Who will the masked devil be?

[CeilingFan]

Dec 31, 2023 18:39:55 GMT -5 Chuck Conry said:

So does this group have a name? Is it just The Kingdom? The Undisputed Elite? Something new?

Undisputed Kingdom is a cool name.

[Tom Turkey]

Dec 31, 2023 18:43:23 GMT -5 The Captain said:

Max really needs friends and I also agree that Kyle really should be face coming back from some serious injuries and generally being a really nice guy.

Acclaimed and Hangman will probably stick with him (though in the case of the latter, it’ll be a “the enemy of my enemy” scenario), and could see O’Reilly return as a face, pissed off at Adam ignoring him (in kayfabe) for this revenge scheme.

[asuka007]

Jay White also might not be happy with Cole since Cole and co beat him up as well.

[Hurbster]

Predictable, but the right choice, I think.

[repomark]

It is indeed predictable, but I am struggling to work out the continuity of how this is meant to work. So all that stuff with Strong was just an act to throw MJF off the scent, for some reason. Why wait till he lost the belt to unmask? Why not just turn on him sooner? Why not turn on him at All In especially?

It is a bit of an irritating pay off for me, and it just makes all that time they spent building to turning on one another at All In, only to stay friends (in what felt like a unique twist at the time) feel pointless to me. What was the pay off for Cole in waiting until tonight and waiting until after he had already lost? Wanting to humiliate him in his own town perhaps, and you could say he took too long to give him the ring at the end of the match - but it’s just too unnecessarily elaborate to make any kind of sense.

It’s the wrestling equivalent of Dr Evil slowly lowering Austin Powers into a vat of mutated seabass rather than just shooting him.

[Mr Mario Mario]

Predictable yes but really is the most logical answer and up till the lights came back on I was really hoping that another person would show in the ring as the devil

You broke my heart Adam

Wardlow being part of it makes total sense and the one complaint I will agree with those is having the Kingdom and Roddy in it. Those guys were perfect in the role they had and I was actually enjoying them, if they get presented as super serious again they’ll go right back to switch off mode

[Hypnosis]

Dec 31, 2023 21:34:31 GMT -5 Mr Mario Mario said:

Predictable yes but really is the most logical answer and up till the lights came back on I was really hoping that another person would show in the ring as the devil

You broke my heart Adam

Wardlow being part of it makes total sense and the one complaint I will agree with those is having the Kingdom and Roddy in it. Those guys were perfect in the role they had and I was actually enjoying them, if they get presented as super serious again they’ll go right back to switch off mode

We might not have to worry about Roddy going SRS again yet:

[King Devitt: What Plants Crave]

Okay so...

I didn't hate the reveal, but it also doesn't have me all "Man I can't wait to watch Dynamite this Wednesday!"

So while it's predictable, and the right choice, it's also a bit flat, and meh.

[KingPooper]

It makes sense but still a bit lackluster. I know diehards are enjoying this but as a lukewarm AEW fan I think Max is a terrible unbelievable unlikable face and I really don’t give a crap about UE 2.0.

[Fade]

Dec 31, 2023 21:14:29 GMT -5 Hurbster said:

Predictable, but the right choice, I think.

Don’t hate it. Don’t love it. It’s fine. The safe, logical, and probably best option. Would have personally preferred if it was Pinnacle 2.0 with Cole cuz these dudes do nothing for me and also this would have been dope


(Credit PromoJoe)

[Ben Wyatt]

Dec 31, 2023 21:29:02 GMT -5 repomark said:

It is indeed predictable, but I am struggling to work out the continuity of how this is meant to work. So all that stuff with Strong was just an act to throw MJF off the scent, for some reason. Why wait till he lost the belt to unmask? Why not just turn on him sooner? Why not turn on him at All In especially?

It is a bit of an irritating pay off for me, and it just makes all that time they spent building to turning on one another at All In, only to stay friends (in what felt like a unique twist at the time) feel pointless to me. What was the pay off for Cole in waiting until tonight and waiting until after he had already lost? Wanting to humiliate him in his own town perhaps, and you could say he took too long to give him the ring at the end of the match - but it’s just too unnecessarily elaborate to make any kind of sense.

It’s the wrestling equivalent of Dr Evil slowly lowering Austin Powers into a vat of mutated seabass rather than just shooting him.

Another issue is that revealing Joe was working with Cole and Co right before the PPV seems kinda dumb in hindsight. Would have been much more effective having the match end how it did and THEN Joe acknowledged the devil/his goons before leaving

[Mid-Carder]

Jan 1, 2024 6:27:38 GMT -5 Ben Wyatt said:

Dec 31, 2023 21:29:02 GMT -5 repomark said:

It is indeed predictable, but I am struggling to work out the continuity of how this is meant to work. So all that stuff with Strong was just an act to throw MJF off the scent, for some reason. Why wait till he lost the belt to unmask? Why not just turn on him sooner? Why not turn on him at All In especially?

It is a bit of an irritating pay off for me, and it just makes all that time they spent building to turning on one another at All In, only to stay friends (in what felt like a unique twist at the time) feel pointless to me. What was the pay off for Cole in waiting until tonight and waiting until after he had already lost? Wanting to humiliate him in his own town perhaps, and you could say he took too long to give him the ring at the end of the match - but it’s just too unnecessarily elaborate to make any kind of sense.

