All I can say is: “The Viking Experience”? Fucking seriously?
Even among bad name changes that was the worst. I guess I can take my mind off Andrade Cien Almas losing his last name. It’s so derogatory? Not just to the War Raider, but to the audience. There are so many fucking different ways to name something viking related, especially since the fact that they are vikings is already the most obvious thing. Hopefully they change it again next week and pretend they never did that in he first place, wouldn’t be the first time they’ve done that.
They’ve now been renamed “The Viking Raiders” which I guess is better, but still a step down from War Machine and War Raiders. Cole did somewhat acknowledge the displeasure of the fans with the name though.
In other news, I really dig Sami Zayn’s new heel gimmick. I just hope it transitions into a feud soon, or better yet, he enters the MITB ladder match and wins.
AEW has a TV contract with TNT. This is not a drill.
I am very excited with the prospect of this company. They definitely have the talent. I just hope they also have the storylines.
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I mean their storylines can’t possibly be worse than modern WWE’s. And I think that if people like Omega and Jericho have any say in it, they’ll probably do okay.
I watched Money in the Bank just now, and overall it was a really good PPV. There were some snoozers that I didn’t care about, but also some very exciting matches for championships. Styles vs. Rollins in particularly kept what it promised, and that was excellence. And there were some very exciting moments in the middle of the show. But then they had to fuck it up in the end.
SPOILERS
So the Men’s Money in the Bank main events. I am rather disappointed that my favorite Sami Zayn was not involved, being written out over the duration of the show has having fallen victim to an attack by Braun Strowman backstage. I am actually suspicious that Sami may be still injured, but not entirely sure. I think if he was healthy he would always be a great asset for a ladder match.
Regardless, the match is overall pretty good with some very good spots, even though I think the selection of wrestlers could have been better. I still very much liked Ali, Ricochet, Balor and Almas. I can even give credit that the McIntyre-Corbin double-act as it did add an extra dimension. Randy Borton was however Randy Borton. I was still holding out hope for Zayn to show up at some point.
Instead, what we get is that when Ali was on top of the ladder with no-one around, Brock Lesnar’s music starts playing. And instead of just grabbing the briefcase Ali just stares at Lesnar running down the ramp. Really, the timing was all fucked up and having the music was just an extraordinarily dumb choice. Lesnar drags Ali off the ladder, climbs it, and wins a match he wasn’t even fucking part of, in order to get a piece hardware that should signify a new and exciting opportunity that should generally elevate the next big star.
Fucking christ I hate Lesnar and I hate WWE’s booking decisions surrounding him. Just fucking why? Why the fuck does Lesnar need the briefcase? Why the fuck does he need to be involved in the title picture, when spent almost the entire last two years at the top and it was absolute fucking hot garbage?
In other things, I’m watching NJPW’s Best of the Super Juniors 26 tournament, and overall it is great. Having english commentary on all the shows is definitely a step in the right direction, and there have been some fantastic matches. I am particularly fond of SHO vs. Shingo Takagi and Rocky Romero vs. Will Ospreay so far.
Money in the Bank was the only hashtag on twitter last night that broke into the top 15 trending topics. Everything else was Game of Thrones.
WWE has introduced a new title. It is a spin on the old Hardcore Championship and called the “24/7 title”, which has to be defended at any time, anywhere. I like that concept. Hell, I also love the DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship which is defended under similar rules and at one point was held by a taxi driver, a monkey, a ladder, an audience of wrestling fans, and the belt itself. But boy, is this an ugly piece of crap belt.
In more serious news, recently a former female WWE wrestler by name of Ashley Massaro passed away at only age 39. WWE showed an “In Memorian” card prior to the Money in the Bank PPV. However, in light of this it became public that Massaro filed an affidavit in a lawsuit against WWE in 2016, in which she alleged that she was drugged and raped by U.S. military staff during a USO tour in Kuwait, and Vince McMahon persueded her to not report this to the proper authorities.
Yeah, I think I’m done with WWE.
Fun fact: My college roommate, who re-introduced me to wrestling, was in that audience.
Also, IIRC, at least one of the ladders (or maybe it was the blow-up sex doll) successfully defended the belt at least once.
