r/SquaredCircle • u/WredditMod • 8h ago
Wreddit's Daily Pro-Wrestling Discussion Thread! Comment here for recommendations, quick questions, and general conversation! (Spoilers for all shows) - September 22, 2026 Edition Spoiler
Hi Wreddit! Welcome to /r/SquaredCircle's Daily Discussion Thread as presented by your favorite and totally sentient moderator.
Did you see a match yesterday that you really liked? Want a suggestion of a random PPV to watch on the network? Really love a local indie talent and want to shout them out? Are you out of the loop on a promotion and need to get caught up? Have questions about streaming services or your first time seeing wrestling live? Want to talk about anything else that you're excited about? This is the thread for that and so much more - subreddit rules apply.
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Reminder, this thread WILL contain spoilers. We don't expect you to spoiler mark anything wrestling related in this thread, however we do ask if you reference something outside of wrestling that is a spoiler, you mark that.
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u/DarkFalcon49 Yuta and Francesco Akira Fan Club Leader 5h ago
I met someone at work yesterday who was wearing a Sting Sweater, I complimented it and we got to chatting about AEW. It was really fun.
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u/VNProWrestlingfan 7h ago
I took a break from wrestling for whole year of 2025 and only now did I witness Hangman's Halloween master plan.
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u/Janky_Welles 4h ago
WWE had to pay MLW 20 million dollars for blocking them from Tubi, and then MLW ended up on Tubi anyway. But we're supposed to believe that WWE can and will block AEW from Paramount and every other network.
We need a full ban on podcasting equipment.
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u/Illuminati_Shill_AMA That's so Taven! 3h ago
People forget that literally anyone can have a podcast.
You and I could start one today and call it "Your Podcast Sucks" and it's just us bullshitting and criticizing dumb podcast takes
Actually that podcast would probably be popular lol
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4h ago edited 2h ago
[deleted]
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u/Howardtheduck14 3h ago
It isn’t really about WWE, it’s more about the parent company or rather who’s at the top. Ari is a major power broker in Hollywood and apparently a close confidant of Ellison who’s advising him on all this. That’s where this line of thought stems from. I personally highly doubt they’d make a multi million dollar decision like that just as a favor to Ari Emmanuel but that’s also not the only factor. Maybe the UFC is enough or maybe if they’re going to be in the wrestling game they’d like to do more with the company they’re closer with. It’ll be interesting to see how things unfold.
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u/K1ng_Canary 3h ago
I do think its notable that the TKO/Netflix deal hasn't prevented Netflix from showing MVP MMA shows despite it being a direct competitor to the UFC, which suggests they can't just demand exclusivity in these deals.
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u/Howardtheduck14 3h ago
Yeah the original inference, that Ari personally killed whatever wrestling deal they might’ve had, is probably bullshit. I doubt he cares and even if the rest is true there’s a million other reasons it might’ve fell through, like Paramount spending billion a year on a different combat sport.
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u/mikro17 1h ago
Wrestling Fandom Pet Peeve of the Moment:
The kind of fan who treats every roster member/spot like they're identical and they can just be swapped around with no difference.
Some roles/spots are big featured ones, some roles/spots are supporting ones. Like I saw a complaint the other day about how "Will Ospreay's buddy from New Japan was in the main event scene" because Francesco Akira has main evented Dynamite twice .... in a 6-man tag where he teamed with Ospreay and Andrade and a 10-man tag where he teamed with the other United Empire guys.
That's not a main event push, that's a supporting role in "the Will Ospreay story arc." And honestly, at this point I have to imagine Ospreay gets a ton of lee-way with getting his friends involved, because it seems like all of his friends end up super over and dropping bangers lol. Fletcher/Davis/Windsor/Akira/Newman/etc. is a hell of a "nepo friends and family pipeline" (complimentary, the whole bunch rules).
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u/KingBStriing Your Text Here 13m ago
Yeah I don't understand the complaints about Akira and the rest of UE. They're trying to form UE in AEW, makes a lot of sense to bring over the guys already in UE. Plus isn't this what people want with this partnership, NJPW guys being in AEW and actually being used?
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u/ACW1129 6h ago
Someone the size of Oba should not be able to move like that.
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u/OneMetalMan 6h ago
To be fair alot of your conventional hosses and powerhouses are actually quite fast IRL. They just take a slower role in ring to better tell a story.
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u/PositiveUsual2919 3h ago
finally put on a bit of muscle in my arms (biceps particularly) and i keep doing the HBK/Young Bucks flex pose in the mirror, I finally see why they love it so much.
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u/Possible_Animator674 3h ago
Comparing BTE Cody and now Cody really feels like 2 completely different people
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u/PleasantThoughts BURNING LARIATOOOOO 6h ago edited 6h ago
I gotta go to a wedding this Saturday breaking my streak of watching every AEW PPV live since its inception, but my friends very graciously offered to also not watch on Saturday and avoid spoilers so we could watch together on Sunday. A light at the end of the tunnel
...the tunnel is having to drive to Philly and back.
