That bit was actually a pretty cool callback to his indy days in Seattle. When he was wrestling in DEFY in 2017-2018, he’d make his entrance by being dragged out of the locker room in a body bag with one arm hanging out, and he’d use that arm to unzip the bag and then climb out. All together, I think he and Punk had exactly the right kind of match - Punk was definitely going to win, but they still put on a good contest with moments where it looked like Allin might pull it off, and in the end he earned Punk’s respect. I was half-expecting Sting to either turn on Allin at the end, or grab Punk and give him a Scorpion Deathdrop, but as awesome as that would’ve been I’m also kinda glad it didn’t happen.
In any event, I think Young Bucks vs. Penta & Fenix has to be the match of the night, and it might be one of the best steel cage matches ever. It was almost hard to watch Penta with his mask torn and his face covered in blood with popped blood vessels in his eye, and both teams worked their asses off to a degree you rarely see even in main events.
I love/hate the Bucks. Not because they’re OMG heels, but because with all their ring and booking talent, they devote most of their BTE videos to their fucking shoes. I always leave a snarky comment, which is what they want anyway, because they love to piss off smart marks. There’s no denying they work their asses off and have epic matches, however.
Fenix and Penta are my favorite tag team and my second and fifth favorite characters in wrasslin (1 - Hangman, 3 - Ref Aubrey, 4 - MJF). These two are phenomenal talents and I’ve been all in on them since Lucha Underground. Glad they have the belts.
I like them more doing singles stuff separately, but this is damn good.
Ex: Maybe both men can fight it out and go for ice cream afterwards.
Taz: That’s a very Dark Order thing to do.
Ex: We’ve got the CM Punk Ice Cream Bars in the Now Arena.
Taz: They’re awesome.
Ex: Very tasty.
Taz: Punk’s a good friend of mine. He sent a case to Red Hook for me. He doesn’t realize I moved. My uncle Devo got the ice cream.
I’m finding myself really liking The Acclaimed. The entrance diss tracks are good on the standard of wrestling rapping and their wrestling isn’t bad.
And me enjoying disliking them (combined with me loving to loathe MJF) is leading to me kinda liking Pillman and the Varsity Blondes right now, which I would not have predicted. I’m rooting for the guy who’s character is “mulleted guy who peaked in high school who’s dad was a wrestler”? Huh.
Smells like a work to me, meant to get the belt off him just before the first episode of the “reboot”. It was Triple H that got Joe back on NXT after Vince fired him, and now that Hunter’s been sidelined due to his heart attack, Vince is having his way again.
I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if Joe shows up in AEW by year’s end.
I hate “highest-grossing” records. All it means is that ticket prices were outrageously high (and enough people were willing to pay after 2 years). Smackdown reported attendance of 14,425, though it is anybody’s guess as to how many paid. Wrestlemania in 1985 had a reported attendance of 19,121. Full capacity for MSG is listed at 20,700, though it didn’t say what event configuration for that number, and I’m fully aware that the WWE set blocks a number of seats (though I doubt 6000). So to be the highest-grossing Smackdown of all-time just means even the cheap seats cost an arm and a leg, and probably a few toes off of the other foot too.
All that said, in 9 days I’ll be at Arthur Ashe Stadium to see AEW Dynamite. Looking forward to that. It’s been a long, long time!
in the comments in between the jr high aew/WWE nonsense people were saying pretty much the same thing you did and no one going seemed to care about the actual card, it could have been a superstars circa '88 squash card and they’d of paid a fortune to see it
That’s my opinion as well. Vince wants pretty drones in development, which is why Bronson Reed got canned. He doesn’t remember how much dinero Mick Foley made for him. Ciampa and Thatcher are probably next. Good thing Walter and Ilja Dragunov are under NXT UK’s purview. Except for Pretty Deadly, Vince would probably can the whole roster.
We watched the last hour or so after getting home from whatever we were doing friday night that I can’t remember anymore. Like most wrestling events, half of the seats were covered by the ramp and the entrance and stuff, but it was packed to the gills. I even made a comment to Mrs. Cups about it.
Also…the Demon is back! That’s awesome. Except he’s going to lose…which isn’t
Wrestling twitter/Facebook right now is ridiculous. Not that anyone here probably pays attention to it, but the best comparison is Theme Park Twitter. It’s not that the thing you like has to win, it’s the other other SUCKS and HAS TO LOSE and if you watch it you’re SO STUPID. HAHAHAHAHA I CAN’T BELIEVE (promotion) DID (thing)?!?! THEY’RE SO STUPID AND EVERYONE WHO LIKES THEM IS STUPID AND SHOULD DIE.
Drives me insane. Can’t you just, you know, watch your thing and leave it at that?
The whole “mine good - yours bad” shtick is stupid with any subject (PC/Mac; PS/Xbox; Nvidia/AMD; etc). One of the easier ways to get me to exit the conversation.
I don’t wish ill on WWE. Sometimes they hit, sometimes they miss. I never thought I would like Roman Reigns, but now I do. The Tribal Chief angle is truly captivating, in no small part due to Paul Heyman’s hand in it.
On the other hand, I’d like to see more of Mustafi Ali and Mansoor, but I don’t want to slog through 3 hours of RAW for a three minute match. Ricochet is wasted as enhancement talent. He was easily the star of LU, and they have him jobbing to Zardoz. I can’t even make fun of WWE enough to get any satisfaction from it.
Mutter mutter fret fret gripe grumble back in my day, things were much better whine whine…
Agreed. I think AEW is knocking it out of the park compared to WWE, but I’m not gonna knock anyone who prefers Vince’s product. To quote Jim Cornette (who has surprisingly warmed up to AEW lately even though he still loathes anything Omega and the Young Bucks are involved with); “For the kinda people who like that kinda thing, that’s the kinda thing those people are gonna like.”
Big E told us all night he was cashing in his Money in the Bank contract, and he pulled it off, defeating Bobby Lashley for the WWE Championship after he’d retained it against Randy Orton.
Big E deserves it, though I can’t help but fear that he’s going to get pushed into an extended program with Lashley now because Vince is convinced that black singles wrestlers can only feud against other black guys.
At least they actually gave us a satisfying payoff for the men’s MITB this year.