I guess they’re getting desperate for the upcoming ratings war with AEW.
I might enjoy watching UE give them beatdowns, PROVIDED THEY DON’T HAVE THEM WIN THE TAG BELTS FIRST SHOW!
Seems the reports were wrong. Even Meltzer has backed off his initial report.
Chris Jericho is your inaugural AEW world champion, having beat Adam Page in one hell of a main event at All Out.
Other results;
- Casino Battle Royale; Nyla Rose last eliminated Dr. Britt Baker, winning a spot in the AEW women’s championship match on TNT
- Private Party d. Angelico & Jack Evans
- SCU d. Jungle Boy, Luchasaurus, & Marko Stunt
- PAC d. Kenny Omega by TKO
- Cracker Barrel Clash (I.e., triple threat with hardcore rules): Jimmy Havoc d. Joey Janela & Darby Allin
- The Dark Order d. the Best Friends to earn a first-round bye in the AEW tag team championship tournament
- Riho d. Hikaru Shida, winning the other spot in the AEW women’s championship match
- Cody Rhodes (w/ MJF) d. Shawn Spears (w/ Tully Blanchard)
- Ladder match: Pentagon Jr. & Fenix d. the Young Bucks to retain the AAA tag team championship
LAX made their debuts at the end of the ladder match, attacking both teams while wearing rubber Bill Clinton and JFK masks. Tenille Dashwood (Emma), Ivellise, ODB, and Teal Piper (Roddy’s daughter) made appearances in the battle royal, with Leva Bates (Ol’ Blue Pants) getting the Kofi Kingston Memorial Wacky Near-Elimination Spot via Peter Avalon laying out books on the ground for her to walk across on her way back to the ring.
Cody was accompanied to the ring by Pharaoh, Brandi (cosplaying as Seven of Nine), DDP (as Commander Chakotay), and MJF (cosplaying as Chief O’Brien and also wearing a Doctor Who scarf). Pharaoh seemed spooked by Cody’s pyro and had to be coached to walk to the ring with him. Arn Anderson made a surprise appearance near the end of the match, running in while MJF and Tully were fighting, and delivering a spinebuster to Shawn Spears.
I’ve never actually seen Marko Stunt wrestle before. Dude is tiny. He’s about as small as a grown man can be without being medically diagnosed with dwarfism. Even Jungle Boy looks huge in comparison. He’s a hell of a worker, though, and he impressed me with his athleticism.
AEW’s next PPV, “Full Gear”, was announced for November 9th.
Really good show overall, and it felt like money well spent. There were a few minor production botches, but not too much to detract from the overall presentation. They’ve started including the wrestlers’ win-loss records in the chyron, which is a nice bit of realism that I hope they stick with on the weekly show.
HHH says Vince won’t be involved with NXT, and they have no interest in bringing back Enzo & Cass.
He’s got 100-140 enlistees at the PC they have more interest in developing. Plus, the main eventers they have now are groomed to be the stars of the USA show, and they’re not desperate for cheap heat.
The best big man battle in modern times took place between Donovan Dijakovic and Keith Lee last episode. It seems impossible for Lee to leave the ground, but the dude is agile. Dijakovic is superhuman. The ending was maybe not as spectacular as Big Show and Brock Lesnar collapsing the ring, but almost as fucking amazing.
Finally, I’m going to see Extreme Midget Wrestling with some pals in Southern Pines NC in November. I’ve got to think of obnoxious midget puns to use when we do our yelling.
The DBD-Roman-Rowan angle on SDL has gotten into “so bad it’s good” territory with the fake double, DBD’s histrionics, and the whuuuut? moments.
Now all the sudden Erick Rowan can do promos, he’s no longer DBD’s lurching sidekick, and he’s got a match vs Roman at CoC. I thought this was going to be a big long feud between DBD and Roman, but they’re throwing red-bearded curve balls all over the field, and now I have to see this train wreck all the way to the end.
Like most of my opinions/thoughts, I’m probably wrong (and will be told so) but…
If what’s happening in AEW was happening in WWE people would shit all over it, but only because it’s AEW that it’s not only tolerated, but labeled the greatest thing ever. The old guy star (Jericho) just won the belt from the younger, more talented up-and-comer (Page), the part-timer (Pac) won over the established and more talented vet (Omega…who seems to always lose anyway, but no one is saying he’s being buried).