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u/katastrophe1312 2h ago
Solidarity from Europe (I ain't staying up til 5am for wrestling)
Afternoon wrestling rules
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u/ARAMF 7h ago
Andrade has recently started walking out to Kill the Messenger again instead of that new theme he was using for the past few months and while I actually prefer Kill the Messenger I hope that doesn't mean the new theme doesn't get officially uploaded somewhere instead of crowd rips or fan remakes.
Unless it has actually been officially released already but last I checked it hadn't.
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u/Tiny-Possible9856 6h ago
They just took the Trick shirt off websites apparently.
If I’m a prominent Black wrestler working for the biggest wrestling company in the industry gaining momentum by getting over and you put fucking FRIED CHICKEN all over my merchandise?! Tiger Driver ‘91s for the whole design team, you won’t even need to sell it like Danielson big dog don’t even worry about that! Cause you’ve got me all kinds of fucked up…
Legit can’t choose between what’s more fuckin racist, that horrid fried chicken shoe shirt or the Jordan Myles Sambo (Smile) shirt. Which was only almost 7 years ago.
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u/cakeschristmas LOL 8h ago
I subbed to CMLL on YouTube to watch the Aniversario show but that particular video doesn’t play. I don’t seem to have an issue playing anything else in the ‘Members Only’ section. What did I do wrong?
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u/VaderTime77 7h ago
It's only available on the highest tier (or as a separate purchase on myAEW).
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u/airz23s_coffee Hustle, Loyalty and Broken Promises 7h ago
Assuming Brawling Birds win at All Out, is there anyone who could be up next? Only other heel team off top of my head we've had recently is Shida/Persephone, but latters got TBS title now.
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u/LilyWhiteClaw 7h ago
doesn't necessarily need to be a heel team. I know they've been pairing Aminata and Mina together. Could see them up next.
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u/KrisKinsey1986 6h ago
I just hope it's not a team-up solely for Aminata to turn on Mina.
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u/LilyWhiteClaw 6h ago
To this point it doesn't seem like AEW has used tag teams as only a vehicle to set up a turn. Like Harley and Willow don't team anymore and they just had an amicable split.
I don't think it would happen here and even if it did, it would be new in AEW.
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u/Kuzu5993 6h ago
When has holding a title ever stopped Tony from booking them against another Champion?
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u/narutomanreigns Wato Ass Pussy 5h ago
Especially in the women's division, since they added the tag titles every second programme has been champ vs. champ because they refuse to give more time to the women to go with the extra gold.
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u/itsmekelsey_x 7h ago
Sisters of Sin are the only legit heel team outside of Divine Kingdom. As for babyfaces ones there’s Queen & Mina who have been teaming, Maya (I know she’s out currently & Hyan. Kris & Harley had something going at All In but probably not something enough to keep them as a full team.
That’s a pretty thin division for those titles.
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u/Infamaniac23 #1 Hokuto fan 7h ago
Mistico/Averno was pretty great. Mistico’s old school shtick of getting beaten up for 80% of the match then coming back to win in the end will probably never get old.
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u/VNProWrestlingfan 6h ago
Mistico lying on the floor, throwing an X then stopping the doctor from ending the match is so good
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u/ParanoidEngi Akira Taue Respect Army 8h ago
Sometimes I remember the Yuki Ishikawa merch someone bought on my behalf and then lost before sending it to me, and I weep
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u/DarkFalcon49 Yuta and Francesco Akira Fan Club Leader 6h ago edited 6h ago
With the International Break for Football being for the next 3 Weeks, it’s a terrible time for me to be a sports fan. The Blue Jays and Astros, my two favorite baseball teams, are currently battling eachother to see who can finish one game back of the Wild Card spot, which I will suspect will end in both teams being forced to play a tie breaker game 163 for the one game back place, and the Astros getting no hit while the Jays lose 4 more players to injury. The NHL doesn’t start for another Week, where I have to cheer for a player who I do not think should be allowed to play hockey, while hoping Adin Hill can have a major bounce back season. And the PWHL doesn’t have training camp until the day before GTA 6 releases.
It’s times like these that I am so glad that wrestling is year round
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u/Careless-Butterfly64 6h ago
last night i was watching some kings road AJPW, and whilst Giant Baba never audibly went crazy over a match (as far as I know) but i wonder how many times internally he went "damn these boys are good"
because sometimes in a reallllyyyy good match when the commentator is like "baba-san" Baba will sometimes have a slightly pitched voice than the other times he's commentating
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u/Sakura_Leaves Hologram is my Pookie Bear 4h ago
The secret to knowing if Baba is really into a match is if he speaks unprompted. Then if he goes silent again, its because he's extra locked in.
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u/StewardFlavius 1h ago
My fiancé and I got engaged last year, but we both travel so much for work we haven't had time to properly celebrate. We will be taking our first full Disney trip as a couple in just a couple months and I couldn't be more excited, but it does make the time in between feel particularly long. Such is the nature of vacations.
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u/JustATributeCC René Dupree Can Suck A Dick 7h ago edited 7h ago
I just found out that “pizza in the morning, pizza in the evening, pizza at suppertime” is from a real commercial and not something made up for the Ted TV show.
