I would classify AEW as boring. WWE is definitely gentrified and sterile, with the promos being particularly fucking grating, but AEW has worse in-ring, somehow even shittier gimmicks, insults your intelligence just as much and has this self-congratulatory attitude.

Don't disagree with this too much. They've stayed away from making stars and they are about five years behind on where talent should be. There is lots wrong with WWE. My pet peeve is when people automatically project quality onto other shit. Creatively, not one single member of the AEW talent that has had exposure on any sort of big platform has looked better in AEW than they have everywhere else. Not even Cody, who would I say was better in the initial stages of teaming with Goldust in the WWE. But he would be the closest.

It's frustrating to know that I have to wait for the WWE to decide to turn things around to get excited again. The XFL was a positive for that. So are the TV rights deals, just in the sense that their value to television becomes so important and they now have the money to lock talent in for long-term deals that can pay an obscene amount of money. I would be very surprised if they didn't lock Drew into a new five-year deal before having him win the 2020 Royal Rumble, which means they can afford to build around him. And so far he's turned out better as a champion than Jon Moxley, although the internet will never admit it.

I can understand being suspicious of WWE, but at some point they might need to shape up. AEW needs to and has proven that they can't even do that with the need.

But yes, podcasts and talking about wrestling is largely more interesting than the actual wrestling these days.

I haven't bought Drew at all as champion. He went from being fodder for Reigns and a midcard guy to winning the rumble over night. It felt so artificial to me.

And what's worse is he's become the same guy as every failed babyface chamion before him. Seriously, Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Drew, they're all the same guy. Like a good 75% of the roster.

I mean, look at this shit.

https://i.imgur.com/ryQeGL5.jpg

Is he posing for a match up graphic or for a stock photo used for bowel irregularity medicine? Either way he's the friendliest looking Scottish Psycopath I've ever seen.

The killer is that Drew has all the tools to be a great champion, and they could have easily made his push to the top feel more interesting. But they stuck to this formulaic, cut-and-paste personality. Some of Drew's natural intensity shines through at times, but for the most part I haven't found his run to be very engaging.

I think that's part of why people our age are attracted to AEW is because they do try to give everyone on their roster something to seperate them from eachother and make them feel unique. I mean you're talking about a group of fans that grew up in the 80's and 90's. The double whammy of Hulkmania and Attitude, where almost everyone in the locker room, from the guys headlining Mania' to the guys opening Sunday Night Heat had larger than life characters that leapt out of the screen and demanded attention.

There is almost none of that on modern WWE programming. A very large portion of the roster are guys who give it everything they've got, because they worked really hard, and they love this business and

https://media1.tenor.com/images/5220...temid=10998728

That's why people latch onto characters ike Becky Lynch and Bray Wyatt so hard. It's why they're attracted to the personalities on AEW. They're fucking starved.

Everyone in AEW has something about them that is their own. It doesn't always work, and it shouldn't be excused when it doesn't, but I can understand the appeal it has for a lot of people.

I’ll take Drew as a champion beating the heels of the month over Jon Moxley talking about people’s grandmothers. Drew’s not perfect, but he carries himself well in the ring. Yes, that photo is shit.

https://www.wwe.com/f/styles/wwe_16_...cee2f4a221.jpg

Card for tonight's 205 Live show:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Maybe we'll just do two hours of SmackDown Karaoke and watch the world burn <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ReasonsToWatchSmackDown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ReasonsToWatchSmackDown</a></p>&mdash; WWE Creative Humor (@WWECreative_ish) <a href="https://twitter.com/WWECreative_ish/status/1284151818445041665?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 17, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

This intro video package for tonight's show is pretty good.

This tag should be really good. Smackdown has the best roster in Wrestling no doubt and here's four of'em.

For a match meant to have something important on the line, Cesaro vs. Big E felt like a mostly nothing match.

Crossover DREAM MATCH...

Baron Corbin vs Darby Allen

:lol: at that one person in the crowd blurting out "You Suck" to Bayley.

I'm glad someone is honest about it. The show is far from what it could be, but you've got the best talent in the world and when they get to do something good, it's the best stuff of the week. It's a shame WWE have created this bias against them.

Women's tag match was pretty good overall.

If Braun's beard grows by another inch or two, it might end up being bigger than his head.

LMAO @ BRAUN'S PROMO LOLOLOLOL

Is it not the consensus here that Smackdown has the best roster? Who are you arguing against?

That type of squash is what Braun should be doing at pretty much every weekly show except for PPV's.

