a few of those matches have to be booked at 10 minutes or less …
Conversely, we’ve only got six matches booked for Clash at the Castle;
- Undisputed WWE Universal Championship: Roman Reigns (c) vs. DrewMcIntyre
- Intercontinental Championship: Gunther (c) vs. Sheamus
- Smackdown Women’s Championship: Liv Morgan (c) vs. Shayna Bayzler
- Bianca Belair, Alexa Bliss, & Asuka vs. Bayley, Dakota Kai, and Iyo Sky
- Matt Riddle vs. Seth Rollins
- Edge & Rey Mysterio Jr. vs. Judgment Day
I remember AWA settled for making Jerry Blackwell their top star after WWF poached their best talent. While the man was remarkably agile for his size (billed at 472 lbs), it just didn’t look right when he was playing the victimized babyface. They even booked Boris Zhukov as his archenemy. Talk about desperate.
Corny sometimes provides insight into the backstage politics of AWA in its waning days. A lot of it stemmed from territory pissing contests. They tried to unify the Chicago-Minnesota-upper Midwest territories, but egos got in the way.
I guess once the money is paid, one can split the show between viewings? I learned from WrestleManias a few years back that extra long shows cannot maintain crowd energy or living room energy that long. Hell, their Dynamite shows prove that. It doesn’t matter if every match is a banger, it’s just too long. 3 hours is the sweet spot, but with too few PPVs, it is hard to get everyone and all the championships involved (a case for less belts). Too AEW’s credit, they have far less filler segments, which IMO really, really killed those extra-long WrestleManias (before the 2 day shows). A 5 hour All Out will be close to or maybe even exceed 4 hours of in-ring wrestling. A 5 hour Wrestlemania would be lucky to get 3 hours of in-ring wrestling (both not including ring entrances).
Gladly, I’m away this weekend and next week and will have very little time for wrestling.Given I can’t keep up with the weekly output, going back and catching up will pretty much be out of the question. I’ll only know what happens from reddit/YouTube, and to a lesser extent, here.
I remember Blackwell coming into the AWA. He didn’t impress me. I don’t think he was anywhere near his billed weight. He looked much heavier because he wasn’t very tall in comparison to wrestlers he faced. Still a remarkable ability to deliver a dropkick even if he only weighed 300 lbs. Verne Gagne was dead set on maintaining the territory system. No doubt because he owned a lucrative territory, but I’ll bet he could have come to a deal with Vince if he had a better attitude about it. Instead his entire wrestling career fell into obscurity.
Maybe they’re counting on a bunch of those getting injured by then.
you might be right because didn’t they have to sub out most of the last PPV due to injury?
HHH is slowly erasing all traces of VKM’s existence. Carrion Cross’s Zardoz gear had been incinerated, and Scarlet has been restored to her rightful place as Cross’s venomous valet. Butch is largely back to his Pete Dunne incarnation, twisting fingers and enjoying it. Matches are longer and more physical, and shit makes sense.
maybe JC still had a bit of influence, as that’s all he mainly wants I mean if ya do a comedy match or a hardcore match … have it make sense … although I do admit I didn’t appreciate owner and micks matches until I was older …
Another match has been added to All Out - Sammy Guevara & Tay Conti will now be defending the AAA mixed tag team championships vs. Ortiz & Ruby Soho. That match, along with Kingston/Ishii, Hook/Parker, and PAC/Sabian are scheduled for the pre-show, so that’s four matches in the first hour and 11 on the main card.
My predictions for Clash at the Castle:
Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre, Undisputed WWE Universal Championship Match : I think this is the time to take the belts off of Roman. McIntyre wins the championship.
Liv Morgan vs. Shayna Baszler, Smackdown Women’s Championship Match : Liv retains.
Riddle vs. Seth Rollins : Riddle.
Gunter vs. Sheamus, Intercontinental Championship Match : Gunter retains.
Bianca Belair, Alexa Bliss, and Asuka vs. Bayley, Dakota Kai, and Iyo Sky : Heels go over to establish them as a threat and to build to Bayley vs. Belair.
Edge & Rey Mysterio vs. The Judgment Day : IDK, maybe Dominik finally turns and Judgment Day wins.
Please note that Madcap Moss and The Street Profits vs. Austin Theory and Alpha Academy has been added to the pre-show.
I’ll predict that Theory and the Academy will win here.
0 for 7 so far, Eke. 
That was a great opening match. It lit up the crowd big time.
OK, that completely blew me away when
Tyson Fury knocked out Austin Theory was about to cash the MITB briefcase. I totally did not expect that and LMAO’ed.
Even people in other sports hate that twerp.
I hope the main-roster debut of Solo Sikoa was worth the downer ending for those 60,000 UK fans.
Oh, Jesus, why did he choose this moment to start his solo singing career?
And they decided to do more than one song?!
Aside from my being disappointed that Sheamus didn’t get to become a Grand Slam champion, this was a really solid show. None of the matches felt like filler, there was little BS, and the commentary was a lot more natural now that nobody’s yelling in their ears and telling them to repeat the same catch-phrase thirty times in a row.
I hope “Austin Theory tries to cash in but gets KOed before he can hand off the briefcase” doesn’t get run into the ground a la Nia Jax putting Lana through tables, R-Truth not knowing what city or show he’s at, Titus O’Neill tripping, or Suplex City (Bitch).
I actually don’t think Theory is going to be pigeonholed into repeating the same stunt over and over. I also don’t think he’s going to be the next John Cena. He’s got the looks, the build and the talent, but I think he’s going to destroy all the canned predictions about his career and be something entirely new. He’s the annoying cockroach you can easily stomp into jelly but can’t kill.
Eddie Kingston and Tomohiro Ishii are absolutely chopping the hell out of each other right now. Both their chests are bright red. WALTER would be proud.
you know i get that for 2 minutes in the beginning of a match to prove "yeah were tough hbastards " but not as long as new japan and aew does it