WWE/NXT/AEW/NJPW Thread

[pr26]

Blood and Guts was so goddamn good.

Eddie Kingston is the best story teller in the business maybe ever.

100% agree. I’ve also really enjoyed seeing Claudio look like an absolute star since his debut. Dude deserves this.

 

[DJTJ]

For those who like Eddie, there’s a lot of him on local Cleveland fed AIW, both from shows, and from podcasts if you want to hear him talk.

Edit- The podcast is called the Card Is Going To Change and per Cagematch DB, they’ve used him 63 times over the last decade plus. Eddie is extremely complimentary of Cleveland as a whole.

 

[Kbiz]

With all the recent injuries to top guys, they'd be stupid to not just roll into Eddie / Claudio feud - lots of history there.

Love AEW but the booking has been a mess as of late. Let Eddie do what he does best - make it personal.

 

[DJTJ]

Personally, I hope there is a day where they let Eddie win the belt. It’s so hard not to root for him, despite some horrible shit he’s done that he immediately copped to.

 

[Real Deal]

RIP PG Era and welcome back the Attitude, in effect July 18th!!!

 

[Jack Brickman]

RIP PG Era and welcome back the Attitude, in effect July 18th!!!

Eh...the problem with WWE hasn't really been the rating, and it's only moving to TV-14, not TV-MA.

Maybe with Vince out it'll make a difference, but I'm dubious.

 

[Real Deal]

Eh...the problem with WWE hasn't really been the rating, and it's only moving to TV-14, not TV-MA.

Maybe with Vince out it'll make a difference, but I'm dubious.

Baby steps

 

[ticon12389]

RIP PG Era and welcome back the Attitude, in effect July 18th!!!

Not so fast

 

[kookoo]

Eh...the problem with WWE hasn't really been the rating, and it's only moving to TV-14, not TV-MA.

Maybe with Vince out it'll make a difference, but I'm dubious.

Lol, yeah. The storylines from the Attitude Era could be done more clean. It's about the Attitude Era having a bunch of guys Vince trusted to actually be the guy... Boobs and saying shit didn't make a difference to me. Though I can't wait for Stone Cold to be able to flip the bird again, haha.

 

[Jack Brickman]

Lol, yeah. The storylines from the Attitude Era could be done more clean. It's about the Attitude Era having a bunch of guys Vince trusted to actually be the guy... Boobs and saying shit didn't make a difference to me. Though I can't wait for Stone Cold to be able to flip the bird again, haha.

Yup. Wrestling doesn't have to be rated R to be good. Just look at NXT. It was a hundred times better than the main roster WWE for like six years before WWE finally gutted it and, tonally, it wasn't really any different from the main roster. It's just that Triple H wanted to put on a good wrestling show and trusted his stars to go out there and crush, which they did.

If I think of all my favorite matches from the last decade, virtually all of them are either NXT, NJPW, or Lucha Underground. Very few main roster matches would make the cut. The first Cena/Owens match is probably my favorite match of the last ten years on the main roster, and Owens winning was legitimately shocking, but of course they had Cena go over Owens twice after that to hammer home the point that Owens wasn't on his level.

 

[kookoo]

Yup. Wrestling doesn't have to be rated R to be good. Just look at NXT. It was a hundred times better than the main roster WWE for like six years before WWE finally gutted it and, tonally, it wasn't really any different from the main roster. It's just that Triple H wanted to put on a good wrestling show and trusted his stars to go out there and crush, which they did.

If I think of all my favorite matches from the last decade, virtually all of them are either NXT, NJPW, or Lucha Underground. Very few main roster matches would make the cut. The first Cena/Owens match is probably my favorite match of the last ten years on the main roster, and Owens winning was legitimately shocking, but of course they had Cena go over Owens twice after that to hammer home the point that Owens wasn't on his level.

I liked the AJ/Cena matches. But yeah, anything with Adam Cole, Samoa Joe, Malakai, KO/Zayn, Gargano, Ciampa, Ricochet, Velveteen Dream (remember him), Finn Balor, Andrade, Drew, FTR, all those guys in NXT was incredible. Undisputed Era was one of the best factions of the last few years. It's wild how quickly after a few months of hiccups, AEW was able to maximize the potential of so many wrestlers.

And if we're talking PG storylines, Kevin Owens and Jericho was phenomenal. The list was more over than Reigns has been...

The issues came in areas like forcing Roman Reigns the super face down our throats and things like that. And not allowing wrestlers to be themselves on the mic and in the ring.

 

[Jack Brickman]

I liked the AJ/Cena matches. But yeah, anything with Adam Cole, Samoa Joe, Malakai, KO/Zayn, Gargano, Ciampa, Ricochet, Velveteen Dream (remember him), Finn Balor, Andrade, Drew, FTR, all those guys in NXT was incredible. Undisputed Era was one of the best factions of the last few years. It's wild how quickly after a few months of hiccups, AEW was able to maximize the potential of so many wrestlers.

And if we're talking PG storylines, Kevin Owens and Jericho was phenomenal. The list was more over than Reigns has been...

The issues came in areas like forcing Roman Reigns the super face down our throats and things like that. And not allowing wrestlers to be themselves on the mic and in the ring.

It's hilarious how WWE tried to force Roman over as a face for over half a decade while fans called for them to just suck it up and turn him heel. They ran their product into the ground for years refusing to do so. Then, when they finally did, he was instantly one of their most over heels.

Funny how listening to your fans tends to work out. I'm not saying you need to always listen to them, but if someone isn't getting over, maybe try something else instead of continuing to push them in the exact same way for years.

One of the main reasons the Attitude Era is so revered is because, when the fans got behind someone, WWE was a lot more willing to lean into it.

 

[Jack Brickman]

Also, unrelated, but I saw a t-shirt with this logo on it and thought it was amazing:

 

[FrontPageNews]

Well that was fun while it lasted

 

[Kbiz]

It's hilarious how WWE tried to force Roman over as a face for over half a decade while fans called for them to just suck it up and turn him heel. They ran their product into the ground for years refusing to do so. Then, when they finally did, he was instantly one of their most over heels.

Funny how listening to your fans tends to work out. I'm not saying you need to always listen to them, but if someone isn't getting over, maybe try something else instead of continuing to push them in the exact same way for years.

One of the main reasons the Attitude Era is so revered is because, when the fans got behind someone, WWE was a lot more willing to lean into it.

Attitude Era, while the actual in-ring product was sub-par to today's standard, they just had much better roster cohesion. There was an interesting mid-card scene and the IC title felt important. Teams like The New Age Outlaws, Edge & Christian, Hardys, Dudleyz, Acolytes really made for an excellent tag division and while the main card was carried by homegrown stars.

Today the product is so damn stale. It's top heavy with about 5-6 guys switched in out of the championship scene to job to the likes of Roman and Brock. Tag team wrestling is an afterthought. They haven't groomed anyone into being a legitimate star (with the exception of Riddle but I'd argue his personality was getting over regardless) the last four years and aside from Rex Steiner and Austin Theory, they really don't have any young stars in the making.

AEW has a lot of work to do but the one thing they've been able to do much better than WWE is getting their guys over organically while making each championship, with the exception of the muddy TNT title scene the last few months, feel important. They don't have a team of writers. They don't have a Hollywood-level production team but yet, they're better at creating moments that feel authentic and earned much better than WWE as of late.

I really want the WWE product to be more engaging but with record profits, they have no incentive to change but the reality is you can't run Roman vs. Lesnar for the next 5+ years but they've built no real challengers during Reign's run. Not to mention, their actual matches are snoozers because we've seen it again and again. It's like they're just booked on autopilot.