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Post by HMARK Center on May 7, 2024 5:34:12 GMT -5
Said it in another thread, but my fantasy booking on this is that phase one of this story ends with a group of "non-day one, but still invested in AEW" types (Copeland, FTR, etc.) uniting to take down the Elite, but ultimately failing; maybe the big fight ends with the return of Hangman, who ends up siding with the Bucks as their new "chosen champion" they'll throw at Swerve, since Okada will likely still be Continental Champ at that point.
This sets the stage for the big heroes of the story to be those "day one" types, or at least babyfaces who are now associated with AEW as the place where they broke through: Swerve tops the list, but a healthy Darby could be involved, maybe Eddie, Daniel Garcia, guys like that.
Maybe in between you do something with the BCC, but Elite vs. BCC was a feud not all that long ago, so I'd get not retreading that ground despite the change in who's part of the Elite.
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Post by HMARK Center on May 7, 2024 5:25:46 GMT -5
I'm sure we can rush AR Fox into a main event possition by All Out right? Gimme Hell of War 2! All honesty, they might be able to do something with that in a short program, maybe a few weeks with a blowoff match on Dynamite - just have the Bucks throwing all of Swerve's past sins at him, with Fox being someone he got to turn and then betrayed, anyway. You wouldn't build a PPV around it since Fox has been in ROH for awhile, but something brief where he pops back up as part an EVP scheme could work.
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Post by HMARK Center on May 7, 2024 5:23:04 GMT -5
Yeah, this is absolutely a credit where it's due situation: Jericho's just too damn good at this whole pro graps thing to not figure something out after awhile and make a gimmick and angle that works, and the Learning Tree idea is working amazingly so far.
And yes, it's absolutely a shot at CM Punk, and why the hell not.
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Post by HMARK Center on May 6, 2024 17:09:20 GMT -5
The only thing you want is for Swerve as world champ to feel like he's the most important thing on the show. I think you can get away with not doing that with a more made champ. Even Joe I think you could. But Swerve is new and needs the attention to keep building his name. They made this mistake with Hangman's run. I worry his match with Christian could be 3rd or 4th most interesting match on the card. Depending what else they book But it's a tricky thing to manage. You want Swerve to succesfully defend the belt but you can't just have him burn through Okada and Ospreay and MJF straight away. I think Christian is a good opponent but it needs a hot build and I think leaning on The Elite story could help. I'd have just gone Perry personally for ppv. Perry can take the loss. Yeah he's hot now and theres interest in him and you don't want to undercut him too much but lets be honest, he's eventually going to settle into young boy of the stable and Okada is and always will be the final boss of the Elite. I like Perry but in 6 months time he will be the job guy in the Elite so strike while interest is high I don't think there's a prayer they want that for Perry; dude came back red hot with this angle, they know full well that if he's the job boy by World's End then it'll be a major @#$% up.
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Post by HMARK Center on May 6, 2024 16:03:08 GMT -5
Ok, ok, let's see, today I think we'll do....Skies of Arcadia! Armada Battle (vs. Galcian)
Final Battle
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Post by HMARK Center on May 6, 2024 15:16:50 GMT -5
I can only ever go with the original decade, it's the WWF/E era with which I'll always feel the biggest connection.
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Post by HMARK Center on May 6, 2024 12:05:27 GMT -5
Both Swerve's reign and the EVP takeover storyline are brand new. You need time for both to get their legs under them, because if you have your brand new champ and huge breakout 'this guy is now a centerpiece of our company and wasn't planned to be from day one' star make a beeline right for the evil bosses, you endu p super trapped. Either Swerve gets a big one over on them to establish himself as the huge star, or he needs to face setbacks that immediately toy with his momentum. Letting them send Swerve's way a guy who isn't associated with them, who Swerve has history with, and who we know there'll be some amazing segments out of en route to a match built well by the new top face and one of the most consistent heels in the company, gives Swerve those pieces. He's already made clear his dislike of the situation and they're already shooting retribution his way for it as their very first act as the guys running the show. Say this runs until Wembley or Chicago, hell say it runs to Full Gear; the storyline takes time to grow. If Swerve mounts an offensive right now, he has to lose by necessity. Jack Perry is recently back and Okada is both new and on that international title grind. Neither guy should be Swerve's first opponent for the sake of their own pushes, nor for the sake of Swerve actually getting some foundation under him. We've had two weeks of huge shocking Elite moments that set the stage for everything they're doing. I imagine this coming week, the Swerve segment is going to be the biggest segment of the show. But right now, the solution that keeps him away and the well built story that getsh im to fight them back are honestly the exact same path: establish himself on a credible filler opponent who he can do good character stuff with, and let the EVP thing go its way. Swerve is no underdog and he gains nothing from early failures. Yeah, you need Swerve at least in the orbit of the growing Elite takeover storyline, since you want your top names involved in all of this, but you can't go for the biggest possible matchups yet, not when you still need to build Perry and Okada up into consistent draws (I think they're absolutely on their way, but it takes more time) and Swerve needs his legs under him early in this run. My fantasy booking idea is that you keep Swerve in said orbit, but the first major offensive against the new Elite is undertaken by a small group with Copeland and FTR as the frontmen, with the understanding that this initial charge is being led by guys who aren't "day one" AEW talent but who've built up to the audience that they genuinely care about the company. Importantly, you have those babyfaces come up short; you make it the equivalent of the nWo beating the Horsemen to make it a bigger deal when Sting finally arrives. The key will be getting to the next phase, when the people who eventually take the Elite down are people who are either "day one" types or are at least much more coded as AEW wrestlers than they are as WWE wrestlers, Swerve being high on that list. He could drop the title to Perry, Okada, or maybe even a returning Hangman, but he needs to be involved in however this all gets resolved, which could potentially include him winning the belt back.
