Blog of DOOM Daily News Update – 30th July 2021

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Bonjourrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Add Falcon and Winter Soldier along with Wanda-Vision to the list of Disney+ shows I have now watched in a recent cram session. Overall I enjoyed all of them, with Loki probably being my favourite but Falcon and Winter Soldier came me a few cases of the feels, so well done on that front. I will be interested to see where things go.

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C.M. Punk in AEW

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So sloppy drunk Adam Page can't win the big one, which opens the door for Straight Edge Savior Punk to come in, get Page clean and sober, and help him finally beat Omega for the title, right? Then of course Punk turns on Page because you knew he was a snake when you took him in and yada, yada.

You’re getting mad at your own fantasy booking?

They Can’t Be Serious…..Right?

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Scott, I don't know if you've seen this yet, but this is from Bryan and Vinny:

“Adam Page is not getting the main event for All Out with Kenny Omega. At one
point it was the plan but plans change. The ten-man tag was designed to shock
people when they veered off that match, but one would think they will be going
to it later. They were pushing Christian Cage for a title match next. Whether
that’s for TV in a few weeks or PPV should be clear pretty soon. They’ve done
angles to where they should do Cage and Eddie Kingston both against Omega, but
Christian feels to me like a match for a major Dynamite and Kingston could
headline a PPV but with the additions maybe it’s a TV match as well.”

I mean……..really?


I mean, it would make sense if they have a hell of a main event to replace Page, like Bryan, but if it’s Christian and they’re just stretching out the Page thing again…not good.  

Impact Wrestling – July 22, 2021

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Impact Wrestling
Date: July 22, 2021
Location: Skyway Studios, Nashville, Tennessee
Commentators: Matt Striker, D’Lo Brown

We are finally done with Slammiversary, which wound up being a heck of a show with a lot of surprises. Kenny Omega retained the World Title by defeating Sami Callihan but New Japan’s Jay White showed up to end the show in a big surprise. It’s time to start the long form crawl towards Bound For Glory so let’s get to it.

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Because WCW

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Hi Scott. So Bobby Heenan gets over “Da Man” for Goldberg, and WCW makes no t-shirt to my memory of it. Fast forward 20 years, Becky Lynch calls herself “The Man,” and of course Vince makes millions off the shirt. Kinda sums up dubya cee dubya in a nutshell doesn’t it?
The problem is that they had one or two people who were really savvy about wrestling merchandise, but those two people were only interested in merchandising themselves and everyone else was at the mercy of the WCW braintrust. 

Most Over at their peak

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At their highest peak in WWE, who was the most over with the fans, Daniel Bryan, RVD or CM Punk.  If Vince had pushed any of the three to the heights that John Cena has gotten as the face of the company, as the face of the company, would WWE be in a much better
position now, or are those guys just the best for the hardcore fans who watch every week no matter what?

The Daniel Bryan storyline legit sold out a stadium.  Neither of the other guys have credentials anywhere close to what Bryan accomplished at WM30.  

Big wrestling men in japan

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I have not been the biggest follower of multiple feds the past 10+ years and even longer of japan until recently, and through some catch up i'm curious on these 4 guys.  Can you or someone point me in a right and/or match direction what is intruiging about The Good Brothers?  I don't find them terrible or anything but i also don't see what makes them different. Karl Anderson made it to a G1 Finals against Okada, was he really that good at the time? While were at it, was anything stand out in japan of Giant Benard?  Was there something he was showing there that for whatever reason wwe never capitilized on with him?  And last, Scott Norton.  I never got into him in wcw and thought he was one of the worst additions to the nWo.  Apparently he was big in japan.  How big?  How good?  Vader level or close?  Thank you. 

Scott Norton wasn't good at any particular point, but he was HUGE in Japan because he's huge, and he could work well enough within his limitations over there to put together decent matches.  He barely gave a damn in the US, though.  I didn't see much of Albert in Japan to judge.  The Good Brothers are definitely an acquired taste in some ways.  

NXT UK – July 29, 2021

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NXT UK
Date: July 29, 2021
Location: BT Studios, London, England
Commentators: Nigel McGuinness, Andy Shepherd

We’re coming up on Ilja Dragunov vs. Walter II for the United Kingdom Title….but it’s going to take place in Florida on the regular NXT Takeover. Well so much for that. Instead, we’ll have to get read for the Iron Man match between Jordan Devlin and A-Kid. Let’s get to it.

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Losing a slice of the pie?

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https://www.f4wonline.com/aew-news/dominos-issues-statement-after-aew-dynamite-pizza-cutter-usage-348506

So, as soon as the Picture in Picture had Gage slicing Jericho with a pizza cutter on the right, and a Dominoes ad on the left, I 1) laughed at the absurd timing, and 2) worried something exactly like this could happen. I love AEW but Tony Khan has GOT to be more than just a rubber stamp on the wants and wishes of his favorite wrestlers. There’s a reason there are no deathmatches on broadcast TV.

This is how, even when drawing good ratings, you get in trouble with networks because nobody wants to buy ads.

Lesson learned, you think? Or will we see some other boneheaded idea from Jericho or someone else get the green light and endanger advertiser buys?

It's a very valid concern and I hope Tony is smart enough to not push things much further, or least spread out the blood & guts nonsense so that it's not something happening week after week.  There's a reason why Vince sacrificed all the Attitude Era stuff for bigger merch numbers and more advertising dollars.  

