Coffey

This has been a good show. Hot crowd. Production feels better. New set looks great. Commentary isn't as hectic w/ the 2-person booth. They're doing a good job of both building the PPV on Sunday & introducing everyone to a potential new audience. That first hour was really strong.

This opening segment is cash.

AEW also had a crowd full of wrestling fans that wanted to see wrestling. A lot of WWE crowds are families that show up because wrestling came to town & fuck it, there's nothing else to do. Like going to the circus or the fair. That's a big distinction. Especially when it comes to crowd noise & participation. It's why Toronto is always such a great wrestling crowd & Chicago.

Riho looks like she weighs about 85lbs. Nothing she does looks believable. Less impact than an Alexa Bliss or Candice LeRae. Hell, a Kelly Kelly.

Definitely way too many ad breaks during the show. If the pacing feels like this because you opened for 20 minutes without a commercial, don't do that again.

Io's ass is out of this world. She came out looking like a star too. Then Mia Yim came out and it felt really deflated. Cole/Riddle I wasn't paying a lot of attention to because Cody/Sammy pulled me in. Finn going back to NXT I guess is good if they're going to try to make NXT a big deal. Cause he's not done anything on the main roster really.

Can they get Filthy Tom Lawlor instead?

So apparently NXT tonight is commercial free for the first 30 minutes & they're opening with Riddle/Cole. WWE really trying to go all out.

Yeah, that's a good name drop.

I think you just accurately put into words how I feel about Kenny Omega as well. This is him to a T. Much like Seth, he comes off cornball instead of serious.

We also know that there's a really big Latin community that watch wrestling which WWE doesn't exactly tap into. It's an area that AEW could prosper from. Much like I think they're going to try to do with tag team wrestling, another thing that WWE does poorly.

There's actually a lot of Lucha Underground talent that I would like to see. And AEW seems to have a pretty good working relationship with AAA. I would love to see Drago come in & be their version of The Great Muta. I think Texano has a ton of talent. I even still think Mil Muertes/Ricky Banderas at 44 with a broken body can still bring something to the table. He was GREAT in Lucha Underground, especially in gimmick matches.

My top 3 gets that I would like to see show up in AEW (since I think Punk/AJ Lee are off the table): 1. Salina de la Renta 2. Dario Cuerto 3. Jacob Fatu

I didn't. I figured if they were going to be the "mystery" partners they wouldn't have spoiled the reveal at All Out & showed that LAX were in AEW already. As is stands, the reveal at All Out now feels like it happened for no reason & the reveal of the "mystery" partners feels like a let down - because the surprise was already blown. Granted I think the match will be good & I think it was a good idea to announce it on the Countdown show the day before instead of on the Dynamite debut which would have really let the air out of the room. I can't remember what podcast I was listening to but some of the other rumored names I've heard recently that aren't currently signed with WWE that might still get a reaction: Jack Swagger, Wade Barrett & Carlito. I fear those names might make AEW look like WWE-lite ala TNA though which is not a stigma AEW wants to get labeled with. Not that they would come in to tag with Jericho - just a different talking point.

This is valid.

Yeah, I have two monitors so I'll just have both shows on (until I leave for work). I haven't really figured out what I'm going to do audio wise yet.

C.M. Punk returning to the world of professional wrestling & choosing WWE over AEW is the most depressing timeline.

My illusions of grandeur want AEW to beat RAW in the ratings. Not NXT on Wednesday, but the numbers WWE get on Mondays. It felt disrespectful to me that WWE thought so lowly of AEW that they wanted to position them against basically their C-show. I really hope that AEW catches on.

Aren't her knees completely shot now too? She was wearing those big Steve Austin knee braces even like all the way back in 2005 or something.

Same with Jazz & even to a lesser degree, Victoria. They just weren't big-titted blondes, which Vince has always pushed the shit out of.

Seth was fine as Intercontinental Champion. They should have just left him there. I don't know why they moved him back up to the World Title anyway. I also think The Fiend doesn't need a title. Just like The Undertaker never really needed a championship. Just have him show up & wreck people as a special attraction. Like André the Giant. There's people on the roster that don't have the overexposed stink on them yet, like Aleister Black or Andrade that WWE could be doing a lot more with. I've liked that they have been trying to do more with guys like Chad Gable or even Buddy Murphy for awhile too. Rowan has also been doing pretty good stuff lately. So they've having some success lately with newer names but this Kofi & Seth as World Champs era has to end. Would love to see WWE at least make an attempt with EC3. Slap him with Liv Morgan or something, because she's also been off TV a lot lately & isn't a solid promo but EC3 is a great talker. Then you can have EC3/Liv feud with Mike/Maria & then Andrade/Zelina. Just a way to get them on TV & give them something to do to see if the act can catch on or whatever. As a whole WWE should have a lot more managers & valets imo. Lio Rush is a good chickenshit manager. Enzo also would have been great because who didn't want to see him get punched in the mouth?

Maybe. People have been overrating Trish Stratus for years & she was never above passable. And several of the women today are leaps & bounds better than she ever was.

Friendly reminder that someone on this very forum, when Sasha was still in NXT, legitimately tried to say she was one of the five best wrestlers IN THE WORLD (including men). Hyperbole is a staple in the toolbox of wrestling fans online.

Shane Douglas never felt like a big deal to me when watching ECW, despite him being World Champion often. Francine was more special, imo. At least when I was 17. And Bigelow, Taz & Sabu all felt like a bigger deal than Douglas. The Franchise always came off as a poser to me. Maybe that was the point? But when he was dumping on guys like Flair it always felt to me like he was just trying to get the association pop. Kind of feels the same in the modern day with Omega.

I think we're ahead of the curve, like with most things. Like for example on SquaredCircle on Reddit, they LOVE Mauro & will downvote people to hell & back if they say something bad about him. Of course, they also think Kurt Angle & Shawn Michaels are two of the best all-time, that Seth Rollins is great & that Roman Reigns sucks. They also seem to heavily favor WWE as a whole. SquaredCircle ain't real good...