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Post by HMARK Center on May 6, 2024 10:29:59 GMT -5
Hot take, Mania 30 is a very mediocre show that starts strong and has a feel good finish. Just about everything in-between is pretty much trash. Is that even a hot take, though? Everyone talks about Bryan's win and Undertaker's loss, and...that's about it. My hot take (at least compared to the general views I’ve seen people give on the show) has long been that Mania 31 was just agony to sit through, but gets higher marks for a few high spots in the ladder match, and then Rollins taking the RKO and winning in the end. That show suuuuuuucked.
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Post by HMARK Center on May 6, 2024 9:19:26 GMT -5
All I know is that it feels like Mariah's going to betray Mina at Forbidden Door to keep the title on Toni...so that she can take the title from Toni, which will mean yet another betrayal, and I'm afraid my heart can't take all that.
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Post by HMARK Center on May 6, 2024 9:02:47 GMT -5
Complaining about tribalism and 'the discourse' while trying to turn multiple threads into AEW vs WWE is definitely a choice. Like it or not, the "WWE vs. AEW" dynamic is intrinsic to the issue, here. A massive shift in WWE's media game has occurred in the last year or so, largely driven by Nick Khan and his insanely deep connections in the areas of public relations and media contacts, and a key part of their media strategy project has been to shape the "discourse" surrounding both themselves and AEW, that WWE is the "babyface company" while AEW is "incompetent" or whatever other descriptor, and it's very much a job being done by WWE but also enabled by pretty notable chunks of the wrestling journalism scene who want to maintain their access and sources to and within WWE. So when the public face of WWE creative is out and crapping on media outlets, or claiming to have not read the Vince lawsuit, or otherwise evading questions (something even Michaels is guilty of when it comes to people asking about concrete policy changes within WWE post-Vince scandal) while simultaneously using and benefitting from the usually softer coverage of some of those outlets and using those same outlets to shape public perception and narratives about their main opposition, yeah, it's hard to ignore.
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Post by HMARK Center on May 5, 2024 17:49:00 GMT -5
If he’s this bad at media stuff when the company is white hot and making major bank, what’s he going to be like when he’s under pressure? And, thing is? He’s going to be, and it could happen after perfectly good shows. TKO is owned now by a private equity firm; the second the profit arrow doesn’t go up enough, they’ll be all over him. It’s why he was on TV a ton recently: send a message to ownership that he’s central to the company’s success, get across that firing him would have a backfire effect, that kind of thing. Not saying he’ll deserve it if/when it happens, but get used to stuff like this, it’s the nature of being owned by vulture capitalists.
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Post by HMARK Center on May 5, 2024 11:35:57 GMT -5
I feel like I'm still not sure what happened here. I do know HHH is the absolute worst at PR but am a bit confused. He wants to simultaneously use these outlets for WWE PR while also shittalking them. Modern media manipulation playbook at work.
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Post by HMARK Center on May 4, 2024 13:10:02 GMT -5
Someone more versed in New Japan should probably answer this… Is Tanga Loa actually bad at wrestling in the conventional sense, or only within the context of New Japan where there is such a higher premium placed upon in-ring ability because of guys like Okada, Tanahashi, Omega and Ospreay setting that standard over the years? He's basically what he was in WWE during his first run; fine, pretty good in a tag team with Tama, but otherwise eh.
