I'm surprised MJF didn't come with a bullrope.

Feb 6, 2020 2:52:50 GMT Michinokudriver said:

"For Black History month, please enjoy watching a man get lashed with a leather belt on live television."

I hope you are being sarastic. 

Fuck, those welts are nasty.

Feb 6, 2020 2:45:26 GMT Michinokudriver said:

So with the founder of the company having that elaborate entrance for everything, and what looks like the Shadaloo logo from Street Fighter on his Tron, how long before Cody turns heel?

EDIT: Seriously, homeboy should just have a normal entrance 80% of the time and not do the whole blackout fog machine chandelier rising bit. It's not special when you do it all the time.

While it should be saved for special occasions it looks awesome and I never get tired of seeing it

That lashing bit was well done, really built up how much Cody wants th match.

I couldn't buy into the whole lashing segment just because of how stupid the whole storyline is. Why does Cody have to agree to the most ridiculous demands in order to get a match with someone? It's a fucking wrestling company. People make matches. Matches happen because that's what it's all about. Joey Janela didn't have to chop off his hand and be forced to watch Kip Sabian have sex with his ex-girlfriend for 24 hours straight in order to get a match with him. The match just happened, because it's a fucking wrestling company, who arrange matches between wrestlers. Ortiz didn't have to shave his head to get a match with Jon Moxley. It. Just. Fucking. Happened.

I know it was all a vehicle to get Cody super babyface points and get the audience crying with his brother and his wife coming down and being all boohoo. I know it was all a vehicle to get MJF more dickhead points, although he's already maxed that quota by coming out and yelling at the crowd every weak. I generally don't like soap opera in wrestling. I certainly don't like it when it's the result of a plot that makes no sense.

If MJF has so much clout that he can do what he likes and effectively run the company, can't he just say "Fuck you Cody, the match is off, LOL" after Cody beats Waldorf next week? What's stopping him? If he can make these stupid demands with no consequences, why can't he do that?

PAC vs Kenny Omega is a similar story, but I can be a little more sympathetic to this angle because it's more intelligent. Omega isn't deliberately declining the match or making demands, he's just no-selling the challenge, as though PAC is beneath him. That would piss me off, especially so if I were a Bastard. It also ties into PAC's whole shtick about the company holding him back, which has justification even outside this particular arc. It also helps that PAC is ten times the heel MJF is, and he's killing it in promos, so all the segments are fantastic.

I'd love to wrestle in AEW. I can piss someone off and force them to do whatever the hell I want them to do to get a match with me. What a great company.

I'm done.

I'm done with that, but I'm not done with commenting on this week's show. Don't worry, I have good things to say.

Moxley vs Ortiz was one of Moxley's weaker efforts, but the post-match was brilliance. Jericho partially ruined it by doing the bullshit comedy heel "What kind of man stabs someone in the eye?" routine instead of being the ruthless calculating heel he should be, but Santana salvaged that promo.

I was skeptical about Britt Baker's heel turn at first, but she is now a compelling character to watch, which is a definitely improvement. She's still garbage in the ring with her clunky, slow-motion wrestling, but still an improvement. Yuka Sakazaki is a better version of Riho. She should stick around.

I'm glad there's finally some movement with the Hangman Page angle. Good stuff. I am intrigued.

PAC is fucking awesome.

Cody really doesn't have to do any of that if he doesn't want too. It isn't a secret he has power over that division. He just doesn't want to use his power since it make him seem more heelish.

Omega in his defense doesn't book the male singles division so his story isn't as bad. But Omega does feel more heelish to me in the way he does business. Especially with Riho. She is his favorite tag team partner and in a division he is booking she is presented as the best. Also he let Nakazuwa get beat up for multiple weeks, but didn't care to enough to give Pac a rematch. Is asking for a rubber match too much for Omega?

Do we accept Kenny and Cody being bookers as part of kayfabe? I don't think we should.

The lashing segment was fantastic I dug it.

Feb 6, 2020 21:53:45 GMT Emperor said:

Do we accept Kenny and Cody being bookers as part of kayfabe? I don't think we should.

They have mentioned it on Dynamite so pretty sure it should count.

I think Cody said it in a promo he did that everyone loved. And I think the announcers said it about Kenny when he ran to the ring to save Riho for something Nyla was trying to do.

I actually like how they've established wrestlers being able to veto matches. It's a refreshing change from the WWE where wrestlers surrender their will over to the authority figure and reflects real life where fighters have to agree to be in matches and won't accept every single challenge that comes their way.

Anything that can be done to seperate yourself from the competition the better.

My issue was the framing of the segment. There was never any sense of danger, Cody was always going to make it to ten and in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't that impressive. What Omega/Moxley put themselves through, hell what the Bucks/Lucha Bros put themselves through was more dangerous than this. The focus of the segment should have been the build up, with MJF making all these outrageous demands and Cody surprisingly meeting them to call MJF's bluff. The focus of the segment should have been on whether MJF would really go through with it and he even teases that he can't do it, but then he knows who can. Wardlow comes in, Cody sets himself and he does his best to no-sell the first few, but by the 5th he's in agony breaks down in tears, MJF is laughing his ass off and taking video of it on his phone and calling Cody the biggest mark in Pro Wrestling. This is just another reason why I'm better than you, you're a dumb ass Cody and now you're crying like a little bitch on national television. Better get used to it at Revolution, bud. Oh yeah one last thing, WHAM.

Instead this was some real Passion of the Christ torture porn shit. Cody bled so you could have MJF vs. Cody - the eight star match that will lead us into a new prosperous existence of Pro Wrestling. Bow down to the true king of kings.

Great points, Pete. Especially the Passion of the Christ comparison. Your idea is 100 times better.

My reaction was very overblown but I started typing and I couldn't stop myself becoming more and more vitriolic :lol: I posted the same thing on wreddit and naturally got downvoted (but not as much as I thought), but one response made me reconsider my view.

In any job, you cant be forced to do something against your will. In wrestling contracts you generally have a downside guarantee and then get paid per match. You still have to agree to the match. If you dont, it reflects poorly on you, maybe the company shelves you, you lose your push, but they cant force you into the ring to wrestle if you dont want to.

Here, Cody wants to wrestle MJF. But he refuses. Cody can fire him or maybe sue him for breach of contract, but that doesn't help him - he wants to beat MJF. MJF, knowing he has this leverage, forces Cody to do this shit for fun.

That's a really good explanation.

I still think you're entitled to your viewpoint. By going in this direction, AEW is painting Cody as this naive rookie when MJF has zero clout. I can understand why they didn't want Cody to necessarily big league the MJF match either since it would make him arrogant but they could have found a happy medium. For instance, this should have been one of the terms if one of the wrestlers had lost.

However from a meta example they needed to come up with a big angle before the match, something that could generate heat so they had to take some liberties to get there. I think it established Cody as an honorable man and MJF as a sadistic petty person, but Cody had to take some of Brandi's crazy pills to get there.