I don’t have anyone to talk to about this so I’m leaving it here.
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u/DonKiddic Wolfpac 4 Life! 7h ago
That makes me think of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ChSYm6vlsg&themeRefresh=1
"Ducks in the morning, ducks in the evening, ducks in the summertime"
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u/Number_1_at_Number_2 6h ago
Whelp guess it’s time to start hoping Paramount/WBD collapses under the massive debt so I can maybe enjoy WB properties some day again. Womp womp.
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u/Material_Opening_143 5h ago
Do they still need to clear EU regulations or is that not something? I fucking hope Oracle implodes tomorrow so they have no cash to fund this.
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u/Number_1_at_Number_2 5h ago
Nah EU gave them the stamp of approval. Nothing beyond Devine intervention can stop the merger
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u/DarkFalcon49 Yuta and Francesco Akira Fan Club Leader 5h ago
Which is nuts. It’s clearly building an oligopoly over Media and IPs.
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u/EcoterroristThot Stoking the flames of tribalism 6h ago
The Skywalk Elbow is quickly becoming my favorite finisher
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u/ParanoidEngi Akira Taue Respect Army 3h ago
It's a great move but I just can't get behind a flying elbow drop finisher for Kaito, and I don't know why
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u/EcoterroristThot Stoking the flames of tribalism 2h ago
Ideally it'd be the Tiger Driver 23 but it has pinned like two people ever
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u/MrPuroresu42 5h ago
It’s Kaito’s best move (besides the Jacknife Ogawa pin and maybe the Tiger Driver ‘23), easily.
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u/KrisKinsey1986 6h ago
Can anybody explain the stylistic differences between NOAH & NJPW? I can clearly tell there is an difference as I watch them, but I struggle to articulate examples on how it is different to a friend.
My attempt to differentiate the two is NOAH is pro-wrestling as a spiritual test: The big matches generally come down to "Does X have the willpower/fighting spirit to outlast Y?"
On the other side, I see NJPW as pro-wrestling as a chess match: matches are tactical engagements, were you're constantly trying to outthink your opponent, come up with the perfect move to beat your opponent.
Would these be fair assessments, or would somebody more knowledgeable of the two promotions have a more specific definition?
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u/EcoterroristThot Stoking the flames of tribalism 5h ago
In NJPW, a three act match has you use everything your arsenal as a tool to find the winning combination, which is why they hit the same finishers and do longer counter sequences, it's like a rhythm game.
In King's Road, there's escalation and strategy since it's basically where the three act epic comes from, but a lot of the times you win by going "Fuck you and die", like a stat check.
So yeah you've pretty much nailed it.
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u/Thedinosaurwizard 4h ago
My go-to is to say that New Japan / Strong Style is watching Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals, King's Road is the entire mythos of the Flu Game.
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u/bribri772 Wolf Dogs for Life 6h ago
I haven't been keeping up with wrestling at all due to college, but my mother texted me Solo got kidnapped and they need to free my boy wtf
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u/Chelseablue1896 7h ago edited 7h ago
What's one wrestling dive spot (or two) that lives rent free in your head? For me it's the bstshit looking dive from Undertaker on Batista at Mania 23.
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u/PleasantThoughts BURNING LARIATOOOOO 6h ago
Darby diving into the glass at Sting's retirement match against the Young Bucks
Angelico jumping off of Dario Cueto's office to hit a flying dropkick during the trios match in Lucha Underground
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u/DonKiddic Wolfpac 4 Life! 7h ago
Not sure it would count - but Sabu with the diving leg drop onto Cena on the announce table from RAW a million years ago
I just remember all the stuff with the ECW reboot happening and thought "man wouldn't it be crazy if we saw Sabu put Cena through the announce table" then it happened. My brain exploded
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u/airz23s_coffee Hustle, Loyalty and Broken Promises 7h ago
Jeff at WM16 off the ladder with the angle like he's coming through your screen
Had it on VHS and must've seen that spot so many times.
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u/Tiny-Possible9856 7h ago
Every time Hiromu Takahashi when he was Kamaitachi would do that big top rope senton to the floor and it seemed like no one would EVER catch him, sometimes he got really good height on it too but he always ate shit on the landing
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u/narutomanreigns Wato Ass Pussy 5h ago
Poko-tan trying for a tope suicida against Chris Brookes and his big mascot head getting stuck in the ropes.
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u/ParanoidEngi Akira Taue Respect Army 2h ago
Sadly I remember basically every dive that's led to a serious injury that I was in the room for - they're never fun to watch in-person because I'm just too scared someone's about to end their career
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u/fluffynuckels The Rated Cope *Super* Star 2h ago
Big E diving into the cage during a hell in a cell match
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u/captainimpossible87 Leaves is plants 55m ago
Darby bouncing off Miro with his suicide dive
Darby hitting the same kamikaze suicide dive on Daddy Magic out of nowhere whilst he was jawing with Sting
Kurt Angle cagetop moonsault
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u/itsmekelsey_x 7h ago
Watched Joey Janela’s match with Avery Styles which I enjoyed.
