Wrestling 2021: The Big Thread Machine

[Moribunderast]

Wasn't last year's Wrestlemania also pirate themed? Is Wrestlemania now pirate themed forever?

Maybe. Piracy is certainly the only way I'd consider watching it.

That's a joke. I wouldn't waste the bandwidth.

I enjoyed Dynamite tonight but, my God, the Bucks and their insistence on "shades of grey" booking themselves despite the fact Matt Jackson CAN NOT ACT needs to stop. I prefer them as babyfaces but fuck it, just stay heel now and act like pure dickheads. If it's going to be another three-to-six months of them acting conflicted about their friendship to Kenny and the Good Brothers I will be begging for Moxley and Kingston to murder everyone involved.

[kitsofan34]

STOP, INTERVIEWING, STING, ON, THE, RAMP!!!

He's had fifteen interviews on that fucking ramp and I still have no clue why he's in AEW. Is the storyline that he came purely to mentor Darby?

[Ja'moke]

Wasn't last year's Wrestlemania also pirate themed? Is Wrestlemania now pirate themed forever?

Yeah, kind of. It's at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers stadium, hence the pirate theme. But obviously there had to be last minute move to the PC last year.

But they're back at the stadium this year, so sticking with the original pirate theme.

I thought Dynamite was just okay last night. People seem to be raving about Jericho's promo, which I thought was fine but not blow away great. As an overall episode, it very much felt like they knew they'd be getting their arse kicked by TakeOver so didn't do anything too crazy (other than Tyson appearing, probably in the hopes he helps them from slipping under 600k).

I've seen a bit of TakeOver. Ciampa v WALTER and Raquel v Io well worth checking out.

[Old Thrashbarg]

I enjoyed Dynamite tonight but, my God, the Bucks and their insistence on "shades of grey" booking themselves despite the fact Matt Jackson CAN NOT ACT needs to stop. I prefer them as babyfaces but fuck it, just stay heel now and act like pure dickheads. If it's going to be another three-to-six months of them acting conflicted about their friendship to Kenny and the Good Brothers I will be begging for Moxley and Kingston to murder everyone involved.

Hopefully that was an actual turn and there won't be any more ambiguity going forwards. Felt like it was a pretty sloppy execution; if that was the plan going into the match why would they let Omega take two DDTs from Moxley? And if it wasn't the plan, it didn't take much for them to turn. But whatever, hopefully it's done now.

As an overall episode, it very much felt like they knew they'd be getting their arse kicked by TakeOver so didn't do anything too crazy

Yeah, it was a perfectly good episode, but largely just filler. Didn't help that the Bear Country v Jurassic Express wasn't anything like as good as it should've been. Couple of botches in there and it looked to me as though Boulder injured his arm early on, which led to some failed spots and uncertainty. Can't imagine it was a work as there was no mention of it on commentary.

[Spode]

Hope they sort out the audio for mania because I can't listen to that weird mix of a small crowd and fake crowd noise at the same time

[Ja'moke]

Yeah, it was a perfectly good episode, but largely just filler. Didn't help that the Bear Country v Jurassic Express wasn't anything like as good as it should've been. Couple of botches in there and it looked to me as though Boulder injured his arm early on, which led to some failed spots and uncertainty. Can't imagine it was a work as there was no mention of it on commentary.

That was a shame. I was really looking forward to that match, but yeah, quite sloppy. Boulder went for his double catch into a fall away slam spot but couldn't catch Luchasaurus, and it kind of never recovered from that point on.

I thought JD Drake gave a great showing against Darby, though. Very enjoyable. And Allie vs Tay Conti was also very good, the best match Allie has had in AEW (not that she's had many).

[gmoney]

Can't imagine it was a work as there was no mention of it on commentary.

JR called it "bowling shoe ugly" in parts, and that's his code for it it turned to shite.

Anthony Ogogo's promo was my highlight of the show. Dare I say that the QT Marshall segment this week was pretty good? It pains me to, but they really set the table there, so fair play.

[Ja'moke]

Anthony Ogogo's promo was my highlight of the show. Dare I say that the QT Marshall segment this week was pretty good? It pains me to, but they really set the table there, so fair play.

Oh yeah, I really liked Ogogo in that segment and I'm excited to see how he is in ring next week. If the guy can wrestle a decent match he's got a great future. He's come a long way from Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack!

[peanutbutter]

New season of Dark Side of the Ring is doing an episode on the Ultimate Warrior, doubt we'll be seeing the Warrior award at Mania again after that  comes out...

[Deanjam]

There it is. As expected NXT wins the final head to head. AEW to fold tomorrow.

[Deanjam]

New season of Dark Side of the Ring is doing an episode on the Ultimate Warrior, doubt we'll be seeing the Warrior award at Mania again after that  comes out...

Miraculously renamed the Shad Gaspard award. "It always was called that", screams Vince to an empty arena.

[Ja'moke]

AEW 5th in demo (.28) 688,000 viewership

NXT Takeover: Stand & Deliver Night 1 11th in demo (.22) 768,000 viewership

AEW surprisingly rose in the key demo from last week and was back in the top five for the night, despite losing in overall to NXT.

