Jmare007

Surely not "i'm not so sure where their (AEW) investments are...as far as their talent is concerned...but perhaps we can give them some more". Khan basically saved it by steping in and giving a perfect corporate answer.

Rocky still giving Bret Hart props to this day.

Nick Khan really gonna end up phasing out Vince. Old man sounds lost as fuck

HA, totally got the wrong link. I wanted to post this

EDIT: LMAO my bad

Yup.

I love Hideki, when he is on he makes every move matter and forces his opponent to struggle for control that is so heavily missed in today's wrestling. He can have a goofy side too (him teaming up with Abby Jr and trying to be "more hardcore" will forever blow my mind ) but of course, his strengths are being an stoic wrestling machine that will turn you into a pretzel just like Billy Robinson taught him how to do. My biggest problem with Hideki's case is how inconsistent he is and how reliant on good chemistry and big moments he is. You are not gonna find a lot of even "good" matches from him when he's not in a big match or against something he deems worthy of wrestling and that's a huge flaw in my book. I mean, he was supposed to make Daichi Hashimoto look great and crown him as the next big champ for Big Japan and Suzuki made him look like shit every cotdamn he was in the ring with him 1 on 1 (on tags it's was vastly different). Granted, Daichi is an average/above average wrestler and one could argue he shouldn't be anyone's main champion but shit, everyone else on BJW has at least one good match against him and Hideki refused to do it every single time. There's also tag matches when he's a complete ghost and others when he makes the match feel legitimately special, he has a very weird on/off swtich. But again, when it's on...boy he really is one of the best out there and a special talent. Shoutout to his series of matches with Sekimoto and his interactions with Nomura, fucking gold every damn time. I hope he gets a couple of chances to shine in NXT. He's a bottom 20 candidate for me but we'll see how I feel about it in 5 more years.

saadasdasd Like others have said, nowadays it's practically impossible for 1 wrestler to be a draw in WWE as full time roster member. Therefore, the threshold a top guy needs to be a considered great are much simpler because it's basically about performance. Given that Roman is a better in ring worker than Cena and that this current heel run has showed us he was as much charisma and can cut great promos, then I can see why you would put Roman ahead of John. Now, in my book, a "top guy" is someone the company heavily depends on so being good at that role goes much further than just in ring performance. And Cena was way more important to WWE than Roman has been. This is not Reigns faulr, as others have pointed out too, but Cena's star power puts him ahead of Roman in my book if we are talking about who is the better top guy. It's gonna be really interesting if Rock comes back to work a Wrestlemania against Reigns and how that feud affects WWE. If it's a big success and it propels a big Roman babyface run then that could probably make me change my opinion. It would also mean Rock was instrumental in making the last two big WWE stars make a leap by working with them (10+ years apart too).

Omega doesn't outright say it and talks about a "what if" scenario, but it sure sounds like at least Bryan has indeed signed with them already.

That's not something WWE can just go ahead and give to him and those are the two big things he wants. It's not like he can go to WWE and say "hey, I can work New Japan and a fuck ton of promotions if a sign with AEW, can you do better?". That's just not realistic "leverage".

In Bryan's case there's not a lot to leverage for besides being able to work in Japan. He's gonna get a big money deal with either company and he's not a guy that will stay in WWE for X millions more (when he's already getting a big ass number anyway). What else could he ask? Having a clause that forces WWE to give him 10-20 minute matches on TV/PPV every week? shit, he already had that.

Does Tony drop the bag for the rights of Final Countdown?