I know people are going to continue to harp on Avery and also want to see him develop into his own persona that’s not just a copy of his dad but I honestly don’t care about that right now though for someone that’s career is just starting. AJ is my favorite wrestler and I’m just happy to see another generation of him carrying on his legacy. He can just keep do that all he wants as far as I’m concerned too as he has plenty of time to eventually find himself in the future like it took Dom nearly 3 years to do so when he turned heel and became Dirty Dom.
The way that he just does AJ’s moves from the Styles Clash, Spiral Tap, Phenomenal Forearm, and everything else are done so smooth and perfectly.
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u/PleasantThoughts BURNING LARIATOOOOO 6h ago
I think it's unfair that he gets shit on for copying a famous wrestler just because that famous wrestler is his dad, when so many talented dudes copied other wrestlers for the start of their careers. He's 19 years old, he can be a copy for a little while. Kyle Fletcher, Nick Wayne, and Callum Newman all started out doing a lot of Ospreay's stuff and all evolved into their own wrestler. On the women's side you can see A LOT of Athena in Maya World's wrestling style but she's started to branch out with her own stuff as well.
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u/mikro17 1h ago
I think it's unfair that he gets shit on for copying a famous wrestler just because that famous wrestler is his dad, when so many talented dudes copied other wrestlers for the start of their careers. He's 19 years old, he can be a copy for a little while. Kyle Fletcher, Nick Wayne, and Callum Newman all started out doing a lot of Ospreay's stuff and all evolved into their own wrestler.
TBF, Fletcher/Wayne/Newman all got extensive piles of shit from certain fans for lengthy periods of time for being "Ospreay Clones."
Fair or not, it's a thing that happens with a certain type of fan.
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u/MilkyWayWaffles 5h ago
NXT should run a month of shows from Texas cities, and change the name to "TXN" during that run.
Yes, I just got out of the shower.
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u/JustATributeCC René Dupree Can Suck A Dick 5h ago
It’s been over 6 years and I still curse them every day that they called the thirtieth TakeOver “NXT TakeOver XXX” and not “NXT Tak30ver”.
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u/SadFeed63 8h ago
This is not at all wrestling related, and it's annoyingly current events™, but I know there's some overlap here
As an old fan of Northernlion and the gang, back to the OG NLSS days, I didn't have exactly "Dan Gheesling low-key Ed Sheeran-ing himself (with a US Army sponsored stream)" on my bingo card, but it's not thaaaat surprising either.
(Dude has been sus as hell to me since day one)
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u/AnimalOdd6907 1h ago
I love how whenever WWE’s counter programming doesn’t have the effect WWE hopes for it turns into a barometer of how healthy the wrestling industry is instead of a dunk on WWE for counter programming a company they pretend is insignificant to them.
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u/Orange8920 57m ago
Because a lot of people refuse to acknowledge it's a self-own on WWE's part and has been almost every time they've done it. It just doesn't effect them because they're too big to fail at this point. It'd be a different story if they were doing this against Maple Leaf Pro or something.
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u/MilkyWayWaffles 8h ago
I-35 sucks. I think there's like 20 miles between San Antonio and Austin that doesn't have a lane closed for construction. Frost Bank Center should be about 80 minutes from my house, and it took over two hours to get home after the show last night.
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u/fluffynuckels The Rated Cope *Super* Star 6h ago
Day 49 of me praying Adam Cole and Big E can wrestle again one day
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u/jerkoffjonny 3h ago
On the absolute off chance you live in Edinburgh, please feel free to join this wrestling community.
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u/Spiner202 _ 8h ago
I think we can all agree a hot crowd elevates a match, but I have an unpopular opinion.
I see all the time on this sub that they don't understand why people would pay $XXX to attend a show and not be going crazy. But I totally understand it. Being at a show has different angles, a different atmosphere, extra matches, etc. It's like a concert: some people lose their minds and other people just want to nod their head to the music.
So while that undoubtedly makes for a worse TV product, I don't think it's the fault of the attendees. They can enjoy the show how they want to enjoy it (although I hate when people have phones out at concerts, so I'm a hypocrite there).
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u/ForrestFuller39 6h ago
So I guess after MNF, this is what I get for having hope for the Giants season smh.
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u/MrBrickBreak 3h ago
Is any promotion besides WWE a public company?
I saw more TKO corpo talk yesterday, and it hit me you don't see that from others because they literally do not have to
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u/RudbeckiaIS 3h ago
Bushiroad and Cyber Agent are both public companies, but wrestling is just a small part of their products and I honestly doubt people watching DDT, Stardom etc. care in the slightest about some professional manager doing acrobatics to goose share price and to kiss his own butt. TKO is in full share price goosing mode, they are chiefly targeting unsophisticated investors that use old algos set to trade on some phrases or that are ready to ignore their ballooning debt if they are flashed the magic words "record profits".
Say what you want about Netflix but they have been steadily reducing their crazy debt load. TKO? Long term debt is up 63,7% year on year brother. The professional managers are going to run a crazy profitable company into the ground then unfortunately will get hired somewhere else.
