Wrestling shows (AEW/IMPACT/NWA/ROH and others)

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urbwar said:
I'm so used to Cornette saying off the wall things, I didn't even think the comment was offensive until I read about it online. I was watching it at work, so I was more focused on the match itself than the commentary, as I also had other stuff going on. I also read he said the exact same thing once during the 90's, which wouldn't surprise me.
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I missed it, too, probably because my connection was janky, so I was surprised to find out about it later. After all this time, you'd think he'd know to watch his big mouth, especially since he FINALLY got back the kind of rasslin' that he loves. That's really gotta smart.
 
Jericho is just SUCH a twat, it's awesome.

Private Party are such a great team, their entrance is so cool, and I love their music.

Fantastic main event, too.
 
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As part of the fallout of the Jim Cornette situation last week, Powerrr was not the episode originally filmed. This was a filler episode. They talked about into the fire, and announced 3 matches (Aldis vs Storm 2/3 falls for the title, Murdoch vs Question Mark & Allison Kay & Ashley Vox vs 2 of the trio of Melina, Thunder Rosa and Marti Belle). There was backstage stuff on Thunder Rosa's MMA debut, as well as an interview with Melina. A taped interview with Eli Drake from Championship Wrestling from Hollywood was also aired. Looks like Drake and Anderson are likely going to face off at Into the Fire.

The only match was an empty arena match between Question Mark and Zane Dawson. QM won in short order, and Aron Stevens had made a pre-match stipulation that if the Dawsons lost, they'd have to recite some Shakespeare (if QM had lost, he'd have to unmask). Well the Dawsons were hilarious here, and Stevens faking throwing up in a garbage can just added to it.

This was a total throwaway and waste of time. They should have just put disclaimers up that the show had been pre-taped before Cornette resigned instead of this. They are supposedly showing the next episode, as they announced Cabana vs Starks for the National title and Wild Cards vs RnR Express for the tag titles. I really think the NWA blew it here
 
As for Dynamite.....

Shawn Spears did commentary with Excalibur. For a heel, his commentary was pretty unbiased (except when Brandi Rhodes was out). The Awesome Kong match was a squash, so not very interesting. I liked Big Swole vs Shanna. Shanna had one of those "Undesirable to Undeniable" segments, but Cody wasn't involved. I'm really liking those, and wish they'd show them on Dynamite. It would really help the fan base get to know these wrestlers better. The part where Shanna implied she had tried out for WWE (she didn't name them, but it was obvious who she was talking about), and was told she was going to get signed, only to be told she was "too fat" (which unless she weighed a lot more, I don't get. Especially when you've got Tamina, Nia Jax and Piper Nevin on the roster) really got to me. Kevin Owens can be a star and look like he does, but a woman is considered "too fat"? WTF? She's in excellent shape, and wrestles better than at least 1/3 of WWE's women's roster. Anyway, enough ranting on that. Her match with Swole was a good showcase of her talents. I haven't watched it yet, but there's a match on Youtube of her vs Shida pre AEW, so they've worked together before (like in Stardom, as she mentioned wrestling there).

The two men's matches were Pentagon Jr vs Trent?. Decent match, but now way Trent? was beating Pentagon. Edit - Trent? did win, so don't know what I was thinking when I typed that.

The other was Kenny Omega defending his AAA title against Jack Evans. Again, no way Evans is taking that title away. It also didn't grab me, so I wasn't giving it my full focus.

So this week, both Powerrrr and Dark were kind of letdowns. The real deal is tonight with Dynamite and NXT's head to head again. Let's see if NXT keeps their ratings momentum or not without the aid of stars of the other 2 brands being on the program. I'm looking forward to Omega/Pac II
 
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urbwar said:
Well the Dawsons were hilarious here, and Stevens faking throwing up in a garbage can just added to it.

