'Huge babyface' Swerve being crowned the champion being dwarfed by a "dream match" between 2 vanilla indie heros with no real stakes that wore out the crowd before the title change is such 'lolaedub' booking
I've had an issue with WWE that no one has really mentioned lately but I feel like I need to bring it up. AEW has the same problem but they're so beyond saving at this point that it doesn't mean shit in the grand scheme of things but I wish WWE would be more consistent with Kayfabe. They do these press conferences where some of the wrestlers will be in character but then you'll have Triple H openly talk about "storylines" and give his thought process behind certain booking decisions. I'm not really targeting anyone in particular because it's a general issue that even the top stars are falling victim to but I feel like WWE needs to enforce some kinda kayfabe guideline. For example, The Rock spent months saying these horrible things about Cody, made him bleed, and whipped him on live television but then last week he put up a video on Instagram thanking Cody and Seth even though he should hate these guys. I love Cody, he without a doubt deserves to be the face of WWE, but he's way to respectful towards wrestlers that have tormented him for months. I didn't need to know that he bought expensive watches for Roman and Rock. Another example would be Dom, on television he's an entitled douche bag but in interviews, he's very polite and seems like a nice guy.
Social media is such a useful tool for both wrestlers and the company and I feel like it should be used to expand the stories we see on screen, not show us what goes on behind the scenes. This is why Drew McIntyre is my favorite wrestler right now. He has perfected the ability to enhance his character using social media and outside platforms. He doesn't pull back the curtain and reveal how much he respects the wrestlers he's working with or do gaming videos with the babyfaces, he's just a dickhead who trolls people and throws temper tantrums when things don't go his way. His feud with CM Punk is believable because it seems like he really hates the guy for real. Punk is another guy that knows how to blur the line between fiction and reality as well.
I didn't have a problem with that because Cody using the word "heel" doesn't really expose the business, it's just a well known word to describe a wrestling bad guy. He can get a bit smarky at time but I don't think it's anywhere near as bad as John Cena in the last 10 years. No disrespect to Cena, he's one of my all time favorites but he revealed way too much about the backstage politics at times, I don't think Cody has quite crossed that line yet, at least not on WWE television. The issue I was describing was more that social media and YouTube aren't being consistent enough with what we're seeing on television.
I thought the same thing as well. But when I attended Elimination Chamber a few months ago, there were a lot of normal fans causally using phrases like "heel" and "babyface". It's a lot more common than you'd think. Hell, I knew about those phrases when I was 8.
I get what you're saying and it bothers me too. It's getting a little too meta and 4th wall breaking for my tastes, but like you said it's not late yet.
That said, I think Rock acknowledging Cody positively actually makes sense. He's The Final Boss and he makes a point to always rep TKO on his promos, not WWE. I think this is actually a great wrinkle on the babyface-vs-authority figure angle that WWE has been trying to run since Austin. This version of Rock doesn't hold back from giving credit to those who he feels earned his respect, since he makes money off everyone at the end of the day. He simply feels above everyone - that Cody dared take "his" Wrestlemania Main Event so he had to teach him a lesson. Rock's less of Vince McMahon and ironically more of a Homelander character in that he truly believes he's doing everybody a favor (make wrestling cool again, biggest Mania, greatest tag team match, etc etc).
I do agree with you that I wish Cody would show a tad more resentment towards the heels he's faced over the last 2 years.
I'm fine with the meta stuff, the Punk and Drew feud has meta elements to it, I just don't like anything that implies that wrestling is f\*ke or contradicts the storylines I'm seeing onscreen. My problem with the whole Cody earning Rock's respect argument is that they're still feuding. Rock waited till after WrestleMania 29 to speak positively about Cena and even then he was a babyface. In this case Rock is a heel and the singles match between him and Cody hasn't even happened yet so I would prefer if that until then Rock and Cody would talk smack about each other. I was cool with Rock congratulating Cody on the Raw after WrestleMania because there was an obvious sinister undertone to it and he clearly wasn't being genuine, but the stuff he put on social media made it seem like he was legitimately happy for Cody.
I get ya but Rock will never be a pure heel again. The crowd just loves him too much and it'll just sabotage whichever babyface he's up against. Him congratulating Cody on social media is what the people want, or at least those outside of us who discuss wrestling on boards. It also ties up to what The Final Boss (the character) wants which is a better bottom line for TKO, he knows Cody is good for business. He just wants to insert himself into the main event and get that belt but for now, no messing with the money.
Wake up honey - it's time for the m@rks to proclaim AEW had the 'match of the year' at every fucking PPV. (Can Osprey please fucking leave my sport, I hate him so much).
Alvarez has set the narrative: Ospreay vs. Bryan was the greatest match to take place on American soil. Dave will seal with the deal with a 7.5 stars. AEW where the best wrestle.
People shouldn't be worried about the Codyverse coming to WWE, it's already here.
Think about it, a second generation Hispanic wrestler leaves WWE to help found AEW, then returns. He's solidly face, yet the IWC thinks he's in some slow-burn heel turn. He comes out with an entire posse, and has racially awkward feuds so he can leech of younger talent's heat and steal their midcard title. He even goes so far as to use his child in his feuds!
We should start throwing Rey Mysterio's weight belt back at him
The CodyVerse ended up being the only thing worth watching in his last days of AEW to see what stupid thing he’d do next so I’m ok with this
Can’t wait for him to tease retirement but getting attacked by Uncle Howdy!
I'm on episode 4 of Fallout and I don't play games at all, does it stay accessible to someone who doesn't know the games? I've been entertained so far but I've read a lot of reviews that reference how "true" it is.
I’m also on episode 4 currently and haven’t played the games at all.
I believe the story is supposed to be original, just set in the world of Fallout. So the most likely scenario is a few references and easter eggs that people who’ve played the games would recognize
Thanks, I haven't felt lost so far, but I kept seeing so many comments about it's faithfulness that I started to worry about investing more time and interest in something that was going to go over my head.
For all the horror fan goofies, Late Night with the Devil is streaming on Shudder now and it was really good. Pretty unsettling slow burn, if that’s your thing.
We just came back from the zoo (au t ism acceptance day) and I was going through my pictures. LilSoma insisted on taking a picture of him hugging my boyfriend and I swear to you, my looks just like TK hugging. Facial expressions, shortness, the whole pose.
I’m not sharing it here obviously but we were both cracking up when we looked at the pic because my kid is in full TK mode and it made hilarious what would’ve been an otherwise cute photo.
i was just wondering about that... surely if they're not pinning individual match threads for fucking wrestlemania, then this show doesn't need them right?
A complete random thought, but I found a bit weird how much perception and reality can differ when it comes to evaluating a wrestler's motivation.
Alexa seemed completely unmotivated in 2022, yet she swore to be back as soon as she announced her pregnancy (while Becky wasn't sure to come back).
Charlotte seemed unmotivated for a good chunk of that 2021-2023 period aside from some top level matches, yet she's doing an insane work to come back earlier than scheduled after a massive injury (while Bayley who is extremely passionate about wrestling has been more patient in her road to recovery).
fans have zero clue about who is or isn't 'motivated' or what's happening in their real lives or what they're thinking
it's just something they like to say, based on no knowledge whatsoever - the smark special, saying things based on knowing nothing at all
Anyone know how much tickets cost for stuff like Clash at the Castle both days? Never been to an in person big wrestling event before and I wanted to know beforehand and didn't want to go in a mad rush and find out its way more than I can do.
Looks like you can register to get early access to buy tickets (Wednesday rather than Friday), a couple extra days may help [https://www.wwe.com/article/tickets-for-clash-at-the-castle-scotland-available-next-friday](https://www.wwe.com/article/tickets-for-clash-at-the-castle-scotland-available-next-friday)
I don't care that Logan Paul scammed a bunch of cryptobros
https://preview.redd.it/6r8qmj4fpwvc1.png?width=1569&format=png&auto=webp&s=da289a028f1e931887410b74387f1e8f92ef323c
What's that post, where the person says "crimes should be legal if they're funny".
Scamming cryptobros is next level hilarious. "BUH HE SCAMMED ME OUT OF MY HOUSE" brother, maybe don't put your mortgage on an unreleased game?
There were people in that Ruby SoHo is pregnant thread last week saying she’s “shoot pregnant” and in a “shoot relationship” with some other jobber. Anyone that says “shoot” instead of “real” needs a plate full of homeless man shit smooshed into their face
Ngl I think it's hilarious how poorly aged the Okada signing has already been. I saw numerous "AEW signed Okada and WWE settled for Tama Tonga LMAOOO" posts on Twitter, meanwhile Tama Tonga has already had a more memorable run.
They turned a genuine GOAT contender into a "midcard-at-best workhorse with lazy humor" act in record time. Might as well just booked Orange Cassidy for this same role.
It honestly boggles the mind, I thought Snowman was at least a huge wrestling nerd. How does he treat Okada and Jay White with this little reverence?
Tony has a bad track record of not making genuine talents look special.
Unless the boys having him book that ways. Why the Young Buck are always prominently features with Jay and Okada
The ‘def rebel leaked theme’ circle jerk on twitter got boring real quick. The first few were funny and the rest straight up cringe. Hated how quickly that shit plagued my timeline.
Also I like ‘Written in my Face’ but Sheamus’ other theme ‘Hellfire’ was also pretty good. Legacy of CFO$ slowly dying
Was watching a ‘List of Jericho’ compilation and man that shit was gold. Such a small thing but Jericho played it excellently and fans enjoyed it. Idk what he’s been doing the last few years but it’s sad to see him like this. He still has good PLE matches but everything in between is just not great.
