forameus

Pleasingly, they seem to be struggling to shift them all even after going to standalone tickets. In fact, looking at the actual seating chart, there's a lot still going, including a lot in the lower levels. Probably looking at about 50% sold if that for the floor seats. 300 level pretty much gone even at those prices, but still seats dotted around all over the place. Which isn't exactly surprising when your cheapest available ticket at this stage is £300 for a single event. Absolute fucking joke.

Don't worry lads. For anyone who never got a chance to buy, or those that were swithering, there's still a fair few tickets available for the Glasgow show. And you're even up in the cheap seats! Of course, cheap is relative, as one will set you back £500. They're taking the fucking piss.

Imagine having the most stacked roster in wrestling, and then still deciding that the best use of what seemed like four hours about twenty minutes of TV time was Chris Jericho laying in heatless chops against Shibata. Ooft. Top work from FITE again, managing to hype up an appearance by Kenny Omega then cutting it off after 2 minutes. Full deal is available, but even if it's a FITE issue and not AEW, still shouldn't be happening. Assume it's because of Rampage being on after. Good opening segment with Swerve and I think Christian is a decent choice from a build-up perspective, as he's easily the best heel they've got, but not sure it'll be the best in-ring. Still, tides things over for another PPV cycle. Segment took a real left turn at the end though, with Swerve having to sell getting his hair pulled like that, and the crowd chanting "eat it". Odd. On the Omega stuff, I know it's me getting all "real to me dammit", but it seemed a bit all over the place. His diverticulitis is obviously a real thing, and it's fucked with a lot of people in the industry. They struck the right tone in the seriousness of it. But then to move towards retirement talk, how blunt force trauma could kill him, and then move to the beatdown clearly not going along those lines....I don't know, it all just feels a bit off. I assume he's a lot closer to healthy than they're making out, but then going down the serious route too far seems a bit much (work, shoot, brother etc). Did like FTR's "I really can't be arsed with this" jog down to the ring though. Top stuff.

Maybe they'll change things with Backlash, but I doubt it. Puerto Rico is probably the one that sticks out, but if you strip away Bad Bunny and the incredible crowd, you've probably got a fairly middling show. If they manage to maneuver Drew into contention and have him win a title there, that is going to get a similar reaction, and I expect the crowd will be a hot one, they usually are in the UK, but I just can't see them putting on this incredible show. I put down my money for All In without a second thought, because after last year I'm pretty sure AEW are going to put on probably the best show they could. I don't trust WWE to do the same, for more money.

After the previous email advising me the pre-sale was open, the next one I got from WWE was, hilariously, them shilling their Capital One credit card.

That was a bit of a return to form for me, decent episode. Really enjoyed the concept of the gauntlet match. Rare you find something relatively new (I know it's a mish-mash of a lot of other matches, but felt fresh at least) in wrestling, and I think it really worked as a sort of mini-rumble. Interesting to have Ospreay win it, as I assumed they'd hide him from the finish so he wouldn't "lose". I assume he leathers f**k out of Strong at Double or Nothing, as it wouldn't really make sense for him to lose at this stage. Still plenty of time to set it up of course, but I wonder if the World Title at All In isn't the plan, and he'll go on to have a long reign with the international and have a big match that way. Interesting way to end the show too, although that's probably going to be one that is decided by hindsight. Given their history, they've got a habit of struggling with a lot of their long-term stories, it's certainly a risk. And for all of Vince's faults, he could act the role he was playing to absolute perfection. Can Khan do that? Can his prodigious coke intake drive him to be the sympathetic face? I assume Omega is back next week to properly fire off the starting gun in all of this, so maybe we're building to some kind of Anarchy in the Arena or Blood and Guts match over this (we're due another of the latter in the May-July period) then, hopefully, Omega is healthy enough to have a huge singles match at All In, maybe even with Okada. That'd be braw. Was amusing that the typical babyface charge only happened once the heels had all safely left the ring area, through the same door said faces all entered by. Get Shad Khan involved in it all in all his lounge-suited glory.

175 a ticket for the cheapest, and looks like they're all gone. Get fucked.

Think that page said it was a 6:30 start with 5pm doors if I remember right. But no idea what "start" means in this sense and what they tape at a Smackdown these days. Could just be a pre-show, then the main starts at 7. Imagine it'll It's the worry with them combining the tickets. On one hand, they get to pocket the money for people desperate to go to the PPV, even if they don't intend to go to Smackdown, but it'll be a bad look for them if they've chosen that over making sure every seat is filled. I don't doubt there's 13000 people who would rather go see WWE instead of watching the football, but there are going to be a lot of people - myself included - who would rather watch the game.