Darsow as Smash

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Was Barry Darsow signed to the WWF with something else in mind (such as a guy who reposes things) and happened to luck into the Smash gimmick, or was he signed specifically to replace Randy Colley as Smash?

Far as I know he was coming in anyway to do something else and lucked into it.  But I'm sure there's a million shoot interviews where he relates the story in more detail.  

Explain AEW Booking

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Hi Scott,

I want so badly to really embrace AEW, but the booking of The Elite, especially since they became heels, bugs the crap out of me. 

For example, I was watching the 10-man tag match last night. Now, if you're going by any type of standard wrestling storytelling, this is an excellent chance for the heels to take a loss, in a match with no consequences. The obvious choices are:
  • Show the world that The Dark Order are no longer B-Card glorified jobbers, that they are at the same level as The Elite
  • By learning to accept the friendship and camaraderie of TDO, Hangman Page leads the team to a hard fought victory.
  • After his Dark Order friends are defeated, Hangman Page overcomes the odds and pins Kenny Omega.
Or at the worst:
  • After a hard fought battle, Hangman Page and Kenny Omega are the last two standing, and Omega wins with some chicanery, but you prove that Page is right there at his level.  
But they go with, The Elite treat The Dark Order like the B-Card glorified jobbers that they are and then defeat Hangman Page with the numbers game, proving that he really isn't a contender for the title. As a fan I will now fast forward through any Omega or Young Bucks match match, because I've seen this finish about 3 dozen times with them. 

They're using the NWO playbook, but the repetitive booking really shouldn't be the lesson learned from late 90s WCW. 

I know you quite enjoy AEW, but I have to think you feel similarly. Your thoughts? 
Still haven't watched the first hour yet but I'm starting to think that I should so that I can milk another million pageviews out of it. 

Impact, Indies, and Insanity: July 29, 2021

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IMPACT gives us: Moose and Chris Sabin in a rematch; Bullet Club’s leader Jay White and potential recruit Chris Bey against ex-members The Good Brothers; Ace Austin/Madman Fulton/Rohit Raju/Mahabali Shera vs David Finlay IV/Juice Robinson/Fallah Bahh/No Way Jose; Taylor Wilde is back in action facing Kaleb Withak; Violent By Design’s Deaner and Rhino tackle Rich Swann and Willie Mack; and in the pre-show, Steve Maclin goes against Trey Miguel.

So, do you like tournaments?  Do you like indies?  Brother, this is your weekend!  More after the jump!

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Hall of Fame

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With Wrestlemania 38 being in Texas next year what are your thoughts for the Hall of Fame? I'm praying and hopeful for a some World Class and Mid South stars like Midnight Express, Brian Adias, Mark Youngblood and Skandor Akbar. What say you?
I cannot express how little I care about the WWE Hall of Fame and who goes in and when and where.  

Two points about AEW

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Hey Scott,


First of all I wanna say that AEW has been tremendous overall and, in many ways, what the wrestling world has sorely needed since WCW went under. 


Two points, though:


1) Let’s see the crowd! I still don’t understand why WWE has decided to turn the house lights off on their live audiences during promos and matches and, inexplicably, AEW has followed suit. The crowd is just as crucial to the presentation as the talent is.
It’s important to see people in the bleachers reacting just as much as the front-row VIPs. Some of wrestling’s biggest moments were because you could see an entire sea of people almost undulate collectively when they’ve been super immersed into a match or
character like Steve Austin. And if you got super lively, sold-out  audiences like AEW does, why darken them, only to pan to their faces after every big move – and barely make their facial expressions out under a harsh blue or red light?


2) Pause and build a little anticipation between entrance themes. This is one of the little things WWE has gotten right, although they have a tendency to overdo it. Going from one wrestler’s theme to another without even a second to take it in is amateurish
and the opposite of “big time.” WCW did this and so does TNA/Impact. Let a wrestler’s entrance presentation “sit” a little bit in the moment before quickly shifting gears.


Thanks for listening.

I absolutely agree about the lights.  The NXT show these days drives me nuts as well with the dark presentation.  Maybe it’s all the Ebersol era WWF I’ve watched this year influencing me but the brightly lit arenas look so much more big league!  

Blog of DOOM Daily News Update – 29th July 2021

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Howdy-Ho Neighbourinos!

So it turns out I’ve had a Disney+ sub for a while as I forgot to cancel a free membership, meaning I decided to spend all of last night working my way through Loki and I really liked it. Not going to spoil anything, but I found it the funny bits were funny and the dramatic bits were suitably dramatic, so it’s a thumbs up from me. The scene with Casey in Episode 1 primed me well for the comedy going forward and I thought the performances from all of the actors involved across the series were great.

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Monday Night Raw – February 26, 2007

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Monday Night Raw
Date: February 26, 2007
Location: Save Mart Center, Fresno, California
Attendance: 8,700
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

We’re rapidly approaching Wrestlemania and this time around we have more from Donald Trump. This week, Trump gets to pick his representative to face Umaga in the Battle of the Billionaires, which is going to be the show’s real main event. Other than that, we have the continuing saga of Shawn Michaels trying to keep John Cena safe until Wrestlemania. Let’s get to it.

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