This was a total throwaway and waste of time. They should have just put disclaimers up that the show had been pre-taped before Cornette resigned instead of this. They are supposedly showing the next episode, as they announced Cabana vs Starks for the National title and Wild Cards vs RnR Express for the tag titles. I really think the NWA blew it here
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I think they're vetting what they can use from next week's episode. I guess they could dub new commentary. But even if they use the original commentary, I will be shocked if they leave the end scene of Corny celebrating with certain wrestlers in the ring intact.

But that part with Aron puking... that was some WWE level bullshit there. One week without Corny yelling at them and Lagana convinces Corgan that this is a good idea? I'd hope David Marquez could talk some sense into them, but I might be expecting a lot from the guy who promotes Jarvis Cottenbelly.
 
I haven't heard a single thing good about this episode, but Eli Drake insists it was "planned all along", for what that's worth.

My understanding was also that their views this week were a fraction of the normal, soooo...people left because of the Corny thing, but the people who wanted Corny gone didn't replace them.
 
Tommy Brownell said:
I haven't heard a single thing good about this episode, but Eli Drake insists it was "planned all along", for what that's worth.

My understanding was also that their views this week were a fraction of the normal, soooo...people left because of the Corny thing, but the people who wanted Corny gone didn't replace them.
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Yeah, I'm a big NWA loyalist and I thought it stunk. Figures it happened the first time I was not working during the initial airing.

I think Eli is half right. The Sept/Oct tapings produced enough material for eight episodes, and they were always going to have to finish with clip episodes/specials to fill the last few weeks before Into the Fiyaaaah. The Corny incident just forced them to pull the trigger on one a week early, while they sort out how to utilise the last portion of the tapings.
 
Impact's thanksgiving special was a throwback to their history as the Impact Provincial Wrestling Federation, the hottest territory in 1983, and it was brilliant, stupid, fun. Everyone on the roster was clearly having a great time as their throwback characters, and it'd be nice to see it as a "special" episode every year or so to keep the novelty of it.

Not sure about that Tommy Dreamer kid, though. He doesn't look like he'll stick with the industry.
 
So Dynamite had some good matches. Omega/PAC II was as good as I expected, and the main event was fun. Even the opener of Lucha Bros vs Best Friends was a fun match. Jericho's celebration at the start of the show was hilarious. Hager gave him the best gift, and his dad really got the crowd going

On the other hand, Cody's return was such a void of suckage. He faces a literal jobber, starts a post match promo, only to be attacked by some masked guy who come up through the mat. The crowd had hardly any reaction. Worse, JR and Excalibur were not on the same page. Excalibur acted like he knew who they were, but JR was like "Who?". The whole segment was a botch fest. I won't say more until more people watch it, but it was bad. I mean, it wasn't Shockmaster bad, but it was the worst thing AEW has done so far
 
Tommy Brownell said:
To be fair, that sounds like JR and Excalibur a lot.
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No, it was 100% worse. Seriously. What made it worse was not having Tony Schiavone there. They had someone there for a short time early on, and that person didn't talk much until someone asked him his thoughts during a match. Then he was like a robot. I think MJF and Shawn Spears would make a great commentary team after this lol
 
I think Marco was clearly out of his depth, and hadn't had enough practice working with Excalibur and JR; Dark isn't a Heat-style timewaster, but it's still a show where they can afford to use weaker talent and get them that experience. I definitely agree about JR and Excalibur not being enough on their own.

Still, AEW have shown a strong willingness to react and rework when they get criticised, and not every week can be a classic. I'm sure they'll learn from this.
 
Ladybird said:
Still, AEW have shown a strong willingness to react and rework when they get criticised, and not every week can be a classic. I'm sure they'll learn from this.
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I'm sure they will. I just don't understand how, given all the talent they have backstage, they'd come up with such a terrible segment like that.

