Migs

The matches that worked best with the character were the big brawls - the Last Woman Standing with Charlotte, the Hell in a Cell with Sasha. I think that's because a lot of the character was about her toughness, and those matches helped her express that with ring work. You can probably analogize a bit to the Austin Attitude Era main event style. I don't think a lot of the women on the roster are well equipped to work that style, nor were the matches booked to go in that direction.

I haven't seen the price. I'd probably pay full freight,, but I can definitely get someone not feeling it the same way without a crowd. Half price feels about right?

Decline, actually, generally ratings in the 600-700k viewer range. Total viewers have mostly been close between the two shows, but AEW has been winning the 18-49 demo by a good margin.

Loved the Drago/Apollo vibes at the end of Dustin/Archer.

I'm not trying to get you to like that match - just pointing out that you're bagging on his indy career using a match where he's wrestling another guy that also does a lot of meta comedy stuff. Even in his indy run, if you put him in with a serious worker you'll get the output he's had in AEW.

I mean, Jervis is a pretty exaggerated character. When he worked serious workers in the mold of PAC on the indies (I saw him work Jon Gresham and Homicide, for example), his matches tended to look like what we're seeing now, with guys no-selling the jokes and him having to up the intensity to win.

Thinking about Flair in the WWF in '88... I'm assuming he ends up with Heenan (and thus with Tully and Arn). So my guess would be that he roughly follows the feuds of Heenan's Family. Survivor Series '88 - Heenan's main guys work against a team led by Duggan and Jake. Either of those guys would have made reasonable first feuds for Flair in the fall - upper tier babyface who weren't Hogan or Savage. Rumble '89 - Rude works with Warrior - could they have slotted Flair into that slot? Otherwise he goes into the Rumble. (It also occurs to me he probably ends up having a TV match with Harley in this time line.) Road to Wrestlemania - Maybe they do Flair-Hogan instead of Hogan going around the horn with Bossman again? Wrestlemania V - I'm guessing Flair works either Warrior or Jake here. I could easily see him in the Rude slot, getting put over but also shown his place in the pecking order as IC Champ. Summerslam '89 - Maybe a rematch with Warrior; he also could have been in the Savage slot potentially to set up a fall run with Hogan. After that, I'd assume he'd work with Piper. I also think it's doubtful this changes the overall arc of the WWF - Vince wanted to give it a try with Warrior and I'd bet Wrestlemania 6 ends up in exactly the same place it did before. It also strikes me that unless he ends up getting matches with Savage before his turn, the babyface depth chart just doesn't have the workers for him to have memorable matches (although him working with Warrior could be legendary broomstick matches). Maybe there's some great six mans with him/Tully/Arn against, say, the Rockers/Tito or Demolition/Duggan? But the match trade of Flair's theoretical best '89 in the WWF vs. his actual '89 is a brutal mismatch.

I actually think Madison has been better than Callis for Impact - love a lot of Don's NJ work, but his Impact character really lacks a clear view point sometimes, whereas Rayne has done a good job getting her character across. I guess a Callihan turn makes sense in that they lack main event faces and have had to really dig into the old timers group for them. Callihan vs. Moose? Callihan vs. Elgin? Not super exciting on paper but I'd trust Callihan to be able to build some heat.

I thought the Omega-Cody matches in 2018 were a bit underwhelming, although I think if you flip the dynamic with Omega as the heel they might be better.

Thankfully? That is a great move name. On a broader point, I'm seeing a lot of friends in my circle be a bit disappointed that Jake didn't outwardly say he was gay when it's been a big part of his character's story before. Not sure if they're just slow playing that point or what, but definitely curious to see if that evolves.

Is he still getting to call it the LGBDDT?

It never helped Flair, either. I think El-P is just saying that plenty of greats weren't great in job match situations. Although I'd have maybe picked a jobber they see something in for that slot. I liked this show much better than last week. Better pacing, some very good vignettes. I feel like this Brodie Lee thing would be dragging on shows in front of crowds, but in this situation I don't mind the vignettes and squashes at all. He might weirdly be a beneficiary of all this because it's allowing them to build the character and transition naturally from using the parody aspects as a base instead of being the whole character. Matt Hardy having both aspects of his personality available gives me much more hope for the long-term value of his character. Very much looking forward to Cody vs. Darby.