[BeardFaceMan]

I think that's why TNT aren't worried about AEWs ratings, the demo rating means more to them and AEW have always done quite well in that regard.

[Gurke and Hare]

Why was the Godzilla v Kong match Bear Country vs Jurassic Express? Bear Country aren't monkeys, they're bears, the clue is in the name. If anything, it should have been Luchasaurus v Jungle Boy. Still, nice to see JR shitting on the sponsors as readily as he shits on the product.

Otherwise, yeah, it was treading water a bit. But still never dull. I'd rather Mike Tyson wasn't on the show, but if he is then fine, have him beating the shit out of Spears. And Jericho saying that he can never tell which of FTR is which was great too.

[Ja'moke]

P2+ / P18-49

AEW 688k / 366k

Q1: 691k / 370k (Page vs Caster)

Q2: 728k / 407k (Death Triangle/Best Friends promo, Jericho promo)

Q3: 640k / 363k (Christian interview, start of Jurassic Express/Bear Country)

Q4: 632k / 338k (rest JE/Bear Country, QT group promo, Sting/Lance Archer segment)

Q5: 620k / 337k (Darby vs Drake + post match)

Q6: 732k / 366k (Jericho beatdown + Tyson save)

Q7: 741k / 369k (Tay vs Bunny + post match, start to 6 man)

Q8: 724k / 376k (Mox/Bucks vs Omega/GB)


NXT 768k / 282k

Q1: 700k / 261k (Nita Strauss open and Dunne/KUSHIDA)

Q2: 677k / 235k (end of Dunne/KUSHIDA, start of Gauntlet)

Q3: 766k / 269k (Gauntlet)

Q4: 737k / 263k (start of Ciampa/WALTER)

Q5: 817k / 282k (end of Ciampa/WALTER)

Q6: 737k / 262k (start of NXT Tag Title match)

Q7: 738k / 281k (end of NXT Tag match)

Q8: 858k / 349k (Io vs Raquel)

Overrun: 1.106m / 443k

Tay and Allie breaking the trend of the Q7 death-slot and getting the highest rated quarter of the night is great to see. Obviously, I'm expecting the Tyson segment beforehand to have perhaps brought a few extra over, but still good to see it held up. Tay vs Shida for the title could quite easily main event a future Dynamite.

Jericho still a draw too, as expected.

Also a big overrun for NXT, which shows there is definitely a significant overlap between the audiences. Well, at least in terms of AEW fans also checking out NXT.

[Ja'moke]

One of the craziest lucha trios match I've ever seen at Spring Break just now. This is always such a fun event.

Moxley turning up to challenge Nick Cage, what a mad lad. Poor Renee.

[Ja'moke]

WM set reveal - https://www.instagram.com/p/CNeOyk7gd3c/?igshid=1o9vhpjm8mq5c

Got to be up there with the best. Pyro fired out of cannons?! Yes please.

[Deanjam]

So who's staying up for night one. Nice for it to land on a Saturday. Here's the card. Lashley/Drew is confirmed for opening the show, with Sasha/Bianca closing. Both of those should be good, and also Cesaro/Rollins.

[BeardFaceMan]

Are they sticking Bad Bunny on second to try and get big ratings for the rest of the show, or to get it out of the way early? Braun v Shane should be a total shitshow, looking forward to seeing some clips from that.

[Ja'moke]

They've only announced that Bobby v Drew is opening and Sasha v Bianca is closing, the rest is just Wikipedia guessing where the other matches will land.

I'll be staying up. I still get excited for Mania, and especially so with this being the first time WWE has fans back, plus the stage and those drone images look fantastic. The spectacle is a big selling point.

[Deanjam]

Braun v Shane should be a total shitshow, looking forward to seeing some clips from that.

Braun & Shane are possibly the two most useless unco-ordinated clumsy men in the company. I imagine it will be 15 minutes of Shane avoiding Braun and then getting thrown off the cage through a table.

[Ja'moke]

I don't understand why of all stipulations you would choose a cage match for Shane. A Shane match is only good when he's brawling through the crowd and climbing huge structures to jump off. I mean, sure he can climb the cage, but tons of people have done that.

[Spode]

Couldn't believe Strowman when I saw him last week on Smackdown. Lost some weight, the fella. Still runs like he's close enough to the toilet to speed up a walk but not enough to outright sprint and shit all down his leg like.

[BeardFaceMan]

Will Braun be making live choo-choo noises? I might stay up for that.

[Spode]

Will Braun be making live choo-choo noises? I might stay up for that.

They've got Ringo Starr to announce him into the ring like Heyman used to with Lesnar

[up_the_hampipe]

What time does it start tonight? Is the pre-show from 10?

[Ja'moke]

What time does it start tonight? Is the pre-show from 10?

WrestleMania itself starts at 1 am.

Pre-show at midnight. But they're not doing any matches on the pre-show because apparently they want that first entrance in front of fans to be a big deal, so saving it for the main show.

[up_the_hampipe]

Oh, that's a good idea. But also, fucks sake. Going to be a long night.

[Ja'moke]

A thunder and lightning storm is heading to Tampa: https://twitter.com/stellar_jl319/status/1380993238115479556?s=20

At least they have a big boat to escape on.

[Deanjam]

So much for Drew being the first wrestler the fans see.