As an aside, I decided to watch NXT today (since I'm likely going to the next Takeover next February). I watched the episode before Takeover/Survivor Series and the one from yesterday. The one from yesterday was overall a better show than Dynamite this week. The week before had a lot of crossover with Raw/Smackdown, so that was a special circumstance. They still had a goof (I find it hard to believe Dijacovik was so stunned at Keith Lee pouncing Adam Cole into the crowd like he did that Fish & O'Reilly could take him out like they did. The pounce by Lee was F'n amazing though), but even that wasn't half as bad as the debut of Blade, Butcher & Bunny...

 
urbwar said:
On the other hand, Cody's return was such a void of suckage. He faces a literal jobber, starts a post match promo, only to be attacked by some masked guy who come up through the mat.
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I agree that it was a dumb segment, but I liked Allie's outfit and that she was with the bad guys. Evil Allie is my favorite Allie.

Anyone else watch WOW-Women of Wrestling? I'm 3 or 4 episodes behind, but I dig it. The matches and storylines are all kinda simple, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I like that their roster is small enough that I can keep track of all the characters and storylines, but big enough that there's some variety in who is on the show week to week. And (at least as of a month ago), they have Tessa Blanchard as heel champ, which I love.
 
I missed last week's Dynamite, but this week's Dark had Nyla Rose on commentary, who made multiple gaming quips during the Havoc/Cutler match.
 
Dark was ok this week. Rose wasn't bad on commentary. I loved Shawn Spears doing the butt clenches to mock Sonny Kiss. That was pretty hilarious. I also enjoyed the Hager/Luchasaurus confrontation. Hager can out wrestle him, but Luchasaurus is a big guy.

And what Havoc did to Cutler after their match was classic.

Powerrr had their "season finale", since new episodes won't air until after the Into the Fire ppv. Stu Bennett (aka Wade Barrett) is going to replace Jim Cornette. They continued the build to Into the Fire (which has some decent matches set up), but the main event (R&R Express vs Wild Cards for the tag tiles) was terrible. I get the R&R's are in their 60's, so they can only do so much, but they actually looked better when they appeared in AEW than here.

Aron Stevens & The Question Mark continue to entertain. The promos from James Storm and Nick Aldis for their main event at the ppv did a good job selling the match. Both men are really good, so that match should be good. Question Mark is taking on Trevor Murdoch, which should be interesting.

The mystery though is where is Tim Storm? He hasn't been seen since Aldis interrupted his interview where he seemingly was going to retire. He's not scheduled for the ppv, so I'm wondering what is up with him

Oh yeah and Aldis challenged Great Muta at Wrestlecade; the implication is that he offered to put up the 10 lbs of gold if Muta accepts. 10 years ago, I'd be all over that match up. Muta is real slow now, so I don't know how good a match it would be now. Unlike Liger, who can still move in the ring, Muta is like a sloth now.
 
E-Rocker said:
I agree that it was a dumb segment, but I liked Allie's outfit and that she was with the bad guys. Evil Allie is my favorite Allie.

Anyone else watch WOW-Women of Wrestling? I'm 3 or 4 episodes behind, but I dig it. The matches and storylines are all kinda simple, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I like that their roster is small enough that I can keep track of all the characters and storylines, but big enough that there's some variety in who is on the show week to week. And (at least as of a month ago), they have Tessa Blanchard as heel champ, which I love.
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I tried to watch, but I got painful GLOW flashbacks and had to stop. Is it worth biting the bullet? I gotta say Tessa Blanchard is a big draw, but last I knew, she was with Impact. Is she working both now?
 
urbwar said:
Dark was ok this week. Rose wasn't bad on commentary. I loved Shawn Spears doing the butt clenches to mock Sonny Kiss. That was pretty hilarious. I also enjoyed the Hager/Luchasaurus confrontation. Hager can out wrestle him, but Luchasaurus is a big guy.

And what Havoc did to Cutler after their match was classic.

Powerrr had their "season finale", since new episodes won't air until after the Into the Fire ppv. Stu Bennett (aka Wade Barrett) is going to replace Jim Cornette. They continued the build to Into the Fire (which has some decent matches set up), but the main event (R&R Express vs Wild Cards for the tag tiles) was terrible. I get the R&R's are in their 60's, so they can only do so much, but they actually looked better when they appeared in AEW than here.

