Sonya doesnt wrestle anymore and Tegan Nox was let go. And WWE had Daren Young, again let go. New Japan doesnt have any diversity so its hard to even make comparisons with them and then you're left with much smaller promotions so thats why its a comparison with WWE.
Also I never rated Swole so when I first read her comments it was through that lens. She's just the messenger though and not the message. So I thought more on it
I already felt that Scorpio Sky should have had more after his tag run. I think he's good. But in terms of a singles championship... I think it could have been done with the TBS title instead of Miro, but people were complaining about Miro's booking before then... And I think Miro deserved his run due to the hard work he's done on his body and look and AEW not having many big physical threats like him with the exposure/star power he has. So then its like... Should that be ignored and you go with Scorpio because he could be in that mix and he's black, so even if you decide he doesnt deserve it as much, the being black part is more important so you make him champ? Maybe. I dont know the answer. And ill talk about the tag champs later but Scorpio was part of the tag team that won the first tag titles, although it was a 3 man team. Back to the singles titles for now though
What I can say is I dont think Cody needed to win the title right now. So maybe it should have been Sammy and Scorpio now with Scorpio eventually winning the title.
Other than that, I didnt rate Swole but she was getting pushed way back when before she took a break in terms of being on tv. I felt at the time she was being pushed because she was black. Whereas with Red Velvet and Jade I think if you took skin colour out of it the merits of what they are/were doing and have to offer have made sense for their pushes. Jade stands out no matter what and Red Velvet shows loads of heart, is athletic and flies around the ring. I just dont get anything out of Swole
Private Party... Could they have been champs? I wouldnt have done it but I suppose with the right story. Young Bucks and Lucha Brothers are better obviously and most people would choose them. But for the sake of pushing black champions, yeah I guess it could have been a thing.
And then obviously the new guys come in and what do you do, not feature Bryan Danielson, Punk and Malakai Black? Of course they're going to be featured and of course theres a limited amount of time on Dynamite. Why werent there big name Black wrestlers to sign also? Thats the question.
As soon as his ROH contract was up they signed Jay Lethal, they had already signed Lio Rush but he quit/retired after the birth of his child and had to keep at him to get him to come back. Lethal has only just signed, Rush has been there a few months since returning. I dont think its reasonable to think either of them could have been a singles champion in their short time in the promotion or that they were featured as regularly as Punk and Bryan Danielson.
We can absolutely say that WWE has been pushing black champs a lot in recent years. But those guys are under contract. So AEW would need to make their own black stars, and there are some black wrestlers on the way up like Powerhouse Hobbs who had a match with Punk and maybe you could do even more with him but where does merit come into it?
So again for me its a tough one and obviously I have no idea whats going on behind the scenes. I think AEW could have had a black TNT champ and/or a black tag team champs, with Kong having to give it up when her body wasnt feeling good (and Brandi Rhodes coming in to do her matches filling in for her with that whole Nightmare thing) I dont see what they could have done for the womens championship.
And then theres the fact that other diverse groups were represented and if there was a push for black champions then maybe its at the expense of mexican tag team champs, or asian female champs. So is that good?
I feel like AEW has mostly been merit based when it comes to who it features and who have been the champions. In hindsight I would probably have had Scorpio Sky be one of the people who had the TNT title, or have it now and thats about the only correction I would make.
There are a few other things I would change in AEW.
Like I would personally like to see what I would call "stronger lineups" on Rampage and sometimes even on Dynamite. Of course thats subjective and what I'm saying is I'd like more of the people I care about having matches with each other. And someone else might be getting exactly that from it because they're into people I'm not. So thats a more personal thing.
I would go a bit different with Cody. I liked Black and Andrade together for those few weeks, I would have stuck with that and added some members to make it a faction. Thats about it for now
Edit - Theres also other things, like AEW having a trans womens champion and openly gay wrestlers on the roster. I may be forgetting something but do WWE have any gay males on the roster? I know they had bi and gay females, although Sonya doesnt wrestle anymore and Tegan Nox was let go. And WWE had Daren Young, again let go. New Japan doesnt have any diversity so its hard to even make comparisons with them and then you're left with much smaller promotions so thats why its a comparison with WWE.
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On a positive note though that was an incredible streetfight from the women on Rampage. Those girls are so tough. Must watch
Khan behaving like a man child again.
If you can name all the POC wrestlers who won a match in one tweet, it’s basically saying I have a black friend.
What goes against any sort of defence is the sheer size of his roster. Of course he has x and y wrestler, he has literally everybody because of his love of a big debut. It’s what he does with them. Oh look Britt v Rosa was a great match, let’s build around the relatable woman despite her habit of gassing 5 minutes in and throw the other side of the equation to the scrap heap.
What goes against any sort of defence is the sheer size of his roster. Of course he has x and y wrestler, he has literally everybody because of his love of a big debut. It’s what he does with them. Oh look Britt v Rosa was a great match, let’s build around the relatable woman despite her habit of gassing 5 minutes in and throw the other side of the equation to the scrap heap.
Tony "I have black friends" Khan.
This month, not ever
So Adam Page should have won the title a year ago?
