sek69

Wanted to include ThreadKiller's post from the AJPW Pillars thread here since it is very well thought out:

Yeah it's funny how they often fudge the time between entrances for the Rumble based on angles, but Shayna was left out there for two long "is someone ribbing her?" periods of time back to back.

Ironically Street Profits/Viking Raiders/KO vs Seth and the Messiah Minions would have made a good feud to build a War Games to if they did such things organically. rather than shoehorning it in to a gimmick PPV.

Edge out here stealing Jake Hager's finish and whatnot.

Asuka is the greatest

A little, but this gives them the chance to put their own label on it, all be it one designed to tweak WWE'S nose.

I thought for sure Nattie broke her jaw eating Sarah Logan's knee on that dive.

It's a thing that's happening. The Viking Raiders vs Ryder/Hawkins was added as a pre show match that should allay fears that D-Bry would end up there.

If they get a deal like UFC got with ESPN, who's to say it wouldn't be the same or worse though? Guaranteed money each month would certainly cause WWE to have even less motivation to spice up the booking. Plus it's been proven time and time again that the whole "PPV is a dying business" concept people were pushing so hard was clearly false. Boxing and UFC prove you can still get millions of buys if you put together a compelling show people want to watch. On a smaller scale, AEW able to break 100,000 was an unheard of number for a non WWE wrestling show until it happened. WWE saw falling PPV numbers and just decided "welp, no one buys PPV anymore, time to come up with a new business model" instead of considering the more likely answer of "we produce too many PPV shows a year and on average we're lucky if more than 3 or 4 are worth a shit".

UFC moving to ESPN+ and being able to have people pay for PPV in addition to paying for the streaming service made Vince realize he left money on the table.

I doubt it, maybe open the main show at worst. Unless there's some mega angle planned they absolutely need time for I don't see Bryan on the preshow.

Also I love that Otis is literally a giant ball of charisma. He's amazing.

To be fair, Gulak presented the only way WWE would know how to present him on the main roster would be assured death. Hopefully Bryan can extend his cloak of protection long enough to show management there's ways to feature someone like that.

Lacey Evans going from "40s Pinup Girl" to "Sexy Circus Ringmaster" is certainly an interesting change in looks.

I mean, most of the last few years of New Japan were Okada doing just that, but YMMV I suppose. Okada vs Basically Anyone Not Tanahashi resulted in better matches than the opponent normally would have with anyone else. That was pretty much the theme of last year's G1, "Can Okada get the best match possible out of this guy?" IIRC.

Yeah at this point it seems Bryan might be the best IRL promo ever, since he's able to talk Vince into letting him do whatever he wants to.

I think it's partly due to Misawa being an intensely private guy and Okada living in the world of 24/7 social media. I love Okada and think that if you put a gun to my head I would have to say he's probably the better wrestler, but the Four Pillars era was my intro to Japanese wrestling. To this day I still get goosebumps hearing the crowd chanting MI-SA-WA while Spartan X plays, something that doesn't really happen with anything else of that era or since. But I have to be honest, I think Okada is the better of the two bell to bell. Obviously Misawa was involved in some of the greatest matches of all time, but Okada has that innate ability to have the best match most of his opponents have ever had.

I just love that Bryan is seemingly hell bent on getting Vince to care about folks he clearly would have no interest in.

I would agree with this, but the one notable exception would be Baba famously making the call to have Misawa go over Jumbo based on how the crowd was reacting at the show as opposed to Gedo dragging Naito's big moment (at least) one year too far before pulling the trigger.

It is. I get the feeling the plan was to move the Big 4 shows off the network and get people to pay more though. I could see people shelling $60 or more for Mania, this show not so much.

Yeah I just assumed as a shitlord who (presumably) hangs out with other shitlords it was just a case of shitlord demographics overlapping.

I'm always reminded of the time they did a skit backstage in WWE years ago, someone (I forget who) was looking for the Undertaker and was asking Kane if he could get in touch with him. Kane said no, since Taker's not exactly the type of guy who uses a cell phone. Everything I've ever read or heard about Mark Calloway IRL makes me believe that's true in reality as well.

It doesn't help that they gave Isaiah Scott's intro video a font that looks like the 90s jizzed all over the place.

The wrestling wasn't much to be sure, but the way they were planting the seeds for future programs was pretty solid. I know we're all trained to not expect wrestling companies to follow up on....well.....anything, but you can already see how the next few months will be shaping up.

Man this whole show was so Mid South I'd swear Bill Watts was booking, right down to Jake Roberts showing up and JR talking about someone's football background.