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Post by HMARK Center on May 4, 2024 10:08:45 GMT -5
That's more or less my point. TBS and TNT's viewership, as a whole, is down in the 6-8% range and AEW's viewership is down 12%. It's not outpacing the average much. I would hazard a guess that, but for TBS/TNT having March Madness and the NBA, AEW's viewership drop would be less severe than TBS and TNT at large. WWE is cooking™ and in an especially hot period which, at least partially, likely accounts for a decent percentage of former AEW live viewers who aren't watching live anymore. None of this means the sky is falling for AEW. I'm not sure any of it means much of anything at all beyond AEW being 5 years old now and the honeymoon period being long gone. The Monday Night Wars were a fun time to be a wrestling fan for those who lived it and are this halcyon representation of a bygone era when wrestling was "cool" for people who are too young to have lived it, so a lot of wrestling fans love to hyper-scrutinize live TV viewership data that is becoming more and more antiquated by the day. Especially right now when dunking on AEW is free Reddit karma. I need someone, could be you that's fine, to explain to me like I am a complete rube. How/why WWE is cooking. Like I don't get it...maybe I'm missing what it is. Like the last PPV I watched was literally 5 matches in 4 hours..with incredibly long entrances, mixed with constant videos that felt like a tourism infomercial for the city they were in. By the time it was over my frustration level was peaked. I'd definitely acknowledge there are things they're doing well: -With the worst of Vince's booking habits gone, WWE has done a good job of not getting in the way of wrestlers who are getting over; they let them come out, let the crowd react to them, let them talk, etc., without all the dumb "yeah, but are you REALLY over? Let's take away every good thing about you and find out!" stuff that used to happen. WWE may feel at times like an "entrance promotion", but hey, the fans like what the stars doing those entrances do and then what they say and some of their key spots, so why get in the way of something that's working? -It's not all passive on their part, though; they've also done a pretty good job of taking some of those wrestlers and rewarding the audience with moments that show them reaching a higher level. I wouldn't say this has been done at all perfectly, but even just Cody rising to the top title, Gunther's IC run leading into what's likely a rise to the main event, that sort of thing, does allow fans to feel like they're justified and, again, rewarded for viewing/following certain wrestlers. It's honestly something AEW should do more often; they'll tell stories with certain wrestlers, but it can be easy for certain acts to get sort of stuck in a particular position on the card (e.g. Kingston is very over, he's in a strong position, fans would probably go nuts for a World title win for him, but you still get the vibe he's not going to beat the tip top guys, at least not yet). -It also has to be acknowledged that while I think it's fair to argue a lot of their recent title runs went way too long, they did a good job of making a lot of the matches involving those titles feel important. I may not have liked the matches in many cases; hell, in the case of Roman I thought his matches basically became reruns that weren't telling any kind of compelling story or showing any interesting character development, which sucks because the motivation and initial execution of Roman's heel turn was one of the best things WWE's booked in twenty years. But I can't sit here and say crowds didn't care about Roman matches (well, ok, maybe outside of the Rumble this year) - people showed up, people were into the whole schtick, even if I couldn't really get it, but that's largely on the company for making sure those title matches felt like events. Now, for me, their actual in-ring product lacks too much for a lot of this to resonate with me - they have good matches, yes, but I feel like the "formula" for many WWE matches is too repetitive and not effective enough at communicating stories and characters in the ring, and while there are exceptions to that (hi again, Gunther!) it's just a general vibe much of the time. I also don't think WWE is particularly sharp when it comes to actually telling an unfolding story; they'll present their characters very well, they'll let them get over and not mess with a good thing, but to me it's still too "moments-based", even when a "moment" might be someone like Drew saying something on the mic so people go "ooh, he ethered him!", but it doesn't really show us those characters evolving due to what they're going through. Hell, I just outlined my complaint about Roman in the last paragraph, but he's just one example of that. But for now? It's working for them. Will it keep working, especially as some major names cycle out for awhile? Hard to say, but for now they've got the positive feeling going for them. What absolutely should be noted, as well, though, is the impact that WWE's leaning on the media is doing for them; people pooh-poohing this are just ignoring what guys like Nick Khan and the guys he works with are tip top at, which has contributed to all kinds of stories over the last long stretch that makes WWE a "babyface company" - I mean, shit, look at how some reports came out after this latest round of firings with the headline/descriptor "yeah, it's bad, but these were done much more nicely and gently than they were under Vince...don't worry, he's 1000% gone, we mean it, investors!", even at the very moment Cameron Grimes was talking about being misled. And, yes, that media strategy has fully involved working to throw dirt at AEW, which Tony Khan has finally seemed to begin forming a larger strategy to respond to with more focus, because it's something that could definitely impact AEW's media rights negotiations.
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Post by HMARK Center on May 1, 2024 10:59:20 GMT -5
For awhile, that was nearly the fate of Alex Shelley in TNA compared to his run in ROH - he showed up sometimes in ROH around late 2003, but by mid 2004 he's there full time as the leader of Generation Next, and primed to go on a run for the World Title (which was why it doubly shocked people when Aries beat Samoa Joe, instead).