I forgot you had that waiting room thing and left it unrefreshed until a few minutes before, would've been further up too. Imagine you're right about the price. I'm fully expecting to baulk at it and not buy any, so maybe a fair few in that position too.

I don't want to say the process is besieged by bots and scalpers, but...

Ha! 13373 ahead of me in the queue. Hydro capacity? 12-14000. Lol.

That's the presale codes out, 26 minutes to go. The guy I'd usually go with likely won't make it, think I'll unfortunately give it a miss unless the prices are significantly lower than I think they'll be.

I thought early on in the match, Danielson looked like he was a good step slower than Ospreay. Obviously, that's no slight as Ospreay often looks like he's going at a million miles an hour, but fair to say he caught up, and that was incredible. Slight nitpick, but I never like Danielson going full Danielson on his selling given his history. Just fills me with that little bit of existential dread. Another good show to go along with all the others, hard to point to a match that was anything less than good. Although - and it seems like I say this every time - they still feel like they have an issue with pacing and letting things breathe. Not quite as egregious as other times, but Danielson is lying in the ring, supposedly paralysed and on the brink of death, and you cut to your short video package for the next match, then 45 seconds later the next guys are coming out, and they're hurriedly telling you that it's fine, he left on his feet (probably because he fucking had to given the time schedule). I give them credit for keeping their shows to a set 4 hours every single time, and I'm not suggesting they go to the new WWE thing of having 3 hours of adverts a show to split things up, but pushing one match to a pre-show, or even just trimming matches slightly to give you more breathing room would make a bit of a difference. Probably just me though.

My wee one's gotten to the age where he's seen a lot of his pals with their swanky new tops, and wants a top with his name on it to really rinse out all those pennies. I assumed I'd have the sad task of getting some Premier League oil/blood money stained shirt. Unfortunately it's worse, I had to get the Scotland home top. It's really not very nice.

Bucks are one (or two I guess) of those wrestlers that you can't really say you don't like without getting a disproportionate reaction in "wrestling circles" (so basically r/squaredcircle). They are clearly incredibly talented, and their approach to how they worked their indies and marketed themselves deserves absolutely massive credit. But I just can't take to them either, and the constant mugging to the camera and shouts during matches often come off as grating. Their EVP stuff makes it slightly better, as if you seem like a wee arsehole, playing a wee arsehole on screen is usually more palatable, but still just not for me. Similar to Logan Paul in a way. I've seen a similar reaction creep in that as soon as you point out that he's clearly a c**t's c**t of the highest order, you get all kinds of people jumping back at you about how good he is at wresting. Of course he is. He's still a massive c**t though. I'd say it seems like a baffling decision she went to AEW, but I suspect they're giving her more freedom than WWE would, even under HHH's leadership. And that has proven to be a terrible idea, as pretty much everything since the moment the first notes of that awful theme hit has been absolute guff. She comes across like she's trying to cut a 90s WWE promo from someone stuck in an awful gimmick, with their only direction being "mention your gimmick a million times". Like Terry Taylor slicking his hair up and going out to talk about barnyards and shit. Every tortured CEO reference is horrible. The Boss worked, but it was never as blatant as this. I know they can't use that, so maybe, I don't know, find something different and reinvent yourself. She's very good in the ring, and she's a tremendous heel. I remember her dancing around Full Sail having just torn up a kids sign during that Iron Woman match she had with Bailey. You've got a red-hot face in Willow and a ready-made story there, I expect they'll get there and it'll be fine, but until...it's just fucking shite.

Can't believe this is such a big deal when AEW already have a dinosaur competing against human beings. Khan must condemn.

Say what you like about WWE, but they know how to squeeze the money out. Bit of a shiter if they're sticking to the combo tickets, but kind of understandable. I wondered if they'd just done the big WWE thing of doing something without checking before, but maybe they know full well that Smackdown might be a relative ghost town because of the game. They can move crowds around and still pocket the money by forcing people into buying if they want to go the next night.