It’s the wrestling equivalent of Dr Evil slowly lowering Austin Powers into a vat of mutated seabass rather than just shooting him.

Another issue is that revealing Joe was working with Cole and Co right before the PPV seems kinda dumb in hindsight. Would have been much more effective having the match end how it did and THEN Joe acknowledged the devil/his goons before leaving

I'm trying not to overthink the whole thing since I enjoyed the reveal but Joe actually didn't need the Devil. He won the match clean and was never part of the attacks on MJF, nor was he actually ROH tag champion. So what's the benefit to Joe? He didn't need the Devil and his goons to win the match

[daaave]

Cole's motivation can't be winning the title himself. Must be along the lines of ruining Max's life, having him lose the title in his hometown etc. If he says everything was set up for Worlds End then I think they can explain it away well enough

[HMARK Center]

Jan 1, 2024 6:57:28 GMT -5 Mid-Carder said:

Jan 1, 2024 6:27:38 GMT -5 Ben Wyatt said:

Another issue is that revealing Joe was working with Cole and Co right before the PPV seems kinda dumb in hindsight. Would have been much more effective having the match end how it did and THEN Joe acknowledged the devil/his goons before leaving

I'm trying not to overthink the whole thing since I enjoyed the reveal but Joe actually didn't need the Devil. He won the match clean and was never part of the attacks on MJF, nor was he actually ROH tag champion. So what's the benefit to Joe? He didn't need the Devil and his goons to win the match

I figured that was all just Joe benefitting from Max being stuck in a growing web of paranoia...and, well, getting attacked sometimes, too. Joe played up "I want you 100% at World's End", but clearly during the lead up the devil gang was making sure that wouldn't happen, and it just turns out that, yeah, Joe was in on that, too.

As for Cole, yeah, the motivation here has to basically be that he wanted to just ruin Max to the furthest extent possible: have him lose his titles, get him injured (ergo the way he egged Max on to take bigger and bigger chances doing more dangerous moves at Full Gear, or got him to accept Joe's help in exchange for a title shot), have it all happen in Long Island, just tear down everything Max spent the last year building, friendships included (note the way that even the Acclaimed don't want to side with Max, now, since they were attacked).

Basically, Adam Cole is an emotionally (and with his goons, physically) abusive monster.

[4real]

While I did moan that Cole should have just turned on MJF at All In and had the chance to do it there and then I’m assuming they will explain the injury and staying at Roddy’s place for weeks made him see sense. Of course Cole still looks stupid because he didn’t get the title but he can at least explain he wanted to mess up MJF’s life.

MJF not losing the belt to Jay White can also easily be explained by the Devil attacking White and White clearly never having had any time for Cole at all. Cole I’m assuming had no beef with Samoa Joe so didn’t see an issue in him becoming Champion. But then why didn’t he try and get Wardlow into a title match?

[stoptheclocks]

I'm not sure it makes any sense and it was very lame considering all the build... but Cole will probably pull off his part better moving forward than the other options.

Would kind of like an explanation as to why he didn't put the title on himself or one of his other henchmen.

[Bo Rida]

It'll be a long time before we get the payoff to this, it will be interesting to see how they handle that.
Will Cole be on TV most weeks or just occasionally until fit again? Can the goons keep momentum until MJF is back?

Will it feel hot when the Cole vs MJF part starts properly or will people be tired of it by then?

[Fade]

Jan 1, 2024 9:05:31 GMT -5 Bo Rida said:

It'll be a long time before we get the payoff to this, it will be interesting to see how they handle that.
Will Cole be on TV most weeks or just occasionally until fit again? Can the goons keep momentum until MJF is back?

Will it feel hot when the Cole vs MJF part starts properly or will people be tired of it by then?

God-absolute-Speed if Cole remains out and it’s up to Wardlow and crew to keep things interesting.

[Chiral]

It only just hit me that two of the devil group's targets make sense as enemies of Cole; Hangman had the big Cole feud, and Jay White getting targeted could be played in kayfabe as retaliation for White pinning an injured Cole at Forbidden Door 2022. Targeting the Acclaimed maybe wasn't personal but got them out of the way so MJF would be forced to team with Joe/eventually give another title shot to him.

Cole was far from my preferred pick for this (See my bajillion posts whining about not wanting it to be Cole), I echo the sentiment that a lot of the joy of the All In match and finish were two guys destined to split choosing to stay friends, but it's wrestling so they could always find some way to mend the friendship down the line. But he's definitely the easiest to make the overall mystery arc have continuity and have it all basically make sense, which is a feat in a wrestling mystery angle even if the reveal doesn't have that "WHOAAAA OH SHIT" feel to it.

I'm curious about how this fall would have gone had Cole not gotten hurt, especially with this line from MJF's Players Tribute piece (italics added for emphasis):

It SUCKS how Adam got injured — he was insanely good this summer and deserved to have it all play out.

[daaave]

Hopefully the crutches and boot is just Cole hamming it up a bit and he's not that badly hurt still. Coz it is mad if he's still on crutches 5 months later, all from just jumping about 3 feet of a stage