Aron Stevens & The Question Mark continue to entertain. The promos from James Storm and Nick Aldis for their main event at the ppv did a good job selling the match. Both men are really good, so that match should be good. Question Mark is taking on Trevor Murdoch, which should be interesting.

The mystery though is where is Tim Storm? He hasn't been seen since Aldis interrupted his interview where he seemingly was going to retire. He's not scheduled for the ppv, so I'm wondering what is up with him

Oh yeah and Aldis challenged Great Muta at Wrestlecade; the implication is that he offered to put up the 10 lbs of gold if Muta accepts. 10 years ago, I'd be all over that match up. Muta is real slow now, so I don't know how good a match it would be now. Unlike Liger, who can still move in the ring, Muta is like a sloth now.
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Regarding Cornette leaving NWA Power, while I think the guy is generally an obnoxious dick, I was actually kinda happy for the guy finally getting to work on the kind of show he's been wanting back for the past 30(!) odd years. I'd like to see him come back as long as he can keep in mind what decade he's in. Having said that, fuck yeah Stu Bennett! I'd love to see him back in the ring without some no-talent "creative" making him look like an idiot.
 
Oculus Orbus said:
I tried to watch, but I got painful GLOW flashbacks and had to stop. Is it worth biting the bullet? I gotta say Tessa Blanchard is a big draw, but last I knew, she was with Impact. Is she working both now?
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Tessa's great. She's currently a face in Impact (And likely building towards a world title run next year), but she's no less angry and determined than her heel days.

Her contract with them runs out some time in the middle of next year, and after that she's likely to be in demand and well outside their price range, so hopefully she gets a good run - the only member of the roster I could really have difficulty in seeing her fight is Moose, but I'd still like to see that match.
 
urbwar said:
The mystery though is where is Tim Storm? He hasn't been seen since Aldis interrupted his interview where he seemingly was going to retire. He's not scheduled for the ppv, so I'm wondering what is up with him
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It was addressed in that same episode by Nick Aldis. Mama Storm's baby boy will be refereeing the second fall of the Aldis-James Storm match.
 
Oculus Orbus said:
I tried to watch, but I got painful GLOW flashbacks and had to stop. Is it worth biting the bullet? I gotta say Tessa Blanchard is a big draw, but last I knew, she was with Impact. Is she working both now?
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Afaik she works in both promotions, along with AAA in Mexico. She also recently got engaged to Daga (who is from AAA, but iirc, also competes in IMPACT on and off. He was also in Lucha Underground)
 
Dahak said:
It was addressed in that same episode by Nick Aldis. Mama Storm's baby boy will be refereeing the second fall of the Aldis-James Storm match.
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I missed that part. I was watching it at work, and some stuff was going on, so I kind of glossed over everything but Stu Bennett joining the announce team.

interesting thought: Storm actually went for a low blow during their title match, so could we possibly see him betray Aldis to help the other Storm win the belt? I suspect there is a loophole in him not being able to challenge for the belt again (ie if Aldis loses, he could challenge whomever is the current champion). While I'm not that impressed with his in-ring ability, he does make for the humble underdog you want to root for. I suspect he'd get major heat if he turns on Aldis. Yeah, that match is the one I'm really looking forward to on that ppv. Other than Question Mark vs Trevor Murdoch. QM is a one trick pony with his "Karate!" schtick, but I've always liked Murdoch since his WWE days. He's been used well so far, and his only real loss has been to Aldis. It will be interesting to see how a larger audience treats Question Mark outside of that studio audience. They make QM seem like a future world champion, which is really amusing given his gimmick
 
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Oculus Orbus said:
Regarding Cornette leaving NWA Power, while I think the guy is generally an obnoxious dick, I was actually kinda happy for the guy finally
getting to work on the kind of show he's been wanting back for the past 30(!) odd years. I'd like to see him come back as long as he can keep in mind what decade he's in. Having said that, fuck yeah Stu Bennett! I'd love to see him back in the ring without some no-talent "creative" making him look like an idiot.
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I was always bummed that injuries derailed what should have been a promising career. He was a star in the making. You could see it when he was in the NXT competition. Even though Daniel Bryan was who I was rooting for (as I knew him from RoH years before he signed with WWE), Stu cut that promo about Winds of Change that was pure awesome. Makes sense that he went into acting; his movie "I Am Vengeance" on Netflix was a decent low budget action film.