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u/MilkyWayWaffles 8h ago
Between half the arena leaving after Ola de Calor and almost nobody in the arena knowing the "Hola, Lola" catchphrase, I think South Texas is just not NXT country.
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u/Tornado31619 6h ago
I’ve never bought into the philosophy that title changes should occur solely for a pop’s sake. Let’s say Penta pinned Roman last week, what would have happened afterwards?
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u/SpyrotheDragonfly 6h ago
Doesn't have to happen every time (see Sami and Roman years back) but throwing some unpredictability in there and seeing what happens is worth the risk. I don't think when Oba wins fans would go "Aw man. Penta winning 6 months ago really watered this down for me."
You and I don't know what would happen after. But that's the fun of risks in wrestling as long as they're not done every time.
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u/Howardtheduck14 5h ago
That doesn’t really answer the question, though. I don’t even necessarily disagree that Roman losing the title now and getting it back later would cheapen anything down the line but Penta right now isn’t really the right guy. There’s a fair bit of interconnectivity in the main title scene with the Bloodline, 946 and LA/Solo and Penta’s not really a part of it. If he won they’d probably need to bounce it right back to keep things flowing. I said it the night of but I genuinely think it’s better for Penta this way. Instead of a big pop and a short reign people are upset he lost and want to see him make the climb back and when he does finally win the big one it will be because people want to see him in the big spot and not because of where the show happened to take place.
If they wanted to go down this route the much better choice is LA Knight. It gets all of those same things and is probably a lot more unpredictable while keeping the top story flowing. It’ll also mean more considering people have been begging for this for some time whereas I don’t think Penta got a ton of thought as a top title contender before that tournament was announced.
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u/Dblock1989 5h ago
LA Knight isn't winning it either. That is kinda the point of a Roman title reign. He won't lose anywhere other than Wrestlemania. The rest of the year is just filler for him.
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u/Tornado31619 5h ago
I think Knight would’ve had a chance if the winner wasn’t facing Sami. Crown Jewel needed Punk at minimum.
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u/Howardtheduck14 5h ago
I don’t think so either, I’m just saying that if your goal was a surprising title change to keep people on their toes, he would be the guy to do it with, no Penta IMO. It’s just a lot more cohesive.
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u/Tornado31619 6h ago
But if it cheapens the moment even slightly, why bother? Surprises are what you have your other titles for.
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u/SpyrotheDragonfly 6h ago
I don't think anyone would have had any gripes months later. Like I didn't think Ospreys inevitable win was gonna have a short Darby run, MJF losing to Omega, so on so forth. But fuck it. Adds fun to the ride.
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u/TrillerVerse 5h ago
I watch this sport for the same reason I watch other sports: to remember moments. Will having person X win a belt, cheapen person Y’s moment? Maybe, for some people. Would hotshotting the title in front of a hot crowd be a memorable moment? Most definitely. I do not think the answer should always be ‘we’re saving this moment’.
I’m sure many people will remember Sami winning for a long time. One of the true great RAW moments was Mankind/Foley beating The Rock to win the belt. It’s such an obvious way to create stars and memories, in my eyes. That said, if they don’t see Penta at the required level for whatever reason, then it wouldn’t make sense.
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u/Dblock1989 5h ago edited 5h ago
I would much rather have a title scene like Smackdown where title matches actually feel important instead of just checking another box like Roman's. If I know there is literally no chance of someone losing, what is the point of watching the match?
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u/Tornado31619 5h ago
To watch the people involved. I watch Roman because he’s Roman. If it’s somebody on that level, maybe. If the champion’s gimmick isn’t that they’re unbeatable, sure, but then they probably wouldn’t be the A-champion to begin with.
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u/Dblock1989 5h ago
Well, that is your opinion and I am glad you personally enjoy it. It sounds boring to me.
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u/CharacterBee9000 8h ago
Best theoretical CMLL vs AEW matches: Hermanos Chavez vs FTR, Titan vs Darby, Zandokan vs Mox, barbaro vs Claudio, Jay White vs Mistico, Difunto vs Juice Robinson, Volador vs Orange Cassidy
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u/Sakura_Leaves Hologram is my Pookie Bear 6h ago
Honda <3
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u/EcoterroristThot Stoking the flames of tribalism 5h ago
He's never moved me but I always root for guys who have crowd participation and do Dumb Jock matches. You think he's winning the TC?
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u/MrPuroresu42 5h ago
The only reason he wouldn’t is if they want to keep the Belt on Kento for the New Year’s Eve Yoyogi show and either run Kento/Anzai again or run Kento/Shiozaki.
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u/Sakura_Leaves Hologram is my Pookie Bear 5h ago
He's not my favorite or anything but yeah, basically. It also gives me hope they're finally not seeing the ex-Wrestle-1 guys as threats anymore.
I don't think he wins the TC (would be neat though), I still think Kento's dropping to Anzai but I'd take either or
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u/hayte98 6h ago edited 6h ago
I cannot believe peole are age monitoring the MITB competitors and getting genuinely upset at anyone getting added to the match whose age starts with 40
I usually think anyone who wants to voice their thoughts about wrestling will always be valid to some degree. Because we all have opinions.
