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Counting Lights

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Posts posted by Counting Lights

  1. Figured I'd jump in here - watched my first episode of RAW in YEARS last night. Crazy how good that was.

    Kinda crazy how much of 2011 is reflecting right now. Between Punk, Rock, Awesome Truth, it's like a flashback to when I was at my peak wrestling fan-ness(?). 

    Heel Rock is crazy good. Been watching his promos on Youtube and this is so, so, SO much better than his nostalgia run back in 2011-13.

    I will say, Punk's promo game was ooooooff. That Vince dig was good but otherwise wow, Drew brutalized him. 

    This Mania card, on paper, is also looking like the best one in a veeery long time. Just curious - is it looking like Shinsuke, Andrade or Liv are getting Mania matches?

  2. Hangman's promo was so dope. Dude is such a natural face.

    I keep blissfully forgetting Jeff Jarrett is a thing and any time he shows up I get a rude awakening. I hope they get this feud over with.

    I liked Ruby vs Tay a lot.

    MJF should never take a powerbomb again lol. Overall match was really good though, so were both solo promos.

    Solid Dynamite.

  3. Quick thoughts, in reverse - 

    I don't know/care about Ishii but the main event was fun.

    Glad they ditched the interim BS for the womens belt. Can't help but think the women should've had two proper segments though? Let Britt & Hayter have a full promo, then do a standard tag for TayJay vs Willow/Blue. 

    Are they really shackling the dull, drab, uninteresting carcasses of Jeff Jarrett and Jay Lethal to The Acclaimed for a program?

    Elite vs DT was very fun. But ffs this whole post-brawl out situation has been so unbelievably toxic. The FU chants for both Punk on Saturday and Elite last night were uncalled for in my honest opinion. This is wrestling's equivalent of investing too much in random celebrity drama that has no effect on your life and it's bringing out the worst in everyone.

    Glad Starks beat Ethan. The latter offers nothing overly new or interesting to me. Starks needs to get some fire back though, but I'm sure he and Max can duel on the mic.

    HOUSE OF BLACK ARE BACK LETS GOOOOO!!! 

    Orange/Hager was so much fun. It's dumb, but this "I LIKE MY HAT"" gimmick for Hager is genuinely entertaining as hell and meshed with OC's shenanigans so well.

    Opening promo was... interesting. I'm kinda curious what happens next? Danielson to ditch Moxley, join with Regal/MJF for a while? Maybe eventually be the one who beats MJF?

  4. There were some rumblings a while back Logan was hella right wing, which probably implies Rowe is too given they're married. Sucks cuz like... I love the gimmick. I listen to a shit ton of folk punk so this shit is definitely my vibe, but I'd be lying if that wasn't in the back of my mind when she showed up.

    Weird given she's tight with Ruby & Liv who don't seem like they'd be down with that at all.

  5. Theory ain't World champ material yet IMHO. Had he won it, would've probably been a transitional champ who then fell off for a while ala Randy Orton's first run (best case scenario, anyway). He only got the case cuz he was a Vince project and I think Trips is right to hold off for now.

    That said, man, dude looked like an absolute idiot the way he got booked. Time to rehab him a bit.

    In general, lots of choices have been making me scratch my head lately. I guess HHH is just assembling the dominos from how Vince dropped them, but I for one can't wait until WrestleMania is over and done with so they can run a draft and hopefully things can really get in the groove.

  6. 1 hour ago, Generations said:

    Shibata is a legit badass, is the thing.

    He had an actual MMA career, and his most notable work in NJPW revolved around his ability to headbutt people hard-way and knock them the f out without flinching. He almost ended his career by headbutting the shit out of Okada (bleeding on the brain). And then he made a return to wresting against pretty much all expectations or odds...only to be jobbed out to f'ing Orange Cassidy of all people. His nickname is "The Wrestler"...because he's a purist. He's basically the last mother f'er who should be jobbing to a comedy gimmick.

    You could put Shibata in a class with someone like Minoru Suzuki (guys with actual combat skills,  who should not be f'd with).

    It would have made more sense for Shibata to compete with a guy like Danielson or Yuta than it ever made to book him against Cassidy. There was nothing to be gained in a match with Cassidy...not even a title match. Which goes back to what PTW was saying about OC being selfish, I guess (whether it's his call or not). - Guy is booked to beat top guys, and it makes no sense. Shibata is a top guy. He came very close to being IWGP champion (prior to injury he was being booked this way). He can hang with world class athletes. - He is a world class athlete.

    Especially the fact that this was presented as a "Dream Match" was a huge joke, honestly. Again...something like Danielson vs Shibata or even Yuta vs Shibata might have been  a dream match. This was kind of a nightmare from the start. Everyone knew that Cassidy would get the W, and Shibata gained absolutely nothing from the situation

    Aight, but this isn't MMA. It's pro wrestling. It's a soap opera featuring a stunt show that mimics a real fight in the most absurd way. Real world clout doesn't really matter when you go out there to play a character. I mean hell, Bobby Fish just tried to pull the "I'm a legit badass" card and that shit didn't fly with anyone. An actor doesn't need to actually murder someone to play a serial killer on TV, know what I mean?