The belts tour in america is one of the best bits of comedy wrestling I’ve ever seen:
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Double or Nothing. That’s what a wrestling event can and SHOULD be. Got-damn.
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Yes, Double or Nothing was very good, but I think something was still missing, but can’t quite put my finger on it. The main event could have been a bit better, mostly due to Jericho’s doughy physique (I really expected him to have got a bit more into shape) and the somewhat lackluster finish. The post-match reveal however is very promising though.
It was definitely a step in the right direction. There was a lot of variety on the show. I also watched the pre-show and there the overall mentality of the AEW shined through too. You had a couple of old guys (Tommy Dreamer, motherfucking Glacier of all people), some crazies (Jimmy Havoc, Joey Janela), some fun guys (Luchasaurus, Jungle Boy) and a variety of other wrestlers of wildly varying backgrounds. It was however a bit chaotic and served mostly as a vehicle for MJF and Hangman Page.
I also liked that the second match had a female ref in a mens match. WWE made a big deal about how they hired a female ref, but only ever use her to referee women’s matches which seems rather pigeonholed. While this female ref also reffed a women’s match on the main card, AEW made no big deal about her. She is the same as every other ref, and that is just how thing should be.
Speaking of women’s matches, they were also very good with some highly skilled wrestlers in there, particularly among the japanese contingent. The reveal of Awesome Kong being on the card was somewhat exciting, but she basically ended up doing nothing, which is kind of why the western women’s match seemed rather lackluster in comparison to the japanese women’s trios match.
Overall the show was a good start to the company and definitely established AEW as worthy competition and something to watch. There’s something for everybody in there.
Double or Nothing took me back several years of me trying to get into wrestling and hit a lot of high points. The 6 women tag match, the AAA tag title defense, the brother v brother were all well worth the watch. The Awesome Kong being added to the 3 way was a let down because it zapped a match I was hyped for and turned it into something that I didn’t want to see. However the setups from that match make it interesting, I just hope the Brandi making things up on the spot doesn’t plague the women’s division.
One thing I do know now is that there was no real way I could watch the event legitimate. B/R Live crashes due to my lock down of my PC, Fite and iTV bypassed my VPNs so had to go on the high seas for it. Thankfully Fite is allowing me to get a HD recap after the fact and watched it on that. In the future I may need to invest in an amazon fire stick/box for the TV so I can legit order it though that so I do not need to get cable again. Also the only way to follow the show once it is going on TNT appears to be Youtube TV of all things so we shall see how that will go.
Overall I really liked the show, Luke may like the show since some of his favorite Lucha Underground performers were there, but can not wait to see what is coming up next.
Is it about 45 minutes after skipping adverts?
It is not, once the show gets going there is no dead time with the exception of the title reveal. Say a good solid 4.5 hours. I can see elements of it that you would like and others that you would not. This will not replace Lucha Underground for you but there are things that will get your attention.
4.5 hours is about 3.5 hours more wrestling than I need in my life 
That is indeed very fair. For a PPV show at least it is shorter than Wrestlemania (8 hours)
I’m actually quite happy just following a few wrestlers on instagram. Also the DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship playlist with Joey Ryan someone posted this week gave me plenty of stupid laughs.
Oh shiiiiiiiiiiiiiii…
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Because of Double or Nothing and other things I’ve fallen a bit behind on the BOSJ tournament but trying to catch up. Who would have thunk that Rocky Romero would have such a good tournament. He is primarily a junior tag team guy who has been a bit relegated as he serves behind the scenes as a primary liaison between the company and english speaking wrestlers, while on-screen he is either doing color commentary for the english broadcast or being the manager and occasional tag partner of the Roppongi 3K stable, so he hasn’t really wrestled a whole lot in the last two years or so.
Rocky Romero already had a fantastic match against Ospreay earlier in the tournament, and he main event in one of the all-block tournament days against El Phantasmo (who despite the name is a canadian wrestler and not wearing a lucha mask). They had a great match with a classic wrestling scenario of a devious heel against an underdog good guy. I am really kind of impressed with Rocky right now.