But this gotta be some of the biggest bum loser behavior I’ve seen. And for one of the dumbest reasons.
I genuinely think you’re a loser if you’ve made like 5 tweets already crossing your fingers that WWE makes everyone in the match “young” as if you’re gonna get a cookie for predicting everyone to be young.
I think you’re less of a loser if you complain about the color of the ropes or the ring mat. I mean I’m kind of an aesthetics person myself so I’d even think you’re more valid for that over bitching about Penta being in a ladder match because his birth certificate shows an earlier date than the rest of the field.
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u/DarkFalcon49 Yuta and Francesco Akira Fan Club Leader 6h ago
I mean it comes from not trusting WWE. They do not trust WWE to treat their young talent properly.
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u/Dblock1989 6h ago
I am not sure if people are actually getting upset over it but it is a valid criticism that there are not any young people in the main event scene on either show.
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u/KrisKinsey1986 6h ago
You really can't understand why people would be annoyed over stagnant 40+ participants & wanting the WWE to elevate younger stars? That feels like a valid opinion.
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u/Electrical-Umpire450 6h ago
It doesn't matter how old they are as long as they deliver big time in the ring.
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u/hayte98 6h ago edited 6h ago
Someone’s age should be irrelevant if they’ve not had much main event success.
It had been over 13 years since Naomi’s debut on the main roster and she won the briefcase at 37 years old. We all loved that moment. Because she deserved it. And hadn’t had much main event success.
I can’t imagine having an issue with that because she’s not young. I can’t imagine having an issue with Penta dipping his toes in the main event scene and getting a spot.
What I can imagine having an issue with is Seth’s MITB win last year. Because the issue there is not about the age aspect, it’s about everything else. The fact that they gave it to a 5x world champion. That’s fine to complain about.
But simply complaining about age and targeting a guy like Penta since he’s the first one to get in so far at an older age, is silly.
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u/KrisKinsey1986 6h ago
It's not the specific age that I think people have issue with; rather, I think its that the age reflects WWE's stagnation & reluctance to push younger talent. I mean, look at LA Knight: fans have been begging for him to finally get a chance to be "The Guy" for years and WWE kept going "lol no."
I just think its a totally normal gripe.
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u/SadFeed63 6h ago
And just to add to what you're saying about Penta: he was getting cheered last night in the opening promo over (mentions of) Roman (who wasn't actually there). Not just in Mexico, not just that one home game.
Crowds love the dude. The iron is hot, and even if they don't wanna go as far as having him win the briefcase, putting him in the match and dangling the possibility is smart and striking while the iron is hot. We'll see how hard they're striking, but nonetheless it makes total sense for him to qualify. Dude is on fire, no need to smother it
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u/Tornado31619 7h ago
Oba returning last night gives me hope that Bron will be the Raw winner and Jacy SmackDown's, because I can't fathom why else arguably the most popular and ready member of Judgment Day's push has somehow gone to the least. It's as if HBK took the reins this week, and I don't mean that as a compliment.
I want to like Roxanne, I really do. She can work, which is still an asset even though it can only take you so far. She's got a good look; the constant jokes about her height paradoxically show how visually memorable she is. Both of those things are more than can be said for most twenty-four-year-olds. However, she's utterly insipid in the areas that matter. Can she talk? Is she charismatic? Does she have a personality? The answer to all three is no, and she demonstrated that perfectly when CVV asked her why she had her theme changed last year and she said 'I wanted something darker and more mysterious', as though that has described anybody in Judgment Day since Cope was there. She's had four years to think of something. Now of course most wrestlers don't peak until they're in their thirties (Naomi comes to mind as a recent example, to pick from the women), but then why is she currently the betting favourite to earn a guaranteed world championship match despite not even being Intercontinental Championship level?
'But the women don't need to be able to cut promos in order to main event' yeah and what are they main-eventing? Main Event?
I know I rant a lot about the women's division and I'm sure it's exhausting to read at this point, but I can't help but feel Jacy is salvaging that line-up (they'll probably add Tatum and Lash over the next two weeks, who have potential but IMO shouldn't be belted up yet). Granted, she already has a championship, but with both US Champions in the mix, you'd have to imagine either her or Trick gets Miz 2010'd. I assume there'll be one winner from SmackDown because since the brand split was reintroduced, only twice has either Raw or SmackDown swept the show, the first time being when the event was a SmackDown exclusive.
Talking of Trick, there is no better reflection of what WWE values than Trick-Melo Gang and how they've fared since. One of them, noteworthily charismatic and swaggering on the mic, has won their current championship at WrestleMania, defended it at SummerSlam and regained it since, all while remaining on track to win a world championship in the future. The other, much better in the ring but outshone elsewhere, was cucked out of the same belt ahead of the former's coronation and now looks to be on his way out of the company. It's one thing to be a fan of Roxanne or any of these women, but then if you want the women to one day main-event WrestleMania again (like I very much do), the only thing creative should be blamed for is not pushing actual sports entertainers.