I'd gladly be wrong on this one but I don't see Punk and Bryan having the same effect as Hall and Nash. I think both could be more of an Angle in TNA, boosting up business marginally but still making things somewhat bigger than before. Now, a motivated Punk could create a couple of stars like Foley did in WWF if he wanted to. And we all know Bryan can make anyone worth a damn look like a million bucks. So even though I don't see business picking up significantly, I could totally see them contributing to AEW's roster getting better and establishing new people for the company's next phase/era. And fuck, if Bryan signs I'm gonna have to check this damn show weekly I mean yeah, if that's the case then bringing Punk in would only work for the 1 big comeback match and whatever gate, ratings and PPVs it could mean (as I already said, I don't think it would be that significant, though of course it would be a boost). But idk, I think Punk would be motivated if he decided to sign with AEW. It wouldn't be the first time he changed his opinion on something.

Pretty sure Punk can still cut a dope promo and if motivated, making his program something memorable. How good can his matches be is definitely a big question but when everything else can click, a "just ok" match hurts less.

You can't make this shit up Speedy recovery for Kota.

Why? He thankfully doesn't take it personally (though he sadly takes it seriously). You shouldn't either, this thread has become more and more "post something Dave haters say"

What's Brie schedule looking like? I can see Bryan taking like 2 years off just to be with his kids and then just popping up again after watching a match that motivated him

Cena working a full schedule in the 4 weeks leading up to Summerslam - Friday, July 23: SmackDown – Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland - Saturday, July 24: Supershow – PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh - Sunday, July 25: Supershow – KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky. - Monday, July 26: Raw – T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo. - Friday, July 30: SmackDown – Target Center in Minneapolis - Saturday, July 31: Supershow – Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee - Sunday, August 1: Supershow – Little Caesars Arena in Detroit - Friday, August 6: SmackDown – Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla. - Saturday, August 7: Supershow – Hertz Arena in Fort Myers, Fla. - Monday, August 9: Raw – Amway Center in Orlando, Fla. - Friday, August 13: SmackDown – BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla. - Saturday, August 14: Supershow – Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C. - Sunday, August 15: Supershow – Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, S.C. - Friday, August 20: SmackDown – Footprint Center in Phoenix - Saturday, August 21: SummerSlam – Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas With all the changes his body has gone through since he left, I hope he can handle all those dates without a heavy injury. We all know Rocky can't even work 2 matches without pulling a muscle. Though it doesn't seem Cena is juicing like Rocky.

I don't see that happening unless for some reason he beats Roman and it's all over WWE TV as Super Cena once again, I highly doubt that a realistic scenario.

Cena's pop was the biggest since...? I remember the Hardyz getting a massive pop when they returned for a Wrestlemania a couple of years ago.

You don't think that was planned??

Why does Charlotte make a crying face every time the crowd chants "this is awesome"? are those chants for real or piped in?

Bryan is still very young and even though being a top performer months after debuting and continue to be one 20 years later is an incredibly impressive feat, not sure what pinpointing his prime would tell us about him that is new or could add to his case. Not sure I'd rate his 02-04 as his primer either. That was more of a learning phase than him being at the peak of his powers. Having read or heard almost every interview he's ever done (plus his book), my guess is that he would say his prime has changed over the years. He probably say 06-07 but nowadays he'd most likely point to his heel turn and WWE Title run in 2018, as he not only was able to have a great match with anyone, in any style, he had also found his comfort zone with the mic and could cut great promos weekly, which was a weak spot in his resume he was able to overcome.

So fucking sad

Very good matchup. I've seen a fair share of "uncle Jun" since he went back to All Japan but I feel I need to dig deeper to see how much higher he can get on my list. As far as putting him against Liger, as amazing as Jun was a rookie and all the high end matches he has, Liger's charisma and versatility gives him the edge on this one. Besides, Jun has a that 06 to 13' NOAH period were he was mostly disappointing (there some great matches sprinkled in obviously, he's still one of the best ever), which is a long ass time, specially considering he was still close to his peak age wise. Can't say the same about Liger, hell he was lighting the world on fire in the NOAH feud when he was that age. Akiyama has probably a better resume in his late career. It's really impressive how he turned things around and became one of the best wrestlers in Japan and gave a much needed shot in the arm to AJPW.