GRcade

Punk!

twitter.com/WWEonFOX/status/1194480602583633925

Apparently it's FOX that have hired him rather than WWE (much like how 2K have done in the past), but I can't imagine it'll be too long before he's on SmackDown at some point in 2020.

KK wrote:

twitter.com/WWEonFOX/status/1194480602583633925

Apparently it's FOX that have hired him rather than WWE (much like how 2K have done in the past), but I can't imagine it'll be too long before he's on SmackDown at some point in 2020.

They absolutely need to get him back on SD. Still not convinced that he won’t throw a hissy fit and walk out on Fox in a few months. We’ll have to wait and see how critical and argumentative he is in backstage first.

The ratings for Backstage last week were shocking (49,000) so the show needed something like this. When the SD numbers also inevitably drop to a point FOX aren't happy with, FOX will go to WWE and 'suggest' Punk and Vince will absolutely say yes. Apparently it was Punk's agent that first contacted FOX.

I've not watched Backstage so I don't know how critical or legit they're allowed to be, but on their new official WWE podcast with Corey Graves he said he thought the Lana/Rusev storyline was a load of gooseberry fool and should end, so maybe Punk will be allowed to say what he wants. They've also got the editor of the Pro Wrestling Sheet on Backstage as well.

I'm not quite sure what Punk gets out of it? I mean he was going on before how he didn't need the money – and I'm sure he could make some elsewhere if he was desperate – so why do it?

Would have meant more had he walked out on an episode of AEW Dynamite as well, but he seems to have been quite critical of them recently, whereas he's been more positive all of a sudden about WWE. And if he's back, I guess you can't rule out the return of AJ Lee either.

Jim Ross not off to the best of starts tonight, he called Sunday’s PPV Fully Loaded.

I think the last time the WWE had that show was back in 2000.

Botchamania is going to have a bit of a field day with this episode. Ross keeps wanting to call the PPV Fully Loaded! He also called Hager, Swagger. If this were at the height of the Monday Night Wars Eric Bischoff would be having a fit on commentary at this point. Bobby Heenan used to make these mistakes occasionally.

Great crowd tonight, good pacing, and a number of hot moments (Jericho and MJF’s promo, Pac match, an extremely wild brawl that had LAX telling someone in the crowd to ‘shut the strawberry float up’) counterbalancing a show that to be honest has had quite a lot of gooseberry fool on it as well.

JR is now becoming so distracting I can barely watch Dynamite.

I don't want to see Ross booted off completely because while he's much more prone to getting lost these days, he can still be very good, but I think they should have Schiavone open the show, and then change up the commentary teams in hour 1 and 2, maybe replacing Ross with Taz.

When the cameras go to the announce table, Schiavone is the only one who seems capable of leading and running down the card, Excalibur and Ross in particular are rather awkward in that position.

Schiavone's earrings last night though - he looked like Elton John.

They also announced that they're effectively bringing back WCW's BattleBowl "Lord Of The" ring next week, which DDP won at Slamboree in 1996. AEW are calling there's the "Diamond Ring", in an obvious nod to DDP, via a Dynamite Dozen battle royal, with the final 2 left standing then facing off in a singles match.

Aaaw I like JR. I still think he brings something to the commentary team despite making quite a few mistakes. I'm hoping that they start to disappear the more he gets familiar with the product.

Another great episode of Dynamite again this week. AEW has helped me to remember why I liked wrestling all of those years ago.

JR is still really good, he made the lights out match at the PPV seem much more epic. He also really helped get the Dynamite brawl in the arena concourse over.

Shiavone is absolutely superb though. They should have probably had him as lead announcer.

Jesus Christ, after watching AEW, SmackDown right now just feels so childish. CBBC level stuff in this opening segment. Man in a dog suit. Bright flashing lights for those with attention deficit disorder. High pitched yappy barking over Roman Reigns theme music...urgh.

WWE manages to make content targeted more and more towards dumb babies while their actual watching audience gets older and older. Quite impressive really.

Asuka's YouTube is a treasure

It’s terrific. Gets great numbers too even though it’s not connected to WWE.

The amount of wrestling programming from the US this week is properly mental.

Monday - WWE RAW and MLW Fusion
Tuesday - AEW Dark, NWA Power and WWE Backstage
Wednesday - AEW Dynamite and NXT
Thursday - NXT UK and WWE Main Event
Friday - WWE SmackDown, WWE 205 Live and IMPACT WRESTLING
Saturday - NXT Takeover
Sunday - Survivor Series and Steve Austin: The Broken Skull Sessions - Undertaker
Monday - WWE RAW

KK wrote:The amount of wrestling programming from the US this week is properly mental.

Monday - WWE RAW and MLW Fusion
Tuesday - AEW Dark, NWA Power and WWE Backstage
Wednesday - AEW Dynamite and NXT
Thursday - NXT UK and WWE Main Event
Friday - WWE SmackDown, WWE 205 Live and IMPACT WRESTLING
Saturday - NXT Takeover
Sunday - Survivor Series and Steve Austin: The Broken Skull Sessions - Undertaker
Monday - WWE RAW

Why are you not all over NJPW KK? Tag league this week as well.

Yet Wednesday and Saturday are the only nights that matter.

Having two elimination tech-heavy shows back to back is moronic imo.

Simply don’t have the time to watch everything, unfortunately, and AEW and NXT tends to take precedence. Talking of AEW...



WWE let the copyright lapse on a number of WCW’s old properties, so AEW has gone and bought them up. Slamboree is definitely another.

Very strong GTA Vice City/Miami Vice vibes from the logo.

So it's just a dynamite though?

And wtf what that timing on Joe's entrance on raw?!