At the same time he was getting into TNA and at first they had Goldilocks as his manager while they had Abyss as their muscle; she'd call Shelley her "Baby Bear", and the name nearly stuck in a way that could've hurt him moving forward - good for heel heat, but you know how stuff like that goes if left unchecked.
Eventually, though, Scott D'Amore becoming the head booker for awhile in TNA meant Shelley was going to get a better chance to show his stuff, so by 2005 he was getting highlighted more and eventually got paired up with Kevin Nash for the Paparazzi Productions stuff, all of which builds to the Motor City Machine Guns getting together and thus making his TNA run a success.
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 23, 2024 15:48:11 GMT -5
Was just about to comment on this; the wording I've seen is that it applies to "all workers", though I'm sure more details will come out to specify if this covers "independent contractors" or not.
If nothing else, it does open the door for people to challenge the system WWE's had in place where it's basically "here's three months notice we're not going to use you, now sit home and lose out on building hype before your contract runs out."
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 23, 2024 12:33:13 GMT -5
I have a coworker who's a huge Islanders fan, I might need to check on him to see what last night did to his health.
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 23, 2024 12:32:16 GMT -5
Mets lose two in a row after winning six in a row, and it seems their main vulnerability is starting to come into focus: the starting pitching isn't bad, but it's currently a rotation of mostly guys who are middle-to-back end types (Quintana, Houser, Manaea), plus guys who are capable of more but aren't likely to emerge as aces, as Severino's been decent but not dominant and Butto has shown some real potential but isn't proven yet. A lot of these guys need to locate their pitches in order to be effective, since they lack the stuff for movement or sheer power to do the job for them, and it's leading to them walking way too many hitters. Some of that's understandable - playing the Braves and Dodgers in a short span of time can make that the case - but it's too much, and last night was another case of it as Quintana walked five Giants. It's still early, granted: Houser and Quintana are off to a bad starts but have track records of being a decent back end guy, so it's possible they rights the ship. But until Senga gets back there's no one to turn to as a real top of the rotation arm, and in a division with Atlanta and Philly the leashes may have to be short. Bright side: down on the farm the Mets currently have Joey Lucchesi as a depth piece who's capable of solid big league production, but they also have intriguing young prospect Christian Scott looking pretty damned good so far. Scott will likely force his way to the bigs at some point this year; I'm sure they'd like him to save his bullets a bit, so it's possible he'd come up and work out of the bullpen so his innings count doesn't jump too high in one year, but it's nice to know those options are there. I don't want to do a panic move and jump these guys up right away because a starter has had a couple bad starts out of four total so far, but it's going to be a situation they need to keep an eye on, for sure. It's wild that baseball has reviews, but you can't review a strike call on a ball half a foot outside the zone or on an ejection where the ump admits Boone is probably right but his feelie wheelies are hurt. Baseball is a great sport with godawful everything else. Yeah, I'd rather avoid going full robot umps, but I think I'm ok with managers getting to instantly challenge a couple particularly egregious strike/ball calls per game.
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 23, 2024 12:21:51 GMT -5
Maybe the best streamer reaction to anything ever:
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Post by HMARK Center on Apr 23, 2024 12:19:05 GMT -5
So, I just bought this: a blu-ray of the 1980s Dinosaur specials starring the late Gary Owens and Eric Boardman.Seriously, these tapes were everything to me as a tiny little preschool dino-nut, and when the guys behind them at Midwich Entertainment did a Kickstarter over a decade ago to get them on DVD I was all over it, and even got things from them like the soundtrack of the shows (which is just pure 80s goodness and done by movie composer David Spears), a poster done by the Chiodo brothers (yes, the Killer Klown guys) that was autographed and personalized by Gary Owens, all kinds of stuff that just sent my nostalgic heart aflutter. Even ended up being how I learned one part of one of the specials had been cut from its airing on Disney Channel way back in the day - my parents had taped the Disney airing for me, but it turns out they'd cut the sequence of Gary and Eric riding the then-new dinosaur ride at Knott's Berry Farm in California, since that'd be hyping the theme park competition. Well, now they're putting *all* of the specials, including the original TV-only "pilot" style one done for Disney Channel (even shot in part at the old EPCOT Center Universe of Energy) and one called Return of Dinosaurs that hadn't gotten onto DVD, on blu-ray and I'm really happy to get my hands on it. Heck, I hadn't even known they'd done called "The Volcano Show" or "Prehistoric World", which focused on the Ice Age...would've just been another thing that had me dying to visit the La Brea Tar Pits when I was a little kid, something it only took me about 32 years of my life to check off the list. This was a reel for those shows back in the 80s, if anyone else remembers them:
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