Fifth Avenue Forum

On July 18, 2005, WWE announced that Hebner was fired from WWE for selling WWE merchandise without permission. Hebner's identical twin brother Dave was released from WWE as well on July 19 in connection with these events. These activities would have been conducted from a store that Earl Hebner had partial ownership in, the St. Louis based Pro Shirt Shop. To avoid negative publicity, the controlling owner of the Pro Shirt Shop, Nick Ridenour, bought out Hebner's share in the company and released a press statement which claimed that the company only received merchandise from licensed distributors.[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Hebner

They announced Vince appearing literally just to pop a rating. He said how happy he was to be in Minnesota. How “Then Now Forever” are in the signature but the most important word is “Together.” And then welcome to Smackdown. That’s it. They took advantage of the negative story to get a good rating while also pulling a bait and switch on their audience. Carnies.

https://vidsli.com/watch/O3pcLEqj28

The crowd singing his song and cheering him is just flat out embarrassing.

Holy ****. Vince is suddenly bringing kayfabe back.

I mean, it's almost hard not to laugh. And yes, it's appalling. Carnies for life

Oh Jesus Christ.

oh boy, can't wait.

Heel Christian is the best Christian.

did show up. Crazy.

Mox just dropped an f bomb that wasn't bleeped lol.

Gotta be honest... between the loss of Punk, MJF, and Danielson, and the 80 people coming out for every segment, Dynamite has been a lot less enjoyable overall of late. Not bad per se, but its certainly missing those guys. (yes we technically got a Danielson segment but it confirmed what we already suspected... he will miss the PPV and B+G).

This episode was a bit more engaging overall than last week, but still... does every match at FD have to be 4 or more people? I would much rather see Hangman-Okada than a 4 way. I'm sure politics are involved but it's a bit much.

They have too many people, and the amount of new people they signed, they're doing an overall disservice. Everyone is in a group, because everyone was signed to give camera time to. It's frustrating, but it's a situation they themselves got into.

The amount of 4 ways/multiman matches at FD is kind of obscene, but it is what it is. I think once they get past FD they can go back to not having to bring NJPW guys every week and trying to just deal with the obscene amount of talent already in AEW.

I'm not super familiar with alot of the NJPW guys outside of Okada (who is a huge deal) and Ospreay. I think there will be a bunch of great matches at forbidden door, but AEW missed the mark in really trying to get the non hardcore wrestling fan to get to know lots of the NJPW guys over the last month or two. There was no real backstory, just show up and throw them in matches. They got thrown some curveballs with Punk and Danielson getting hurt obviously.

As much as the 4 way will be great I still would rather see White/Cole and Page/Okada in separate singles matches.

I think the way they debut these people is a lot of the problem. It seems like they just rely on everyone knowing who they are or give one very brief statement and boom into the match or whatever.

How many matches have been made where they just threw out names?

As is usually the case, it's worst with Jericho. There's like 1900 people involved in every segment and it's just ridiculous. Also gotta love how he found a way to get himself adjacent to the title match despite having no business whatsoever being near it.

I will give him credit... He knows how to latch onto others' heat like no other.

The curse continues... NJPW just announced that Ishii suffered a knee injury so he is being replaced by Clark Connors in the 4 way title match.

HUGE pop for

HUGE pop for

Claudio/Cesaro

So happy Ospreay is in the US. Such a Fantastic wrestler.

I decided at the last minute to get this ppv... It has been excellent. Shitty build, but goddamn this has slapped so far.

Only 2 complaints about this show...
Other than that, I enjoyed this way, way beyond my expectations.

Great but...
Just a general comment - but how many more WWE guys are going to come over and push everyone else down the list to these multi-man fiascos?

Had too much family stuff going on this weekend to order the PPV. From the rundown though seemed like a really good show and a good showcase for the NJPW guys here in the states. (I know they have appeared in ROH and other promotions before here and there). Being in Chicago with a really really hot crowd also helps.

Looks like I need to seek out most of the matches on this show to watch.

Ospreay match was a must watch, imo.