[Evil Vito]

Originally Posted by M-A-G Odd choice to not save something like a cage match for the main event, but I've done way sillier. Not sure if you're working towards making the title match a triple threat or it's a way to get Jericho out of the way and provide the rub. What kind of cages does AEW use anyway? Do they even do cage matches?

Yeah this was a case of me trying to book like the real-life promotion. Major matches like this very often do get put out there to kick off the show, as modern ratings metrics have shown people are more likely to tune in for the beginning of the show than anything else. So the theory is you put something big and important out there first in hopes that fans stick around and want to see what else is cooking.

But alas, this goes in direct contrast to how EWR was programmed. Considering this game dropped AFTER WrestleMania 18 it's a shame there isn't a "Purpose" reason called "cooldown match" or something. I believe in TEW the game is much better at recognizing what you are trying to do.

Yes, AEW does do the occasional cage match. Pretty standard looking modern era cage, with the top designed with room for people to be able to climb over (or more realistically, dive off of, as was the case at Full Gear).

Normally in AEW they don't allow you to escape the cage, it's meant to be two guys battling to a result with no option to leave. But it worked in my angle so fuck it.

The Bunny can grab my leg anytime. I wonder if the expression "humps like a rabbit" applies.

I'm definitely critical of how AEW book their women's division as despite having a ton of wrestlers under contract, it seems like there's just the token one women's match a week and maybe some sort of vignette or promo.

Of course, now I'm playing a game with an 11-segment limit and I'm doing exactly the same thing, granted in part because the women's ratings aren't all that great.

What they aren't lacking in, however, is hot women. I'd say they have at least a dozen smokeshows and a handful of other ones that are at least in the realm of "I wouldn't say no".

I'm imagining doing something similar to this whenever I decide to finally job Michael Hotbody out. Imagine being so shocked over a defeat that it causes a cerebral malfunction.

I have an idea in mind for Jericho and it's more or less in line with an angle he just started in real life, but in this EWR world he's clearly shellshocked and beginning to face the reality that maybe he's losing his touch or the young talent in AEW are starting to pass him by, leaving him trying to plot his next move.

I looked her up and it's an interesting change of pace to have a woman with that kind of build. It happens all the time in Japan, but the most we ever had over here was Awesome Kong. Speaking of which, she's not on your roster now, right? She could be a decent opponent for Willow.

Willow is interesting because even though she's got a bigger build, it's not like she's an overwhelming powerhouse either. She's got impressive agility for a woman who is more on the plus size side of things. It also makes her seem more credible against the brick shithouses like Jade Cargill, Kris Statlander, or Taya Valkyrie.

No Kong though sadly. In real life, she signed a 2-year contract beginning with AEW's first show Double or Nothing 2019. It was negotiated into her deal that she'd be written off in early 2020 so she could go film season 4 of GLOW. They wrote her off but then COVID happened, the season got scrapped by Netflix, and she didn't feel comfortable going to the bi-weekly tapings during the pandemic and AEW didn't force anyone in who wanted to stay in quarantine.

Add all that up and by the time AEW were getting ready to get back on the road just after Double or Nothing 2021, her contract expired and she had decided to retire. She did a one-off angle in NWA announcing her retirement formally and that was that.

Unfortunately both of her WWE and AEW runs are huge "what-if"s, a shame for one of my favorite female talents. But she's not in the game save.

I know he's supposed to lay it on pretty thick with the exaggeration, but New Japan really was on the rocks last I heard when I had stopped following wrestling. The inevitable MJF/Punk payoff should give you a nice return, save for the hand of the DUD show sticking itself in the middle of it all.

Around the time you stopped watching, NJPW had lost AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Luke Gallows, and Karl Anderson. Part of the reason they jumped was because NJPW had done a good job of re-establishing itself in the mid-2010s. Opinions of Bullet Club are mixed but objectively their presence got more American eyes on the product than ever before, which led to WWE looking to poach Finn Balor and those other guys.

The product remained hot for a few years with Kazuchika Okada and Kenny Omega having one of the best series of matches I've ever seen in 2017-2018. By 2019 Kenny, the Young Bucks, and Hangman left NJPW to go form AEW and unfortunately COVID itself brought the company to a grinding halt.

I think NJPW is better right now than it's been since 2020 but it took time to get there. They only just recently started allowing fans to cheer again as Japan is/has been far stricter with protocols.

Not for nothing, doesn't anybody think it might be time for the "Young" Bucks to change their name? Just The Bucks would be fine at this point in time. Don't people bring it up when they do promos against them? Also, if I were Moxley and I'm doing an interview with my wife Renee, I'd do whatever I could to get her to corpse on camera. Sure, I'd be sleeping on the couch all the time, but I'd still be married to Renee.

I could swear somebody made a joke about the Young Bucks' name in a promo, might've been Mox himself when he and Eddie Kingston feuded with the Bucks in 2021. Alas I doubt they'll never drop their now-ironic name as it's so synonymous with their brand. You would think they are still young whippersnappers with how much the old-school guys like Cornette moan about them.