The montage filled me with such gratitude for the joy I've had watching these guys over the last few years. Been an incredible run.

At the very least, I could easily see them making a stop in before they signed with AEW, even if just to be in the Crockett Cup.

Every time I go back and watch Dangerous Alliance era WCW (which is not infrequently, it's one of my favorite eras), it always bums me out that there's months of WCW TV from that period where they decided they just didn't need color guys, and the announcing is just really dull. It just makes some great matches a bit less enjoyable than they otherwise could have been. (Although not as bad as the WCW Saturday Night episodes with musicians or Jason Hervey on color.)

There was literally no promotion with a fanbase close to this big 2 years ago. They've done four shows with 100,000 buys basically out of thin air. Archer-Cabana was good. You may dislike Cabana, but AEW has given him a solid mid-card push (appropriate for his role), so yes, he should get in a bit of offense and then be put down by Archer. If they'd had a full roster, they probably shave a minute or two from it and it probably benefits from that. I'd personally have cut Mox-Hager down, but apparently Khan wanted to respect the art. Impact has 20 minute matches literally every episode that don't need to be their length and with less build than Mox-Hager.

Except those were both shows with full crews in front of fans, not exactly a fair comparison. What they thought would put them over the top was a hot show with 10 of the most over dudes in the world doing War Games. This was not the plan.

Apparently Impact did 3 months of shows in 3 days in Nashville, but with a crew that lacked Tessa and the North, among others. So, um, who's ready for 30 minute Rhyno matches?

Given how far he goes back with Marty, I can totally see him in ROH.

I think that match would have played differently if it had buzz in front of a crowd. Loved the hype videos, but then they locked up and I was like, eh, Mox is winning this, and it just didn't hold my attention. Definitely a weaker episode this week, but I like the lineup for next week.

It's not that he had to sell, but if he was going to sell (which he did, from WWE to the XFL), the offer would have established that there was some value, so he can't sell it for zero. The problem in particular is selling from WWE (which has many shareholders) to the XFL, which only he owns. If he had sold the trademark for a dollar to, essentially, himself, he's stealing from the public shareholders. It seems like, instead, WWE sold the trademarks to the XFL in exchange for stock (which is totally fine, presumably the stock was a good approximation of the value of the trademark). The problem is that he was the sole owner of one and not the sole owner of the other. It's easier to see the problem if the XFL had actually succeeded, because that would have proven the trademarks were valuable. And in that case, if he hadn't given WWE some stock in the XFL, Vince would be capturing all that value for himself. If the XFL made a ton of money, and paid a dividend, all the money goes to Vince - when instead, the trademwark was really the property of all the shareholders in WWE, by percentage, and they should have shared in that in that money.

Just chipping in as a lawyer that NintendoLogic is dead on - this would be exactly the thing shareholders could sue Vince for. He'd basically have been looting the corporation for himself. WWE receiving the shares protects against that (since it would basically be converting one asset, the trademark, for assets of equal value, the shares).

From the sound of it, Bauer runs things on a shoestring budget, which is great for keeping things going but not great for keeping the same roster. Whatever happened between them and Impact that ended the ability for talent to be on both shows has been a real blow to the depth chart of both promotions, too. I think MLW is surviving it better due to the shorter run time - the episodes of Impact I've watched recently really feel like they're stretching to fill two hours.

I had fallen off MLW for a while but my extra work at home time has given me a chance to catch up, and I've really enjoyed their last few months. The Dynasty has been gold on vignettes and them feuding with Mance is a really good pairing, the Lawlor heel turn has worked well and the whole show has really been humming along. Just a really fun show that's easy to watch. Bonus when you're working - if you're not paying super close attention the heat machine isn't nearly as egregious.

I think it works to either add the Revival to Tully's stable, or have him turn on Spears (who's obviously a pretty solid mid card babyface). And sign me up for the Revival against the Rhodes Brothers.