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Post by Optimus on Feb 25, 2021 14:47:39 GMT -5
And can I say this: I know that Sting is old as hell--60, I think--but the scorpion death drop never gets old. I love that finishing move, even though it's simple. Makes me giggle every time he does it to someone. I cringed when he took that power bomb from Brian Cage last week. I know he's done this his whole life, and he's still in great shape for his age (not on Sylvester Stallone's level but who is?), but I get uncomfortable seeing a 61-year-old take a big bump like that. I read that he got a little rattled from it, but I'm not sure if that is true or just an attempt in the press to sell the move. But, yeah, it was really cool to see Sting be Sting last night. If he'd thrown in a Scorpion Death Lock, it would've been perfect. He definitely did and apparently it came as a shock to everyone in the WWE. I guess he was tired of being screwed over by Vince and their shitty creative. I'm not sure if they'll do the Dark Order / Brodie Lee replacement angle or not. It kinda looked like they might be going that way, given that all the AEW pics of him that they showed had him in a suit and tie, but who knows. He's gonna be color commentating with Schiavone on the new AEW Dark: Elevation YT show that will start airing on Mondays, will also help mentor the younger guys, and will also wrestle occasionally (according to Tony Khan's statement yesterday). I wonder, though, since he's debuting next week if he'll also do a surprise match. There's the Shaq/Jade vs Cody/Red Velvet match, but Cody f-ed up his shoulder a week or two ago pretty significantly. I don't think he'll need surgery (from what I've read), but I think he has a slight rotator cuff tear. I wouldn't be surprised if Wight subs in for Rhodes and gets that Shaq vs "Big Show" match that WWE never booked when they had the chance.
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Post by robeiae on Feb 25, 2021 17:28:37 GMT -5
That would actually be smart, I think, since Shaq can't wrestle like Cody, but is too damn big for Cody to do a lot to. Having Wight take his place would make the match mostly about the women, which would be a plus.
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Post by robeiae on Mar 1, 2021 9:21:19 GMT -5
The B/R matches were okay. The six women tag team had a few moments, but mostly looked like something that was kind of thrown together just as filler. The other two matches were much better and both results were the opposite of what I expected, with Rosa and Mizunami winning.
That sets up Rose/Rosa and I can't see Rosa winning that. Which I guess makes sense, since Mizunami is strong enough and big enough to not make the final a David vs. Goliath thing (because those do get old). Though I guess Rosa could still push through in order to have her take the belt from Shida, then have to defend it against Baker...
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Post by Optimus on Mar 1, 2021 9:47:30 GMT -5
I thought the Rosa/Riho match could've gone either way. Rosa winning it kinda makes more sense to me, though. Despite how entertaining I think Riho is, and despite her being a former champion, I still consider most of the Japanese women wrestlers to be mostly gimmick and light on actual in-ring believability. They have like maybe one or two actual wrestling moves they can do decently, but that's about it. The rest of it is just flopping around and yelling really loudly. They're pretty much the polar opposite of Japanese men wrestlers. Mostly just kind of comic relief, which to me gets old and annoying after a while.
Riho weights about 90 pounds soaking wet. None of her moves (other than the top rope foot stomp) land with any kind of impact. She basically just looks like a piece of tissue paper flitting around the ring. Sakazaki has a similar problem but she's slightly more believable to me. Maki Itoh is also somewhat entertaining in the ring, but also still sloppy even after doing this for several years and there's no weight or impact behind any of her moves. Another example of mostly gimmick, little skill. Some people like that but to me it gets old fast.
Whomever wins the tournament, I hope they beat Shida, though if it's Rose I'll be disappointed. Shida's just a boring champ to me. Decent in the ring but no personality. She's kind of the opposite to the other Japanese women in that she has skills but no recognizable character to her.
Then again, I'm probably also in the minority of people who think that John Moxley's character is generic and boring. Great in-ring work but he was kind of a big yawn as a champion mostly due to his boring "poor man's Stone Cold" character. His promos are also usually kind of dumb and come off like the high school drop out douchebag at the end of the bar trying to shit-talk like he's tough and not doing a very believable job of it.
I like Kenny Omega as the champion better, if only because the character is more fun to watch than Moxley's. It's a shame, too, because Dean Ambrose was a much more fun character in the WWE.
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Post by robeiae on Mar 1, 2021 10:01:58 GMT -5
Oh, I like that, "poor man's Stone Cold." Honestly, I always hated Stone Cold, which I guess is why I don't really like Moxley. But you know who loves him? My 13-year old daughter. She also loves Darby Allin and Jericho, fwiw (which is a testament to just how awesome Jericho is, imo).