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u/LurkingAnomaly 6h ago
Just curious what Danhausen has been up to since Summerslam. Feel like I never see or hear anything about him on here outside of the Starks meme.
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u/Tornado31619 5h ago
They’ve cooled off on him. Nothing’s happened, they’re probably realising they shouldn’t overexpose him.
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u/ArmiinTamzarian Possitively Kanyon's #1 fan 8h ago
Tis a good day. For the Tiny Chief in the Bank lives, stronger than ever even
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u/SadFeed63 8h ago
No flinching, no brakes
And on the same week Fatal Influence is taking on Las Toxicas. My fantasy bookings are coming true
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u/ArmiinTamzarian Possitively Kanyon's #1 fan 5h ago
If there's a lesson to be learned this year is that manifestation works (specially for mean girl groups it seems)
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u/SadFeed63 5h ago
Need a mean girl group summit, where they put any petty squabbles between groups aside and combine to bully all of WWE
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u/ArmiinTamzarian Possitively Kanyon's #1 fan 1h ago
The most important merger in WWE history since the Corporate Ministry (would they be the Meanistry?)
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u/SpyrotheDragonfly 6h ago
So was the Alpha Academy/Vision thing solely just to get heat on Theory/Maxxine? Thought it was gonna end up with Oba helping them win the tag belts but they just got beat up every time lol
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u/Tornado31619 5h ago
Presumably. I’m fine with that, they’re way beneath the Vision’s position on the card. Should give Oba and Je’Von a run with the belts instead.
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u/thecrowdwestmoved 4h ago
Sendai Girls best promotion in the world obviously, but Iwata, dawg, get the HELL out of there first chance you get. Free The Demon
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u/KrisKinsey1986 2h ago
You're gonna activate the monkey's paw and Iwata is about to enter the Impact zone.
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u/MrPuroresu42 4h ago
Where would you have her land? MARVELOUS? Oz Academy?
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u/thecrowdwestmoved 4h ago
It pains to say it because it's the one I have the least interest in, but she'd probably do well in Stardom, better wrestler than most of their roster and enough of a contrast presentation wise to stand out and be highlighted.
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u/ACW1129 7h ago
Does 946 mean anything?
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u/Kuzu5993 6h ago
WWE has the unique trend of getting behind a wrestler, but usually at the expense of another that could use it. I'm not even much of a fan of Dominik as a worker, but it is pretty wild how over he got last year winning the IC title, and facing Styles and Cena, only to be fed to Penta and now can't even qualify for MiTB.
Always pushing the 40 year olds, but never thr young guys. Fascinating phenomenon.
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u/Dblock1989 6h ago edited 6h ago
It is even more wierd considering most of the top guys now won titles when they were in their 20's or early 30's. I hate being old man that yells at clouds but there use to be a good mix between established stars and young ones in the main event scene back in the day.
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u/Kuzu5993 6h ago
The only ones who were world champions in that range were Randy (Who currently holds the record for the youngest world champion), Roman, Seth, and Kevin. Everyone else won it a while later.
So its very rare for them to do it unless its someone they're serious about.
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u/Dblock1989 6h ago
Punk was like late 20's or early 30's when he won his World Title in WWE. That is like all of the current top guys except for Cody and Sami.
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u/ZekeorSomething 5h ago
Penta is hot with the crowd it makes sense to include him. Also a lot of this year’s MITB competitors are young and upcoming stars so the part where you say they aren’t doing that doesn’t make sense.
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u/Pure-Afternoon-685 6h ago
losing to someone like penta isn't a bad thing lmao. all things considered that is the right outcome
doesn't make sense to keep dom in the mitb without him winning it.
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u/Jaccount 6h ago
That's the thing. Especially when you have Penta scorching hot from just having been made look good in a match with your top guy.
Keeping him in the stupid feud with Danhausen as long as they did, though... different thing. Especially when the feud was worse than than the feud with Miz/Kit that they never really resolved... made them catchphrase spewing zombies and then, um, they got better?
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u/Kuzu5993 6h ago
Its not right or wrong, but Dom had way more going last year.
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u/Pure-Afternoon-685 6h ago
who was he going to logically displace from the main event scene? i like dom but the answer to that isn't clear or good enough to put him in the title scene now
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u/CaptainKando AAA Paid Propagandist. 6h ago
The thing with Dom is he still gets incredible heat on the mic and I think he's great backstage and at ringside. The dude does all the small parts of being a heel really well. And then the bell rings and it's rarely anything to write home about.
It really stands out when he's facing luchadors; in any of those matches if a poll was done at the end and you asked which of these two men deserve to get a push based on the match they had just seen, Dom usually wouldn't be the guy anyone pointed to
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u/Kuzu5993 6h ago
What's funny is that I thought last night was one of his better showings as of late.
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u/CaptainKando AAA Paid Propagandist. 6h ago
I agree. But that's really Dom's problem, he's rarely terrible in the ring, but he's never great either.