I too would like to see him get in the ring. Given Aldis drove home their relationship, could that be the seed for him putting on the tights to try and take the 10 lbs of Gold from Aldis one day?
 
urbwar said:
I was always bummed that injuries derailed what should have been a promising career. He was a star in the making. You could see it when he was in the NXT competition. Even though Daniel Bryan was who I was rooting for (as I knew him from RoH years before he signed with WWE), Stu cut that promo about Winds of Change that was pure awesome. Makes sense that he went into acting; his movie "I Am Vengeance" on Netflix was a decent low budget action film.

I too would like to see him get in the ring. Given Aldis drove home their relationship, could that be the seed for him putting on the tights to try and take the 10 lbs of Gold from Aldis one day?
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Oh, shit. I didn't know he'd gotten injured. I was under the impression that he'd just gotten fed up with the biz. That really sucks. Hey, if Bryan could come back from "retirement," maybe we can get Bennett back, too.
 
Oculus Orbus said:
I tried to watch, but I got painful GLOW flashbacks and had to stop. Is it worth biting the bullet? I gotta say Tessa Blanchard is a big draw, but last I knew, she was with Impact. Is she working both now?
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Well, it's hard for me to say if it's worth it for you to bite the bullet, since I don't know your tastes. Insert shrug emoji. The show is definitely on the cheesy side, so if you have no taste for cheese, then I suppose you're better off skipping it.

Tessa's on Impact, but she is not exclusive with them, afaik. She worked an indie show in Chicago last month. Early to RISE, specifically, where she had a match vs. Jake Atlas. I couldn't make it to that, sadly, but I did make it to the regular RISE show that evening.

BTW, I became a pro wrestling fan as an adult, about 4 years ago, so when any company brings in old wrestlers for a nostalgia pop, it does nothing for me. I mean, sometimes I've heard of the old wrestlers, but I have no emotional attachment to them.
 
So after losing to NXT for 2 weeks, Dynamite won the Wednesday night war. There was some good stuff there. Young Bucks & Dustin vs Proud & Powerful and Sammy, Trent vs Fenix, Daniels vs Pentagon, Shida vs Statlander, Nyla vs Bates, and Janela/Moxley II.

And the List is back! Oh sorry, the Lexicon of Le Champeon! I have to give Jericho credit. He's really doing a great job building up other members of the AEW roster. I remember when John Cena did the same with his US title open challenges, but Jericho does it with so much more entertainment value. Jungle Boy has a chance to move to the next level in 2 weeks, much like Scorpio Sky did.

I was sort of distracted while watching it at work, but most of the matches were fairly solid (Bates vs Rose being the exception). Sammy live blogging on his phone while preparing to do a move (and the consequences of doing so) was hilarious.

Also, they explained what is going on with Brandi/Kong and all the hair cutting, and Blade, Butcher and Bunny cut a promo about why they did what they did to Cody last week. Still not impressed with them.

Lastly, Cody got to finally cut his promo on MJF. Interesting, but I'm not sure it sold me on their eventual in ring confrontation.
 
Yeah, I like Evil Allie, but there was no buildup to it, it was just out of nowhere. When she gets to develop the character, maybe it will come together, we'll see. And I think the same thing with Brandi / Kong; if we'd seen them doing dirty deeds, if it was an intergender group, if AEW were even open to doing intergender stuff, it might have worked... but as it is, it just seems all talk, as the mens and women's divisions don't cross over so they can't help Cody.

Eh.