I’m sure there are reasons/excuses for all the results, but it’s still something I’ve noticed.
I think Jericho is considered the Hulk Hogan of AEW, the one who will draw in more of a mainstream audience. Despite Omega’s fame with the wrestling purists, he’s not a household name in the US. I seriously thought Mr. Six-Star Match was going to be booked as a Sacred Cow, but evidently he’s willing to be a bottom dweller. Tommy Dreamer and Ric Flair probably lost more matches than they won, but they got over anyway. I personally love Adam Page, but he’s not a bona fide superstar yet. He’ll get there.
Chris Jericho’s missing AEW world championship belt retrieved by police in Florida
Jericho will soon have his belt back. REJOICE!
The Network’s special on Adrian Street, “Imagine What I Can Do To You,” is a good retrospective on his history as a wrestler, but they left out the un-PC parts of his gimmick. Yes, it’s not cool to mock gays, but you’ve got to understand the context of the times. Gay slurs were a lot more common, and Streets became every macho man’s worst nightmare in that regard. It’s how he got heat, much like the times when Japanese and German wrestlers were villains post WWII, and most of them weren’t actually from those countries. The dude had guts. The more angry they got, the more he pushed their buttons.
They didn’t show how he’d finish off his opponent with a sleeper, followed by his valet Miss Linda bringing a makeup kit and a woman’s dress into the ring so they could dress the sleeping opponent in drag. They didn’t show how he’d draw racist cartoons of his black opponents. They didn’t show him parodying cowboys by wearing their gear along with lipstick & mascara and chasing his gay caricature sidekick around with a horsewhip. They did show him kissing some opponents, but that was far from the worst of his antics, and he even got over as a face occasionally.
I did like how they showed today’s stars using some of his moves, like Velveteen Dream doing the spin. They also showed a pic of him in his garb with his father standing in front of the coal miners he used to work with before he took up wrestling. He’s now a trainer at the PC, and he’s teaching them old school flamboyance.
Anyone else see that WWE signed Hijo Del Phantasma…aka King Cuerno…and he’s wrestling without a mask?
Should be a good pick up, although WWE doesn’t really know how to handle Luchas it should still be fun
King Hijo Del Cuertasmo is a good pick. He can do the lucha moves, but he’s also big enough for the heavyweights. Come to think of it, he’s practically another Andrade, who also used to wear a mask.
Andrade didn’t have to swerve between the machinations of an evil high priest of Aztec war gods like Cuerno did, but he does work for Vince McMahon. Damn, they’re more alike than I realized!
Am I misremembering, or was Steve Austin a good deal more of a rambling man during his last two appearances on RAW. Is he hitting his IPAs before going out to the ring? He could have shaved a good 90 seconds and lost nothing, 90 seconds that could have been given to Mysterio/Metallik.
Second, is Samoa Joe the new Sami Zayn? What a waste of two talented men, though more Joe than Zayn.
I saw the Shane-O-Mac reveal coming a mile away, but hoped against hope that I was wrong. Just how much will WWE troll its fans with The Sweatiest in the World?
Despite Shane’s presence, I still liked the way SD opened. Undertaker came out with his full moon and lightning, started a dark, somber promo about the new talent, then Sami Zayne’s music all the sudden started. O-o-O-o-Oooo O-o-OoOo-Ooooh! It was perfect. Zayn acted oblivious of UT’s history with interlopers and ate a chokeslam.
I think I remember from Jericho’s podcast Zyne got in hot water with UT when he first came to WWE. They had a chartered plane with all the WWE personnel aboard, and there’s an unwritten rule that veterans get the best seats. Zayn took one of those seats, and Mick Foley told him UT sits there. Zayn thought he was kidding, and caught heat from UT when he showed up. That angle was bound to recur some day.
No one in the “short career” thread cares, so I thought I’d address this here. Austin’s career started in WCCW (Von Erich territory) in the late 80s/early 90s and he got a decent push right out of the gate, moved to WCW (Dangerous Alliance and Hollywood Blondes tag team with Brian Pillman), and a short stint in ECW before his 8 years (1995 to 2003) in WWE. The Stone Cold era started 96-97, so even that is ~6 years.
The King of the Ring final has been postponed until Monday Night RAW. If you ask me, they should have done that for Roman Reigns vs. Rowan, too.
Roman doesn’t do preview shows.
Roman wasn’t even involved on the second-most-important show of the year, though.