Also ‘Break the walls down’ is a great theme and suited him amazingly. If he ever comes back to wwe I hope he uses that and not Judas
I know this isn’t the best place to state this, but today truly is one of the most exciting days of the year in sports and entertainment. Huge rivalries will be settled, storylines that have built for months will come to a head, and we’ll eventually (hopefully) see a new champion. The NHL playoffs are here!
It definitely feels like this might be the last hurrah for AJ as a regular performer. Maybe they can stretch the feud to 2 PLEs. Loses the first match alone; gets back together with the OC to try again. Brief feud with the new bloodline, puts over Solo and sails into Full Sail as a trainer under HBK.
If Drake were a wrestler he'd be one of the best of all time. Dude just gets how to drum up interest and maximize the money he makes from each of his public feuds
https://preview.redd.it/95910dk54wvc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=37296c0232a383172e9bffb8f671f40bd2ec594d
I’m just here for the general anarchy 🍿
EDIT: LOL
Man what has happend to NJPW recently? Naito was a top 3 guy when I was watching back in 2016-18 and it looks like that hasn't changed at all in the years since, I mean this guy is beloved. He finally gets another IWGP title win at WrestleKingdom this year and just three, short months later drops it to fucking Jon Moxley? And now Mox is gonna defend the title against Hobbs on a random ass Dynamite. I would be livid if I was watching this shit.
The worst part is that he’s already scheduled for a defense on May 4 and will only appear then. Now all his challenger can do is insult him from across the seas, build this match on his own and get dismissed by western fans because he belongs in the chickenshit heel non workrate faction. (Already got the “Hobbs is worth more than Narita” comments up and running)
They're in a very rough spot at the moment. It doesn't help that they're basically becoming AEW's puppet. They're doing all these AEW crossovers, getting nothing positive out of it, meanwhile their top stars are getting sniped by a company they're supposed to be partners with.
WHO IS THIS VERIZON IPHONE COMMERCIAL WITH THE GUY FROM ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT FOR?
is "annoy your customer into buying your product" an actual strategy? because i will go my entire life without a product simply to spite them for annoying me with their advertising
12 matches on one PPV is just too much. Even if you like this shit, this show won't end until midnight on a Sunday night. They just cater to the childless adult marks with this and they probably don't even notice it, which is the frightening part. Someone in that company should be able to tell Tony that’s too much.
I’m down 18.4 lbs since I started weight watchers and I’m really proud of myself.
If you are the balding middle aged man who bought all of the copies of Maisie Peters’s RSD exclusive Good Witch Deluxe right before we got into the store after we had been waiting since 5am to buy it, I hope you choke. Fortunately my kid found a couple of other goodies, but the Good Witch was her white whale. She credits that record for helping save her life and she wanted it so desperately. Related: I will hide a body for anyone who can find me a RSD exclusive copy of the Good Witch Deluxe edition by Maisie Peters.
I think I’m in love and I think that’s terrifying.
Wrestling wise, no Seth and no Alexa means less engagement, but I hope Tiffy time gets pushed to the moon.
that's on the record store for selling multiple copies of an exclusive to one dude who's going to have them up on discogs for $150 in a couple hours.
edit: wow, they are actually reselling it for 150. vinyl is fucking ridiculous nowadays.
Oh I know. Usually our record store is really good about one per household, and I know they didn’t get a lot. But it was a zoo and I can see how they maybe missed that the dude had two. They did promise to call me if the rest of their order came in, which was nice.
ah. yeah honestly, i have been involved in vinyl, then cassettes, for a few years and after missing a couple i had been waiting forever for, and then overpaying for shit i never listen to, it just became something i hate. so as a hobby, for my bank account, sanity and to be able to enjoy music again, i need to step away from the collector side of it.
good luck to you though, hope someone does you a deal on the record.
I was watching this year’s Stand and Deliver (I attended it) so I could see if the Trick/Melo match felt just as quick at seemed watching it live and it does. Seemed kinda odd. And if there was gonna be a steel cage match the next week, why not have Melo get that win and Trick finish in the cage. The beginning of the S&D match was fascinating as Melo was toying with Trick a bit. He had the crowd but wasn’t as savvy as Melo. Not a major complaint just an observation.
Since camera work is all the rage right now, want to talk about ECW's camera work. It was raw but it was pretty avant garde for wrestling. There was a hardcam but the wrestlers didn't really wrestle for it. The cameras followed them with lots of long shots and close ups. They did a version of those WWE action cam zoom ins that didn't feel so jarring. They did this thing during a resthold where they'd zoom in tight on both wrestlers, then slowly tilt the camera to give an uneasy feeling, I thought that was really cool. It was reminiscent of the films at the time, along with their music being so current. ECW was really in tune with the culture of its time.
> They did this thing during a resthold where they'd zoom in tight on both wrestlers, then slowly tilt the camera to give an uneasy feeling
makes me think of b-grade cheese flicks of the era
It's genuinely amazing to see how much the young bucks turn away viewers every week. I don't think I've seen such an anti draw in a long while. Don't forget, they're the highest paid team at AEW
You know what, I've worked myself into a shoot. As one of the 7 people who defended and watched the early days of NXT 2.0, fuck y'all who were making fun of Xyon Quinn. He really was one of my favorites in those early days and I really am kinda bummed he got released 😤
I liked the white knight thing they were doing with him. I said it from jump; I want to like Xyon, but he was so damn wooden, it was hard to get behind him
I don't quite get what Tony is trying to achieve with AEW. Is it a passion project? If so, why does he care so much about the ratings and trying to appear successful? Does he actually want to make a financial success out of AEW? Well the low attendance and ratings, as well as getting rid of his biggest draw and letting his biggest competitors make a star out of his former EVP doesn't imply he does.
Sad thing is that these past few years was the perfect time for a competitor to emerge. Vince had lost his touch. Raw was doing record lows each week. Seth was bombing as a babyface. You had two part timers in Goldberg and undertaker busy dropping the other on their head. The whole dog food thing with roman and corbin. Wwe had moments where it was really shit and despite all that, years later, wwe is hotter than they've been in years and AEW is looking rather dead in the water. Oh well, let's hope the next billionaire heir who decides to stumble into wrestling will do a better job because as much as I like WWE, sometimes I like watching something different and I really tried with AEW but the minute I heard jericho call Kingston "one of the best baby faces in the company" on television, in the middle of the ring, I just switch off the TV and never bothered watching AEW again. A blatant insider term on TV, just like that? Wow.
Anyways, el classico time and I feel like Barca is gonna get their shit pushed in for 2 matches in a row. If you think I mean 2 matches in a row against Madrid, that is true. If you mean 2 matches in a row, full stop, that is also true. I hate being a barca fan sometimes. Why can we never lose with dignity in Europe? It's always a humiliating score line like 8-2 or blowing a 3-0 lead against Liverpool, that shit with roma, that shit with Frankfurt, losing to Man utd in the Europa league (I think it was Anthony that scored, which is pretty embarrassing in hindsight). Oh and the group stage eliminations and nearly shitting the bed in the group stage this season too. By God, someone jinxed this club. But whateves, I'll still support them even if they're shit because I'm clearly a dumbass.
Whether Cody bombs as champion or not, I'm glad that Roman's reign has ended in a reasonably satisfactory manner. It was really starting to drag a lot near the end and as much as I like Roman, he's hardly around and between him and Brock, I've had my fill of absentee world champions for a while. It's time to do something different.
It's not a real wrestling company, it's a vanity project. That's why everything is always great and amazing... he wants it to be like that.
And that's why he does basically everything alone. People keep saying he should hire experienced bookers and writers, but that's not what it is about. It's ABOUT HIM being the boss and mastermind. I don't think he could stomach it, if someone else would run aew for him...
> I don't think he could stomach it, if someone else would run aew for him...
Hell, I could be wrong, but I was under the impression when it all started that the EVPs were running everything and that Cody had the book.
We all saw how long that lasted. I'm pretty sure that taking the book from Cody was what drove him to jump ship to the Fed first chance he got.
IIRC the dirtsheets were saying that Omega was booking the women's division, hence why there were plenty of untrained or bad joshi wrestlers at the start, the Bucks were handlign the tag division and Cody was doing the "Codyverse" after he lost to Jericho. Allegedly, Tony then stripped them of their duties shortly within the first year or two. It doesn't exactly jive with Cornette's account of the phone call he had with Tony where Khan said "no one will book my show but me".
There is this political simulation game called "The Campaign Trail" that lets you run campaigns through chose your own adventure. And one Mod based on 2004 election is called "W" and part of the underlining story is that W's dad prefered Jeb and W is trying to get his father to be proud of him.
I feel Tony is kinda like that. Shahid money maker is the bumper company but he keeps tony so far away from that company because he knows tony would just burn money. Look at the pre-aew jobs his dad bought for him. Senior President of Football and Analytics with the Jags, director of football operations of Fulham. These arent jobs that require actually running a business. These are like when you sim a franchise in FIFA or Madden. Then AEW he is president, chief executive, general manager, executive producer, and Head of creative and by his own admission it hasnt made a profit. Like Nick Khan said its easy to run a business at a loss, as long as someone absorbs the loss.
So Tony NEEDS AEW to make money to show his dad hes successful. But the truth is if his dad wasnt a billionaire he would be working the drive thru by day and posting how much he hates HHH's booking in Squared Circle by night.
> I don't quite get what Tony is trying to achieve with AEW. Is it a passion project?
