Wrestling 2021/2022: All Thread Everything

[Ja'moke]

Both of the women's matches (yes, two!) on Rampage were really fun.

[Gurke and Hare]

It was the best Rampage for a while, all the matches were good and a very civilised time to show wrestling. Something for everyone, even the WWE idiots on Twitter who'll revel in the terrible rating it will get while ignoring the timeslot.

[Deanjam]

Anyone watch Backlash? Seems it was a better show than expected, with Cody/Seth, Ronda/Charlotte, and the 6-man main event all getting very positive reviews. I'm tempted to give it a watch, but it's hard to care about any of it really.

[Ja'moke]

Anyone watch Backlash? Seems it was a better show than expected, with Cody/Seth, Ronda/Charlotte, and the 6-man main event all getting very positive reviews. I'm tempted to give it a watch, but it's hard to care about any of it really.

That's the main problem, isn't it? The actual quality of the wrestling in WWE is rarely the issue. The roster is too talented, so when it comes to PPVs, you know you're guaranteed some good-to-great matches.

But it's everything around it that sucks and makes it hard to care. The poor booking, the lack of stakes, no real follow-up, no building of new stars. There is very little there to invest in.

[Mobius]

Yeah it was a nothing PPV, with some decent quality matches. You can get decent wrestling anywhere.

[Psybro]

I kept my Network subscription ticking over because the actual match quality on PPVs has been high for a long time, but before Mania they'd dropped off in quality whilst AEW PPVs were just ludicrous blowouts every time.  Even the Rumble PPVs weren't delivering.

[Gurke and Hare]

Do these two dicks think that because it's the Owen Hart tournament they have to try to die falling from a high place?

[Gurke and Hare]

Apart from this silliness, it's been another great Dynamite. I'll take Eddie, LAX and the BCC all day.

Blimey, Darby lost!

[Mobius]

Yeah really enjoyed that episode, so much good stuff.

MJF's DSOTR bit was hilarious, reminded me of the funny bits we'd get in early AEW

[Gurke and Hare]

Anyway, closer to home:

Seaham Conservative Club wrestling 'death match' event probed by police

[Ja'moke]

Top tier Dynamite. Really loved that Dark Side of the Ring parody, as Mobius said reminded me of some of the stuff they'd do on early Dynamites, like that Inner Circle parody of the Cody video.

[boki]

Anyway, closer to home:

Seaham Conservative Club wrestling 'death match' event probed by police

Haha, as if booking a Conservative club for a hardcore event was ever gonna go well.

[Gurke and Hare]

Just remembered Danhausen being introduced as "six foot seven inches and weighing in at over 300 pounds." I laughed at that too.

[Gurke and Hare]

Double or Nothing is going to be crazy stacked isn't it? Already 5 matches confirmed, even if we don't know who'll be in some of them:

Hangman vs Punk
Rosa vs Deeb
MJF vs Wardlow
Owen Hart men's final (Cole vs Samoa Joe?)
Owen Hart women's final

Spoiler alert

Britt vs Statlander, who is in for Shida after a (possibly storyline) injury?

[close]

And they've teased

Jurassic Express vs Stark/Hobbs
JAS vs BCC etc
Death Triangle vs House of Black
Young Bucks vs Hardys

So that's 9 matches, with no TNT or TBS title matches (although I don't mind that, as they're TV titles so they should be defended on TV) and a lot of top talent nowhere to be seen - no FTR for example. They'll get a couple more matches onto the preshow I guess but it's going to be another huge show, and I'm excited for pretty much everything on it.

[Ja'moke]

What do we think to these SRS reports that MJF is looking to leave AEW for WWE when his contract expires?

I can't help but see it as a work, given how much MJF has talked about it on screen. But that's what I thought about Cody too. So who knows?

On your ppv match predictions, I think Athena is gonna be the Joker next week (the show is in her homestate of Texas). And so I think she'll go onto the final against Toni Storm.

[Deanjam]

I don't think we should ever underestimate the lure of WWE to certain wrestlers, especially those with ambitions of getting into Hollywood, which I wouldn't be surprised if MJF did. I'd obviously prefer him to stay in AEW where he'll be more entertaining than a watered-down WWE version.

[Timothy]

Arent there two years left on his deal? A lot can happen in these years. A bit too early to speculate imo.