    Orange is an absurd, over-the-top character yeah, but he's not presented the way a Santino Marella was, where he occasionally gets lucky. It's consistently noted that Cassidy's entire persona is a massive mind game to keep people from taking him seriously.

  7. 1 hour ago, PaperThinWalls said:

    I barely know who Shibata is either. In fact, this is my first time seeing him since he’d returned. Also, for the record, I didn’t expect or really care if Shibata won the match.

    Tell me, besides Adam Cole and Jericho, who has OC beaten that is top talent? I’m looking at his cagematch page and all I’m seeing are jobbers like Tony Nese and Ari Daivari; low-midcarders like Jay Lethal and Ethan Page; and quintessential mid-carders like PAC, Luchasaurus, and Fenix (which were only recently). Are these guys top talent to you? They’re the undercard. These guys aren’t headliners or main-eventers. If you’re top talent, then you gotta beat top talent.

    See undercard is weird phrase. On the one hand it means anyone not main event, but it carries such a stink on it and you only ever see it used negatively. I split my rankings more as Main Event > Upper Midcard > Lower Midcard > Enhancement

    OC is top of the Upper Midcard to me. A guy who can main event a weekly with no issues and someone who you can have face your World Champ in a perfect "he probably won't win but... shit he might" matchup. This is how he's been presented since day 1 and it works. Crowd reaction alone solidifies that. 

    It's not just about who he's beaten, it's also about how he lost to some. This is a guy who has taken Cody & Omega to their limits, two of the undisputedly best of the best AEW has ever had. More recently, he took Ospreay to the limit. Not everything is about wins/losses and Orange is a guy who can consistently look strong even in defeat by stealing the show. The wins against people like Jericho & Cole that you mentioned go to show that he can pull out a win over some of the best too. For a guy who has only now actually won a title, he's been presented exceptionally well. 

    I also don't think we can call Jay Lethal a lower midcarder. He's been constantly featured for months on end, feuding with Upper Midcarders like Darby, Wardlow & Joe while challenging for both the TNT & TV belts. Not even a fan of his, but c'mon.

     

  8. If I knew who the hell Shibata was, maybe I'd be more upset. But losing to a guy who has been consistently presented as a big deal in AEW since day (undercard in what world??) doesn't seem like a bad way to go, especially for a New Japan guy making a one off appearance. 

    Personally, I like seeing OC as champion. It's something different and I reeeeally hate the concept of "some characters don't need titles". Nah, those are the characters that make the most unique champions.

     

  9. 14 hours ago, The Nerd said:

    Groundbreaking pop. You’re right. 😂

    I'm not saying it's a groundbreaking monster pop, but for Colt I'd say it was a nice, solid reaction. I genuinely have no opinion on Cabana outside of the Dark Order vignettes, I'm just saying the crowd reacted positively and saying they didn't is incorrect. 

  10. Aight but if you were to put them in a non-wrestling work environment, Hangman "started shit" by throwing a snarky remark at Punk in a conversation by the coffee machine, Punk retaliated by getting on his desk and screaming at the entire office. 

    The one thing that would've softened me more on Punk's method was if it was confirms the Elite started/spread the Colt Cabana rumors, but every wrestling reporter out there has spoken out against that. This was Punk hearing the rumors and not confronting THEM until he just blew up at the rant.

    PTW you sure you're not letting your taste in wrestlers dictate your thoughts on this? I know you don't care for Hangman/The Elite on screen, while you were a big Punk fan.

     

     

     

     

     

  11. 41 minutes ago, T-Hell said:

    Maybe do men's mitb at WM night 1 and women's at night 2, or viceversa. And then rename the Elimination Chamber ppv to No Way Out like the old days or something like that.

    This please. Getting MitB back on Mania also means some people who are otherwise shafted to the Battle Royal can have a chance at making the card.

  12. I agree that bringing your pet to, well, almost anywhere is a stupid move. I groan at people with dogs in grocery stores, let alone arenas. But that is a little away from the point.

    From every story that I've read so far, Punk took the first hit at one of the Bucks, who literally brought the AEW head of legal to witness their convo with Punk and Punk was in pissed-off-panic-mode from the start. When the fight started, Omega grabbed Larry and handed him to said head of legal so he wouldn't get hurt... my guess is if Larry took a hit, it could've been when Ace jumped on Kenny? Which is actually even more ironic if so as that means that any harm to Punk's dog would've been caused by his own buddy. But again, that's just my speculation based on everything that's been reported.

    I dunno man, Punk the performer is very much still my all time favorite, but nothing about any of the stories so far have made him out to be in the right, especially when Punk's side dropped the claim of the door getting kicked down.

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