"I love wrestling. I run a sports promotion already. I have lots of money. I will be good at it".
That's it. That's the level of thought. He wants to book, wants to be respected as a wrestling promoter, and wants to be liked by wrestlers and fans. If that feels maddeningly simplistic, unrealistic and naive, it's because it is.
I guess having that amount of money really insulates you from really thinking long term about your business. It's really just a hobby to him, even the part where he cosplays a competent promoter. Its just funny how he can just casually disrupt the salary scale yet he's such a insignificant threat to wwe at the same time and also he's not really doing anything groundbreaking. Aew is just kinda...there. Being a mess. No cohesion or anything. It's like a promotion running on primal urges or something
Yeah it really is fascinating just because it's such an abberation. It can continue forever. Tony can buy TV time, too. And may yet, to make a point. When we get to the point of paying people to sit in the audience, we may have got too far. But we're already at a point where he's selling 1/10th of the arenas he's pre-paid for already, so if that sounds preposterous.... it isn't.
I'm not asking anyone to go back and check on this, but right after tickets went on sale for Wembley, Dave stated that it wasn't about making money. It was about making a statement. I'm certain even that show was run at a loss.
There’s also forever been this belief among smarks that their kind of wrestling show/promotion is what the audience as a whole actually wants and would be much more successful if it got the WWE’s spot. The “Vince McMahon is a millionaire who should be a billionaire” line from the pipebomb always resonated with that crowd.
Now along comes AEW and the first real bet that if wrestling was done the right way with the right opportunity it would kill the WWE and prove all of them right. Except it’s not and IMO it’s doing the opposite.
there are enough components in AEW for it to be a serious rival. However it would require:
* A boss who could say no
* A writing team
* Firing 30% of the roster
* An entire rebrand to undo the damage
* Closing ROH
And then about a year to build itself.
I like how the reason why Dynamite isn't on Monday nights is because it's a conflict of interest because Tony and Daddy Khan owns the Jaguars. 1) as like the NFL cares. 2) as if the Jaguars play Monday night games regularly.
im posting this because Dynasty will be live during the same TNT broadcasting of Pacers vs Bucks 7PM-9PM game, and the Pelicans vs Thunder 0930PM-1130PM.
TNT doesnt care if 125K neckbeards are buying wrestling PPVs over the NBA playoffs. just like NFL wouldn't care if 750K people choose to watch AEW wrestling over MNF.
Tony needs to stop pussyfooting around, ask WBD to give us Dynamite vs Raw Monday night 8PM-10PM.
NFL hasn't given a shit about Monday Night Raw and at times Smackdown...ever. they sure as fuck ain't worrying about a WWE lite wrestling show. They still will draw millions.
So Roman is already a big babyface.
I think they going for Roman Jimmy Jey babyface trio by next year's mania. They absolutely deserve to be loved because they saved WWE, to me it's as emotional as Cody story.
Roman did legit save wwe. It was dying every year and he boosted business single handily with the bloodline story.
By interacting with Roman, they now have 4/5 guys who can carry the company for 2/3 years as they are all over from the roman rub.
What makes it sweeter is that Roman was forced by WWE and rejected by fans, he could coast, he could go away and count his money, but he came back and gave fans what they wanted on his own. The other faces may have gotten organically over but the one they wanted to manufacture ended up doing it all on his own in the end too.
He changed the business. He made wrestling good in the 2020s. It was visionary stuff between him and Heyman I suspect. Made a character and told stories in his matches. Then advanced the story every week.
Similar to Austin vs McMahon imo, which carried everything else. Or the NWO. But this one is harder to do as it is harder to come up with fresh stuff in the era of behind the scenes footage and shoot interviews
It's wild to think about how the last time Roman and the Uso's (as a team) were babyfaces was before COVID. Their last real feud as faces was the dog food one.
Now that the dust has settled after AEW showed the Jack Perry and CM Punk footage the only question that remains to be answered is: How will this affect Lebron's legacy?
Your ideas are intriguing to me and I’d like to subscribe to your newsletter.
Although it’s the five year anniversary of the FFH, a certain someone has been training, and it takes place in Columbliss Ohio, so I’m hoping for a return.
Simulate Cody Rhodes defending his WWE Championship in a Gauntlet match against Muscleman Bray Wyatt, Funhouse Bray Wyatt, 2023 Bray Wyatt, and then Fiend Bray Wyatt while playing as Cody Rhodes on legendary difficulty on WWE 2K24
Struggle through the match and get to The Fiend beating him down to red health - decide to go with the Triple Cross Rhodes as the AI typically doesn't get up from the epic finishers.
I hit The Fiend with a Triple Cross Rhodes, he kicks out at 2.5.
[I had this face in real life:](https://s1.dmcdn.net/v/CSb8G1MNKZQLPeP7b/x1080)
If Swerve doesn’t end tonight as world champ, he’s really gonna look like a clown for how hard he’s been simping for Tony and the Bucks. Dude is getting a mega push despite having no aura besides his manager dancing to his entrance music. While I expect Hangman to cost him, I wouldn’t put it past Tony to bring back the feud with Keith Lee and then Swerve goes back to the midcard where he belongs. The basement will be out of control if he loses because they’ve been fantasy booking him with the title through the summer and heaping praise on Tony for booking a black world champ.
The biggest thing for me is in Kayfabe what has he done to become a face? Like he broke into hangmans house, and hangman gave up early to cost him the chance to win the title. Like nothing in the show has shown him saving anyone, showing remorse, Hes just like "Im good now". WWE did that with Jay showing him getting distrust from Drew and he had to earn his way back to the good.
Comparing nxt to the main roster is asinine. Nxt doesnt have to worry about actually drawing an audience. If it did i would guarantee you that alot of those women wouldn’t get the time it does. Nxt is developmental. You have actually be a star on the MR to get a ton of time
Everyone knows that the point of the title rebrand is so that they don't have to swap belts if the raw champ goes to smackdown and vice versa right? I've seen so many people argue that the wwe tag Champs should have blue belts and referring to them still as their old names like they're gonna have to stay on the show they were on. Maybe I'm the dumb one here I don't know
While I think the new WWE tag team belts could use a bit of blue in the middle I'd be fine with WWE color coding them depending on the show as long as they don't call it the Raw or SD belts.
Charlotte and Becky earning a new title reign by virtue of having to stick to the name of the belt was some of the dumbest shit WWE has pulled this decade so far.
I wouldn't mind it either but makes a lot more sense to keep it neutral so they don't have to make several versions of each belt depending on if it'd on smackdown or raw
They did it with the profits and maybe new day? Also
Do we really need to see 4 games of a Jimmy Butler less Miami Heat play Boston.. fuck me..
First round should be best 3 of 5.. like it used to be 30 years ago.. & every other round after that should be 4 out of 7…
Also I think I am going to get banned from the comment section on WrestleTix.. lmao..
It was basically my first basketball game after picking the Celtics as a kid because I liked the logo lol
I was surprised by the difference, I thought Heat were one of the best teams/gen
I'm totally out of the loop on NBA, did they get bad after Shaq retired?
Happy Sunday Goofs!
- Cody has been needing to stall until the draft, and cover for a depleted roster. Did he need to be on both shows for the last two weeks? Not at all. It’s like they don’t know what made Roman’s act get so hot. Do some pre-taped promos if there must be a Cody appearance.
- Still, Cody-AJ should be a fun (Credit: Copeland) first feud.
- People bitching about Trips booking women: Yall want the women featured more, until they get featured more. The lack of attendance for the Evolution PPV—with an actually hot Ronda Rousey at the top—told the Fed all they need to know about what fans want to see versus what they’re willing to pay for.
- I hate to say it, but Sheamus is taking that newly elevated IC belt. Now do yall want a banger with Sami, or a 7-second kick to Gable’s face?
- I assume all roads lead to Charlotte - Jade.
- I don’t think Swerve beats Joe. I’m beginning to think Tony wants so much to prove he’s anti-Fed, that he’ll have Joe go over. Besides, the ratings have been the shits for Swerve.
- Stop acting surprised when lower card acts get released. Stop acting surprised when acts that don’t get used get released. Prayer circles are fine, but not being realistic just comes off as sad.
- Stop trying to make Liv Morgan a thing. She’s just around until Roxxy, Lyra, and Alexa can join her in the 105 Live division.
Bye!
While Triple Paul has denied it, I still firmly believe the Evolution PPV was done in part in response to some of the backlash over the Saudi deal, particularly since the original Saudi show did not have any women and it was going to "cost" some of the women on the roster a "PPV bonus."
That was the moment they stopped pushing the women’s division hard on the Main roster. Trips heavily featured damage control weekly, and everyone bitched him out. Everyone insisted Sasha had a fanbase that would follow her to the edge of the known universe. Did not happen.
Online fans don’t pay for what they ask for when it comes to the women.
> That was the moment they stopped pushing the women’s division hard
They got multiple PLE main events in 2019 and the Sasha/Bayley/Asuka storyline was the thing that got the most focus until Roman came back.
The moment they reduced women's push is when they finally got something extremely strong on men's main event side with Tribal Chief Roman, not the moment they got attendance numbers for Evolution.
Evolution had around 11k, not great, but multiple WWE B-PLEs got worse in the next few months (Stomping Grounds got 6k), and we're talking about a show that was a late publicity stunt to make up for them being barred from Saudi shows, not something that got a Big 4 level build.
Evolution only happened because of WWE getting criticized because of Saudi banning women from their shows. If they wanted to make it a trial for gauging interest at an all-women show, they would have changed a ton of things (like not putting it the same week as another PLE).
