I mean Page had a ridiculously and unnecessarily brutal match with Archer and two okay matches with Cole, let’s not pretend he’s some wizard. He’s a guaranteed decent to good match, but he needs someone with a bigger vision, a Danielson or Omega, to have something more special.

9 hours ago, MoS said:

LMAO at Britt asking "What's Mussolini?" That was a joke, right? Like, do they not teach fascism and Nazism in American schools?

I mean, Britt was doing a bit but the answer to the question is "usually no, and when it's yes just barely".

44 minutes ago, sek69 said:

I mean, Britt was doing a bit but the answer to the question is "usually no, and when it's yes just barely".

Yep. I'm 52 and my early education on fascism came through TV, movies, and comic books. The Three Stooges had more to say about Hitler than any class in grade school.

I had family with first had experience with WWII so I had more info growing up than most, but yeah my first memory of hearing about it outside of them was Captain America punching Hitler. 

Dissension. Smellness!

The great thing about this is that he's clearly working an angle based on real life feelings and EVERYONE is going to bite on this like MJF is going to no show the PPV or something despite it being totally his gimmick to not want to be around smelly wrestling fans. 

Greatest worker of our time. 

3 minutes ago, sek69 said:

The great thing about this is that he's clearly working an angle based on real life feelings and EVERYONE is going to bite on this like MJF is going to no show the PPV or something despite it being totally his gimmick to not want to be around smelly wrestling fans. 

Greatest worker of our time. 

And if/when Wardlow squashes MJF (the right and only logical booking choice IMO), that will only build this story up further.

What's really amusing is if this was all 100% shooty shoot shoot stuff, MJF's deal runs through 2023 and he still has some folks thinking he's gonna show up on Raw in like a month or two. 

25 minutes ago, sek69 said:

The great thing about this is that he's clearly working an angle based on real life feelings and EVERYONE is going to bite on this like MJF is going to no show the PPV or something despite it being totally his gimmick to not want to be around smelly wrestling fans. 

Greatest worker of our time. 

Having to refund customers just to make people interested in a storyline they are already engaged seems unwise.

This being a shoot, it's dumb on MJF's part because it lowers his stock. This being a work, what's the endgame? We discussed this, his contract is up in two YEARS. Way too early to keep teasing this kind of angle IMO.

10 minutes ago, KawadaSmile said:

Having to refund customers just to make people interested in a storyline they are already engaged seems unwise.

I don't disagree. Maybe TK feels since he's getting a million dollar gate then refunding a few folks at the meet and greet is the cost of doing business?

Really don't see how this can be anything else IMO, can't believe MJF (who was a pro on his way out of MLW when no one would have begrudged him to tell Court to GFY since he was getting an AEW deal) suddenly being shoot unprofessional over something two years away. 

Strange Things

If this leads to a video of MJF and Joe having a Hangover style adventure in Vegas it's worth it. 

I wonder if there's a COVID thing happening. Only thing I can think of. It's shooting up everywhere again.

Oh dang, SRS dropped that a flight out of Vegas was booked for MJF

MJF fears Wardlow.

No confirmation MJF was on the plane, just that one was booked for tonight. Sounds like maybe TK is calling his bluff on something?

Another thing to consider, if MJF ends up no showing the PPV, how does that affect WWE's interest in him? Would grabbing another top AEW guy balance out someone no showing a PPV right after the Sasha and Naomi saga? Vince likes to send messages to talent after all. 

I'm not trying to be one of those smark fans who just can't handle being worked, but I just want to see a fucking wrestling match, guys. I honestly didn't like Juice Robinson's phony "I'm burnt out and quitting" tour followed by the "Psyche!" he pulled for NJPW. 

As Roger Ebert once wrote about certain "gotcha" movie twists, "I want to be amazed by motivation, not manipulation." I'd honestly rather MJF walk out than have this be a work with a completely incoherent endgame. What is this setting up, MJF vs. Tony Khan in a match?

All that said, I don't think it *is* a work at this point.

5 minutes ago, PeteF3 said:

I'd honestly rather MJF walk out than have this be a work with a completely incoherent endgame. What is this setting up, MJF vs. Tony Khan in a match?

100% this. MJF/Wardlow is THE hottest thing they have right now as it is. Why bother adding more fuckery to it? You got people's money!

 

Also I just wanna say that Miz would never.

10 minutes ago, PeteF3 said:

I'm not trying to be one of those smark fans who just can't handle being worked, but I just want to see a fucking wrestling match, guys

With Joe apparently also no-showing, I think there's more to this than 1. real life contract dissatisfaction and/or 2. a worked-shoot related to that.

MJF is outsmarting himself. If it's a work, it's one that's too inside and happening away from TV, and it's not doing anything to promote his current feud. If it's a shoot, playing games like this while also having the policy of never publicly breaking character means that he's going to get a rep as difficult to work with that might reduce his market power and could even make him less appealing to WWE, meaning he has no leverage to start a bidding war when his contract is up.

I think they should just add Wardlow to the main event and crown him as champ.

5 minutes ago, Loss said:

MJF is outsmarting himself. If it's a work, it's one that's too inside and happening away from TV, and it's not doing anything to promote his current feud. If it's a shoot, playing games like this while also having the policy of never publicly breaking character means that he's going to get a rep as difficult to work with that might reduce his market power and could even make him less appealing to WWE, meaning he has no leverage to start a bidding war when his contract is up.

Vince also has a hang-up where he'll pay guys to try to no-show or sabotage events, but if a guy voluntarily does it or offers to do it on his own, even if it's for Vince's benefit, he'll refuse to do further business with them. He did it with Cesaro once, and he did it with Brian Lee in 1995. Maybe other times. "If he does it to them, he'll do it to me."

3 minutes ago, PeteF3 said:

He did it with Cesaro once, and he did it with Brian Lee in 1995. Maybe other times. "If he does it to them, he'll do it to me."

Wait what's the story with Cesaro?

Looks like the issue with Joe missing the meet and greet was just a communication issue not related to anything else so it seems like everything is fine there.