The Pro Wrasslin' Thread (WWE, WWF, WCW, TNA, ROH, NWA, NJPW, etc)

[Jumpin]

Runa216 said:

I hate everything to do with Punk right now.

If it's all sincere then I can't stand him. Drama follows him everywhere. when he was in WWE and bitching about everything it was easy to think 'oh, WWE is huge, he's probably right. Yeah, fight the power'. But then he goes to AEW and pulls the same shit? Naw, problem lies with punk.

And if it's all a work, I don't like it either. Just comes across as whiny, petulant man-children in a schoolyard 'I know you are but what am I?' fight.

I don't like any of it. No matter the angle. I can't stand it. Punk needs to go the fuck away or grow the fuck up. This rebel punk persona is fine when you're 19 and just learning how cool it feels to properly rebel against your parents, not something a 46 year old professional needs to be doing.

I didn’t find Punk’s promo whiny at all. It was a good promo. Your post on the other hand? It looks like a lot of projection.

And seriously? Complaining about drama and feuds? In pro-wrestling? Come on! You’re acting like the line “The only thing softer than you are the wrestlers you like” really got to you. It’s wrestling! Don’t take it personally. Calm down :D

Anyway, onto what I came here to write:

I watched Collision, and I watched a good portion of RAW—more than half?

Collision was better booked, better paced, had better matches, and without all the bloat. RAW had its moments: Tomasso Ciampa’s match was great! A nice quick match to kick off the show - and the Balor beat down was cool too. Then after like another hour, the most interesting thing to happen is to see Dunne save a segment that started off half-decent with Logan Paul, but I felt ran a little long for what it was trying to achieve. My big problem was the bloat and the mini-matches. I think a fast one to kick off the show is a nice teaser for the night, but to make ALL the matches 1-3 minutes? I felt a sharp pang of disappointment when Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander were stomped (but that opening knee was killer)—I guess they’re jobbers now. I’m sure the main event was a little longer, but I quit before I got there. There was so much brand self-promotion fluffing up the show that I’m wondering if some of the UFC guys have crossed over to WWE production staff? The show seemed promising at first, then floundered. It had the huge spark of potential, though, so I’ll try again next week to see if it picks up.

Collision was a far more solid show. Well booked, well paced, and lean. The crowd was a lot more explosive than the WWE crowd. And while it’s not saying much, but AEW’s matches and promos were all superior to the matches and promos on WWE.

AEW has fixed one things that’s been problematic for me when I watched it last year and the year before. In the past, the show was often incoherent and the “main event” didn’t feel like the main event because of a complete lack of driving anticipation; often the “this is what I’ve been waiting for” moment of the show was MJF cutting a promo, or a match much earlier in the show, or nothing at all. Collision felt like a proper show, the opening promo did its job driving the show and firing up the crowd, making the show feel exciting, and the main event actually felt like the main event.

I’ll be watching AEW again this week.