sek69

I pretty much agree with brother @C.S. on all but a few (minor) points: While it does certainly appear that the next time someone asks Cody to reveal the reason he left he can just sorta just gesticulate wildly in the direction of that whole mess, I don't really think that his departure was as bad of a blow as a lot of us feared it could be. Obviously is not great to hand your competition one of your top guys on a platter and let them do a victory lap on you, but Cody's situation was just as untenable on screen as it apparently was backstage. He very clearly had a path he wanted his character to go and he didn't give a shit if the fans wanted to go that way or not. Neither side being willing to give in led to all his segments living in their own reality, so it can be argued that it actually helped the show in the sense of they no longer had to deal with having to fit weird Codyverse segments into the show every week. Hell I'd even argue he probably wasn't the backstage spy WWE might have thought he could be either. By the time he left, Cody was so removed from what everyone else's ideas were the only thing WWE could have learned from him is what bank AEW uses for their payroll. I do, because it's 100% how Danielson wants it. He did the same thing in WWE too, he's made it abundantly clear that he feels at this point his best use is to get as many people over as he can. I seem to recall their being stores of when Bryan was wanting to put over guys like Gulak, even Vince at one point was like "Really?"

Ilja is great in ring but that won't cut it in big boy WWE if he doesn't find something to click personality-wise/

Man they REALLY need to not have Booker commentating on Quincy Elliott

Man they got a money feud whenever they want waiting for them, just have Miz point out to Cody he's made a career out of making his sidekicks look like stars.

It's probably fun to have a match like this with Roxanne, she's small and tossable enough for all kinds of cool ideas.

It was pretty damn good.

This DOES actually make sense because WWE has long established you need to put them in a coffin *and* close the lid in Coffin Matches, but the announcers aren't saying that and it's making everyone look dumb.

Huh, so the Druids weren't working for Taker all this time and were just the official WWE coffin handlers? Damn. This is shaking me like finding out Uncle Ivan was Canadian.

Mandy Rose fighting off Alba's minions and various Legally Distinct looking movie monsters, this is amazing.

This Toxic Attraction skit turned the corner from "stupid" to "stupid, but I fuckin love it" for me. Gigi as the one who knows she's probably getting murdered but is hype af because that's kind of her thing had me dead.

He's good at a lot of the Big Guy Stuff, but WWE can't seem to figure out how to push a guy who looks like El Hijo de Herman Munster.

I love that it's apparently canon in NXT that Gigi Dolan has to carry a black rose at all times she's not in a match.

He is by far. Wes Lee winning was the payoff for the redemption arc he was on after his fuckhead partner derailed his career.

Holy shit, RIP Robert Stone's balls after that

No way, he's obviously money waiting to happen and he doesn't have the handicap of it all hinging on the whims of a drug addled 76 year old man anymore.

I like to think that a little part of Scott Hall's legacy is a cure for people who are afraid to walk under ladders. He made it look so cool people still want to imitate it.

He has the big rasslin' show on XM radio I think.

Man, Damon Kemp is going to end up being the bizarro world version of Lanny Poffo isn't he? Everyone was like "I guess that was a requirement when they signed Gable" at first, and now there is a very real chance he's going to be the bigger star.

There are really only two options that make sense re: Punk's actions from the promo on Page and after: 1. He knew or at least believed the Elite was burying him so he just said "fuck this place" and went nuclear. or 2. He was just being the surly dickhead he has been known to be forever. Neither really makes him look super great. There's a reason the reaction Dave got from people in WWE was "now they know what we had to deal with", but I suppose that could have been anti Punk forces painting a narrative again.

I love that Tony Schiavone coming in to the ring unexpectedly is AEW's version of hitting the lotto. Watching it slowly dawn on her what was about to happen was great.

Rush must have brought one of those AAA tables that refuses to break, yeesh.

So I'm guessing Arya Divari's gimmick is "billionaire's kid everyone feels is unworthy"? It's like Tony based a whole character around what WWE stans say about him.

Tag match on Rampage was dumb fun. It played out exactly like you thought it would but it was entertaining the whole way. I love Jade stepping in to save the show because that's what boss bitches do.

Leaning in to Logan Paul's natural douchebag tendencies was such a no brainer move but I'm still kinda shocked WWE did it.

Also ngl I dug that Omos/Braun showdown, the match is going to be absolute dogshit for sure, but WWE is good at getting you hyped up to see stuff like that.