The matches were good though, and the buildup to their next PPV is clearly begun. Moxley vs Jericho isn't happening how I thought it would, but I'll take that match however we get it.
 
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It turned out that MJF is behind Bunny, Butcher & Blade, based on a video he posted online. Which if they don't reveal on one of their shows is likely going to not be known by most of their audience. It also makes no sense given Allie was a face prior to this. Nothing was shown to explain her suddenly turning (and since Excalibur made it clear Allie is Bunny when they first showed up, everyone knows its her). If this had been tied to what Brandi/Kong are doing as well (Brandi did target her early on), it might have made a little sense to me. Right now, it makes no sense at all for her turn.
 
urbwar said:
It turned out that MJF is behind Bunny, Butcher & Blade, based on a video he posted online. Which if they don't reveal on one of their shows is likely going to not be known by most of their audience. It also makes no sense given Allie was a face prior to this. Nothing was shown to explain her suddenly turning (and since Excalibur made it clear Allie is Bunny when they first showed up, everyone knows its her). If this had been tied to what Brandi/Kong are doing as well (Brandi did target her early on), it might have made a little sense to me. Right now, it makes no sense at all for her turn.
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Yeah, they're counting on their fans being super smarks. Which is fine, but that means you're only going to keep that hardcore contingent, and not add the more casual fan.
 
Tommy Brownell said:
Yeah, they're counting on their fans being super smarks. Which is fine, but that means you're only going to keep that hardcore contingent, and not add the more casual fan.
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It also doesn't help that they seem to only be doing shows on the East Coast/Midwest, and don't seem to be planning anything out west as of yet. I get they are still building up, but they keep going to Illinois (where they are all ready established), and ignoring a lot of territory that would likely welcome them with open arms.

As a side note: The Ascension got released from WWE. They might make a good addition to the Dark Order. Luke Harper might also, given he will likely go back to his old ring name of Brodie Lee. Unless he decides to go back to Ring of Honor
 
So they botched two people's characterisation instead of one? That doesn't make it better!

Impact's Evil Allie was a logical next step to her last year of storylines, and bought in other talent and set up a bunch of other storylines, and actually got resolved in her last episode (Spoiler : Allie's dead-for-real, she was killed in the Undead Realm, but she got her soul back for a few seconds before Passing On). I like Taya and Tessa et al, but none of them quite carry the entire division like she did.

urbwar said:
It also doesn't help that they seem to only be doing shows on the East Coast/Midwest, and don't seem to be planning anything out west as of yet. I get they are still building up, but they keep going to Illinois (where they are all ready established), and ignoring a lot of territory that would likely welcome them with open arms.
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How many sets do they have? Packing up, relocating, and redeploying each week would be a pretty big logistics challenge, so I could see them not wanting to go very far from that point of view.
 
Ladybird said:
How many sets do they have? Packing up, relocating, and redeploying each week would be a pretty big logistics challenge, so I could see them not wanting to go very far from that point of view.
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They should only have one, as Dark is simply the dark matches taped before Dynamite goes live. Even so, if you are marketing yourself as an alternative to WWE (even if not a direct competitor), why ignore those wrestling fans who want an alternative to see live? Even Ring of Honor comes out west, and they're smaller than AEW.
 
Tommy Brownell said:
Even more amazing since The Young Bucks are California boys.
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As is SCU. All of them competed in PWG, so you've got PWG fans who would probably flock to shows. Portland, where I live is a big wrestling town. We get all 3 WWE brands, RoH, plus about 4 or 5 local promotions. There's also DEFY and Prestige, who are from outside Portland, but do shows here on a fairly regular basis. Once NJPW establishes their US branch, Portland is in one of the four initial regions they will be focusing on. So AEW skipping the west coast makes little sense to me.
 
This just in- Luke Harper has escaped the McMahon plantation.

In case you missed it, Jonathan Huber (aka Luke Harper) has been released from the WWE and I'm fuckin' likin' it! Wooooooo!
 
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