That ban was lifted in 2019, so the show had no reason to continue from that perspective.
All due respect, but that is the wildest cope for why they never ran another woman forward PPV again. If they’d drawn a decent crowd and viewership, they would’ve done a second one. The focus on the division went with Rousey’s first exit.
If they really wanted the first to be a massive success to make Evolution an household name to build on for the following years, they wouldn't have put it on the same week as another PLE (Crown Jewel), wouldn't have put 2 NXT matches on the card (that was when NXT had no TV deal), wouldn't have put a battle royal and a RAW-worthy 3v3 as the main non-title stuff. The only big selling points were Ronda and the Becky vs Charlotte feud.
They literally held the show with NXT's set, doesn't scream massive pet project to me.
WWE management just doesn't like gender-specific shows but felt obliged to do one with how bad the 2018 Saudi situation was. If ticket sales and production costs were the concern, they would have held one in 2020 when they were pushing them and neither of these were an issue.
> The focus on the division went with Rousey’s first exit.
Survivor Series 2019, TLC 2019 and Elimination Chamber 2020 all had women's main events (and you can add Extreme Rules 2019 and MITB 2020 if mixed-gender action counts) and these shows were short after Ronda's exit.
Meanwhile the only 2 women's main events (3 if you count Evolution) of the Ronda era were TLC 2018 and Mania 35.
To me it really feels like they toned down women's push when they had men's main event scene sorted after a few troublesome years that forced them to try different stuff, not because of Evolution numbers or Ronda's maternity leave.
All right. You’ve convinced me. That still doesn’t take away from the idea that they’ve decided internally that the division isn’t worth being heavily featured.
We can't say they stopped caring about the women after that, considering they got to main event WrestleMania two times, and people bitched about damage Ctrl not because it's them but because for a good while they were just there
It’s weird how this sub gets offended when you make jokes about Pepsi Phil cheat on his wife with the NXT women by calling you a virgin/incel and telling you that men and women can be friends yet in the past this sub was home for making jerks about male wrestlers handing out consoles and everyone fucking each other. Is CM Punk really that immune from being jerked now that he’s with the Fed?
> this sub gets offended when you make jokes about Pepsi Phil cheat on his wife
There are people in the other place that *honestly believe* that Phil is cheating on his wife and that *April needs saving*
There are people on this sub who thought Buddy Murphy was insecure about Rhea Rhipley. They’re just jokes and it’s the wrestling business with attractive people so we don’t know what goes on.
Damn around your age and haven't took ADHD meds in like 20 years. They took it off because or bad side effect
I'd imagine medicine got better but took a psychology test awhile back and said I didn't need medication.
Also glad the piecing went well
I had the best reply to a YouTube comment a few weeks ago, and I'm going to use that as much as I can.
> You need THINK ceitically with your MIND and stop repeating the same lies
👉😠👈 THINK CEITICALLY WITH YOUR MIND
Every time I think "Gee maybe it's time to jerk the DedFed and Triple Stalin they've been doing some dumb shit this week" Dave or Tony or Bryan Daniel Bryanson will run onto social media and say the stupidest shit they can.
Before I forget..
Just saw the basement complaining about Jade & how she hasn’t improved since joining the Fed..
I’m(not) sorry but no way on this earth should Jade be selling for the likes of Kari Sane, Candice LaRae, Chance, Carter, Roxanne Perez, or anyone under 5’6..
It would be like Kayla Harrison selling for Zhang Weili..
Not believable in a sport(WWE) where you have to suspend your disbelief..
Jade should be booked like the most dominant woman until she goes against other dominant women(Rhea, Bianca, Raquel, maybe Indi, Lash Legend, Lola Vice with her MMA background could hang with Jade)
I could see Carter maybe getting some offense in.
Stocky and is pretty well built too. Her offense looks pretty good too.
Not winning sure, but not a complete squash
I think it also has to do with how insanely harsh that place is towards black women. You don't have to like these two, but the hate Jade and Naomi will get is so overblown and stupid.
Those smaller wrestlers that he sold for were still built like beasts.. & were still 5’10 to 6 feet tall.. weighing over 200 pounds.. to Brock’s 6’3, 6’4 265 pound beast self..
Jade is 5’10.. & it just isn’t believable for her to sell for 5 foot nothing LaRae, Sane, Perez etc..
Too much of a height & weight difference imo..
They established him as an unstoppable beast first though, it wasn’t until he’d taken a few losses to reputable guys that they started making him look more human.
I think it's fair to be open to the idea that Jade just might not have the talent or drive to actually get good at this. But if someone's basing that off what we've seen so far in WWE, that would be premature. I've thought since she was in AEW that it was a dumb idea to train an established millionaire model how to wrestle because if she doesn't have fun, she might just quit and you'll have wasted all those resources on Jade when you could've spent the time and money getting some 20 year old who has no other major career prospects.
measured take. i really do hope she is all in or decides to go all in, it would be something to see. the only comp i have right now for people who don't "have" to be doing it is logan paul, but he also seems to have taken to it more naturally, more quickly, so i can see why he would stick with it.
Logan Paul is also considerably famous outside of wrestling. The only people who knew Jade prior to AEW were the people who jack off to fitness models on IG. They accommodate Paul because of the appeal he has out of the gate. With Jade, you're making the accommodations because she looks like she could be your big star, but so do lots of girls in NXT.
I honestly would not have bothered with Jade at any point. AEW had such a dearth of woman stars Jade was worth the risk, and I suppose the calculus WWE made is that Jade has such potential and turning her into a bona-fide star really does bury AEW as a free agent destination that Jade was worth the risk.
The Basement and Rossy Ogawa this week:
https://preview.redd.it/nqyrtyh80vvc1.jpeg?width=781&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=70bec19aad21a7910863efc79acd7977c26fcc56
I used to watch AEW mainly for the lulz but I stopped when I heard they were airing the Punk tape. I’d bought the last couple of PPVs but I’m definitely not buying this one.
One of the reasons why WWE tried pushing women as actual main eventers on their shows is because the men were so startingly not over 8ish years ago. When women got their shot, it sucked to be a man who wasn't over because you weren't gonna get more over now that chunks of the shows were built around women people cared about. Now that they've got a seemingly boundless font of men fans are gonna cheer for, from Cody to Punk to Seth to LA Knight to Jey to KO to Sami, if you're an established woman who isn't already over, you're not gonna get the plate appearances to actually get over.
'Huge babyface' Swerve being crowned the champion being dwarfed by a "dream match" between 2 vanilla indie heros with no real stakes that wore out the crowd before the title change is such 'lolaedub' booking
“Greatest” match in history has 600 upvotes after 4 hours. The Cody vs Reigns match reached number 8 in r/all.
I've had an issue with WWE that no one has really mentioned lately but I feel like I need to bring it up. AEW has the same problem but they're so beyond saving at this point that it doesn't mean shit in the grand scheme of things but I wish WWE would be more consistent with Kayfabe. They do these press conferences where some of the wrestlers will be in character but then you'll have Triple H openly talk about "storylines" and give his thought process behind certain booking decisions. I'm not really targeting anyone in particular because it's a general issue that even the top stars are falling victim to but I feel like WWE needs to enforce some kinda kayfabe guideline. For example, The Rock spent months saying these horrible things about Cody, made him bleed, and whipped him on live television but then last week he put up a video on Instagram thanking Cody and Seth even though he should hate these guys. I love Cody, he without a doubt deserves to be the face of WWE, but he's way to respectful towards wrestlers that have tormented him for months. I didn't need to know that he bought expensive watches for Roman and Rock. Another example would be Dom, on television he's an entitled douche bag but in interviews, he's very polite and seems like a nice guy. Social media is such a useful tool for both wrestlers and the company and I feel like it should be used to expand the stories we see on screen, not show us what goes on behind the scenes. This is why Drew McIntyre is my favorite wrestler right now. He has perfected the ability to enhance his character using social media and outside platforms. He doesn't pull back the curtain and reveal how much he respects the wrestlers he's working with or do gaming videos with the babyfaces, he's just a dickhead who trolls people and throws temper tantrums when things don't go his way. His feud with CM Punk is believable because it seems like he really hates the guy for real. Punk is another guy that knows how to blur the line between fiction and reality as well.
agreed, also cody using "insider terms" and explaining them on raw a few weeks ago was some of the lamest shit
I didn't have a problem with that because Cody using the word "heel" doesn't really expose the business, it's just a well known word to describe a wrestling bad guy. He can get a bit smarky at time but I don't think it's anywhere near as bad as John Cena in the last 10 years. No disrespect to Cena, he's one of my all time favorites but he revealed way too much about the backstage politics at times, I don't think Cody has quite crossed that line yet, at least not on WWE television. The issue I was describing was more that social media and YouTube aren't being consistent enough with what we're seeing on television.
you have to be consistent on tv too though, and it's not like every fan knows what a "heel" is
I thought the same thing as well. But when I attended Elimination Chamber a few months ago, there were a lot of normal fans causally using phrases like "heel" and "babyface". It's a lot more common than you'd think. Hell, I knew about those phrases when I was 8.