Its called long term storytelling. Rosa is at this point the obvious serious contender for Britt. They're building it back up for a big rematch. It doesnt mean half as much if you dont build it up with a journey to get back there
How many matches did the company have this month?
And the criticism isn’t even about hating minorities, this is literally it. This is what Tony is overreacting to
What happens is, you have this wonderful company that treats people like family, but there is nobody that looks like me that is represented at the top and in the room with them. They are not helping to necessarily influence decisions, but to explain why certain slang and certain word shouldn’t be said. There is no one else who can explain our culture and experience except for us.
Both were stars after that match, there wasn’t any reason to completely disregard her. And hasn’t she appeared on Dynamite like 3 times since she the lights out match? Comparing that to Adam Page is absurd. I’ll bet you could time all of her matches since then and wouldnt last as long as the iron man match.
There always seems to be a reason to drop women wrestling or de-push stars. Always an excuse. I just read a stat that all but one women a match had a minority but you gotta job to the white woman who will have tv time and angles over champions even if she loses.
it’s such a bad look.Britt has had one good match and that was against Rosa yet here we are. How they treated Shida as champion is still one of the biggest black marks on Tony
Tony Khan is a man who felt the need to defend himself from dog wanking allegations on Twitter.
That's how stupidly thin-skinned he is.
That's how stupidly thin-skinned he is.
Swole herself always bored me. 
But aew kinda dropped the ball on Scorpio sky. Wasn't he the first to pin Jericho in aew?
The women's division has certainly not been used properly. Its been inconsistent where we see the poorer but better looking ones getting lots of minutes but the ones that can go like Rosa and shida not getting the minutes as much (im sure Cody entrances lasted longer than shida matches as champ)
Think aew dropped the ball on Private party after they beat the bucks. They've been boring since joining hardy
But aew kinda dropped the ball on Scorpio sky. Wasn't he the first to pin Jericho in aew? The women's division has certainly not been used properly. Its been inconsistent where we see the poorer but better looking ones getting lots of minutes but the ones that can go like Rosa and shida not getting the minutes as much (im sure Cody entrances lasted longer than shida matches as champ)
Think aew dropped the ball on Private party after they beat the bucks. They've been boring since joining hardy
Rosa has had plenty of meaningful matches and has always been presented as a star of the match, although its in the ring where shes able to do it best and as a face where you can be seen to earn your shots
Brit is a heel. You arent supposed to think that she warrants her spot, that she earned it or that you are happy with her being champion.
But at the same time if you cant see why she is picked to be the heel at the top over the other heels, then you really are missing something. She's an incredible personality and promo and got over huge, maybe even too much for a heel but thankfully there are people like yourself who still hate her as well as the others who want to watch her and chant her stuff every week. She has improved in the ring but clearly there are better, shes there to add personality and character to a division that doesn't have a great deal without her. She always gets a reaction. She normally has a high rating. She had maybe the biggest pop of the year when she had a show in her hometown. Brit is a star
Thats not to say that Rosa wont also be a star come the end of the story though. But thats going to be on the back of her journey to the top, which needs peaks and valleys rather than going straight to the end.
Essentially, you are supposed to feel exactly the way you do feel. You cant wait for the day Rosa gets another round with Brit. And that is the culmination of their story
If I was going to predict what happens with Brit and the title I'd say Rosa has the long journey and is eventually crowned like Adam Page. There are 2 other options right now, Tay Conti had the most wins in the company this year and has been strongly pushed in terms of her record. However it seems likely she stays more in tags with Ana Jay as well as being put in title shots as a contender rather than winning it. And then there are former champions, Shida and Riho. At any time you can give them a run and put them in the title picture for a shot.
Again I have the idea that they'll go with the longterm booking idea of waiting for Rosa's moment and after she has overcome enough challenges, she will take the title off Brit. Lets see if that happens
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Roman out of Day 1 after testing positive for Covid. Brock added to the WWE Title match to make it a 5 man match
WWE Day 1 PPV being rewritten every hour.
Now there's a 5 man WWE Title match as The Head of The Table is out with Covid.
Now there's a 5 man WWE Title match as The Head of The Table is out with Covid.
Interesting choice, bet Brock woke up thinking he was going to lose to Reigns ends up walking out WWE champion, Hopefully we get Lashley V Lesnar at the Rumble.
Lashley wins the rumble, challenges Lesnar.
So much for that whole Big E push. Didnt think they'd stick with him but wasnt expecting it to be this soon
I thought he was a pretty pants champion personally. Not believable as “the best” and very CBBC
Well now Wrestlemania could look like this.
Lashley v Brock
Roman v Rock.
I don't think Vince has the ability to keep Roman top for another year before Hollywood Mania, maybe Rock this year?
It’s how pushes go now innit, you get a title reign from MITB to around the Rumble.
According to leak and deleted tweet, Big E was meant to win the fatal 4 way match.
Shows how quickly they changed everything once Brock was added.
Vince's booking from Day 1
Shows how quickly they changed everything once Brock was added.
Vince's booking from Day 1
Of course you did.
Yeah that’s what I just said