sek69

I suppose one thing I would have liked to see gone into is just how Arai ended up the new owner. Like everyone's reaction to finding out the news was "what, really? the announcer guy?" and he seemed in over his head from the start. Did Onita work him into thinking he could run the company or did Arai actually think he could move into the boss's chair and then quickly get slapped in the face by reality?

The fact that WWE still does 20 minute promos to this day (albeit usually with multiple people instead of one) shows how WWE brain works. Instead of seeing it as something that only worked because the Rock is the most charismatic person who ever stepped foot in a ring they see it as an integral part of a successful wrestling show that you have to master to become a top level star. Just like they learned the best way to create a babyface star is to beat them constantly instead of learning it only worked because Bryan Danielson is a wizard. I also agree 100% HHH has done so many of them as a way of proving he's better than Rock at them. No doubt he thinks he *is* better at them too. Dave mentioned the other day that Vince is hoping to land Rock for Survivor Series if the availability works out, and if that happens I would sell a kidney to be able to be able to witness the discussion he would have with post-NXT overhaul Hunter.

How common was that though? The most danger a fan would normally face in the 80s would be falling asleep during a long resthold sequence and spilling their beer. Also a point for the 80s was that wins and losses mattered so you'd see crowds go crazy for their favorites winning by DQ or countout because a win's a win.

I think the worst of the 80s was miles ahead of the worst of the 90s too. Most of the "bad" 80s matches were inoffensive short ones with roided up monsters. Most of the "bad" 90s matches tend to involve people who were either under-trained or otherwise had no business being in a match.

Don't forget the "make Roman look good" line from the famous Punk interview that pretty much conformed what everyone was suspecting re: forcing Roman down people's throats.

I mean, heel Vince was the best villain wrestling has ever seen. Both in terms of how he played his role and how he got others over. In the end he got nWo-itis and shit went on too long past the point it felt like they did everything they could do storyline wise, but at that time Rock was starting to do outside projects and Austin's neck was being held together with scotch tape so I get why they were afraid to close the book on Evil Vince.

I loved his response to being asked about what it's like to work with barbed wired (it sucks!), it was like maybe this guy isn't as crazy as we thought, then everything else was like "nah, he def is as crazy as we thought he he was".

Man, KO sure looks like a dude playing out the string until his contract ends doesn't he?

Piper's Mid Atlantic run was good, there's a couple of good TV matches from that run on the Network.

Why does this company have such a hard on for keeping the New Day apart? I mean I know why, but it's aggravating.

Probably, but it's a weird cultural thing in Japan where everyone acknowledges the Yakuza exists but it's a huge no-no to talk about them having their hands in "legit" business. They were all over pro wrestling and MMA in Japan in the 90s (you can see smartly dressed Yakuza folks in the front row at New Japan shows around that time often), and the embarrassment of being in debt to the mob was almost certainly the reason Arai took his life. So you most likely weren't going to get any of the Japanese folks to talk about it beyond what was already in the show. Plus there really wouldn't be that much to say. FMW could maybe have kept going without Onita, but losing Hayabusa was too much of a blow to overcome when the creative wasn't really any good (and they told Onita to GFTO already). Not to mention ECW showed us the other possible timeline for FMW, that kind of wrestling just has a short shelf life due to the toll it takes on the wrestlers as well as getting to the point where all the ultraviolence wasn't providing the shock factor needed to continue drawing.

LOL I can't unsee that now. Even his face guard deal looks like a clear plastic Aldo Montoya mask.

It seems pretty clear Cody is turning heel, too many seeds have been planted and AEW doesn't tease things they don't plan to deliver on. Cody going full HHH would be the perfect heel character too, I hope the next PPV he comes out in full Motorhead gear.

At this point it seems clear Tony K wasn't fucking around when he said he didn't want Rampage to be seen as a B show.

I read it as "TNT got hockey this season, so lets get a hockey person on our show"

The funny part about the reaction to Arn's promo is he's always been about that life. It's not the first time he's mentioned killing someone in a promo, folks aren't just accustomed to hearing stuff like that.

The FMW episode was fascinating. It's funny to see Onita talking about Terry Funk the way Moxley probably feels about Onita.

Pretty sure AJ earned himself a job for life with that one.

He was a breath of fresh air at first, but all his storylines eventually boiled down to being shoehorned into matches so he could fall off stuff. Which has always been the case, but it's like at some point they stopped even trying to come up for a reason other than "Shane needs a match for this show".

I love seeing the internet reaction to Arn dropping some OG shit on Cody. This MF brought a camera crew along to document him beating Dusty's ass in a parking lot, of course he's got no qualms with icing a car jacker, lol.

I'd say Adam Cole was their Lex Luger moment, since he went from main eventing the last show of the old NXT to appearing on AEW PPV a week later.

I mean, the famous HIAC match was basically him running in terror away from Taker, so kinda?

I've heard that as well but considering Greg looks pretty much exactly like his dad it's not like people couldn't connect the dots.

Yeah seems like they wanted to move her on from the Bray-inspired gimmick and this gave them an opportunity to basically write that character out. I wonder if she'll come back as something else wacky. As much as her coming back as her old self as if the whole thing never happened would be weak sauce, the last thing she needs to to be even more WACKY~!.

As much as a Sammy-Bobby match would bang, if it leads to that geek Kyle sullying AEW it's not worth it lol