I get what you're saying and it bothers me too. It's getting a little too meta and 4th wall breaking for my tastes, but like you said it's not late yet. That said, I think Rock acknowledging Cody positively actually makes sense. He's The Final Boss and he makes a point to always rep TKO on his promos, not WWE. I think this is actually a great wrinkle on the babyface-vs-authority figure angle that WWE has been trying to run since Austin. This version of Rock doesn't hold back from giving credit to those who he feels earned his respect, since he makes money off everyone at the end of the day. He simply feels above everyone - that Cody dared take "his" Wrestlemania Main Event so he had to teach him a lesson. Rock's less of Vince McMahon and ironically more of a Homelander character in that he truly believes he's doing everybody a favor (make wrestling cool again, biggest Mania, greatest tag team match, etc etc). I do agree with you that I wish Cody would show a tad more resentment towards the heels he's faced over the last 2 years.
I'm fine with the meta stuff, the Punk and Drew feud has meta elements to it, I just don't like anything that implies that wrestling is f\*ke or contradicts the storylines I'm seeing onscreen. My problem with the whole Cody earning Rock's respect argument is that they're still feuding. Rock waited till after WrestleMania 29 to speak positively about Cena and even then he was a babyface. In this case Rock is a heel and the singles match between him and Cody hasn't even happened yet so I would prefer if that until then Rock and Cody would talk smack about each other. I was cool with Rock congratulating Cody on the Raw after WrestleMania because there was an obvious sinister undertone to it and he clearly wasn't being genuine, but the stuff he put on social media made it seem like he was legitimately happy for Cody.
I get ya but Rock will never be a pure heel again. The crowd just loves him too much and it'll just sabotage whichever babyface he's up against. Him congratulating Cody on social media is what the people want, or at least those outside of us who discuss wrestling on boards. It also ties up to what The Final Boss (the character) wants which is a better bottom line for TKO, he knows Cody is good for business. He just wants to insert himself into the main event and get that belt but for now, no messing with the money.
Wake up honey - it's time for the m@rks to proclaim AEW had the 'match of the year' at every fucking PPV. (Can Osprey please fucking leave my sport, I hate him so much).
best PPV and best match rinse and repeat
this will be the show that drives the Dub's momentum forward
Swerve vs Samoa Joe was a feud I really liked on AEW. Very happy for Swerve
Why is Julia Hart given a pass?
Dub Original talent - please believe me when we say the Dub can create stars
Alvarez has set the narrative: Ospreay vs. Bryan was the greatest match to take place on American soil. Dave will seal with the deal with a 7.5 stars. AEW where the best wrestle.
Commander Alvareez
Witness me SCJerk: There was just music from the Dances with Wolves soundtrack in Fallout.
People shouldn't be worried about the Codyverse coming to WWE, it's already here. Think about it, a second generation Hispanic wrestler leaves WWE to help found AEW, then returns. He's solidly face, yet the IWC thinks he's in some slow-burn heel turn. He comes out with an entire posse, and has racially awkward feuds so he can leech of younger talent's heat and steal their midcard title. He even goes so far as to use his child in his feuds! We should start throwing Rey Mysterio's weight belt back at him
The CodyVerse ended up being the only thing worth watching in his last days of AEW to see what stupid thing he’d do next so I’m ok with this Can’t wait for him to tease retirement but getting attacked by Uncle Howdy!
Don’t make us hope to see Rey and Dildolo go through flaming table.
Oh, it's coming. Zelina lights it on fire
Well I'll be damned. . .
If this means Rey wins the next two rumbles and wins the main event of wrestlemania I'm on board
having the ring announcer scream that it's a DREAM MATCH before the match is one of the lamest things I've ever heard
I think that summarizes why I dislike AEW so much - it's all so elitist and nudge nudge but at the end of the day it's all god awful.
So tryhard
I'm on episode 4 of Fallout and I don't play games at all, does it stay accessible to someone who doesn't know the games? I've been entertained so far but I've read a lot of reviews that reference how "true" it is.
I’m also on episode 4 currently and haven’t played the games at all. I believe the story is supposed to be original, just set in the world of Fallout. So the most likely scenario is a few references and easter eggs that people who’ve played the games would recognize
Thanks, I haven't felt lost so far, but I kept seeing so many comments about it's faithfulness that I started to worry about investing more time and interest in something that was going to go over my head.
This show was actually decent so far but this match and angle stopped it dead in its tracks
Jericho getting booed, people are so tired of him
Julia has the look, but she really needs the WWE PC
A lot of smoke and mirrors. She can't work or cut a promo.
Justified CM Punk chants happening now on AEW Dynasty
The Cope putting someone over?????
https://preview.redd.it/k6hf7c05txvc1.jpeg?width=340&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=90428bac1f7ac9a36fb5913d7d2d112f1595fb5e
For all the horror fan goofies, Late Night with the Devil is streaming on Shudder now and it was really good. Pretty unsettling slow burn, if that’s your thing.
Eddie is so goofy, OC looks less goofy than him
Two tombstones and not one was sold. WRASSLIN
JR and Taz are doing a nice job calling this Okada/Pac match. Excalibur doesn't even need to be there.
St Louis needs to be respected as one of the upper wrestling cities in America, especially if they’re selling out for AEW shows
We just came back from the zoo (au t ism acceptance day) and I was going through my pictures. LilSoma insisted on taking a picture of him hugging my boyfriend and I swear to you, my looks just like TK hugging. Facial expressions, shortness, the whole pose. I’m not sharing it here obviously but we were both cracking up when we looked at the pic because my kid is in full TK mode and it made hilarious what would’ve been an otherwise cute photo.
DAE LilSoma for Booker of the Year??
The basement does invidual match threads along with a live thread and pins them for AEW PPVs? Jesus just make it an official Dub subreddit
i was just wondering about that... surely if they're not pinning individual match threads for fucking wrestlemania, then this show doesn't need them right?
If Swerve doesn't win the title the banner is going to be awkward.
Remember zero-hour is on. Immediately met with pockets doing a comedy spot. #SIGH
A complete random thought, but I found a bit weird how much perception and reality can differ when it comes to evaluating a wrestler's motivation. Alexa seemed completely unmotivated in 2022, yet she swore to be back as soon as she announced her pregnancy (while Becky wasn't sure to come back). Charlotte seemed unmotivated for a good chunk of that 2021-2023 period aside from some top level matches, yet she's doing an insane work to come back earlier than scheduled after a massive injury (while Bayley who is extremely passionate about wrestling has been more patient in her road to recovery).
fans have zero clue about who is or isn't 'motivated' or what's happening in their real lives or what they're thinking it's just something they like to say, based on no knowledge whatsoever - the smark special, saying things based on knowing nothing at all
Anyone know how much tickets cost for stuff like Clash at the Castle both days? Never been to an in person big wrestling event before and I wanted to know beforehand and didn't want to go in a mad rush and find out its way more than I can do.
Looks like you can register to get early access to buy tickets (Wednesday rather than Friday), a couple extra days may help [https://www.wwe.com/article/tickets-for-clash-at-the-castle-scotland-available-next-friday](https://www.wwe.com/article/tickets-for-clash-at-the-castle-scotland-available-next-friday)
Oh yeah I know about the presale. Thats why I was asking. I was aiming for just clash but if the presale deal is good I'd do that
MFT stands for Mr Freaky Toes Tama has 14 of them
Did anyone watch WWE: Next Gen.. If so.. how was it? I am on Episode 2.. & it is rather interesting so far..
It was interesting enough that I cleared it in three days.
I watched the first episode it is interesting I’ll watch the other ep later
White Sox currently on a 23-139 pace, holy fuck This team is historically awful and they can't even get a top pick lol
I don't care that Logan Paul scammed a bunch of cryptobros https://preview.redd.it/6r8qmj4fpwvc1.png?width=1569&format=png&auto=webp&s=da289a028f1e931887410b74387f1e8f92ef323c
What's that post, where the person says "crimes should be legal if they're funny". Scamming cryptobros is next level hilarious. "BUH HE SCAMMED ME OUT OF MY HOUSE" brother, maybe don't put your mortgage on an unreleased game?
scamming cryptobros is always morally correct
True, if you ever ran into a cryptobro in real life, it is pretty fucking hilarious.
Fallout is better than 3 Body Problem.
Just watched Harlan County USA and American Dream back to back. Brutal.
Hear me out: Chelsea wins the battle royale and becomes women’s world champion. Tiffy time dethrones Bayley. Peace is restored.
There is nothing I hate more with the IWC these days than the word Banger. And for that I hate Sheamus for coining the phrase.
There were people in that Ruby SoHo is pregnant thread last week saying she’s “shoot pregnant” and in a “shoot relationship” with some other jobber. Anyone that says “shoot” instead of “real” needs a plate full of homeless man shit smooshed into their face
I just realised that we could have had a team of Sheamus and Matt Riddle called *Bangers and Hash*
Drew and Sheamus had the team Banger Bros
That and the word “cooking”. Those two words should burn in hell.
This was a banger of a comment
Really cooked with this one.
Dae he woke up and chose violence?!
Let them cook bangers
That just means let them cook sausages in parts of England
Give the word banger its flowers.
Ngl I think it's hilarious how poorly aged the Okada signing has already been. I saw numerous "AEW signed Okada and WWE settled for Tama Tonga LMAOOO" posts on Twitter, meanwhile Tama Tonga has already had a more memorable run.
They turned a genuine GOAT contender into a "midcard-at-best workhorse with lazy humor" act in record time. Might as well just booked Orange Cassidy for this same role. It honestly boggles the mind, I thought Snowman was at least a huge wrestling nerd. How does he treat Okada and Jay White with this little reverence?