As to the Japanese women, I agree with you, they're overly gimmicky. And yeah, Itoh is funny as hell but still has a lot of learning to do in the ring. But the entertainment value is bleeding over to social media with her. Read back through the thread that spawned this:
Anyway, I don't expect Shida to lose to Rose or to Mizunami. We'll see.
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Post by Optimus on Mar 1, 2021 10:11:32 GMT -5
I don't really care about how entertaining someone is on Twitter, tbh. I hate Twitter anyway.
But, someone being funny on Twitter has diddly squat to do with their on-screen character and in-ring performance, unless they are consistent across all three. Itoh is not. The Dark Order, on the other hand, actually have been able to thread that needle. Funny on Twitter (especially John Silver), funny on the Being the Elite series on YouTube, entertaining on TV, and really good in the ring.
Ugh, Darby Allin. Talk about someone else who has successfully failed upwards. To me, he's also a gimmick wrestler. Paints half of his face black and white...but...why? What does it mean? There's no real rhyme or reason behind his face paint. It's just there to be there. And, the only reason anyone made any comparisons between him and Sting is just the black and white face paint motif. They're nothing alike in terms of looks, build, or in-ring performance. Their styles are competely different. Allin's entire character is that he rides a skateboard and scowls a lot. That's...pretty much it.
Him as the TNT champion has also been a big "are you kidding me?" snooze fest for me. He's just not a believable champion and it's not believable to me when he beats someone like Brian Cage. The dude is built like a 12 year old boy and weighs about as much as Riho after she eats a cheeseburger. One backhand bitch slap from someone like Cage in real life would put Allin in the ICU. Sure, he occasionally does some cool top rope stuff, but there are at least a dozen guys in AEW who do that stuff and do it a lot better than Allin AND, unlike Allin, they don't weigh less than my last bowel movement.
Negative One could take his mask off and paint half of his face black and white and I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between him and Darby Allin.
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Post by robeiae on Mar 1, 2021 13:03:52 GMT -5
Lol, I remember--back in the day--these same sorts of things being said about the Rock and Roll Express (who, quite frankly, are being ripped off right and left by tag teams like the Young Bucks). I remember this guy--who was a nuclear engineer, no lie--going ballistic in a wrestling discussion concerning the Rock and Roll Express because, in his words, "they head wrists as big around as 12 year old boys." I honestly think he believed it all was real (this was circa 1986).
Still, guys like Cage leave me flat. People who can't lower their arms to their sides and have no discernible necks should stick to weightlifting and bodybuilding. There's a happy middle ground for wrestlers, occupied by people like Omega, Moxley, Randy Orton, and so on (the Young Bucks are fine with me, too, fyi). Women wrestlers are, I think, different. And that's unfair to an extent, but it is what it is. Even the very best ones tend to have the GLOW factor, in one way or another. The ones who don't have a harder time getting over, even when they're wicked-talented.
That said, my daughter is the target demo, no getting around it. If thirteen year old boys and girls love a wrestler--or despise a wrestler--that's putting asses in seats and t-shirts in the mail. Right now, on the women's side, Britt Baker is her fav, far and away. 'Course,I suspect 13 year old boys might have some different favs, in that regard...
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Post by Optimus on Mar 1, 2021 14:27:04 GMT -5
I think, for me, Darby Allin and Brian Cage represent the two extremes of things in terms of physical presence that I'm not a fan of (with Allin falling just slightly below Marko Stunt in terms of build). On one end you have someone who is less skilled/exciting in the ring than at least half the roster and basically built like a pre-teen who looks like in real life they'd likely get their ass kicked in 90% of fights they could get into. On the other end, you also have someone less skilled/exciting in the ring but and is the meat-head douchebro who looks like he spends all day in the gym talking about "protein windows" as he drinks bull semen to wash the steroids down his throat. I'm not really a fan of either of those extremes. It's why I used to think that Marko Stunt was mildly entertaining at first, but his shtick got really old after a couple of matches and now I wish he'd just go away.
As far as women wrestlers, I really like Baker. She has the look, the skills, and the character. Tay Conti is great as well, and already has the look (and dat ass) and definitely has the ring skills, but they need to do more to develop her as a character. They've kind of dropped the ball with Anna Jay, Bunny/Allie, and Penelope Ford so far and I will never understand why or how. Especially with the last two.
It'd be nice if all female wrestlers were Becky Lynch but, sadly, they're not. AEW has some talent on the women's side. They've just been terrible with developing it so far.
