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2-Oct-19 7:16pm
#1
Sun
GameTZ Subscriber Silver Good Trader Gold Global Trader (7) Has Written 5 Reviews

This topic had many older posts which were moved here:

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Other thread was closed...so here we are.

Anyone else excited for AEW Dynamite tonight?
4-Apr-23 9:13am
#281
theJaw
GameTZ Subscriber Triple Gold Good Trader

Yah, as corroborated by a bunch of folks, Vince was indeed running TV last night. I saw one report that suggested the new call sheets the production crew and wrestlers received during the show cut out 2 women's matches to allow more time for Triple H's promo and Omos vs. Elias. It apparently impacted roster morale in a big bad way.

It also looks like Bayley's on her way out of WWE, if she's not out already. There were apparently a few wrestlers who said they'd "walk" if they saw Vince in control again, and it seems she may be one of them. After Mania, she tweeted that "even the most romantic love stories come to an end. Bye" (or something along those lines), and when Kai/Sky had their tag match last night, there was virtually no mention of Bayley by commentary or anywhere else on the show. Obv that may just be a "for the time being" thing, but the red flags are there.

Rough stuff. I don't understand his insistence to run creative... the dude had to have seen how well WWE was doing the past year or so and the good will they were finally starting to rebuild with the audience. Not that this is breaking news or anything, but there's definitely something wrong with that guy's brain.
4-Apr-23 11:29am
#282
theJaw
GameTZ Subscriber Triple Gold Good Trader

There’s also a video circulating of Rollins in the ring last night, leaning on the ropes as producers are explaining something to him. His segment was cut from the show after he already made his entrance. This explains that whole awkward segment where he comes out, has the crowd do the whole music shtick, and then just… nothing happened.
4-Apr-23 11:41am
#283
shadyfozzie
Triple Gold Good Trader

Yeah, RAW was pretty terrible last night.. There was what, 2 matches in the first hour and they were terrible matches. I hope McMahon isn't sticking around, he hasn't been a decent booker for YEARS... I'm probably gonna watch Smackdown this week but if nothing really comes to some sort of next phase, I'll just read up on the recaps each week.

Typically, RAW after Wrestlemania has had some AWESOME moments in the past: Awesome debuts, championship changes, and the crowds were just awesome... (remember when the crowd kept singing Fandango's theme throughout the whole night?)

Last night, no crowd interaction except in the beginning (Reigns sucks... really?? that's the best you got?), NO debuts and a returning Matt Riddle?? Bleh, such a let down after a pretty great Wrestlemania 39.

I bet over the next few weeks we will see a lot of people not shown on TV and ultimately either granted their release or just let go do to 'budget cuts'..
4-Apr-23 3:56pm
#284
PizzaTheHutt
GameTZ Subscriber Gold Good Trader Has Written 3 Reviews

Yeah that just did not feel like a typical post-Mania crowd. We go from "Fudge you Roman" chants two months ago to half-assed "Roman sucks" chants.

No NXT debuts either (though I think last year they were saved for the post-Mania SmackDown).

Riddle is back, but who knows for how long? He has been told one more screw up and he's gone.

Grizzled Young Veterans asked for their release, allegedly because they know WWE does a Spring cleaning of the roster after every WrestleMania and they didn't want to be lost in the shuffle where suddenly there's a bunch of free agents available on the same day when non-compete clauses are up. But Meltzer says he hasn't confirmed they were granted their release yet while others say they have.

The crappy part of this merger thing with Endeavor is the guy in charge doesn't want Vince to leave. He is clearly looking at it from an outside that thinks Vince still has a lot of name value and not paying attention to the numbers they were doing without Vince.
4-Apr-23 4:12pm
#285
theJaw
GameTZ Subscriber Triple Gold Good Trader

On top of that, even if they looked deeper into Vince’s role, Endeavor/Ari Emanuel let Dana White remain with UFC after literal video footage of him beating his wife surfaced, so Vince is safe from all the awful bullcrap he carried out. He’s back in full, and WWE’s quality is gonna suffer in a big bad way.
4-Apr-23 7:34pm
#286
BucketofJustice
GameTZ Gold Subscriber 350 Trade Quintuple Gold Good Trader Has Written 6 Reviews

Ari Emanuel doesn’t know crap about wrestling. He sees a guy who brought WWE to record business and wants that guy in charge. He doesn’t care about scandals, as PizzaTheHutt said with Dana White slapping his wife being on tape.

As fans, we’re fudgeed. We’re gonna get a crapty WWE again.
4-Apr-23 8:04pm
#287
shadyfozzie
Triple Gold Good Trader

I'd never pay to go to a RAW or Smackdown taping ever again as long as vince is running it.. in the 3 hours of 'TV" yesterday, there was less than 1 hour of ACTUAL wrestling, and half the matches were garbage (Omos/ELias, even the main event was trash).
I'd demand a refund..
5-Apr-23 3:50pm
#289
PizzaTheHutt
GameTZ Subscriber Gold Good Trader Has Written 3 Reviews

Love to see it.
https://twitter.com/...

5-Apr-23 4:01pm
#290
theJaw
GameTZ Subscriber Triple Gold Good Trader

Lool you truly do
5-Apr-23 5:52pm
#291
PizzaTheHutt
GameTZ Subscriber Gold Good Trader Has Written 3 Reviews

They gotta keep that momentum going at SmackDown on Friday, because Vince don't give a crap about NXT or The Bump and I doubt anyone will have even brought that to his attention. Gotta do it at the shows he will actually be at.