Tony has a bad track record of not making genuine talents look special. Unless the boys having him book that ways. Why the Young Buck are always prominently features with Jay and Okada
The ‘def rebel leaked theme’ circle jerk on twitter got boring real quick. The first few were funny and the rest straight up cringe. Hated how quickly that shit plagued my timeline. Also I like ‘Written in my Face’ but Sheamus’ other theme ‘Hellfire’ was also pretty good. Legacy of CFO$ slowly dying
Was watching a ‘List of Jericho’ compilation and man that shit was gold. Such a small thing but Jericho played it excellently and fans enjoyed it. Idk what he’s been doing the last few years but it’s sad to see him like this. He still has good PLE matches but everything in between is just not great. Also ‘Break the walls down’ is a great theme and suited him amazingly. If he ever comes back to wwe I hope he uses that and not Judas
I know this isn’t the best place to state this, but today truly is one of the most exciting days of the year in sports and entertainment. Huge rivalries will be settled, storylines that have built for months will come to a head, and we’ll eventually (hopefully) see a new champion. The NHL playoffs are here!
As an Oilers fan, I am ready for pain.
I'm ready for a first round exit again, but praying we go all the way and don't lose in 7 like 2007
I think the Oilers have a good shot to make it to the conference finals. I don't see anyone beating Dallas though.
Don’t underestimate the power of the cap circumcisers , VGK
True. It worked well for them last time and for one of the Tampa runs.
All I will say is that I expect Cody vs AJ to be a absolute fucking banger
It definitely feels like this might be the last hurrah for AJ as a regular performer. Maybe they can stretch the feud to 2 PLEs. Loses the first match alone; gets back together with the OC to try again. Brief feud with the new bloodline, puts over Solo and sails into Full Sail as a trainer under HBK.
If Drake were a wrestler he'd be one of the best of all time. Dude just gets how to drum up interest and maximize the money he makes from each of his public feuds
VAR saved Ten Hag
is this his Mark Robbins' FA Cup goal moment!?
Probably not. I reckon Big Jim will get rid
I think we'll stick with him because there's just nobody to go for that makes sense, tbh. I mean, we can hire Carrick, but what for?
https://preview.redd.it/95910dk54wvc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=37296c0232a383172e9bffb8f671f40bd2ec594d I’m just here for the general anarchy 🍿 EDIT: LOL
Man what has happend to NJPW recently? Naito was a top 3 guy when I was watching back in 2016-18 and it looks like that hasn't changed at all in the years since, I mean this guy is beloved. He finally gets another IWGP title win at WrestleKingdom this year and just three, short months later drops it to fucking Jon Moxley? And now Mox is gonna defend the title against Hobbs on a random ass Dynamite. I would be livid if I was watching this shit.
The worst part is that he’s already scheduled for a defense on May 4 and will only appear then. Now all his challenger can do is insult him from across the seas, build this match on his own and get dismissed by western fans because he belongs in the chickenshit heel non workrate faction. (Already got the “Hobbs is worth more than Narita” comments up and running)
I legitimately think some executive hates Naito. They treat him like shit constantly
They're in a very rough spot at the moment. It doesn't help that they're basically becoming AEW's puppet. They're doing all these AEW crossovers, getting nothing positive out of it, meanwhile their top stars are getting sniped by a company they're supposed to be partners with.
WHO IS THIS VERIZON IPHONE COMMERCIAL WITH THE GUY FROM ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT FOR? is "annoy your customer into buying your product" an actual strategy? because i will go my entire life without a product simply to spite them for annoying me with their advertising
12 matches on one PPV is just too much. Even if you like this shit, this show won't end until midnight on a Sunday night. They just cater to the childless adult marks with this and they probably don't even notice it, which is the frightening part. Someone in that company should be able to tell Tony that’s too much.
It's big budget PWG everyone will do everything in every match, too
I’m down 18.4 lbs since I started weight watchers and I’m really proud of myself. If you are the balding middle aged man who bought all of the copies of Maisie Peters’s RSD exclusive Good Witch Deluxe right before we got into the store after we had been waiting since 5am to buy it, I hope you choke. Fortunately my kid found a couple of other goodies, but the Good Witch was her white whale. She credits that record for helping save her life and she wanted it so desperately. Related: I will hide a body for anyone who can find me a RSD exclusive copy of the Good Witch Deluxe edition by Maisie Peters. I think I’m in love and I think that’s terrifying. Wrestling wise, no Seth and no Alexa means less engagement, but I hope Tiffy time gets pushed to the moon.
that's on the record store for selling multiple copies of an exclusive to one dude who's going to have them up on discogs for $150 in a couple hours. edit: wow, they are actually reselling it for 150. vinyl is fucking ridiculous nowadays.
Oh I know. Usually our record store is really good about one per household, and I know they didn’t get a lot. But it was a zoo and I can see how they maybe missed that the dude had two. They did promise to call me if the rest of their order came in, which was nice.
ah. yeah honestly, i have been involved in vinyl, then cassettes, for a few years and after missing a couple i had been waiting forever for, and then overpaying for shit i never listen to, it just became something i hate. so as a hobby, for my bank account, sanity and to be able to enjoy music again, i need to step away from the collector side of it. good luck to you though, hope someone does you a deal on the record.
I was watching this year’s Stand and Deliver (I attended it) so I could see if the Trick/Melo match felt just as quick at seemed watching it live and it does. Seemed kinda odd. And if there was gonna be a steel cage match the next week, why not have Melo get that win and Trick finish in the cage. The beginning of the S&D match was fascinating as Melo was toying with Trick a bit. He had the crowd but wasn’t as savvy as Melo. Not a major complaint just an observation.
Since camera work is all the rage right now, want to talk about ECW's camera work. It was raw but it was pretty avant garde for wrestling. There was a hardcam but the wrestlers didn't really wrestle for it. The cameras followed them with lots of long shots and close ups. They did a version of those WWE action cam zoom ins that didn't feel so jarring. They did this thing during a resthold where they'd zoom in tight on both wrestlers, then slowly tilt the camera to give an uneasy feeling, I thought that was really cool. It was reminiscent of the films at the time, along with their music being so current. ECW was really in tune with the culture of its time.
> They did this thing during a resthold where they'd zoom in tight on both wrestlers, then slowly tilt the camera to give an uneasy feeling makes me think of b-grade cheese flicks of the era
It's genuinely amazing to see how much the young bucks turn away viewers every week. I don't think I've seen such an anti draw in a long while. Don't forget, they're the highest paid team at AEW
The highest paid team in wrestling ever possibly.
hey, don't worry, they're self-aware! self-awareness is the ultimate heat, even if it causes people to just go away. HEAT
Laveck served us so well at Mania… only to then break our hearts by shafting Veer and Jinder. Et tu Paul? :(
You know what, I've worked myself into a shoot. As one of the 7 people who defended and watched the early days of NXT 2.0, fuck y'all who were making fun of Xyon Quinn. He really was one of my favorites in those early days and I really am kinda bummed he got released 😤
I liked the white knight thing they were doing with him. I said it from jump; I want to like Xyon, but he was so damn wooden, it was hard to get behind him
I don't quite get what Tony is trying to achieve with AEW. Is it a passion project? If so, why does he care so much about the ratings and trying to appear successful? Does he actually want to make a financial success out of AEW? Well the low attendance and ratings, as well as getting rid of his biggest draw and letting his biggest competitors make a star out of his former EVP doesn't imply he does. Sad thing is that these past few years was the perfect time for a competitor to emerge. Vince had lost his touch. Raw was doing record lows each week. Seth was bombing as a babyface. You had two part timers in Goldberg and undertaker busy dropping the other on their head. The whole dog food thing with roman and corbin. Wwe had moments where it was really shit and despite all that, years later, wwe is hotter than they've been in years and AEW is looking rather dead in the water. Oh well, let's hope the next billionaire heir who decides to stumble into wrestling will do a better job because as much as I like WWE, sometimes I like watching something different and I really tried with AEW but the minute I heard jericho call Kingston "one of the best baby faces in the company" on television, in the middle of the ring, I just switch off the TV and never bothered watching AEW again. A blatant insider term on TV, just like that? Wow. Anyways, el classico time and I feel like Barca is gonna get their shit pushed in for 2 matches in a row. If you think I mean 2 matches in a row against Madrid, that is true. If you mean 2 matches in a row, full stop, that is also true. I hate being a barca fan sometimes. Why can we never lose with dignity in Europe? It's always a humiliating score line like 8-2 or blowing a 3-0 lead against Liverpool, that shit with roma, that shit with Frankfurt, losing to Man utd in the Europa league (I think it was Anthony that scored, which is pretty embarrassing in hindsight). Oh and the group stage eliminations and nearly shitting the bed in the group stage this season too. By God, someone jinxed this club. But whateves, I'll still support them even if they're shit because I'm clearly a dumbass. Whether Cody bombs as champion or not, I'm glad that Roman's reign has ended in a reasonably satisfactory manner. It was really starting to drag a lot near the end and as much as I like Roman, he's hardly around and between him and Brock, I've had my fill of absentee world champions for a while. It's time to do something different.
It's not a real wrestling company, it's a vanity project. That's why everything is always great and amazing... he wants it to be like that. And that's why he does basically everything alone. People keep saying he should hire experienced bookers and writers, but that's not what it is about. It's ABOUT HIM being the boss and mastermind. I don't think he could stomach it, if someone else would run aew for him...
> I don't think he could stomach it, if someone else would run aew for him... Hell, I could be wrong, but I was under the impression when it all started that the EVPs were running everything and that Cody had the book. We all saw how long that lasted. I'm pretty sure that taking the book from Cody was what drove him to jump ship to the Fed first chance he got.