Man I bet this is the seeds of Morrison/Miz splitting up. Morrison going to be upset abut Miz not being in the match.

That post-match stuff with Morrison felt a bit odd.

Which BTW I really don't want. I really want Miz/Morrsion to develop a catalog of original music videos for each feud.

Felt more like they were writing him out for a while than the start of a potential split with the Miz.

Then again, spitting them up probably would be the best for Morrison since he hasn't really felt special since returning to WWE.

I don't pay much attention to most of the posters here, honestly. The general internet consensus seems to be that AEW has the best roster. This is perpetuated by guys like Meltzer who call AEW's tag team divisions one of the best ever. You see the people who really hang onto his every word echoing those sentiments and giving average reviews to SmackDown and amazing reviews to AEW.

Perception is important, but a lot of people in the bubble have their perception skewered.

Dude, that's incorrect. Miz and Morrison both revived their careers in on of the WWE highlights of the last 10 years with the debut of "Braun Strowman has to go" ...

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bpkV9LNni70" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Don't you remember?

AJ is about but lose the title boys!

Wouldn't be surprised if this ends in a DQ. But Matt Riddle winning the IC Title is entirely possible. Not sure what it means to be IC Champion anymore. The Universal Title is basically the IC Title.

The video was great but outside of that Morrison has felt mostly irrelevant during his current run.

With the IC on AJ, it's like the main title on Smackdown.

I guess you are right, but I don't see Morrison as a main guy but I could be wrong. I think we've had this same conversation in the past. I don't see Morrison as being underused, he's on TV every week having great matches for the most part in a big spot. It's not the Universal Champion spot but it's a big spot. I don't know if he can really ask for much more.

Good LAWD! That brainbusta, it busted his brain!

Morrison is still amazing. I don't mind him in a team with The Miz. I don't "feel" a main event run for him, but he looks the business and he's good in the ring. Functionally, it would be fine. It just depends on whether or not you want to actually do it.

I think his best use is in that team with The Miz. They make a great arrogant heel duo.

When these two wrestle each other they are the best in the world.

Awesome finish! That pumps me up because you know we are going to get a rematch. I want to watch these two wrestle all summer. Awesome stuff. The ending wrestling sequence was like Lou Thez/Buddy Rogers level grappling. Awesome rasslin match. I feel like AJ and Riddle are at a career high right now "talent wise".

Oh goddamn King Corbin that no good piece of garbage!

Surprised Styles actually won clean. Match was good but felt like it was missing that next gear. Not sure if it was due to the match's slow pace or just something being off a bit between the two.

SD itself was average to good overall. Felt more like a regular show than something meant to give one last big hype for Extreme Rules if you were on the fence for the event though. Then again what do I know since apparently I'm completely biased against WWE going by someone else here.


Yeah he's been getting some quality tv time but guess its more of how quickly WWE made him feel like just another guy than someone who felt a ton more interesting wherever he went in the indies. That and they totally failed to continue with the running gag of his last name being the name of the company or brand he works in.

You think SmackDown has the best tag team division? What tag teams are even on the SmackDown roster? The New Day... Cesaro & Nakamura... Lucha House Party... uhh... who else...

are the usos still there, but still wwe don't care about tag teems.

meltzer is wrong about aew having the best tag div of all time but may have the best tag div now. after tonight impact may give aew run for there money depends on who they signed.

The tag teams AEW has are talented, but they all mostly wrestle the same style. Thre's not much depth.

FTR is a good aquisition but honestly, it's two guys who apply old school heel tag methods to modern fast paced, high impact wrestling. They're a welcome addition, but they're not THAT different from the other teams there.

Butcher and Blade would mix things up more if they weren't treated like jobbers.

AEW treats their tag division better, but they need a more diverse roster of teams before they can even be in the conversation for best tag division.

Way too early to put AEW's tag division on a similar level with 80s era tag wrestling. In terms of focus, could probably make a small case but you'd still run into the same problem of AEW's tag division not being around long enough yet.

A better argument would be AEW's tag division being the best since post-Attitude Era since the strongest challengers arguably are early to mid 2000s WWE and early era TNA both in terms of focus, tv exposure, and overall quality.

The Usos, Bryan & Gulak, Heavy Machinery, Miz & Morrison. And they had The Revival at the start of the year, which was a massive point in their favor. They also had Ziggler & Roode until recently too. The division had talent to spare.

Lol of course they’re sending Corbin against Riddle. It’s like clockwork.

Got a new face you want to build some momentum with? WELL HERE’S HUMAN MOLASSES BARON CORBIN RIGHT ON SCHEDULE!