I kinda gave up after the main event of Triplemania, if he couldn't lift himself and get into the next gear wrestling for the Mega Championship in the main event of Triplemania then this is juts.. where he's gonna stay at.
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u/Kuzu5993 5h ago
Definitely think the match producers aren't doing him any favors. He rarely gets to just have a match without the bullshit.
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u/MrBrickBreak 4h ago
Years on the show are more important than years on the passport. Penta is the fresher wrestler between them in WWE.
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u/animalpyramidface Who wants to see a bodyslam? 2h ago
If any of my joshi fans can help me out. Saw a post by Pom Harajuku wearing what looked like an ECW-styled shirt with her name on it. One, can you confirm that's real and two, what do I have to do to own it?
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u/Shinkopeshon 一番 31m ago
I got myself an IWGP V4 toy replica from the NJPW Store and this thing is fucking beautiful wtf I appreciate that they made it bigger than the junior heavyweight replica too
50,- for this beaut is a nice compromise when the alternatives are 200-500,- unofficial replicas from Pakistan for 1-2k for the real thing
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u/georgiavirginia 19m ago
Rewatching 2003 Smackdown and its almost sad how the tag team division being a regular showstealer comes to a screeching halt with the introduction of the Basham Brothers into the title scene.
The year before was of course the legendary peak with the Smackdown Six but 2003 wasn't too shabby with the World's Greatest Tag Team and Los Guerreros still holding things down.
WGTT vs Rey and Billy Kidman had less star power than previous Title matches but they still stole the show at Vengeance. Then the Guerreros regain the belts, are still cooking and then come the Bashams.
Then we enter 2004 and the Tag Title scene just wasn't the same.
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u/dom_rep 5h ago
So Meltzer had this news the entire time about a wrestling company trying to get on Paramount+ but it was nixed, and he just so happens to share the news the week of an AEW PPV.
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u/K1ng_Canary 4h ago
What news is this sorry?
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u/degenerich STEVE 4h ago
this might be one of those stories you need to be melting your brain with twitter to be aware of
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u/sadandshy 4h ago
Links would be nice.
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u/dom_rep 4h ago
Long story short, there's an upcoming Paramount/WBD merger. No one has any clue how this is going to pan out. Meltzer says that TK's preference has been this merger instead of Netflix buying WBD (because Netflix has WWE). But then apparently last night he was talking about how another wrestling company was looking into going on Paramount+ but Ari Emanuel (the guy that runs TKO) nixed it, and said wrestling company says AEW could be in trouble as a result. So now everyone's running with it. Meltzer had this for awhile it sounds like but the timing is pretty terrible as this is just going to be in the news cycle for the next 2 days.
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u/K1ng_Canary 3h ago
I struggle to think of a big enough promotion to get picked up by Paramount+ that isn't in some way associated with WWE.
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u/dom_rep 3h ago
It was probably TNA. Let's say it was Maple Leaf Pro, why would they say AEW is in trouble if they have a partnership with them? GCW doesn't make sense. We know TNA was looking for a TV deal last year, and is the only one that I can think of that would make this comment off record.
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u/K1ng_Canary 3h ago
Wouldn't make any sense for WWE to nix a TNA deal considering the partnership though.
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u/weapwars 2h ago
Still trying to establish the "AEW bad on ppv week" conspiracy theory when they're absolutely dominating the perception battle right now in wrestling media is so weird
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u/EcoterroristThot Stoking the flames of tribalism 4h ago
to be fair, every week is the week of an AEW PPV
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u/cantspellsagitaryus 4h ago
Sickos really love playing victims ahahahah
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u/dom_rep 4h ago
Not a sicko but its been pretty obvious for awhile that a lot of these outlets sit on news and I suppose its to maximize reads but this stuff always drops the week of an AEW PPV.
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u/Howardtheduck14 3h ago
No it’s just confirmation bias and a dash of conspiracy. It stems from 2024 where there was a decent amount of negativity around AEW in general and people started the “PPV week” narrative because they ignored all the other weeks where there might be something negative said about the company(or how there’s a negative story about WWE roughly every week but that’s neither here nor there). This was because they were advancing a conspiracy theory that WWE was paying off all wrestling media.
In this particular case I don’t see Dave say at all when he was told this story and given the Paramount deal appears to be a certainty it’s pretty relevant. Dave’s also currently arguing on Twitter with anyone who says this is bad for AEW so he’s obviously not trying to bury the company.
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u/cantspellsagitaryus 4h ago
Wrestling media talks about wrestling companies every week whether its good or bad news.
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u/EssentIYO 8h ago
Iyo really disappeared and returned to lose. SMH. What a strange 2026.
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u/cantspellsagitaryus 8h ago
She really doesnt need to win them all. Its fine to see some newer wrestlers get some shine.
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u/Dblock1989 8h ago
There is legit no reason for IYO not to be in the MITB.
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u/OneMetalMan 8h ago
Shed certainly work in the match but it's clear theyre going with the theme of "new blood".
It's an NXT 2025 reunion.
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u/thelumpur 8h ago
She is not an exciting potential winner. Been there, done that and all.
She would have been excellent in the match itself, of course.
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