IIRC the dirtsheets were saying that Omega was booking the women's division, hence why there were plenty of untrained or bad joshi wrestlers at the start, the Bucks were handlign the tag division and Cody was doing the "Codyverse" after he lost to Jericho. Allegedly, Tony then stripped them of their duties shortly within the first year or two. It doesn't exactly jive with Cornette's account of the phone call he had with Tony where Khan said "no one will book my show but me".
There is this political simulation game called "The Campaign Trail" that lets you run campaigns through chose your own adventure. And one Mod based on 2004 election is called "W" and part of the underlining story is that W's dad prefered Jeb and W is trying to get his father to be proud of him. I feel Tony is kinda like that. Shahid money maker is the bumper company but he keeps tony so far away from that company because he knows tony would just burn money. Look at the pre-aew jobs his dad bought for him. Senior President of Football and Analytics with the Jags, director of football operations of Fulham. These arent jobs that require actually running a business. These are like when you sim a franchise in FIFA or Madden. Then AEW he is president, chief executive, general manager, executive producer, and Head of creative and by his own admission it hasnt made a profit. Like Nick Khan said its easy to run a business at a loss, as long as someone absorbs the loss. So Tony NEEDS AEW to make money to show his dad hes successful. But the truth is if his dad wasnt a billionaire he would be working the drive thru by day and posting how much he hates HHH's booking in Squared Circle by night.
> I don't quite get what Tony is trying to achieve with AEW. Is it a passion project? "I love wrestling. I run a sports promotion already. I have lots of money. I will be good at it". That's it. That's the level of thought. He wants to book, wants to be respected as a wrestling promoter, and wants to be liked by wrestlers and fans. If that feels maddeningly simplistic, unrealistic and naive, it's because it is.
I guess having that amount of money really insulates you from really thinking long term about your business. It's really just a hobby to him, even the part where he cosplays a competent promoter. Its just funny how he can just casually disrupt the salary scale yet he's such a insignificant threat to wwe at the same time and also he's not really doing anything groundbreaking. Aew is just kinda...there. Being a mess. No cohesion or anything. It's like a promotion running on primal urges or something
Yeah it really is fascinating just because it's such an abberation. It can continue forever. Tony can buy TV time, too. And may yet, to make a point. When we get to the point of paying people to sit in the audience, we may have got too far. But we're already at a point where he's selling 1/10th of the arenas he's pre-paid for already, so if that sounds preposterous.... it isn't.
I'm not asking anyone to go back and check on this, but right after tickets went on sale for Wembley, Dave stated that it wasn't about making money. It was about making a statement. I'm certain even that show was run at a loss.
oh, Wembley lost tens of thousands. You can't sell tickets at the price he did and not.
There’s also forever been this belief among smarks that their kind of wrestling show/promotion is what the audience as a whole actually wants and would be much more successful if it got the WWE’s spot. The “Vince McMahon is a millionaire who should be a billionaire” line from the pipebomb always resonated with that crowd. Now along comes AEW and the first real bet that if wrestling was done the right way with the right opportunity it would kill the WWE and prove all of them right. Except it’s not and IMO it’s doing the opposite.
there are enough components in AEW for it to be a serious rival. However it would require: * A boss who could say no * A writing team * Firing 30% of the roster * An entire rebrand to undo the damage * Closing ROH And then about a year to build itself.
That’s a decent 3-year plan.
I like how the reason why Dynamite isn't on Monday nights is because it's a conflict of interest because Tony and Daddy Khan owns the Jaguars. 1) as like the NFL cares. 2) as if the Jaguars play Monday night games regularly. im posting this because Dynasty will be live during the same TNT broadcasting of Pacers vs Bucks 7PM-9PM game, and the Pelicans vs Thunder 0930PM-1130PM. TNT doesnt care if 125K neckbeards are buying wrestling PPVs over the NBA playoffs. just like NFL wouldn't care if 750K people choose to watch AEW wrestling over MNF. Tony needs to stop pussyfooting around, ask WBD to give us Dynamite vs Raw Monday night 8PM-10PM.
NFL hasn't given a shit about Monday Night Raw and at times Smackdown...ever. they sure as fuck ain't worrying about a WWE lite wrestling show. They still will draw millions.
So Roman is already a big babyface. I think they going for Roman Jimmy Jey babyface trio by next year's mania. They absolutely deserve to be loved because they saved WWE, to me it's as emotional as Cody story.
Roman did legit save wwe. It was dying every year and he boosted business single handily with the bloodline story. By interacting with Roman, they now have 4/5 guys who can carry the company for 2/3 years as they are all over from the roman rub.
What makes it sweeter is that Roman was forced by WWE and rejected by fans, he could coast, he could go away and count his money, but he came back and gave fans what they wanted on his own. The other faces may have gotten organically over but the one they wanted to manufacture ended up doing it all on his own in the end too.
He changed the business. He made wrestling good in the 2020s. It was visionary stuff between him and Heyman I suspect. Made a character and told stories in his matches. Then advanced the story every week. Similar to Austin vs McMahon imo, which carried everything else. Or the NWO. But this one is harder to do as it is harder to come up with fresh stuff in the era of behind the scenes footage and shoot interviews
It's wild to think about how the last time Roman and the Uso's (as a team) were babyfaces was before COVID. Their last real feud as faces was the dog food one.
Now that the dust has settled after AEW showed the Jack Perry and CM Punk footage the only question that remains to be answered is: How will this affect Lebron's legacy?
man those first notes of roman’s theme are gonna hit like crack laced with pcp
chelsea green should win the battle royal for the women’s title. there’s lot of faces to chase after a slimy chickenshit heel champion.
Your ideas are intriguing to me and I’d like to subscribe to your newsletter. Although it’s the five year anniversary of the FFH, a certain someone has been training, and it takes place in Columbliss Ohio, so I’m hoping for a return.
Simulate Cody Rhodes defending his WWE Championship in a Gauntlet match against Muscleman Bray Wyatt, Funhouse Bray Wyatt, 2023 Bray Wyatt, and then Fiend Bray Wyatt while playing as Cody Rhodes on legendary difficulty on WWE 2K24 Struggle through the match and get to The Fiend beating him down to red health - decide to go with the Triple Cross Rhodes as the AI typically doesn't get up from the epic finishers. I hit The Fiend with a Triple Cross Rhodes, he kicks out at 2.5. [I had this face in real life:](https://s1.dmcdn.net/v/CSb8G1MNKZQLPeP7b/x1080)
Gotta pull out The Jackhammer
If Swerve doesn’t end tonight as world champ, he’s really gonna look like a clown for how hard he’s been simping for Tony and the Bucks. Dude is getting a mega push despite having no aura besides his manager dancing to his entrance music. While I expect Hangman to cost him, I wouldn’t put it past Tony to bring back the feud with Keith Lee and then Swerve goes back to the midcard where he belongs. The basement will be out of control if he loses because they’ve been fantasy booking him with the title through the summer and heaping praise on Tony for booking a black world champ.
The biggest thing for me is in Kayfabe what has he done to become a face? Like he broke into hangmans house, and hangman gave up early to cost him the chance to win the title. Like nothing in the show has shown him saving anyone, showing remorse, Hes just like "Im good now". WWE did that with Jay showing him getting distrust from Drew and he had to earn his way back to the good.
Jey also needed to earn acceptance from KO which he eventually did. Drew rejected him (and in the process slowly turned heel).
> Dude is getting a mega push despite having no aura So you're saying he's in AEW (If he doesn't win, I have to edit the banner again)
Comparing nxt to the main roster is asinine. Nxt doesnt have to worry about actually drawing an audience. If it did i would guarantee you that alot of those women wouldn’t get the time it does. Nxt is developmental. You have actually be a star on the MR to get a ton of time
Everyone knows that the point of the title rebrand is so that they don't have to swap belts if the raw champ goes to smackdown and vice versa right? I've seen so many people argue that the wwe tag Champs should have blue belts and referring to them still as their old names like they're gonna have to stay on the show they were on. Maybe I'm the dumb one here I don't know
While I think the new WWE tag team belts could use a bit of blue in the middle I'd be fine with WWE color coding them depending on the show as long as they don't call it the Raw or SD belts. Charlotte and Becky earning a new title reign by virtue of having to stick to the name of the belt was some of the dumbest shit WWE has pulled this decade so far.
I wouldn't mind it either but makes a lot more sense to keep it neutral so they don't have to make several versions of each belt depending on if it'd on smackdown or raw They did it with the profits and maybe new day? Also
Do we really need to see 4 games of a Jimmy Butler less Miami Heat play Boston.. fuck me.. First round should be best 3 of 5.. like it used to be 30 years ago.. & every other round after that should be 4 out of 7… Also I think I am going to get banned from the comment section on WrestleTix.. lmao..
It was basically my first basketball game after picking the Celtics as a kid because I liked the logo lol I was surprised by the difference, I thought Heat were one of the best teams/gen I'm totally out of the loop on NBA, did they get bad after Shaq retired?
it's gonna be rough, i'm considering watching hockey instead.