MJF for options 1, 2 and 3. Malakai Black is probably a safe bet. Not really doing a whole lot in AEW, and I'd imagine he'd come over with at least Buddy Matthews given Rhea and Zelina are already there. If they could persuade Brody King too, that's a whole stable you can do a lot with in the new brand WWE. Julia Hart could come too, but I think she's probably best placed to stand on her own, and might get lost in the shuffle in a women's division that a company actually cares about. I think ultimately though, it's probably an easier question to answer on who probably wouldn't make the switch. It's flipped now Vince has gone, in that WWE is probably a pretty attractive place to go for guys at all levels. Even NXT is probably an attractive proposition for those mid-card guys who don't have much of a chance of being used in AEW. I doubt we'll see WWE go on the sort of spree AEW did in picking up huge numbers of people, imagine it'll be more looking for those individual names that can come in and be stars. Seems like they thought Ospreay was one (although I still can't see it for some reason in a WWE ring), MJF would almost certainly be one. I don't think they could resist Moxley coming back

Omega does seem like he'd be a thoroughly decent chap generally. Sometimes you just get the feeling even through someone playing a character what they might be like in real life, and I get the feeling the Bucks would be arseholes. Omega just seems like a harmless geek though. I wouldn't be surprised if he went on a similar journey to Tony Khan through Brawl Out. Starting a wrestling company sounded like a brilliant idea, what could be better? Now suddenly there's a bleeding CM Punk verbally emasculating/actively fighting you, and everything seems a bit real. Bucks maybe feel a bit more comfortable in that life, but Omega just fancies wrestling. Can't imagine diverticulitis helps either. Still can't see him going to WWE though. He's in that small group of people that I just can't imagine them using well enough to attract them. I've no idea what Ospreay would be like with them, for example, or the Bucks. Omega would be better where he is, maybe with less responsibility if that's what's eating at him. Just let him get healthy and do what he does best.

If there's a truck full of sawdust spare, get Rikishi back.

Fantasy booking, of course, but with his links to Cody, it would be quite the introduction if he's still red hot when MJF finally comes available, and he debuts by going proper heel against the company's biggest babyface. He'll be back in AEW in the coming months though. He'll finish off the stuff with Cole, but after that...who knows.

Another decent point. If they'd allied this curious decision to one of those episodes of Dynamite that seem like a mini-PPV in its quality, yeah, I can maybe see a net benefit. But they allied it to probably one of the worst episodes they've managed to put together since I started watching. If any new eyes were on the product to watch that footage, they aren't coming back.

Is it useful publicity though if that is leading to people actively criticising the choice or outright laughing at it? In the run-up, people were suggesting it was done for Jack Perry's benefit to heat him up ahead of him presumably returning to AEW. If that was the plan, big ooft, because he just ends up looking like a bewildered wee boy. So was it to somehow get the last word in on Punk? If so, fucked it again, because it essentially corroborates what he said. Sure, Punk seems like an arsehole but then he always has. He's openly admitted what happened, and now has footage to prove it. He's already on instagram taking the piss. He's fine. Was it to hype up Bucks/FTR? Now this holds a bit more weight, but if it was the case, they kind of didn't land it. They seemed to make an attempt to, but got stuck kind of halfway between it being just to take a shot at Punk and bring FTR into it. And with the Bucks as heels, are the audience now supposed to cheer Punk as the opposite face? The guy who isn't with the company anymore? Mission accomplished, as Punk would say, because there were CM Punk chants against the Bucks and Okada. Good job. This - combined with the constant shooting towards WWE on the show - has to go down as an absolutely enormous own goal. Khan has always been a questionable boss with the way he let CM Punk walk all over him multiple times, but that was admittedly a difficult situation. It is not difficult, however, especially with the roster AEW have, to just ignore what's going on and concentrate on putting on a great show. They've usually managed that. Last night they spectacularly failed.

Cheers for that, hadn't seen exactly what was said but that seems...tame, to say the least. And he's right too. If you sign with WWE, unless you're up in the sort of Brock or Reigns category, you are almost certainly signing up to do a quite punishing schedule. You can be the most talented wrestler there has ever been, you might still fall foul of that schedule. And that's fine! It's perfectly fine if you look at WWE and think "nah". Which is pretty much what Ospreay did, isn't it? He prioritised being more with his growing family than moving to the US and spending 400 days a year on the road. In that case it is "best we didn't hire you" for all parties. But no, go out there and talk about how HHH pumped his way to the top, like he gives a shit. He's essentially running the biggest wrestling company on the planet. I don't think he gives a shit. He's the equivalent of Scott Brown pointing at the scoreboard and laughing.

Honestly, when that Shield music hit, although I knew it wasn't going to happen, in that brief moment Moxley was definitely coming out in the Shield gear. Khan should have asked if he could have Punk for the evening so the Bucks could pants him or something.