Pro Wrestling! (For Everything WWE, Impact, Indies, AEW, & Japan !) 2021

[Johnny]

Get well King.

[BigLbo]

I really wanted a heel turn with Varsity Blondes and playing up that 80's , Revenge of the Nerds vibe in a sense. They are jock type bullies etc. If you have something like this...go complete fun with it.

that could've been cool. i just wanted to see how they'd do if not booked like jobbers. i thought they showed some potential.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Former USWA announcer Dave Brown claims he spoke to Lawler on Face Time. He says Lawler is alert , can move his arms and legs. He can only speak so many words at a time. But it's normal for what happened.

Either way ...good report thus far given Lawler had a stroke.

[Immortal Weapon]

[Noodle]

Ass Boys: AEW Tag Team Champions.

[BigLbo]

Ass Boys: AEW Tag Team Champions.

they must've started changing with the bucks and partying with tony khan, oh and trashing cm punk of course.

that was the best mjf match i've ever seen. yeah they used some smoke and mirrors to get there but still credit where it's due. roosh vs brianson probably should have main evented as it was awesome. that said i'd really like to see takeshita & el torro blanco pick up more wins on tv.

[JBatmanFan05]

Surprisingly strong Dynamite overall. I haven't liked MJF's matches much since he won the title (and the title winning match against Mox kinda sucked relative to their prior 2020 match), but he finally got a good enough match in. Bryan vs Rush was good. The trios match. Could totally see the Ass Boys win coming a mile away, but they kept it interesting and didn't turn Billy (which I half expected, but that still very well may come), so we can expect a PPV match.

that was the best mjf match i've ever seen.

Nah, for me, that was like either Darby vs MJF Full Gear '21, or MJF vs J.Boy Double Nothing '20, or MJF vs Mox All Out '20, or MJF vs Sammy Dyn 6/30/21

I feel like all the added muscle or weight MJF has put on has...well, just has not helped his matches so far. Seems slower.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

Sometimes extra muscle mass can help you and sometimes hurt. Mostly hurt someone.

- HHH : The Triple H from 1999-2001 was him at his peak. Almost all his matches seemed to be classics and Hunter could move very good in ring. Then in 2001 he came back juiced to all hell and wasn't the same guy. All that extra muscle mass caused him issues as he'd blow another quad and just looked bad at times.


Scott Steiner : Scott Steiner from the late 1980's/early 1990s was one of the greatest in ring workers. He was so good people mused that Scott was destined for a big time solo career at some point. He created a few new moves for matches and was legit one of the best.

Then in 1998 he began a solo career and while his promo skills were fun to watch after...in ring he sucked. Quite frankly he barely could move good at times and was not the same guy he once was in ring. Had the Steiner of the prior era got the mic skills we saw here.....he would have been pretty awesome then.

[JBatmanFan05]

Then in 1998 [Scott Steiner] began a solo career and while his promo skills were fun to watch after...in ring he sucked. Quite frankly he barely could move good at times and was not the same guy he once was in ring. Had the Steiner of the prior era got the mic skills we saw here.....he would have been pretty awesome then.

Gotta disagree some, the Poppa Pump version had some good matches (by WCW standards) against or involving Booker T (at least 2 good matches) and Goldberg and DDP (and maybe even some others). I'm no expert on Scott Steiner, but by the late 90s he was a bit of a veteran (since he apparently started wrestling in 1986, just looked it up), and I understand he had nagging injury problems a bit, so it's far less clear to me that his muscle was the sole or main cause of any lesser work from him (age, injuries, the workload of wrestlers in that era, etc). IMHO, Poppa Pump might not have been early 90s Scott, but he was still a good worker on many nights (at least relative to the rest of the main event roster at that time). Scott was perhaps the best part of WCW's dying days, and not just because of his mic work IMHO.

[BeastieRunner]

Batista got better when he dropped the roid mass.

Orton got better when he dropped the PED mass.

Rock got worse when he Hollywood roided.

I think those are better examples of muscle bulk for MJF's height.

MJF has bulked up but not a CRAZY amount. It is very noticeable, however.

[JBatmanFan05]

MJF just strikes me as someone who kinda now disdains that he can make for a great "cruiserweight type" wrestler, that he disdains that one particular dimension of his skills. Like Rowdy and others he admired weren't like that, so he doesn't like it. Or he thinks WWE wouldn't want him as that, doesn't want that dimension in him, so he's transitioning out of that, that speedy crazier moves daredevilish dimension. But I really like that dimension of him, that he can go turn into kinda like Darby or Sammy (minus like the top rope maneuvers) when he wants to.

[Immortal Weapon]

Chris Masters got better when he dropped the roid mass. It improved his look too.

Moxley got better when he got jacked when returning from injury.

[Immortal Weapon]

MJF just strikes me as someone who kinda now disdains that he can make for a great "cruiserweight type" wrestler, that he disdains that one particular dimension of his skills. Like Rowdy and others he admired weren't like that, so he doesn't like it. Or he thinks WWE wouldn't want him as that, doesn't want that dimension in him, so he's transitioning out of that, that speedy crazier moves daredevilish dimension. But I really like that dimension of him, that he can go turn into kinda like Darby or Sammy (minus like the top rope maneuvers) when he wants to.

I don't sense that MJF disdains being a cruiserweight wrestler. I think MJF knows he wouldn't stand out being one as that type of wrestler is the norm in the modern wrestling landscape. Even super heavyweights like Keith Lee and Dijak have adapted to that style of wrestling. Being the type of wrestler like his idols can be his niche because most of his peers ain't bothering to be that.

[BeastieRunner]

AEW will be exclusive to ESPN in New Zealand, Australia, and the Pacific Islands.

ESPN has emerged as the top bidder and looking to exclusively broadcast AEW in the states come 2024 with PPVs being run on Hulu/ESPN+/YouTube TV.

The tentative deal is twice the Fox Smackdown deal over 5 years

This initial international run is seen as a test market for the House of Mouse acquiring AEW or some other wrestling company (they cited interest in NWA and Freddie Prince Jr's upcoming fed). Disney/ESPN has no interest in WWE due to having to pay Vince. They view the product as damaged and tarnished while being stuck in the past.

Gonna be a fun year!

[SUPERECWFAN1]

I don't believe the "Disney sees WWE as tarnished and stuck in the past". Because WWE is still the #1 company in the world. It's revenue is insane right now. There is more IPs and library than AEW. It had more world wide recognition.

This sounds like a dirt sheet writer loving AEW too much.