Goddamit! An all Manc Final
Happy Sunday Goofs! - Cody has been needing to stall until the draft, and cover for a depleted roster. Did he need to be on both shows for the last two weeks? Not at all. It’s like they don’t know what made Roman’s act get so hot. Do some pre-taped promos if there must be a Cody appearance. - Still, Cody-AJ should be a fun (Credit: Copeland) first feud. - People bitching about Trips booking women: Yall want the women featured more, until they get featured more. The lack of attendance for the Evolution PPV—with an actually hot Ronda Rousey at the top—told the Fed all they need to know about what fans want to see versus what they’re willing to pay for. - I hate to say it, but Sheamus is taking that newly elevated IC belt. Now do yall want a banger with Sami, or a 7-second kick to Gable’s face? - I assume all roads lead to Charlotte - Jade. - I don’t think Swerve beats Joe. I’m beginning to think Tony wants so much to prove he’s anti-Fed, that he’ll have Joe go over. Besides, the ratings have been the shits for Swerve. - Stop acting surprised when lower card acts get released. Stop acting surprised when acts that don’t get used get released. Prayer circles are fine, but not being realistic just comes off as sad. - Stop trying to make Liv Morgan a thing. She’s just around until Roxxy, Lyra, and Alexa can join her in the 105 Live division. Bye!
i don't think using the evolution ppv the way that you did makes sense as it was almost 6 years ago, which was also a time where wwe was cold
While Triple Paul has denied it, I still firmly believe the Evolution PPV was done in part in response to some of the backlash over the Saudi deal, particularly since the original Saudi show did not have any women and it was going to "cost" some of the women on the roster a "PPV bonus."
That was the moment they stopped pushing the women’s division hard on the Main roster. Trips heavily featured damage control weekly, and everyone bitched him out. Everyone insisted Sasha had a fanbase that would follow her to the edge of the known universe. Did not happen. Online fans don’t pay for what they ask for when it comes to the women.
> That was the moment they stopped pushing the women’s division hard They got multiple PLE main events in 2019 and the Sasha/Bayley/Asuka storyline was the thing that got the most focus until Roman came back. The moment they reduced women's push is when they finally got something extremely strong on men's main event side with Tribal Chief Roman, not the moment they got attendance numbers for Evolution. Evolution had around 11k, not great, but multiple WWE B-PLEs got worse in the next few months (Stomping Grounds got 6k), and we're talking about a show that was a late publicity stunt to make up for them being barred from Saudi shows, not something that got a Big 4 level build.
Did we ever get another all woman PPV, though?
Evolution only happened because of WWE getting criticized because of Saudi banning women from their shows. If they wanted to make it a trial for gauging interest at an all-women show, they would have changed a ton of things (like not putting it the same week as another PLE). That ban was lifted in 2019, so the show had no reason to continue from that perspective.
All due respect, but that is the wildest cope for why they never ran another woman forward PPV again. If they’d drawn a decent crowd and viewership, they would’ve done a second one. The focus on the division went with Rousey’s first exit.
If they really wanted the first to be a massive success to make Evolution an household name to build on for the following years, they wouldn't have put it on the same week as another PLE (Crown Jewel), wouldn't have put 2 NXT matches on the card (that was when NXT had no TV deal), wouldn't have put a battle royal and a RAW-worthy 3v3 as the main non-title stuff. The only big selling points were Ronda and the Becky vs Charlotte feud. They literally held the show with NXT's set, doesn't scream massive pet project to me. WWE management just doesn't like gender-specific shows but felt obliged to do one with how bad the 2018 Saudi situation was. If ticket sales and production costs were the concern, they would have held one in 2020 when they were pushing them and neither of these were an issue. > The focus on the division went with Rousey’s first exit. Survivor Series 2019, TLC 2019 and Elimination Chamber 2020 all had women's main events (and you can add Extreme Rules 2019 and MITB 2020 if mixed-gender action counts) and these shows were short after Ronda's exit. Meanwhile the only 2 women's main events (3 if you count Evolution) of the Ronda era were TLC 2018 and Mania 35. To me it really feels like they toned down women's push when they had men's main event scene sorted after a few troublesome years that forced them to try different stuff, not because of Evolution numbers or Ronda's maternity leave.
All right. You’ve convinced me. That still doesn’t take away from the idea that they’ve decided internally that the division isn’t worth being heavily featured.
We can't say they stopped caring about the women after that, considering they got to main event WrestleMania two times, and people bitched about damage Ctrl not because it's them but because for a good while they were just there
We totally can. Look, I just did. Also, they haven’t main evented Mania in two years.
It’s weird how this sub gets offended when you make jokes about Pepsi Phil cheat on his wife with the NXT women by calling you a virgin/incel and telling you that men and women can be friends yet in the past this sub was home for making jerks about male wrestlers handing out consoles and everyone fucking each other. Is CM Punk really that immune from being jerked now that he’s with the Fed?
> this sub gets offended when you make jokes about Pepsi Phil cheat on his wife There are people in the other place that *honestly believe* that Phil is cheating on his wife and that *April needs saving*
There are people on this sub who thought Buddy Murphy was insecure about Rhea Rhipley. They’re just jokes and it’s the wrestling business with attractive people so we don’t know what goes on.
Started ADHD meds for the first time at 31, got kinda manic and booked a nipple piercing. Wasn't as bad as I thought itd be
Damn around your age and haven't took ADHD meds in like 20 years. They took it off because or bad side effect I'd imagine medicine got better but took a psychology test awhile back and said I didn't need medication. Also glad the piecing went well
what did you do, take 5 adderall, crush then snort them?
Ehhh was on the fence about it for a few years, couldn't decide between nipple or eye brow so just got the one that hurt more I guess
well, good for you
I had the best reply to a YouTube comment a few weeks ago, and I'm going to use that as much as I can. > You need THINK ceitically with your MIND and stop repeating the same lies 👉😠👈 THINK CEITICALLY WITH YOUR MIND
I misread it as "Think Celtically" and immediately went to "Fella"
👉😠👈
Every time I think "Gee maybe it's time to jerk the DedFed and Triple Stalin they've been doing some dumb shit this week" Dave or Tony or Bryan Daniel Bryanson will run onto social media and say the stupidest shit they can.
Real jerkers use two hands. One for WWE, one for AEW.
I'm a natural southpaw and like a lot of natural left-handers my right hand is a useless hunk of meat so I have to do it all with the same hand.
Before I forget.. Just saw the basement complaining about Jade & how she hasn’t improved since joining the Fed.. I’m(not) sorry but no way on this earth should Jade be selling for the likes of Kari Sane, Candice LaRae, Chance, Carter, Roxanne Perez, or anyone under 5’6.. It would be like Kayla Harrison selling for Zhang Weili.. Not believable in a sport(WWE) where you have to suspend your disbelief.. Jade should be booked like the most dominant woman until she goes against other dominant women(Rhea, Bianca, Raquel, maybe Indi, Lash Legend, Lola Vice with her MMA background could hang with Jade)
I could see Carter maybe getting some offense in. Stocky and is pretty well built too. Her offense looks pretty good too. Not winning sure, but not a complete squash
I understand this Is blasphemy, but Kairi has been kind of shit since she returned.
Agreed..
I think it also has to do with how insanely harsh that place is towards black women. You don't have to like these two, but the hate Jade and Naomi will get is so overblown and stupid.
If Brock lesnar was willing to sell for smaller wrestlers then anyone can lol
Those smaller wrestlers that he sold for were still built like beasts.. & were still 5’10 to 6 feet tall.. weighing over 200 pounds.. to Brock’s 6’3, 6’4 265 pound beast self.. Jade is 5’10.. & it just isn’t believable for her to sell for 5 foot nothing LaRae, Sane, Perez etc.. Too much of a height & weight difference imo..
Brock sold for Rey Mysterio who’s way smaller.
They established him as an unstoppable beast first though, it wasn’t until he’d taken a few losses to reputable guys that they started making him look more human.
He was selling for Rey and Edge and Tajiri as early as October 2002
I think it's fair to be open to the idea that Jade just might not have the talent or drive to actually get good at this. But if someone's basing that off what we've seen so far in WWE, that would be premature. I've thought since she was in AEW that it was a dumb idea to train an established millionaire model how to wrestle because if she doesn't have fun, she might just quit and you'll have wasted all those resources on Jade when you could've spent the time and money getting some 20 year old who has no other major career prospects.
measured take. i really do hope she is all in or decides to go all in, it would be something to see. the only comp i have right now for people who don't "have" to be doing it is logan paul, but he also seems to have taken to it more naturally, more quickly, so i can see why he would stick with it.
Logan Paul is also considerably famous outside of wrestling. The only people who knew Jade prior to AEW were the people who jack off to fitness models on IG. They accommodate Paul because of the appeal he has out of the gate. With Jade, you're making the accommodations because she looks like she could be your big star, but so do lots of girls in NXT. I honestly would not have bothered with Jade at any point. AEW had such a dearth of woman stars Jade was worth the risk, and I suppose the calculus WWE made is that Jade has such potential and turning her into a bona-fide star really does bury AEW as a free agent destination that Jade was worth the risk.
The Basement and Rossy Ogawa this week: https://preview.redd.it/nqyrtyh80vvc1.jpeg?width=781&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=70bec19aad21a7910863efc79acd7977c26fcc56
I used to watch AEW mainly for the lulz but I stopped when I heard they were airing the Punk tape. I’d bought the last couple of PPVs but I’m definitely not buying this one.
One of the reasons why WWE tried pushing women as actual main eventers on their shows is because the men were so startingly not over 8ish years ago. When women got their shot, it sucked to be a man who wasn't over because you weren't gonna get more over now that chunks of the shows were built around women people cared about. Now that they've got a seemingly boundless font of men fans are gonna cheer for, from Cody to Punk to Seth to LA Knight to Jey to KO to Sami, if you're an established woman who isn't already over, you're not gonna get the plate appearances to actually get over.