[confettiinmyhair]

MJF's WWE audition was the Punk feud. If he goes, it was that which got him the gig.

[BeardFaceMan]

Seeing as he's mentioned it on TV I'd say it's a full-on work. I think we've seen the last of the guys who grew up watching WWE so will put up with any amount of bullshit to work there because it's their childhood dream. Guys like MJF grew up watching the indies, it's their dream to be a pro wrestler, not to wrestle for WWE.

[Old Thrashbarg]

I'm not sure about that, with MJF. He'll have watched the indies for his contemporary wrestling fix, but it seems like he's someone who will have watched a lot of WWE/F from before his time. I can easily imagine him having a childhood dream of working there.

[letsgobrian]

On your ppv match predictions, I think Athena is gonna be the Joker next week (the show is in her homestate of Texas). And so I think she'll go onto the final against Toni Storm.

Toni is on the same side of the bracket, so she's meeting Britt or the Joker in the semi final.

[BeardFaceMan]

I'm not sure about that, with MJF. He'll have watched the indies for his contemporary wrestling fix, but it seems like he's someone who will have watched a lot of WWE/F from before his time. I can easily imagine him having a childhood dream of working there.

Oh I'm not saying he won't have watched any WWE at all, of course he did, he's a wrestling fan. But he didn't grow up watching WWE only so it's not the end goal, there was a lot of easily available wrestling from lots of different feds for guys his age to watch when they were kids so they don't sit around dreaming of WWE. I know he entered Tough Enough years ago but I still wouldn't think of him as someone who has a dream to work there and would sacrifice everything else for it a la Cody. I really fucking hope so, anyway.

[Ja'moke]

Toni is on the same side of the bracket, so she's meeting Britt or the Joker in the semi final.

Ah that changes things then.

In that case, I don't think the Joker is Athena. It's probably Maki Itoh, who I think is currently in the US. And she can take a loss to Britt.

Then we get Britt v Toni in the semi finals.

[kitsofan34]

Is the male joker Cesaro?

[Magnum Valentino]

Is Benoit's kid a bit simple? I keep seeing short little clips of him saying things like he wants to wrestle using his dad's name and that he should be in the Hall of Fame. I understand there are degrees of complexity in the situation when it in loves a surviving family member but come on lad, he killed two fucking people AND himself!

[BeardFaceMan]

Is the male joker Cesaro?

That would be nice.

[Ja'moke]

It seems Shida is legit annoyed that they're saying she is "injured" and so out of the tournament, meanwhile she is over in Japan wrestling. She's posted a couple of frustrated tweets, and someone said she unfollowed Tony Khan (but I don't know how to verify that). Did they not communicate to her that this was the plan??

[Deanjam]

Is Benoit's kid a bit simple?

Yes. He's been saying this stuff for a while. Why he'd even want to train for an idustry that destroyed his family is worrying enough.

It seems Shida is legit annoyed that they're saying she is "injured" and so out of the tournament, meanwhile she is over in Japan wrestling. She's posted a couple of frustrated tweets, and someone said she unfollowed Tony Khan (but I don't know how to verify that). Did they not communicate to her that this was the plan??

It's very odd, isn't it. I don't know why she would say this stuff if she wasn't legitimately annoyed.

[letsgobrian]

It seems Shida is legit annoyed that they're saying she is "injured" and so out of the tournament, meanwhile she is over in Japan wrestling. She's posted a couple of frustrated tweets, and someone said she unfollowed Tony Khan (but I don't know how to verify that). Did they not communicate to her that this was the plan??

She's in Japan for a MAKAI theatre performance that happened last night, which has been publically promoted for 2 months and presumably she knew the dates earlier as one of the leads.

So it looks like AEW fucked up and forgot when she was in Japan, or booked the women's Owen Hart matches later than originally intended.

So it would appear to save face, they've booked this goofy injury angle. Which flies in face of Hikaru Shida doing loads of wrestling the past week or so, including on a service that's an AEW business partner (Wrestle Universe).

[Mobius]

fans of drama (and assuming this isn't a work)

Sasha walked out of Raw today, unhappy with the planned main event

https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/urb7v8/raw_main_event_changed_after_talents_walk_out_of/

Corey calling her unprofessional live on air

https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/urc21k/raw_spoiler_unprofessionally/

SRS claims this is WWE's official statement

https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/urcfxr/wwes_statement_on_sasha_banks_and_naomi/