ETA. Rock 'N Roll Express were being ripped off by The Rockers while the Young Bucks were still in diapers.
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Post by robeiae on Mar 1, 2021 14:53:19 GMT -5
I really think there's something we don't know about Ford. It just doesn't make any sense, how she's not doing shit anymore. Because I am 100% in agreement with you, when it comes to her. She could easily be the champ or at least challenging for the belt, because there's just no one on the roster that's significantly--if at all--better than her.
Injury, simple choice, or maybe...preggers!?!?!
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Post by Optimus on Mar 1, 2021 20:11:28 GMT -5
Ugh...Rose won, which is what I didn't want to happen. I thought Thunder Rosa had a great match with her and really carried her through the match (as most of Rose's opponents wind up having to do). Great job and she really should've won. But, part of me strongly suspected they were wanting to have a lumbering, boring big girl vs lumbering, boring big girl in the final and that's pretty much exactly what we're getting. Two people who are too big to really move around the ring much and do anything really interesting. Greeeeeaaaaatttttt.
I knew after Thunder hit all of those really good, powerful moves on Rose, and Rose kept kicking out (I really hate how often AEW has people kick out of multiple finishers), that they were likely setting up the stupid ending we got, which was Thunder whips Rose's ass all over the ring but Rose is able to somehow come back and do ONE SURPRISE MOVE and end the match. What a bullshit finish. But, whatever.
I'm guessing they're setting Rose up to be the next champ and, if so, that will suck because she sucks. No matter the outcome on Sunday, we'll still have a boring women's champ reigning over a division plagued with headscratchingly bad creative decisions.
Are we sure the writers for WWE's men's division aren't also booking AEW's women's?
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Post by robeiae on Mar 1, 2021 20:40:30 GMT -5
Agreed. Rosa was the dominant force in that match, by far. She had some great bits and really made Nyla Rose look good. Rosa should have won; the finish really didn't track.
But I don't think Rose beats Shida, nor does Mizunami (if she beats Rose, and she might). I think, for better or worse, AEW is content with Shida holding the belt.
As to people kicking out of finishing moves, that's endemic to pro wrestling right now, and I hate it. Jericho seems to have the only finishing move no one can survive.
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Post by Optimus on Mar 1, 2021 23:12:38 GMT -5
Kenny Omega seems to also protect his One Winged Angel pretty well too. I don't think he allows anyone to kick out of it, unless it's maybe a huge match on a PPV.
Speaking of which, really looking forward to the exploding barbed wire match. No idea what that will involve but it sounds insane.
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Post by robeiae on Mar 4, 2021 9:51:55 GMT -5
Well, Mizunami won. Pretty good match, I thought. Mizunami suplexed Rose a couple of times.
I can't imagine, though, that Mizunami will beat Shida. 'Course, I couldn't have imagined that she would win the tournie, so what do I know.
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Post by Optimus on Mar 4, 2021 13:39:03 GMT -5
Yeah, Rose and Mizunami had a much better match than they probably had a right to. Was pleasantly surprised by the outcome but I agree that I don't think they'll have Shida drop the belt to Mizunami.
The opening match with Shaq was more fun than I thought it'd be. It was actually really entertaining. Jade was giving me "female Scott Steiner" vibes by posing and flexing so much during/after moves. I hope she keeps that kind of character going. The fact that she looks like she could kill me adds to it.
Was hoping Paul Wight would've gotten involved in that match, mainly just for the history of a Shaq/Wight match, but it was still pretty good and they didn't really need him to intervene. I admit that I popped when Cody body slammed Shaq. I have no idea how he didn't throw his back out from that, especially since I figured it was broken after Shaq powerbombed the ever-loving hell out of him, lol. Shaq going thru two tables was really cool too. He sold it well. Not sure what was going on with the ambulance disappearing act, but maybe we haven't seen the end of this storyline.
Also, "turkey tits." LOL.
Looking forward to the show on Sunday.
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Post by Optimus on Mar 4, 2021 15:43:46 GMT -5
Also, forgot to mention that I really liked seeing Shawn Spears back. He's been gone for a while and I'm not sure why (couldn't tell if him leaving was a work or an angle at the time) but I really hope they give him a proper push this time. He's a really underrated talent.
Also noticed Scorpio Sky on commentary for a little while talking about the TNT championship. They've been teasing that for a while and he is also a huge talent. I think they should definitely throw the TNT belt on him. He'd be a much better champ than Darby Alin. That boring, failed yawn of an experiment needs to come to an end. Alin is a mid-carder at best. Scorpio Sky is much better and deserves a decent push in the same way that Spears does.
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