5-Apr-23 5:56pm
#292
theJaw
GameTZ Subscriber Triple Gold Good Trader

Eh he’s not gonna care either way. Dude has a sociopathic way of just accepting that people hate him and reveling in it. He literally got outed as a sex offender and then grew a sex offender mustache before appearing in public again, cmahn.

Plus most folks who go to Raw or Smackdown either don’t pay close enough attention to this sort of thing, or they’re the types who do that corny bowing motion whenever he shows up. Real weird.
5-Apr-23 10:26pm
#293
theJaw
GameTZ Subscriber Triple Gold Good Trader

On a more positive note, Dynamite fudgein ruled tonight.
6-Apr-23 5:57pm
#294
PizzaTheHutt
GameTZ Subscriber Gold Good Trader Has Written 3 Reviews

I only caught bits and pieces of Dynamite. I wonder how they plan to setup Wembley Stadium. It'll be a big crowd I'm sure, but I can't see it being a sellout.

6-Apr-23 6:06pm
#295
theJaw
GameTZ Subscriber Triple Gold Good Trader

Apparently AEW is more popular than WWE over there, especially after the whole NXT UK talent raid, so who knows? But yah I doubt they’ll get 90k, but I’m certain they’ll draw enough to get most likely their biggest gate to date.
6-Apr-23 6:10pm
#296
theJaw
GameTZ Subscriber Triple Gold Good Trader

Also Nigel McGuinness is like a legend over there, and he just got his #AllElite graphic along with Jay White last night.

Try to round up Will Ospreay & Mercedes Mone, maybe Okada & Ibushi, see if Punk is willing to do business by then. Drew McIntyre’s contract is up sometime this summer too, and who the heck knows what’s going on with Bayley. They could really go all in (pun intended) and put on a card that’s worth going out to see.

I hope to see the constantly teased Danielson vs ZSJ match, personally.
6-Apr-23 6:20pm
#297
PizzaTheHutt
GameTZ Subscriber Gold Good Trader Has Written 3 Reviews

At one point even TNA was big over there. I don't know how AEW does it, but TNA are on a free channel that was available to anyone with a TV while WWE was on Sky Sports which was behind two separate paywalls.

8-Apr-23 3:15am
#298
Sun
GameTZ Subscriber Silver Good Trader Gold Global Trader (7) Has Written 5 Reviews

Went to Smackdown in Portland and it was a good time. They had 3 dark matches with 1 before the show (Tegan Nox vs. Sonya Deville) and 2 after (Austin Theory vs. Dolph Ziegler, Matt Riddle vs. Solo Sikoa).

Dominick got so much heat from the crowd.
8-Apr-23 2:21pm
#299
PizzaTheHutt
GameTZ Subscriber Gold Good Trader Has Written 3 Reviews

Yeah, that was legit heat. At one point you could barely hear him over the crowd. Not many can pull that off these days without resorting to insulting the local sports team or something.

The Triple H announcement was a disappointment. Way to over-hype and under-deliver. It felt like how when Tony Khan is constantly hyping up a big announcement on Dynamite and then it turns out to be nothing special at all.
8-Apr-23 3:00pm
#300
theJaw
GameTZ Subscriber Triple Gold Good Trader

As far as this week's announcements go, running Wembley Stadium in a country where AEW is more popular than WWE > announcing the inevitable annual WWE draft, in my opinion. I honestly can't remember the last time I was actually disappointed by an AEW announcement tbh, but I know to tempter my expectations with pro wrestling. In most cases, Khan's announcements are objectively big steps for the company (which is usually all he promises), even if they're not necessarily the most surprising announcements for the audience. But I never expect him to announce he signed Brock Lesnar or booked a show on Jupiter or anything, which is what I feel like the majority of the arbitrary AEW-detractors on the net are expecting whenever this situation comes up.

But yah Dom got fudgein wild heat last night, ya love to see it. I don't know if it's 100% legit heat, or a bit of "go away" heat, but it's heat nonetheless. I've been sold on him since his Mania match vs Rey, which is saying something because I was sick of seeing him in any capacity as recently as the Royal Rumble. They finally got him to a spot where he's a believable heel, it'll be interesting to see his career trajectory from this point. All the stuff at Mania this year, + the Bad Bunny/LWO inclusion, has finally made Judgment Day seem worth the watch. Smackdown was overall a far better show than Raw, even if it did still seem to just be treading water. I can't put into words how sick of the Bloodline interference shtick I am. Great wrestlers involved and they put on great performances with what they've got, but this week has done nothing to stifle my opinion that the Bloodline story as a whole has jumped the shark. And randomly placing Riddle into it isn't helping any.

Rampage + Battle of the Belts were solid shows last night, even if nothing really happened to set the world on fire. I do wish AEW would focus a little harder on making Rampage must-see like it was during its first few weeks. It needs to be live every week and they need to carry the stories through Friday night, not just on Dynamite. Though the whole Hook/Ethan Page+The Firm angle is featured a lot, and that seems to be the case with some new Embassy/Swerve stuff this week. So hopefully they're moving back in that direction.
8-Apr-23 3:35pm
#301
PizzaTheHutt
GameTZ Subscriber Gold Good Trader Has Written 3 Reviews

theJaw wrote:
As far as this week's announcements go, running Wembley Stadium in a country where AEW is more popular than WWE

That's an announcement that could have easily been done on Twitter though, same like the Draft announcement. Dynamite obviously isn't airing live in UK, which the announcement was a bigger deal for that market than over here.

Also, AEW is only more popular in that it gets a lot of viewers for being on free TV. That's the key. As Meltzer put it, WWE is still more "popular" in every other metric over there, such as they get 6 times more Google searches over there than AEW does. Not to take anything away from AEW, but it's far from a situation where they reign supreme over there.

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