They should have let Sasha & Becky close. Might have cleaned the sour taste out of one’s mouth. But closing with that? Right call would have been to listen to the crowd and restart the match. Fox is calling Stanford and telling them keep that shit on Monday nights.
It wasn’t so much the ending for me. I did appreciate the kayfabe blood. It was the way Bray was booked to be invulnerable to Seth’s curb stomps, when Seth used 3 of them to beat Brock Lesnar. I did hate the way they called an end to a no DQ match, when Mankind’s HIAC match wasn’t ended when they called in the stretcher for him. I was hoping Bray would use some tricks like have a double hiding under the ring, or maybe even have trainees wear Firefly puppet costumes and interfere somehow. I wasn’t expecting Mankind vs UT, but at least don’t have most of the match be no-sells.
Pedantic: Stamford, not Stanford.
That being said, I think the problem with that would have been, they (and why do I have the feeling that means Vince) probably didn’t want Seth to “beat the unbeatable” - at least, not just yet. However, given that the three choices seem to be (a) that, (b) have The Fiend beat the guy who beat Brock, or (c) some screwjob finish, they went with what they thought was the only way out.
Meanwhile, in some office in Stamford, I can see Vince reacting like this: “Did I hear ‘AEW’? Cancel the next Sacramento house show/taping!”
But just when you thought you had WWE pegged (in the women’s tag match, after the ten-second non-pin, I thought for sure that the champs would retain), they Swerve The Smarks - correction; Swerve Us Smarks - with Asuka breaking out the Muta Mist. That rated about an 8 on the Markout Scale, with 10 being the return of the NWA to TBS on 4/6/1985.
That finish at Hell in a Cell. :smack:
Having consulted in the area and driven by the building several times, I am aware of that, but I swipe-typed that on my phone and didn’t proofread. :smack:
Mea culpa
ETA: Word is that HiaC match was 100% Vince. What will it take to convince him that he no longer has his fingers on the pulse of what the fans want? He’s as delusional as his idol.
WWE seems to know this was a fuckup, considering that they didn’t mention it until nearly the end of Raw and only then in an 18-second recap. On the website they changed it from being a DQ win for Bray to a ref stoppage for Seth, and they announced a Survivor Series rematch on Twitter (and then deleted the tweet).
In better news, here’s the card for tomorrow’s episode of Dynamite:
- Dustin Rhodes & Hangman Page vs. Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara
- Darby Allin vs. Jimmy Havoc, winner gets a world title match next week
- The Young Bucks vs. Private Party (Tag Team Championship quarter-finals)
- Jon Moxley vs. Shawn Spears
MOX. Excellent. Jericho; also excellent.
Anyone else a fan of MJP? He’s such a heat magnet. He reminds me of The Miz.
I’m pretty sure you mean MJF, unless he and MVP have somehow merged into a single entity.
And yes, he’s a natural heel.
Damn, I do that all the time. Because of MVP, in fact.
Anybody else find it weird that Lashley’s feud with Rusev, which will lead to Team Flair’s battle with Team Hogan in Saudi Arabia, is focused on the fact that Lashley is sleeping with Rusev’s wife? For a match in Saudi Arabia?! They probably stone people to death for infidelity there, or something. And you know Lana won’t even be making the trip to Crown Jewel.
Leave it to Paul Heyman to decide that cuckold storylines are what the fans want to see in 2019.
Especially since Maria and Mike have been doing that angle since they were in Impact. Then they involved Rusev in it, changed their minds the next week, and are now trying to get him over as the beleaguered babyface. After all these decades, they still can’t sustain a storyline. Rusev was already over, as upper midcard at least.
Jericho is knocking his promo out of the park. When he introduced Jake Hager, the fans chanted “We The People!” Jericho responded “We’re not using that anymore. That’s a stupid idea from bad creative!”
I’m interested in seeing how Jon Moxley vs Shawn Spears develops. They were the equivalent of A-lister and semi-visible midcarder in WWE.
I’m liking the Inner Circle as the evil opposite of the Elite / nWo-lite faction.
During the match between Roderick Strong and Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, Mauro worked in a subtle non-canon reference.
When the two were trading blows, Mauro said “They’re both intending to establish their Kill Shot!” – Scott’s alias in LU.
I’m really liking the way AEW is announcing the full card for Dynamite in advance of the show. It’s a great way to get people interested in watching, and it makes it feel like it’s a serious sporting event as opposed to a soap opera where people just get in the ring and talk for ten minutes and then a match happens.
Here’s the card for next week’s show;
*AEW World Championship: Chris Jericho © vs. Darby Allin (street fight)
- AEW Women’s Championship: Riho © vs. Dr. Britt Baker
- Kenny Omega & Hangman Page vs. Jon Moxley & PAC
- SoCal Uncensored vs. Best Friends (Tag Team Championship quarter-finals)
- Pentagon Jr. & Fenix vs. Jungle Boy & Luchasaurus (Tag Team Championship quarter-finals)
Someone listened to me. I’m going to take full credit for this. 
Why do I have the feeling this is going to end up either as a time limit draw or a double countout, so The Dark Order go straight to the title match without having to wrestle anybody? At least AEW doesn’t do what WCW did once, and announce the second semi-final of a title tourmanent for a PPV, only for the first semi-final to be a draw, so How About That, the title match is now on PPV.
And how do you have a “1 vs 8 seed” in a tournament with 7 teams in it?
You know what really gripes my ass?
Kofi Kingston’s run to the WWE Championship was perhaps the most inspiring storyline leading into WrestleMania. He defends it against all comers, and then gets squashed in less than a minute by Brock Lesnar so he can face Cain Velasquez, who makes his WWE debut by competing for the championship in Saudi Arabia.
And a couple years ago, Kevin Owens’ Universal Title reign was ended in less than a minute by Goldberg.
Why can’t WWE be arsed to let their upper-midcard guys look like they have a chance in hell against their part-timers?
Because they’re desperate for short-term ratings gains.
SD looks a lot prettier now, but it’s mostly fluff. The only event of note was the Bailey-Charlotte match, which served mainly to bury Bailey’s squeaky clean image.
Please please please don’t make the Fox robot into an angle. It didn’t work when WCW brought in Robocop. Learn from history.
Strange that each show would officially “draft” those who already had titles for those shows, yet neither took Brock.